Nathan W. Toronto

May 1, 2023

Each book in Michael Mammay’s Planetside Series has made me lose sleep and writing time. I lose sleep a lot, but writing time? That’s sacred, so when a book has me so hooked from the very beginning that all I want to do is read it, I have to give it five bullets on Bullet Points. 

Marc A. Criley

April 15, 2023

A blue-violet flash. And sparks, streams of sparks; immersing me in all-the-colors-of-the-rainbow sparks. A dull rumble punches through the helmet’s attenuators. I’m weightless, floating… and stupidly lucid. Weightless, not space weightless, but arcing through the air until the hard stop at the end weightless. Cartwheeling. Angry. Furious.

CB Droege

April 1, 2023

In the heart of the Venusberg Capitol Complex, Chairman Lee of the Sol Council stared, half-lidded, across a table of polished Venusian obsidian. He'd lost his posture over the last hour of conversation, and was nearly sliding out of the armchair.

M V Melcer

March 15, 2023

When the invaders appeared, I had no choice. I lowered my head and opened my arms to greet them. Some of us tried to fight, against my warnings, but the orbiting gunships put a quick end to the resistance. I made sure everyone learned the lesson: their ships are made of guns. You cannot stop them.

Lisa Short

March 1, 2023

The airlock seal thudded home barely a meter above Amelie’s head. The echo shot pain through her ears. She cradled her aching temples in gloved hands and scrunched up her face, free at last from Tech Sergeant Pravin’s sharply observant glare.  She had barely made it into formation before the third watch bell had sounded.

Harry Turtledove

February 15, 2023

General Fedor Tolbukhin turned to his political commissar. “Is everything in your area of responsibility in readiness for the assault, Nikita Sergeyevich?”

Nathan W. Toronto

February 1, 2023

I’ll start with a spoiler: Cassian Andor dies in the end. You already know this if you’ve watched Rogue One, which is—in my opinion—the best Star Wars movie next to The Empire Strikes Back. Andor, Tony Gilroy’s Rogue One prequel, shows how Cassian turns into the complex, dark, fascinating character who co-leads the mission to steal the Death Star plans.

JT Gill

January 15, 2023

Carlisle—the hulking guard from D Wing—wakes me with a grunt and a nudge.

“Warden needs you,” he rumbles, his black form shifting in the darkness.

I dress in the dark, Carlisle’s silhouette at the door, arms crossed. My optic reads 3:42 AM, which narrows the realm of possibilities as to what this is about… though I have a guess.

A. P. Howell

January 1, 2023

Janot’s armor no longer had that new-armor smell.

New-armor smell was different from new-suit smell; was different from new-car smell and new-carpet smell. But all of those scents pinged something in the human brain, created a sense of purity.