A few months ago, I embarked on a mission to read all of Chris Roberson's Celestial Empire stories that were readily available to me - this after thoroughly enjoying The Dragon's Nine Sons. Some of the stories are available online, others appear in anthologies I own. This is by no means a complete list of Celestial Empire stories, just a fun project I undertook because, you know, reading is supposed to be fun.

The Celestial Empire is one of better future histories I've read. Here, the Chinese (of The Middle Kingdom) and Aztecs (The Mexic Dominion) are the dominant, space-faring superpowers and they are at war with one another. The setting is well imaged and steeped in their respective cultures. The world building is interesting. There is space travel, sure, but otherwise the future is, in many stories, low tech. The Middle Kingdom strives for low tech solutions because of personal fear while the Aztecs remain low-tech out of religious belief. What you wind up with is imaginative solutions to some advanced problems, lending much to the overall flavor of the stories.

As intriguing as that backdrop is, it is upstaged by the intimate nature of the stories that play out within it. These are not military sf stories (per se) about missions that will decide the fate of the war, they are personal stories about realistic characters. They do not suffer from over-the-top action sequences that defy belief; they are (mostly) quiet stories about people, their choices and their actions.

Here are my thoughts on those stories that I've read so far, roughly in the order they occur in the history of the Celestial Empire...

"Fire in the Lake" (2007)
[Source: Subterranean Online, Fall 2007]
In what is essentially a detective story, the Palace Jurist (named Xi San) is tasked with solving the murder of some important figures. Rather than simply being a quest for the throne by those who wait in line, they are merely pawns by the two main Imperial bureaucratic factions involved: the Confucian scholars and the Household eunuchs. Although the solution to the puzzle may be overly complex, along the way we are treated to "mini-episodes" of Xi San's past cases as he converses with his nephew, also in training to join the Emperor's service.

"The Sky Is Large and the Earth Is Small" (2007)
[Source: Asimov's, July 2007, Author's website]
In this story, Cao Wen, working for the Minister of War, is researching the enemy, Mexica. His search leads him to seek out Ling Xuan, a "temporary resident" (for the last 20 years) at the Embroidered Guard, a military unit of the Celestial Empire. Ling Xuan is suspected of holding vital information about the enemy, but Cao Wen learns that the prisoner holds information even more important to the future of the Empire. As with other Celestial Empire stories, this one transpires on a personal level; in this case, Ling Xuan is the focus of our sympathy. His only crime is having a desire to know the order of the universe. (There are laws to prohibit such learning.) To see him manipulate Cao Wen is a personal victory for him and an engaging event for the reader.

"O One" (2002)
[Source: Live Without a Net edited by Lou Anders, 2003. Also available online.]
In Live Without a Net, Lou Anders challenged writers to imagine a future in which the normal tropes of science fiction - cyberspace, the Internet, artificial intelligence - did not exist. Chris Roberson's excellent entry, "O One," is set in a future where Imperial China has become a world power. The current Emperor dreams of space travel and has commissioned a team of mathematicians (called Computators) to wield their abacuses (Abacuses!) and make that dream a reality. The story concerns the Emperor's Chief Computator, Tsui, as he faces off with a new British invention seemingly designed to quicken his removal from office: a mechanical analytical engine. What's interesting here is not only the refreshingly appealing "low tech" future, but the surprisingly dramatic head-to-head battle between Tsui and the engine. It's interesting to see the fate of an Empire decided at a decidedly more personal level.

"Metal Dragon Year" (2008)
[Source: Interzone #213]
This story is an essential entry in timeline of the Celestial Empire as it shows the Empire's efforts to put the first man into space ahead of Mexica. Yusuf Ounaminou is leading the project and has been ordered to complete the project before the end of Metal Dragon Year, but intrigue and mishaps threaten that deadline. Superb storytelling marks this tale, but characterizations come a very close second. Through some well-placed scenes, we see firsthand Yusuf's determination, honor, loyalty and good nature (as boss, husband, father and friend) and his situation becomes our own personal concern. Despite an obvious wolf in sheep's clothing, "Metal Dragon Year" is a gripping read.

"Gold Mountain" (2005)
[Originally reviewed in The Year's Best Science Fiction # 23 edited by Gardner Dozois]
In an alternate history where China is the dominant superpower, a female researcher with unresolved family issues gets the life story of an elderly man who helped build a space elevator. If it seemed to me that a little too much time was spent on the world-building of the China-centric setting, it's because McAllister's life story was both engrossing and moving. His hard-luck story and the history of the space elevator created an effective tug-of-war between sense of wonder and poignancy. The ending attempts to up the stakes by providing an emotional punch and succeeds wonderfully.

"The Line of Dichotomy" (2007)
[Source: The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume 2]
In this episode of Roberson's Celestial Empire stories, Bannerman Yao, a soldier of the Dragon Throne (and featured in The Dragon's Nine Sons), responds to a distress signal from the Fire Planet (Mars), where he discovers Mexica warriors surrounding a bacteria farm. As Yao attempts to rescue them, readers come to learn a great deal more about the mysterious - at least to me at this early point in my traversal through these stories - Mexic race. We also learn details about the start of the war between the Middle Kingdom and the Mexic Dominion, as told by Yao and Blue-green Feather, a Mexic warrior he encounters, whose words are translated by Thien, a scientist who Yao is attempting to save. This is all great world-building stuff. One point of confusion though, was regarding the mention of the character Dea who, like Yao, was featured in The Dragon's Nine Sons: both the book and this story mention conflicting fates for Dea, so it is unclear what happens to him. The ending of "The Line of Dichotomy" also leaves some question as to the fates of its main characters, but this is a very fun ride nonetheless, told in Roberson's straightforward, no-nonsense storytelling style.

"Red Hands, Black Hands"
[Source: Asimov's, Infinity Plus]
On the planet Huo Hsing (an alternate name for Mars, the Celestial Empire's Fire Planet?), novelist Song Huagu has formed an uneasy connection to the shady Madame Jade, a socialite who invites Song to parties because of her celebrity. At one of these parties, Song meets a mysterious stranger named Jiang Hu who, Song suspects, may be part of the The Black Hands revolutionists - something that attracts Song as she herself has ideas that are revolutionary; things like equality for women. The story plays out innocently enough at the start, but things progress from bad to worse for Song (there is an illicit love affair, spurned love, and a little bit of subterfuge). Ultimately, an Imperial spy learns that you cannot kill an idea.

Posted by John at 12:29 AM | Discussion (6) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: The best young adult novel that Robert A. Heinlein never wrote.

MY RATING: .

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Joey Harker goes on a field trip one day and finds himself in the middle of a war between the forces of science and magic across all the possible Earths.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: A well written short novel that really catches the feel of the young adult novels of Robert A. Heinlein, as well as some of his other well-known works.
CONS: A bit too "science fantasy" at times, which almost turns the tale to mush in a few spots.
BOTTOM LINE: Neil Gaiman is best when he works short. Few have captured the voice of Robert A. Heinlein better than this collaborative work with Michael Reaves.

I grew up with Robert A. Heinlein.

Sure, in my misbegotten youth, there were other authors. Arthur C. Clarke played a role. Andre Norton, Alan E. Nourse, Poul Anderson, James Blish and others played supporting roles. Isaac Asimov was there, both in fiction and non-fiction.

But Robert A. Heinlein, with his titles for young adults ("juveniles" as they were called then) was the lead. In books from Starman Jones to Farmer in the Sky to Citizen of the Galaxy to Have Space Suit, Will Travel (which I read many, many times), Heinlein entertained me and taught me. Painlessly.

He taught me the value of an education. He taught me the value of ethics. He taught me the value of not sitting on my butt. Naturally, as with reading a work such as Moby Dick, not everything in every book sunk and was understood right away, but it did sink in and eventually helped to form what I am today.

Other authors have tried to be Robert A. Heinlein. Some have gotten close, such as Jerry Pournelle (with Exiles to Glory or Higher Education...which he co-wrote with the late Charles Sheffield) or David Gerrold (with his so-called Dingilliad trilogy). Others have tried, hard, but failed, miserably (I'm thinking here of Spider Robinson's "collaboration" with Heinlein in Variable Star; a book that failed, I feel, because Robinson put too much of his own agenda into the book).

This is why I like InterWorld so much. I haven't read anything, so far, that shows that Gaiman and Reaves intended on writing a Heinlein young adult novel, but damn if they didn't do the best job I've come across intentionally or not!

Joey Harker is a high school student. He has one somewhat unconventional teacher (who would fit right into a Heinlein novel), Mr. Dimas. On one of his teachers field trips (designed to teach kids about real life and give them some useful experience), Joey finds himself not quite in his world. The girl he was on the field trip with looks slightly different. Cars look slightly different. And when he makes his way home...he finds himself...as a girl.

You've heard, no doubt, of the multiverse, the set of all possible universes. What Joey has found is the altiverse, made up of all possible versions of Earth. Whenever a major decisions is made, our planet "buds". By the point of the story there are millions upon millions of Earths. Some are ruled by the HEX, a group that controls magic and wants to use people like Joey for a nasty purpose. Others are ruled by Binary, which uses science...and also wants people like Joey for a nasty purpose. Trying to maintain the balance is InterWorld, run by hundreds of variants of Joey...some older, some male, some female, some not quite human.

After undergoing intensive schooling, Joey and several of his fellow students are sent on a practice mission. Alas, things go wrong, and he finds himself facing a tough decision. Should he try to live out his life quietly back on his version of Earth? Or help his new friends and try to save millions of other Earths from either HEX or Binary?

I've been so-so on Gaiman. The whole graphic novel movement (like the whole video game movement) marched past me with little interest on my part. I've enjoyed his novels, but liked his short stories better, as it seems the longer he makes something, the more likely it'll start sputtering.

This book is the perfect length for him. The character of Joey Harker is well drawn; Gaiman and Reaves do an excellent job here. The secondary characters - especially Jay, Hue and Mr. Dimas - are a lot of fun. There's action aplenty, too, ranging from swashbuckling fights to internal debates on what to do. Plus, there are some really creepy villains.

In their afterword, Gaiman and Reaves talk about how the story first was shopped around as a television series in the 1990's. Alas, as is usual when you talk to folks in Hollywood in words with more than one syllable, eyes glazed over. What a shame, as this would have been one heck of a television romp. Thank goodness the book is out, and you can see it in the theater of the mind!

Posted by Fred at 1:29 AM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A bizarre (but ultimately satisfying) reading experience.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A scheming ship captain wishes to lay claim to a planet-sized diamond, but discovers that there is an alternate Earth inside it.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Cool sf-nal ideas; sense of wonder; humorous.
CONS: Hard to initially get a handle on; slow beginning.
BOTTOM LINE: A good story told in an unconventional fashion.

I've never quite has a reading experience like the one I had with The Crystal Cosmos, a novella written by Rhys Hughes. It is simultaneously high-concept, bizarre, wonderful and a little frustrating. There were times when I was confused and times when I was enraptured; there were times when I thought it was hardly worth continuing and times I thought it was pure genius. It's a strange dichotomy that I still can't quite resolve. I ultimately liked it - and as I mull the story over I like it more and more - but it's one of those things that I would have to read again to fully appreciate.

The story concerns the discovery of a planet-sized black diamond by a scheming-but-charismatic ship captain named Terence Cankar. To legally lay claim to the giant gem, he brings along a member of the Trust, an opposing political faction. Enter Saphho Ritsos, the Trust operative who, based on her namesake, is intended to be insusceptible to Cankar's irresistible manly charms - the result of him producing "eleven times as many pheromones as ordinary males." Their trip to the crystal leads to the discovery that the diamond is actually hollow and harbors an alternate Earth.

Meanwhile, in the ancient Greek setting that we learn early-on exists inside the diamond, a simple goatherd named Daphnis is charged with heresy. He believes that the world was created through intelligent design and not through randomness, as dictated by the philosophers who run his society. While dealing with his troubles, we also meet Anthia, the girlfriend of Daphnis who will do just about anything to further her acting career; and Gnathon, an animated man made of bronze who hints at knowing the true nature of things.

It's late in the story before these two story lines intersect, as we know they inevitably will. In the meantime, the reader is subjected to an eclectic mix of science fictional concepts, philosophy, creation myth, and humor. This last one threw me a bit as I was not sure if this was meant to be a humorous sf story or a sf story with humor; the former aiming for comedy, the latter being sf that's occasionally funny. The initial effect was off-putting, like I was trying to hold something I couldn't quite get a handle on. Eventually I just went with flow and read it as a sf story, but just didn't take it too seriously. Perhaps it's because I struggled as I tried to put the odd-shaped pieces together that the first parts of the story tended to drag on a bit. (Is it a comedy? Is it space opera pastiche? Bah!) It wasn't until later on, when the story came into focus, that the value of the beginning exposition was seen, but those parts were nonetheless a bit frustrating to wade through.

One really cool sf-nal aspect of the story was the use of alternate universes to travel vast distances, thus bypassing the thorny problem of space travel. (Or as Hughes puts it: "The problem of crossing interstellar distances had occupied so many scientists for so long that a proposed documentary of their achievements was abandoned as too costly.) Traveling, then, consists of a ship sitting in a hangar somewhere while it navigates through the "altwhere." The catch here is travel to these other realities may alter things in various ways: a traveler might simply lose some memories, gain some new ones, or altogether cease to exist. Or a person may be transformed into something else entirely, like the unfortunate head chef who was transformed into a radiator. Oh, and furniture has a problem traveling the lateral universes. (This was around the point I learned to stop taking it seriously.) Another side effect could be that laws of the physics might be different from our own, which is the case here. Daphnis learns, for example, that gravity is not a constant; a discovery that falls on the deaf ears of the town's humorously oblivious - but ill-humored philosophers.

By the end of the story - when all the weird-shaped pieces finally started falling into place - I could finally see the big picture. To be sure, Hughes had taken me to a good destination; it's just that he took a bumpy road to get there.

Note: A book's introduction is usually not worth mentioning, yet I must make note of Michael Bishop's lengthy introduction to the novella. The intro itself is a kooky piece of meta-fiction concerning Bishop's and Hughes's adventure to find a lost a perfume mogul. (A little Googling reveals this to be an unplanned entry into Hughes's proposed 1,000-story project.) This piece of bizarreness, which was as unconventional The Crystal Cosmos, should have prepared me for what was to come, but I simply ignored the road sign.

Posted by John at 1:02 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Interesting blend of secret history and faery, packed with intrigue.

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: In Elizabethan England, the Queen's spy master begins to suspect that an outside player is meddling in court politics. It's up to a young courtier and a disgraced fae to untangle the knots binding human and fae courts together.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: This is a unique blending of faery court intrigue with secret history, told with language that evokes the historical era without being difficult.
CONS: Sometimes the answers come too easily to the characters.
BOTTOM LINE: An excellent story full of political machinations and historical accuracy.

To win her throne, Elizabeth had some help overcoming the forces that supported her sister, Queen Mary. Specifically, she entered into a contract with Invidiana, who sought to become Queen of all the faery of England. Together, they both established their courts in London, and settled into their thrones. Elizabeth, of course, became one of England's best rulers. Invidiana, on the other hand, was a cruel and capricious monarch, passing out 'amusing' punishments to courtiers on a whim.

The action of the novel picks up in 1588, after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Deven is a young man who has just been admitted to the ranks of Her Majesty's Gentleman Pensioners, who, along with trying to advance themselves, act as her bodyguards. His fortunes are rising, and he finds a patron in Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's famous spy master. It is Walsingham who begins to suspect outside forces at work on the Queen, and he orders Deven to investigate.

At the Onyx Court of Invidiana, Lune is a fae whose star is fading. She conducted the negotiations with the sea faery to have them intercede against the Spanish Armada on England's behalf. However, Invidiana is not happy with the price Lune agreed to. The Queen has made clear that Lune will not receive her protection as other courtiers seek to back stab their way into higher positions. Lune is ordered to investigate Walsingham, during which assignment she meets Deven, but even that goes awry and she is reduced to huddling in hidden caves in the underground palace that Invidiana has created under London.

When Walsingham dies, Deven is left without a clear patron, but he seeks to fulfill the trust that the old man placed in him. It will be up to Deven and Lune to restore the natural order of things, and to free Elizabeth from the influence of Invidiana. To do so, they must contend not only with human/fae relations, but also with international diplomacy, Catholic/Protestant tensions, and alchemists.

From the nature of the story, it should be clear that it involves less overt fighting and more skulking. Plotting and scheming are the rule of the day, and Brennan's writing makes it mercifully easy to follow the characters and their different agendas. It all leads up to a very satisfying epic battle set piece, as different factions of the fae converge on London to duke it out.

Two particular aspects of the storytelling make this particularly enjoyable. Brennan's prose style is perfectly suited to the tale she wants to tell. Her language has a slightly archaic feel to it, reminding us that these are historical characters, not modern guys plopped down in a historical setting. However, she never takes that too far--the writing is always easy to read and flows with a good rhythm.

The other nice thing is the way she sets constraints on the power of the fae. This can be a tricky business: unchecked fae magic would become a deus ex machina, but too fettered and the threat they pose would seem insignificant. One way Brennan handles this is to limit the extent to which the fae can affect human realms. Any signal of strong Christian faith (speaking God's name, the ringing of church bells, etc.) will cause fae magic to dissipate unless they have arranged protection. This protection comes in the form of eating human bread that has been specifically offered to the faeries, much as people used to leave milk and biscuits out for the "little people." Of course, with all the religious fervor flowing around England at the time, both Protestant and Catholic, these offerings are becoming more rare. One way that Invidiana shows her favor and controls her people is by rationing out these morsels of bread to her favorites.

This book is a fast, enjoyable read. It does not require knowledge of a lot of historical minutia in order to enjoy the story, and the intrigue between and within the fae and human worlds is interesting, if sometimes a little simplistic. To keep everything moving apace, sometimes the characters get off a little too lightly, or find the answers a little too easily. Occasionally it feels a little fluffy, but that's a minor quibble. It makes for a fast-paced story, which can be difficult to pull off with court politics.

Posted by Karen at 1:29 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

The April 2008 issue of Jim Baen's Universe (Issue #12, also known as Volume 2, Number 6) closes out their second year of publication with 12 pieces of short fiction and a handful of articles. Eleven of those stories are reviewed below. I did not partake of "Fish Story," a serial that is now in its twelfth part, but the stories I did read made for another good issue. Particular standouts in this issue are "Manumission" by Tobias S. Buckell and "Honorable Enemies" by Mike Resnick. Both stories take place in worlds I've visited before, and it was fun to return to them again.

Before I get to the reviews, a few words about the magazine itself. I've been reading this bi-monthly magazine for the past year, missing only one of those issues due to time constraints. On the whole, it's been a very positive experience. Being electronic, I can access it from anywhere. The multiple formats make it easy to read on a PC or handheld device. The caliber of talent they get is consistently impressive making each magazine worthy of the price of admission. They also showcase new talent besides seasoned authors making it an attractive venue for writers in any stage of their careers. They also offer a decent mix of science fiction and fantasy and, although the fantasy stories are less suited to my particular sf-leaning tastes, I must admit that some of them impressed me quite a bit. The worst thing I can say about Jim Baen's Universe is that the artwork is a bit amateur for a professionally published magazine. One could successfully argue that their budget is being spent on high-quality fiction instead of the visuals and that the magazine is better for it. You'll get no argument from me. If I had to choose, I'll choose the better fiction every time.

Speaking of which, individual story/article reviews follow...

"Manumission" by Tobias S. Buckell follows the story of Pepper, a mysterious operative who is indentured to a powerful Earth corporation. Pepper's assignments deal with recapturing corporate runaways, at least until he can earn enough money to buy back his freedom and the memories that the corporation stole from him. His latest assignment, a woman who is close to leaving Earth on the next shuttle, is a high-profile case that will change his life. Buckell's presentation is that of a gripping, high-tech spy story complete with gadgets and double-crosses. It serves up some nice action, too. Readers of Buckell's novels (Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin) will find an extra level of enjoyment here (I know I did) since Pepper is featured prominently in those longer works. It was great getting some of Pepper's back story, but thanks to his memory loss, he still remains a mystery. More, please.

Jody Lynn Nye's story "Virtually, A Cat" is about a cat-lover on a long mission in space who misses his cats terribly. (Apparently, it was a surprise to him that pets are not allowed on space flights. Not the brightest astronauts, are they?) He starts getting a little stir crazy, so his colleague devises a programmable suit through which he can feel the presence of a virtual cat, albeit one he cannot see. This works great for him until the mission calls for all available computer memory and his newfound pet, who lives in the computer, is in danger. Ho hum. Though well written in terms of clarity, this unfortunately reads like nothing more than a human interest story.

Jack McDevitt's short story "Indomitable" follows a boy and his father as they tour a space museum in a future Calgary. Sadly, there is little story here, only the germ of one - and that is that mankind has found enough new worlds on which to spread so as to make space travel unnecessary. This is an interesting idea, to be sure, but not explored to any significant length to be taken seriously.

Mike Resnick's hardboiled detective Jake Masters is back in "Honorable Enemies". Masters was last seen in "Guardian Angel" (from Down These Dark Spaceways) and "A Locked-Planet Mystery" (from Alien Crimes), and this story is just as wonderful. Here, Masters is looking for the person - or alien - that killed his partner. He has few clues, but his believable, deductive reasoning leads him where he needs to go. As before, the story is loaded with aliens aplenty and the characters in general run from honorable to shady. The alien crime lord ("George" for short) is interesting in that he upholds honor before all else. The noir setting is pitch-perfect (as are the tone and dialogue) and the mystery is sound. I would have loved to see Masters resolve the situation more directly, rather than others acting on the information he provided them, but when all is said and done, this story was a joy to read.

Sarah A. Hoyt's "Scraps of Fog" is a mild, modern-day fantasy about Sandra, a woman with an imperfect life. She's engaged to a man she doesn't quite love; she works as a police officer in a station with overprotective coworkers; and her family has died off or been scattered to the four corners of the Earth. Sarah meets a man claiming to be the long-dead King Sebastian who, according to legend, would return on a white horse to "mend all wrongs and set every maiden free." While there's never any question that Sebastian, who comes into Sarah's life as a police assignment, will set his sights on healing Sandra's pain in this otherwise uneventful story, Hoyt's writing style is engaging and shows clear talent.

"The Witch of Waxahachie" is a quick-moving parallel world story by Lou Antonelli. A group of Texans accidentally open a portal to a parallel world that fostered magic instead of technology around the time of the Industrial Revolution. There's not much more than that basic plot nor does there need to be. Well, maybe more characterization would have been welcome. In the end, the story makes for an interesting sf/fantasy hybrid that nicely avoids my usual indifference towards fantasy and makes for a fun read.

"Knight of Coins" by Margaret Ronald follows supernatural detective Genevieve Scelan on her latest case: to search for a trio of ancient tarot cards (one of which is the Knight of Coins) that could have disastrous effects for her client, Mr. Sforza. Genevieve's main sleuthing consists of a keen sense of smell which she uses to sniff out the trail of the missing cards. No, really. When considered as a pure detective story, that keen sense of smell comes off as a crutch for real detective work. The mystery and background of the cards is decent, but there is perhaps a bit too much unexplained magic here to suit my particular taste.

Jack Williamson's classic 1934 novella, "Born of the Sun," is an end-of-the-world story that is, contradictorily, set on a small stage. The cast of main characters consists of 3 people: scientist Foster Ross, who is on the verge of creating (singlehandedly) a rocket engine; his fiancée June Trevor; and Foster's scientist uncle, Barron Kane, who brings word of the end of the world. Kane has been living among a fanatical religious secret sect known as the Cult of the Great Egg, led by the powerful L'ao Ku. Kane's conjecture about the true nature of the Earth is verified by the cult, so he escapes to warn his nephew, Foster, of the approaching apocalypse. Foster's experiments with his cutting edge "motor-tube" may be the only salvation for humankind. And as if that weren't enough, L'ao Ku has sent men to kill the heretics who do not willingly accept the destiny of their twisted faith. Being written in a pre-spaceflight 1934, undoubtedly some will find the science here to be way off base. To me, this is the charm of classic science fiction: to see how people of the past envisioned the future. And this story has all the charm of a classic read. It's got the cataclysmic demise of the planet, a lone hero who could save the day, an outside force trying to stop them, and - above all else - a central science fictional idea that about the nature of the solar system that is pure wonder. This is the stuff that classic science fiction is made of.

Edward M. Lerner's time-travel serial, "Countdown to Armageddon," now up to episode 4, sees our time-misplaced heroes (scientist Harry Bowen and ex-Interpol agent Terrence Ambling) captured by the terrorist from their own time, Abdul Faisel. Faisel has traveled back to 720 A.D. to change the outcome of the Battle of Tours so the Islamic forces emerge victorious over the Christians. Here we get to see a little bit of Faisel's evilness in action. I still like this serial - it moves quickly, is entertaining, doesn't take itself too seriously and is written with a sure hand. (It would be helpful, I think, if each episode was prefaced with a short summary of all that has come before. I have my reviews to look back to; how do other readers keep track of what's happening between issues?)

Lucy Bond's "Red Tape and Cold Iron, or A Proposal for the Reintroduction of the Faery Folk to the United Kingdom" offers exactly what the title advertises: a matter-of-fact recounting of how a folklorist, working under the auspices of a rather-not-know politician, undertook her own agenda to rid the world of slackers and miscreants by policing England with faery folk. It's a light take on an interesting premise, and Bond's prose, lacking any dialog, certainly reads like a proposal - albeit one that is more fun to read.

The plot for R. J. Ortega's "Extreme Reservations" is relatively simplistic, but nonetheless fun. A couple inherits a riverboat bar that's in financial trouble and they look hopefully forward to an upcoming soirée only to discover that the guests are living, breathing characters from legend and fiction. The fun here is in trying to surmise the guest list from their short descriptions. I didn't get them all (and was thankful for the Flying Dutchman freebie), but it was fun trying to guess.

Posted by John at 12:33 PM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:
In Mainspring (SF Signal review), author Jay Lake created one of the more imaginative alternate Earth settings you'll find. One where Earth is literally a cog in the cosmic wheel, and evidence of God's existence is irrefutable. Lake returns to his world in the not-really-a-sequel novel, Escapement. This time, we get to visit more of the clockwork Earth and we find it's filled with enough interesting and stimulating wonders for several books, let alone one. Escapement isn't a direct sequel to Mainspring, you don't need to know the events from the first book (although they are alluded to in the text) to enjoy Escapement, but it's clear that this book is part of a large series. And as such, it's one of the few 'second-in-the-series' novels that not only are as good as the first, but better.

Where Mainspring was the story of one man's journey to fix the mainspring of Earth, Escapement concerns itself with three main characters. Paolina Barthes is a young woman who has lived her life on the Wall, the giant gear circling the Earth at the equator that conncts to the orbital track around the Sun. She is possesed of a once-in-a-lifetime intellect and creates a 'gleam' (think pocketwatch) that possess mystical powers. Threadgill Angus al-Wazir is a part Scottish, part Arabian airman of the Royal Navy who has been dispatched to help manage a project of epic proportions: to bore a tunnel through the Wall and reach the Southern Hemisphere. Librarian Emily Childress, briefly encountered in Mainspring, is being called to task for her part in the events that transpired in the previous novel. Along the way, she will end up much more than a mere librarian as she ends up playing a part in the search for the 'Golden Bridge' the Chinese are looking for to cross the Wall.

The best element of Escapement is the world Lake has built. We saw quite a bit of it in Mainspring, but only what the protagonist, Hethor, say. Here, with three, sometimes intertwining storylines, Lake has the opprtunity to explore much more of his creation, and does so. We get to see so many cool things: mechanical brass men, Chinese submarines, 'subways' deep inside the Wall, and a lot of other cool ideas. Escapement is worth the price just for the worldbuilding alone. Add in an interesting story and characters, and you have one of the best books of the year. If I had a Hugo nomination, this would be on it.

The story is told from the three points of view as mentioned above, with Paolina's story the main one. She has created the 'gleam', whose hands measure the beats of creation, the beating of her heart, the turning of the Earth, and the last to measure whatever she tunes it to. It is this last setting that shows Paolina is endowed with mystical, even Divine, power, as she can tune this last hand to whatever she wishes to have happen. She uses this sparingly, but to great effect throughout the story. Along the way she leaves her home on the Wall in an attempt to reach the 'wizards' in England who may be able to help her. She ends up where she least expects, after having many interesting encounters. Threadgil's story is also quite interesting. He has been asked to help the project in Africa that is attempting to bore a hole through the Wall. He must manage not only the logistics of the project, but also the security, as the 'dig' is often under attack by the denizens of the wall. After a particularly nasty attack, he finds himself in the compay of Paolina, and becomes her de facto guardian. Emily's story is the most self-contained, not merging with the other two until the end. Her's is a tale of secret societies, international espionage and betrayal. Events conspire to force her to play the part of a higher up in her secret organization, the ave bianco. She becomes friends with the captain of a Chinese submarine and helps decide the fate of the 'golden bridge' Chinese scholars are attempting to find.

Quite a bit of ground is covered in Escapement, but nothing feels rushed. However, because the story moves briskly, many of the wonders we encounter are left behind without a more in-depth study. This is a minor issue I had with the book. There is so many cool ideas present, I'd really like to learn more about them, particularly those pertaining to the Wall and the civilizations that have grown up on it. There's a fascinating history to be learned here, and I wish we were given more. The other minor issue? A cliffhanger ending. Sadly, the story had to end somewhere. Luckily there is more to come.

I hesitate to call this next item an 'issue'. A couple of times things seem to happen because the story demands it, one or two at the behest of Paolina's super power. However, I think the hint of deus ex machina is deliberate and I'm guessing that God is, indeed, intervening in events for an, as yet, unexplained purpose. I'm guessing He is forcing events along not only in this book, but in Mainspring as well. I'm guessing we'll learn more the plan in the next book.

Escapement is a worthy successor to Mainspring. If you haven't read either, I highly recommend you do so. You won't find a more unique steam/clockpunk setting. Both books are well worth the effort.

Posted by JP at 2:28 AM | Discussion (4) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:
Before They Are Hanged is the second installment in The First Law trilogy and it takes place directly after the events in the first book, The Blade Itself. What Before The Are Hanged doesn't do is succumb to the 'middle of the series' syndrome as many second books seem to do. In fact, Before They Are Hanged is an even better book than the first.

Everything that was good in the first book (excellent story, fast-paced action, interesting characters) is honed to a fine edge here. All the characters from the first are back and Before They Are Hanged wastes little time getting on with their stories. The most interesting person is still Inquisitor Sand dan Glokta, who has been given the task of defending the city of Dagoska from the encroaching northmen and from the traitors within who would help over throw the city. Glokta, as an Inquisitor, is at times brutal, ruthless and unmerciful. However, Abercrombie manages to portray him as a person worthy of sympathy despite the heinous things he does. It would be very easy to cast dan Glokta as a stereotypical Inquisitor, that Abercrombie chose to create such a complex, believable character is quite an achievement.

All the other characters are back as well, as the Magi Bayaz leads his party northwards in search of the 'seed' that can help defend the Union against it's enemies, both human and otherwise. Along the way, we see the magic power Bayaz can command, but also the terrible cost he must endure, which helps explain why magic, particularly the strong kind, is not prevalent in the story. Accompanying Bayaz is the barbarian Ninefingers, the enigmatic Ferro whose bloodline is key to the success of the mission, and Jezal, the pampered, privileged swordsman who doesn't want any part of the quest, but is going along anyway. The interplay between these characters is quite interesting, as the encounters they have are both bloody and life changing. Abercrombie shows the characters changing as a natural result of events, which isn't necessarily easy. The quest itself takes them to some interesting places, which I'd really like to learn more about, and I hope we do in the next volume.

The last major character is Colonel West, who has been dispatched to protect Prince Ladislaw as he and his sycophants have been tasked with protecting the Union army's southern flank against attack. In truth, Ladislaw has been placed 'out of harms way' in an effort to keep him from disrupting the operation of the army. However, things don't go as planned. And when the balloon bursts, you'd swear you were reading a George R. R. Martin story. Abercrombie isn't above killing off major characters if the story dictates, which it does. West's story line is jam packed with action, both on large army vs. army scale to more personal one-on-one fights. In every case, Abercrombie writes a mean fight scene that doesn't lag and has the right mix of violence and blood with being excessive.

One thing you'll notice is that the backstory for these novels, the 'history' of the land, is not that detailed. You get the feeling that, while there are stories to tell, they aren't hiding out under every rock, as in Erikson's Malazan novels. This gives The First Law books a feeling of leanness that lends itself well to not only telling an action filled story, but to focusing on the characters and their stories without being burdened by explaining everything that has happened hundreds, or thousands, of years in the past. It's a sparse canvas, with just enough history to make current events believable, and one that lets the characters take center stage.

About the only thing I can ding this book on, and it's somewhat minor, is that there is one event that takes place in Glokta's story that smacked of unbelievability. How Glokta manages to raise the funds needed to pay for repairs to the city's defenses and to pay off mercenaries and such came out of left field and seemed to be the plot dictating the outcome. I realize that what happened is probably the setup for a payoff in the last book, but it still didn't sit well with me.

I'm not usually a fantasy fan, but Before They Are Hanged is one of the rare books that I didn't want to put down and pulled out to read whenever I could. It's certainly a worth addition to the series and if you like great stories, fantasy or otherwise, pick up this book and the first if you haven't already.

Posted by JP at 1:18 PM | Discussion (5) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Cute, but dark, monster stories for kids.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A collection of the first three stories of Sfar's Little Vampire graphic novels.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Fun stories with light-handed lessons for kids; cute characters.
CONS: An odd combination of serious/dark subject matter and poop jokes.
BOTTOM LINE: A fun read for adults and a fun-but-semi-serious read for kids.

Joanne Sfar's graphic novel Little Vampire is a collection of the first three stories featuring a child vampire and his human friend, Michael.

In "Little Vampire Goes to School," we meet Little Vampire who tells his family, a collection of loving and protective monsters that live in an otherwise deserted mansion, that he wants to go to school because he's lonely. Since vampires can only be out at night, the school is empty and so his experience is less than he hoped. He does, however, send notes to a "classmate" named Michael, an orphan he eventually meets and with whom he becomes fiends. Perhaps it's because of the basic human need for contact that the innocent Little Vampire is almost immediately endearing. It's also neat to discover his world: the monsters that live in the mansion and inside its paintings; his smack-talking, red dog Phantomato; the back story of Little Vampire's mother and the ghost captain; and the comic relief of a trio of monsters. There's even a lesson about responsibility to be learned.

In "Little Vampire Does Kung Fu," Michael gets beaten up at school and wants his monster friends to kill the bully. Instead, the ghost Captain sends Michael to learn Kung Fu. The story takes a surprisingly dark turn once he does - surprising in that I wouldn't expect it to be included in a story aimed at young kids. Still, the overall story was entertaining and delivered another positive message in the end.

In "Little Vampire and the Canine Defenders Club," Michael and his vampire friend meet up with a trio of dogs who escaped from an experimentation lab. The men from the lab track the dogs to the mansion and take them back to the lab, and Little Vampire and Michael try to rescue them. This was another fun story, but with a bittersweet ending.

The plots are really a little more complex and meatier than I've described above. The subject matter is simultaneously light (one character has a penchant for poop) and serious (Michael is an orphan, for example), making an odd combination considering the target audience. On the one hand, you have young characters in situations that are refreshingly apropos for kids: school bullies, homework troubles, loneliness, etc. On the other hand, some of the events (wishing a kid to be dead, armed B&E) seem too dark for really young readers. (Perhaps my overprotective parent mode is working overtime - I decided to let my daughter have a go at these and she loved it.) Taken together, these stories flesh out a highly imaginative world. Sfar's drawings are detailed and eye-catching and the coloring added to them is as dreary as they should be for a world of monsters, ghosts and vampires.

Posted by John at 12:22 PM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:
For better or worse, I have an aversion to reading media tie-in novels. I think it stems from the many mediocre Star Trek books I read as a kid, so when the good folks over at The Black Library sent us a bunch of novels, all based either the Warhammer or Warhammer 40000 miniatures table-top games, I was leery about digging in. However, our own Tim has raved about how good author Dan Abnett's Horus Heresy novels are and then Chris Roberson named him one of his underrated authors. I looked at our stash and picked out the first book in the Ravenor series, entitled, appropriately enough, Ravenor. I'm glad I did.

The first thing you notice is the setting. Ravenor is set in the Warhammer 40000 universe. Warhammer 40k has been going strong for decades and, as such, there is a huge amount of backstory and history to the setting, much of it written by Abnett himself. As a result, you can't help but feel the depth and breadth of the universe Ravenor takes place in. It's a big, sprawling, Gothic-style universe, filled with high tech, SF goodness with a liberal dose of decay and squalor. There's also a fantastical element to the setting, which is touched on the book, that comes into play via Chaos, which is a parallel dimension, used for FTL travel, that is filled with creatures that are manifestations of human emotions. Abnett does a bang up job of detailing the various settings in the book and bringing the universe to life. It feels lived in, alive.

The story is about Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor and his team of operatives. The Imperial Inquisition is charged with finding and rooting out heresy against the God-Emperor of Man. Ravenor and his team have a very wide latitude when it comes to the actions they can take. This story is basically a special ops/wetwork style story, and not what you would normally think an inquisition style story might be about. Here, Ravenor and company are tasked with discovering and stopping the smuggling ring that is responsible for distributing a new, highly destructive substance called 'flects'. These 'flects' aren't a drug, per se, but what they are ties back into the idea of Chaos rather neatly, and is the hook to get the team into all sorts of problems. If there's one thing Abnett does well, it's write a kick-butt action sequence, of which several are littered throughout the story, with the ending set piece particularly interesting. There's good deal of action, violence and bloodshed, but Abnett never crosses the line into gratuitousness. The investigative sections are a bit slower, but the entire book is filled with Abnett's appropriately descriptive prose that makes this book into an interesting SF novel, not just a media tie-in novel.

The issues I had are fairly minor, and some are a result of Ravenor being a sequel of sorts to the previous Eisenhorn stories. As such, most of the main characters are given short shrift development-wise. We aren't given much backstory on them, as that was covered in earlier works, and the bad guys are 'bad' because they story demands bad guys to fight against. Of course, they are interestingly bad so it's a minor quibble. Another issue I had was with the setting. Yes, it's vast and detailed, but as one not familiar with the Warhammer 40k setting, there are things mentioned that fans of the universe would probably know but first time readers wouldn't. Things like various military groups, the political power structure, the various alien races, and such. Again, not a big deal as they don't play a big role, but there none the less.

The biggest issue I had was what I would call the 'miracle' escape. The characters would find themselves in seemingly impossible situations, only to escape because the story demands it. Deus ex machina, in other words. This is very apparent as the story rushes to its climax with the various characters strung out and encountering their own difficulties. The resolution contained a couple of improbably events that didn't sit well with me. And, of course, the book ends with you knowing there is a sequel, or two, in the offing. Which there are.

I'm glad I picked this novel up. I found much more than a mediocre media tie-in novel. I found a book that I enjoyed quite a bit and I think any SF fan would like, especially if you like psuedo-military SF with an emphasis on skullduggery and special operations. And if that gets you interested in the game, then it's really done it's job.

Posted by JP at 12:13 PM | Discussion (4) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Another fun action novel from Somers albeit with a less sympathetic character.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Hitman Avery Cates searches for the people who infected him with a nanotech plague that threatens to kill the world's population.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Fast-paced story with cool tech; well-written action scenes that drive the plot forward with perfect pacing.
CONS: The Avery Cates character comes off as a watered-down version of the one we saw in the previous book; a tacked-on plot hook would have made a great motivator for Cates had it been brought up earlier.
BOTTOM LINE: This will satisfy readers looking for a fast-paced action story.

Last year, Jeff Somers wowed me with The Electric Church, a gritty, noir-ish action-fest that featured hired killer Avery Cates doing his best Rambo impersonation while he and his team went up against brain-stealing cyborgs. Now Avery Cates is back in The Digital Plague. This time around, Cates is caught by an unknown enemy and injected with a highly contagious nanotech virus that causes infected people to die gruesomely within a couple of days - except Cates, of course. His nano-bugs are inert. Cates is just a carrier, meant to be the vehicle of destruction for the rest of the world. In The Digital Plague, Avery sets out to find out who did it to him and why.

With respect to writing style, there's fortunately not much difference between The Electric Church and The Digital Plague. Somers lines up one intense action scene after another, a relentless volley of hand-to-hand combat scenes and gunfights. Once more his pacing is perfect (which is to say relentless and fast) and every scene draws the story one step closer to its conclusion.

Some old characters return and readers get to meet some new ones, including a small team of infected System Security Force agents - the police who would love to see cop-killer Cates dead. In a sort of tension-filled symbiosis, Cates and the SST cops, forced to go rogue to protect their own lives, partner up with Cates so they are within range of his virus nullification field. Needless to say, tensions are running high in that little band, but that turns out to be a good source of dramatic conflict. From this perspective, The Digital Plague thankfully offers more of the same as the previous novel and fans won't be disappointed.

The character of Cates, though, is a slightly different matter. In the previous novel, Cates was supposed to be the good guy even though he was a cold-blooded killer. That (mostly) worked for two reasons. First, Cates was calling the shots; he was directing the action towards its bloody stand-off ending. Second, Cates was up against a greater evil that made him seem nice by comparison. In The Digital Plague, Cates isn't driving the action as much as events are making him react. Instead of a man of action, Cates comes off like a man of reaction. Furthermore, Cates seems to feel remorse more often than before over the lives he has (indirectly) extinguished. Thus his tough, killer persona - and the character overall - is weakened, or at least less sympathetic. I'm still not buying Cates' "killer with a heart of gold" shtick, but at least before I could forgive the infraction because Cates was kicking ass and taking names. Here, he's getting his ass kicked and looking for names.

Like the previous novel's "brain-stealing cyborg" plot hook, The Digital Plague also has a really cool hook - one I cannot divulge without spoilers. Sadly, this cool hook is tacked on at the end. Too bad...it would have been an even greater motive for Cates to get the job done with the motivation he had before. Maybe that angle will be played up in the next installment.

All that said, one does not enter into what is clearly an action/adventure story looking for deep, meaningful Oprah moments. Despite the weakened characterization of Cates and the tacked-on plot hook, it's the action that successfully carries the book. The Digital Plague won't disappoint anyone who's looking for a fast-paced and fun action story.

(Note: For more fun, check out the web site Somers and his publisher Orbit have set up to support the book.)

Posted by John at 12:28 AM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

I've been reviewing the Hugo and Nebula short fiction nominees for a few years now. (See: Reviews of Hugo Award short fiction nominees for 2006 and 2007; and reviews of Nebula Award short fiction nominees for and 2005, 2006, and 2007.) The recent trend of making award-nominated short fiction available for free online reading makes it easy. In most cases, that is. I have little use for PDF and proprietary formats. Even so, thanks go out to the publishers and other folks who make this possible.

Historically, these reading projects involving award-nominated fiction, while enjoyable overall, usually lead me to a few stories that aren't to my particular tastes. However, this year's Hugo ballot has a significantly larger number of stories that I found to be quite good. The short stories were particularly strong, offering perfect, bite-size portions of that single conceit that makes short fiction fun. Perhaps the high quality of the nominees is bolstered by the small number of them that are considered fantasy, a genre I meet with seemingly variable success. Whatever the reason, this year's Hugo (and Nebula) short fiction award ballot offers a strong set of stories.

Here is a summary of the ratings each story received, reviewlettes follow:

NOVELLAS
"Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard
"Recovering Apollo 8" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"The Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress
"Memorare" by Gene Wolfe
"All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis

NOVELETTES
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
"Finisterra" by David Moles
"The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham
"Glory" by Greg Egan
"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan

SHORT STORIES
"Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter
"Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's June 2007)
"Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick
"A Small Room in Koboldtown" by Michael Swanwick
"Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken MacLeod

NOVELLAS

[The following story was originally reviewed as part of the 2007 Nebula Awards reading project.] A fine example of how science fiction can be Literary can be found in "Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard, though you wouldn't know this was anything other than mainstream fiction until halfway through the story, and even then in a downplayed manner. Seen through the eyes of its narrator, Vernon, comes a story of how a small Pennsylvania town named Black William experienced an artificial culmination of creativity and genius. Vernon is a small-time record producer who, for his part in the rapture, finds renewed love with his ex-wife Andrea. His latest project is a surprising new musical talent: a twentysomething named Joe Stanky whose predilection for sexual perversion needs to be kept in check lest it foul up the music career that Vernon is trying to launch for him. It eventually becomes evident that something is amiss with the townsfolk as people experience bursts of one emotion or other; an occurrence that coincides with the appearance of strange stars that appear out of nowhere only to disappear once again. This is an oddity which dates back in the town's history to the days of its nogoodnick founder. As interesting as this alien harvest was, Shepard chooses to focus on the people and it works. Through detailed characterizations we see a range of human relationships and feelings that are no less captivating than the science fiction that loiters in the background. Like in his story "The Arcevoalo", Shepard makes lyrical prose look easy: conveying multitudes of depth and insight with few words; creating a quiet story with serious implications; and writing a fascinating story without the easy trappings of science fiction. Well done.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch's novella, "Recovering Apollo 8," is ultimately a story about one man's hope. In this case, it's the hope of recovering the Apollo 8 capsule which, in this version of history, never returned home after its launch in December 1968. Richard Johansenn was a child then and the launch filled him with wide-eyed wonder. The recovery of Apollo 8 became a lifelong obsession of his, superseding anything else in his life. This story recounts his efforts to locate the capsule, a goal that has driven him to become the world's first billionaire, amassing the resources one would need to embark on such a complex undertaking. (There's more that happens, but talking about it would be to give away some surprises.) Although Richard's story is a personal one, the author infuses it with the awe that one gets when thinking about space travel. You feel like you are there and are filled with the same sense of wonder that Richard has as a youth. Despite a final plot point that was distractingly too coincidental, this story captures your attention and holds it throughout.

[The following story was originally reviewed as part of the 2007 Nebula Awards reading project.] The setting of "Fountain of Age" reminded me at times of another Nancy Kress story I read recently: "Inertia", published in John Joseph Adams's Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse anthology. Both stories are set in a near-future world plagued by social unrest and environmental issues, with people huddled under domes. And both stories offer a rich backdrop to tell a story. Here we meet elderly protagonist, Max Feder, a resident in an assisted living facility - but don't expect a story involving some lovable old codger; Max is a shameless crook. He made his fortune from insider information and shady dealings. He's even been in jail and is consistently hounded by the feds. The thrust of the story is Max's desire to once again see Daria, the woman he met during the war and with whom he fell in love. The story jumps to different points in Max's life until we get the whole picture: his strained relationship with his wife and son; his dangerous business relationship with Stevan, a shady gypsy who will one day get a visit from Max looking for secret passage to the rejuvenation satellite where Daria lives; and how Max unexpectedly found Daria after so many years apart. The one thing that kept me from enjoying this story to its fullest was Max's negative reactions when meting Daria after longing after her for so many years. I would have expected him to be overjoyed. Even so, there is plenty of richness in the setting and plot to maintain a hugely enjoyable reading experience.

[The following story was originally reviewed as part of the 2007 Nebula Awards reading project.] Gene Wolfe's "Memorare" is an incredibly textured and involved story. March Wildspring is making a documentary about the asteroid memorials littering space and which pay tribute to those who died there. Some sects believe that the souls of visitors who die on these memorials are sent to serve those who are to be remembered - so some of these memorials are often loaded with fatal traps to further that goal. (This has the same Big Dumb Object coolness factor of "Diamond Dogs" by Alastair Reynolds, and the opening scene of "Memorare" is correspondingly filled with Indiana Jones-like adventure. I would have loved to see more of that element.) March's ultimate goal is to document the biggest memorial of all, which he dubs Number Nineteen. He would love for his sometime flame, Kit Carleson, to narrate and, fortunately, he meets Kit near the memorials of Jupiter. But Kit has someone in tow - a woman from March's past named Robin. Furthermore, Robin is being pursued by her violent husband, Jim, who hopes to win back Robin's affections. As you can guess, there is plenty of human drama playing out alongside the memorial documentary thread. The early parts of the story expertly balanced the two storylines, each one engrossing enough to temporarily forget the other. The resulting narrative - though somewhat unnatural in the dialogue department with some questions seemingly left hanging - was simply excellent. Yet when the four central characters finally arrive on Number Nineteen, the story seems to lose some of its steam. Instead of some real dangers, there's a "what is reality?" vibe that permeates and interrupts the flow, taking away from the overall impact of the rich setting. The story is still very good overall, though, an impression that is solidified by some realistic characterizations and portrayals of love and uncertainty.

"All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis is a tongue-in-cheek Christmas story about the first visit of Aliens on Earth and our attempts to communicate with them. They sit motionless (and scowling) for months with no communication at all and eventually fall out of the public eye. By that time, the specialists assigned to work with them have succumbed to their intense scowling and quit the project. The narrator Margaret Yates (a columnist) is enlisted to help and a fateful trip to the mall during Christmastime finally yields results. The remainder of the story details the events if Margaret and Mr. Ledbetter (a choir teacher) to figure out exactly what the aliens respond to, which gives the author a chance to show off the results of an incredible knowledge (or exhaustive research) of Christmas song lyrics. The lighthearted tone and humor is effective - I loved the bit about Ledbetter's students constantly asking annoying questions at the worst moments - but the premise does perhaps drag on for a bit too long.

NOVELETTES

[The following story was originally reviewed as part of the 2007 Nebula Awards reading project.] Ted Chiang is often regarded as an excellent short story writer and with his wonderful story, "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," it's not difficult to see why. It's the story of a Baghdad merchant who learns of the existence of an amazing artifact: a gate that acts as a wormhole allowing time travel across the space of 20 years. Chiang, using a "stories within stories" approach, has the Alchemist who owns the gate teaching the merchant about the rules of time travel - all while being firmly planted in Arab culture and mores. The author also treats the theme of time travel head-on by using cool time convolutions that are integral to the story. Meticulously tight plotting, excellent storytelling and great uses of time travel mark this story as a winner.

"Finisterra" by David Moles takes place in the meticulously constructed world of Sky, which is populated by massive floating/flying creatures that are large enough to serve as island homes for the thousands of humans and aliens that live upon them. (These finned creatures are so big that they have forests and mountains that sit atop their flesh.) Such detailed worldbuilding, which is both foreign and wondrous at the same time, reminds me of Frank Herbert's Dune and Larry Niven's Ringworld. The core story concerns Bianca, an aeronautical engineer who takes a job with an illegal band of poachers bent on taking down the biggest creature of all: Finsterra. Bianca wrestles with the consequences of her actions and things come to a nicely done dramatic finish.

Like its title suggests, Daniel Abraham's "The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" reads like a fairy tale. (And despite having "economics" in the title, this is far from a bore-fest.) The story is a series of encounters between the selfish Lord Iron and the commoner Olaf, who toils at the postal authority exchanging currency. Olaf suffers the whims of Lord Iron who first threatens Olaf's job and then his life. Olaf puzzles through these challenges using his cambist skills - but are those skills enough to save him? The fun is in watching Olaf figure out how to beat Lord Iron at his own game. Lord Iron is immediately dislikable and Olaf is the underdog the reader will be rooting for. The ending might have been a bit predictable, but the ride was still fun.

"Glory" by Greg Egan starts with a head-expanding, hard-sf treatment of space travel, and then settles comfortably into a story about two visitors (Joan and Anne) to an alien planet interested in learning the advanced mathematics of an extinct race. Joan and Anne use technology that gives them the appearance of the natives, which allows each of them to contact one of two dominant species: the Ghahari and the Tiran, who are at war with each other. The story mainly follows Joan's interaction with the Ghahari, specifically acting as an archaeologist at the site of some buried stone tablets that (hopefully) detail the extinct aliens' answer to a unified theory of mathematics. The politics between the races proves a decent source of drama, but I have to admit that the ending lacked any of the spark promised by the slam-bang beginning.

In Greg Egan's high-concept story, "Dark Integers," a trio of mathematicians serves as our universe's only defense against beings in a parallel universe. The weapons at their (and our) disposal consists solely of mathematics; specifically computing certain high-order math that alters the boundary between worlds, affecting one side or the other in such a way that causes destruction and death. This is a mind-blowing concept that, unfortunately, never seems to achieve any believability because it is never explained exactly how a mere computer calculation can affect the real world. Maybe that explanation was giving in Egan's 1995 prequel, "Luminous," which I have not read? I must also note that the geeky likability of the main protagonist, Bruno, somewhat suffers when he leaves his in-the-dark wife stranded in the Australian desert when the mathematical shoe drops. But even so, there is some enjoyment to be derived here as our heroes (who enlist the aid of a fourth mathematician who stumbles upon their well-kept secret) surf the mathematical landscape of political confrontation: cards are played, an uneasy balance of power is trifled with, and things escalate with dramatic flair. All told, a good read.

SHORT STORIES

[The following story was originally reviewed in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction.] In "Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter, an astrophysicist and her mother wait for the end of the world. Pensive, creepy, frightening and sad are all words could be use to describe this well-written story. Caitlin is the astrophysicist who blames herself for the impending "Rip" that threatens the Earth, even though she was just the one to discover it. Maureen is her recently widowed mother who is partially coping by pretending life will go on, even though she's fully aware that this is the end. Knowing exactly when it is going to happen and being completely helpless about it throws a beautifully gloomy shadow over the story. Seeing society's behavior, which ranges from sheer panic to quiescence, is downright creepy. Well done.

"Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear could be considered a small-scale post-apocalyptic story -- there's no definite description, as such, but the clues are there -- and that serves as a great background for a personal story of a dying sentient machine named Chalcedony and a young boy named Belvedere. Chalcedony is a military machine that has lost her entire platoon during battle and who builds necklaces in their honor (hopefully before she expires) out of shipwreck leftovers. Her attachment to Belvedere (which can only be described as one of motherhood) is both believable and touching. Despite being a machine, Chalcedony is such a well-drawn character that I couldn't help but feel sadness as her condition worsened - a reaction that can only be attributed to Bear's superb storytelling skills. Well done.

In "Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick, widower Walter Silverman thinks he's losing his mind when he meets a woman who looks strikingly like his dead wife looked forty years before. The similarities don't end there - and there are some differences - but it's easy to see how Walter is smitten with her. Walter eventually looks for the reason for her appearance in his life and his answer gives this story its heart. Resnick's conversational writing is perfect for the personal nature of the plot and that helps make this story touching and memorable.

The world of Michael Swanwick's "A Small Room in Koboldtown" is strange indeed. It feels like our present day world but this one is populated by ghosts (also called haints, but derogatorily called spooks), trolls and other fantastical creatures. This plot involves a locked-room murder mystery that must be solved by our righteous, haint hero, Will le Fey. Will works for an alderman who wishes to prove the accused murderer's innocence because, hey, he's a voter. Along with his partner, Ghostface, Will sets out to solve the mystery via a series of formulaic leads. Despite its fantasy setting (a genre with which I have a love/hate relationship) this story was quite enjoyable. No wonder - it takes place in the same world as previous Swanwick stories like the superb "Lord Weary's Empire" and the also-excellent "King Dragon". Although this one didn't impress me as much as those, it's still a worthy addition to this setting.

Ken MacLeod's "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" was, in some respects, disappointing. It involves a man who, as penance for his adultery, agrees to "clean up" Wolf 359, a star system with a newly-discovered planet created as a social experiment that ultimately failed. (The political/economic lesson being that a government cannot be run like a corporation. Yawn.) I know the definition of space opera is both fluid and subjective, and, to be sure, this story does offer a grand scale of events (interstellar travel; terraforming; AI; post-humanism and singularities, which they call a "fast burn"), but this just felt less like the advertised space opera and more like a political/economics lesson - two of my least favorite things to find in science fiction.

Posted by John at 12:40 AM | Discussion (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A book about books for people who love books.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The patrons of an independent bookstore have been dropping dead, and it's up to a bookish detective and a bookseller to find out why.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Told with a delightful sense of humor, this story appeals to the bibliophile in all of us. (I'm looking at you, John!)
CONS: The story is so short that sometimes it seems a little rushed, especially in the romance department.
BOTTOM LINE: It's Umberto Eco for the rest of us.

We should all give PS Publishing a rousing vote of thanks for keeping the stories of Serbian writer Zoran Živković available for US audiences. Given that Mr. Živković is fluent in English and can assist with the translations, his books are some of the best foreign-language sf/f I've read so far. (Andreas Eschbach's The Carpet Makers is also in this category. Everyone should read it!) This is especially important, since Živković's books are filled with wry humor that a poor translation could easily ruin.

Although this short novel (less than 200 pages) is a murder mystery where it's always raining, it isn't at all dark and gloomy. I found myself laughing out loud, especially during the first half. The repartee establishing the nascent romance between the detective called in to solve the crimes and the co-owner of the bookstore in which they take place is particularly good. This exchange takes place right after the paramedics have removed the first victim:

"You have a nice bookstore. I would have preferred not to come on business."

"I'm afraid we don't have many books that would interest a police inspector. The books we sell are mostly serious literature."

"Then you sell what interests this police inspector."

"Really?"

"My degree is in literature."

"And you went to work for the police?"

"I went to work where there was a job. Being well-versed in literature wasn't a handicap. On the contrary, it's often helped me."

"Detective novels? But they aren't really serious literature."

"Would you call Crime and Punishment or The Name of the Rose light literature?"

"No, of course not. But I wouldn't categorize them with detective stories either."

"Nevertheless, they can be read like one."

"I suppose so. Let's not go into the complex issues of literature right now, it's not the right time. I'll be more than happy to exchange thoughts with you on such topics if you come another time. Unofficially."

It's nice to know that it's not only the American literati that are so opinionated about what constitutes "serious literature." The descriptions of the more eccentric bookstore patrons (or "patients") also have an amusing air of truth.

Inevitably, The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco's famous mystery about book-related deaths in a monastery in the 1300s, casts a long shadow over this story. Živković embraces the comparison, having several characters comment on it. It's that metaphysical aspect to the book, where the characters are as aware of their literary tradition as we are, that makes it so delightful.

As the deaths continue, the plot thickens. The detective and the book seller become more and more entangled. Terrorism is suspected and the Serbian equivalent of Homeland Security is called in. There is a secret society running around, bringing to mind comparisons with another famous Umberto Eco novel, Foucault's Pendulum. However, this plot remains luxuriously easy to follow, unlike that labyrinth of a novel (just the summary of its plot on Wikipedia runs to more than 1800 words).

Hints of the fantastic begin to surface as the detective starts having a feeling he labels "deja lu." He feels as if everything he does, says, and experiences has already been determined for him. It's as if he had read a book where all this already happened. I can't say any more without spoiling the story, but rest assured that this is a fantasy, no matter how light the "slipstream" elements are in the beginning.

As can be seen from the snippet above, this story is told largely in dialog, without any over-blown or particularly complex prose. It is very fast and easy to read, perfect for a rainy afternoon in a tea shop, perhaps, which is where the two protagonists spend much of their time. For anyone who enjoys books about books, and also short witty books by excellent writers, this will be one you shouldn't miss.

Posted by Karen at 12:28 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

To get a good sense of what Implied Spaces is about, I'll let the back cover blurb speak for itself instead of a psuedo-synopsis:

Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself. Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmesssa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

Sounds cool, right? And, for the most part it is.

I've had a hit and miss experience with Williams' works in the past. I remember Aristoi as being pretty good as was Angel Station, but I thought Dread Empire's Fall was just OK. Based on those previous experiences, I was tempering my expectations for Implied Spaces, in spite of the attractiveness of the back cover blurb. As it turns out, Implied Spaces turns out to be a terrifically fun read and, for the most part, lives up to the 'coolness' factor expressed in the blurb.

We get rolling with Aristide, as he is traveling through the vaguely Middle Eastern world of Midgarth. He is adventuring through the land with his 'magic' sword Tecmessa and his sarcastic talking cat Bitsy. You quickly realize that all is not as it seems, and not just because Bitsy talks. Things really get rolling as Aristide helps the people of a caravanserai attack a bandit stronghold that has been attacking trade caravans and taking prisoners for use in human sacrifices. As it turns out, the 'god', Venger, behind the bandit has much larger designs than just Midgarth. This sets up the conflict that permeates the rest of the novel.

Williams has created an interesting, post-human/post-singularity world, albeit one where 'true' A.I. hasn't occurred because all computers powerful enough to host an A.I. have 'Asimovian Protocols' in place to prevent them from evolving into sentience. But what we do get is a civilization that uses wormhole technology to create pocket universes for use by its citizens. The universes are akin to virtual worlds, and today's MMOs, and there are even a few nods to current gamer culture in the story. We also get the typical post-human tech with nanotechnology, mind-state backups, body creation/mutation (thus little 'real' death), Matrioshka computing platforms, and even a bit of space flight. All of this is detailed nicely within the story and it never seems that Williams is showing off, it all feels real within the story.

The story is an interesting one, detailing the conflict between super powerful entities, and moves at a brisk pace. In fact, Williams covers such sub-genre territory as the aforementioned adventure, a bit of military SF, some space opera (with weapons that would make E.E. Doc Smith proud), a bit of existential philosophy and even a zombie plague. However, this was the one drawback for me. Implied Spaces has a lot of good stuff going for it, it just changed tone too often and felt uneven. I really liked the opening section with it's humor and adventure aspects, which took a back seat in the rest of the book. I will say that 'Venger's' ultimate goal expands the scope of the book tremendously, and in a good way. It just feels so much 'bigger' than the rest of the story.

One other aspect of the book I have to mention: the cover. Dan dos Santos' painting perfectly captures the feel of the story, and it's juxtaposition of the ancient (swords) with the high tech (wormholes). I just really like the look presented and, had I discovered this book in the store, I would seriously consider walking out with it. Ok, not actually walking out, as that would be stealing. I mean buy the book. Based almost solely on the cover alone, that's how much I like it.

All in all, Implied Spaces is a darn fine SF book, filled with a ton of interesting SF-nal ideas. I can only hope that there is more stories to come in this universe.

Posted by JP at 12:28 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A great example of a "Young Adult" book that adults can thoroughly enjoy. Also serves as a great candidate to get teens hooked on science fiction.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Teenage hacker Marcus Yallow takes on the Department of Homeland Security after being falsely connected with a terrorist attack.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Gripping story; conveys the coolness of technology; thought-provoking issues about surveillance and freedom.
CONS: Story periodically stops for infodumps although, to be fair, they are necessary and entertaining.
BOTTOM LINE: A captivating book for readers of any age.

Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is being met with lots of praise, and I was curious to see if it was justified. I went in with a little skepticism, but I have to say, this book quickly won me over. What I find interesting, though not surprising, is that the book is being marketed as young adult fiction yet it is easily as entertaining for adults.

And why wouldn't it be marketed as YA? It features a young protagonist who meets with some serious rites of passage. Marcus Yallow is a tech-savvy teen who is engaged in the latest trendy game, one that combines computers and reality. (Marcus is known online as Winston, or W1n5t0n in leet speak.) While playing this game in the streets of San Francisco, terrorists attack the Bay Bridge and Marcus and his friends are quickly caught up in the net of a near-totalitarian Department of Homeland Security. The teens are imprisoned, treated like criminals, then eventually let go. Marcus takes it upon himself to take down the DHS using some quite enterprising uses of current and near-future technology.

It should be expected by this plot alone (and not just by Doctorow's activism) that the book will touch upon some political issues. This was my major reason for doubting the book's hype. Politics is a major sf story killer for me. But to his credit, Doctorow weaves a captivating story that raises serious political issues without hitting you over the head with the hammer of civil liberty. The issues of privacy and government control are main focal points of the book and are every bit as though-provoking as they should be. And the realistic portrayal of the obviously Orwellian surveillance society (hence the book's title) is well done.

The character of Marcus, meanwhile, goes on to become an online poster child for rebellion. But is Marcus really a hero? At first, Marcus's motive is to help his friend Daryl, who hasn't been seen since the attack and abduction. But eventually, the power Marcus wields seems to get the better of him when he seems to retaliate simply because he can. He also seems to be swayed at times by a love interest who also appears to enjoy the power, or at least being close to it. The important thing about Marcus' portrayal is that he stands up for his beliefs and that, I think, is a great message.

Politics aside, Doctorow also weaves in tons of present and near-future cool tech. He's on familiar ground, of course, and his passion is evident and even contagious. Doctorow never talks down to anyone who might not otherwise be familiar with technology. His no-nonsense descriptions of tech will be easy for even luddites to grasp. But that's also where, for some, a potential downside appears. This book has so much going for it that it hardly seems worthwhile calling attention to it - but the breakneck speed of the story periodically comes to a halt to dump technical information. The good news is that the infodumps are entertaining in their own right and even educational (Here's how public/private key encryption works! Here's how RFID works! Here's how to hack the next-gen X-Box into a surveillance-free network!), so they are hardly a serious detriment to the overall quality of the story.

So where does all this leave the book? Adults will like it for the thought-provoking topical issues and the insight into the minds of today's tech-savvy youth. The youth vs. adults angle is sure to attract teen readers, who will love the book for its rebellious themes. Hackers and techies will love it for the frequent applications of technologies and glimpses at where they might be headed. SF fans (and conspiracy theorists) will love it for the extrapolation of receding civil liberties and privacy issues. In short, this is a book with widespread appeal, regardless of age and background. I would also offer this book as a great candidate to get teens hooked on science fiction. But don't take my word for it. Doctorow has made the book available as a free download.

Posted by John at 12:29 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A new author does well in some areas but overall comes up a bit short.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Michael is kidnapped and taken into the future, where he finds himself embroiled in an interplanetary civil war. But things aren't as simple as they appear, as Michael's past starts to catch up to him in the future.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Good small-group action sequences and interesting characters that change throughout the book. Middle section was highly enjoyable.
CONS: Writing is challenged at the beginning with text that was hard to read. Ending struggled with a space opera flavor that didn't work.
BOTTOM LINE: This book by first-time author J.W. Benford is a book I really wanted to like, however there are enough flaws that keep it from being a book I think will have broad appeal. I am looking forward to future efforts by this talented writer.

The plot overall is a good one - Michael Terrenias is a human snatched from the past that finds himself in a multi-planetary civil war. The city he grew up in and loved is destroyed, and he joins in with the group that would like to reestablish the traditional government. However as things progress Michael realizes that he has knowledge and abilities that he shouldn't have. Rapidly we realize that Michael isn't who he thought he was, but is in fact an alien king who was exiled to the past. His people cast him out for failuring to bring about a reasonable end to a centuries-old galactic conflict. This war between the alien species turns out to be the driving force behind the smaller human-scale conflict and Michael find himself right back where he was prior to his exile having to work to defeat his species' ancient enemy.

The first third of the book is a little shaky. It starts out somewhat awkward with a style that makes it hard to read. The sentence structure, dialog, and descriptions don't always make sense and convey what I think the author is looking for. Perhaps this was done to partially convey Michael's alien nature, but if so it didn't work - it was confusing and stilted to me. Overall the dialog is weakest in this section, with the characters seeming to be wooden and non-expressive.

The middle portion of the book really takes off though, and becomes an action book with an interesting set of characters and exciting combat sequences. I was thrilled to be reading this part because I felt that Benford had overcome his challenges in the first part and settled down. The action here is mostly smaller in scope, with the larger space opera elements on hold as we see the team Michael works with, the personal interactions between them, and the adventures they have. If the complete book had been at this level, we'd be talking a 3 star book for sure - maybe even 4.

However, the last portion of the book again becomes difficult to understand. After Michael begins to fight the major galactic battle the book becomes muddled and character motivations are hard to fathom. His human wife and the characters around him seem to become aloof and no longer emotionally invested in the outcome. There is also a strange sequence that I believe was meant to portray the enemies as evil (and thus worthy of destruction) but instead has them appearing just odd. Even the humans behavior around them is odd. Again, perhaps this was done to show inscrutable alien nature, but if so it didn't work for me.

So in the end, I'd say that Benford can write a small-scale story very well. Those sections when a small team of people are battling personal demons, a civil war, and the issues that surround just them - the writing was very good. But when it branches into full space opera, the author struggles. This didn't ruin the book for me, but the ending wasn't near as satisfying as it could have been as a result. I will be watching for future Benford efforts though - he has enough talent that with a publisher (and editor!) behind him, he could turn out some very interesting works in the future.

Posted by scottsh at 12:23 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Science-Fantasy that even a fantasy-hater (like me) could love.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: While dealing with the world's ever-impending slide from rationality to magic, futuristic detective Henghis Hapthorn is hired to investigate a conspiracy to overthrow the Archon.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Great worldbuilding; well-planned mysteries; perfectly captures the flavor of Sherlock Holmes; the pitch-perfect level of dry humor.
CONS: Deductions sometimes come too easily for Hapthorn.
BOTTOM LINE: Hughes' writing will have me coming back for more.

Matthew Hughes has rightly met with some success with his entertaining detective character Henghis Hapthorn. Several Hapthorn stories have been published over the years and they were later collected in The Gist Hunter and Other Stories. Majestrum, published in 2007, is the first novel-length Hapthorn story and it's every bit as fun as the shorter works.

Henghis Hapthorn is a far-future version of Sherlock Holmes. (He describes himself as "the world's foremost discriminator".) Although much of humanity has migrated across The Spray of Ten Thousand Worlds, Henghis Hapthorn makes his home in Olkney on Old Earth, which is under the rule of the Archon. The locale intentionally feels like 19th century England, except there are a few technological advances thrown in. In other words, this is the perfect setting for a futuristic Sherlock Holmes story. In Majestrum, Hapthorn is hired twice: first to investigate the shady character that has become the object of affection of one Lord's daughter; second to investigate a conspiracy to overthrow the Archon himself.

Majestrum was a particularly interesting book for me, not only because the Henghis Hapthorn stories are entertaining in their own right, but also because Hughes' larger story arc - that of the rational world of science slowly giving way to a world of magic - seems to mesh quite nicely with my casual taste for fantasy. Perhaps it's that Hapthorn is so based in our own rational, science-based reality that I can connect with it. He meets every instance of magic with the same disbelief and doubt that I have when I read fantasy that carelessly throws magic about.

But the impression of magic on his rational world forces Hapthorn (and me) to ultimately accept what he would otherwise disbelieve; particularly since his Integrator (a constructed artificial intelligence designed by Hapthorn himself) has been transformed into a talking cat-monkey kind of creature (as depicted in past stories). And he's a sassy one, too. Additionally, the part of Hapthorn's mind that can only be described as Intuition has assumed its own separate persona, causing Hapthorn to have many internal dialogs as he discusses investigative matters with himself. These occurrences do not come off as mere plot devices; instead they are part of the larger world that Hughes has meticulously built up. It is the turning of "The Great Wheel" that's driving the world towards magic. Somehow, being gently eased from a world of logic into a world of magic does not press my fantasy-hate button. It works because it directly addresses the very thing that annoys me with magic-related fantasy.

There are lots of nice touches woven into the story that add to its enjoyment. For example: Hapthorn's realization of the inevitability that his intuitive self will one day assume full control; the almost-slapstick initial meeting between Hapthorn and the Archon; watching Hapthorn deduce the truth from meager (sometimes too meager) facts; and the ultimate villain that's revealed. But the most appealing part of Majestrum (and all of the Hapthorn stories I've eaten up thus far) is definitely the way Hughes writes them. Not only does he perfectly capture the flavor of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation but he also adds a pitch-perfect level of dry humor that will cause a few laughs and many more smiles. Whether it's his smack-talking Integrator or Hapthorn's smug other self, Hughes crafts many moments that wonderfully convey a character's attitude and position. It's for these reasons that I look forward to reading the next book in the Hapthorn sequence, The Spiral Labyrinth.

Posted by John at 12:28 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

Cenotaxis is Sean Williams' novella, set in his Astropolis universe, that bridges the gap between the first book, Saturn Returns, and the second book, Earth Ascendant. However, you need not have read Saturn Returns to read Cenotaxis. You'll miss some of the context, but the story, novella really, is rather self contained. The story covers the actions of Imre Bergamasc as he tries to coerce Earth and its people to enlist in his quest to discover the source of the 'Slow Wave', which wreaked havoc on the galactic civilization in Saturn Returns. Things don't go as smoothly as planned, and Imre must face off against an opponent who may, or may not be, God personified.

There's lots to like in Cenotaxis, particularly in the setting, which is an extension of the one from the series. However, Williams adds some rather cool SF-nal ideas to Cenotaxis. First, we have Jasper, the man who believes he is God. Jasper is unique, as he appears to be a the result of a breeding program to produce 'God'. In this case, Jasper, while not omnipotent, is omniscient in a limited way, due to his 'achronistic' way to experiencing time. In other words, Jasper is similar to Billy Pilgrim from Slaughter House 5 as he seems to jump around in time. However, we realize that Jasper's consciousness is actually time jumping, a la Desmod from the LOST episode, 'The Constant'. Williams explores how a nonlinear view of time would affect someone's actions, and how that might lead to omniscient seeming actions. Several times Jasper is able to escape traps that Imre has set for him to due to this time view. Williams also throws in a heavy dose of how belief and the divine play a large role in the evolution of humanity.

The other really cool idea Williams has is the 'Apparatus', an intelligence akin to the Forts from Saturn Returns, but seeming to be an A.I., rather than biological. I won't ruin the surprise by explaining how it's constructed, but suffice it to say it's a really neat SF idea with huge implications. The Apparatus seems to be Jasper's advisor in many respects, but its unclear what the exact relationship is between them, or who built it or why. Imre eventually learns something of the Apparatus and changes his focus from 'persuading' Earth (via military action) to join him, to trying to find the Apparatus.

The one big negative I had with Cenotaxis was the vague nature of the story. I never had a good grasp as to why Earth was so important that Imre and company would wage a 50 year war against it just to bring it into his crusade against those who unleashed the 'Slow Wave'. Even after going back and rereading the final few pages from Saturn Returns, I was still in the dark. Hopefully, the next book will explain more about why Earth is so important. Secondly, it's not clear who or what Jasper really is. His actions at the end really seemed to come out of nowhere and even after going back over the ending chapters, I still wasn't sure why he did what he did. Imre, though, will have an interesting ally on his side for the next book.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the very sweet cover by Sparth. It certainly goes well with the feeling of the story.

All in all, Cenotaxis is an interesting read that almost becomes great, but it's vagueness holds it back. Certainly worth it for those who are reading the Astropolis series. It did serve to whet my appetite for the next book!

Posted by JP at 1:06 AM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A good collection of original short fiction from a great lineup of writers.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: An original fiction anthology containing 15 stories.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Twelve stories worth reading, two of which were hugely enjoyable.
CONS: One story (the longest in the anthology) did not work for me at all.
BOTTOM LINE: An enjoyable collection of stories.

Editor George Mann opens The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 2 by explaining the reason behind its publication. In doing so, he captures some of the reasons I enjoy reading short fiction: the jolt of wonder, the single conceit, the bite size morsel, etc. But there's no denying that it's common for a science fiction anthology, whose goal is often to present stories of various flavors, to include stories that do not suit a particular reader's tastes.

And so it was here. The good news is that only a single story failed to entertain. I must fess up to being totally disenchanted with the Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius story. Being the longest story in the book had a noticeable effect on the overall weighted average. Such is the hit-or-miss nature of a short fiction anthology.

The ultimate question, despite some misses, is whether there are more hits. In this case, the answer is a resounding yes. The vast majority of stories in the anthology are good or better. The outstanding entries were "iCity" by Paul Di Filippo and "Sunworld" by Eric Brown. Both of these stories capture the joys that come with anthologies and ultimately help make The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 2 an enjoyable anthology.

Reviewlettes follow...

Like all good science fiction should, Paul Di Filippo's "ICity" pushes the limits of imagination. To get a feel of the story, picture the next-next generation of SimCity, where "competitive urban planning" takes place. The city is made up of a malleable "senstrate" that obeys the commands planners send it through their phones. The story focus is on one of the top ten planners, Frederick Law Moses, and his up-and-coming rival, Holly Grale (Great name!), who are both vying to take control of a neighborhood recently elected for redesign by its residents. This had the same kind of mind-blowing effect as the author's own "WikiWorld" and was every bit as enjoyable. Well done.

Kay Kenyon looks at futuristic occupational obsolescence in "The Space Crawl Blues," a story in which the introverted pilot of a spaceship faces impending unemployment thanks to shiny, new quantum teleportation technology. Kenyon's story is engaging, and a fine example of quick-but-effective characterizations; one of which happens to describe the protagonist's ship.

"The Line of Dichotomy" is the latest episode in Chris Roberson's Celestial Empire stories. Here, Bannerman Yao, a soldier of the Dragon Throne (and featured in The Dragon's Nine Sons), responds to a distress signal from the Fire Planet (Mars), where he discovers Mexica warriors surrounding a bacteria farm. As Yao attempts to rescue them, readers come to learn a great deal more about the mysterious Mexic race. We also learn details about the start of the war between the Middle Kingdom and the Mexic Dominion. This history is told by Yao and Blue-green Feather, a Mexic warrior he encounters whose words are translated by Thien, a scientist who Yao is attempting to save. Despite my poor summation, this is all great world-building. The ending of "The Line of Dichotomy" leaves some question as to the fates of its main characters, but this is a very fun ride nonetheless, told in Roberson's straightforward, no-nonsense storytelling style.

Kelvin, the human protagonist of Robert Reed's "Fifty Dinosaurs" is just as confused as the reader as to his whereabouts when the story opens. But it soon becomes clear that he is one of fifty creations in an environment created by the new rulers of Earth - created for the sole purpose of being birthday party entertainment. A decent premise in a humans-in-an-alien-museum kind of way, but somewhat marred by the initially-weird uncertainty of events caused by Kelvin's spotted memory. But even that bizarreness is trumped by the ending.

Neal Asher serves up another lighthearted and fun story (one of two in this anthology) in his Mason's Rats milieu with "Black Rat". These stories provide episodic fun centered around Mason's troubles with rats on his farm. In this story, Mason's uneasy alliance with the usual brown rats is upset when a newly-arrived pack of black rats wreak havoc on his farm. The science fiction comes in not only with the surrounding technology, but also that the rats are intelligent; at one smile-inducing point, they use a tiny catapult to launch hex nuts.

"Blood Bonds" by Brenda Cooper is about twin sisters Lissa and Aline. Lissa gets a job on Mars to help pay for an operation for Aline, who was paralyzed in a terrorist attack and thus spends most of her time living in virtual space. Aline finds an unexpected way to connect with her sister, though some anti-AI laws are broken to do so. Soon, both sisters become involved in matters that extend beyond the realms of sisterhood. While the narrative gets understandably confusing near the end, this heartfelt story never loses its emotional strength.

"The Eyes of God" by Peter Watts isn't so much a story as it is a thought-provoking scene. The scene is of a man waiting to board an airplane in a near-future airport. Issues of declining civil liberties and personal privacy are taken to the extreme when the technology exists to not only detect undesirable behavior but also to eliminate it, if only temporarily. The extrapolated argument is convincing and effective until the shocking reason for the narrator's guilty conscience is revealed, and then I flip-flopped as I wondered if such intrusions are perhaps justified after all.

Like his recent novel, Helix, Eric Brown is in the business of spinning up a huge sense of wonder with "Sunworld" in which Yarrek, a young male on the verge of adulthood, faces his destiny. From the descriptions we know we are on an alien world, even though the geometry of it is a bit confusing at first since descriptions seemingly alternate between ringworld and discworld. But all becomes clears in the end, by which time even the clich@eacute; premise (farmboy of questionable lineage learns the true nature of the world) seem of small consequence next to the awesome scope of what Yarrek learns while under the tutelage of a more open-minded Church. This is a wondrous story and a fun read.

Mary Robinette Kowal's "Evil Robot Monkey" is an affecting snapshot in the life of a chimp with an implant in his head that increases his intelligence. Unfortunately for him, that lands him in the "hellish limbo" of being "too smart to be with other chimps, but too much of an animal to be with humans." He becomes the subject of ridicule of children in what is presumably a school where he spends his time behind a pottery wheel. The interesting premise is delicately overlaid with emotion by having a single human show the chimp some compassion, resulting in a quick-and-dirty sf short story that is both charming and memorable.

It takes a long while to get interesting, but Dominic Green's "Shining Armour" eventually captures the reader's attention. It's the story of a small village taking a stand against the large city, with their only defense being the hulking military machine that has been sitting dormant in their village for some time. There's never any doubt who will assume the role of the Guardian's operator, but even so, it was a sweet feeling to see him flex his mechanical muscles and serve up just desserts.

I'm not entirely sure how Karl Schroeder's "Book, Theatre, and Wheel" found its way in a science fiction anthology as it leans more heavily on the platform of historical fiction than it does sf. Classification aside, it's a good story set during the Inquisition in which Church representatives investigate rumors that people in a small, faraway town are learning to read. Neville and Jaques (a sort of Good Cop/ Bad Cop of a past era) question Lady Genevieve, the town's leader - in itself a sort of heresy since the role of leader is reserved for men. Genevieve tries to get in Neville's good graces, but it's Jaques who is clearly the danger. Schroeder does a great job at depicting the conflict and drama here, and though there's is no doubt where this is headed, it's an entertaining read all the same.

"Mathralon" by David Louis Edelman reads like an editorial about the lifecycle of a mineral that forms the sole basis for existence on the small moon that mines it. As such, it lacks both characters and plot, which is not a bad thing unto itself, but the text's meta-observation of that fact seems to break the editorial representation that was created, leaving it in a no-man's land between fiction and essay. But Edelman's prose is otherwise engaging and swift, and the situation that is ultimately outlined (the dangers of putting all your eggs in one basket) is a worthy premise.

Another story in Neal Asher's stream of light-hearted Masons Rats stories is "Autotractor". Like other stories in this series, farmer Mason has a problem to solve; this time from the bureaucracy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries which cites Mason's population of rats as a health hazard. By this point, Mason has grown accustomed and even protective of the rats, a sentiment solidified when he realizes that they have created a distillery, the true hallmark of civilization. Asher creates some laugh-out-loud moments and many more smiles as Mason's rats (and the talking tractor that delivers lip service) seem to solve Mason's problem for him.

I had never read any of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories, though I have always wanted to. The novella presented here, "Modem Times," was therefore a welcome addition. But oh my! I quickly discovered that this is more literary exercise than story, something for which I was not at all prepared. Between the non-linear narrative, the slew of self-references that were surely lost on me, and the seemingly endless chain of plotless non-sequiters (both between passages and during a single conversation), I was hopelessly lost and uninterested. After a little Googling, I get the impression that the Jerry Cornelius stories are the kind you either get or don't. I'm afraid I don't get it.

On the face of it, "Point of Contact" by Dan Abnett is a first contact story. But rather than explain who the aliens were and what they did, the author goes through exhaustive lengths to explain what are not like and what did not happen. This was oddly entertaining; odd for its uneventful plot, but entertaining in that it lists just about every known sf-nal cliché. One wonders after reading it what the point was in writing a fantastic story of mundane events. Ah...now I see! (I think.)

Posted by John at 12:28 AM | Discussion (11) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A thought-provoking classic.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: George Orr, a man who can alter reality with his dreams, is manipulated by Dr. Haber, a dream specialist.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Awesome premise; excellent characterizations; great writing.
CONS: None, really, though I was frustrated that this Omnipotent Reader couldn't figure out a way for George to solve his problems.
BOTTOM LINE: An excellent, though-provoking classic.

One reason I like to read science fiction is the "what if?" scenarios that allow me to wonder about possible futures and the effect that they have on people. Ursula K. LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven is perhaps a prime example of this that uses an intoxicating premise: what if you had the power to shape reality just by dreaming it?

The protagonist of The Lathe of Heaven is George Orr, a simple draftsman in a near-future Dystopia. George can change reality by dreaming what he calls "effective" dreams. But here's the rub: like the rest of us, he is unable to control his dreaming. George tries to suppress his dreaming through the illegal use of drugs - illegal because he uses more than his government-allotted dosage in this near-totalitarian state. Enter Dr. Haber, the dream specialist to whom George is assigned for treatment. Haber's treatment of George involves his new invention, the Augmentor, which allows Haber to influence George's dreams. It's not long before Haber realizes George's incredible power and recognizes his unique position to play God.

This is powerful subject matter indeed and LeGuin is the perfect writer to handle it. Her eloquent prose is simultaneously insightful and thought-provoking. Who doesn't dream of being able to change the world with a mere thought? Would you use the power with good intentions? Would you use the ability to make the world a better place? Where would you stop? It's through her characterizations that she explores these weighty topics.

George is a sympathetic character who is tortured by his gift and his inability to prevent its devastating effects. His introverted personality makes him the perfect puppet for Haber. But what could George do? Haber is the one pulling the strings here. George does manage to enlist the help of lawyer Heather Laleche to help prove his unsolvable dilemma. He is hoping that a loophole in his power - that people who are near him when he dreams have vague memories of the previous reality - will be his salvation.

Dr. Haber is an interesting character because, for all of his bad influence, he's not really evil. The worst you could say about this charismatic character (in the first half of the story, at least) is that he is manipulative. His desire is not omnipotence; he just wants to make the world a better place. Haber realizes that with George's power at his beck and call, "this world will be like heaven and men will be like Gods!" OK, so he becomes power-drunk, but he initially sets out to systematically abolish overpopulation, poverty, racism, sickness, and war using George's dreams. Unfortunately his control over George is not total; George often misinterprets Haber's wishes and thus we get interesting plot turns like alien invasions and all the people of Earth having the same pale gray skin tone.

And so, there is a lesson to be learned here. Not to go all Spider-Man, but with great power comes great responsibility. The Lathe of Heaven is ultimately a cautionary tale about wielding power, a point succinctly captured by this passage:

...it's not right to play God with masses of people. To be God you have to know what you're doing. And to do any good at all just believing you're right and your motives are good isn't enough.

LeGuin has created a marvelous story with The Lathe of Heaven, one that I whole-heartedly recommend.

Posted by John at 12:28 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

Starcross is Philip Reeve's sequel to his awesome Larklight (SF Signal review) novel for young readers. This time, Art Mumby, his sister Myrtle and their mother travel to the finest sea-bathing resort in the asteroid belt, Starcross. While there, they encounter all manner of strange and interesting things, the least of which is menacing mechanical Punch and Judy machines. The mystery they uncover could spell doom for the British Empire!

The best thing about this series of books has to be the setting: a Victorian-era British Empire chock-a-block full of all types of steampunk machines and devices. The British have also managed to conquer part of the Solar System via their use of aetherships to ply the spacelanes, using their alchemical FTL engines, between the planets. It's easy to see why these books would be optioned for a major motion picture. Add to the setting a bevy of interesting characters and place them in a strange but interesting story and you have a sure fire winner. Starcross displays Reeve's wild imagination at it's very best, weaving in long-lost American rebels, time travel, and menacing top hats that seem to have a mind of their own. The story starts out a bit slow, after a quick prologue, then picks up the pace as Art and company bounce between the ancient past, the 'modern' day and the far future. All of this with Reeve's sly humor and attention to detail. If you liked Larklight you'll like Starcross just as much. Add in the whimsical drawings of David Wyatt and you have a winner of a book.

About the only issue I had with the book, and it may be out of place to hit a kid's book for this, was with in the resolution of some of the events depicted. Reeve occasionally glosses over some of the events in the book, resolving issues in just a sentence or two, or by having the characters overcome their hardships with relative ease. This happened a couple of times and it became distracting. I realize that it's written for the younger set, but I think 9 to 12 year olds can handle a bit more complexity to their story and a bit more length. But this is just a nit in an otherwise fine story.

If you like steampunk, you owe it to yourself to pick up Larklight and then Starcross. You'll be glad you did and you'll have a leg up on all the non-readers when the movie comes out. It's a win-win! Oh yeah, let your kids read it when you are done.

Posted by JP at 12:54 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

Physics of the Impossible is Michio Kaku's latest science book and it is heavily influenced by science fictional ideas that may seem impossible, but in reality have definite scientific underpinnings (force fields, starships, FTL, time travel and others). Along the way he classifies these SF-nal ideas into three categories: Type I Impossibility (impossible today, but don't violate laws of physics), Type II (skirt the edges of our understanding, may be possible in centuries or millennia), and Type III (violate our understanding of physics and, if possible, will require a complete re-evaluation of our understanding of physics). If you liked our interview with Mr. Kaku, you'll most definitely enjoy this book.

Physics of the Impossible is the first book by Mr. Kaku that I have read. I've wanted to read his previous books but never got around to reading them. If they're anything like this book, that is an oversight on my part that I must address. Physics of the Impossible is Kaku's take on a wide array of science fictional ideas and how 'impossible' they really are according to our current understanding of physics. Along they way, Kaku uses many different science fiction stories, movies and TV shows to illustrate the technologies and points he is discussing. It's obvious that Kaku enjoys science fiction, as he makes note of the Foundation trilogy, Star Wars, Star Trek and Back to the Future among a host of others. If you've ever wondered just how a light saber might work, Physics of the Impossible is for you.

Although all of the sections, and ideas, covered I found to be interesting, I especially enjoyed the sections on starships (I love the idea of these), and time travel. All chapters were well thought out and explained in clear English, with only the occasionally descent into the more complicated physics underlying these ideas. Kaku is to be commended for making very difficult concepts not only easy to understand, but also fun to read about. If Kaku hasn't been compared to a modern day Carl Sagan as a popularizer of science, he should be. I enjoyed this book that much, as much as I did Cosmos, both the book and series. But then again, I am a science (fiction) geek.

However, because the book is written for an audience with a layman's understanding of science, Kaku doesn't go into the kind of depth you might want to really understand the ideas he is talking about. Thankfully, there is a very nice Notes section for each chapter, and a decent Bibiliography as well that can lead you to other sources of information. Secondly, as a science fiction fan, none of these ideas was new to me, having read stories using all the various ideas over the years. Of course the idea was to explore them according to our understanding of physics, not to generate new, outlandish ideas. Perhaps the biggest nit I had was that there are several instances where the same phrase is used, verbatim, withing three or four sentences of each other. And there is a tendency to reexplain ideas that have already been covered in previous chapters. But these are minor nits in what is otherwise an excellent and entertaining read.

In our interview, commenter Larry had this to say:

Just for the sake of counterpoint, there are those in the Physics community who believe that String Theory is not a theory at all, that in order to be a theory there must be a testable hypothesis.

In his epilogue, Kaku even addresses this criticism about String Theory, basically stating that there have been many theories that have been called untestable that later turned out to be testable as our understanding and knowledge of the world around us increased. So it may be with String Theory. As for me, as attractive as a flame war between physicists sounds, I think I'll stay away lest my head explode. You should too. Instead, go find a copy of Physics of the Impossible and enjoy.

Posted by JP at 1:00 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Time-traveling pirates - what is not to love? OK, there isn't really any science fiction in this story, but it is a fun book non the less.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Father Chris is more than he appears when he admits to killing a man in his past. The story of how it happened takes you back to the time of real pirates raiding Spanish ships full of treasure from the new world.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Gene Wolfe is a master storyteller with a command of the English language I can only marvel at. His prose - especially his character's dialog - puts him amongst the best writers of our time, and this book is no exception. Brilliant ending. Generally strong female characters.
CONS: Fans of Wofle's other more complex works might be disappointed by this rather straight-forward tale. Similar premise to Wizard Knight with a similar protagonist.
BOTTOM LINE: Gene Wolfe never stops surprising me with the variety of settings and types of people he writes about. Where will we end up next? I don't know, but I can't wait.

Father Chris reveals to a confessor that he has murdered somebody in his past. The confessor asks for details, and the book we read is a result of that. When he was a boy, he ends up in the 1600's in the Caribbean where he eventually becomes a pirate. The tale that follows is filled with action, nautical details, and interesting characters. The best are Captain Burt and the girls Azuka and Novia. Most of the women in this book are portrayed as strong people - as I figure those surviving in this area and time had to be. Father Chris takes breaks from his writing and talks about his life in the present day and we can see that he is eventually driving to do something drastic, and what that turns out to be ends the book in a highly satisfying way.

There is a lot to say about this book, and while it certainly isn't perfect it is a very fun book to read. A non-Wolfe fan can pick this one up, read it, and come away satisfied with a touching, swashbuckling adventure tale. Wolfe fans on the other hand might be disappointed - it lacks much of the tricky narrative (surprisingly it seems this narrator seems reliable) or complex 'read between the lines' approach found in some of his other stories. Or does it? Is there an allegory in here after all? Is the narrator as reliable as he seems. With Wolfe it is often hard to tell, and perhaps he has simply been more subtle than he has in his previous books? If so I'd say he might have missed the mark, because most often the book is exactly what is appears to be.

At the risk of moving beyond review and into critique, here are a few things I was able to garner from the text that made me think there might be something more than a simple tale. Chris's father is a mobster who moved from New Jersey to Cuba (in the near future) to open a casino. He seemed to want to protect Chris from that life so he sent him to a boarding school at a nearby Catholic monastery. But when the school closes, his dad doesn't come to get him and so abandons him. Or was he killed? Or did he disappear into the past as well? Is he Valentin? Or Lesage? Were they one and the same?

Chris' name itself makes him appear somewhat Christ-like. There are other religious aspects as well - Chris mentions he has three aspects - the boy, the Father, and the pirate. There is a major betrayal during the story that reminded me of Judas (but then, don't they all?) Of course Chris is a priest and brings up several aspects of the Catholic church (including his take on the problems of sexual harassment in the church.)

I don't want to make more out of the story than is there. If there are sub-textual elements they are deep - far deeper than the New Sun trilogy. I didn't care for all of Wolfe's descriptions. For example, during the voyage around Cape Horn I became lost and never really understood what Wolfe was describing. The last battle seemed rushed with little of his typical detail. Perhaps he felt there had been enough fighting sequences, but I missed it.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others, especially those who haven't read Gene Wolfe before.

Posted by scottsh at 11:25 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A great showcase of Bacigalupi's unique style and his mastery of short fiction.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A collection of ten stories written by Paolo Bacigalupi. (A limited edition contains an additional story.)

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Nine of the ten stories were good; three of those were outstanding.
CONS: One story dangerously close to being mediocre.
BOTTOM LINE: Clear evidence of Bacigalupi's control over the form of short fiction.

Paolo Bacigalupi is rapidly the ranks of short fiction stardom, collecting accolades and critical acclaim at nearly every turn. Evidence supporting this can be found in his recent ten-story collection, Pump Six and Other Stories, which almost includes his entire short fiction output to date. (Night Shade Books also publishes a limited edition that contains the missing eleventh story, "Small Offerings", which I reviewed in Fast Forward 1.)

One thing is clear: Bacigalupi does not write fiction just for the sake of it. Each story is rooted in one social issue or another. The backdrops he paints are mostly bleak, making the overall collection a tasty smorgasbord of Dystopias. He shows us eco-ravaged futures and technologies that create unique circumstances for the protagonists. While I'm not usually interested in science fiction as social commentary, Bacigalupi writes with a thankfully subtle hand, allowing the reader the take in as much - or as little - as he or she wishes. Furthermore, each of his stories explores a "single conceit", the hallmark of classic short fiction, only as seen through the modern eyes of the socially conscious. The overall quality of the collection is thus fairly strong, with some of these stories garnering Hugo and Nebula nominations.

Reviewlettes of each story follow...

"Pocketful of Dharma" follows a young street beggar named Wang Jun, who is hired by some shady characters to deliver a small, blue data cube. Wang Jun doesn't know what's on the cube, he's just happy to receive as payment something he can sell for food money. Wang Jun lives in a future China where the city of Chengdu is slowly being replaced by a new biotech city growing up from the ground. People of high social status live in the new city while poor people like Wang Jun walk the rain-slicked streets that remind one of Blade Runner. The contents of the cube are rooted in political conflict, which Bacigalupi highlights through the social structure of the city and wonderfully portrayed life of the downtrodden. The ending, though, was weak by comparison, lacking a firm resolution to an otherwise strong setup.

[Note: The "The Fluted Girl" was originally reviewed in The Year's Best Science Fiction #21 edited by Gardner Dozois.] In "The Fluted Girl", Lidia and her twin sister have been surgically modified to be human flutes. They perform in a castle for an "evil queen" who sees them as nothing more than a pet project with a capacity to make her rich and famous. Lidia has enough when she learns that the boy she likes was foiled in an attempt to kill the queen and, as punishment, is served for dinner. This story really reads like a fairy tale with the abused kids, the evil queen, the evil security officer, etc. The portrayal of Lidia is well done; the modifications have made her so fragile that she cannot walk without assistance. And it was easy to hate the "queen" (Madame Belari) and her security officer (Burson) who is a genetic mix of man, dog and jackal. The ending is left somewhat open-ended.

[Note: The "The People of Sand and Slag" was originally reviewed in Science Fiction: The Best of 2004 edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan.] A group of miners, bio-enhanced to survive harsh environments through the wonders of "weeviltech", find a biologically unaltered dog - a creature believed to have been extinct for decades. Interesting was the portrait of how humanity has "evolved" with the aid of technology. They eat sand, are impervious to acid and amputate body parts at the drop of the hat. (By morning, the arm or leg grows back.) In effect, mankind has achieved a form of immortality through science. When they find the unaltered dog, a "lesser" life form, they question their own heritage and what it means to be human. Ultimately they decide that the unaltered species of man was far too vulnerable to lead an enjoyable life. Good stuff.

In "The Pasho," a man returns to the traditional Jai village in which he was born, after having spent ten years learning the ways of modernization among the Keli, who were at war with the Jai a generation ago. As a revered Pasho, Raphel has literally earned his stripes; skin etchings serve as reminders of his knowledge. But traditions die hard. Raphel is rejected by the Jai people - especially Raphel's grandfather who fought the Keli in the war and who loathes what his grandson has become. There's so much culture in this story that one hardly notices the pot-boiling tension between Raphel and his grandfather. But the final scene crescendos into something that makes you think back to all the skillfully laid clues that came before.

[Note: The "The Calorie Man" was originally reviewed as part of the 2006 Hugo Award Short Fiction Nominees reading project.] Thanks to some unfortunate side effects of genetic engineering (like an out-of-control weevil that consumed the planet's crops), the world population - what's left of it - is starving. But genetic engineering has provided a solution of sorts by way of SoyPRO and HiGro, man-made food substitutes. The food is used, in turn, to feed the animals (also gene-engineered) who convert it into much-needed energy. This story, set in and around the Mississippi river and New Orleans, follows an Indian named Lalji who travels the river posing as an antique dealer, but who is secretly a calorie bandit, much to the consternation of the IP (intellectual property) police of the monopolistic food companies. Lalji and his partner Creo are tasked with transporting "The Calorie Man", one of the last of the geneticists, so he can bring about the demise of the food monopolies. This is an interesting story for its setting and situation. The world portrayed seems to be suffering from a mild case of post-apocalypse: hunger and energy are seriously constrained, population is decreasing as people die off - and yet there is enough civilization to maintain a corporation? There is also no real sense that technology is of any use anymore to anyone besides the food companies, unless you count the kink-springs used to power the boats that travel the river. This made for a slightly unbalanced portrayal of an otherwise dark future, but that could be the result of the story focusing on Lalji alone, a choice which did lend much to this story's wonderful mood.

"The Tamarisk Hunter" is a dark story with a bleaker ending. It's set in a future where national water shortages have resulted in rationing, legal maneuvers to move people off their land, and some tricky political games by California to horde water. This is bad news for Lolo, who makes his meager living killing the water-hungry Tamarisk trees, all for less than three dollars a day. Lolo gets by like most of his kind: by stealing water. A visit from the local lawmen creates some welcome, tense moments because of this situation, though their visit has less to do with Lolo's illicit activities than they do with the inevitability of diminishing resources.

"Pop Squad" is, like other Bacigalupi stories, uncomfortable in content and set in another near-future dystopia that is so unlike our own in a singular way. It takes several clues to realize what is going on, and when it clicks, it's shocking. The society in this story has achieved immortality through "rejoo" and child bearing is outlawed. To have children, the mothers must stop taking the rejoo, thereby forfeiting their own lives for the sake of their children-to-be. The narrator is assigned to a task force that kills these children who were illegally conceived. He increasingly begins to question what would drive a person to give up eternal life, a line of thinking that affects his ideals. The dinosaur symbolism (extinction and the absence of children, old ways of thinking, etc.) is laid on a little thick here, but this story works well; not just for its shocking and graphic scenes, but also for the sf-nal concepts it depicts. Well done.

[The "Yellow Card Man" was originally reviewed as part of the 2007 Hugo Award Short Fiction Nominees reading project.] In an overcrowded Thailand, a Chinese refugee struggles to survive. Bacigalupi's story is set in the same future of last year's Hugo-nominee, "The Calorie Man" where genetic engineering has wiped out all the crops save for those owned by the corporations that hold the few patents on resistant crop strains. The refuges that come to Bangkok were looking for a better future but found instead a life of extreme poverty. The country houses them in high-rises without air conditioning, cramped together in unacceptable living conditions. The focus of the story is on Tranh, a Chinese refugee who was once a successful businessman until his people (and his family) were massacred. Now Tranh is left with nothing, struggling to find scraps of precious food. A not-too-promising job lead - which takes the first thirty percent of the story to get to while the narrative loiters with much world building - gives Tranh some slim hope of working his way up from poverty. In this, Tranh is a sympathetic character, a victim of unfortunate circumstance. Tranh also has a table-turning encounter with a former employee, fired in disgrace by Tranh himself but who is now much better off than his former boss. The employee (Ma Ping) shows compassion for Tranh in his time of need and Tranh's circumstances elicit humility at first, then anger. This is a sign of things to come. Tranh's situation gets the best of him and the hope of finding a job is overcome by a chance to get ahead at the expense of others. In short, his misfortune turns to desperation and a sympathetic character becomes much less so.

While reading "Softer", one gets the impression that Bacigalupi is thinking way too much about murder. But it's to the reader's intense enjoyment - through palpable discomfort - that he has done so. This is a seemingly simple yet effective portrait of a man who just killed his wife, who contemplates life in that "peaceful moment between crime and confession". [Shiver.] The narrator is clearly imbalanced but his clarity of life and its true rewards (and punishments) is nonetheless astute. The writing here is chilling in its detail and superbly effective at creating a mood of growing uneasiness. Excellent work.

There's something unidentifiable and off kilter at the beginning of "Pump Six". For one thing, the wife of the protagonist is stone-cold irrational, wielding a frying pan as a lethal weapon, with the husband (Alvin) taking it in stride. Something is clearly amiss, and it isn't until he arrives at his job maintaining the city's sewage pumps that we see others are equally challenged intellectually. Alvin's boss, for example, happily proclaims she can read, too, as if defending her intelligence and claiming intellectual superiority. We know by know, of course, that Alvin is one of the few, if not the only, person around with a reasonable amount of brains. Others around him have more in common with the ever-increasing population of trogs: the monkey-like creatures that openly mate with reckless abandon and serve no other purpose than to foreshadow mankind's eventual fate. When pump number six breaks down, threatening the precious drinking water and breathable air with its released chemicals - which we can surmise is the cause of mankind's slow descent from brainy to brainless - Alvin lacks the means to fix it and so embarks on a short quest to the local college Engineering department and library. What he finds is surprising to us, but shouldn't be for him - yet it is and Alvin comes off as looking none too bright after all. The theme of regression is certainly interesting, but this story somehow seemed to lack the import of such a weighty topic.

Posted by John at 12:29 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Banks has written another very good book set in his Culture universe.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: See JP's excellent review for a synopsis.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Great write-up with highly interesting characters and lots of good sci-fi ideas.
CONS: Hard to fault much, perhaps the ending was a bit of a surprise. It is deep in space opera concepts and so its hard to recommend to non-sci-fi fans.
BOTTOM LINE: Awesome book - science fiction fans of all types can certainly find a lot of like about this book.

JP did a great job writing about the book and his opinion of it, and I agree with almost everything he wrote, so I'll let that stand.

However, I did find several aspects of the book interesting enough to comment on here. This isn't a review, but more of a commentary on parallels I saw between this book and the real world. If you haven't read the book, you might want to stop to avoid spoiling it.

A simple plot of regicide this isn't, with the higher order being involved. However, I think I saw a parallel between what is going on in the world today with terrorism and Iraq and this book. OK, I might be chasing shadows, but stay with me a second. The theme of meddling in other cultures development felt like the US and Iraq today. Even if Banks didn't intend it, you can't deny that there is a sort of 'we know what's best for you' between the US and Iraq and that this certainly is a part of the higher order civilizations in Banks' books and they way they influence the lesser civilizations. Also, the idea that there was a race of beings bent on destroying the shellworlds - regardless of how many people they kill - over ideology, felt like terrorism to me.

All right, maybe I'm been smoking something, but I felt the need to comment on at least an unintended parallel I see in this book.

Posted by scottsh at 3:55 PM | Discussion (11) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A really fun throwback to the pulp science fiction of yesteryear.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Space Marshal Victor Corsaire battles the legendary space pirate known as Space Vulture.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Perfectly recaptures the pulp feel; fun sf adventure suitable for any age.
CONS: Believability stretched too far in the case of Gil, whose turnaround was marred by a contrived plot decision.
BOTTOM LINE: A welcome return to the stuff of old-time wonder.

Space Vulture is the result of collaboration between Gary K. Wolf and Archbishop John J. Meyers; two childhood friends who discovered a mutual affection for science fiction. The book that hooked them was the 1952 space adventure Space Hawk written by Anthony Gilmore (a pseudonym for Harry Bates and Desmond W. Hall, Editors of Astounding Stories of Super Science). Space Vulture was intentionally written as homage to the pulpy sf days of yesteryear and contains much of its style and lure.

The hero of the story is Victor Corsaire, Space Patrol's best lawman and perennial do-gooder. As the book opens, Corsaire is closing in on small-time crook Gil Terry, a petty thief with troubles of his own. Gil owes someone money who, as collateral, took Gil's arm and eye and replaced them with prosthetics; specifically an insectoid alien arm and a mechanic telescopic eye - both of which lending Gil a creepy persona. Shady Gil is trying to steal a valuable haul of space mushrooms on the colony planet of Verlinap to repay his debt and get his parts back. Not that Cali Russell cares; she's the peacekeeper on Verlinap, trying to eke out a good life for her sons, Eliot and Regin, and she's got little patience for Gil, Corsaire, or their longtime rivalry. But even Gil is relatively small potatoes when compared with the legendary evils practiced by the most feared pirate villain of all the spaceways: Space Vulture!

Space Vulture is painted like a comic book villain. He's augmented and enhanced in every conceivable fashion, his only flaw (besides the evil he perpetrates, of course) being the size of his ego. Even Corsaire has a bit of an ego, so there is a bit of a battle of machismo that underlies the encounters between Corsaire and Space Vulture. But as the story progresses, the characters do grow: Corsaire, for example, learns that there is room in life for relationships; Cali learns that not all men are the same; even Gil learns to relax his "Me First" attitude when he is forced to look after young Eliot (a smart kid who can somewhat hold his own) and Regin (a more malleable youngster who sees glamour in Gil's devil-may-care lifestyle).

Pulp science fiction never took great pains to make an airtight plot; it was all about the adventure. In doing so, it often pushed the limits of believability in a self-induced spiral of one-upmanship. The same could be said here. The sequence of events is all done for the sake of adventure, common sense be damned. It would have been easy for Space Vulture to immediately dispense with goody-two-shoes Corsaire any number of times, but something always managed to save him: a more evil plan here, a diversion there, whatever was convenient. The same stretch of believability happened with Gil, though in his case it went against the painstaking turnaround his character went through. Just when you think that Gil has turned over a new leaf, he's back to his old ways again - for no apparent reason besides having him come back to save the day, which he couldn't do if he had been around the whole time. Such moments are contrived, to be sure, but then that's all in the true spirit of pulp sf, isn't it? Still, in Gil's case, it seemed that the contrived nature of pulps was pushed a bit too far.

Space Vulture is the kind of book you could safely throw at a kid to get him hooked on science fiction without fear of objectionable content. Some of the rougher elements of adult-targeted pulps have been softened and Cali, who would have been portrayed as the damsel-in-distress decades ago, is a tough woman who can hold her own. Also worth noting: some characters are portrayed as being religious, thanks to Archbishop Meyers, no doubt. This "sanitization" doesn't hurt the book or the desired pulp feel, but it is nevertheless noticeable.

What the authors set out to do was recreate the pulp sf of yesteryear and they succeeded. The awesome Glen Orbik cover art even adds to that flavor. Older fans of pulp sf will like it for the feeling that's been recaptured. Correspondingly, people who dislike pulp sf probably won't be interested in what's been done here. But if you like laser blaster fights, killer robots, poison darts, mind-controlled minions, lizard aliens, and more, then Space Vulture delivers because readers get exactly what they'd expect: a really fun sf adventure book. This is a welcome return to the stuff of old-time wonder.

Posted by John at 12:29 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: It's Elom 90210.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A group of teenagers must save their world, but first they have to figure out their relationship problems.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Intriguing world-building, realistic characters.
CONS: The realistic characters are teenagers with over-active hormones.
BOTTOM LINE: Too much soap, not enough space in this opera.

This book starts with some very interesting questions. A young girl in pre-historic times is getting ready for her coming of age ceremony. Then she has an encounter that has all the hallmarks of an alien abduction. After that dramatic introduction, we are introduced to characters on Elom, a place that is Earth-like, yet clearly different. They have a level of civilization similar to stereotypical Native Americans, but with odd discrepancies - for instance they are in remarkably good health. Also, the girl from the introduction is now referred to as if she were a prophet of some nature. Plus, the society described has some very odd and arbitrary-seeming rules. One gets the feeling that something very interesting went on between the Introduction and Chapter One.

Before we get answers to those questions, we have to get our cast of young heroes to the point where they can find out what's going on. That's something of a challenge. There are seven heroes: three men and four girls. They are all seventeen or eighteen. Kalmar is a warrior hunter. He's probably the best at male skills in his age group. He goes out to fight a cave lion and is almost killed, but is saved by Snook, a "seeker" from a different society. Snook is albino, and very insecure and unworldly. This makes it difficult for him to deal with Kalmar's girlfriend, the sexy and manipulative Arasima. Snook is also quite bedazzled by Kalmar's lively younger sister Nutan. And eventually he'll be quite taken with the shy and fragile slightly older priestess Cabyl. Then we must throw into the mix Dera, a serious young woman. She, like Kalmar, is the best at women's skills in her age group. She is beautiful, but does not think so because of a large birthmark on her face. Her younger brother Izzy is active, intelligent, and her fierce defender. He and Nutan are the same age, and they'll have sparks as well.

Resolving the various love triangles, quadrangles and pentagrams caused by this formation takes up way too much of this book. All these young people are gorgeous, brilliant and immensely skilled, and are chosen by the priestesses of this matriarchal society to go off to alien lands, with real aliens, to be "judged." They all believe that the fate of the human race both on Elom and on Earth rests on the outcome of this judging. Unfortunately, once this is revealed, the kids still can't ignore their raging hormones and settle down to the task at hand. They go through their own coming of age ceremonies, where they are tested and then the eldest have opportunities to choose their mates. Kalmar rejected Dera, but Arisima rejected him, and those scars color the entire "judging" mission. Izzy is angry at Kalmar for rejecting his sister, and Nutan and Snook are angry at Arisima, who does nothing to make herself likable except radiate raw sexuality at the men. Given the character descriptions it is clear how the author intends to pair off the various characters, so the process of getting there seems interminable. Dera is the only one who doesn't seem to care, and it is only thanks to her that any serious thinking and action gets done.

Luckily, whenever the narrative turns back to the actual plot and world building, things are quite interesting. The society on Elom has obviously been formed artificially. Their births are strictly controlled: one female child, then one male child, then for a few couples a third child that may be either gender. The complex coming of age tests, and the fact that they use those results to choose mates, suggests some sort of goal-driven selection process. Also, the gender roles are segregated oddly: men are the hunters and builders, women are the artists and leaders. The art created by the women is bought by the alien draks, who introduce needed trade goods into the relatively primitive economy. This is another mystery, the sort of thing that keeps one reading.

As the kids progress in their journey, the author does a good job at answering some questions while raising more. The identity of the draks is a nice surprise that I didn't see coming. Eventually the kids meet up with a god-like intelligence and get full explanations. The explanation of the initial abduction scene and subsequent founding of Elom's society is satisfying, if a bit anticlimactic. However, after the endless agonies about the kids hooking up and pairing off, the god-like alien spends a significant amount of its time giving relationship advice to the kids. I imagined it thinking to itself: "Here I am, brain the size of a galaxy, and they ask me for Dear Abby advice. Call that job satisfaction, 'cause I don't."

Over the years there have been calls for sf that focuses more on characters. The stereotypical complaint is that sf stories are peopled by one-dimensional cardboard cutouts from central casting: the brave adventurer, the female warrior, the mad scientist, etc. However, if this sort of soap opera is what "character driven sf" looks like, I'd prefer cardboard. While these teenagers are well-drawn, they are the sorts of people that annoyed the heck out of me in high school, and they aren't any less annoying today. I felt like many things got short-changed in favor of more relationship angst. For instance, after building up all the tests involved in the multi-day coming of age ceremony, only one competition is described, a footrace at the end. That's the sort of thing I'd like to see shown in more detail. In the end, this book may be of great interest for that demographic group that consists of the overlap between Dawson's Creek fans and Babylon 5 fans. Unfortunately, I suspect the membership of that set will be pretty tiny.

Posted by Karen at 12:28 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: An eye candy extravaganza.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A showcase of contemporary sf/fantasy art.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Every page is stuffed with sense of wonder; a variety of styles to suit any taste; excellent book production.
CONS: Some styles might not appeal to some tastes.
BOTTOM LINE: Highly recommended to anyone who has a love for sf/fantasy art.

I confess. I'm a science fiction and fantasy art junkie. Yes, I have bought books based solely on book cover art. Some book covers stoke my fire as much as the books they illustrate; sometimes more so. Therefore, an art book like Spectrum 14, the 2007 edition of the annual showcase of contemporary sf/fantasy art, is like a drug for someone like me. Every single page is brimming with the fantastic and imaginative by a variety of artists producing work in various sectors: advertising, books, comics, concept art, three-dimensional, editorial, and institutional. Even the previously unpublished works show outstanding talent.

I'm not sure if it was art junkie euphoria or an alignment between the Spectrum judges and my own personal tastes, but there was an incredibly high number of works showcased that simply blew me away. This was somewhat surprising since so many different artistic styles are on display; you'd think that the selection would be hit and miss. Sure, some of the images didn't appeal as much as others - usually the ones that relied on photography - but they were very few and far between.

The work overall offers much in variety of content, style, vision, and choice of palettes. Some of the images tell a story (something I find to be quite an accomplishment with a single panel) while others simply display wondrous scenery in which to wander. Some are grand in scale, others are more personal. Some offer a unique view on some recognizable tropes and characters, other present a brand new vision. What they all have in common is creativity and imagination - the stuff of wonder.

The production value of the book itself is high, with a thick page stock that prevents images on opposite-facing pages from showing through. At the back of the book, there's a handy index of the presented artists. In the front of the book, Arnie Fenner's extensive introduction gives a review of the previous year. Perhaps too much space was spent here on non-art-related items, but it does support the point that current events shape the artists' work. Fenner's passion for the field shines through and offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the art community. (For example, did you know there was elitism in the art world? I didn't. Apparently some people make a class distinction between artists and illustrators. Go figure.) That said, one does not open the cover of such a book looking for commentary so much as eye candy - and this book has it in spades.

Spectrum is a great way to discover new artists and reconnect with familiar ones - or it simply serves as a means to get a quick fix of that sense of wonder that lures fans to genre. I've garnered a whole new respect for the talent that's currently out there. If fantastic art appeals to you in any way, check out some of the artist links in this review and see for yourself.

Posted by John at 12:28 AM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Comic book fiction mixed with some realistic personalities creates a fun read for superhero fans.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Corefire is missing and Doctor Impossible has escaped again. Was he responsible for Corefire's disappearance? Well, the New Champions are on the case.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Interesting narrative style; Fantastic characters.
CONS: Some of the transitions into and out of the flashbacks are a little abrupt; Some characters could use a bit more development.
BOTTOM LINE: A great book with some minor flaws that gives yet another view on superheros.

Before I get into the review of the contents of the book, I have to talk about the cover and jacket for this book. The hardcover edition of the book has a dust jacket that is shown in the image at the top of the review. The front shows a helmet being held by two gloved hands, and the rear of the jacket shows gloves being pulled on by blue hands. This is pretty much stating this is a book about costumed meta-humans. Under the dust jacket, one normally expects a rather plain cover, but that is not the case for this book. Its a full color image showing a set of costumes in a stack. It really is a nice touch and makes it pretty clear what you are reading for all to see. All the images of the hardcover can be found over at Amazon.

With that out of the way, I can move on to the actual contents of the book which is probably why folks are reading these things. The book is really told from two main perspectives. One is the perspective of Doctor Impossible, and he is a major super villain. The other is from the viewpoint of Fatale, and she is a cyborg who has been recruited by the Champions during the current crisis (Corefire being missing). I am not going to spend a lot of time on the plot since there are a few twists that should be experienced. The book is broken down into the three main parts with the story switching every chapter for a change of viewpoint. I really enjoyed this aspect of the storytelling and it was accented by a specific font or image at the beginning of the chapter to help reinforce the change of perspective. The Doctor Impossible sections have a number of flashbacks to flesh out the characters in the book. These are a great tool, but might be slightly over used and the transitions back are not always that smooth. There were a couple times I felt that they returned rather abruptly.

Mr. Grossman does understand what makes comic book heroes work and he does a fine job of weaving these characters together. I really felt that his Doctor Impossible was a fantastic villain who I found myself liking more than the heroes in the story, and it is the characters that really work in this book. They each feel distinct and at one point you start to realize that most superhero stories don't have to deal with things like retirement or the loss of one's powers. I do wish he gave a little more attention to some of the minor characters, but that is a minor nitpick. It might also be something that is rectified in a future book.

In the end, I felt the book was a fun read. It is not making political commentary or a social statement, but instead tells a story about meta humans. It does a great job with the main characters and presents one of my new favorite villains. Furthermore, I now have new names for my villains in the the next superhero game - oh yes, look out for Count Smackula This book is something that can be read by non-superhero fans and fans of those types of stories are well served by the story.

Posted by Tim at 1:22 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

As in previous years (see the entries for 2006 and 2007), I ventured forth and read the short fiction finalists for the 2007 Nebula Awards. I find this to be a fun yearly project, though for some reason it seemed like it took longer to complete this year; probably due to personal time constraints more than anything. All but two of the stories (the novelettes "The Fiddler of Bayou Teche" by Delia Sherman and "The Children's Crusade" by Robin Wayne Bailey) were available online this year. If I come across those stories, I'll update this post.

The short fiction entries this year fared better overall than in previous years. The only two stories I could have done without were both fantasies, keeping in line with my hit-or-miss track record for fantasy. When the stories worked, they worked in a big way. While the profitability of short fiction may be debatable, there's no denying the quality and creativity of which the format is capable.

In a nutshell, then, here are my impressions of the stories in each category, sorted from most to least enjoyable. My winning picks are the tops ones listed in each category. Story titles link to online versions, where available.

"Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard
"Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress
"Memorare" by Gene Wolfe
"The Helper and His Hero" by Matt Hughes
"Kiosk" by Bruce Sterling
"Awakening" by Judith Berman

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
"Safeguard" by Nancy Kress
"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" by Kij Johnson
"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter" by Geoff Ryman
"Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone" by Terry Bramlett

[Not read] "The Fiddler of Bayou Teche" by Delia Sherman
[Not read] "The Children's Crusade"

"Titanium Mike Saves the Day" by David D. Levine
"Captive Girl" by Jennifer Pelland
"Pride" by Mary Turzillo
"Always" by Karen Joy Fowler
"Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse" by Andy Duncan
"The Story of Love" by Vera Nazarian

Reviewlettes of the stories follow...

A fine example of how science fiction can be Literary can be found in "Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard, though you wouldn't know this was anything other than mainstream fiction until halfway through the story, and even then in a downplayed manner. Seen through the eyes of its narrator, Vernon, comes a story of how a small Pennsylvania town named Black William experienced an artificial culmination of creativity and genius. Vernon is a small-time record producer who, for his part in the rapture, finds renewed love with his ex-wife Andrea. His latest project is a surprising new musical talent: a twentysomething named Joe Stanky whose predilection for sexual perversion needs to be kept in check lest it foul up the music career that Vernon is trying to launch for him. It eventually becomes evident that something is amiss with the townsfolk as people experience bursts of one emotion or other; an occurrence that coincides with the appearance of strange stars that appear out of nowhere only to disappear once again. This is an oddity which dates back in the town's history to the days of its nogoodnick founder. As interesting as this alien harvest was, Shepard chooses to focus on the people and it works. Through detailed characterizations we see a range of human relationships and feelings that are no less captivating than the science fiction that loiters in the background. Like in his story "The Arcevoalo", Shepard makes lyrical prose look easy: conveying multitudes of depth and insight with few words; creating a quiet story with serious implications; and writing a fascinating story without the easy trappings of science fiction. Well done.

The setting of "Fountain of Age" reminded me at times of another Nancy Kress story I read recently: "Inertia", published in John Joseph Adams's Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse anthology. Both stories are set in a near-future world plagued by social unrest and environmental issues, with people huddled under domes. And both stories offer a rich backdrop to tell a story. Here we meet elderly protagonist, Max Feder, a resident in an assisted living facility - but don't expect a story involving some lovable old codger; Max is a shameless crook. He made his fortune from insider information and shady dealings. He's even been in jail and is consistently hounded by the feds. The thrust of the story is Max's desire to once again see Daria, the woman he met during the war and with whom he fell in love. The story jumps to different points in Max's life until we get the whole picture: his strained relationship with his wife and son; his dangerous business relationship with Stevan, a shady gypsy who will one day get a visit from Max looking for secret passage to the rejuvenation satellite where Daria lives; and how Max unexpectedly found Daria after so many years apart. The one thing that kept me from enjoying this story to its fullest was Max's negative reactions when meting Daria after longing after her for so many years. I would have expected him to be overjoyed. Even so, there is plenty of richness in the setting and plot to maintain a hugely enjoyable reading experience.

Gene Wolfe's "Memorare" is an incredibly textured and involved story. March Wildspring is making a documentary about the asteroid memorials littering space and which pay tribute to those who died there. Some sects believe that the souls of visitors who die on these memorials are sent to serve those who are to be remembered - so some of these memorials are often loaded with fatal traps to further that goal. (This has the same Big Dumb Object coolness factor of "Diamond Dogs" by Alastair Reynolds, and the opening scene of "Memorare" is correspondingly filled with Indiana Jones-like adventure. I would have loved to see more of that element.) March's ultimate goal is to document the biggest memorial of all, which he dubs Number Nineteen. He would love for his sometime flame, Kit Carleson, to narrate and, fortunately, he meets Kit near the memorials of Jupiter. But Kit has someone in tow - a woman from March's past named Robin. Furthermore, Robin is being pursued by her violent husband, Jim, who hopes to win back Robin's affections. As you can guess, there is plenty of human drama playing out alongside the memorial documentary thread. The early parts of the story expertly balanced the two storylines, each one engrossing enough to temporarily forget the other. The resulting narrative - though somewhat unnatural in the dialogue department with some questions seemingly left hanging - was simply excellent. Yet when the four central characters finally arrive on Number Nineteen, the story seems to lose some of its steam. Instead of some real dangers, there's a "what is reality?" vibe that permeates and interrupts the flow, taking away from the overall impact of the rich setting. The story is still very good overall, though, an impression that is solidified by some realistic characterizations and portrayals of love and uncertainty.

[I read "The Helper and His Hero" as part of Matt Hughes's fixup novel The Commons. What follows is what I said then and, as such, reads better in the context of that review.] In the final episode (spread over two chapters just like it was published across two episodes of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine), Bandar strives to better understand the noösphere. He meets up with two mysterious strangers who are obviously (too obviously) more than they seem; one in particular exhibits unprecedented abilities. This is the longest episode of all and is also the most ambitious, but there is a cost. The story tries to layer in too many elements at once - murder mystery, debilitating disease, shady faith healer, noösphere prodigy, alien world-building - and therefore takes some time to get off the ground. On the plus side, Hughes does manage to successfully juggle all of them most of the time, with the ending offering nice closure to the story arc of the noösphere's self-awareness. It also shows us Bandar's ultimate fate. (Note: Regarding alien world-building, Hughes mentions the substance known as "black brillion", which is the title of one of his books set in this universe.)

Bruce Sterling's "Kiosk" is one of those stories that looks at technology and its effects on society. Set in a worldwide economic slump, the story initially focuses on Borsilav, a simple street merchant who captures a renewed wave of recycled consumerism by selling fabricated merchandise from a small, one-person kiosk. The poor-man who makes something of himself is a gratifying storyline, and it's interesting to see how Borislav envisions and shapes the economic future. But as soon as Borislav offers the kiosk to the politician, the story loses its heart. It changes from personal story to political tool and not even the planned rebellion can restore its former glory.

Judith Berman's "Awakening" is a fantasy story in a medieval setting about a highborn woman named Aleya who awakens amongst a pile of rotting corpses. It takes some time - a lot of time - for the thrust to story to kick in, but she eventually realizes that she is dead and on the run from her old lord. Magic is prevalent here, not only from the lord but (surprisingly to Aleya) from the commoners as well. A barbarian awakens Aleya in the hopes of making her find a magical artifact. As you can tell, this is steeped in fantasy, which is unfortunate for me because this type of fantasy is simply not my cup of tea. While it was interesting to see elements of zombies peek through the magical curtains and the contrast between Aleya's narcissism and her dead flesh, I simply couldn't get into this one.


Ted Chiang is often regarded as an excellent short story writer and with his wonderful story, "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," it's not difficult to see why. It's the story of a Baghdad merchant who learns of the existence of an amazing artifact: a gate that acts as a wormhole allowing time travel across the space of 20 years. Chiang, using a "stories within stories" approach, has the Alchemist who owns the gate teaching the merchant about the rules of time travel - all while being firmly planted in Arab culture and mores. The author also treats the theme of time travel head-on by using cool time convolutions that are integral to the story. Meticulously tight plotting, excellent storytelling and great uses of time travel mark this story as a winner.

Nancy Kress takes us to a near-future, post-war Amercia in "Safeguard," where a geneticist named Taney is caring for four inexperienced children in a government biodome. The children are obviously being studied, and it is quickly learned that they are in fact genetically engineered weapons that have been bred by terrorists in the war against America. Although the danger is expressed early on, the nature of that danger is not revealed until near the end, a wise decision that creates this incredible undercurrent of suspense throughout the story. Layered on top of that are astute characterizations which show Taney's compassion and wisdom and the innocence of children. Smartly plotted and gripping. Well done.

"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change" by Kij Johnson is an interesting story that shows the plight of dogs after a seemingly beneficial Change that has granted them the power of speech. They thus move away from becoming our "slaves" and more towards our equals, which does not sit well with their current owners whose complacency is replaced by uneasiness and fear. The main focus is on the girl Linna who sympathizes with the dogs who are being forced to rely more and more on survival instincts as mankind is moved to action. This is an affecting story, somewhat reminiscent of Clifford Simak's fixup novel City, particularly when the dogs share their history through stories.

[I originally read "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter" by Geoff Ryman as part of a 2007 Hugo Award Short Fiction reading project. What follows is what I said then.] In this story, the daughter of the infamous Cambodian leader of the Khmer Rouge (the man behind the "Killing Fields") falls in love with a young cell phone salesman and is haunted by the ghosts of her father's past. This is really a story about redemption. Sith, a shallow rich girl who always had everything done for her, falls for Dara and hides from him her true identity. She has little memory of her father and refuses to learn about his past actions. But she is forced to face that past when the ghosts of those murdered in the Killing Fields begin contacting her. This is done through copy machines that print their faces even when they are unplugged, or through cell phones and iPods. Eventually, she must come to terms with the atrocities of the past and finally attempts to atone for the sins of her father. Ryman's haunting story is powerful for its fact-based background alone, although the repeated reminders that the story is entirely fictional took away from its immersive quality. The prose is clean and to the point. However, Sith's transition from spoiled brat to redeemer probably took longer than was needed. To Ryman's credit, he managed to get this fantasy-indifferent reader totally bought in to the idea of ghosts.

["Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone" by Terry Bramlett was originally reviewed in Jim Baen's Universe #7] Terry Bramlett's serene fantasy story, "Child, Maiden, Woman, Crone", is about a Navajo farmer and musician named Johnny Nobles. As a musician, Johnny is a one-hit-wonder who has since retreated to his corn crops. Early one year, Johnny meets a young girl who inspires him to write a beautiful piece of music. Throughout the year, the maiden named Natalie Whiteshell returns, aging much faster than humanly possible, and Johnny forms a relationship with her. Bramlett's clear, capable writing conveys the points of the story quickly. The only glaring detriment is how Johnny inexplicably delays questioning his true love about her obvious age progression. It doesn't kill the story, but it does hold it back.


David D. Levine's "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" is an affecting story of the history of man's ascension into space, told in reverse chronological order through various vignettes. Each one uses the rousing power of a mythical figure (Titanium Mike) to overcome some obstacle. Levine's writing is breezy and fable-like (as it should be for this story) and his attention to story construction and detail (like the girl's bubblegum-colored space suit) and are top notch. Well done.

Jennifer Pelland's "Captive Girl" is a creepy, bizarre and ultimately wonderful story. The main character, 19 year-old Alice, is perpetually masked and strapped in a Christopher Pike-like wheelchair, intentionally rendered deaf, blind and mute so that she can watch the skies for the possible return of the unidentified black spaceships that caused massive destruction to her planetary colony a decade ago. Marika, Alice's caretaker, calls Alice her "captive girl" and they are lovers of a sort, though it hinges on Marika being either a control freak or a fetishist. The relationship therefore goes south when the project to watch the skies is closed down and Alice has a chance to be "normal" again. The setting, which is imaginative (alien attacks, watchers, and children enlisted to be the space colony's lookout make this story interesting by itself) soon gives way to the bizarre situation of the Alice/Marika relationship, exploring themes of love and sacrifice in what feels like a David Cronenberg film. Great fun, in an off-putting sort of way.

In "Pride" by Mary Turzillo, a man rescues a baby sabertooth from a cloning facility and raises it like a pet. Initially unassuming, this story builds up the tension as the cub grows larger and more fearsome. I'm not entirely sure how Kevin attempts to get his life back on track by stealing a lab experiment, but when his ex-girlfriend has a change of heart, he is lulled even further into denial of the dangers that are sure to explode. [Originally reviewed in Fast Forward 1 edited by Lou Anders.]

In Andy Duncan's "Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse", a priest named Father Leggett follows a cryptic phone message to meet a five year-old girl named Mary who has taught a "frizzled" chicken to walk in reverse. Because of the chicken's special behavior (never pecks back at the other chickens, looks into the sky as if praying, "cures" Mary's stomachache) she thinks it's Jesus Christ. This ultimately consumes father Leggett's thoughts, affecting him more than the girl - all the better, it seems, to serve his calling. Duncan's engaging writing makes this a fun story.

The promise of eternal life is examined in Karen Joy Fowler's "Always". The teenage narrator and her boyfriend join a commune called Always where the leader, Brother Porter, promises them all immortality if they follow his rules; like abstinence for all except himself and whomever he chooses to bed. The obvious explanation - that this is a cult - is never challenged by the narrative though some of the characters do. If this has to be classified as genre fiction (which to me, it isn't) then it would have to be nebulously labeled as Slipstream, which (I think) refers to "mainstreamy" genre fiction. Classification aside, Fowler nicely creates detailed pictures with swift-moving prose and has whipped up a good story.

"The Story of Love" by Vera Nazarian Crea is told through the eyes of Crea, the daughter of a desert city merchant who physically abuses her. Crea's only escape is to find a husband who will take her away. Eventually, Crea's father exchanges his daughter's hand in marriage, yet even free from her father Crea still can't seem to find love with her new husband. There is ultimately a message of forgiveness, but for the life of me (being the grudge-carrying person I am, I guess) I couldn't see any reason to do so. Nor could I see why this story was so difficult for me to read. The fantasy content wasn't stoking my fire, sure, but something in the prose made it a bit difficult to trudge through. Oh well.

Posted by John at 12:28 AM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

Where Halting State sounds like a riff on Dreampark. Glasshouse actually has more in common with Dreampark than Halting State. Glasshouse takes place in the far future, where post-human humanity has been ravaged by war. Unfortunately, a virus was released that makes people forget the cause of the war and why they are fighting. This leads to the fragmentation of humanity as those who are trying to piece civilization back together must contend with those who are still infected. Enter Robin, who seems to have an assassin tracking him down, but he can't remember why. Robin voluntarily under went a memory wipe to try and reprogram himself into something different. This wipe also makes him a good candidate to enter the experimental 'Glasshouse', whose inhabitants are recreating the time period 1950-2040, in a completely isolated environment. However, those who want to kill him may have followed him there.

I'd have to say that Glasshouse is one of the best books I've read this year. It's filled with all sorts of future technology like post-humans, 'always-on' mental network connections, computer viruses that use people as vectors, as well as a ton of other, heavy-duty SF-nal ideas. And Stross manages to fill the story with this without exhausting the reading with jargon, as in Accelerando. If you want high tech speculation in a far future setting, Glasshouse is your book.

As far as the story goes, Stross gives us a good one. Robin, who is male, wakes up in the 'Glasshouse' in a female body. With this, he realizes that the person out to get him could be anyone, including the person he ends up being 'married' to. Everything Robin says or does is then filtered through the lens of cautious paranoia. Additionally, using the time period of 1950-2040 allows Stross to play around with societal conventions that we are familiar with and show just how odd some of the could seem to people who aren't familiar with them. Of course, being from the far future, the experimenters also get several things incorrect, which the reader will realize, but the characters don't. All of this sets up a environment that makes it hard for Robin to figure out who to trust, although its rather obvious who the bad guys are. But even here, as we learn what is actually going on, Stross has a few twists to add that change the way we view those in charge. And any book that creates a military organization, the Linebarger Cats, just as an homage to Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger), has a lot going for it.

There's a lot of stuff going on here: ideas of what makes us human, self-determination, perception of reality, and all of it wrapped up in a really cool SF setting, filled with lots of action and intriguing set pieces. About the only criticism I have is that the story dragged a bit during the middle part as Robin is trying to get used to the 'Glasshouse' and is figuring out what is going on. Still, that is a minor nit in what is a very fine science fiction novel.

Posted by JP at 12:45 AM | Discussion (5) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

In 2018, a daring bank robbery takes place at Hyak Associates. However, this is no ordinary robbery, being executed by a band of marauding orcs with a dragon as backup in the online game world of Avalon Four. The robbery was supposed to be impossible as the data exists in multiple locations, each checking the others to ensure integrity. That it happens at all leads to some serious questions about the network underlying the future Earth.

Edinburgh constable Sue Smith is called on to investigate and must join forces with Elain Barnaby, a forensic accountant, and Jack Reed, an unemployed game programmer to figure out what happened and what is going on behind the scenes.

While at first glance Halting State may sound like a modern day take on Dreampark, the action doesn't take place in a game, but in the 'real' world. Having said that, Halting State is a darn good read, especially if you are a techie or an online game player.

The first thing you'll notice when reading Halting State is that the entire book is written in the second person. This can be rather odd, as Stross changes characters every chapter and 'you' change gender frequently. However, given the subject matter of virtual reality and gaming, this is a genius device to bring the feeling that 'you' are actually playing the game as detailed in the story. 'You' do everything here, all the interactions and events happen to 'you'. The only disconnect is that, unlike a 'real' game, 'you' don't actually get to influence the outcome, it's more like 'you' are involved in a movie of the game of Halting State. Still, it's an interesting way to get you interested in the story.

And what a story. Stross has created a future where tech has invaded every aspect of life, including RFID in clothes, realistic VR games and wireless net connectivity everywhere. Sure, these tropes have been used before, but Stross takes their interactions and affects on life to a whole other level. Think Accelerando, only in a near future Earth. Stross also peppers the story with a wry, dark sense of humor that lends itself well to the 'gaming' feeling of the story. If you are a tech junkie, like myself, or are into video games at all, like myself, Halting State is like a trip to the Apple store (or game store), filled with all sorts of shiny things that make you say, "Cool!". Stross obviously has a keen grasp of tech and gaming culture and is able to use this to create a very realistic feeling future world.

However, because the tech used in the story is different from today, the reader doesn't have a good grasp on how or why things work, or the implications for society. Couple that with the second person narrative, and 'you' don't really have the ability to figure out what's going on because 'you' haven't grown up in the Halting State world. This leads to the unfortunate use of info dumps at the end of the story to describe what the reasons where for the bank heist (think Chinese gold farmers on steroids) and why it constitutes a threat to the 'net's integrity. The ending also ties up a bit to neatly, although you have to like a book that uses a flash mob of zombies in its resolution. There is also a lot of jargon tossed out that could overwhelm someone who isn't into tech or gaming.

Even with a somewhat disappointing ending, Halting State is well worth it for the tech junkies and gaming fans among us. I think the story is still a fine one even if you don't fit those two categories, but be prepared to work at understanding the jargon inHalting State.

Posted by JP at 12:44 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A memorable, one-sitting read.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A fact-based graphic novel about the first animal sent into space.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Great basis for a story; the fact-based details and meaty character portrayals enhanced the reading experience; artwork lends itself to the mood of the story.
CONS: The launch scene laid on the sentimentality a little too thick.
BOTTOM LINE: An affecting story that is sure to have lingering effects after reading it.

Laika is a graphic novel based on the factual events surrounding the launch of the Russian satellite, Sputnik II; specifically around the first living animal to travel in space: the dog named Laika. Three story threads follow the main characters: the dog, of course; Chief Designer Sergei Korolyov, the scientist behind the space program project who is trying to redeem his reputation since his internment as a political prisoner; and Yelena, the dog trainer who readies Laika for her fateful (and ill-fated) mission.

Three brief sentences describing each story line does not really do justice to the amount of material presented. There is a surprising amount of substance here, both fact-based and fictional. Laika's story follows her from pup to astronaut, concisely depicting the hardships she endures, like bratty kids with daddy issues and brutal dog catchers. Eventually, Laika makes it into the hands of Yelena, a newcomer to the Russian space program and happy to do her small part for the good of the country. Yelena is unable to detach herself from the animals and develops a particular fondness for Laika, who has just the right temperament for the job. There is also some background into Korolyov's early years as a political prisoner and his self-assigned fate with destiny. Abadzis does an excellent job with all these characterizations. You feel like you know the characters and what they've been through. Additionally, there are several factual details about 1950's Russia and the Sputnik mission itself (dates and technologies, for example) that enhance the overall setting and mood of the story.

The story itself, as might be expected, hinges on the cold, hard truth of animal experimentation, and that card is mostly not overplayed. Some amount of heart-string tugging could naturally be expected, of course, but the eventual scene of that fateful Sputnik II launch laid on the sentimentality a little too thick. Overall it was still very well-handled and effective, to be sure, but nonetheless it was noticeable in that later scene.

As for the artwork, Abadzis's character renditions are drawn consistently so it's not hard to keep the characters straight. The drab coloring works perfectly against the Russian winter, the stark atmosphere in which the story takes place, and the seriousness of the situation. Additionally, the publisher (First Second) seems to have spared no expense in producing a book with nice, thick pages and a comfortable heft.

Tying all this together, Laika is an affecting story that is sure to have lingering effects long after reading it.

(Note: There must be something about this subject that makes for great stories. Andy Duncan's 2001 novella "The Chief Designer" [reviewed here] is another excellent story revolving around the Russian space program, in this case around Korolyov and beyond.)

Posted by John at 12:59 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Without Punktown, Blue War is just another good sf detective novel.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Shapeshifting detective Jeremy Stake is hired to identify a clone found in a rapidly-growing replica of Punktown located on the planet Sinon, where he fought in the Blue War.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: A good mystery; clear writing; the story really comes together in the last third of the book.
CONS: The appeal of Punktown is all but gone; Thi Gonh's character comes across as weak when we know she is stronger.
BOTTOM LINE: A good detective novel, but I want to see a return to Punktown.

Jeffrey Thomas Punktown novel, Deadstock, was one of my best reads in 2007. Shapeshifting private detective Jeremy Stake is back in Blue War. Jeremy is hired by the Colonial Defense Forces to identify a cloned human found on the extra-dimensional planet of Sinon, where an organic replica of his own Punktown has mysteriously appeared - and continues to grow at an alarming rate. Sinon is also where Stake fought in the Blue War with the CDF years before (despite the misleading book title), so he takes the opportunity to reconnect with Thi Gonh, an enemy sniper with whom he fell in love.

One of the things that impressed me about Deadstock was the cool setting. Punktown is a delicious blend of science fiction mutants and horror elements - as much a character as any other in the book. In Blue War, most of the action takes place in Bluetown, which may look like Punktown on the surface but lacks any of its charm. Every time Stake travels around Bluetown looking for clues the reader is reminded that's it's not just the residents missing, it's the attraction of the setting. Coincidentally, this was the same problem I had with George Alec Effinger's The Exile Kiss; take away the setting and lose the lure. Without Punktown, Blue War, while good, is just another sf detective novel.

Stakes reason for visiting Bluetown (the identity of the clone found there and a chance to look up his old flame) soon gives way to a larger mystery involving corruption, espionage, terrorism and cover-ups. In this, Thomas has set up an interesting enough mystery and drops enough clues along the way to build a solid means and motive for the bad guys. While the mystery took its time to unfold, I found myself drawn to the story of Stake and Thi Gonh.

Stake is still a likable character. He's thorough, has good intentions, and flies in the face of authority to get the job done. Stake himself is a mutant, his face unconsciously changing shape to match a person he stares at for too long. This is a handy ability to have as a private detective who might want to go under cover and get some answers, but Stake refrains from using it for much of the first half of the book. This wasn't so bad, really, as it was corrected later. However, the characterization of ex-soldier (and now ex-patriot) Thi Gonh was inconsistent with her legendary status as war hero. Here, she merely plays the abused wife with seemingly no desire to stand up to her husband. Sure, Thi Gonh lives in disgrace for falling in love with Stake, the human enemy. But I don't buy that this tough soldier would sit back and let her culture dictate her lack of action or reaction.

Eventually the human drama took a back seat to the main mystery. This is a detective novel after all. The last parts of the book were the strongest: the clues are pieced together, the motives become clear, enemies come into focus, Stake finally takes advantage of his shapeshifting abilities, and some fast-moving action scenes follow one another to a satisfying conclusion.

Blue War works as a good detective novel, but Thomas has shown us more. I still like Punktown but I want to see Jeremy Stake back in the element that made me like his adventures in the first place.

Posted by John at 12:35 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a guest review by Karen Burnham, proprietor of Spiral Galaxy Reviews. Karen is vocationally an engineer and avocationally a speculative fiction reviewer. She also writes for Strange Horizons, SFRevu.com and others.]

REVIEW SUMMARY: Diverse adventures, with annoying coincidences.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The adventures begin for two interesting young people touched by the gods.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Lovely stories-within-stories; interesting world-building; empathetic characters.
CONS: Too many places where odd details or unlikely coincidences kicked me out of my suspension of disbelief.
BOTTOM LINE: A worthy fantasy novel, but with more than its fair share of annoyances.

"The first time Leodora spoke to a god, she had climbed to the top of the bridge tower and she was masked."

What a fantastic opening line! So we read of Leodora climbing the bridge tower. She has been masquerading as a young man, since female performers are banned in this part of the world. Her hair is bound and she wears a mask. She reaches the top of the tower, lets her red hair flow, takes off her mask, and then a statue of a god animates and speaks to her.

Wait, that awesome opening line said she was masked, but she took off her mask before speaking to the god. So now I stop and think: is the "mask" now meant to be symbolic, is it her inner self that's masked, was it a continuity error...?

Little things like that kept me from enjoying this book as much as I could have. Often I would be reading along only to be jarred out of the flow by something that didn't seem to make sense. Luckily there were many lengthy sections that I could enjoy uninterrupted, but those would make the next intrusion all the more jarring.

Leodora, although a young woman, is a master puppeteer. Her stock in trade is stories. Embedded throughout this book are stories and myths that she has learned over the years. These myths are beautifully written and none of them lead to any moments of interruption. After Leodora's encounter with the god, we go back and learn about her childhood. She was an orphan, raised by her unpleasant uncle. As she got older, her uncle got much, much worse, often being violent. From another villager, Leodora finally learned about her parents. She determined to follow in the footsteps of her father Bardsham, a world-famous puppeteer.

Leodora is a very strong character. She is practical, talented, and a hard worker. Once she determines to get away from her island village, abusive uncle, and awful arranged marriage, she gets right down to business. However, there had also been a mysterious supernatural force calling for her to do something for years. Then a sea dragon shows up and by letting her ride it causes her to break some sacred island taboos. After that she couldn't stay even if she wanted to, which she doesn't. All of this seems like redundant help in leaving that Leodora really didn't need. A practical, talented girl getting away from a bad situation would have been enough, why all the supernatural aids? It seems like authorial overkill.

Having seen Leodora safely away from her village, we next get the story of Diverus. He was born severely mentally deficient, probably autistic. Eventually abandoned by his family, he is chained to a "dragon bowl," a place where the gods sometimes randomly appear and give gifts. He is lucky enough to be present at the visitation of a god, but the god's gifts appears to be nothing more than a pile of what may be Tupperware [pause for a moment to consider if this is an sf tale in disguise?] His "owner," being disappointed at Diverius' poor profit, sells him to a "paidika," a place where young boys are exploited for the pleasure of older men. [But not *that* way. Pause to wonder why the author feels the need to replace all too real sexual abuse and drug use with something magical.] However, it appears that the gods have given Diverius more than his owners suspected. Thus when he finally meets up with Leodora, [pause to consider that this meeting requires no fewer than three unlikely coincidences to happen all at once] he is a natural partner for her in her continuing adventures.

One can forgive a lot when the characters are likable, which both Leodora and Diverius are, the story-telling interesting, especially the mythic sections, and the world-building well done. Sometimes a major source of interest in a story is the puzzle of how such a world could come to be, and that is the case here. The entire world is a series of bridges, with each "span" having its own language and culture. [Pause to consider another authorial convenience: when characters travel from span to span they are magically altered to be able to read and speak whatever language is native to the new span - no need for translators!] The author provides us with several scenes from the creation myth of this world, describing how such an unlikely situation may have come to be. It is fascinating, and lends an exotic air to the atmosphere of the story. Also, there are hints that the gods may be particularly interesting, and we only get tantalizing glimpses of them. Shadowbridge is a book that adopts a Mediterranean-style of stories-within-stories, and does it well. Much like the Arabian Nights it keeps things interesting and allows the story teller to speak of many things that the heroes may not directly encounter. Also, just as the Mediterranean story tellers existed in a place where many cultures overlapped, the easy travel between the "spans" allows for the mixing of exotic cultures. It's nice to see fantasy authors moving away from the generally medieval European landscape that has come to be associated with the fantasy genre. We live in a diverse multicultural world, and Gregory Frost makes it clear that Leodora and Diverius do as well.

Add that to all that the fact that it's easy to root for Leodora and Diverius, and I suspect I'll probably end up reading the sequel volume, annoyances notwithstanding. The promotional material says that this is book one of a duology, even though it feels like Leodora's adventures are only just beginning. Book two will have to be fairly packed to make good on all the promises made here, and we'll have to see if Frost can deliver.

Posted by Karen at 1:46 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Guest reviewer Fred Kiesche is the one of the bloggers extraordinaire at Texas Best Grok]

REVIEW SUMMARY: Space opera from the Golden Age of science fiction at its best!

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Two shorter installments (both expanded from even shorter original appearances) in the saga of Eric John Stark, rogue, mercenary, thief, and man of honor. Stark gets caught up in two wars fought among the tribes Mars; trying to prevent a war from spreading in the first and trying to restore a friend's honor in the second.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Leigh Brackett, who not only turned out endless reams of foolscap that were turned into endless pages of pulp did turn out the occasional jewel. The tales of Eric John Stark are among them. Dead sea-bottoms, exotic women, decaying cities, strange artifacts...all that and more!
CONS: The cover art is somewhat crude, especially when compared to the beautiful cover on the recent publication of Loreli of the Red Mists by Brackett. This might turn off part of the audience that would read such a classic.
BOTTOM LINE: When you get through this one and find yourself enchanted with these tales of Old Mars, you'll probably want to seek out more of Brackett's tales. Lucky for you, we seem to be in a bit of a Brackett revival so take a look at Haffner Press and their high-quality small-press hardcovers covering Brackett's early works (if you don't mind the price) or Baen Books' bargain bundle of electronic books (which contains these two tales and others).

The volume is made up of two tales of Eric John Stark and is part of Paizo's Planet Stories ongoing revival of classic pulp from the Golden Age. Stark was raised as a wild child in the twilight belt of Mercury. Many of his adventures take place on Mars, among the dry sea bottoms and ruined cities where Stark is caught up in wars, treasure searches, freedom fights and other events; eventually in books such as The Ginger Star, he moves out of our solar system.

Leigh Brackett churned out a lot of works for the various pulp shops such as Planet Stories, Weird Tales, Astounding Science Fiction and others. Many of these are interchangeable either in terms of plot or in terms of genre (you could easily set the basic plot in a space opera or a horse opera). Some efforts in detective fiction led to her being hired by Howard Hawks (who, famously, wanted "this guy Brackett") to help on The Big Sleep, launching her on a parallel writing career which eventually led to her working on The Empire Strikes Back (the best of the Star Wars films, in my own humble opinion). Her career moved between written fiction and filmed fiction for the rest of her life.

(As a side note, like another famous science fiction couple from the Golden Age - C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner - Brackett was married to Edmond "World Wrecker" Hamilton. Unlike Moore and Kuttner, I am not sure if Brackett and Hamilton ever worked so closely on stories together that it became difficult to determine where one's efforts ended and the other's efforts started, but their marriage also resulted in one good crossover tale when Eric John Stark ends up in the universe of the Star Kings, in Stark and the Star Kings.)

In the first story, The Secret of Sinharat, Stark gets involved in a revolution of the various Martian tribes against the oppressors of the solar system. One of the revolutionaries claims to have discovered an ancient device that allows one to transfer your essence into a new body and offers to share this in return for the support of the masses (what happens when they run out of fresh young bodies to transfer to is not really touched upon!). Muddying the picture are a trio of mysterious strangers who are much more than they seem to be.

In the second story, The People of the Talisman, Stark is traveling to the northern polar region of Mars in order to help a exiled comrade back to his home city before he dies. It turns out that the comrade stole an artifact from the city and wishes to restore it. Stark takes up his burden, encounters a large raiding party lead by a mysterious champion that plans to attack the city, and in the process of escaping from them, nearly loses his life. He makes it to the city where his warnings are disbelieved, except by members of the lower class. When the attack comes, he leads the survivors in a desperate search past the Gates of Death to try and find the mysterious power that will turn back the attack.

These are tales from the Golden Age. Every planet was inhabitable in the stories that Brackett wrote; even asteroids could possess a breathable atmosphere. Every planet also had aliens that were very human (Star Trek did not invent inter-species mating!). Two-fisted, hard-bitten spacemen, burned black by the Sun under the alien skies, wore their worn leathers easily, blasters at the side, watching for treasure or trouble.

Mars is clearly derived from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, just as Ray Bradbury took the atmosphere from both Burroughs and Brackett and even two that helped to shape the New Wave dipped their toes into this literary tradition: Michael Moorcock in his tales of Kane of Old Mars and Roger Zelazny in his excellent short work "A Rose For Ecclesiastes". Substitute Mars for the Middle East or the American West and you get the idea. All of this has been superseded by what "reality". But...ignore all of that...

Ignore the fact that we can't breathe on Mars, that there are no ruins and mysterious artifacts. That Mars isn't warm enough for beautiful alien women to go around half-dressed. That lizard-like riding beasts carry you into battle against the dwellers from the low canals. Brackett, despite turning out "pulp" excels at description. She excels at pace, and at plot. These are brief tales, but you will be carried away to a wonderous place. Both these tales are examples of how good storytelling and timeless characters can overcome obsolete "facts" and settings. Highly recommended!

Posted by Fred at 1:37 AM | Discussion (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Six original novellas set against galactic empire backdrops.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Top SF authors attack the theme of galactic empires with armfuls of sensawunda.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Plenty of sense of wonder; impressive lineup of writing talent; worthwhile returns to some preexisting universes.
CONS: Although there's not a bad story in the bunch, some of them vary in quality.
BOTTOM LINE: A very nice collection of stories by some of the field's most prominent authors.

Galactic Empires is the latest original themed anthology from the Science Fiction Book Club. Immediately noticeable is the impressive lineup of top-notch writing talent attached to it: Peter F. Hamilton, Neal Asher, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, and Ian McDonald. These are some of the most prominent names writing science fiction today.

But how well do they address the theme of galactic empires set forth by editor Gardner Dozois?

Pretty nicely, actually. As promised, each story is set against a grand scale backdrop of a galactic empire. Some stories even manage to successfully juggle multiple empires with ease. This large canvas gives each story and air of drama and that much-loved sense of wonder. Taken together, there is enough sense of wonder between these covers for even the most discerning reader.

While none of these stories failed to entertain there was only one standout: Robert Reed's "The Man with the Golden Balloon". This was a riveting return to his Great Ship universe and embodies what I've come to expect from Reed and his imaginative playground. A few other familiar universes made appearances here and they were also welcome.

Full story reviews follow...

Peter F. Hamilton offers up another exciting Commonwealth story with "The Demon Trap". There are some familiar faces here and Hamilton does his usual excellent job at world building while giving us a good detective story to boot. (A detective story, by the way, that would be equally at home in either of two other Science Fiction Book Club themed anthologies: Down These Dark Spaceways and Alien Crimes, both edited by Mike Resnick.) Here, Paula Myo sets out to find a terrorist responsible for taking down an airplane. Paula is genetically-engineered to be a thorough detective but, as usual, there is more than meets the eye with this case. Her assignment allows us to see the evolution of Commonwealth technology's ability to copy memories and personalities. Those familiar with the Commonwealth know that humans have achieved near-immortality through rejuvenation. What is new - at least in the year that The Dreaming Void takes place - is the desire of people to have their single mind occupying multiple bodies. "The Demon Trap" is a nice bridge to that cultural situation and offers some more insight into Paul's background as well. All told, this is a nice installment in the Commonwealth universe and a very good standalone introduction to it.

Neal Asher's "Owner Space" opens with a group of people on the run from (1) the Collective - the dominating conformance society from which they escaped, and (2) an alien known to be dangerous to mankind. Their only salvation is to enter the mysterious Owner Space, an area of space that is home to a rumored God-like being equally intolerant of humans and aliens. Sound confusing? It may take a little time to get a clear picture of all factions and interrelationships involved (additionally there's the Markovian society which fell to the Collective) but the conflict is actually well-imagined and intriguing. The most memorable characters are the evil Collective Doctrinaire named Shrad, who is power-drunk and evil to the bone; the Owner, an unassuming human with mind-boggling but largely unexplained powers; and the Grazen alien mother, a hapless victim to man's atrocities. Some cool elements in the story - like the mind-controlling strouds and the automaton Guards it turns people into - round out a good story.

Robert Reed's Great Ship stories have been a consistent source of enjoyment. The entry in this anthology, "The Man with the Golden Balloon," is no exception. It takes place on a giant-planet-size ship, fortuitously found by humans and used as a Galactic cruise ship for themselves and alien passengers while it circumnavigates the galaxy. The time of this story is before the discovery of the planet Marrow at its center. Quee Lee and her husband, Perri, learn of a heretofore undiscovered part of the ship which they decide to explore. The months-long exploration of these deep caverns is filled with all the wonder I've come to expect from these stories and does not disappoint. But the story quickly turns to other matters of hidden Empires, nefarious plans, engrossing subterfuge, secret machines, mysteriously unnamed planets and the fate of civilizations - and does so while keeping the reader completely and totally captivated. The only thing keeping this from being a perfect short story is how it comes ever-so-close to revealing some all-important facts without actually doing so.

In "The Six Directions of Space," Alastair Reynolds posits not one but several galactic empires, all co-existing in different dimensions. The crossing point is a huge, hollowed-out moon called the Infrastructure where vehicles travel between the inner and outer shells. Phantoms are observed in one dimension (ruled by the Empire of Mongol Expansion) and are investigated by secret operative Ariunaa Bocheng (a.k.a. Yellow Dog) and Qilian, the leader of the Empire's Special Administrative Volume in Kuchlug. The situation is made a little more unusual because Bocheng was originally sent to spy on Qilian, who turns out to be a classically evil villain. Although circumstances lead them to work together, the switch is not entirely believable; especially when acting as a double agent would have made more sense for Bocheng, who is shown to be a dangerously effective and adept at what she does. Their explorations do evoke sensawunda in the form of startling discoveries and some jaunts between dimensions, but I found some of the events to suffer from discontinuity. For example, one scene ends with a prisoner seeming ready to reveal all, and the very next scene begins with that prisoner being tortured for withholding information. Then end result, while still decent, left room for reader engagement.

Stephen Baxter adds to his Xeelee stories with the ambitious "The Seer and the Silverman". (This one takes place sometime during the Third Expansion. There are also references to past stories and characters like Jack Raoul and Joens Wyman.) Here, the main concern of the protagonist, Donn Wyman, is what's been happening to the residents of the Reef, especially his younger brother; they've been disappearing and everyone suspects that it's the alien Ghosts with whom they live in uneasy alliance. It's not long before Donn finds out what's going on, learns a few things about the Ghosts and realizes the huge odds that are at stake. As usual, Baxter is thinking big. Really big. Super-huge concepts permeate the last third of the story in a rapid-fire succession mind-blowing infodumps. There's never any doubt about how the story will turn out, but this is still a fun ride.

Ian McDonald's "The Tear" presents a water world culture that encourages multiple personalities - specifically eight- upon entering adulthood. At that time, its members relocate to a "Manifold House" where their other identities are born. This story follows the life of the protagonist born as Ptey, a male identity that is eventually replaced by eight others over the course of the story. Ptey's passage to adulthood includes dealing with girls, a friend who cannot become multiple (Cjatay, a so-called "Lonely"), and - perhaps more prominently - the alien Anpreen that orbit the neighboring world for fuel. Ptey learns a terrible and dangerous secret of the Anpreen and their reason for emigration - a secret that forces him, against cultural taboo, to assume a ninth personality so that he can join them in their travels. Things only get worse for poor Ptey when the Anpreen situation comes to a boil. This is a very brief skimming over the central story, which itself is brief in comparison with the mind-numbing ideas being tossed about like balls in a lottery machine. Too many ideas may have taken the edge off this story, but it definitely has a most epic feel to it, the scope of which still has my mind reeling in wonder.

Posted by John at 12:27 AM | Discussion (5) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A great hard science fiction story that delivers more ideas in a single novel than most do in a series. Niven is a great writer, and this is a great collaboration.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Fleeing a chain-reaction supernovae in the galactic core, the Citizens (Puppeteers from Niven's other books) take their planets and head out. This fleet of worlds comes across a human colony ship and turns the embryos they find into a race of slaves. Kirsten is one of the best and brightest and is eventually sent out to scout ahead of the fleet looking for danger. What she ends up discovering involves the history of her race and threatens to send the Citizen planets spinning out of control.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Niven and Lerner turn in a fantastic collaboration. Even if you haven't read any of Niven's known space novels you'll find a lot to like here. Excellent set of ideas around the alternative evolution of life, exploiting teleportation, starship construction, and much more.
CONS: You really need to be a fan of science fiction to enjoy this book.
BOTTOM LINE: Set in the universe of the Ringworld novels, this book stands very well on its own and delivers a very strong hard science fiction experience. It is a great novel that is not to be missed.

Set 200 years before the discovery of the Ringworld, Niven and Lerner do a great job putting together a reasonable prequel. The story fits with the rest of the universe, but it isn't necessary to have read any of the earlier works. I'm confident you will enjoy reading them in any order.

The alien creatures Niven has dreamed up are nothing short of fantastic. The Puppeteers are just as alien as ever with actions that are remorseless, back-stabbing, and cowardly. They aren't evil, but act out of so much self-interest that they are a threat to any other race they encounter. In their mind, it is better to destroy a proto-race that might be a threat in several years than it is to take the risk of letting them proceed naturally. They also introduce an alien species that evolved entirely in the water under a moon crusted with ice.

My favorite part of the novel involve describing the pedestrian use of teleportation technology and all the various uses to which it might be put. From transferring cargo to crossing planets to getting food on the table the authors take a good look at the many ways something like this might be used. Should teleportation ever become viable for humans, they would do well to look at the ideas from this book.

I have read the other Known Space novels but it has been many years since I read one. As a result, some concepts are familiar but I'm not intimate with the series. I had no troubles reading this book and enjoying it and can't see why somebody who hasn't read any of the other books would find this one a challenge. However, I saw one reviewer indicate that he felt the opposite - that if you hadn't read the previous books you would find this confusing. Certainly it is a valid opinion, but I might suggest that somebody who hasn't read any of Niven's other novels would be a better judge of this. My qualification is suspect here for the same reason.

I found this a great book to read and recommend it to others. This is the first of a two-volume series and has me anxiously awaiting the concluding chapters.

Posted by scottsh at 7:24 PM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A collection of well-written erotic science fiction short stories.

MY RATING: See the text below.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: 10 erotic science fiction short stories written by Polly Frost.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: An interesting collection of stories that makes fun of science fiction tropes occasionally but also contains some interesting ideas. Most of the stories involve a last-minute twist (ironic or otherwise) that I enjoy most in short fiction.
CONS: Some stories are just strange as opposed to interesting.
BOTTOM LINE: If you find erotic fiction to be your cup of tea, I think you'll enjoy this collection of stories that Polly has written.

Because I'm not sure how sensitive our readers are to this sort of thing, I'm putting the rest of my review and an analysis of each of the stories after the jump. Read on if you dare!

I think you have to be careful when reviewing erotic fiction because it certainly isn't for everybody. Because of that, I decided my regular review criteria didn't apply. If you like the genre, you're going to find this a pretty darn good collection of short stories. But if you don't, you shouldn't read it at all.

Of the ten stories, only 2 ("The Orifice" and "Imagine It") I didn't like. However this becomes more complex the more I think about it. Did I dislike the stories because they were poorly written? No - Polly can write and even these stories had good pacing, dialog, and characterization. Instead the things I didn't like were related to the plot and the strangeness of the situations. Is this a result of my own inhibitions or repressed desires? Maybe. Or maybe they would appeal more to others? I'll have to wait for other reviewers to see.

According to the author's forward, Polly revised the stories and prose through review at live readings in New York City. I suspect that shows up in the final work. Having gone through a trial by fire - live audiences are the most unpredictable and most difficult to impress - the text is succinct and focused. However sometimes I wonder if the humor didn't play a little bit better with a live audience than it does in text - if only because the lines can be delivered with a tone of voice that conveys better the authors intent.

But to paraphrase a wiser man, when it comes to good erotic fiction, I know it when I see it. This is certainly quality work.

"The Threshold" is a story about a virgin high school girl named Cameron. She is teased mercilessly by her friends for her virginity and finally decides to get it over with. But there is a new girl in town who places an unusual value on Cameron's virginity. The ending is scarier than I would have thought and as the first story in the book it set the stage well for the stories to follow.

"The Orifice" is a story about a pair of young lovers obsessed with piercings. They get more than they bargained for in a special piercing shop though and ... well, you'll just have to read the story. This is one of the stories that didn't work for me. I found the ending to be flat rather than the high impact I think Polly wanted. I also wonder if this is one of those stories that was very powerful in a live performance but didn't translate to text as well. I don't know much about the piercing culture and as a result it might have gone over my head.

"The Dominatrix has a Career Crisis" gives us Katie, a working dominatrix who finds her job boring. Punishing people no longer has the thrill it did and instead she finds herself drawn to a humiliating scene from high school between her and a teacher. Once she finds him, will the teacher submit to Katie or will he be the one with the power? I enjoyed this story quite a bit because the premise was very cool and the plot took some unexpected turns.

"The Pleasure Invaders" is a story I find strangely familiar - could this be a universal fantasy or was it just me? In any case, this tale tells us about an alien species that through its link to our subconscious is able to determine our every desire and fulfill it instantly. But of course this is wildly addicting to humans the impact on the city of Miami (where the aliens are first introduced) is immediate - the aliens are more valuable than any drug. The ending took a somewhat predictable turn but I felt the story was making fun of sci-fi stereotypes more than it was copying them.

"Viagra Babies" is what you think it is. Viagra has more side-effects than we thought - including producing children who die at a young age and have to be restrained from their over-amped physical impulses by drugs. This is more horror than sci-fi but I still enjoyed it. The ending was predictable but satisfying.

"Imagine It" describes an author with a fantasy that seems a bit too real to be imagined. The story is dark but the ending didn't work for me.

"Playing Karen Devere" is written almost like a screenplay. A young actress and her producer girlfriend find the perfect serial killer to make a movie about. But is the price the killer demands more than they can afford to pay? I liked this story quite a bit. In a way it reminded me of the David Cronenberg film Videodrome.

"Test Drive" is set 60 years into the future when technology has advanced and continued to be utilized for satisfying people's desires. Blake is a woman who works in a small business catering to these needs. But in the quest for more advanced technology have we given something up? This is a totally original tale with plenty of very interesting ideas and a great ending. I thought this was going to be the best story in the book until I read the last story.

"Visions of Ecstasy" is about a female psychic who reads the future and sees the apparent death of a young woman. In her attempt to save the woman, the psychic ends up the victim. I liked the premise and execution of this story, but the ending - which I think was supposed to be funny - was flat. I bet if I saw this performed live I would laugh out loud, but for some reason it didn't work as well in print.

In "Deep Inside" the narrator and her girlfriend have a business making voodoo dolls of the most carnal sort and selling them at a premium. But will they pay a price or delving into dark magic? Polly saved the best story for last. I enjoyed everything about this tale - the setup, the way the tension was built, and finally the surprise ending.

Posted by scottsh at 7:04 PM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A very good read that I might have enjoyed this even more if I hadn't read the novella on which it is based.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: An angry prospector is forced by aliens to hunt someone down.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: The core story is engaging; thought-provoking sf-nal ideas; clear, concise prose makes for easy reading.
CONS: Because I read the novella version, the extra material felt like padding.
BOTTOM LINE: A solid, well-constructed and wholly entertaining story.

A few years ago, I read an excellent novella called "Shadow Twin" that was co-written by George R.R. Martin, Gardener Dozois, and Daniel Abraham. Now, in the grand tradition of science fiction literature and marketing, that novella has been expanded into the novel-length story Hunter's Run. I was curious. Does the novel hold up?

The core of the story remains the same: a prospector named Ramón Espejo is captured by aliens and forced to hunt down another human for them. A well-written version of that took the form of the novella. But a novel requires more than that and so stuff has been added; in this case, a whole lot of characterization and story background.

The characterization focuses on Ramón, so much so that Hunter's Run can easily be considered a character study. Ramón is a complex character. His uncontrollable rage does not make him very likable but rather than being portrayed as a stereotypical, one-dimensional Angry Man, Ramón has added depth because he's keenly aware of what a jerk he is. It's this introspection - and the cool sf-nal circumstances that enable him to see himself through the eyes of others, both alien and human - that gives Ramón the opportunity to finally do something about it. He still may not be entirely likable by story's end but at least he's trying, which is all anyone can ask. We also see glimpses into Ramón's personal life that weren't there in the shorter version. Specifically, we see his tense and tenuous relationship with girlfriend Elena, who is politely described as a little crazy, but easily a match for Ramón, at least when considering her ability to argue.

Story background has also been beefed up for the novel. We still have Ramón tethered to the electronic leash of his alien captor, Maneck, but we get much more back story on Maneck's species. We also get to see other aliens, the rock-like beings that rule the planet of San Paolo. This background is nicely infused with some dramatic tension through a murder subplot that not only gives motivation for the "hunter" plotline, but also allows the authors to wrap up Ramon's self-discovery and desire to be a better man.

So, does the novel hold up? I have to admit that I was a little jaded going in. My impression of the novella was quite good and I was expecting an extended version of that core story. I was not quite prepared for the extra characterization and side stories. And as good additions as they were - and will undoubtedly be to uninitiated readers - I can't help but feel that that it was padding. This despite some thought-provoking philosophical questions around that core sf-nal idea I'm trying hard not to spoil. Again, this feeling has more to with the evolution of the story from novella to novel than it does with anything else and ultimately is not a huge detriment. Hunter's Run is a solid, well-constructed and wholly entertaining story.

Posted by John at 12:25 AM | Discussion (6) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

The February 2008 issue of Jim Baen's Universe (Issue #11, also known as Volume 2, Number 5) contains 12 pieces of short fiction and 6 non-fiction articles. Nine of the stories are reviewed below. I did not partake of the classic reprint "Unprofessional" by Rudyard Kipling and two of the three serials: "Fish Story" by Dave Freer, Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, now in its tenth episode; and " The Ancient Ones" by David Brin, now in it's fifth episode. I suspect it would be easier for hesitant readers like me if each episode came with an "Our Story So Far..." intro.

Considering the nine stories I did read, this is another solid issue. I prefer science fiction over fantasy so maybe it's not surprising that the weakest story for me was a fantasy story. But the good outweighed the bad overall, with the standout stories being David Brin's "The Smartest Mob" (airships!) and Holly Messinger's "End of the Line" (Vampires in the Old West!).

Individual story/article reviews follow...

"The Smartest Mob" by David Brin posits a near future that is both scary and marvelous. Dirty bombs have decimated areas of Washington, D.C. and travel is accomplished via airships. (Airships!) A reporter named Tor Pleiades is traveling aboard a dirigible headed for a port near a major political conference (involving an otherwise irrelevant alien artifact that may of may not represent first contact). Tor is connected to a virtual reality version of the Internet and rumors begin to surface of an impending terrorist attack. Tor utilizes the "smart mob" - a consensus of folks that constantly monitor the news and others sources to determine what is really happening - and deduces that the airship she is on might be used as a bomb. As if that premise isn't cool enough, Brin gives us a great view of what the future of communication and media might be like. The smart mob surfs the wave of data, ferreting out truth from nonsense, with credibility ratings factoring into the mob's "voice". This meta-level view of information is intriguing and something I'd love to see more of. As this story shows, it allows for some great dramatic tension. There were some moments where I thought I could see a plot twist a mile ahead, but thankfully this turned out to be false second-guessing on my part. This was a fun read with lots of cool tech sprinkled in along the way. Nicely done.

Three stories in this issue involve spaceships with a single crew member and an AI/computer companion. The first is Eric James Stone's "Premature Emergence". (The other two are by Tobler and Gerrold.) This is an interesting story about a ship returning home through a wormhole after a long voyage. The trip is cut short when the ship exits the wormhole too early; the result, we learn, of a desperate artificial intelligence determined to save her "child". What initially starts as man vs. AI (nicely set up with a brief explanation of past human/AI wars and the laws humanity has in place to limit their intelligence) eventually turns into a team effort to save the man and the newly-created AI, which was woken early because of an impending nova. (The title, you now see, is a double entendre referring to both the ship's early exit from the wormhole and the premature birth of the AI.) Though the setup is well done and the action is quite tense at times, the Deus ex machina ending here smacked of cheating.

In E. Catherine Tobler's "Waking Ophelia", the title character wakes from stasis sleep because her one-person ship has been boarded by what appear to be space pirates. Their motive for boarding involves a silly long-kept promise by their leader, the manly man named Larkin. The story has a strong start: the premise was nicely set up and Ophelia was promising to be a welcome, headstrong character. But her turnaround from resistant victim to doe-eyed female was unbelievable and disappointing. There was also some attempt to add depth to the story by contrasting the harsh reality of life with the cold passivity of stasis sleep, but that felt like it was tacked on at the end.

David Gerrold's "Spiderweb" reads like a casual, internal dialogue by the lone crew member of an exploratory ship. He (that term used loosely; it is briefly mentioned that people can assume whatever gender they wish) decides to investigate an anomaly that causes spacecraft to lose velocity near a certain region of space. His thought process is logical and takes into consideration some of the realities of space travel. His discovery is quite interesting and Gerrold's straightforward delivery makes this a quick and enjoyable read that harkens back to the days of classic sf.

"The Temple of Thorns" by John Lambshead is the Greek mythology-based fantasy story of Persueus and an unnamed princess (though if you know your mythology, it's not hard to guess who it is). This story unfortunately sits squarely atop the tropes of fantasy that I dislike, like unexplained magic, heroic quest, and prophecies that we all now know will eventually come true. As if that weren't enough, mythology is not a favorite topic of mine. So, yes, the princesses identity was a surprise to me, but ultimately a "so what?" While I found the writing to be capable, ultimately this run-of-the-mill story failed to elicit any interest from me - even in the potentially cool Sinbad-like scenes of Perseus fighting the undead, a usual crowd-pleaser.

"Hourglass" by Alma Alexander is a quaint story about a wandering minstrel named Aris who finds himself lost in a snowstorm. Aris manages to find shelter in the home of a young man who is wise beyond his years. Through a magical artifact, Aris learns the true nature of his host's situation - but too late. This is an interesting setup, as far as it goes, but otherwise cut short by one unlucky cat.

Mike Resnick's short fiction excellently conveys the human condition with poignancy and respect. True to form comes "Sluggo", where a grotesquerie finds peace (and loneliness) in an amusement park's haunted hose. He is befriended by a young girl who sees beyond his skin and shows him the true meaning of love and friendship. I've come to expect a certain level of enjoyment, insight and attachment to Resnick's work and this does not disappoint.

The third installment of Edward M. Lerner's time-travel serial, "Countdown to Armageddon", takes place in 733 B.C. This episode seems to serve as a bridge between the action-packed previous installments and what promises to be some more exciting encounters. This episode shows our misplaced heroes, scientist Harry Bowen and ex-Interpol agent Terrence Ambling, trying to fit in with the natives while they look for clues to the whereabouts of Abdul Faisel. Faisel is the terrorist who arrived in this time period five years previously to change the outcome of the Battle of Tours so that the Islamic forces would win against the Christians. But all that is backstory. For now, Harry and Terrance survive through some clever storytelling, stealing from our classics (Gulliver's Travels, Treasure Island) which are unheard of by the locals. Although we don't see Faisel himself this time around, we are introduced to some new characters: a Frank Christian named Bertchramm who is hunting down the band of Islamic warriors (led by Gamal) that kidnapped his niece, Bertha; and Brother Wolfgang, who helps Harry and Terrance find room and board. Again, Lerner's writing style is straightforward and engaging and makes me wonder what comes next.

Holly Messinger serves up an outstanding story of vampires in the Old West with "End of the Line". Jacob Tracy (Trace) is a wilderness guide who is slowly being put out of work by the expanding railroad lines. Trace is hired (more like coerced) by Miss Fairweather, a dabbler in the sciences, to find the source of a series of attacks on railroad workers. Rumors say it's a roving wolf pack, but Miss Fairweather drops hints on unholy vampires. That's the crux of the plot, but there are other things that add depth to the overall story: like racism against his black partner John Bosley (Boz) and Trace's ability to see ghosts. Oddly, though this ghostly ability is witnessed by the reader but is in no way relevant to the plot; it's just something he can do. Perhaps that ability is put to better use elsewhere since some post-reading Googling shows that Messing has other Trace and Boz stories. If they're anything like this one - which is to say well-written and jam-packed with non-stop, throat-ripping, blood-spattering action - then bring 'em on!

Some interesting essays round out the issue:

• Becoming Stewards of Our World, The Great Theme of the 21st Century, Part One by Gregory Benford, is an eye-opening environmentalist essay with charts. "The deep secret about global warming is that the conventional wisdom solution is a lie."
• Stephen Euin Cobb's essay, What I've Learned Interviewing Futurists, talks about some unexpected technological trends: increasing rate of change in other disciplines besides technology (social, economic, political, linguistic, etc.); the decline of privacy; increased popularity of virtual worlds; proliferation of cell phones and interconnectivity; partial artificial brain replacements; computer hackers turning to hacking biota; and much more
• With Television Has a Lot to Answer For, Mike Resnick talks about the lack of originality on the part of writers who choose to write only within the confines of somebody else's world; specifically, media tie-in properties like Star Trek and Star Wars. I'm not sure whether I agree with the conclusion (that television is to blame) but there may be something to the premise.
• Meanwhile, Eric Flint begins a series of essays analyzing the impact of electronic reading on publishing. This one is titled Paper Books are Not Going to be Joining the Dodo Any Time Soon. Self-explanatory, methinks.
• Resnick offers up another essay (The Literature of Fandom) that looks at the distinguished history of sf fandom through some of the non-fiction books devoted to it.
• Barry N. Malzberg's article, Substantial Fire, or Why This Column Almost Didn't Appear, provides ample opportunity for him to profess his obvious love for the genre.

Posted by John at 12:29 AM | Discussion (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

After a very long dry spell, the Culture is back in Iain M. Banks' new novel, Matter. I'll state upfront that I absolutely love Banks' Culture novels. In fact, Use of Weapons currently holds the top spot in my 'Most Favoritist Science Fiction Novels' list, so you can imagine the glee with which I tore into Matter. And, for the most part, I wasn't disappointed.

Matter is the story of three siblings whose father, King Hausk, conqueror of the 8th level of the Shellword Sursamen, is traitorously murdered by his right-hand man Mertis tyl Loesp during the final battle of conquest. Ferbin Hausk witnesses the murder and ends up on the run from those who seek to keep the King's murder secret. Ferbin's brother, Oramen, is next in line to become king when he reaches the appropriate age, if he lives that long, and Loesp will act as Regent until then. Djan Seriy Anaplian, the sister of both Ferbin and Oramen, was sent to live in the Culture and is now part of Special Circumstances. It's to her that Ferbin ultimately turns to for help.

Earlier I said that the Culture is back. Well, that isnt' quite true. The Culture, in the form of Anaplian, is a major character in the book, but she takes a leave of absence from Special Circumstances to attend to matters surrounding her father's death. So, in that respect, the Culture as a whole doesn't really come into play in Matter. If you're looking for something set entirely within the Culture, you'll have to look elsewhere. The best I can describe the feel of Matter is Inversions crossed with Feersum Endjinn. But, typical Banks, more is going on than appears at first glance. The Minds of Special Circumstances take an interest in the goings on around Sursamen and Anaplian's trip has more than a hint of SC help behind it.

The other prblem I had was the pacing of the book. The majority of the book moves along at a very deliberate pace. We have three different major story threads to follow (Ferbin, Oramen and Anaplian) and a couple of minor ones. Banks weaves in and out of these threads which serves to slow the pace down. Ferbin and Anaplian don't meet until roughly 100 pages till then end. At that time, we start to find out what is really going on and Banks kicks it into high gear for high speed action till the end. That's not necessarily bad, as the end section gives us plenty of SF-nal action, but it does clash with the pace of the rest of the book.

Speaking of SF-nal stuff, Banks gives us his usual array of cool ideas. The Shellworlds, think of Russian nesting dolls, only each 'level' is a world, with an alien 'god' at the center, the awesome Morthanveld orbital, the usual assortment of unique ship names and a terrific SF battle at the end. Along the way we are treated to some smaller ideas, those that happen to exist on the Shellworld. But if you're looking for the 'soaked-in-SF' setting of the other Culture novels, Matter isn't like that. It's more of a political intrigue thriller than straight out SF action story.

But Banks does give us a healthy dose of his trademark humor and interesting characters. In fact, two of the best turn out to be Ferbin's retainer and manservant, Holse, and an avatar of the ship Liveware Problem. Both end up being both more, and less, than what they were when they started.

Which brings us to the end. Matter actually has two endings. The first is the typical Banks, non-Hollywood ending, with the characters doing what needs to be done. You may, or may not like this, depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing. It didn't really bother me much, but I was still a bit sad at how things turned out. Then the Appendix shows up, which is weird, because, after the Appendix, is more story, in the form of an Epilogue. It's here that I think Banks pulled off one of the best endings in the Culture series. I won't say much, but I think it was pitch perfect, showing the growth of the characters involved and it plays directly opposite to the tone of the first ending. It's that last 100 pages, and this ending, that really brought this book out of the middling range to something special.

Is Matter the best Culture novel by Banks? No, that's still Use of Weapons. However, Matter can sit comfortably alongside Consider Phlebas for second.

Posted by JP at 5:31 AM | Discussion (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: My desire to see the film has been considerably lessened.

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Teenager David Rice, who can teleport at will, tries to figure out what to do with his talent.
PROS: Interesting premise; some good uses of the jumping ability; a quick read.
CONS: Lack of any clear antagonist; the plot seems to lose focus.
BOTTOM LINE: I had high hopes but came away underwhelmed.

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Young Griffin O'Connor, who can teleport at will, is on the run from an evil group of jumper-killers.
PROS: Interesting premise; clear antagonists; a quick read.
CONS: The antagonists are without motive and not used to good effect; the plot loiters around while nothing interesting happens.
BOTTOM LINE: I suspect this might fare better if you saw the movie and liked the Griffin character.

---

The theatrical release of Jumper seemed like a good time to finally read Steven Gould's 1992 book, Jumper. As penance for my reading latency, I also read his new book, Jumper: Griffin's Story, which provides some background characterization for one of the film's main characters.

My intent was to read Jumper as precursor to seeing the film. But a note in Griffin's Story reveals that Jumper, besides making changes that go hand-in-hand with adaptation, is additionally based on the book Reflex, which I have not read. Furthermore, Griffin's Story is a character background story written to be consistent with the movie, not the books. So, instead of reading a story (or some resemblance thereof) that was transferred to film, instead I seemed to circle around the story presented in movie. Oh well.

Jumper and Griffin's Story - two young adult novels that include some serious subject matter - both focus on a character who can teleport by force of will. In Jumper it's David Rice, a troubled teenager from a broken home. David's father is abusive and, as a result, David's mother abandons the family. When David learns that he can jump, he leaves home trying to make his way in the world. Griffin's Story follows Griffin O'Conner between the ages of nine and sixteen. His family has been on the run from unknown assailants since Griffin first exhibited his abilities at age five. Tragedy befalls Griffin early in the book and from then on his situation is quite similar to David's.

The books are actually quite similar in many respects: they are both personal stories that focus on a single character; each main character is forced to grow up fairly quickly while making some serious decisions, though not always the right one, ethically speaking; the single-threaded, first-person narratives are quick reads; each one features a "safe house" that is only entered and exited through jumping; and both jumpers are limited to jumping to places that they've physically been to before (though, in Griffin's version, the jump tends to drag along pieces of debris from the source point). Sadly, another thing they had in common was that they lacked any significant conflict.

In Jumper, there is simply no clear antagonist. Instead there are several, less-effective sources of drama: his father, a crooked cop, and eventually terrorists when David grows a moral compass. (Well, sort of...it's more fuelled by revenge than anything else. Between that and the bank heist he uses to finance his shenanigans, it's hard to see how the David is using his powers for good. Perhaps that's the point - confused teenager making mistakes and growing up - but I can't say that David, despite his guilt, was all that likable.) The absence of a well-defined antagonist translates to a story that seems to lack narrative drive - it meanders as much as David does. For example, David dawdles for one whole year (scores of pages) before he has any desire to learn the extent of his powers. Can he bring people along with him? What happens when he jumps while moving? Can he jump in mid-air? All these are eventually answered, but it takes time to get there. During that time the book simply feels like it's going nowhere. There are some worthwhile sub-plots, to be sure (David's attempts to reconnect with his mother, his burgeoning relationship with Millie), but the book was in need of some serious dramatic action. I kept wishing that David's curiosity into the possible existence of other jumpers would develop into something cool. It didn't.

Griffin's Story somewhat addresses the unclear protagonist issue by introducing a group of people hell-bent - for some unexplained reason - on killing jumpers. (It is revealed in the final, movie-aligning chapter that they are called Paladins and are led by the never-seen Roland.) Paladins can sense jumpers and zero in on Griffin wherever he appears as long as they are close enough to sense it. It's too bad for the people that Griffin associates with that the paladins seem to be everywhere. Even here, though, the encounters with these nefarious paladins are few and far between, leaving Griffin to constantly relocate and start fresh. These parts of the story seemed to drag; as Griffin struggled to find a foothold, the main plot is put on hold. Even more of a tease: Griffin surmises that there are indeed other jumpers out there, but again we never see them. I suspect Griffin's Story is a better read for someone who sees the movie and likes the character enough to want to know more.

The only hope I can see for the film at this point is that Reflex provided enough conflict to make it good. In the movie, David and Griffin meet, they fight, and then they team up against the Paladins, all of which sounds interesting enough. But as it stands now, my desire to see the film is weakened.

Posted by John at 1:15 AM | Discussion (10) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Surprising effort by newcomer Michael Jasper, the book brings together a very mature story, good characterization, and aliens that are alien.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Fleeing from a dying star after living underground for generations, the people of the Wannoshay crash to Earth looking for a new beginning. Unfortunately for them, the United States and Canada are already occupied. Quarantined by the military, the two species learn to communicate and surprisingly, the first request Wannoshay make is to meet with a religious man.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: The Wannoshay will never be mistaken for human - radial bilateral symmetry is about all we have in common - with inscruitable motivations; human characters are believable and dynamic; plot is mature and intelligent.
CONS: Sometimes depressing in a 1984 kind of way.
BOTTOM LINE: One of the best books I have read in the last 12 months, Jasper has produced a book that brings it all together - engaging story, realistic characters, and something that will stay with you after you have read it.

In many science fiction stories, arriving aliens are treated either like heroes or conquering armies. People get along famously with the aliens or end up in conflict. You can also instantly see the alien's motivations and understand what the aliens want (our resources, our friendship, or even our whales). These kinds of stories feature humanoid aliens that speak, act, and behave exactly like humans. Certainly many of these stories (from Footfall to Star Trek to E.T.) are fun and interesting. But are they realistic? No - not even close.

I challenge you read The Wannoshay Cycle without being reminded of the Japanese internment camps of World War 2. That is how we would really treat aliens who crash-land on Earth. And while the mainstream of humanity would feel comforted by that approach, there would be some who seek something else. Those people are the heroes of Jasper's story.

Father Joshua is a priest struggling with challenges to his faith. He is the first non-military person to interact with the aliens and the contact affects him to the core. Ally Tang is a drug-addled freelance journalist who is driven to get stories on the aliens to sell to feed her drug habit - at least at first. Contact changes her as well. Skin is a simple man who likes hunting with his buddies and even goes on a hunt for an escaped alien - until he meets the alien and he realizes there is more to situation than it appears. And finally there is Shontera - a blue-collar single mom who is trying to carve out a life for her and her daughter. At least until the aliens are brought in to work at the brewery alongside her in an attempt to assimilate them.

Each of these characters impact the Wannoshay and the Wannoshay impact them alike. Ally helps some of the aliens get high, for example, but then comes to lament the addiction she causes. Her emotional reaction is one we can all at least understand, if not truly empathize with. The same is true for all Jasper's characters, but Father Joshua is the one we can identify with the most. He is honest and sincere in his attempt to understand the aliens. His frustration with their nearly unfathomable behavior is palpable. Jasper does a wonderful job conveying this and making the resulting actions natural and expected. When I found myself knowing that Father Joshua was going to do before he did it, I felt I really understood the man and his outlook and that is a credit to Jasper's writing.

The story is largely character-driven and it works well on that level. However, there is a plot - the Wannoshay are sick and getting worse. How this plays out and how it impacts the humans is entertaining and helped keep me turning pages right up to the end. I won't give anything away, except to say that the book has a satisfying ending.

The book is depressing in parts that made it hard to read in the beginning. Humans are often narrow-minded and petty. I know this, but that doesn't mean I always want to be reminded of it. I mention this because after reading it I was reminded of George Orwell's 1984 in some ways. I'm hard-pressed to call this a negative, really, but if this isn't your kind of book you might not enjoy the story as much as I did. If your idea of science fiction is space action robots and ray guns, you might not enjoy this book either. But any fan looking for a mature read will appreciate this book.

I didn't know it until recently, but Jasper has pieced his novel together from a series of short stories he wrote (some of them dating back years.) All I can say is that I certainly couldn't tell this. The book doesn't feel forced or hastily put together. This is a cohesive whole.

Michael Jasper has produced a good example of what realistic science fiction can be. Its soft sci-fi to be sure, but that doesn't make the intriguing concepts of the human-alien interaction less meaningful.

Posted by scottsh at 9:53 AM | Discussion (5) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Thoroughly entertaining (and accessible) science fiction.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The SETI scientist who decoded and responded to the first-ever alien transmission is asked, 40 years later, to receive a rejuvenation operation to decode the encrypted reply.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Thought-provoking sf; likable characters; intriguing first-contact story; moves fast; one of those books you can't put down.
CONS: Perhaps too many anachronisms.
BOTTOM LINE: A book that has mainstream appeal but is also a great read for fans of thought-provoking science fiction.

Robert J Sawyer's Rollback embodies the things I like about science fiction: thought-provoking concepts, interesting extrapolations and a strong set of main characters. The characters in this near-future story are Sarah and Donald Halifax. It's 2048 and nearly 40 years have passed since Sarah, who worked for SETI, decoded and alien transmission from the Sigma Draconis star system and sent a response. Now, the aliens have sent their own encrypted reply and Sarah, who is now 88 years old, is offered the chance to lead the project by a headstrong millionaire. The only way this can be done practically, though, is if Sarah receives a rollback, a brand new rejuvenation technique that can only be afforded to the rich and powerful - like a certain headstrong millionaire. Sarah agrees to the rollback only if her beloved husband Don is also given one. Don's rollback is successful; Sarah's isn't. And therein lays the basis for some truly engrossing human drama.

Rollback is a fast-moving read that's equal parts first-contact story and rejuvenation exploration. The initial contact with aliens is seen through flashbacks and it's interesting to see how the original message was decoded. There are similarities to Carl Sagan's Contact in many respects, even to the point where Sawyer has Sarah and Don acknowledge as much. (There's also a comment about the movie being more tolerable than the book, which I found to be amusing and true.) The content and motive of the alien communication turns out to be a great springboard for philosophical discussions on morality and ethics, man's place in the universe, abortion, and more. There are several stop-and-think moments.

The rejuvenation aspects of the story, while technologically sound, focus more on the human effects than the technology and it's these passages that make Sarah and Don two of the most likable characters I've come across. They are faced with some interesting situations thanks to Sarah's botched rollback. Don is essentially granted a second adulthood while Sarah is nearing the end of her life. Don will not only outlive his wife, but his grandchildren as well. The rollback technique, still in its infancy, offers a great backdrop to explore social mores and human behavior issues, which Sawyer does to good effect.

All through this, he gives us the story with characters that are totally realistic. I have to admit, there was one point in the book where I became so annoyed at one character's behavior (annoyed because it felt like someone I knew was making a huge mistake) that I had to walk away from the book. Few books have ever caused me to react like that.

About the only downside I can cite - and it's a minor one that I'm willing to forgive because the rest of the book is so strong and utterly engrossing - is the liberal placement of anachronisms in the book. True, Sarah and Don were born in 1960, so the pop culture references of today are part of their lives; and Don's own observation of himself being an anachronism is an interesting parallel...but do we really need two references to Pamela Anderson? (Geek that I am, I was totally loving the Star Trek references, though. And eagle-eye readers will note that Don quotes his favorite unnamed science fiction author by reciting something that Sawyer himself once said about virtual reality being nothing but air guitar writ large. Indeed!)

Rollback succeeds at being the kind of book that can attract a wide audience. It's got mainstream appeal but is also a great read for fans of thought-provoking science fiction.

Posted by John at 12:58 AM | Discussion (5) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Fans of Hamilton's galaxy-spanning space operas will not be disappointed.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Various players and factions move about the galaxy, trying to decide what to do about the Void, a planet-eating region of space from which dreams emanate.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Excellent world building; cool tech; some tense, page-turning moments.
CONS: Takes a while to get this behemoth moving along.
BOTTOM LINE: Solid SF Space Opera.

The Dreaming Void is the ambitious start of Peter F. Hamilton's new trilogy set in the universe we saw in The Commonwealth Saga - the duology that consisted of the awesome Pandora's Star and the not-so-awesome follow-up, Judas Unchained. The events of The Dreaming Void occur about 1500 years after the previous books.

To understand the central conflict of the story, it's important to know the state of mankind in this universe. Hamilton's main concern in these books is evolution. His future is populated by humans with extremely long lives thanks to advances in technology. (There are some aliens, too, but they are mostly offstage.) To them, death is more of an intrusion than anything else. Long life has ultimately allowed humanity to move in several different directions, in physical and non-physical form. Physical humans are one of three types: Highers use biononic upgrades to augment their lives and give them special abilities; Advancers rely on genetic modification to do the job; and Naturals lack any but the most essential augmentations. Non-physical humans are part of the Advanced Neural Activity (ANA), a near-postphysical intelligence collective made up of those that have chosen to leave their physical bodies behind in anticipation of the next stage of human evolution: posthumanism. The point of all this is that human evolution is being proactively decided by human individuals; they are controlling their own destinies. So which group gets to decide the fate of all of us? And do they have that right?

It turns out that humanity's fate is inexorably tied to the Void, the "Big Dumb Object" of this sweeping space opera. Only maybe it's not so dumb. The Void is a black-hole-like region of space from which dreams emanate. People are able to perceive these dreams through a galaxy-wide mind share called the Gaiafield, an "artificial neural universe" based on alien technology. The Void is believed to be home to super-advanced aliens that have figured out the ultimate path of evolution for themselves. But the Void is a source of both terror and wonder. Long ago, the Void was known to devour worlds for the energy it needs to sustain itself, but it has since become a source of enlightenment. Followers of the Living Dream movement (a cult based on the visions of Inigo, the First Dreamer) seek to make a pilgrimage into the Void. But naysayers (like ANA) believe that any interaction with the Void will cause it to become active again, this time consuming every planet and living being in the galaxy.

If all of this sounds very complex, welcome to incredible world building talents of Peter F. Hamilton. Fans of his previous space operas won't be disappointed by his extensively detailed portrayal of worlds, technologies, politics, and intrigue. But if galaxy-sweeping epics are Hamilton's trademark, so is the time spent getting these behemoth gears in motion. This can be expected, of course; you don't dive into a complex setting without feeling the effects of inertia. There is a generous cast of characters and a handful of storylines involved here and it takes the overall story a while to get going. But once it does, it feels like putting on a comfortable jacket; space opera is what Hamilton does and he does it well.

So, who are the characters? Most of them are new, but there are a few familiar faces from the other Commonwealth books. Aaron is a mysterious Higher with no memory of his past, but a clear assignment at hand: to find Inigo, the long-lost First Dreamer who first interpreted the dreams from the Void. Aaron enlists the aid of Ingo's old flame (and member of the Living Dream movement), Corrie-Lyn, and much of their gripping and fast-paced storyline involves following one lead after another, getting ever closer to the elusive prophet. The ANA is where we find the no-nonsense patriarch Gore Burnelli, pulling the strings of meatspace to the best of his ability. The ANA (at least some factions of it) believes that any interaction with the Void will mean the end of all humanity - in all its forms - so Gore sends his daughter, Justine (conveniently decanted back into a human body - see previous note about death being obsolete), to take part in the chase to find the Dreamer.

Meanwhile, Ethan, the new leader of the Dream movement, wants to lead his people on the impending pilgrimage into the Void despite the potential dangers involved. To that end, he is eager to find the so-called Second Dreamer, whose projected dreams involve the enigmatic Skylord and Waterwalker. That's also the goal of Paula Myo, the tenacious, genetically-engineered detective that we knew from the previous books. The physicist named Troblum, who is a pawn of one of the factions, has some interesting ideas about the barrier surrounding the Void. Outside the central power struggle is Amarinta, a seemingly innocuous citizen with big business plans, who is enjoying her newfound freedom from her ex-husband by dabbling in sexual encounters with Covey (a "multiple" - a single mind occupying multiple bodies of varying size, shape, and gender) and Likan (a powerful businessmen with his own ideas of sexual fulfillment). And then there's the utterly captivating story of the telepathic Edeard, trying to make sense out of his dreams about the Skylord while living on a technologically immature world that is crying out for social reform.

Whew.

That's a lot to keep straight. Fortunately Hamilton successfully juggles all of these multiple storylines in such a way as to keep them all distinct, memorable and enjoyable. It helps that the threads rarely intersect, though by the end (which is less a cliffhanger than it is a pause in the storytelling) we start to see hints of how they might connect. I note here, too, that Edeard's and Aaron's stories were particularly strong because they were filled with more drama and action than the others. In Edeard's thread, telepathic and genetic engineering abilities offer a palatable contrast to his medieval-like world. The height of Aaron's thread (a heist gone wrong) was just as nail-biting. Both threads offered some seriously page-turning moments, but that does not put the other threads to shame. What they offered in world building and sense of wonder was more than enough to provide solid sf entertainment.

As does the whole book. I get the feeling that Hamilton is gearing up for something big, so some ramp-up time can be forgiven. In the meantime, let The Dreaming Void stand as a very good example of Hamilton's own brand of engaging space opera.

[FYI: Some back story of Inigo's life is given in Peter F. Hamilton's short story "Blessed by an Angel" which appears in The New Space Opera edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. I haven't read it yet, but I think it might be interesting to see how this character deals with his unique situation.]

Posted by John at 12:28 AM | Discussion (5) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Excellent Wolfe book for the uninitiated, Latro is personal and adventurous in this third installment of the Soldier of... series.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Latro had little long-term memory. In fact, each night he forgot everything that happened the day before. As a result, he had to try to write down everything he experienced each day and read it back the next morning. Lucky for us, the tale of his travels in Egypt his explorations along the Nile is told in the scrolls he left behind.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Wolfe's mastery of the language is on full display but without as many enigmatic plot points as in some of his works; characters are engaging and genuine; fantasy elements are muted - but enough to keep things interesting.
CONS: Book doesn't resolve Latro's problem.
BOTTOM LINE: Excellent tale of adventure in an Egypt filled with politics, mischievous gods, and conniving women.

This is the third book in a series Wolfe started an amzing 20 years ago. He wrote out Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete (now collected as ) in between New Sun books in the late 1980's. But finally we have the third book in the series and it was certainly worth the wait.

I didn't read the earlier books (although I now want to) so I can't compare them. I can say that Sidon is a fantastic story told in Wolfe's typical style. A narrator who forgets each prior day fits Wolfe's approach well - and is a bit easier to take than the unreliable voices in the New Sun series. At least Latro is sincere and likable - more than can be said for Severian.

The tale involves Latro and his ship-captain friend exploring the upper reaches of the Nile for the current ruler in Egypt. The journey and the side characters on the ship left the book feeling a little like or and Latro's condition had it feeling a little like a black comedy. The adventures that Latro has - involving the gods (which only he can see thanks to his ailment), opportunistic women, and even the local politics is engrossing and fun. Latro is a bit of a Superman at times but I enjoyed the butt-whippin' he occasionally dished out. I was surprised more people didn't try to take advantage of Latro (although I've since learned that was a common occurrence in the first two novels.)

This is a very accessible Wolfe book. It lacks the confusing and contradictory elements found in many other works (although this may disappoint those who love to pick over the Sun books.) If you were to get started with Wolfe and experience him for the first time, this would be a fine choice.

Posted by scottsh at 5:23 PM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: An engrossing story about life, love and family.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A family tries to outrun three harbingers of death.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Quick moving, emotional storyline; suitably dark pencil drawings match the tone of the story.
CONS: Some awkward moments where images focused away from people who were talking.
BOTTOM LINE: A dramatic, engrossing story.

Cyril Pedrosa's graphic novel, Three Shadows, is the touching and suspenseful story of how two parents (Louis and Luis) attempt to protect their young son (Joachim) from three shadowy figures. The family lives an idyllic and peaceful life until the shadows appear, then fear drives them to take action. The events that follow take the family to faraway lands where they encounter mystics, slave traders, and other dangers, but, as might be expected, this does not stop the shadows from their endless pursuit.

Despite the "chased by the shadows of death" storyline, this is not the run-of-the-mill, action-laden story one might expect. Instead, the story wisely hangs the drama on themes of parental love and protection. This is implemented surprisingly well with relatively little dialogue. With just a few panels and brush strokes, Pedrosa creates characters you care about who are able to successfully convey feelings of fear, protectiveness, bravery, love, or whatever emotion the story calls for. Perhaps that's no surpise...Pedrosa's credits include Disney's Hunchback of the Notre Damemovie and Hercules television series and the comics Ring Circus, Shaolin Moussaka, and Les Coeurs Solitaires.

Pedrosa's moody, black-and-white artwork consists of pencil drawings which perfectly suit the dark tone of the story. There are moments where characters communicate via expressions alone and the images capture that perfectly. There were a few awkward moments when images focused away from speakers of dialogue, for no apparent reason ("Was there supposed to be something notable in that scene?") but they take little away from this dramatic, engrossing story which accentuates the importance of family.

Posted by John at 1:01 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Despite some flaws, I'm anxious to see where this series is headed.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A band of space pirates kidnaps the daughter of the Evil Emperor.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Cool science fictional ideas; well-written action scenes; a welcome variety of offbeat characters; reads fast.
CONS: The construction of the book shows through; extensive character background felt like padding; misplaced comedy at the beginning.
BOTTOM LINE: A good first novel and a promising start to a new series.

Debatable Space is an ambitious debut novel from Philip Palmer -- ambitious because it tries to be several things at once: space opera, comedy, pirate adventure, action-novel. It's not always successful, but it's definitely a promising start.

The straightforward plot concerns a band of space pirates (lead by the confident man-with-a-backup-plan Captain Flanagan) who kidnap a member of the Cheo's family. "Cheo" is short for the mostly-offstage Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation that rules the galaxy, which is not so much a corporation as it is an evil Empire. The aim of the kidnapping appears at first to be untold riches, but the plan (like the plot) is a bit deeper than that.

This sounds like a typical playground for space opera and this book definitely aims to be that. If it doesn't entirely succeed it's because it rarely intermingles the story elements together. Here's an action scene; now here's an infodump; now here's character background; etc. You can almost see the story scaffolding on which the words hang. Early on, the characters spout snarky dialogue that ultimately works against the tone of the coinciding events. Or put another way; the seriousness of the space opera is belittled by the overt comedy, and the smack-talking pirates work against the drama. (It should be noted that I've rarely found a successful mixture of comedy and science fiction beyond Douglas Adams.) But the comedy layer (at least the unwelcome overt kind) thankfully fades pretty quickly. The story worked better from then onwards.

Flanagan's crew consists of a welcome variety of offbeat characters: there's Alby, a sentient flame being; a three-eyed man/beast Loper named Harry; Jamie, a 120-year man who early on opted to halt the aging process and so appears like a 10 year-old boy (with a 120 year-old libido); Alliea, a tough slave who escaped her imprisonment; Kalen, the feline engineer; and Brandon, an astrophysicist. Not much attention is given to them, though, because this story is mainly about Lena, the Cheo's daughter.

Here, I had another problem. We are given inordinate amounts of Lena's background that, while interesting in its own context, feels like filler because it does nothing to advance the book's plot. These character background marathons - designed as entries in Lena's thought diary - read more like author notes and could have easily been trimmed down to make a leaner story and get the desired characterization. Even with Lena's extended lifespan, the variety of her experiences (scientist; crime-fighting secret government agent; concert pianist; novelist; teacher; victim of a plague which causes skin to fall off; secret vigilante fighting pharmaceutical companies; and on and on) just seems like overkill.

But the science fictional elements of the story (the reason I read science fiction) were fun indeed: In the book, space travel is not very common because people do it vicariously through Doppleganger Robots. This is enabled through quantum-based satellite technology to instantly communicate across vast distances. The area of space known as "Debatable space" surrounds a cordoned-off area of space that houses deadly, nano-sized bugs. Like the well-written action scenes that had me wanting more, these are the space opera tropes that made the book more enjoyable.

The worst that could be said about Debatable Space is that it's a first novel. Despite my longwinded griping above ('tis easier to complain than compliment) I never wanted to stop reading the book and ultimately enjoyed it. Palmer's prose (gimmicky typography notwithstanding) is engaging and reads like lightning. I ate this up - nearly 500 mass-market paperback pages - in four days; a rarity for this reader. I'm interested enough in the universe and pleased enough with the writing style that I wouldn't mind seeing what else Palmer has in store for us in this universe.

Posted by John at 12:44 AM | Discussion (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Even more engaging vampire noir!

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Vampire Joe Pitt investigates a new threat to the vampire clans of New York City.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Joe Pitt is a great character; fast pace; unexpected plot directions; appealing setting.
CONS: At times it's hard to believe that the vampire clans trust Joe to the extent that they do.
BOTTOM LINE: This is the best book in the series so far.

Half the Blood of Brooklyn is the third book in Charlie Huston's consistently entertaining Joe Pitt Casebooks series, following the delicious noir of Already Dead and the down-and-gritty No Dominion. Huston manages to keep this series fresh when others might have started riding out a zone of comfort by now.

This time around Joe Pitt, the streetwise New York City vampire who, for all intents and purposes, is a detective, looks into a new threat to the already-delicate balance of vampire clans in Manhattan. That's his official task acting as the security chief of The Society Clan, but he's got other things going on as well - including his strained relationship with his terminally-ill girlfriend, Evie, who is infected with HIV and not the vampire virus.

One of the pleasures in reading the Joe Pitt books is that they are hard to predict. How? Simply put, Joe does the unexpected and it makes the story more interesting. Joe is likable, though not in any conventional sense. So goes the life of an antihero. While he tries to be good (by a set or morals that are fluid at best), he is, after all, still a blood-sucking vampire. His thirst must be quenched and that usually means direct killing or doing the dirty deeds of some clan who pays in blood. There is spin to make Joe look like the vampire-with-a-heart-of-gold, but his actions are off-putting enough that you'd rather not know him. Yet it's this keen tightrope act of Joe's behavior that adds to his appeal.

Now throw that against the gritty setting of nighttime New York, the stomping grounds of various vampire clans with different agendas, and you start to see how Joe's situation gets to be even more interesting. The central plot is meaty enough (A Jewish vampire clan? Oy!) but it's the things that hang off it that really add flavor. The realistic turf war between clans is the order of the night here and Huston, whose first-person prose helps maintain the noir feel of the previous books, thankfully makes it easy to keep clans and agendas straight. With respect to these various clans, Joe seems to toggle between overt rogue and "team player" (really a covert rogue). With Joe's unpredictability, it's a little difficult to see how any of the clans ever trust him to the point that they do, but I guess he gets them results and that's what matters to them. Seeing how Joe is intertwined with the clans - and how he uses them to evolve - also adds to the attraction to his character.

And then there's Joe's relationship with Evie, the love of his life who does not know he is a vampire. She's close to death and Joe wrestles with the decision to let her die a natural death or "save" her by infecting her with the virus - or "vyrus" if you prefer - which will cure her of AIDS but condemn her to an afterlife trolling the New York streets looking for fresh blood. This moral dilemma - now pushed to decision time after 3 books - adds depth that was otherwise sitting on the back burner. This urgency helps make Half the Blood of Brooklyn the best Joe Pitt book to date.

These books are episodic enough that you don't have to read them in order, but if you do, you get the benefit of watching this interesting world (and character) morph in interesting directions.

Posted by John at 12:48 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:
Killswitch is the final volume, at this time, in the Cassandra Kresnov series and it wraps things up with a bang. Where the previous novel, Breakaway, was mired down with political intrigue, Killswitch dumps the politics, mostly, in favor of letting Cassandra do what she does best: Kick bad guy butt at breakneck pace. I urge all Kresnov fans to pick this book up at your earliest convenience and enjoy the ride. If you're on the fence, and if movies or TV shows like Ghost in the Shell of Bionic Woman appeal to you, the Cassandra Kresnov novels are well worth your time. In fact, if NBC had been smart, they would have dumped the Bionic Woman re-boot and optioned Cassandra's stories from Shephard. These books cry out for some type of screen (big or small) time. (I'm looking at you Sci Fi Channel. Convince Kate Beckinsale to play Cassandra and you won't be able to keep the SF fans from storming the channel.)

This review will be short and sweet. Of the three Kresnov novels, this one is the best. It's almost non-stop action from start to finish as Cassandra Kresnov is forced to hide in Callay's underground, all the while trying to thwart the planet's enemies who would like nothing better than to wrest control of the Federation away and place it back with Earth. All the political maneuvering and intrigue from Breakaway is basically stage setting for Killswitch. With all the pieces in place, Shephard is free to have Kresnov run around attempting to discover who is trying to overthrow Callay's new found power in the Federation and to try and stop an apparent unknown GI, like herself, that has been set to kill Cassandra. The plot moves from action sequence to action sequence, with only a few moments to catch your breath.

If there's anything Shephard can do well, it's action sequences. Everything you'd expect a synthetic being like Kresnov to do, she does. And Shephard's prose brings it to life with widescreen clarity. This is the heroine the Bionic Woman should have been. Smart and supremely confident, but also touched with great empathy for her fellow non-GI beings. One of the strengths of this whole series has been Cassandra's growth as a person, as she comes to grips with being more than human in abilities, yet emotionally and morally invested in doing the right thing for everyone has a whole. When we first meet her, Cassandra was fresh from leaving the League and it's shadow ops Dark Star unit, where killing anything was her job, and carried no emotional weight whatsoever. Contrast that with the final meeting between Cassandra and the GI sent to kill her. Cassandra's actions show how far she's come in becoming a 'full' person, with a sense of right and wrong. Some may want a more traditional ending here, but I feel what Shephard did was better and deeper than what you may expect.

About the only thing that bothered me was the titular Killswitch. Apparently Cassandra has a killswitch hardwired into her brain stem that can allow someone, with the proper code, to shut down her brain, effectively killing here. A couple of attempts to use it are tried, but the killswitch seemed to be less dramatic storywise than the title suggests, especially after steps are taken to nullify it. And most of the explanation for its nullification seemed to border on technobabble. Too much so for my comfort.

However, that is a niggling issue, one that only slightly diminishes an otherwise action packed story. If it's any indication, I managed to read this book in just 2 days over the Christmas break, and that's with everything else I had going on. I even stopped playing Mass Effect because I didn't want to put this book down. My only other gripe is that it appears that Cassandra's story has come to a conclusion.

Posted by JP at 3:08 PM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A very good compendium of end-of-the-world stories.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of 22 post-apocalyptic stories.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: 19 stories good or better stories, 6 of them excellent.
CONS: The Gene Wolfe story escapes my meager brain.
BOTTOM LINE: More entertaining than the average "Best of" annual anthology.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse offers a great selection of end-of-the-world stories proving that stories in a single setting (or a single subgenre of science fiction) need not be similar. While the prevailing theme, as would be expected, is one of hope, the stories are presented with unique focus and voice. But the mood is as dark as it should be with such serious subject matter. With rare exception (Neal Barrett, Jr.'s comical "Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus") these stories are gloomy indeed. But isn't that the appeal of post-apocalyptic fiction after all?

John Joseph Adams has culled a great selection of stories here dating back to 1973, with more than half of those written in the last seven years. He also offers a super-handy index of post-apocalyptic stories and books for further reading, just in case you start jonesin' for more.

Only three stories from the book's roster of twenty-two failed to impress me. Perhaps the most glaring of those is the Gene Wolfe story, "Mute", because Wolfe's reputation is one of greatness and this story left me cold. But there were plenty of other stories to suit my tastes; a huge majority in fact. This is impressive since the variety of styles and stories that populate an anthology means there are bound to be some misses. But three out of twenty-two is a relatively low ratio when comparing it against my anthology consumption of years past. In then end, Wastelands proved to be more entertaining than the average yearly "Best of".

Standout stories in this cant-miss volume include "The People of Sand and Slag" by Paolo Bacigalupi, "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" by Cory Doctorow, "Judgment Passed" by Jerry Oltion, "Inertia" by Nancy Kress, "Speech Sounds" by Octavia E. Butler and "The End of the World as We Know It" by Dale Bailey.

Reviews of the individual stories follow...

Stephen King's quiet story, "The End of the Whole Mess", involves this super-smart guy (Robert) who tries to rid the world of all its problems by creating an antidote for aggression. It's seen through a quickly-written memoir of the last survivor, Robert's brother Howard. King's writing style is as engaging as ever, but in a story about the apocalypse - and especially a dying man's last words - do we really need to spend so much time on pop culture references and (in the case) unnecessary characterizations? Bring on the destruction, please.

Orson Scott Card's "Salvage" uses a post-apocalyptic Mormon community (a submerged Salt Lake City) as the backdrop for a story about Deaver, an outsider who survives by salvaging machines from the old days. Deaver is looking for treasure in an underwater temple, but what he finds is quite different. A nice contrast was Deaver's seemingly endless optimism versus the sad recollections of Rain, a 50 year-old survivor of civilization's end; but I must admit the story otherwise left something to be desired.

("The People of Sand and Slag" by Paolo Bacigalupi was originally reviewed in Science Fiction: The Best of 2004 edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan.) A group of miners, bio-enhanced to survive harsh environments through the wonders of "weeviltech", find a biologically unaltered dog, a creature believed to have been extinct for decades. Interesting was the portrait of how humanity has "evolved" with the aid of technology. They eat sand, are impervious to acid and amputate body parts at the drop of the hat. (By morning, the arm or leg grows back.) In effect, mankind has achieved a form of immortality through science. When they find the unaltered dog, a "lesser" life form, they question their own heritage and what it means to be human. Ultimately they decide that the unaltered species of man was far too vulnerable to lead an enjoyable life. Good stuff.

It took a while for me to get into "Bread and Bombs" by M. Rickert, probably because I didn't realize that the author was dropping tiny hints at an American society that wasn't quite right. Then it became obvious that it was a culture resulting from a generation of terrorism fears. The story was written in response to 9/11 and deals with themes of liberty and prejudice, but it also does an excellent job of showing how society has changed (like the absence of commercial airplanes, for example) and how people are gripped by fear (like reaching for helmets when they do hear what must be a war plane). The contrasts between the elder generation's reminiscences of everyday freedom and the next generation's complete obliviousness to it were chilling.

The apocalyptic landscape serves as background to a virtual reality contest in Jonathan Lethem's "How We Got In Town and Out Again". The contest gives people a diversion from the scarcity of food. Lewis (the green narrator) and Gloria (his streetwise partner) turn to a town's VR games for a few days worth of food. Although the story mainly focuses on the VR scenarios of Lewis, we get hints of the surrounding catastrophe, the despondency it's created and the solace that the townsfolk find in the games. I'm somehow missing the "anti-VR" stance that Lethem is supposedly making in this story, but it makes no less entertaining to read.

George R. R. Martin takes us half a millennium past the apocalypse with "Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels". Two groups of humans survived global war: those that were living in underground cities and those on a lunar colony. A scout named Greel is exploring the upper reaches of The People and comes to an ancient subway tunnel, just as two explorers from the lunar colony arrive in an attempt to reestablish communication with any survivors. What was interesting here is mankind's evolution underground; affected by radiation from the war and adapted to the total darkness of the underground. They have pale skin, huge eyes and are super-sensitive to light. They also have the ability to telepathically "mind-mingle" with rats. Needless to say, the visitors from above and the scout from below are destined for an ill-fated meeting.

In "Waiting for the Zephyr", Tobias Buckell conjures up a small American town. Mara wants to leave because the town is in decline, but her boyfriend and family want her to stay. The arrival of the wind-driven ship, Zephyr, is her chance for a better life. The plot presents a decent conflict, but the story's short length allows no time for showing exactly why Mara should decide one way or the other.

Post-apocalyptic stories need not be depressing all the time, as Jack McDevitt shows with "Never Despair". Two weary travelers, looking for the Haven that promises them the knowledge long since forgotten, stop for a night's rest. One of them, Chaka, is "visited" by a still-working hologram named Winston, who offers some timely encouragement and fills Chaka with hope. This is about as "feel-good" as these stories can get and McDevitt does a wonderful job balancing a wide mood range.

Cory Doctorow shows us a geeks-eye view of the apocalypse in "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth". In this story, we get to see the apocalypse as it happens, with our hero, Felix the systems administrator, holed up in a hermetically sealed "clean room", communicating with other sysadmins locally and afar. The end of the world comes in several forms (nuclear, biological, and electrical) and these scenes are as harrowing as any of the best apocalyptic fiction has to offer. Minor puffs of steam are lost as the narrative dawdles with political jockeying of the survivors, but in the end this is a damn fine story.

James Van Pelt provides a decidedly uncommon post-apocalyptic setting in "The Last of the O-Forms". In this future, the big calamity is a plague that has made genetic mutations the order of the day, in animals and humans. Rare are animals in their original form ("o-form"). Dr. Trevin's Traveling Zoological Extravaganza is a business venture that attempts to capitalize on these freakish animals. Of course, since they are becoming more prevalent, the attraction falls on hard times. What's different from most other post-apocalyptic stories is that takes place not so much after society has quickly broken down, but while it is slowly breaking down, making it oddly attractive in fashion similar to the depressing, Dystopian setting of The Children of Men. In a short space, the author manages to create a sense of family in Trevin and his partner, Caprice, a very intelligent mutant who looks like a child. He also manages to create a character worth rooting for.

The short-short story "Still Life with Apocalypse" by Richard Kadrey (an updated version of the story that appeared at Infinite Matrix) is more experiment than narrative. As the title advertises, this is a snapshot of life after the apocalypse - in this case, an implausible series of violent riots that spread across the globe. The view is through the eyes of those who are still around to clean up the mess; an interesting perspective but ultimately an untapped potential in an uneventful piece.

In "Artie's Angels" by Catherine Wells, a nuclear apocalypse has forced the inevitably slow evacuation of Earth, leaving the soon-to-be-saved huddling under domes that protect from them from the radiation outside where the probably-won't-be-saved people live. Dome life is slowly decaying as the "riff-raff" from outside slowly inhabit the dome. Lawlessness is increasingly becoming the way of life, but a group of youths, led by the charismatic Artie, find a ray of hope in the darkness. Morgan, whose real name is Faye, sees Artie as her "knight" (note the overt King Arthur references), and his tragedy makes for good reading, but I would have loved to see more of this deliciously ripe setting pulled into the foreground.

What would happen if space travelers came back to Earth only to find that they missed Judgment Day? That's the question posed by Jerry Oltion's "Judgment Passed" where the astronauts return to an empty planet to find that Jesus had returned and whisked away all of its inhabitants to God-knows-where. An interesting spin on the story is that the eight astronauts are agnostic and don't know what to do. Should they try to contact Jesus? That depends on what happened to them, which they don't know. Ultimately, enjoying the spacious privacy after so many years cramped in close quarters, the astronauts spread out across the globe, not entirely sure what else to do. One of them, though, is affected more than the others and goes to some extreme measures to contact God, and this forms the basis of some highly effective drama. A great premise, some thought-provoking questions about religion and the afterlife, and tight prose propel this story to greatness.

"Mute" is the second short story by Gene Wolfe I've read this year (the other one being "The Hour of the Sheep") in which I cannot find anything more than a superficial story. In this case, it's a brother and sister who return to their abandoned home and catch glimpses of their dead father. I kept looking for the clues that would explain some deeper meaning - even resorting to a second reading as suggested in the intro by a Neil Gaiman quote - only to be left wondering why I bothered. Even Googling didn't help; nor the author's own description of the story. Is there anything more going on here? Perhaps I am just trying to read too much into it, preconditioned by the author's reputation to expect symbolism in every passage. Maybe sometimes a story is just a story. If there's anything more, it is completely lost on me.

"Inertia" by Nancy Kress, on the other hand, is everything short fiction could and should be: thought-provoking, based on a cool sf-nal idea and wholly entertaining. The near-future setting is a quarantined colony that confines those infected with a disfiguring disease. A stranger from Oustide arrives, upsetting the relative stability of one family. Those Inside have been long abandoned by society and government and while their society has defied all expectations of societal decay, it hasn't exactly progressed either. In interesting contrast, as we learn from the visitor, the Outside has been experiencing a regression, as evidenced through increased violence and government repression. Does the disfiguring disease hold a solution to the world's ills? It's interesting to see how Kress crafts a story that ventures through cool post-apocalyptic premise (contagious disease and forced segregation), tenuous family relationships (uneasy calm with obvious tension just under the surface), futility (the complacency of the residents Inside), hope (potential cures and solutions), extrapolation (global social unrest), and thought-provoking issues (characters' real motives and the harsh reality of public reaction) - and wraps them up in something that is simultaneously grim and deep and wonderful. A job well done.

A motorcycle-riding courier is tasked with transporting fetal stem cell cultures to Sacremento in Elizabeth Bear's "And the Deep Blue Sea". Riding across a radiation-drenched America is hard enough for her, but there is another obstacle in the way. The title offers a hint: it's the Devil, who, appearing as a man named Nick, otherwise wants to cash in on a previous debt and collect the courier's soul. The setting here is pretty bleak, replete with dead towns, decaying roadways, radiation, oppressive heat, and the requisite post-apocalyptic desolation. The tough, female lead does not lack perseverance in the trying environment. She makes some hard decisions even when Nick (whose true identity and nature is symbolized throughout the story) throws his worst at her. Alas, the open-ended finish leaves the reader to decide whether the courier beats the Devil, taking some of the import away from the fight between them.

Octavia E. Butler shows us how communication can be a peaceful alternative to violence by using science fiction to show the opposite. In "Speech Sounds", the people of the world have been rendered speechless, only able to communicate by hand gestures and body language. Society has thus been slowly conditioned to withdraw from one another, resorting to fisticuffs to resolve issues, and continues to devolve further. In this deteriorating setting, one woman meets a man whom she connects with. Butler's seemingly simple premise holds some contemplative moments, making the tragedy and hope of the story all the more dramatic. The Hugo and Nebula awards that it won are well-deserved.

Carol Emshwiller's story "Killers" reads like an intimate portrait. It takes place in an American town that's been relocated and cut off from the rest of civilization because of a war with terrorists on American soil. Most of the men have been gone for fourteen years, including the brother of our female narrator. The war is thought to be over, but that could just be the result of misplaced hope. What is known is that soldiers from both sides live nearby. When our narrator notices one in her town, she takes him in, cleans him up and nurses him back to health - despite the knowledge that he is the foreign terrorist who has recently been killing the townspeople. The idea here is that the woman is so lonely that she looks past all this; even to the point where she replaces the fading hope that her missing brother is still alive with some imagined, happy future existence with this terrorist whose true identity she plans to keep hidden from the rest of the town. It's an interesting level of desperation, but I'm not sure I'm buying it...especially when a subsequent petty jealously turns things even more desperate.

You might not think that a vast wasteland could be a successful backdrop for comedy, but Neal Barrett, Jr.'s "Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus" might make you think otherwise. Ginny's small troupe includes the front man barker named Del and a trigger-happy marsupial named Possum Dark. They travel the desolate lands selling their wares (sex, tacos, and dangerous drugs) to small groups of survivors in exchange for gasoline and other hard-to-find items. Have Ginny and Co. met their match in a renegade group of insurance salesmen? I'm not saying... I don't want to give up any surprises. Suffice it to say that this was a fun read that shows that not all post-apocalyptic settings need be dire.

Dale Bailey successfully mixes fiction and meta-fiction in his wonderful story "The End of the World as We Know It". The fiction part follows the last man on Earth, a sudden widower named Wyndham. (A nod to Cozy-Catastrophe-Meister John Wyndham perhaps?) Wyndham wakes to find everyone else in the world dead, but instead of the positive message of hope that frequently pervades post-apocalyptic stories (as the slightly jarring meta-fiction interludes tell us), Wydham eventually embraces hopelessness, emphasizing the fact that personal loss is just as devastating as a global one. Well done.

After 9/11, I remember how normal television programming stopped in lieu of round-the-clock news coverage. When a postponed awards show returned to a newsed-out audience, some comment was made about how arts and culture serves a need in society, if only for a release from the harsh realities of life. This is the issue addressed by David Grigg in "A Song Before Sunset", in which a concert pianist grasps his musical skills as a conduit of hope. He lives one day at a time, scavenging and trading for sustenance and tools. He is finally able to breach the exterior of a concert hall, only to suffer a tragic realization at the hands of those who give survival a much higher priority than art. Grigg's story, though predictable, serves its purpose: it's a thoughtful and emotional story whose effect lingers.

The central premise of John Langan's "Episode Seven..." is simple enough: a young couple (comic book fan Wayne and his pregnant friend Jackie) manage to avoid 2 points of a three-pronged apocalypse (the virus and the strange, purple plants), but must fight toot-and-nail with the third...a pack of man-eating creatures. This story, says the introduction, is a flip-side answer to the hopelessness of Dale Bailey's "The End of the World as We Know It". This is true; proactive Wayne assumes the comic book hero role and deals directly with the situation, devising clever traps for the beasts chasing close behind. (Like I suspect in the Bailey story, this character's name is homage - in this case, to Batman's Bruce Wayne.) But the structure of Langan's story fumbles a bit. The passages are extremely long, run-on, stream-of-consciousness sentences, except where the main story outline boldly announces itself, snapping the reader back to the present. This interesting choice of narrative style, while I concede did lend some feeling of urgency, took away from the overall reading experience a bit, keeping this story from greatness, though not dropping it below the level of very good.

Posted by John at 12:29 AM | Discussion (4) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

I'd have to place Hurricane Moon squarely into the 'not what I was expecting' category. The book description sounds really good: the last hope for humanity, several thousand colonists leave Earth in cold-sleep to find and establish a new colony on an Earth-like world, moon required. They eventually find two world sized planets orbiting each other. One has an abundance of land, "Green", and one is mostly water, covered with hurricanes, "Blue". However, the effects of cold-sleep have caused tremendous damage to the colonists' genes, and it's up to brilliant microbiologist Joseph Devreze to fix it.

Ms. Latner has written several short-stories, mostly of the hard SF variety. Because of this, and the description, I was expecting more of an emphasis on the science, especially with respect to "Blue" than what I found.

There planet "Blue" dominates the background of this story, raising several interesting questions: What, exactly is it? How did it get to be where it is and why? How does it affect the colonists in the manner in which it does? All of these questions are either ultimately explained away very quickly, or with nothing approaching believability, to me, at all. The mystery of "Blue's" existence is wrapped up in a very Star Trek: The Next Generation manner. The clues are fairly sparse, but finally come to together to form a conclusion near the end of the book. This conclusion opens up a whole host of other questions which the colonists seem intent on ignoring. The questions of 'how' and 'why' were unsatisfactorily answered, and "Blue" just didn't seem to receive the attention it deserved. As for the affects "Blue" had on the colonists, the explanation bordered on the mystical, which really bugged me. As it seemed out of place in the story, I didn't buy into it.

The other area of praise that Hurricane Moon has received is in the characters and their relationships. This, to me, was the low point of the book. After reaching "Green", the book becomes embroiled in the trials and tribulations, relationship-wise, of the characters on the surface. Aside from the odd exploratory mission or speculation about "Blue", I had to force myself to through the middle part of the book. The big problem I had was in Joseph Devreze. For someone who is supposedly as brilliant as he is, he certainly whined and moped around quite a bit. He reminded me of the character of Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion, someone who spends the entire story whining about his situation rather than moving on. And you'd think that 1000 light-years from Earth, whatever problems you brought with you, you'd be able to move past. I just didn't see why any of the female characters in the book would even be interested in a self-centered whiner like Devreze. Hurricane Moon focuses a lot on the relationships, unbelieveable as they were to me. Too much focus in my opinion when there were more interesting, compelling things to explore. I'm not against character oriented stories, The Wreck of the River of Stars comes to mind, but at least make the lynchpin character sympathetic. Couple that with Joseph's 'genius' suddenly leaving him, thus leaving the fate of the colony in doubt, and we end up with a Deus Ex Machina resolution, involving "Blue" somehow, Devreze's problem. Totaly unexpected and, for someone who is lauded for their hard SF writing, very bothersome.

That's not to say it's all disappointing. It isnt'. The opening 100 or so pages, as the colony ship leaves Earth for the first target, is very good. Latner's depiction of slower than light colonization felt realistic, as did the problems the crew would face on such a journey. When they reach their destination and find things aren't as they need to be, a debate ensues whether to stay, or take a risk and cross a large void in search of another planet but put the colonists at risk of spending too much time in cold-sleep. Everything in this section was excellent, including the characters acting as you'd think they would. Even when they reach "Green", things didn't go down hill for me until after a shuttle crashes on "Green". It's the explanation for this crash, tying into the 'mystical' powers of "Blue" that started bothering me. Also, "Blue" itself is very intruiging. I could see an entire story based soley on discover the hows and whys of its existence. Unfortunately, Hurricane Moon isn't that story.

I was expecting something more, something different than what I read. I'm not saying it's a bad book, it's just not my cup of tea. In hindsight, this is not a book I would have picked up and read had I known more about it. As it is, there is just enough interesting things here, and a stellar opening, to make it, overall, readable, but short of my expectations.

Posted by JP at 1:03 PM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Not your typical fantasy novel that is extremely imaginative, this book falls a little short for me.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Following a rift in Texas the world we know is joined with 5 other planes filled with fantasy creatures. One of the elves named Zal has become a major rock star whose life is threatened when elements of his home plane move to kill him. Government agent and cyborg Lila Black is sent to help him and ends up with far more than she bargained for dealing with the sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll world that Zal and his pals live in.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Highly unique fantasy setting, very well written dialog, often hilarious
CONS: Simple in structure, character growth didn't seem genuine
BOTTOM LINE: Justina can write (far better than I ever well) and there are lots of things to like in this book. But the characters didn't seem genuine enough to me and as a result I ended up feeling somewhat underwhelmed with the total book.

Half-way through this book I was amazed and seriously enjoying the heck out of it. But by the end, I was left feeling the book hadn't lived up to the beginning. I had a very hard time coming up with a rating for this book and nearly left it off entirely (bowing to convention only at the end.) For me the bottom line is that if you are a die-hard fan of fantasy novels and are looking for something truly unique, this is a book you should get. Otherwise, maybe give this one a pass.

The book opens with a quick prologue telling you about the rift in space that has joined Otopia (formerly Earth) with the other planes of existence and the beings that live there. After that you need to hold on as the book romps hard and fast through a world made very different from our own. Lila gets assigned to guard Zal, a rock-star elf with an entourage filled with drug-addicted magical creatures. Almost immediately there is an attempt on Zal's life that Lila only just manages to stop and the book moves on quickly from there. The book is really funny in lots of places too and that helps.

The first half of the book takes place in Otopia and it is here where the book is strongest. Seeing the elves and other creatures juxtaposed with our world gives them a great alien feel that kept me turning pages long into the night. The second half takes place in Alfheim, the land of the elves, and it is this portion that fell short. While certainly not conventional, this part of the book has a more traditional fantasy feel to it and lost some of the magic Robson had generated early on (pun intended.) The characters also seem to lose credibility here, as the changes they go through (at least after Zal and Lila reconnect) no longer seem genuine. I had a hard time empathizing with Lila at this point.

I didn't dislike the book and I'm glad I read it. I probably won't read any sequels though. Note that my wife - who doesn't care for sci-fi or fantasy - was attracted to the description on Amazon but couldn't finish reading it.

Posted by scottsh at 7:47 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

The December 2007 issue of Jim Baen's Universe (Issue #10, also known as Volume 2, Number 4) contains 13 pieces of short fiction and 7 non-fiction articles. Eleven of the stories are reviewed below. (I did not partake of the classic reprint "A Holy Terror" by Ambrose Bierce and the "Fish Story" serial by Dave Freer, Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, now in its tenth episode.)

The issue was good overall, despite the poor impression left by the longest story. This speaks highly of the other stories, I think. That said, the only standout story was "Darwin's Suitcase," perhaps because time travel is a favorite sub-genre of mine and Elizabeth Malartre does it well.

Rounding out the issue were several articles including one by Mike Resnick wondering if there aren't too many Hugo categories, especially when relatively few awards are given to writers, the people for whom the award was created. There's also another "free fiction" article by Eric Flint, who makes a strong case against the naysayers of making science fiction freely available online.

Individual story reviews follow...

"Laws of Survival" by Nancy Kress is briefly set in a pseudo-Dystopia where people scrounge for food outside the well-protected cities following a war that seems to have separated civilization into the haves and have-nots. Large alien domes, which have arrived from space years before and are impervious to any stimulus men can throw at it, sit idle where the cities dump their garbage. It's not too long into the story before Jill, looking for food amongst the trash, sees a long-dormant dome actually open. A robot emerges and takes Jill and her newfound puppy inside. Jill is forced into the role of dog trainer for some unseen alien purpose and it's interesting, though somewhat predictable, to see the reasons why aliens ignore humans but have plans for dogs. Better still was when the other plot shoe was dropped regarding a secret Jill has kept suppressed to help her survive on the outside. This story reads as smoothly as anything else I've read by Ms. Kress and doesn't disappoint.

I'm a sucker for a good time travel story, and "Darwin's Suitcase" by Elizabeth Malartre delivers. A member of the Church in the 2138, a time when science is shunned, uses a Time Viewer to spy on Charles Darwin in 1866, just before he would write a book called An Answer to the Religious Opposition to the Origin of Species and the Descent of Man. She sees that Darwin is visited by a time traveler from 2156 (18 years into her future), urging Darwin not to write that book because it starts a religion vs. science war that science loses. Good discussion, interesting situation and a great ending mark this wonderful story.

Tony Frazier's tongue-in-cheek "Double Secret Weapon" concerns a television superhero who just might be the real deal. At a mall signing, he encounters snooty kids and - wouldn't you know it? - his arch enemy Professor Pierce, whose power is throwing needles and other sharp objects. The author wisely plays this one for laughs and there were indeed a few laugh-out-loud chuckles. I'm not a huge fan of science fiction comedy (preferring humor in sf stories as opposed to humorous stories in sf clothing) but this one works.

I have never read any of Sharon Lee's and Steve Miller's Liaden stories, though I was interested in doing so before I read "Misfits" which is set in the same universe. It deals with a weatherman named Brunner, relegated to a mild "house arrest" working as gardener for a noble house. But war with Korval forces the powers-that-be to rely upon his unique meteorology skills, guiding a team on the planet from the relative safety of an orbiting weather satellite. Honestly, if there was more going on than that, I couldn't tell you because the writing was a huge distraction to reading. Forgetting the grammatically questionable dialects, the text itself was pure work to trudge through. Consider: (1) An annoying overuse of appositives. Try breaking up the rhythm please. Spend an extra sentence to say what you want to say. (2) A host of unfinished sentences, usually ending in suggestive ellipses. If the writer doesn't want to fill in the blanks, then I'm not going to. (3) Overuse of interrupted dialogue. As in: "'They must,' he whispered, 'be warned.'" And: "'They must,' he said to the empty room, his voice striking the walls firmly, 'be told.'" Grrr! (4) Cumbersome prose. For example: "So Liaden a name as 'Miri' attached to one with such an accent and so misplaced a sense of food as to prefer coffee to his carefully brewed tea...that was awkward, even unacceptable." (5) Wrong verb tense. For example: "Are we attacked?" makes more sense as "Are we being attacked?" or "Were we attacked?" Besides the prose, the story just lacked pizzazz. Scenes where Brunner tracks the weather, for example, were meant to be action scenes but were about as interesting as, well, my local nightly weather report. Perhaps I'm being overly picky, but I've never encountered writing that I wanted to edit as much. It's as if every effort was made to impede immersion, and each offense was successful in pulling me out of the story. This was about as painful a reading experience as it gets, where the utmost perseverance is required to keep from giving up. Perhaps if I had read some of the other stories this would have been more tolerable? As it is, this could have used some serious proofreading and editing.

Mike Resnick's gift this issue is "Christmas Eve at Harvey Wallbanger's" in which Harry the Book (as in taker of bets) looks to get his money back from a mark (Bet-a-Thousand McNabb) before he loses it in a card game. But he is too late and his only recourse is a bar bet with Loose Lips Louie, a bet centered on the real names of Santa's reindeer. Resnick's flair for dialogue and storytelling show through, but the cutesy names of the characters are a bit of a distraction.

J. Simon's "Fossilized Gods" is a worthwhile, tongue-in-cheek Cthulhu story in which evil elder gods can be wished away by simply disbelieving in them. However, they are tenacious and it's hard not to believe something you see with your own eyes. Thus the small cast of characters (a professor, his students and his "daughter") have something that brings them together to fight as one after all.

"Second Banana" by Way Jeng is a fast-paced, intense space mission by a pair of mercenaries - one an ex-soldier named Dex, the other his fast-talking female partner, Benny. Their mission, which Benny tricks Dex into doing, is to disable a war ship, though we never really learn who the "good" guys are in the war. Dex is deposited on the warship and, as would be expected and hoped, things do not go so smoothly. Bad news for them but good news for the reader; this was a fun story.

Anyone who thinks that science fiction is not literature need look no further than "The Art of Memory" by Barry N. Malzberg and Jack Dann, in which a fifty-seven-year-old man finds himself quite aware of his fatal car accident. Indeed, he looks on as an observer in a "half-dead" state and is able to reflect on his stagnant marriage and Daddy issues. What the story attempts to show us - and does so with some success - is that there is (or at least should be) a difference between life and death; that memories should recall the feelings of being alive.

Since I missed reading the previous edition of Baen's Universe, it did not seem likely that I would jump into Edward M. Lerner's serial, "Countdown to Armageddon" at episode 2. But then I discovered it employed a favorite trope of mine: time travel. It seemed to be worth going back and reading episode 1, so I did. The story concerns an Islamic terrorist (named Abdul Faisel) whose hatred for the Christians that killed the people of his village leads him to build a time machine. His plan is to travel back to the Battle of Tours (732 A.D.), a pivotal turning point in the struggle against Islamic incursion into Western Europe, and, of course, change the course of history to exact vengeance. Episode 1, which takes place in 2009, introduced all the players, including American scientist Harry Bowen and his British colleague, Terrence Ambling. It also set the stage with Faisel's departure in 2004 and Terrence's confession that he is an ex-Interpol agent tracking down plutonium stolen by Faisel, now suspected, via Harry's fortuitous discovery years ago, to have been used to build a time machine. Episode 2 kicks off with a bang, showing Faisel's arrival in the past and the tracing of his steps by Harry and Terrence in 2009. They are soon captured by patiently waiting terrorists but manage to, at the last minute, escape to the past. The science behind the time travel is sufficiently explained, though it does seem to lack the proper checks and balances that a rigorous experiment would have. Lerner has cooked up and interesting premise, and though the story makes occasional sudden jumps over off-stage events, I am indeed interested enough to see where this is headed. (Side note: I find, in reading short fiction that deals with history, that I have a much higher tolerance for it than I did in my youth, when it was force-fed to me by sadistic history teachers.)

In David Wesley's "Inheritance," a weather satellite's AI is given sentience by its creator, a last gift before Earth's total destruction. It's an interesting scenario, grounded in the relationship between AI and creator. The AI's updates include survival instincts, morality and the desire to propagate through its nanotech capabilities; all interesting stuff that's otherwise layered with a forced sentimentality.

While the premise of "Queen's Mask" by Barbara E. Tarbox is formulaic - widow queen defends her crown and her son from the evil, scheming, power-hungry Lord - there are a few elements that rescue the story and make it nonetheless entertaining. Queen Elena comes from a land rumored to be magical. She does indeed possess some magic powers: she's able to see what others are doing through her locket's mirror. But magic has been outlawed in this land so she keeps that as her secret. The evil Lord Hefger threatens "outing" her anyway, a rumor with terrible consequences, regardless of its truthfulness. Queen Elena is not quite the strong female one would hope for in a lead character, reacting out of fear for her son Garrick's safety rather than dealing with the threat head-on. But she muddles through, finding just enough strength to flee...or at least attempt to flee, as Hefger is close behind. A worthwhile story conclusion in the nearby forest ends a satisfying read.

Posted by John at 2:24 AM | Discussion (4) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A schizophrenic, somewhat self-parodying story of parallel worlds, apocalypse and ancient civilizations.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The Earth of Martin Winters is invaded by an alien species, an ancient civilization from a parallel world entering through gates opened during the 2012 age change, while Wylie Dale in a third parallel world tries to understand how he can know and write about these events without being there.

MY REVIEW
PROS: Imaginative apocalypse; action picks up the pace in the middle and end.
CONS: Starts slow, uneven beginning; little to no science explanations of many phenomena; somewhat contrived ending (could be related to 'no science')
BOTTOM LINE: An intriguing hypothesis of a possible apocalypse at year 2012, slowed down by jumps in point of view, characters that are difficult to care about and lack of hard science.

Much has been written about 2012, the predicted "end of the present age" found in the Mayan calendar, Hopi traditions and Vedic literature. Contemporary non-fiction and fiction authors have used it as fertile fodder, suggesting everything from a consciousness evolution (2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck, and others) to a shift in the magnetic poles to a self-induced disaster in the face of global calamity (like my own book, Dusk Before the Dawn, reviewed by SF Signal here). Heck, so much disaster is attributed to 2012 that it is probably when the Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Or, like Y2K, we may all sleep through it.

Whitley Strieber has authored fiction and non-fiction crossing several genres. His fiction career began in horror, with tomes such as The Wolfen and The Hunger, and he has also penned previous apocalyptic books such as Warday (nuclear apocalypse) and The Coming Global Superstorm (which was source material for the movie The Day After Tomorrow). Mr. Strieber is also the author of a series of books documenting his abduction by aliens, starting with Communion.

Horror, apocalypse and abduction all come together thematically in 2012: The War for Souls. There are a lot of concepts thrown together here: the capturing of souls (reminiscent of the soulwave from Robert J. Sawyer's The Terminal Experiment); Starship Trooper-like alien soldiers; parallel worlds, the number 14, and politics are all mixed into the stew for good measure.

Archeologist Martin Winters is excavating a pyramid in Egypt, proving out a Graham Hancock-esque theory that the civilizations that created the pyramids and other ancient works is 18-20,000 years old. But the pyramid collapses, simultaneously with other ancient sites around the world, to be replaced by giant lenses. Fourteen of them, to be exact, "each one is exactly six thousand two hundred twenty miles from an axis point eleven hundred miles from the north pole." As Martin and others in his world deal with this calamity, Wylie Dale is writing the story on his laptop, in some kind of a trance. Wylie has been the victim of alien abductions and apparently sees through to Martin's world.

The apocalypse comes to Martin's world quickly. He meets General Al North and his boss, General Tom Samson, with the President of his world's United States, a lesser power compared to the British and the French. Nuking the lenses is discussed, and Martin heads home to the chaos that is Kansas. Most electronics, including communications, are rapidly wiped out. Then the souls start being "extracted"...by the millions. And the zombie bodies that are left start marching north.

The rest of the novel (without giving away spoilers) follows Wylie as he and his family try to determine his level of sanity or whether he can actually see into parallel worlds, Martin as he tries to help his family whom he thinks have all been turned into zombies, and the aliens, who, of course, have been amongst us all along, and have problems on their home world that make them need to take over our world. Generals North and Sampson play wildly divergent yet important roles which again cannot be revealed without spoiling the show. They are true rivals in every sense of the word.

As a fanboy of apocalyptic ideas and fiction, the idea of the fourteen lenses which created gateways to other worlds, located in fourteen ancient ruins around the sacred circle was unique and creative. Many have discussed in fiction and non-fiction the possibility that these ruins are much older than previously believed and some have speculated that they were created by an alien race.

A suspension of believability is required by the readers to follow this premise and others in the books. Extraction of souls, gateways/holes between parallel worlds and the use of the fourteen lenses are all great plot tools, but a little explanation would have raised the believability quotient. We all have our perspectives and expectations. This book is published by Tor (a sci-fi house) and it's classified as science fiction; this reader's expectation included at least an attempt at plausibility, and this was not met. There are little pieces of "assume this is ok", which could use a little more detail. For instance, Martin is looking for where the souls are kept:

A map was thrust into his mind as if into his hand, accompanied by a red flush of anger. It was a Google map centered just west of Holcomb. A shock went through him. "Zoom," he said. "Again." The map now pointed to a particular crossroads.

As indicated at the beginning of this review, a hefty volume of the 2012 literature to date has to do with either complete world disaster or consciousness evolution. Strieber combines both of these possibilities into the fabric of his novel, with an interesting account of the spiritual evolution process that involves laying aside fear and self-isolation.

There's a little bit of politics thrown in, with names of real-life people showing up in interesting bit parts in the novel (again, no spoilers). There's also some excellent self-parody, as Wylie (who is a writer like Strieber) talks of being ridiculed for his writing of alien abduction and his son in the novel has been taunted about it in class. And again without spoilage, the ending is quite "Disney-esque" for an apocalyptic thriller.

It's a quick read, with some interesting concepts of both how the end of the age signified by 2012 might manifest, and some dark and some hopeful outcomes of this apocalypse.

Posted by Larry at 2:25 AM | Discussion (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A fine collection that surpasses most anthologies in entertainment value.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: 13 short stories, 9 of which are set in Hughes's Archonate universe (comprised of 6 Henghis Hapthorn stories and 3 Guth Bandar stories).

MY REVIEW:
PROS: 11 stories good or better, 5 of them outstanding; the Hapthorn stories make me want more.
CONS: 2 stories in the mediocre range.
BOTTOM LINE: A very good collection of science-fantasy stories that offers an enjoyable introduction to the Archonate universe and its creator.

The Gist Hunter and Other Stories by Matthew Hughes is a collection of thirteen stories; there are 9 Archonate stories (comprised of 6 Henghis Hapthorn stories and 3 Guth Bandar stories) and 4 other stories to round out the book.

The stories of Henghis Hapthorn, the "world's foremost discriminator", are easily the most entertaining because they are essentially "Sherlock Holmes in space" stories. I discovered the Holmes stories a little over a decade and have really enjoyed the ones I read. Reading the Hapthorn stories, which perfectly capture the flavor of Holmes and adds an intriguing science-fantasy setting as well, was just a hoot. The characters are fun, too, especially witnessing there clever dialogue as they try to figure out how their logical world is increasingly being overrun by magic. (There's a running bit where Hapthorn, at a loss for how to respond, replies with either "Indeed" of "It would be premature for me to answer." Those responses subsequently appear in all the remaining stories and are used to usually hilarious effect.) Any Holmes fan who also reads science fiction should read these stories. I'm eager to turn my attention now to the novel-length Hapthorn Stories (Majestrum and The Spiral Labyrinth).

The Guth Bandar stories (In which Bandar, a scholar of The Institute for Historical Inquiry, explores the human collective unconscious) were also enjoyable, though to tell the truth, I skipped them because they were the source of a fix-up novel called The Commons which I read two weeks ago. In fact, it was that book which pushed The Gist Hunter and Other Stories on my list; the Archonate is simply an intriguing place. Given my leanings towards science fiction rather than fantasy, I was happy to find that science-fantasy offers a palatable setting.

Four more stories round out a fine collection that rivals most anthologies in quality.

Standout entries in The Gist Hunter and Other Stories include "Mastermindless", "Relics of the Thim", "Finding Sajessarian", "A Little Learning" and "Shadow Man". As noted below, I suspect that, had I re-read "The Gist Hunter", it would be added to this list.

Individual Story reviews follow...

"Mastermindless" introduces us to the Sherlockian character of Henghis Hapthorn, the self-described "freelance discriminator in the city of Olkney in the penultimate age of Old Earth." His research assistant is an entity known as the Integrator, an all-knowing AI that sometimes, to humorous effect, takes words at their literal meaning. Hapthorn's quandary is that the men of Olkney have been robbed of their wealth, looks and intelligence, possibly because of the presence of magic. Hapthorn is also afflicted, so instead of a flawless Sherlock Holmes we get a sort of half-witted (and likable) genius who's feeling his way around in the dark, looking for something just out of reach. It's successfully played for laughs on occasion - no small feat considering that the Hughes's well-worded prose also delivers up a cool science-fantasy environment and a compelling plot to boot. The tone of the story, mimicking Hapthorn's attitude, never drops into despair and what starts as a quandary eventually passes through tantalizing challenge to a bring-it-on bravado that left me wanting more. Well done.

In "Relics of the Thim", Henghis Hapthorn confronts a con man who has seemingly created a device that allows him to retrieve artifacts from the past. The con man, Mitric Galvadon, challenges Hapthorn to debunk him using the Sherlock Holmes axiom that once the impossible has been eliminated, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Hapthorn takes the challenge and is stumped until the explanation, suitably science-fictional, is revealed. Again, the author perfectly recreates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's style and atmosphere, making this story as enjoyable as any Sherlock Holmes story.

"Falberoths Ruin" - a locked-room mystery in which a maleficent magnate gets his comeuppance - is probably less notable for its clichéd plot than for the hint that Henghis Hapthorn's integrator (and all integrators) may be undergoing an unexpected change. Hughes's writing is as sharp as ever, though, again capturing the Holmesian flavor.

There are multiple puzzles to be found in "Finding Sajessarian", another Henghis Hapthorn outing that not only presents a very good story in its own right, but also advances the overall story arc laid out in all the stories. Hapthorn is hired by Sigbart Sajessarian to locate Sajessarian after he intentionally goes into hiding, so that Sajessarian can see how well he is able to hide from people who might be after him. But there are layers to this situation that make it a bit more complex and entirely enjoyable, like a puzzle with a puzzle. Additionally, we get to see a bit into the world of Hapthorn's nameless "demon" friend, a being from another dimension whose machinations seem to us like magic. The resolution of the story - bringing even more magic into the world which has already been sliding towards the mystical side of reality - winds up dramatically altering Hapthorn's integrator assistant. Dynamic world-building, intriguing mystery and the consistently entertaining use of witty dialogue are a great combination. Well done.

[Note: "The Gist Hunter" was originally reviewed in Best Short Novels: 2006 edited by Jonathan Strahan. I did not read it again, but if I did, I suspect it may be rated even higher still since the previous stories in The Gist Hunter and Other Stories collection shed light on some of the events told therein.]
In "The Gist Hunter", a detective of the supernatural encounters a plan to control the universe by manipulating the component "gist" of which everything is made. It took me about a third of this story to get into the flow (curse you, late-night reading!), but once I did, man, was it fun. The story is written with a nineteenth-century Sherlockian flavor, although the "discriminator" hero Henghis Hapthorn lacks Holmes' deduction skills. Nor is his partner, the cat-like ape "interrogator", a direct parallel to Watson as the creature was heretofore a mechanical creation until an unfortunate, pre-story journey into the dimension of demons. This is one of those stories that openly skirts the line between science fiction (gist is described as "the underlying substance of the universe" that "bounds together all time energy, matter and the other, less obvious components into an elegant whole.") and fantasy (black magic, spells and incantations). The language of the story is wonderfully fitting to the setting and really lends to the story's enjoyment. And it's funny too, in a Niles Crane sort of way. The crass barbs between characters are thrown in the Queen's upper-crust English.

"Thwarting Jabbi Gloond" is not so much a progression of Henghis Hapthorn's story as it is a back story that reveals his origins. In it we learn how he became a discriminator as he attempts to help fellow student Torsten Olabian rid his father's home of an unwanted houseguest named Jabbi Gloond. Gloond holds some secret on Torsten's father, a jewel miner who once worked with a disreputable alien crew. As a mystery, this is a good story, but it does lack some of the attractive flair and witty dialogue of the other Hapthorn tales.

I just recently read the Guth Bandar stories as they were collected in the fix-up novel, The Commons. Although they are sure to be slightly different in their original form, I did not venture to re-read them. For completeness, I include here only the brief story notes; read the previous review for more details.

"A Little Learning" - As a struggling graduate, Bandar takes a test traversing a course through the Commons where he is forced to prove his mettle. When rival Didrick Gabbris blocks his proscribed path, a detour takes Bandar to an icy mountain where he meets some very amorous cavewomen in a situation that deftly avoids silliness thanks to the author's sly wit. Then it's on to a more serious setting: a war between Heaven and Hell with Bandar is caught in the middle. This is the strongest chapter of The Commons.

"Inner Huff" - Graduation sees Bandar in just as much trouble, this time in the unfortunate role of pig in the noösphere's all-too-real version of The Three Little Pigs. Here is where the multi-episode story arc begins to emerge as we see that the noösphere, heretofore believed to be a collection of unconscious memes, is beginning to show signs of being aware.

"Help Wonted" - After suffering disgrace with the Institute, Bandar finds himself yet again in the noösphere, this time being tested by the noösphere itself. Although this outing was the weakest, it does become clear that the noösphere is indeed self-aware.

In "Shadow Man", Damien is a disturbed youth who looks to serial killers as heroes. Instead of voices in his head, Damien sees "shadow men" just outside his vision. His exploration of the shadows yields a remarkable discovery that solidified and rewards his creepy predilections. Chillingly effective considering its short length, it shows that Hughes can master the short form.

"The Devil You Don't" is ultimately a slight tale about a man from the future who visits Winston Churchill before WWII. A bold and firm decision by the narrator seals the fate of the world, but beside that this story reads more like a scene than a story.

Earth is involved in some unfair planetary trade agreements in "Go Tell the Phoenicians". Thanks to exclusive technological know-how - specifically the light speed Dhaliwal Drive - the Bureau of Offworld Trade (BOOT) is able to cheat most alien societies out of their unique resources. Enter Kandler, a maverick exo-sociologist contracted by BOOT (though not entirely in league with them) to help understand what the planet K'Fond has to offer. What the greedy Earth traders soon learn is that he who holds all the cards may not hold them for long. The story harkens back to the days of classic science fiction (or at least an episode of the original Star Trek) in that it briefly explores cultural differences between species. Indeed, it is a false human assumption that keeps BOOT from finding the missing piece to the puzzle of why the technologically advanced K'Fond behave like they're at a frat party. Kandler, at odds with the local commander, is put into a situation where it behooves him to find out. The result is a fun story with a classic feel.

In the ultimately run-of-the-mill story "Bearing Up", a teenager named Mike has nightmares about bears, which may be related to his father's dangerous line of work as a rescuer. There's no science fiction content here; maybe that's why this story, while decent general fiction, lacked any significant content to make it overly memorable for this sf fan.

Posted by John at 12:22 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A thrilling science fiction tale of eco-terrorism, Darkness Falls could be ripped from the headlines.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Erin Neal is the world expert on using biotechnology to clean up a mess - especially oil. He's also become a hermit after his ex-girlfriend and now lives entirely off the grid in a remote part of New Mexico. When the US government comes asking for help he isn't interested, until it seems somebody has taken one of his ideas and twisted it to attack the world's dependence on oil.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Thrilling plot; flawed characters
CONS: Not every action is believable; villain is merely pathetic and not evil
BOTTOM LINE: Fun pulp fiction that can help pass the time during the cold winter months.

There is a lot to like in Darkness Falls: a thrill-filled plot, science fiction, and unique characters. Unfortunately there are just enough flaws to keep the book from being great. Nobody would confuse Mills with Tom Clancy or Larry Bond.

Erin Neal is a genius at biology who sets his sights on ways to realistically change the world. He even publishes a bestselling book on how environmentalists should focus on getting what they want by making changes economically viable. This puts him at odds with the more zealous environmentalists and drives away his more purist girlfriend, Jenna. He goes into a funk, but finally drops off the grid and drops out of life when Jenna is killed in a accident at sea.

Suddenly he's the man of the hour though, when former-FBI agent Mark Beamon informs him that a mysterious bacteria is found eating oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve and in Saudi Arabia. At first Erin isn't interested in helping, but when it looks like somebody has stolen one of his ideas and turned it into a disaster, he is intrigued. When he realizes the only person who had access to his notes was Jenna, he becomes obsessed.

The characters are not stereotypical nor are they supermen. One aspect I found very appealing is that they make mistakes and have regrets about the actions they are sometimes forced to take. It helps the story seem real and makes it easier to empathize with them. The action is great as well, and the overall story and use of science fiction realistic and easy to believe.

There is a lot to like here, but there are some issues. There is a love scene between Erin and another character that is simply hollow and stretches credibility. The actions of Mark are at times out of character and hard to fathom. And the villain - the eco-terrorist who also happens to be a rival to Erin - isn't as evil as he is pathetic, petty and sometimes bumbling. I suppose I prefer my bad guys to be truly bad in this kind of tale and this one let me down.

The biggest issue I had with the book I almost hesitate to mention. It isn't fair to ascribe the thoughts of characters to the author. But it is hard not to see some of the statements as Mills beliefs when stated by the omniscient narrator as facts. Rather than outright criticize these ideas, let me only state that they interrupted the suspension of my disbelief.

Overall though, Mills does a fine job weaving this doomsday thriller in the grand sense. The politics of nations, the actions of the US government, and the behavior of FBI and other law enforcement all ring very true. The plot advances quickly and steadily making it a hard book to put down and fun to read.

Posted by scottsh at 8:25 PM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

Longtime science fiction fans remember the Ace Doubles books that included two stories in one mass-market paperback binding. Decades later, Tor had a series of Tor Doubles that included two award-winning novellas in the same format. More recently, Gollancz published something similar under the Millennium imprint and called the books Binary and, like the Ace Doubles, each title is flipped 180 degrees, so you get what appear to be two books slapped together with no back cover.

Binary 2 includes two stories: "The Vaccinator" by Michael Marshall Smith and "Andy Warhol's Dracula" by Kim Newman.

Reviews after the jump...

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"The Vaccinator" by Michael Marshall Smith

The intent of "The Vaccinator" appears to the creation of something similar to Men in Black. Or maybe I'm predisposed to think so because of a quote stating as much? At any rate, what you have is the appearance of aliens on Earth that go largely unnoticed except by a select few.

Eddie Kruger, the protagonist of "The Vaccinator" is not a man in black; he's just a humble, laid back resident of Key West with special knowledge and skills. He uses that knowledge to help George Becker, a vacationing real estate agent who has weird things happening to him: silent phone calls, things disappearing, cars losing power, etc. What's happening is that aliens are marking him for a disappearance. Eddie makes his money charging his clients and paying off the aliens (minus his cut) to simply do nothing. Eddie is a "vaccinator", preventing harm from coming to an unsuspecting public.

This is a decent premise as far as it goes. The idea of aliens co-existing on Earth without the majority of the population knowing about it seems rife for humor. Helping matters is Smith's engaging prose, which is perfectly consumable and reads like mainstream fiction.

But the interesting sf premise eventually devolves into an overly-complex mystery that takes away from the lightheartedness of the whole affair. There are a few humorous moments, to be sure, but those moments are sidetracked by Eddie's uncanny ability to figure out the convoluted truth based on knowledge he should not have. And the aliens don't seem to be more than bumbling idiots themselves when they could have been portrayed to greater effect if more in the vein of the mischievous greenies in Frederic Brown's Martians Go Home. Moments like these seemed to take away from the tongue-in-cheek effect that seemed to be the goal, leaving room for improvement in an otherwise good story.

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"Andy Warhol's Dracula" by Kim Newman

"Andy Warhol's Dracula" is what you'd get if you took handfuls of vampire lore and 70's pop culture references then smashed them together into an appetizing mishmash of cool.

The star of the story is Johnny Pop, a descendent of the one and only Dracula, who is trying to rebuild an empire on the shores of America. The story follows Johnny's rise from near-nobody (feeding on the dregs of punks like Sid and Nancy, yes...that Sid and Nancy) to social icon. Johnny uses his own blood to gain power, selling $200 hits to young hopefuls who want the ultimate high that only "drac" can provide. Sure, it turns them into Dhampirs, forever striving for the one bite that will finally cross them over through death into vampire-hood - but this is the new drug. Everybody's doing it. Soon, Johnny is rubbing elbows with Andy Warhol, himself a vampire. (His pasty white appearance can mean nothing else, Johnny surmises).

Like his Diogenes Club stories, Newman gives "Andy Warhol's Dracula" an appealing, alternate-retro setting, peopling it with 70's icon both real and fictional. For example, it is mentioned that Johnny has appropriated the famed disco suit of Tony Manero (John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever) just before tossing him over the Brooklyn Bridge. There's also a scene in which "that girl from Star Wars" does a hit of drac, turning her into a Dhampir. Other folks and places garner mentions as well: Steve Rubell and Studio 54, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Nico and the Velvet Underground, George Burns... To round out the setting, Newman does a decent bit of world building as well. Here, vampirism is a known condition but the law has yet to catch up with the issues that they bring forth.

Newman's novella is broken into two narratives: the main one recounting Johnny's story, the other providing Warhol's alternate biography. Johnny's story provides the bulk of entertainment here. The Warhol biography, while interesting at first, fills its need early on and ultimately seems to become a cheap vehicle for 70's pop culture references, which spew forth faster than a vampire can draw blood from a not-quite-unwilling victim. At least when the pop references are made in Johnny's story, they are used to advance the plot or provide atmosphere. In the Warhol bio, it's just name-dropping.

Still, "Andy Warhol's Dracula" is a hoot to read, providing an appealing flavor in a one-sitting read.

Posted by John at 12:15 AM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: An interesting blend of science fiction and fantasy elements.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Guth Bandar explores the world of the human collective unconscious, which is becoming not so unconscious after all.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Intriguing world with mind-expanding ideas; cool science-fantasy setting; deals heavily with archetypes yet avoids cliché.
CONS: Needed stronger characters; some adventures weaker than others.
BOTTOM LINE: A good read that's piqued my interest in other stories set in this universe.

One of my seemingly never-ending quests this year has been to quantify elements of fantasy fiction that appeal to me. To that end, The Commons by Matthew Hughes offers another positive data point.

The story is set in Hughes's Archonate universe. Actually, it's a series of stories; The Commons is a fix-up novel. The protagonist is Guth Bandar, a scholar of The Institute for Historical Inquiry, a group tasked with mapping out the human collective unconscious. This is a setting in which all of humanity's common, eternal archetypes exist. (Imagine a Holodeck or a Matrix where these many archetypes play out their stories in endless cycles.) This "noösphere" (also called "The Commons") is thus the distillation of all human experience. A noönaut like Bandar enters the Commons through meditation, and his psyche traverses it using various chants (called "thrans") to move among different landscapes and remain hidden from the more nasty archetypes. But if he lets his guard down, he is absorbed by it and his Earthly body will forever remain in a coma-like state.

The mind-expanding concept behind the noösphere is what gives The Commons its science-fantasy feel. The Reality is a far, far future, but excursions into the noösphere read like fantasy/adventure stories. And here was a potential danger for a reader like me who has a hit-or-miss experience reading fantasy. Thankfully The Commons worked for me. Why? Because my main gripe with fantasy (that "magical" things seem to happen without any in-story explanation or rules to govern their usage) is suddenly no longer an issue. The noösphere is not reality. No detailed, science-based explanation is needed when, for example, Bandar has the power to change his form or become invisible by uttering a three-three-seven chant that sounds suspiciously like the children's song "This Old Man". All that needs to be understood is that anything can happen. The events of the story thus become plot points instead of distractions.

Like many stories that are strung together to form longer novels, there are two characteristics that spring forth: an episodic feel to the book and a multi-episode story arc. The Commons exhibits both of these.

The story arc concerns Bandar's education of the noösphere and the realization that the noösphere is becoming self-aware. Hughes does a good job of advancing that arc with each story-long chapter. But characterization is another matter. Perhaps there is less of a need to do so in installments, but a book-length story needs strong characters. Bandar is sympathetic, sure, but he's not much more than that. For his role as Hero (in the eyes of readers; in The Commons we learn that his destiny lies with another role entirely) he is definitely more reactive than proactive. Things usually happen to him by surprise. ("That's not supposed to happen" is a common utterance by Bandar.) The only other significant recurring characters (scholarly rival Didrick Gabbris and "Multifacet", the manifestation of the self-aware noösphere) are too fleeting and don't offer any real characterizations either. In the end, Hughes compensates for this deficiency via capable prose and adding enjoyment through occasional dose of covert humor throughout the stories. And he successfully avoids cliché, no small feat considering he is constantly dealing in common archetypes.

As for plot details of each individual episode, here are the notes I took to jog my memory. I note here that The Commons is comprised of modified versions of previously-released stories: "A Little Learning", "Inner Huff", "Help Wonted", "A Herd of Opportunity", "Bye the Rules" and "The Helper and His Hero".

• In the first story, Bandar is a third-year student at The Institute for Historical Inquiry. Bandar follows his teacher to investigate an impossible breach between the human noösphere and an alien noösphere.


• As a struggling graduate, Bandar takes a test traversing a course through the Commons where he is forced to prove his mettle. When rival Didrick Gabbris blocks his proscribed path, a detour takes Bandar to an icy mountain where he meets some very amorous cavewomen in a situation that deftly avoids silliness thanks to the author's sly wit. Then it's on to a more serious setting: a war between Heaven and Hell with Bandar is caught in the middle. This is the strongest chapter of the book.


• Graduation sees Bandar in just as much trouble, this time in the unfortunate role of pig in the noösphere's all-too-real version of The Three Little Pigs. Here is where the multi-episode story arc begins to emerge as we see that the noösphere, heretofore believed to be a collection of unconscious memes, is beginning to show signs of being aware.


• After suffering disgrace with the Institute, Bandar finds himself yet again in the noösphere, this time being tested by the noösphere itself. Although this outing was the weakest, it does become clear that the noösphere is indeed self-aware.


• In another story, the noösphere is able to enter Bandar's dreams and thrust him into a Situation that starts out as Western but interestingly blends in alien invasion tropes. There's something appealing about the sight of a flying saucer over the streets of the Old West.


• In the final episode (spread over two chapters just like it was published across two episodes of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine), Bandar strives to better understand the noösphere. He meets up with two mysterious strangers who are obviously (too obviously) more than they seem; one in particular exhibits unprecedented abilities. This is the longest episode of all and is also the most ambitious, but there is a cost. The story tries to layer in too many elements at once - murder mystery, debilitating disease, shady faith healer, noösphere prodigy, alien world-building - and therefore takes some time to get off the ground. On the plus side, Hughes does manage to successfully juggle all of them most of the time, with the ending offering nice closure to the story arc of the noösphere's self-awareness. It also shows us Bandar's ultimate fate. (Note: Regarding alien world-building, Hughes mentions the substance known as "black brillion", which is the title of one of his books set in this universe.)

All told, The Commons was a good read and has piqued my interest in other stories of the Archonate universe.

Posted by John at 12:27 AM | Discussion (7) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Schroeder's sequel to Sun of Suns is an even better book - a focus on characters against a fanastic hard sci-fi backdrop. This is one sequel that surpasses the original.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Following the events of the first book, Venera Fanning inadvertently lands on Spyre, a decaying cylinder station on the verge of collapse, and realizes that the Key to Candesce she liberated from the pirate horde could destroy the entire world that lives in Virga. Her arrival sparks a change in the insular little community and sets in motion a chain of events that disrupts not only the political stability of the region but also the way Venera sees herself.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Can be read standalone, excellent characterization - Venera's Machiavellian nature is a perfect canvas on which to paint the experiences she has, hard sci-fi is always there in the background having a real impact on the book.
CONS: As with the first book, this one is a bit too sci-fi for non-fans to stomach.
BOTTOM LINE: Great book that I recommend easily.

Schroeder elects to ignore the ensemble of characters he introduced in the first book and instead focus exclusively on Venera Fanning (arguable the most interesting character from the first novel.) What luck for us that he did so, because the book is significantly better for it. With his ability to zero in on Venera we get a chance to know her, understand her, and grow with her as she is transformed by the circumstances she finds herself in.

A quick note on the sci fi in this and the previous book. JP (and others) have compared it to steampunk, and I can understand why. The machine that powers Candesce disrupts electrical circuits from operating within its sphere of influence, and as a result the worldlets have to survive on different technologies. This creates a set of technology that can take advantage of the lack of gravity (Virga doesn't have anything with enough mass to create it) but can't use computers. Its fun, and interesting to think about - but most importantly it plays an important part of the plot. The towns that have sprung up in this environment have learned to adapt and adopt the way things works.

This book can be read standalone without reading the first - somewhat rare for a sequel today. But it definitely has me looking forward to reading the next book!

Posted by scottsh at 9:51 AM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A well-crafted blend of world-building, characterization and storytelling.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Nine disgraced military rejects are assigned a suicide mission to destroy an enemy base located inside an asteroid.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Interesting setting; consistently high level of drama; believable action; well-crafted, layered storytelling; absolutely no padding.
CONS: None that I can think of.
BOTTOM LINE: Believable, lean-and-mean, military sf that offers dramatic tension every chance it gets.

Chris Roberson describes his book The Dragon's Nine Sons as "The Dirty Dozen in space". No other definition could encapsulate the plot better, but I will expand on that a bit: A band of nine disgraced and criminal military types of the Celestial Empire are assigned to a suicide mission to destroy an enemy asteroid base. They undergo training and use a stolen enemy ship, the Dragon, to accomplish their mission objective. When they arrive at the asteroid, Xolotl, they discover a previously unknown secret that forces them to question their orders, or at least examine the mission parameters.

Before you dismiss the story as having a formulaic plot, know that the book is no less enjoyable for using it. (In much the same way that The Stars My Destination was no less enjoyable for being "The Count of Monte Cristo in space".) The story succeeds in being exactly what it tries to be and does so in a completely entertaining fashion. Roberson's straightforward storytelling style expertly layers well-thought-out world building, dramatic characterizations, and a consistently-paced, no-nonsense plot delivery thankfully devoid of unnecessary padding. In fact, every single chapter contributes to world-building, plot and characterizations - a testament to the author's meticulous craftsmanship.

The story is set in Roberson's very intriguing Celestial Empire world, an alternate history in which Imperial China and Mexica have become the dominant superpowers. They have taken their war into space, with much of the conflict revolving around the Fire Planet (Mars) and its colonization and ownership. What's interesting about this alternate history is not only the cultural contrast between the two cultures (the traditionalist Imperial China versus a Mexica whose religion is based on human sacrifice - a source of several chilling moments) but also that both civilizations, despite their ability to travel through space, have relatively low tech cultures. There are no supercomputers and artificial intelligences, no transhumans and whatnot. (Dare I call it "Mundane"?) What they do have are computations based on the abacus and weapons like rifles, bladed clubs and liquid magnesium throwers. This is appealing in the same way Steampunk is appealing.

For all of the book's military posturing, it should be noted that this is not the kind of military sf with a slam-bang series of one unbelievable, action-packed sequence after another; although, yes, there are a nice handful of well-placed, nail-biting action scenes, too. Instead, the story focuses on the realistic military strategy aspect of the mission and, to a much larger degree, the characters. Each character is ultimately described with a brief history of who they are and how they got assigned to this suicide mission. These distinct back stories not only flesh out the characters (archetypical though some of them may be), but they also add to the dramatic tension, which is another major appeal of the book. There is conflict at nearly every turn: in the command structure of the mission, in the contention between the characters during training, in the realization of Mexica's "barbaric" rituals, in their personal dramas (current and past), and, of course, in the execution of the mission itself which is an exciting combination of Western and War movie.

In reading The Dragon's Nine Sons, it's obvious that much time was spent researching history (for the portrayal of the two cultures) and astrophysics (for the orbital dynamics of the asteroid and pace travel sequences). But even more time was spent constructing a believable, lean-and-mean military sf story that offers dramatic tension every chance it gets.

See also: Chris Roberson's checklist of Celestial Empire stories.

Posted by John at 1:03 AM | Discussion (4) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

The Blade Itself is Joe Abercrombie's first novel, and it's a darn fine one at that. And as a self-professed fantasy hater, that's saying something. Abercrombie has forgone the intricate trappings of modern day fantasy, A Song of Ice and Fire and the Malazan Empire spring to mind, and instead focuses his efforts on the characters. The lack of a detailed, epic setting allows Abercrombie to construct some very interesting and unusual characters, and focus on writing very frenetic, violent fight scenes.

The first thing that you'll notice when reading The Blade Itself is that Abercrombie doesn't spend a lot of time on describing the setting or in fabricating a complex plot. Basically, The Union, ruled by an incompetent King, is rotting from within. It's enemies smell blood and are mobilizing to attack. We do get hints that there is more going on behind the scenes, something involving the continuation of a centuries old conflict, but it's hints only.

This sparse setting and streamlined plot allows the characters to really shine. At just over 500 pages, and with only a handful of main characters and a few supporting ones, Abercrombie can focus on each character and make them come alive on the page. Each one is unique and interesting: the barbarian who is sick of fighting but will retreat into a barbarian rage when needed, the Inquisitor who is physically crippled and takes his pleasure from torturing others, the nobleman whose father bought him his Captaincy in the army, and the powerful, enigmatic wizard who knows a lot more than he's saying.

Each one of these characters is well thought out and well presented and each one has a role to play in the story. While you may not be sympathetic to them all, Abercrombie has a knack for creating believable characters.

The Blade Itself has been praised elsewhere for its wit and fight scenes. Accolades that are well justified. Too often, many fantasy stories are weighed down by their own self-importance and take themselves too seriously. In The Blade Itself, Abercrombie shows that humor can go a long way to energizing a story, and putting a human face on characters. We get a little sarcastic humor and some physical humor, all well timed and used to great effect. Also, the fight scenes are exceptionally well done. Abercrombie's fights are all fast paced, violent and bloody. He does a great job of describing the action without going overboard on the gore. If only more fights were described thusly, I might like more fantasy books.

The one big issue for me was that, at several points in the story, scenes that were supposed to be heavy on drama, really felt more like melodrama, and detracted from the effect of the events. There were a couple of times where I felt like saying, "Oh come on, that's a bit much. No one would fall for that." It didn't happen often, but enough to be noticeable.

Aside from that, I'm happy to say that The Blade Itself is the first book in The First Law series. Happy because if the others are anything like this one, it should be a great series to read. Write faster Joe, people are waiting!

Posted by JP at 6:42 AM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

Saturn Returns is the first book in Sean Williams' new space opera series, Astropolis. It has all the things you'd expect from New Space Opera: postumans, galaxy spanning cultures, conspiracies and imminent threat to humanity. The setting has some of the feel of Alastair Reynolds' Inhibitor series, but with Williams' own additions to space opera.

The back cover blurb says: "Dark experiments, dangerous ruins, fleeting ghosts and deadly conspiracies..." That's enough to get me interested, and thanks to John, I had the opportunity to read it. The verdict: Saturn Returns has some good points and some bad points, but overall it's a good space opera story that falls just short of being great.

Imre Bergamasc (right there you realize the names of the characters are going to get in the way of reading) wakes up on an ship traveling beyond the edge of our galaxy. He's be reconstructed from a destroyed coffin that had his genetic code and brain patterns encoded inside of it. However, not all of the information was discovered, so Imre is reconstituted as a female and, of course ,without all of his memories. With the help of a mysterious glowing sphere, Imre escapes from his captors and embarks on a quest to discover who he is and why someone would want to destroy his final resting place.

Right at the beginning we have a hoary cliche in the amnesia angle and the verging on deus ex machina of his reconstruction. But those, while a bit annoying, aren't really a big deal as Williams deals with them in interesting ways. Putting a new spin on these things is appreciated.

The really intriguing aspect of the book is the setting Williams has created. His far future civilization is recovering from a sudden attack by unknown entities that has left its posthuman citizens either dead or fragmented. The 'people' of this future come in three flavors: Prime (exist and experience time as we do), Singleton (capable of speeding up or slowing down their time perception and contain several copies of the same 'self') and Forts (gestalt personalities, like a hive mind, whose individual units are Frags, but are integrated to form a whole, their time sense is slowed to a galactic scale). A bit of technical wizardry, the Q Loop, allows the Forts to exist and communicate between their frags. It's the technology behind the Q Loop that was destroyed by the attack, known as the Slow Wave, thus destroying the Fort personalities and causing humanities galactic civilization to fragment into a bunch of planet-states.

Imre discovers he was once a part of an anti-Fort group, the Corps, who fought and lost a war against them. As a Singleton, Imre has several copies of himself spread around the galaxy. It appears that one or more of these copies was involved in something so secret, it never met with the other copies to share it's experiences. Could it be that this copy was somehow involved in the Slow Wave?

And thus we get to the issue which really bugged me. Saturn Returns, while having some stuff set in the 'present', is filled with a lot of backstory. As Imre makes his way through the Mandala Supersystem (another cool idea) he meets up with his old companions from the Corp (coincidence or not?). These meetings end up in a lot of backstory being exchanged between the characters. As such, the plot moves at a sedate pace. Imagine the travelers from Dan Simmons' Hyperion, only not structured or executed as well. At times I felt like I was getting info dumped instead of story progress. And while the characters are interesting, they aren't really that sympathetic. Not yet anyway.

So it's a good thing that the universe Williams has created is just so darn cool. He packs a lot of interesting and unique ideas into this story. I'm really interested in seeing how the story unfolds and how the conspiracy plays out.

While not rising to the level of great Space Opera, not yet anyway, Saturn Rising is still a good read with a lot of promise for the books to come.

Posted by JP at 6:34 AM | Discussion (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

Pratchett hits another homer with Carpe Jugulumhis parody of all things vampire (or vampyre). When King Verence willingly invites the vampire rulers of Uberwald to his daughter's naming ceremony, the vampires take the opportunity to enthrall the people of the Kingdom of Lancre and turn them into another source of food. Standing against them are Agnes Nitt, Reverend Mighty Oats, and a seriously perturbed Granny Weatherwax. The vampires, of course, don't stand a chance.

Carpe Jugulum is Pratchett's twisted take on all things undead, including the vampires. In it, he lampoons everything vampire-ish. Count Magpyr is the head of the vampire family and is trying to modernize the vampire image. He has turned the people of Uberwald into acceptance of vampire feeding habits by instituting a lottery to determine who gets bitten. He has been training his family to become resistant to your usual anti-vampire items: garlic, holy water, crosses, sunlight, and so on. The book title is also a play on the saying "carpe diem", which means "seize the day". Which, in this case, the Count takes literally by slathering sunblock on his kids to make them sun resistant.

All this modernization disturbs the Magpyr's family servant, Igor. Igor is a traditionalist and has no truck with the modern way. Igor is the best character in the book, and one of the most memorable of the whole series. Igor not only speaks with a heavy lisp, he is also composed of parts of his ancestors. So when someone says "You have your father's eyes", its the literal truth. Igor has also created his own faithful dog companion, Scraps. Hilarious.

The story itself is another good one. What happens when vampires take over? Well, for a start, bad things. While a few people seem to be resistant to the vampires' mind control effects, it all comes down to Granny in the end. And since she was 'snubbed' for the naming ceremony, she isn't in the mood to help, until things get seriously wrong. Then more bad things happen, this time to the vampires.

About the only thing I can knock this book for is its length. It seems to be a bit long for what it is, and, aside from all the funny bits, the story moves at a sedate pace. Otherwise, this is a great Discworld novel, with the bonus that knowledge of the other books isn't required to enjoy it.

Posted by JP at 1:05 PM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: An action-packed start to a new action/adventure series.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Combat-K, an illegally reformed military unit, takes on a revenge mission to recover the Fractured Emerald in exchange for the identity of the murderer of one ex-soldier's family.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Relentlessly paced; non-stop action; nice plot twists near the end.
CONS: The action sometimes occurs at the expense of believability; main characterizations seem thrown in as an afterthought.
BOTTOM LINE: Carry a small support to bolster your suspension of disbelief and enjoy the fun, fast-paced, butt-kicking action.

Andy Remic's War Machine is the action-packed first book in the new Combat-K series. It's the story of a military unit, illegally reformed, bent on a mission of revenge for its leader, Keenan, who suffered the loss of his family at the hands of a murderer. Following their brutal deaths and a disgraceful exit from the military, Keenan, now working as a private investigator, eventually sinks into the depths of disparity despair. An alien prince hires him to retrieve the Fractured Emerald from the planet Ket in exchange for the identity of his family's killer. Keenan reforms his 3-man unit (which includes the smack-talking munitions expert Franco and Keenan's tough ex-love-interest, Pippa) and makes a no-holds-barred trek to retrieve the Emerald.

Keenan meets many obstacles, of course: First he extracts Franco from a mental institution and Pippa from a prison planet; they pick up weapons on a lawless planet made up of one gigantic city (think Coruscant from the Star Wars prequels); they fight their way through an alien warrior race on Ket; and then move on to Teller's World, a "machine-planet of no return" where the really freaky things start to happen. All the while they are staying one step ahead of Mr. Max, a hired mercenary who must stop them using all his deadly skills.

This vast assortment of mini-missions propels the story at a relentless pace, where one action-packed scene followed another. There was one break in that pacing about two-thirds of the way into the book, where we learn the sordid, pre-military pasts of our three stalwart heroes. This section did add some long overdue characterization, giving the characters some much-needed depth and complexity, but presenting it in one bulk (though interesting) lump seemed like an afterthought that only served to interrupt the otherwise steady pace. Perhaps that background information would have best been better delivered piecemeal throughout the story, explaining the main characters early on with no severe impact to how fast the story was told. By contrast, Kotinevitch, the lead antagonist determined to stop Combat-K at all costs, was nicely portrayed as an emotionless killer though she got relatively little face time. Cam, Keenan's security PopBot, was another fun character to have along.

Remic's narrative is delivered with confidence in his storytelling ability and that only enhances the action and enjoyment. This book is loads of fun. There are weapons aplenty and cool settings. But the goodness sometimes comes at the expense of immersion and believability.

It's hard to tell how far in the future the story occurs. On the one hand, there are loads of cool technologies on display (space travel to other worlds being the most prominent) but then there are distracting mentions of such present-day things like the Monopoly game, television and Halloween. It was hard to imagine - and get immersed in - a future where such archaic holdovers still exist.

Another occasional cost is believability, mostly stemming from the book's attempts to be part of the military sf subgenre. Although the team does have military training, this is different from most military sf I've read. Firstly, all the action after the prologue takes place outside any military knowledge. Keenan is on a personal mission of revenge here, not sanctioned by any government. (Actually, previous events have made it illegal for them to be together at all, so it's important that the government doesn't find out.) Also, instead of a large battalion, the team is small. With only three people, there's not much death to go around - for the good guys, that is. To be clear, there is plenty of gruesome killing and graphic scenes of death; it just always happens to the other guys (aliens, guards and the hired hands of Kotinevitch). And nearly every single situation they encounter is an ultimate danger more dire than the last one. Seriously, how many death-defying situations can our heroes avoid before it gets to be unbelievable? In one scene, Keenan suffers three broken ribs but then (unless I missed some miraculous healing scene) happily goes along on his merry way to more life-threatening adventure.

Of course, a book like this is designed to be a roller-coaster of fun, and it does succeed on that score, right up to the ending that clearly sets up the next book, which I am now eager to read.

I recommend you carry a small support to bolster your suspension of disbelief when reading War Machine and read it in the spirit in which it is written: fun and fast-paced @$$-kicking action.

Posted by John at 1:18 AM | Discussion (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A refreshing selection of science fiction stories.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: 12 works of short fiction originally published in 2006.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Nine good stories, three of them outstanding.
CONS: Two stories hovering in the mediocre range; the book's cover incorrectly cites story authors.
BOTTOM LINE: A worthwhile survey of 2006 fiction.

I've been reading a lot of short fiction lately, much of it compiled in various "Year's Best" anthologies and award nomination reading lists. The latest anthology is Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition edited by Rich Horton, which serves up twelve pieces of short fiction that were first seen in 2006.

Horton offers up a nice selection of stories. His introduction, which serves as both short fiction survey and explanation selection choices, explains that he was not directly aiming for any given theme, but does admit that the final selections do seem to have a recurring religious theme. It should be noted that Horton's choices sit comfortably (and refreshingly) within any given definition of science fiction; which is to say that none of these selections would be considered fantasy or mainstream, as might occur in other anthologies. SF fans need not be bothered on that score.

Given the nice selection of stories, it would have been nice if the authors got more cover publicity out of it: there is a glaring error on the book's cover which cites authors included in last year's edition. Besides extra proofreading, I might also recommend that the page headers list the story titles and authors instead of the book's title and editor. Doing so would make stories easier to find.

One of the side effects of multiple "Best of" anthologies is that reading them eventually gets quicker, provided that there is the usual overlap of selections between anthologies. This was the case in the Horton anthology; I had already read eight of the twelve stories earlier this year. That left a measly four stories for me to consume, an appealing task size since life seems to be getting busier lately. (It still took me a week to do it.)

The three standout stories in this anthology are "The Cartesian Theater" by Robert Charles Wilson, "Hesperia and Glory" by Ann Leckie and "Exit Before Saving" by Ruth Nestvold.

Individual story reviews appear after the jump...

("Another Word for Map is Faith" by Christopher Rowe was originally reviewed in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 1 edited by Jonathan Strahan.)
"Another Word for Map is Faith" by Christopher Rowe delivers a slightly off-kilter version of reality where faith is akin to cartography. When an academic leads a group of students on a mission to chart (and correct) the biblical representation of the land, they discover the blasphemy of an uncharted lake. Their religious beliefs lead to map-changing action. This is an interesting premise, if a little bizarre to grasp, but Rowe's idea tantalizes the reader through some ethical questions regarding the town situated near the lake.

("Okanoggan Falls" by Carolyn Ives Gilman was originally reviewed in The Year's Best Science Fiction #24 edited by Gardner Dozois.)
Synopsis: When alien occupation reaches small town America, the Mayor's wife attempts to convince the alien captain to not destroy her beloved town.
Review: While the writing does a great job creating the small town atmosphere and values, the bigger picture of alien invasion causes the premise to fall under its own weight. It's simply not believable that Susan would start to have feelings for Captain Groton, despite the physiological changes that cause him to appear more human and supposedly more endearing. It's still an Earth-conquering alien who is demolishing the town that we are repeatedly shown is the place Susan adores. How can she see past all that to get emotionally close to him?

In Ian Watson's "Saving for a Sunny Day, or The Benefits of Reincarnation", an all-knowing artificial intelligence has the capability of barcoding souls. This has led to the advent of reincarnation which, in turn, has reshaped the world into a pseudo-utopia. There are exceptions - like poor Jimmy, a six year-old who is informed that he incurred a debt of $9 million which he now owes in his new life. He just might be clever enough to figure out a way to repay. Interesting concepts abound in this rant-like narrative, but the tone comes off sounding more flippant than humorous, much to the story's discredit. On the bright side, some genuine thought was given as to how reincarnation might believably change the world, with impacts ranging from economic to religious.

("The Cartesian Theater" by Robert Charles Wilson was originally reviewed in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 1 edited by Jonathan Strahan.)
Robert Charles Wilson serves up a quite enjoyable science fiction story with "The Cartesian Theater". It takes place in a "Rationalized" society where all work is performed by "aibots" and the government provides all the basic necessities of life, free of charge. Most people choose to work, but those that don't live in Doletown. People can also live on after death, albeit in a slowly deteriorating mental state. This last bit of magic occurs by imprinting neurological patterns which, unfortunately, decay over time. The main thrust of the story is a man who is hired by an unknown client to finance a performance artist who deals in death...sort of. It's this "sort of" part that is great fuel for thought-provoking issues concerning life and souls. Wilson's story reads like a Chandler-esque mystery, but it's got all the great elements of science fiction: meaty content, a well-imagined future, and fantastic atmosphere. Well done.

Ann Leckie's "Hesperia and Glory", unassumingly written in Victorian style at the start, quickly evokes the glory days of pulp sf adventure in the spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Here, we are told a secondhand, heroic account of a man named John Atkins, a self-professed prince of Mars. The deftness with which the author handles the usually off-putting plot device of wish fulfillment (and the correspondingly eye-rolling trope of imagined realities) is not only commendable; it's entirely in keeping with the science-fantasy days of old. Well done.

("Incarnation Day" by Walter Jon Williams was originally reviewed in Escape From Earth edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois.)
Synopsis: A posthuman coming-of-age story in which virtual human children are downloaded into physical forms when they mature. Here, Alison narrates the story of her own approaching "incarnation" and freedom from the threat of termination imposed by parents who might see their children as defective.
Review: The virtual/posthuman aspect of the story puts a nice spin on the coming-of-age story. The children are not considered legally human until incarnation and are therefore have no rights. Nice touch. Children who don't measure up are snuffed out by the "blue lady", a digital version of the boogeyman. There's a nice sense-of-winder-filled scene where the kids are granted temporary physical form to attend the incarnation of one of their cadre. Ultimately, the story focuses on Alison's friend Janice and her very strained relationship with her mother. Alison comes up with a creative way to salvage the escalating situation, but will she be successful before the blue lady strikes?

Ruth Nestvold entices science fiction readers with a slew interesting elements in "Exit Before Saving", which posits a corporate-run future where morphing technology is secretly used for espionage. Mallory is a Morp Agent for Softec who is becoming addicted to the technology despite the dangers it exposes to her. Her latest mission reveals a new technology on the horizon that sends her into panic mode. Nestvold drops other dramatic elements along the way (like relationship issues and a troubled family history), provided a too-brief glimpse of an atmosphere rich enough to support a novel that I'd love to read.

("Inclination" by William Shunn was originally reviewed as part of my 2006 Nebula Award Short Fiction reading project.)
Synopsis: On a space station there are two clashing social classes. Jude, a young member of the underprivileged Machinists, gets a job with the Sculpted and comes to learn the way of the world.
Review: There are some really interesting world building aspects here. The Machinsists have a religion and culture based on mechanics. For example, when something is wrong it is "out of true". In the Machinists part of the station there are six wards, each representing the six fundamental machines set forth by The Builder, their god. Jude is from the "inclined plane" ward and, when money gets tight, his father, Thomas, gets him a job working as a stevedore with the "heathen" Sculpted. Surely this will be a test of his faith as he will be tempted by the unholy ways of the "Wrecker". Unlike the Machinists, the Sculpted have embraced technology and their society has evolved in ways we would expect, at least in science fiction. The differences that evolved between the two cultures are almost unbelievable considering they all live in the same space station, but the contrast is effectively dramatic nonetheless. Religion was their dividing wedge - the wedge being another of the six fundamental machines (the others are wheel, lever, pulley and screw). Some additional dramatic elements - like Jude's strict father, his dead mother and his confused feelings for another boy - round out a fine story. Shunn's prose shows noteworthy skill and embodies the sense of wonder and extrapolation that make science fiction appealing.

("Life on the Preservation" by Jack Skillingstead was originally reviewed in The Year's Best Science Fiction #24 edited by Gardner Dozois.)
Synopsis: Young Kylie spends the day in a city preserved by aliens from the end of the world and stuck in a time loop.
Review: Great premise, but Kylie's Carpe Diem attitude, while fun and perhaps a good lesson for us, is not enough to carry the story to greatness.

The initial scenes of "Me-Topia" by Adam Roberts are perplexing and intriguing. A small scientific space shuttle crash lands on a planet with some mysterious properties: the stars don't move, the sun rises in the west, and the geography is an inversion of Earth's (water is land and vice versa). The explanation of these dilemmas is a neat idea, but not quite enough to drive the reader along its full length. Besides this fun background mystery, some other cool notions (like uplifting) round out a nice plot twist, but the story overall fails to fully ignite.

("The House Beyond Your Sky" by Benjamin Rosenbaum was originally reviewed as part of my 2007 Hugo Award Short Fiction reading project.)
Synopsis: A virtual construct named Mathias must answer to his maker when he begins playing God to creations of his own making.
Review: Rosenbaum's worlds-within-worlds story is simultaneously touching, dramatic and symbolic. Mathias creates worlds, like his own, where the beings eventually evolve beyond their artificial boundaries; they become aware that they are artificial. Mathias elevates them to his own world in the form of birds. Mathias wishes to save one of his constructs, a young girl named Sophie who has abusive parents. But the saved may instead turn out to be savior when Mathias own creator - a pilgrim to Mathias' priest persona - comes knocking on Mathias door. Heady and mind-bending stuff.

("A Billion Eves" by Robert Reed was originally reviewed as part of my 2007 Hugo Award Short Fiction reading project.)
Synopsis: A parallel Earths colonization story in which Kala seeks to break the accepted practice of female abduction and start a world that will not eventually be doomed through ecological extinction.
Review: This wonderfully crafted story has an unassuming - and seemingly non-sf - start. It concerns a family vacation and the daughter's (Kala's) indifference towards it, an unassertive mother along for the ride and a brother, Sandor, who is determined to prove his manliness. While this seems normal on the surface, hints are dropped that something is not quite right; places have names like Mother Ocean and there are references to the First Father, for example. When the car breaks down, the family learns of abducted women missing from the area and they meet a secretive stranger driving a boarded-up bus. What is soon learned about this world is that this man - one of many - is setting out to be a new Adam to his multitude of Eves on a parallel world, thanks to a "ripper" device that transports them there. We learn through some back story that humanity has spread across a multitude of parallel Earths in this way, in hopes of creating a new, perfect world through quite unconventional means. Owen was the First Father who abducted his Eves by activating his stolen ripper device next to a sorority house. Generations later, the cycle is repeated, again and again, with one of these worlds being the world of Kala and Sandor. The entire story carries with it a dark mood as we learn that the culture, while it does not directly condone it, quietly accepts the abduction of women. Kala herself is abducted until Sandor steps in and takes steps that cause people to banish him. Eventually, Kala sets out to change the norm in her own way and, at the same time, address the ecological problems facing all existing Earths. The idea of parallel worlds and personal colonization initiatives is a cool one, but this story seemed to meander a bit, mostly in the middle parts. It was as if it couldn't make up its mind whether it was a parallel Earth story, a colonization story, the story of Kala and Sandor, or a Save the Earth story. The effect is a somewhat muddled story that lacks some focus but is entertaining all the same.

Posted by John at 1:01 AM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

(Visit the Great Pratchett Reading Project page for links to more Discworld reviews.)

Terry Pratchett hits on all cylinders with Maskerade, a send-up of Opera in it's many forms, Discworld style. Now that Magrat Garlick has become queen, the witches coven is short a member. Granny and Nanny set their sights on Agnes Nitt, who has natural talent for 'headology'. The trouble is, Agnes wants to sing and has headed off to Ankh-Morpork to join the opera. Unfortunately for Agnes, even though she can sing a duet with herself, she doesn't have the figure for a prima donna, and is forced to into covering for the female star of the show. All the while, a mysterious masked man is killing people associated with the opera company, which, though making money hand over fist, seems to be losing it even more quickly.

Maskerade continues the rehabilitation of my thinking about the Witches books. The previous book, Lords and Ladies was much better than I remembered, and now Maskerade continues that trend, being almost non-stop funny. Pratchett is in fine form, skewering everything operatic: the silly storylines, the enmity between the singers, dancers and orchestra, the Italian sounding names of the stars, the costumes and stage settings and, yes, the musical 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Pratchett also adds a nice mystery surrounding the ghost of the opera house and his motivations. Add in the hilarious sub-plot around Nanny Ogg's cookbook, and Maskerade is one of the funniest Discworld novels I've read to date.

I think it works well because it doesn't take itself too seriously, and it isn't trying to push a message. Heck, Greebo returns to human form as Mr. Graebeaux and drives the women into a tizzy. And Sam Vimes' hand can be seen in the background as the City Watch takes an interest in the goings on at the opera house. But you don't have to be steeped in Discworld lore to enjoy Maskerade, that knowledge adds depth to the story, but it isn't essential.

About the only negative I can see is that, if you aren't up on opera, you may miss things that more opera savvy people might pick up on. I think Pratchett has done a good job making the opera storyline work, but I'm sure I missed some things because I don't frequent (or infrequent) the opera. I can say this: if opera were more like what happened in Maskerade, I'd go more often (or at all).

Posted by JP at 3:22 PM | Discussion (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

MY RATING:

The Hanging Mountains is the third book in Williams' Books Of The Cataclysm series, but in many ways it feels like the second book in a trilogy. The Hanging Mountains picks immediately after where the previous book, The Blood Debt leaves off. A flood of epic proportions has inundated the Divide and the group of Sky Wardens, along with the Homunculus containing the souls of Seth and Hadrian from The Crooked Letter head upstream, to the Hanging Mountains to discover the source and the reason for the flood. They discover an ancient evil, long thought vanquished, is stirring and has big, nasty plans for Earth.

What Williams does well is in creating an interesting fantasy setting, without the usual fantasy tropes. The current world is a direct result of the events of the first book, which adds an air of 'reality' to the setting, even though it is very different from the modern day Earth setting of The Crooked Letter. We encounter various interesting and strange creatures inhabiting the world, most, if not all, brought into being by the Cataclysm and the Change. The Change being the word for magic in these books, and Williams has, again,created a unique and logical 'ruleset' for magic in his books that flows directly from the events in the first book. Obviously a lot of thought has gone into the world of the Cataclysm and Williams does a great job bringing it to life.

The characters are also an interesting lot. Shilly and Sal are outcasts from the Strand, hiding from the Sky Wardens, but forced to work with them to uncover the reason for the flood. The Sky Wardens aren't all of mind either, they are a fractious bunch, each having their own ideas of how to proceed. The Castillo twins, Seth and Hadrian whose actions in the first book created this world, are encased in the body of the Homunculus, which was created by Sal's father as a vessel for Sal's mother's soul to inhabit. They struggle to come to grips with their embodiment and what they must do in this world as they realize the evil they thought they had defeated in book 1 appears to be on the move again.

Given the great worldbuilding and interesting cast of characters, The Hanging Mountains falls down a bit story-wise. The plot seems to move at a slow pace, except near the end when things come to a head. It feels very much like 'second book-itis', where the characters and story are marking time until the third, and last book. Yes, Mountains is the third book, but The Crooked Letter is so different from its sequels that you can view it as a stand-alone novel. Mountains feels like nothing more than a chess match, where the pieces are moved into position for the final resolution. Sure they learn a little bit, but nothing much happens until the ending.

One thing I must praise Pyr for is the physical book itself, specifically the dust jacket. The cover art is awesome, but the entire jacket is well done. From the electric blue runes surrounding the cover art to the green toned rest of the cover, the whole thing just looks amazing. In fact, all of the books in this series so far look terrific. Couple that with a very easy to read font and layout on the inside, and these are some very impressive books.

Williams has created a unique and interesting setting for his Cataclysm books, stuffing it full of unexpected creatures and sympathetic characters. The Hanging Mountains, while feeling like a middle book, is no exception. I liked this book a bit more than The Blood Debt, but I think anyone who likes fantasy in general ought to give The Hanging Mountains and this whole series, a read.

Posted by JP at 4:11 PM | Discussion (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: Schroeder delivers an action-packed hard science fiction story that isn't afraid to go as deep with the characters as it is with ideas.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Hayden Griffen lives in the world of Virga - a balloon of air supported by artificial suns. He is out to avenge the death of his parents and ends up working for his sworn enemy. What follows is a romp through the world-let of Virga complete with pirates, intrigue, and a quasi-steam punk world.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Characters evolve and grow, the science is interesting but not overwhelming, excellent wold-building ideas
CONS: The only thing I can think of is that it probably isn't a book for those who don't enjoy science fiction. It isn't universally accessible, maybe.
BOTTOM LINE: Excellent hard science fiction that any fan of the genre would enjoy.

Posted by scottsh at 9:53 PM | Discussion (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review

REVIEW SUMMARY: A fine collection of stories that showcase a variety of writing styles and genre leanings.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: 24 loosely categorized science fiction and fantasy stories originally published in 2006.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Eighteen stories good or better, with four excellent standouts.
CONS: Six stories mediocre or worse.
BOTTOM LINE: This is about what you'd expect from a "best of" anthology: a selection of mostly good stories of varying style.

Jonathan Strahan serves up a good mix of genre offerings with The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Of The Year Volume 1. If it's any barometer of quality, there is a relatively high concentration of Hugo and Nebula Award nominees in this volume; seven out of the twenty-four selections. Finalists for the Hugo Award include "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" by Neil Gaiman, "Yellow Card Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi, "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter" by Geoff Ryman, "Eight Episodes" by Robert Reed, "The House Beyond the Sky" by Benjamin Rosenbaum and "The Djinn's Wife" by Ian McDonald. M. Rickert's "Journey into the Kingdom" was a finalist for the Nebula Award.

My own tastes usually seem to differ from awards committees, but I had already read several of these stories and it seemed like a good mix. But was it?

It could be argued that "best of" anthologies should represent the genre by offering stories with a variety of narrative styles. It seems that here, the Editor has not only complied, but also played with genre definitions as well. Strahan has included stories all over the genre map (including stories that read like mainstream and horror). There's bound to be some stuff readers will enjoy. The flip side of that coin, though, is that there might be some stories that are not to taste. Of course, personal taste is as varied as the definitions of the genre, so your mileage may vary.