Royce Sears-Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author

What about Teddy? By Royce Sears Billowing clouds. Blackened soot. Embers, ashes Rises to the dawn. Pictures and memories Writhe among flames. Tears falling. Silent sobs Among a fire engine’s roar. Splashes of water Dousing dreams. Hopes, carried on streams Toward the drain. Clutching her doll. Watching the flames. “What about Teddy?” Mom shakes her head. “We’ll get a new Teddy, baby.” 

I found myself standing at the rear of a small boat with the lights of my ship, the USS MISSISSIPPI, ahead of us on the dark harbor. Beside me stood my division officer—we’ll call him Ensign Longfellow. “Sears, aren’t you out past curfew?” Ensign Longfellow asked. I glanced at my watch and noted the time as 01:22 AM. He was right. The Captain’s rules for this port visit were for E3 and below to back aboard ship by midnight. I remember the panic settling on me at that moment, but we’ll get to that later. These are my first coherent memories of our first night of liberty in Naples, Italy. Now I’m guessing, you, my dear reader, are probably curious about the events leading up to just how I found myself out after curfew and standing beside my division officer at the rear of the liberty launch. I am too, but I will try to give an accurate accounting—to the best of my ability. The ‘Ole’ Miss ‘(CGN-40), having departed Norfolk in late February or early March, (I honestly

War Dogs by Greg Bear My rating: 4 of 5 stars War Dogs is sadly my first experience with Mr. Greg Bear. Through the pages of War Dogs I developed a great respect for Mr. Bear and his ability to reach through the pages of the book to tell the story of a Skyrine - a marine trained specifically for the rigors of space combat. Having worked with Marines as a Navy Corpsman, Marines have a mindset that is very specific and very singular to the Marine culture. They speak alike, they fight alike, they're honest, loyal, courageous- and most of all- Marines are BADASS! In my opinion, Greg Bear captures the essence of how a Marine thinks, acts, and fights in War Dogs and that alone is worth the price of admission. As much as I liked this book, I gave it four stars because there were several places within the novel where I had to back-pedal a few pages to try to understand what was going on with the story. Setting those little things aside, it's a gr

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have to say that I found The Player of Games to be a much better experience with Iain M. Banks than Consider Phlebas. Banks introduces us to Gurgeh, a stylized game-player from the Culture. Ahh, the Culture, such an advanced and modern civilization that engulfs almost all of the known galaxy, or so it seems. Gurgeh is reluctantly drawn into the attempted coup of a game-obsessed empire; a coup to be affected by Gurgeh's mastery of the very game through which the empire defines itself. As an outsider of the Empire, Gurgeh must learn the game quickly and unknowingly confront the evils of this empire via the game. Can he learn the intricacies and subtleties of the game in time? Can he learn enough about himself and his opponents? Is it all just a game, or is it a none-too-subtle clash of cultures taking place on the game board before him? Highly Recommended SF reading! Royce www.royces