Tag Archives: future

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (2018) – BR00189 (2020) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
March 22 2020

Plot or Premise

A woman dies at a party at a country resort, the solution obvious. But she was actually murdered, and a guest must solve the crime or never leave. Because the same day repeats each day, and each day the guest is in the body of someone else. He has seven chances to get it right.

** Note that when I bought the e-book, all the promotional material including the cover said “The 7 Deaths of…”. Now, a few months later, as I go to review it, the title has changed to the 7.5 deaths. I’m keeping the title I had initially. **

What I Liked

The Groundhog Day / time loop is rarely handled well in any genre (TV, movie, books), but Turton not only handles it expertly, he adds in a body jumping element that is brilliant. Each day he learns just a little bit more about the culminating murder, and about the reality he is trapped in, playing detective in a country resort. Some days he is completely new, other days he is locked into exchanges he witnessed the day before and must tweak them to ensure they end the same or differently. Can he prevent the murder? Can he solve the crime? And why does another guest seem to know he’s not himself? And who — or what — is stalking the guests?

What I Didn’t Like

It is a bit confusing at times, given the sheer complexity of the story. 

The Bottom Line

Expertly done — time jumps, loops, and body-hopping, oh my!

The Last Librarian by Brandt Legg (2015) – BR00178 (2020) – 🐸⚪⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
January 21 2020

The year is 2098 and the world government has decided to close the last library and destroy all the books.

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Articles I Like: Hindsight 2070

The PolyBlog
April 8 2019

Vox.com asked 15 experts in their fields to predict in 2070, i.e. 50 years from now, what will we look back at that we are doing today and think, “WTF were we thinking?”. They use as an example, the idea of smoking from back in 1964, and the dramatic falls in smoking rates. Jim Crow-segregation laws. Or drinking and driving. As we learn, as we evolve in our thinking if not in our society, what will we drop by the wayside? The full article can be found at: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/27/18226563/50-years-wrong-side-of-history-future-prediction I went through the list, and here is my reaction: Eliminating … Continue reading →

Double or Nothing by Peter David (1999) – BR00026 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

This is the fifth in the series about a vengeful attack on the universe by an “unknown” assailant who uses biological weapons to wipe out races in the Federation. This book puts Riker on the Excalibur, dealing with Shelby et al; Mackenzie on a secret undercover mission to infiltrate the assailant’s lair; and, Picard undercover to do the same thing, eventually linking up with Mackenzie.

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The Mist by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch (1998) – BR00025 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

This is the third in the series dealing with the bar called “The Captain’s Table”, a bar only for Captains across time and space. Sisko is in need of some rest, so he visits Bajor and finds the bar. And finds that the interesting aspect of the bar is that everyone gets to tell a tale. His tale is of a group known as The Mist. Centuries before, the Mist shifted themselves and their worlds out of normal space into a phased sub-space. Having left normal space behind, they have been excluded from the trials and tribulations of the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Romulans and the Cardassians. However, they lure Sisko into their space to help them fight an apparent revolt by subversives who are going to phase-shift DS9 and use it in Mist space to attack other worlds.

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