I want to mention again the Mars Society meeting that will be October 15th – 18th. Okay, this is not science fiction. This meeting is focused on the science and engineering necessary to get us to the red planet – and to plant a colony there. Speakers are from JPL, from NASA, from overseas, and a number of them are involved with current Mars missions. If the science fiction you read has ever made you wish that we could go out into space (and it has done that for me from the day I started reading it), then think about attending. We can go to Mars for real and we should. And then we can go further. Check out www.marssociety.org.
I went on a Seanan McGuire run a while ago (obviously). The fourth book in the Wayward Children series is “In An Absent Dream.” This is the story of Lundy, who appears (briefly but importantly) as a secondary character in the first book. This is truly a tragedy, in that it follows the old Greek design of a character blessed with talent and promise who, as a consequence of their internal flaws, loses everything important to them. It is, in fact, a rather sad story. That said, the story is beautifully told. As with all the books in this series, it is short but the character of Lundy is very well-described with all her good and not-so-good attributes. I really felt for her at the end. This book could be a complete standalone; it does not depend on any of the others (it is a “prequel” to the first book).