Three flying saucers (3 out of 4 rating) The author of Catskinner’s Book, Misha Burnett, gave me a copy of the audiobook version and asked me to review it. I’ve decided to try something a little bit different with this review, dividing it into the good, the bad, and the ugly. Fortunately, the story pulled […]
This is a follow up to my writing process blog hop post. I’m posting links to other bloggers’ entries, and jotting down a few notes about interesting things they’ve written. James Pailly invited me to the blog hop. I found it interesting that both he and I started writing to focus on something other than […]
James Pailly of the Tomorrow News Network has asked me to participate in the Writing Process Blog Hop / Writer’s Blog Tour. [See James’ post for the hop.] To participate, an author answers the tour’s four questions about their writing, and then invites several others (three seems to be the most common number) to do […]
Three flying saucers (3 out of 4 rating) This will be a brief review, as I recently posted about things I liked in Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet series. As the Lost Fleet is one of my favorite science fiction series, why didn’t the latest book receive my top rating? My problem is with the structure […]
New Beginnings (Vitalis) has won the first Radioactive Dung Beetle Award! I think this victory provides an important lesson for authors: make sure your marketing blurb matches the genre, style, and tone of your story. Don’t bait-and-switch, and don’t assume that the customer has read your previous work and therefore knows what to expect. If […]
It’s time for Planetary Defense Command’s first ever Radioactive Dung Beetle Award. So far this year, the blog has featured six stories awful enough to be balled up and rolled away by my dung beetles. Now, it’s time to choose the worst of the worst. This will be done in a democratic fashion; it’s your […]
In 2002, an alien rover landed on Earth, and Planetary Defense Command has been tracking it continuously since then. We have tapped into its transmissions to monitor the video and messages it sends home. It seems to operate primarily in Africa and Asia, with some activities in the Americas and Australia; it appears to avoid […]
One dung Beetle (1 out of 4 rating) I’ve given this story a dung beetle rating for its content rather than its writing style. I have two major problems with the content. First, the failure of certain terraforming technologies is a key plot device, yet the author fails to explain why those technologies were being […]
Four Royal Crowns (4 out of 4 rating) The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell (pen name of John G. Hemry, a retired naval officer) is one of my favorite science fiction works. As a new book in the series (Steadfast) was just released today, I thought this would be a good time for a […]
In my blog’s first post, I mentioned that 62,597 science fiction titles were available at Amazon’s Kindle store. That total is now up to 70,246 (a change of 7,649, or almost 65 per day). During the same time period, I inspected 17 titles for bad science fiction. Even if I had reviewed only new releases, […]
Two nuclear missiles (2 out of 4 rating) This story throws a science fiction twist into a western setting. The story is written well, and the western setting will seem familiar to anyone who has watched western movies, but I didn’t feel that the science fiction element was taken far enough. The author has a […]
One dung Beetle (1 out of 4 rating) This is a marginal story, buried under some of the worst writing I’ve seen. I realize that the author isn’t a native English speaker, but if someone is going to publish short stories and novels in English, they can at least take the time to turn on […]
I’ve created a second blog; it is similar to this one except it is for non-fiction, primarily history books. If you have any interest in non-fiction/history, check it out at sevencitiesofpaper.wordpress.com Here at Planetary Defense Command, I try to shine a light on lesser-known writers, focusing on short stories to increase the number of authors […]
Two nuclear missiles (2 out of 4 rating) The concept and main character of this story are outstanding, worthy of inclusion in any collection. Unfortunately, the writing and editing don’t rise to the same level, dragging the Asimov/Clarke class concept down to produce a story which is just average. The story also goes on a […]
Three flying saucers (3 out of 4 rating) I’m not normally into superheroes, but I almost gave this story my very top rating. I’ll discuss why I didn’t at the end of the review (below the triple spoiler dragons), but basically the story just went a chapter too far. If it had ended right at […]
Two nuclear missiles (2 out of 4 rating) This story is written well, has a distinctive main character, and makes good use of humor; I wouldn’t hesitate to read another story by the author. So, why didn’t I give it one of my top ratings? I would have preferred slightly more development of the plot, […]
Unrated On a recent inspection tour of North American defenses, I played an alpha version of Grim Dawn. Although I enjoyed the game, I’m not giving it a rating, as I only played it briefly, and it wasn’t a finished product. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic version of Victorian Britain. It is an […]
Two nuclear missiles (2 out of 4 rating) This story begins with several tourists hiding in a resort on an out-of-the-way planet. They are hiding because some sort of armed conflict is taking place / has taken place outside. The early part of the story is written well; if you’ve ever been holed up in […]
Unrated Once again, I am psychically tuning in to my readers’ thoughts: “Two unrated stories in a row? You are worthless and weak. We welcome our new alien overlords.” Wait, don’t surrender yet! This is another story which is a bit light on plot: A captain welcomes a replacement crew member on board the ship. […]
Unrated I am using my psychic powers to tap into my readers’ thoughts: “Your entire purpose in life is to rate things, and you chose ‘unrated’? You are lazy and pathetic. Is this what my planetary defense taxes are paying for?” Wait, let me explain! This story is a vivid description of two people being […]
Two nuclear missiles (2 out of 4 rating) This is my second discount audiobook by Frank Herbert, the author of Dune. In this story, the western hemisphere is at war with a not-quite-specified coalition of Asian powers that includes Russia. Britain is a nuclear wasteland. The westerners need more fossil fuel, so they’ve been drilling […]
One dung Beetle (1 out of 4 rating) Audible, the dealer for my audiobook addiction, periodically has deep-discount science fiction sales. During one of the latest, I picked up two books by Frank Herbert, the author of Dune, which I’ve seen reported as the most-loved and the best-selling science fiction book ever. I read Dune […]
One dung Beetle (1 out of 4 rating) This story is based on an interesting premise: a retail store that will acquire anything a customer desires. Unfortunately, beyond that concept, there’s nothing worth reading. The story is also another example of a “sci-fi” story without any “sci” in it. There are some sentences that seem […]
Planetary Defense Command now has a twitter account: Tweets by PlanDefCom The twitter account’s purpose is to allow non-wordpress users to follow the PDC; all of the story reviews will continue to appear here. I’m experimenting with some additional content on twitter that doesn’t need a full blog post: 1) Lists of upcoming story reviews […]
Three flying saucers (3 out of 4 rating) Although I didn’t give this story my highest rating, I don’t have anything negative to say about it. It is well written and has interesting characters; I wish I could produce something of this quality. My only problem is with the category/placement; I need more “sci” in […]
One dung Beetle (1 out of 4 rating) I chose this story because in its marketing blurb there is talk of space pirates, and there are also some vague statements which, to me, implied the heroine might have a past as a secret agent. There was absolutely nothing to warn me that I would soon […]
I thought I’d look at some other blogs which do book reviews, and I ran across this insane text posing as a book review. At first, I assumed it was an automated system for writing book reviews, but then I realized any self-respecting programmer would pull the plug. My second thought was “drugs”, but that’s […]
Two nuclear missiles (2 out of 4 rating) To me, this story breaks into two very different halves. I interpreted the first half as social commentary about technology and human relationships; since it’s fairly depressing, you might even call it “literature”. The second half of the story takes a left turn into la-la land; the […]
Four Royal Crowns (4 out of 4 rating) I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this story from the description; I was expecting a two-fisted, butt-kicking shoot-em-up with a side order of humor. The main character seems to fit my expectations; he sounds like a man who’s been around the galaxy, and now sits […]
I try to keep my reviews as vague as possible concerning plot twists or resolutions. Sometimes, it’s difficult to make a point about a story’s strengths or weaknesses without getting specific. When I’m about to get into details, I’ll display the spoiler dragon (image from Clker.com, a provider of free public-domain clip art). The spoiler […]
Three flying saucers (3 out of 4 rating) This story begins with a preface (about 5% of the work’s length) about how science fiction could influence military planning, but my comments will be limited to the fictional portion of the work. I’ve tried to avoid writing anything specific enough to be a spoiler, although […]
One dung beetle (1 out of 4 rating) I chose this story because the main character is supposedly fighting against a bureaucracy. Who hasn’t fought with a bureaucratic government agency, military organization, corporation or university? I guess the answer is: everyone who’s smarter than I am, and realized there’s no hope of victory. Change by […]
Most websites that rank things use a 1 star (awful) to 5 star (great) system, but I decided to do something a little different here. I use 4 ranks, because otherwise it’s just too easy for me to call something “average” and give it 3 stars out of 5. I won’t be using stars, because […]
Amazon’s Kindle store currently has 62,597 science fiction titles. If you pull up a list or run a search on those titles, works by popular authors naturally come up first. I’ve created this blog to help newer authors by pointing out stories I’ve enjoyed, and to help readers by pointing out stories that should be skipped. Due […]
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