Category 1 star
Review of The River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
Originally posted on Every Day Should Be Tuesday:
The River of Teeth has a killer concept. It riffs off a cockamamie scheme to deal with invasive vegetation and a meat shortage in America by importing hippos en masse. In Gailey’s world, Congress went forward with the scheme (at a slightly different time than proposed), and…
Review: Classic Science Fiction, Volume 2
Classic Science Fiction, Volume 2 I picked up several of these Classic Science Fiction collections at Audible when they were on sale. Since I’m very busy this month, I thought it would be a good time for some short listens and short reviews. Each of the collections I purchased consists of three short stories: Proof […]
Review: The Awakening
The Awakening One dung Beetle (1 out of 4 rating) Abducted humans wake up aboard an alien spaceship. The aliens have been collecting apex predators from various planets, but for some reason the predators are waking up and running loose on the ship. Plus, an automated defense system is trying to kill all life on […]
Review: Heirs of Empire
Heirs of Empire I found Heirs of Empire when I was searching for a novel to nominate for The Planetary Awards. The book has a reasonably interesting plot: a military coup knocks out most of a ruling dynasty, the youngest members of the dynasty escape, and the dynasty’s allies lay a foundation for its return […]
Move over, 007
When I was a kid, I loved the James Bond films. They gave me action, exotic locations, and fantastic villains (I may have been too young for “bond girls”). I probably watched the first films on TV, adjusting the rabbit ears to make the picture less fuzzy. Later, the films were agreeable to family members […]
Review: 1000
1000 One dung Beetle (1 out of 4 rating) I haven’t written a negative review in a while, and I thought it was time, before people start to think I’ve gone soft. [I mention why I’m doing fewer negative reviews on my revised About Page.] So, beetles, roll this ball of dung away: A combination […]
We have a “winner”
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 […]
First Radioactive Dung Beetle Award
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 […]
Review: Seventy
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 […]
Review: Making a Gilling
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 […]
Review: Whipping Star
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 […]
Review: The Is Shop
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 […]
Review: New Beginnings (Vitalis)
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 […]
What am I looking at?
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 […]
Review: Change by Design
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 […]
Ranking System
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 […]
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