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PostHeaderIconBook/Story (Don's)

PostHeaderIcon June Reference Library Now Available

The June issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here.

This month's essay addresses young adult science fiction. Reviews include the latest by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Ben Bova, Chris Howard, Karen Lord, and Robert J. Sawyer.


Check out the index of my reviews, which is available here, or through the Beyond link above. You can search by author, title, year and month, and even by genre.

PostHeaderIcon Read a sample of The Eighth Succession

I'm nearing the end of my new Scattered Worlds book The Eighth Succession.

Here's a mockup of the cover design; it still has a few problems, but this at least gives the basic idea.

I'm really excited about this book. It's literally been decades in the making; this begins the story I've been wanting to tell all this time.

At face value, The Eighth Succession is a fairly simple story of Galactic politics in the 25th century: specifically, an assassination plot against the Emperor. Of course, behind that simple story there's an awful lot going on.

There's stuff about the meaning of family, the nature of personal responsibility, the boundaries of love, and the questions of adulthood and maturity.

There's also a psi-powered family of clone geniuses, a planet surrounded by an inhabited ring, centuries-old castles and ancient palaces, the legacy of a vanished alien race, and a little girl who just wants to see her beloved cousin.

Here's a brief sample, and then I'll give a link where you can read the whole first chapter.

PostHeaderIcon May Reference Library Now Available

The May issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here.

This month's essay addresses science fiction and the movies. Reviews include the latest by Steven Gould, HarryTurtledove and his daughter Rachel, Geonn Cannon, Michael Flynn, and Richard A. Lovett & Mark Nieman-Ross, plus a nonfiction book proposing a new American plan for space.


Check out the index of my reviews, which is available here, or through the Beyond link above. You can search by author, title, year and month, and even by genre.

PostHeaderIcon April Reference Library Now Available

The April issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here.

This month's essay addresses ebooks and science fiction. Reviews include the latest by Cat Rambo, David Weber & Jane Lindkold, Lois McMaster Bujold, Daniel M. Kimmel, and James S.A. Corey.


Also, check out the index of my reviews, which is available here, or through the Beyond link above. You can search by author, title, year and month, and even by genre.

PostHeaderIcon March Reference Library Now Available

The March issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here.

This month's essay addresses big books. Reviews include the latest by Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, and Harry Turtledove, as well as nice reissues of books by A. Bertram Chandler and Keith Laumer.


Also, I'm compiling an index of my reviews, which is available here, or through the Beyond link above. You can search by author, title, year and month, and even by genre. Take a look!

PostHeaderIcon Unidentified Funny Objects

Now available from UFO Publishing: Unidentified Funny Objects, edited by Alex Shvartsman -- featuring a new funny short story by Don Sakers.

Unidentified Funny Objects is a collection of humorous science fiction and fantasy. Packed with laughs, it has 29 stories ranging from lighthearted whimsy to the wild and zany.

PostHeaderIcon January/February Reference Library Now Available

The January/February issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here.

This month's essay addresses science fiction tales of discovery. Reviews include an anthology edited by Les Johnson and Jack McDevitt, as well as books by Alastair Reynolds, Miek Resnick, and Alan Dean Foster. The nonfiction selection is The Great Heinlein Mystery by Edward M. Wysocki, Jr.


Also, I've begun compiling an index of my reviews, which is available here, or through the Beyond link above. You can search by author, title, year and month, and even by genre. Take a look!

PostHeaderIcon December Reference Library Now Available

The December 2012 issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here.

This month is the annual gift-giving issue, in which I provide readers with some suggestions of SF books they can give to their non-SF reading friends and family. This time around I review books for literary folks and hipsters, as well as readers of romances, steampunk, graphic novels, and historical fiction.

 

PostHeaderIcon November Reference Library Now Available

The November 2012 issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here.

This month's essay is on xenopsychology. I also review new books by Gregory Benford & Larry Niven, Anne & Todd McCaffrey, China Miéville, and Edward M. Lerner.

PostHeaderIcon October Reference Library Now Available

The October 2012 issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here. After a short essay on the ways science fiction deals with change, I review new books by Paul Melko, Kim Stanley Robinson, Daniel H. Wilson, and Edward M. Lerner, as well as a new edition of classic novels by Andre Norton.

PostHeaderIcon Short Story Sold

I've just sold a short story (not a Scattered Worlds one) to Alex Shvartsman's upcoming anthology Unidentified Funny Objects.

Stay tuned for information about pubication date, availability, etc.

PostHeaderIcon September Reference Library Now Available

The September issue of Analog is out, and my Reference Library column is online here. After a short essay on genetic engineering in science fiction, I review books by Alan Dean Foster, Scott Westerfeld, T.C. McCarthy, Ted Kosmatka, Steven H. Wilson, and David Elroy Goldweber.

PostHeaderIcon "The Geas Ingenerate"

"The Geas Ingenerate" is a new Scattered Worlds short story by Don Sakers featured in Galactic Creatures edited by Elektra Hammond ISBN: 978-1937051426 | 174 pages | $14.95 print


Opening a new chapter in the Scattered Worlds Mosaic.


They call me Will, but in truth my name is Erwilian; an ancient name that falls strangely on today's ear. It is a traditional family name, borne by many of my ancestors as far back as our records go.

PostHeaderIcon "Big Improvement"

This erotic short story, published in the men's magazine Cavalier, is set in the pre-Imperial period of the Scattered Worlds. It features a detective with certain bionic enhancements.

One of these days I'll sneak it into a collection.

PostHeaderIcon "Gamester"

All Roads Lead to Terra

$1.99 Kindle

Two Stories of the Scattered Worlds

"Gamester" and "Candelabra & Diamonds" tell of attacks against the shining jewel of the Terran Empire: Earth. Includes an introduction and notes from the author.


PostHeaderIcon "Candelabra and Diamonds"

All Roads Lead to Terra

$1.99 Kindle

Two Stories of the Scattered Worlds

"Gamester" and "Candelabra & Diamonds" tell of attacks against the shining jewel of the Terran Empire: Earth. Includes an introduction and notes from the author.


PostHeaderIcon The Leaves of October Postlude

PostHeaderIcon The Leaves of October Part 11

PostHeaderIcon The Leaves of October Part 10

PostHeaderIcon The Leaves of October Part 9

Have you read?
The Book That Predicted Google Glass
The final battle of the Empress
Clone paranormal geniuses against the galactic empire
Two Tales of the Scattered Worlds
Visit a world in which scent and taste are as important as vision and hearing
Opening a new chapter in the Scattered Worlds Mosaic
How would intelligent, long-lived trees judge the Human race?
Classic gay teenage romance
The Fey vs the Galactic Empire
A Datebook Like No Other
Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three
Lucky's Life is Turning Around
An anthology in celebration of queer speculative fiction.
An anthology celebrating queer speculative fiction.
The PsiScouts: X-Men meet Buck Rogers
collection of sf & fantasy stories, essay, and poetry by Maryland-area writers
A Scattered Worlds Omnibus
a Scattered Worlds omnibus
Psi-gifted teens tackle theocracy & a threat to history itself
A collection of sf/fantasy diversions
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