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newnumber6Finished: Sirius, by Olaf Stapledon
Started: Wild Cards, book VII: Dead Man's Hand, by
George R.R. Martin and John J. Miller
Thoughts, minor spoilers and such beyond the cut tag..
Sirius, tale of a dog with human-level intelligence, turned out remarkably well. It's a short book, only about 200 pages, but whereas I sought out the book mainly out of historical interest, to see how the topic was dealt with, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and am now seeking out the other Stapledon book I was looking for (Odd John, an early take on the 'mutant advanced human' concept) with much higher hopes. I'd expected a bit more of it being more of a 'Sirius must hide from the people who hate and fear him for being intelligent' or 'Sirius an intelligent dog experiment goes horribly wrong for everyone' type story, but, although there are tiny elements of both, it turns out to be a remarkably personal story of a person, who happens to be a super-intelligent dog, and of alienation that comes from being different.
I've talked of the Wild Cards series before, so I'm not going to go into it again, other than reiterate the basic concept of a virus, released in the 40s, which changed a portion of those infected into beings with superpowers, called 'Aces', while utterly deforming others, called Jokers, not to mention just killing a bunch. This story takes place at about the same time as the last book, in the 80s. A plot thread, a murder, mentioned on the side in the last book gets full attention here, while the political events of the last book are going on at the same time, but in a relatively distant location. I'm not far enough into it, but it's always fun visiting these characters again.
Started: Wild Cards, book VII: Dead Man's Hand, by
George R.R. Martin and John J. Miller
Thoughts, minor spoilers and such beyond the cut tag..
Sirius, tale of a dog with human-level intelligence, turned out remarkably well. It's a short book, only about 200 pages, but whereas I sought out the book mainly out of historical interest, to see how the topic was dealt with, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and am now seeking out the other Stapledon book I was looking for (Odd John, an early take on the 'mutant advanced human' concept) with much higher hopes. I'd expected a bit more of it being more of a 'Sirius must hide from the people who hate and fear him for being intelligent' or 'Sirius an intelligent dog experiment goes horribly wrong for everyone' type story, but, although there are tiny elements of both, it turns out to be a remarkably personal story of a person, who happens to be a super-intelligent dog, and of alienation that comes from being different.
I've talked of the Wild Cards series before, so I'm not going to go into it again, other than reiterate the basic concept of a virus, released in the 40s, which changed a portion of those infected into beings with superpowers, called 'Aces', while utterly deforming others, called Jokers, not to mention just killing a bunch. This story takes place at about the same time as the last book, in the 80s. A plot thread, a murder, mentioned on the side in the last book gets full attention here, while the political events of the last book are going on at the same time, but in a relatively distant location. I'm not far enough into it, but it's always fun visiting these characters again.
