Book Foo:

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Finished: Treason, by Orson Scott Card
Started: Downbelow Station, by C.J. Cherryh

More info behind the cut tag. _Slightly_ more spoilery than some of my other book foos re: Treason, but I don't think I give away anything vital.

Okay, Treason, I started out liking a good deal. It wasn't great, by any means, but it was good fun. Then, as the book went on, I started liking it less. I was forced to call shenanigans on it!

I don't mind fantasy. I don't mind mixing fantasy and science fiction, but if a book does, it should be fairly clear from the outset, or it should be a single 'beyond science' element of transcendence, or if the whole point of the book is magic vs technology or something. Not from this book, where we started out from a basis more or less of science, and then gradually encountered varying groups of people who had wacky powers which barely even get a science explanation beyond 'somehow, they got this power!'. Not the (if a bit exaggerated) science based powers like regeneration the main character has at the start... not even something along the lines of telepathy or telekinesis. Stuff I can only describe as magic and I couldn't gather any reason for the magicscience (magicience! I've invented a new word!) as opposed to normal science in terms of theme or message of the book. It annoyed me. Not enough to call the book 'bad' by any means, but enough to lose some of the lustre off it. So yeah, it annoyed me a bit. Plus there was some element of the main character not thinking of things that most people should have, in order to advance the plot by his being stupid getting him into trouble.

Anyway, just started Downbelow Station, which is part of my ongoing quest to read all the Hugo or Nebula winning novels. The title station is on a planet midway between Earth and rebellious colonies that are in conflict. I haven't gotten too far into it, just past the first big expositionary lump. Found it a little tougher staying focused on the book, which might be the writing style or might just be that my attentions wandered today. No impressions yet.

Comments

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I've read a fair amount of CJ Cherryh and have more at home to read yet; she's very attentive to her science, which is good, and is how I finally started to understand a bit about relativity beyond memorizing what textbooks said.

Her writing is a bit dense though. Downbelow station is one of her very best. Also good are a series- Cyteen I think it's called? It's focused on one of the rebellious colony groups from Downbelow station, a few decades later, I think.