Last night, I made the mistake of picking this book up at bedtime. Why was it a mistake? Because 4 hours is not enough sleep to get through a workday. Sure, I am okay now, because my circadian rhythm is in the “it’s morning and time to be moving around” stage, but once lunch is over, I am sure to be toast. Can’t keep my eyes open, barely able to think at all toast.

I only have myself to blame, too. This book was a Christmas gift to my 14 year old daughter, and she warned me that it would be hard to put down. When she saw me with it at bedtime, instead of saying good night, she wished me luck. I was sure I was fine, though. I am a responsible adult, I can handle one compelling book, right?

Wrong. So wrong.

It was so worth it, though! Tris, the main character of this book, lives in a dystopian Chicago, where the population sorts itself into factions dedicated to fostering one character attribute that they think is the most important factor in setting up a peaceful society. Abnegnation values selflessness and service to others, Candor–honesty and debate, Erudite–intelligence and study, Amity–peacefulness and getting along, Dauntless–bravery and protection. Tris grows up in an Abnegation household, but chooses to join the Dauntless faction on her Choosing Day, despite the inconclusive results of her aptitude test and her wish to be with her family.

The most awesome thing about Tris is that she is strong. She is truly brave, acting in spite of her fears at times, but also a bit fearless. On top of that, she is intelligent, and despite her worries that she was not selfless enough to truly belong in the Abnegation faction, she is still strongly bonded to her friends, drawing much of her strength from her connections to them and her desire to protect them. She knows that true strength requires you to seem weak at times, and is able to sacrifice her pride to the higher good. She helps others and accepts help from them, without becoming weak in the process.

Even better, other characters recognize and value her strength. Sure, there are bad guys who don’t appreciate her strength, because it makes her harder to control, or they are jealous, but they do recognize that she has a true strength of character and will that makes her stand out, and they respect that the strength is real (even though it does make them want to kill her). Her friends, male and female, admire her strength even if it does make them feel inadequate at times. The cute boy values her strength and doesn’t try to protect her any more than necessary–sure he saves her from an unfair fight against 3 larger opponents, but he does it without making her feel like a weak little girl; he still treats her as a strong person. She is able to learn of his vulnerabilities without feeling pity for him as well, which he appreciates.

Obviously, this is a highly recommended read. Just learn from my example–pick this up on a Saturday morning, one where you don’t have a lot of plans for the day. I really don’t find all that many books un-put-downable, but this is definitely one that I couldn’t stop reading, even though I knew I should stop and get some sleep. (As an aside, has anyone else notice how much quality YA science fiction there is lately? Almost more to get excited about that in the adult SF world.)

Also, you might want to go ahead and pre-order Insurgent, the next book in the series. It is not out until May 1 (how will I wait?!?), but I know I will want it as soon as possible. There were plenty of intriguing clues to what this book will hold: What will become of Tris? Will the factions be united in some way or fragment even further? Why do they lock everyone IN Chicago when society says they are being protected from what is outside? I hope that the third book follows soon after this one!

You may nominate for the 2012 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer if, on or before January 31, 2012 11:59 p.m. PST, you:

• are an attending or supporting member of Chicon 7 (the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention); or
• were an attending or supporting member of Renovation (the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention); or
• are an attending or supporting member of LoneStarCon 3 (the 2013 World Science Fiction Convention)

You can nominate up to five persons or works in each category, although it is possible, even encouraged, to nominate fewer choices if you are not familiar with enough works that are truly award worthy. You can also select “No Award” if you think that there are no people or works eligible for an award in any category. There are more details on the Chicon Website, but the categories are:

I have since given up on the idea that I could ever be current on Twitter for more than 15 minutes at a time, but I have found myself at a loss for what to read next. To help structure my reading a bit, I am coming up with a few resolutions. Really, they are more plans–I am not a big believer in resolutions, what with all the history I (and just about everyone else) have with breaking them. This is a good time for planning ahead, though. A lot of my plans for the year center around reviews for this site, so you will get the benefit of my planning, too!

First, I want to make sure I do more reading of actual books. I already knew that reading is good for me, but there is some recent research that talks about why–the act of reading actually forms new neural pathways in the brain as a reader forms mental simulations of the scenes being encountered.This happens with stories, too, but the greater complexity of a full length book is good for the brain, too.

I also want to be better about doing book reviews. Writing a review forces me to analyze what I am reading more carefully, and enhances my understanding and enjoyment of a book. Correlated to this, I want to make sure that I am reading some new authors, so that I can share those reviews here.

I have written here before about online reading sources, and I want to do a bit more of that this year. There are a lot of interesting online SF magazines, and I want to catch up on some of those magazines and start a series here featuring them. First up: The Future Fire, which does a lot of interesting stories with a socio-political and progressive bent.

I could think of many more things I want to do, but I am trying to work on making reasonable lists (which is why I am not even mentioning reducing the size of my To-Be-Read pile!), so I will stop here for now. Is anyone else planning on doing more reading this year?

For the Fantasy lover on your list

A Dance with Dragons, by George RR Martin
$21.00

The fifth book in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series, Dance with Dragons continues the epic story with all of the main characters that you know and love from the series. And of course it comes with the standard GRRM twists and turns that we’ve all come to love. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and it makes the great gift for any GRRM fan who has not yet picked up the latest in the series.

The Inheritance Trilogy, by N. K. Jemisin
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, $7.99
The Broken Kingdoms, $7.99
The Kingdom of the Gods, $10.98

I really don’t understand why the first book in this series, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, didn’t win any awards this year–it was one of the most imaginative books I have read in a long time. The mythology was interesting, the characters were well-defined, and the writing was tight. The second book was just as good, and I can’t wait to read the final installment.

Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor
$10.20

Winner of this year’s World Fantasy Award, this book is set in Africa in a post-apocalyptic future, and it features a magic system that is very different from the wizardry you see in a lot of fantasy books. The setting and plot are fairly grim, but the characters are so strong and well-realized that the book doesn’t feel totally desolate. It is powerful and ultimately hopeful, and Okorafor is a strong writer that I look forward to reading for many years to come.

For the Science Fiction Fan

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois
$14.95

I’ve said it before, short stories are a great way to find new science fiction writers, and this annual collection is the best of the best. Dozois consistently puts out a high quality group of stories, with authors that go on to write great books and do great things for the field. Not that Dozois reads their books–he spends all of his time searching out those great stories for upcoming collections. This book is also great because you don’t have to read it straight through and keep all of the characters straight, so it makes a great gift for a busy reader, despite its 704 pages.

The Ship Who Sang, by Anne McCaffrey
$7.99

Since reading the terrible news that McCaffrey died this week, I have been looking over my collection of her works and remembering how much I loved discovering her as a teenager and young adult. Of course I read her Dragonriders of Pern books first, and loved them, but The Ship Who Sang is probably my favorite book of hers. It is the story of Helva, who was born with a sharp mind, but a body that can’t survive without support.  She and others like her are given a high quality education and eventually become cyborgs with high level functions like city manager or space station. Helva has a knack for starflight mechanics, so she becomes a brainship, with her body being the ship itself. This books is a collection of short stories that combine to tell a tale of Helva’s life.

Maul, by Tricia Sullivan
$14.95

This is the story of girl gangs fighting a fashion battle at the mall with real bullets, and a boy guinea pig, being infected with designer viruses for research purposes. There is a shortage of men in this world as a result of y-plagues, and they need to do more work to understand what they are up against. The story takes the micro-violence of disease in one person and translates it to macro-violence between people, and explores what it means to be free.

The lists that I really like, though, are science fiction and fantasy recommendation lists. Genre literature tends to run the gamut, quality-wise, from schlock to great literature. That true of all published fiction, I suppose, but more so with genre writing, because some people will read anything if it is set in a fantastic or futuristic world, or whatever tropes define their preferred genre (Westerns set on a ranch, mysteries set in small towns over-run by eerily intelligent cats, etc.). If I can find someone who has already searched out some of the highest quality stuff, then, I jump right on that. I am too busy to waste time on books that are no good. I still may not like everything on a list, but if I find a list I trust, I can at least narrow my choices down.

I particularly enjoy finding lists of feminist science fiction, because those books can be hard to find. I often have to take these lists to a used bookstore, or the internet, as the major chains don’t have a lot of the books on the shelves. It is worth it to search them out, though.

www.feministsf.org is a good place to start. The website is very out of date, as it was a hobby for the site owner, but it still has a lot of good information. The list of recommendations for FSF beginners is particularly good. I wrote about this on my personal blog at the beginning of the year, when I was using it to go on a book buying spree. I have read a couple of those books now, and really enjoyed them. Venus Plus X was an interesting thought experiment, showing how deeply ingrained our sense of gender is in our culture, and Sister Light, Sister Dark was an interesting take on the hero fable. I already knew that I loved Theodore Sturgeon after reading More Than Human a few years back, but Jane Yolen was a new discovery for me, and I am glad I found her.

SF Mistressworks is an interesting list I just recently came across online. This is a list of books by female science fiction works worthy of the SF Masterworks list, which is largely (though not entirely) male. I haven’t gone through much of this, but I am looking forward to discovering a few new authors there.

Chris Moriarty is a treasure trove of recommendations. I adore her books Spin Control and Spin State, so I think she must be a good place for ideas of what to read next. Surely if she can write books that seem to me to be almost perfect, the books she enjoys to read must be the kind of thing I would like. On her old site, www.chrismoriartybooks.com, she has a page of reading advice, with many recommended authors. She also has a great essay on what she calls Chickpunk, which also comes with a list of recommended authors at the end. I have several new books on my Nook after reading that article again a few weeks ago. Her new website, www.sfness.com, has a whole page for posts about other people’s books, which I am a little afraid to read, honestly.

Where do you go for reading recommendations?

The Demolished Man is one of the most influential science fiction books in the western world, and there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of it. Alfred Bester (yes, like the psi-cop in “Babylon 5,” but more on that in a minute) only wrote two full sci-fi novels in the course of his career, and neither of them is a current best-seller. However, Bester’s influence can be found in many of the most popular science films and TV shows of recent years. You’ve probably run across his ideas and never even knew who was behind them.

In much the same way that I, Robot, set the rules for future AI stories, The Demolished Man establishes many of the rules and conventions for stories involving telepaths (or “espers”). What a telepath can observe depends on many things, including nearness of his subject, the consciousness of the thought, and the power of the telepath. Telepaths are routinely hired to assist with business negotiations. Telepaths can even link their abilities and alter a person’s perception of reality, if they focus hard enough. (Note: many “Babylon 5” fans will have already picked up on the similarities between Bester’s use of telepaths and the way they are portrayed in the show. Writer and producer J.Michael Straczynski even went so far as to name his Psi-Cop leader after the author of The Demolished Man. Bester also uses the “death of personality” concept that was a key part of the episode “Passing Through Gethsemane.”)

The plot of the book is complex and not easily confined to a single genre, though the overall world is comfortably within the science-fiction realm. Ben Reich, the young and volatile owner of Monarch Enterprises, is trying to create a merger with the D’Courtney Cartel, owned by the elderly Craye D’Courtney. When D’Courtney seemingly rejects the offer of a merger, Reich decides to take him out of the picture. But in a world with telepaths in all areas of society, how does one commit murder and get away with it? After the crime is committed, Reich finds Class 1 Esper Lincoln Powell, a police prefect, hot on his trail: Powell must find a way to prove Reich guilty, without using telepathic evidence which is inadmissible in court. Has Reich finally committed the perfect crime?

This story artfully combines a corporate drama, a murder mystery, and a police procedural in a futuristic utopian setting, while maintaining a quick pace and developing interesting characters. One of the best aspects of the book is Bester’s careful attention to the effect that telepathy would have on many aspects of a culture: the influence of the espers is both subtle and widespread. When reading it, you will find ideas that have appeared in later works from “Babylon 5” to “Minority Report” to “Inception.” Happy sleuthing!

As someone who does a little writing herself, I have had an idealized view of what it would be like to be a writer that supports herself through writing work. Sleeping in! Working when it is convenient! Lounging around in PJs all day! Adoring fans writing letters and sending gifts (which is somewhat true apparently, at least for some authors, but we can’t all be Neil Gaiman)!

Following professional writers is a good way to find out what writing life is really like. It’s like a virtual water cooler where they gather to talk shop, exchange banter, maybe throw around a little industry gossip, and we get to eavesdrop. The first thing you learn is that it really is work, being a professional writer. It is work they enjoy, but they have to make sure they do it, too. Seeing these professionals with real publishing deals post triumphantly that they made their word count for the day really makes me feel better about those nights I am forcing myself to sit at the keyboard. Watching days of tweets about editing progress and the trials of proofreading shows the level of craft and polishing that goes into truly professional work. A few weeks ago, several writers that I follow participated in a robust discussion about whether the internet distracts them from work or supports their work, which was intriguing to follow, and helps me to think through the ways that I use the internet for research and procrastination.

I also have found several new to me authors through Twitter. I had never heard of Lauren Beukes (@laurenbeukes), for instance, before William Gibson (@GreatDismal) began aggressively promoting her around the end of last year with multiple tweets for her new book, Zoo City. I went out and got both Zoo City and her first book, Moxyland, and I am glad that I did.

I have also purchased books by Elizabeth Bear (@matociquala) and Catherynne Valente (@catvalente) after finding them on Twitter, although I have not been able to read them yet. Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) isn’t exactly new to me, but I discovered that I didn’t actually own any of his books not too long after I started following him on Twitter, a lack I have since remedied. Nnedi Okorafor (@Nnedi) was already on my radar thanks to the excellent Who Fears Death, but thanks to Twitter, I am on the lookout for Akata Witch for my daughter and I to share now. I will be buying books by a few of the other authors I am following, too, as soon as I knock some books off my To Be Read pile (a never-ending task if ever there was one…). I am keeping a close eye on the feed of Rachel Swirsky (@rachelswirsky), who I’ve written about here before–I don’t want to miss anything that she writes!

Here is the list of sf/f authors I created from the authors I follow: https://twitter.com/#!/sussabmax/sf-f-authors/members. This is by no means a complete list of authors on Twitter, nor is it an attempt to pick the best that Twitter has to offer in this category. As I said above, I spend a lot of time on Twitter, and I don’t have enough time for it really, not to follow everyone completely, so I am not looking to add more interesting people to follow. I am still adding people, but I have mostly stopped going out to look for them. I might add someone because of a recommendation from someone else I follow, or a particularly funny or smart retweet, but most of my new followings are organic like that these days.

Is anyone else following their favorite writers on Twitter? I hesitate to ask (see: way too busy already), but who has the most interesting tweets?

Short fiction is one of my favorite ways to find new sf authors. Science Fiction actually has a pretty rich tradition of short fiction work, with many authors getting their start and making a living though the various short fiction outlets. That is true for many forms of literature, but science fiction short story magazines lasted a lot longer than many other genres. Nowadays it seems that authors have to sell books in order to make a living at writing (and if the various business of writing blogs I follow are any indication, do lots of other things, too), but short stories used to be enough.

I think Science Fiction is uniquely suited to the short story, as well. SF is a genre of ideas, and some ideas are just not robust enough for a full novel. That doesn’t mean they aren’t interesting, though. Take, for example, Philip K. Dick’s story “Roog.” It is a neat little story about a dog protecting his family from the garbage men. Of course, the family doesn’t think they need protection, but they are wrong, there is something else going on. Interesting idea, but not one that can be carried on for longer than a few pages.

I also see a lot of short stories that seem to be the author starting the world building that leads to a later novel. When I read Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Wind-Up Girl last year, I recognized the world I had encountered in the story “The Calorie Man” in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection. The location was different, but it was the same scary future with the struggle to grow enough food to sustain life, staying one step ahead of genetically engineered crop blights. When I read Vernor Vinge’s Rainbow’s End, one whole scene seemed to a re-worked version of “Synthetic Serendipity,” which was in the Twenty-Second Annual Collection. I love finding this kind of reference, especially since they are often for writers that are new to me. Tracing an author’s ideas through various works is fascinating to me, but you have to follow there work to do it. The nice thing about keeping up with the short story market is that you can do that without even trying sometimes–for both of these stories, I wasn’t trying to follow the authors, but I remembered what I had read and got to have that pleasant shock of recognition as I read their novels.

I also enjoy finding writers at the beginning of their careers. Many writers produce successful short stories before they tackle the more ambitious novel. My favorite example of this is Rachel Swirsky. A friend brought me a copy of her first story from the issue of Subterranean guest-edited by John Scalzi, and it just blew me away. If you haven’t read it, go click on that link and read her story, “Scenes from a Dystopia,” starting on page 5. It literally took my breath away, and it still does when I re-read it. I have since read many of her stories and never been disappointed. I cannot wait until her first novel comes out. She writes a lot of SF and feminism as well; links are available on her website. I have spent a lot of time following her around the internet, and she is always interesting.

I wish I could follow all the short story outlets, but I just don’t have time. That’s why the yearly The Year’s Best Science Fiction collections are so great. I don’t have to get to everything that is out there, when Gardner Dozois is out there collecting the best of the year for me. I try to get those every year, even though it is a huge book to carry around. I have carried these around and read them on the train, but this year, I don’t have to do that. I am getting the Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection on my Nook!

BUY

There is nothing like a shooter to get your blood pumping, your heart racing, or colorful adjectives flying straight from your mouth. This is where Section 8: Prejudice delivers. It has what you would expect from a science fiction first person shooter:, beautiful interaction of futuristic technology such as mechs and jet packs, the storyline that makes you wonder how it ends, and the satisfaction of destroying the enemy.

Section 8: Prejudice is the second game in the series of first person shooters found the Xbox Live Arcade. The first game, Section 8 is a still availble on Xbox Live Arcade if you are interested in picking up the first game before playing Prejudice (though it is not required to play). First, make sure that you have enough space on your hard drive to download the game. The game is 1.78GB in size, and will take you about a half an hour to download (depending on internet connection). After that little milestone, you’ll be ready to play the game.

Visually there are beautiful cut scenes at the beginning that help propel the the story of the game. For an Xbox Live Arcade game, these cut scenes are fantastic, I haven’t seen something like this since Shadow Complex in terms of movement.  Granted it is not completely to that caliber, but it is still fantastic in it own right. In some cut scenes there were a little movements that were jarred or rigged, but on the whole the cut scene got me into the game and more importantly, the plot line.

In terms of environments, there were a perfect blend of science fiction and beautiful outdoor terrains. The elements of science fiction provide a stark contrast with the enviroments which really lent to the over all feel of the game. The graphics are very well done. I found the lighting on all the enviroments to be in good balance between light and dark, which made shooting or finding tragets a breeze. I would have to say that none of the game play movements were blocky, or disjointed. The enemy doing jet  pack jumps,or even your own jet pack movements felt fluid, and sometimes even a little graceful.

There are three game play modes with Section 8: Prejudice; single player, online multiplayer and co-op.

The single player  mode, is known as the campaign mode. Before you begin, you choose either Easy, Medium or Hard for your mode of play.  Within the story, you are Captain Corde and you are showing new trainees how it’s done, in the training ground at the section 8 military base (yes, this is the tutorial). Since I am an old hand at first person shooters, the standard controllers configuration appeared to follow over from other classic shooters. Right trigger shoot, left trigger zoom, equipment changes done with the d-pad, and so on and so forth. There is a a change in the settings in that the left bumper is used for your jet pack, which I must say up front, was a joy to use. To date, this is the first time I have been able to use a jet pack in shooter game, and I liked it. After you have finished the tutorial, you try to defend you base from the Orion sphere which is trying to retrive one of their Captains. Without giving too much away about plot line, you are on a manhunt from here on out, trying to figure out how the Orion sphere gained their technology, which is much like the technology that the USIF, the side your fighting on. In short, I found the plot line very interesting and developed. It had a moral side to it as well, in relation to war. Which is something I find is a little lacking in some first person shooters.

Something that really interested me was how the game switched into an “overdrive” mode while running, which could be turned on and off in the options settings. This overdrive mode would be activated automatically when available. I did find that sometimes I would go into overdrive too late, or too early, but since there is an option to manually control the overdrive if you go into your options section.  Another feature of interest is the assisted lock on feature which locks on to fast moving targets. I found this feature very useful in terms of trying to take out targets that were using their jet packs to jump around. Which, I must say, added a new element of difficulty, since I am use to enemies that stay grounded. I found that this way very useful when I trying to bring down harder bosses, like mechs. Now, the lock on feature only lasts for a short period of time and has a longer cool down.

I really enjoyed was the health and armor bars that appeared above the heads of the enemies, as well as your own health and armor located in the top hand corner.  I found that I was a little more strategic with my ammo and shots as I was playing through, then I normally would be. I found that I would put just enough bullets into an enemy instead of draining the clip dry.  Yet as I found out quickly, I really did not need to conserve as many bullets as I normally would because of the dropped in supply stations. These stations not only resupply your ammo when you stand next to it, but it also gives the opportunity to switch up your primary weapon (Assault rifle, sniper rifle, machine gun etc.), secondary weapon (pistols, grenade launcher, etc.) extra equpiment (tactile knife, repair tools etc.) What I found interesting about the depot was the fact that your weaponry is very customizable. Once you have chosen your weapon within the category, you are then direct to a new screen which allows you to choose different load outs. For example, when it came to a grenade launcher, I had the option to have 4 different type of projectiles, with different types good against a different types of enemies, or turrets. Also, in the depot, you can customize your load out, by upgrading. Upgrading means that you place points in specific categories.  This makes your class your own, and specific for whatever type of combat your are engaging in.  After I found my first depot in the game, the fear of dropping a weapon for a new one, melted away. Trust me, it was a great feeling. Also, before major boss battles, there is a depot, where you can switch out whatever weapons would be useful for the boss you are fighting.

As the levels went on, I found the game more and more challenging. There were points where I was not paying attention to the voice that would say my shields were down, and run in guns a-blazing. A mistake I did not make twice. I found that the game would provide a new type of challenge, be it with new types of enemies,  new vehicles to master, or a new gun to exploit as the levels progressed.  I found there was a little more strategy with the game, using the environment around me to gain advantage on enemies, or repair broken turrets to use to my advantage. I found myself looking for new ways to deal with the task at hand instead of seeing how many bullets I had to put into the enemy before taking it down. This is something a little removed from the run-and-gun type shooters that are so typical.

A last point on the single player, let’s talk about how the game saves.  The game uses the checkpoint system which has become a standard feature on many games. You get so far, and the game will automatically save for you.  I have to say that I love this feature on many games, and Section 8: Prejudice is no exception to that rule. I loved how the game would save before key points in the storyline and that if I did die, I was able to pick up very quickly to get right back in on the action.  The only disappointment in terms of saving was that I found that the longest checkpoint to reach was the tutorial checkpoint. I found I had to complete the whole tutorial before even getting a checkpoint. This was very odd since I found that I was hitting checkpoints left and right after I left the tutorial.  I did find that sometimes the game would freeze.  I tried playing other games, and found that the only game that my Xbox would freeze on, was with Section 8: Prejudice. Now, this isn’t a major issue if you’re near a checkpoint within the game, but if you are close to the end of a section and the game freezes, it is enough to make your blood boil.

Unfortunately, I was unable to truly review the multiplayer capabilities of the game. I got to play a few rounds of the multiplayer and I can say, that without any true direction of what to do, I became frustrated. I played around with the teammates, floundered at what the objective was, until some voice was speaking through my TV set, telling me tips of what to do next, or how to do it. Also, even getting into the level via spawn was difficult because I didn’t know that they red circle were areas with AA turrets which were going to shoot me clear out of the sky before I was even near the group.  Let’s just I spent a lot of time doing the “trial and error” within multiplayer. I believe that including a multiplayer mode within games, especially first person shooters is almost essential to the games replay value, but I wish there was a little more direction before being dropped into a game.

The co-op mode is where you and your partners play against waves of enemy, where each wave becomes harder than the wave before.  It’s reminiscent of the horde mode in Gears of War 2. There’s a set of enemies it trying to reclaim your objective point. You can up to four players within this mode. The great thing about this mode, is that the depots are there for you to switch up weaponry at any time. Also, as each wave continues, you get more upgrades for your weapons and you and your team mates have to be a little more tactical when it comes to defending your point.  I found this part of the game fun to play as long as I had friends to play with.

The game is available today for 1200 MS points (15 dollars) on Xbox Live Arcade, which is a steal in my opinion. For a game with multiplayer, a campaign mode, and a co-operative mode and has lot of replay value, it is an amazing game to pick up. It is defiently worth the points. Even with a few of the issue that I encountered, I still think this game would be worth the buy.  Section 8: Prejudice arrives on the Xbox Live Arcade today: April 20th, and will be heading to the PSN and PC soon to follow.  Also, the game has 3 avatar awards currently available for you to achieve. I will not disclose how to get these avatar outfits but I will say that one is quite easy to get and another, is far more challenging.

Review code provided by the publisher and did not affect the outcome of this review.

This new novel by Greg Bear kicks of a trilogy of novels called “The Forerunner Saga”, the first of which is “Halo: Cryptum”.  Cryptum will be out sometime in January of 2011, so fans of the Halo universe story don’t have to wait long to get their hands on it. Tor will also be publishing an unabridged audio book simultaneously with the novel’s release.

From the press release, here’s an idea of what kind of story fans have to look forward to, and what secrets about the universe the trilogy might reveal:

Halo: Cryptum will begin the first deep exploration into the time of the Forerunners, the creators and builders of the Halos. Almost nothing is known for sure about this ancient race. Worshipped by the Covenant as gods, their engineering relics pepper the galaxy, and their connection to humanity remains unanswered. Devoted fans of both the books and games will finally get to delve deep into the era of these enigmatic beings, and discover for themselves the epic story behind one of the great mysteries of the “Halo” universe: the complete disappearance of the Forerunners from existence.

Along with the trilogy, Tor has also recently announced a new series for Halo that delves into the post-Halo 3 universe that will be written by experienced Halo novelist, Karen Traviss.