A few years back a fellow book reviewer (@redhead5318 on Twitter) nominated January to be #VintageSciFiMonth and I agree with this marvelously fun idea!   
What is Vintage SciFi Month? Well it is a month (January) in which we read and review SciFi books that were written prior to the year you were born in. 

  
It is an excellent time to attack your TBR pile and read a few of those classic SciFi books you have been meaning to read or even read again! It gives you a chance to explore some of the Titans of the genre like Herbert, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Haldeman, Silverberg, or any number of SciFi authors. I used last year as a chance to read some of the Gordon R Dickson books that fill my TBR shelves. It gives you an opportunity to reflect on what SciFi was, see what it might have inspired, realize how it has changed, and appreciate those who went before all while reading some quality work. Maybe you could even read the authors who inspired the authors you love such as David Drake’s inspiration: Henry Kuttner

  
For me it is a lot of fun as I truly enjoy older SciFi, I just rarely make the time for it. January is my chance to read through a few more books that I’ve been meaning to read for a while and I tend to purchase Vintage SciFi Books throughout the year with this month in mind. Like the book Mindbridge by Joe Haldeman

  
I hope you’ll join in and enjoy Vintage SciFi Month this January! If you’re on Twitter or Instagram be sure to hashtag your posts on it and join in on the conversations. 

Trees (Vol 1) by Warren Ellis and Jason Howard is a moving, emotional, and intriguing story. It tells the tale of a near future earth on which obscure alien lifeforms that appear as ginormous Trees have landed and ignored our existence for the past ten years. Trees is the story of what happens next.   
I think this first volume containing the first eight issues of the comic book series, did an incredible job of painting the picture of the world and the characters within. The emotional stage is set and you, the reader, are fully engaged and eager for the next volume. 

This story also contains the unique beauty of various lives trying to reach an understanding of who they are in this world that surrounds them. All of this creates and maintains a strong ensemble cast, while keeping the tense action moving forward. 

Many stories try to create an intriguing and mysterious environment but few succeed. Trees succeeds marvelously. 

Orphanage by Robert Buettner is an impressively well done Military SciFi! I rated it five stars on GoodReads jokingly asking how could I rate it less considering how I couldn’t set it down! Take short chapters combined with tense action, a fast paced story, then fill it with quality characters, and you get a page turner that’ll keep you up at nights. 
The basic concept is that our world has come under assault by alien invaders and we’re trying to fight back. War makes orphans, and the human race is arming and training those orphans to seek our vengeance. In the midst of seeking that vengeance they might just learn about true family. 

In thinking about comparisons I can see comparisons to Full Metal Jacket, but the book isn’t as dark. It’s more that it follows a similar path of basic training to war in all its confusion. 

One thing that quality Military SciFi needs to have is some form of social commentary and Orphanage has that. It definitely has that, and it adds to the overall story rather than distracting from it. Here’s a book to read, enjoy, ponder, discuss, and then read the sequel! 

When you live in a world populated with monsters, ruled by people with magic, and you have been raised from birth to fight for the ruling class: you fight! But what if you learn that not all monsters look like monsters, and those you believe you’re fighting for may have been manipulating you all along….
Mary Fan has constructed an amazing world that is fully realized from the opening narration, and peopled it with characters so alive that you feel you’d know them if they stepped out of the pages and into your home. The story grips you from the start and holds onto you until the end as you work your way through the action packed, emotional roller coaster that is The Firedragon. 

Have I mentioned how fully realized and alive the characters are? Because they truly are. I’m impressed with the author’s ability to create a rapport between the reader and the story right from the very start. 

This really is a story that you want everyone to read so that you can sit down and discuss it with them. The author truly entertains while also forcing you to think and consider not only the world she has created, but the world in which you yourself live. I’m looking forward to reading further in this series and continuing to read the stories Mary Fan creates! 

Our Weekly Dark Horse Presents Volume 11

Let’s put it this way: The Forgetten was well done but Masque and Roma are so poorly done that i gave up on reading the comic on a weekly basis for quite a while! But as stated before: when you’re dealing with a comic book anthology you’ll have some issues that are awesome and some that are awful. That’s the nature of the beast. The flip side of that is that the stories I consider awful you might consider awesome. 

But no. For real. Roma and Masque are just awful. 

Moving back to my weekly format for Dark Horse Presents and also working on my monthly Indie/Small Press Author feature, and just regular reviews again! I’ve missed adding my reviews to the website. Time to return!