"My hunt had been nothing more than the human search for love. Only I had been afraid of finding it even while I was pursuing it. So I had made sure to create masks for all those I encountered, so that if I became attached to any of them, my attachment would be to the mask and not to the real bei...
In the sequel to The Final Encyclopedia, Bleys Ahrens, raised alone by his unhappy Exotic mother and cast out from society, finds his niche in life with Dahno, his half-brother. Reprint. PW.
It has, admittedly, been some time since I read this book. However, I remember it as Gordon R. Dickson's masterwork. For me, it was what moved him from the 'Author who writes enjoyable fiction like The Dragon and the George' shelf to the 'Author capable of deeply moving works' shelf. The Way of t...
Gordon R. Dickson's "Childe Cycle" of novels depicting the future of the human race has been one of the grand epics of science fiction. At the time of his death in 2001, Dickson was writing Antagonist, the tale of Bleys Ahrens' turn toward darkness. Now Dickson's assistant David W. Wixon has br...
aka The Genetic GeneralThroughout the Fourteen Worlds of humanity, no race is as feared and respected as the Dorsai. The ultimate warriors, they are known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art of war has made them...
HUMANS OR HEMNOIDS: AN UNBEARABLE CHOICE Planet Dilbia is in a crucial location for both humans and their adversaries, the Hemnoids. Therefore making friends with the Dilbians and establishing a human presence there is of the utmost importance, which may be a problem, since the bearlike Dilbians ...
A well-written story but seemed like it did not have a convincing overall theme. The book was split into two different storylines about the Dorsai, but all they had in common was their ancestral lineage. Another jarring factor was that one of the stories was told in first-person perspective while...
An ancient starship is found adrift in space, damaged by alien Laagi warships. The voice of its pilot still survives - a mind merged with the ship itself. Now, Earth's scientists attempt to duplicate the feat. Pilot Jim Wander has been chosen for the dangerous mission. His spirit transferred fro...
Operation Spacepaw.Bill Waltham has a sneaking suspicion that a few important details were purposely withheld from him when he receives his assignment to the planet Dilbia. At first, the project - to teach the planet's bearlike inhabitants the basic agricultural skills - seems a straightforward, ...
Jef Robini is sent to the planet Everon find out why all efforts to create a stable colony on the planet have failed and discovers the cat-like maolots, mysterious inhabitants of Everon. Reprint.
Originally published on my blog here in February 2004.Though Dickson himself is keen that the three novels generally known as the Dorsai Trilogy should be considered to be part of the far larger framework of his Chantry Guild future history of which they form part, there are few science fiction f...
This short novel is about Jim Keil, an earth born human trained on Alpha Centauri III to be a spy. His mission is to impress Princess Afuan with his bullfighting skills enough to gain passage to the Throne World. That is where the High-born live and rule the empire. The reason Earth wants Jim to ...
A master of science fiction examines what happens when powerful aliens meet puny humans--with results ranging from chilling to utterly hilarious. Getting along in the Universe can be tricky, but those monkey-boys and girls from Earth can get pretty feisty themselves when the situation calls for i...
Quarantine...Ever since Earth's first starship crept out on sublight drive a hundred years ago and was met by an emissary of the Galactic Federation, man has lived as a prisoner in the solar system. The Federation decreed that unless man could demonstrate his technological maturity and leave the ...
One man is mentally linked to an alien who is spearheading an invasion of Earth; a group of soldiers fight to win new space for Earth; and a small group of men fight against a machine that controls all life.
The prevailing breezes seemed to be blowing against them. Jim noticed that the older dragon had a tendency to fall silent when he had to exert himself flying. It gave the information Smrgol seemed determined to impart something of a fragmentary feeling. &...
But the branch dipped under him at the movement, and without visibly setting himself for the effort, the wolf shot into the air toward him. Rafe jerked his dangling feet up level with the branch, and white teeth clicked shut only inches below them as the branch lifted again. Rafe clung to it, not...
There was little else he could do but make himself as small as possible and watch the action. The action, however, turned out to be wonderful to behold. Not at first. At first, all Bill saw was a rolling tangle of furry bodies, arms and legs,glinting claws and flashing tee...
He forced himself to look squarely at the limited years, months and days of his own likely existence. Suppose he gave himself the longest possible lifetime—say a hundred and twenty years during which he could be active and useful. What a drop that still was in the ocean of time that was the histo...
Deborah smiled. "No," she said. "They're pretty bad on most of the other Younger Worlds, too—except for Newton and Cassida." "That might be a legacy of the era when the organizations on those worlds were forced to operate underground," Bleys mused. "But in any case, I don't want them to be too go...