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Answering Your Questions About Reactor: Right here.
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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

You may be wondering where my promised steady stream of fannish news and commentary is. It’s very strange; I’ve been busy reading science fiction.

I carefully downloaded all the freebies, and have been gradually working my way through them, snatching a few minutes of promising first novel in the interstices of my hectic life.

Gradually, that is, until I got to John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, which I scarfed up like yummy pizza. I then realised that I had fallen prey to a trope: the first hit is free.

I can only assume that Scalzi is keeping Heinlein’s brain in a vat, and channelling novels designed to bore directly into my hindbrain. Apparently, there rests there a 14 year-old with an inexhaustible thirst for short chirpy books of derring do where gallant and moderately anti-authority earthlings explore the universe and meet interesting alien civilisations. And kill them, yes, though not invariably.

These books are fabulous page-turners, and they overflow with Scalzi’s sharp wit. Aged SFnal tropes are shaken up and re-examined, the bigger picture is gratifyingly opaque and ambiguous, and the plot drives ever onward. So much so that I forgive them all manner of sins in my desperation to keep reading. That I think is the majority view of these books; the minority view is that the flaws will cause your disbelief suspenders to perish. Mine are holding up well, though I think I would have enjoyed these books even more if I didn’t read Whatever.

Three down so far, don’t suppose the others will take me more than a few more days. Onwards!

About the Author

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Alison Scott

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I'm a British SF fan who co-edits a fanzine, Plokta. I also have a personal blog, Macadamia, where I write mostly about folk music and technology. My profile picture is currently the Cyberman pumpkin my children forced me to carve last Halloween. I was dead proud of it, but it's only here because I can't find a recent photo that doesn't show me covered in rather alarming Oysterband facepaint.
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