The Reluctant Swordsman by David Duncan

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Black Book by Dylan Jones

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Old Man's War by John Scalzi

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Destination Void by Frank Herbert

Following a series of system failures the crew of a pioneering spaceship bound for Alpha Centauri realise that their only hope of staying alive to complete the mission is to upgrade their onboard computer to sentient consciousness. Previous human attempts at creating artificial sentience have had disastrous outcomes so the crew must struggle with the philosophical, ethical and technical challenges of creating artificial consciousness if they are to succeed. 

This is quite a famous 1965 novel from the author of the Dune saga that spawned its own series sometimes called the Pandora Sequence. Nevertheless I found it quite difficult to read. There is relatively little plot and much of the book is filled with rambling internal and external dialogues concerning the meaning of conciousness. The technology in the book is laughably dated both on the hardware and software side. References to teleprinters and thermionic valves are hidden in among rambling descriptions of "dilithium crystal" level gobbledy gook. An ever bigger problem is that the entire premise of the book that "only an artificial sentience could possibly guide the ship on its journey" is very hard to swallow for a modern reader who knows just how much today's computers can do without being one bit sentient. Nevertheless I found the book reasonably compelling and the metaphysical discussions about artificial sentience hold up a lot better once you separate them from Herbert's pseudo science. 

Overall I would hesitate to recommend Destination Void to a modern reader unless they were a fan of Herbert or a keen follower of historical Sci Fi. 

The Sacrifice: The First Book of the Fey by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Fey are a ruthless race of warlike magic user who are arrogantly determined to conquer the entire world and subjugate all others.  When an expeditionary force from this military juggernaut rolls up to the prosperous but peaceful inhabitants of the Blue Isle the outcome seems inevitable. Yet the Islanders who don't even have a standing army find help from a surprising source and a stand-off ensues.

I had never heard of this series before getting this opening novel in an e-book bundle but I am quite hooked. Rusch's characters are rich and complex and her plots are full of twists surprises. In terms of character and plot development this book bears favourable comparison to George R.R. Martin's game of thrones.  Indeed the Fey's ruthlessness far surpasses that of Martin's characters.

While the characters and plotting are very strong in the book the battle scenes and military strategy are a significant weakness. Perhaps I have been reading too much military Sci Fi recently but it strikes me there are huge gaps of credibility in the whole military aspect of the novel. The Fey for example have supposed to be a militaristic race who have conquered the known world. You would expect them to display some of the traits we have come to expect from armies and soldiers but they actually come across as quite inept soldiers. The residents of the Blue Isle were supposed to be peaceful which explains their initial ineptitude but a year after the initial attack they still haven't organised a proper army and seem incapable of implementing any form of strategy.

Regardless of the shortcoming on the military side this story has me hooked. I am determined to get the next instalment to follow the continuing machinations of those dastardly Fey.

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

This is the second novel in Scalzi's highly acclaimed "Old Man's War" series and even though I haven't read the prequel I am pleased to say it stands on its own. Scalzi's universe is a belligerent place and everybody species is either openly at war with its neighbours or plotting secretly against them. In order to survive and indeed thrive the CDF representing humanity has developed an army of bio-engineered super soldiers. The elite of the elite are known as the ghost brigades: special forces with bodies that are grown at a vastly accelerated pace and whose minds come from dead recruits. When a brilliant scientist defects to enemy who is planning a genocidal war against humanity the only clue left behind as to his motives is a computer snapshot of his mind.  This conciousness is imprinted on a unwitting new ghost brigade soldier in a risky attempt to try and find out what humanities enemies are planning.  It falls under the heading of military Sci Fi but you certainly don't have to be a military nut to appreciate this story. Good stuff. Highly recommended.

Clockwork Angels by Kevin J. Anderson

The watchmaker rules over a perfectly ordered society where everyone knows their place and everything happens at exactly the right time. His subjects are for the most part happy to live such a controlled existence secure in the knowledge that the Watchmaker will look after them and everything will work out alight. The hero of this book is a rather accidental rebel who ends up stepping out of his pre-determined groove and embarking on a series of adventures all the while being shadowed by the shadowy arch nemesis of the Watchmaker known as the Anarchist.

Interesting story that has a tie in with an album of the same name by the band Rush.