Science Fiction

Zanzibar’s Rings by Jemima Pett

A galactic crisis: the entire comms system destroyed. No waypoints, no navigation aids, no database access. And how will spaceships in flight get home – or to any destination?

Dolores is stuck in warp with a very dangerous passenger, Pete gets his shuttle back home on manual.

But why does anything in close contact with pure orichalcum fix itself?

Just flying through Zanzibar’s Rings solves the problem – as the Federation’s Fighters find, when they descend on the Viridian System to take possession of the planets.

Zanzibar’s Rings brings the Viridian System series to a conclusion, with a bang and a lot of whimpering. And possibly a view of things to come.

Defender of the Flame by Sylvia Engdahl

By Book Lovers Magazine

Defender of the Flame by Sylvia Engdahl

Starship pilot Terry Radnor is elated to be among those chosen to defend the secret colony Maclairn against enemies who pose a threat to the spread of paranormal human mind powers. He commits himself wholly to the goal of that world, not guessing how far his effort to safeguard it will take him from everything else he cares about–his promising career as a Fleet officer, contact with people who share his newly-discovered psi capability, his wife and unborn child. Torn away against his will after learning a secret too deep for its disclosure to be risked, he is forced into exile from all that matters to him, and must build a new life grounded far from Maclairn. There seems little hope that he can fulfill his pledge to protect the world whose safety is crucial–more crucial than anyone else knows–to the future of humankind. Yetan extraordinary destiny has been predicted for Terry, and fate puts him in place to confront the colony’s greatest peril.

A Stand-in for Dying by Rick Moskovitz

By Book Lovers Magazine

A Stand-in for Dying by Rick Moskovitz

In a near future world on the brink of environmental catastrophe, a mysterious woman brokers an anonymous pact between two men for the older man Ray to inhabit the younger man Marcus’s body when he dies in exchange for a fortune and access to vast knowledge. The consequences for both men evolve over the ensuing years. When Ray finds a way to exchange identities while still alive, both men struggle to navigate their new lives and relationships while under attack by Ganymede, the architect of the consciousness swapping technology, and the Tribe of 23, a human supremacist organization that has targeted Marcus because of his and his wife’s advocacy for AIs to have equal rights with carbon based humans.

Their moral and emotional development is informed by the resourceful women who love them, one an accomplished journalist, the other a teacher who guides AIs to perceive and feel human emotions.

Brink of Life by Rick Moskovitz

By Book Lovers Magazine

Brink of Life by Rick Moskovitz

A woman plunges into consciousness in the midst of what seems like someone else’s life, sending her on a quest to discover who she is and to craft an identity that makes sense within her current circumstances. As she digs into the mystery of her life, she uncovers a top secret government organization plotting world domination and a clandestine vigilante organization dedicated to destroying it and is caught between these warring factions. Nobody in her new world is exactly who they appear to be, including herself. Identity, she learns, is complicated and inseparable from the body in which it resides.

The Creators by Rick Moskovitz

By Book Lovers Magazine

The Creators by Rick Moskovitz

A teenaged Natasha Takana seeks to decode the remainder of the hidden DNA code that became the basis for a new religion reviving Creationism in A Stand-in for Dying. Her quest takes her on a voyage to a parallel dimension to learn the fate of the Creators’ civilization. In the course of successive visits to their watery world, she finds herself transformed, a bridge between our world and theirs.

The conflict between Ganymede and Mandala, the warring factions of Brink of Life is rekindled, sweeping Natasha into the middle of it in a pursuit that crosses the boundaries of worlds and time.