Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the science fiction writers I have read throughout my reading life. He joins Octavia Butler, Greg Bear, and Robert Silverberg as the science fiction writers I have found interesting and thought provoking to read. Pacific Edge is the...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 50: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
by MHill | Jul 19, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Black History Month, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Octavia Butler, Rereading Series, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I want to update a review from 2012 for one of my all-time favorite novels, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Parable of the Sower is the story of Lauren Olamina, a teenager growing up in a grim LA suburb where their gated community provided a semblance of a...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 36: Binti Home by Nnedi Okorafor
by MHill | Jan 22, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
Can you ever go home again? Binti Home by Nnedi Okorafor attempts to answer that question. Binti returns home after a year away on a spaceship at Oozma University. She brings her friend, Okwu, for support. However, the homecoming does not go as expected and the family...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 31: Ascending by Meg Pechenick
by MHill | Dec 1, 2019 | 2019 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
What if you were the only person on a spaceship with an alien race? You were the person groomed to speak an alien language and take part in an intercultural exchange between planets? You would want to do it in the first place? If you did, how you feel about it?...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 20: Recursion by Blake Crouch
by MHill | Aug 4, 2019 | 2019 Book Reviews, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I rarely read the “Summer Blockbuster Read” or “the book everyone is reading now”. However, I have seen Recursion by Blake Crouch all over book social media (Goodreads, Litsy, and Instagram) and people giving it high praise. Well, I stopped reading the Long...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 4: Nightwings by Robert Silverberg
by MHill | Feb 5, 2019 | 2019 Book Reviews, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
Robert Silverberg has become my favorite old school SF writer and I have read 6 books during his most prolific period of 1967-1976, beginning with A Time of Changes, Downward to the Earth, Tower of Glass, To Open the Sky, The Man in the Maze, and Nightwings....
Book Review 135: The Man in The Maze by Robert Silverberg
by MHill | Jun 14, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
"Science Fiction, more than any other form of literature, is a progress, and it comes with a sell-by date. Some old SF can become unreadable. Some reputations erode with time. What we respond to, once the sell-by date is past, is art and, perhaps, is also truth."...
Book Review 124: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
by MHill | Jan 13, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
Nnedi Okorafor has been an author on my radar for quite some time. I had seen her books mentioned on the internet and in used bookstores over the past year. I will admit I was reluctant to read one of her novels...until now. Actually, Binti is a novella chronicling...
Wisdom From Kammbia 4.9: My Favorite Reads of 2017
by MHill | Jan 1, 2018 | Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Another year has come and gone and I’ve read and reviewed 22 books for 2017. I had a good year reading and looking forward to a better reading year in 2018. Here’s my favorites in 2017: (click on the title to read that book’s review) A Man Called Ove by...
Book Review 119: Emphyrio by Jack Vance
by MHill | Oct 10, 2017 | 2017 Book Reviews
What is a legend? Does the truth about a legend matter only to those who believe in it? Or does the propaganda about a legend matter more than the truth? These questions came to mind after reading Emphyrio by Jack Vance. Vance has been considered one of the giants...