Agent Palmer

Remember way back in the fall of 2020 when my review of Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen proclaimed that it was the start of a trilogy that you’d want to get your hands on? The sequel and middle book of that trilogy Azura Ghost keeps that promise and doubles down with fury and vengeance, love and compassion, and with a book that really does put the science back into science fiction.

In The Four Lands, twenty years have passed since the events of The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy. A Third Druid Council is rife with politicking, allies and enemies are setting plots in motion and the politics outside of Paranor are no less intense.

As one of the younger persons in the generation that Douglas Coupland arguably named Generation X, it is no surprise that he can write so methodically and philosophically about tragedy and grief.

Dragon’s Milk by Susan Fletcher has been sitting on my shelf since elementary school. Did I read it back then? I have no recollection, but I decided it was finally time to read it. Let me tell you, for a book that was published in 1989, this book is incredibly relevant and was surely ahead of its time.

Next is a masterful chaotic mess combining real science and science fiction so seamlessly that you have no idea what is or isn’t fabricated or researched unless you have a Ph.D., which I don’t. It asks and deals with a lot of bioethical issues and raises as many concerns as it does questions.