Book Foo + news from Comicon weekend
Jul. 26th, 2011 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6As usual, anything spoilery will be behind cuts, but mostly it'll be 'back of the book' type things, or very vague, unless otherwise warned.
Finished: Helm, by Steven Gould
I'm a big fan of Steven Gould's Jumper and its sequel Reflex, and, to a bit of a lesser extent, Wildside. So, I figured I'd pick up this book, give it
a try. In short... I liked it, but not nearly as much as his other work. So,
Helm tells the story of another planet, where Earth evacuated some of its population
following a global disaster. They didn't have the technology level to rebuild their
society from scratch, but sent as much information as they could, along with some pieces
of high technology... specifically, glass helms (of which there's only one known one left that hasn't been destroyed), that allow people to be "imprinted" with knowledge,
although you usually need to be well prepared. The main character puts it on without
being prepared. Anyway, he doesn't get all the knowledge all at once, it starts to dribble into his regular life, starting with a knowledge of martial arts, but eventually
he just get weird ideas. There's political scheming and war and a love story also going on too.
Anyway, most of Gould's work that I've read revolves around Earth with 'one big idea' added to it, and he does spectacularly there. Here... I don't know, I never really bought into the world or culture completely. I can't put my finger on anything wrong, but I just didn't feel especially invested in it. The character also felt very familiar, like most of the other ones I've read, a generally nice guy who is a little shy and awkward and enjoys reading or other bookish pursuits. And there's nothing wrong with that, I'm very similar which makes it easy to identify with him, but it does feel a bit interchangeable in terms of voice.
It was a decent read, although ultimately a little forgettable.
Finished: Designated Targets, by John Birmingham
This is book two of the "Axis of Time" trilogy, about a multinational combat fleet from 2029 that was sent back in time to the middle of WWII, with no way back and their mere presence having changed history.
I loved the idea of the first book, but the book itself left me a little cold, mostly because many of the characters fell a little flat. This one was slightly better, although some of the similar problems existed, I felt a little more connected to what was going on, although my eyes still sort of glazed over a bit during some points, battles in particular. I did like some of how they looked into the impact of a bunch of people from their futures, and not just their own particular social mores and beliefs, but also the information and entertainment they brought back with them, impact the rest of the world. The idea that there becomes something of a copyright issue over who owns the rights to, say, music produced by somebody who was alive in 1944, but didn't become famous or produce the work in question until the 60s and, because that work is already out there, never will produce that exact work, for example, is one of the more interesting little things you might not initially think about in a time travel story.
I will complete the series, at least, although it's still not blowing me away.
Finished: Newton's Wake, by Ken Macleod
My first book by this author, but since he often deals with some of the ideas that I'm particularly into recently (Singularity type stuff, AIs, post-humans, etc), I figured it was about time I gave him a try, and first with this stand-alone novel before I delved into his serieses. In short: I did quite like it, although it's not without a few problems. The book's set in the far future, after a Singularity, but focuses on the people who remained more or less human while the world went insane around them, and then, after that, the AIs evolved into some state where they didn't interact at all with humanity any more as far as anyone could tell. The survivors picked up the pieces and some of the posthuman tech left behind to bootstrap themselves, such as a wormhole network that connects a whole bunch of planets in the galaxy. Through one of these wormholes, they discover a branch of humanity that fled through the stars during the Singularity, and they also restart some of the automatic AI war machines left behind on that planet.
Overall it's a pretty cool book with some nifty ideas. One minor problem is that one of the main characters (and her people, who luckily aren't the focus a lot but are in the beginning which gets irritating) is Scottish, and is written as speaking that way. As in, the dialog contains things like "we cannae wait fae this!" Most of the time it's understandable, sometimes it gets a bit iffy, but it's usually a little annoying, treading on the very edge of my Rule of Accents. (That is, if there's one person who speaks that's way, it's okay to portray it. If there's a lot, you should usually just say "She spoke in a thick accent" and then write the words in conventional English.
The somewhat more serious problem is that the book doesn't really end satisfyingly, it sort of meanders and some of the ideas brought up don't really get resolved to my
satisfaction.
But I liked it enough despite that. I don't think based on this, he's in danger of immediately becoming one of my favorite authors, but he's certainly someone I'll be reading more of.
Finished: The Witling, by Vernor Vinge
Early Vinge is a little hit and miss, and this is early Vinge. This one deals with some Earthlings who come across a planet of people with the ability to teleport (and a few other psychic abilities). The characters are a little flat, but Vinge really thought about how the teleportation worked and what the implications were for the society. For
example, speed and direction is conserved, so you can't teleport to the other side of the planet, because you'd come out flying at a speed that would be impossible to survive.
As I said it's a bit on the light end of characterization, but I did like it more than the last early-Vinge I read, Tatja Grimm's World. It reminded me of some of the classic "problem" SF stories. You know, where there's a specific problem posed by the
SF concept or environment, and the story's about overcoming it. The characters need to
get to the other side of the world, but there's all sorts of reasons why they can't, so they have to come up with a particularly clever plan and execute it even when it goes awry. The ending I think is a lot less happy than Vinge seems to be trying to suggest.
Not deep, not great literature, but good enough for a diversion.
Started:
The Jennifer Morgue, by Charles Stross
Cosmonaut Keep, by Ken Macleod
TV's been relatively quiet (I continue to watch Falling Skies but it continues to not wow me, just mildly entertain), but we do have a date for the rest of the Doctor Who season... August 27th... earlier than I expected (oh, and trailer, here, if you haven't seen it)- I figured it'd be early September at the earliest.
In comics I'm still alternatively eyerolling or headdesking at the news out of DC, confirming my decision to not buy them again. And, at this point... I know it's not the best thing for the industry, but I'm actively hoping it fails. A kind of "New Coke" failure (which, by the way, is one that failed and produced a lot of dissatisfaction, but led to spectacular success for Coke when they reversed themselves and brought back classic Coke that people didn't know they missed... by the end of that year they were outselling Pepsi, who they were losing to before the change to New Coke), hopefully, but one that sends a message about what a bad idea it was, not necessarily conceptually, but in execution.
Whatever, I won't be reading it until they make some serious reversals on a few decisions they've made.
Other recent comic news is the announcement of Brian K. Vaughn's new comic series, Saga. It's described as a SF epic but very few details about the plot exist, at least that I've found. So far I'm not super excited about it (for me, comics are for superheroes, for SF, I'd much prefer to read a novel), but I'll probably check it out at least, because he's one of the few writers for whom I'd be willing to go outside superheroes.
So, for me, the biggest squee-inducing thing to come out of Comicon?
Avatar: The Legend of Korra!!!! (I'm sorry, I know the official title is "The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra", but that's a stupid title caused by James Cameron, and I will not use it). They released the official trailer, and you can watch it here. Looks awesome to me. If you want some info on some of the characters and setup (some spoilers, I guess), including character designs, you can look here.
Finished: Helm, by Steven Gould
I'm a big fan of Steven Gould's Jumper and its sequel Reflex, and, to a bit of a lesser extent, Wildside. So, I figured I'd pick up this book, give it
a try. In short... I liked it, but not nearly as much as his other work. So,
Helm tells the story of another planet, where Earth evacuated some of its population
following a global disaster. They didn't have the technology level to rebuild their
society from scratch, but sent as much information as they could, along with some pieces
of high technology... specifically, glass helms (of which there's only one known one left that hasn't been destroyed), that allow people to be "imprinted" with knowledge,
although you usually need to be well prepared. The main character puts it on without
being prepared. Anyway, he doesn't get all the knowledge all at once, it starts to dribble into his regular life, starting with a knowledge of martial arts, but eventually
he just get weird ideas. There's political scheming and war and a love story also going on too.
Anyway, most of Gould's work that I've read revolves around Earth with 'one big idea' added to it, and he does spectacularly there. Here... I don't know, I never really bought into the world or culture completely. I can't put my finger on anything wrong, but I just didn't feel especially invested in it. The character also felt very familiar, like most of the other ones I've read, a generally nice guy who is a little shy and awkward and enjoys reading or other bookish pursuits. And there's nothing wrong with that, I'm very similar which makes it easy to identify with him, but it does feel a bit interchangeable in terms of voice.
It was a decent read, although ultimately a little forgettable.
Finished: Designated Targets, by John Birmingham
This is book two of the "Axis of Time" trilogy, about a multinational combat fleet from 2029 that was sent back in time to the middle of WWII, with no way back and their mere presence having changed history.
I loved the idea of the first book, but the book itself left me a little cold, mostly because many of the characters fell a little flat. This one was slightly better, although some of the similar problems existed, I felt a little more connected to what was going on, although my eyes still sort of glazed over a bit during some points, battles in particular. I did like some of how they looked into the impact of a bunch of people from their futures, and not just their own particular social mores and beliefs, but also the information and entertainment they brought back with them, impact the rest of the world. The idea that there becomes something of a copyright issue over who owns the rights to, say, music produced by somebody who was alive in 1944, but didn't become famous or produce the work in question until the 60s and, because that work is already out there, never will produce that exact work, for example, is one of the more interesting little things you might not initially think about in a time travel story.
I will complete the series, at least, although it's still not blowing me away.
Finished: Newton's Wake, by Ken Macleod
My first book by this author, but since he often deals with some of the ideas that I'm particularly into recently (Singularity type stuff, AIs, post-humans, etc), I figured it was about time I gave him a try, and first with this stand-alone novel before I delved into his serieses. In short: I did quite like it, although it's not without a few problems. The book's set in the far future, after a Singularity, but focuses on the people who remained more or less human while the world went insane around them, and then, after that, the AIs evolved into some state where they didn't interact at all with humanity any more as far as anyone could tell. The survivors picked up the pieces and some of the posthuman tech left behind to bootstrap themselves, such as a wormhole network that connects a whole bunch of planets in the galaxy. Through one of these wormholes, they discover a branch of humanity that fled through the stars during the Singularity, and they also restart some of the automatic AI war machines left behind on that planet.
Overall it's a pretty cool book with some nifty ideas. One minor problem is that one of the main characters (and her people, who luckily aren't the focus a lot but are in the beginning which gets irritating) is Scottish, and is written as speaking that way. As in, the dialog contains things like "we cannae wait fae this!" Most of the time it's understandable, sometimes it gets a bit iffy, but it's usually a little annoying, treading on the very edge of my Rule of Accents. (That is, if there's one person who speaks that's way, it's okay to portray it. If there's a lot, you should usually just say "She spoke in a thick accent" and then write the words in conventional English.
The somewhat more serious problem is that the book doesn't really end satisfyingly, it sort of meanders and some of the ideas brought up don't really get resolved to my
satisfaction.
But I liked it enough despite that. I don't think based on this, he's in danger of immediately becoming one of my favorite authors, but he's certainly someone I'll be reading more of.
Finished: The Witling, by Vernor Vinge
Early Vinge is a little hit and miss, and this is early Vinge. This one deals with some Earthlings who come across a planet of people with the ability to teleport (and a few other psychic abilities). The characters are a little flat, but Vinge really thought about how the teleportation worked and what the implications were for the society. For
example, speed and direction is conserved, so you can't teleport to the other side of the planet, because you'd come out flying at a speed that would be impossible to survive.
As I said it's a bit on the light end of characterization, but I did like it more than the last early-Vinge I read, Tatja Grimm's World. It reminded me of some of the classic "problem" SF stories. You know, where there's a specific problem posed by the
SF concept or environment, and the story's about overcoming it. The characters need to
get to the other side of the world, but there's all sorts of reasons why they can't, so they have to come up with a particularly clever plan and execute it even when it goes awry. The ending I think is a lot less happy than Vinge seems to be trying to suggest.
Not deep, not great literature, but good enough for a diversion.
Started:
The Jennifer Morgue, by Charles Stross
Cosmonaut Keep, by Ken Macleod
TV's been relatively quiet (I continue to watch Falling Skies but it continues to not wow me, just mildly entertain), but we do have a date for the rest of the Doctor Who season... August 27th... earlier than I expected (oh, and trailer, here, if you haven't seen it)- I figured it'd be early September at the earliest.
In comics I'm still alternatively eyerolling or headdesking at the news out of DC, confirming my decision to not buy them again. And, at this point... I know it's not the best thing for the industry, but I'm actively hoping it fails. A kind of "New Coke" failure (which, by the way, is one that failed and produced a lot of dissatisfaction, but led to spectacular success for Coke when they reversed themselves and brought back classic Coke that people didn't know they missed... by the end of that year they were outselling Pepsi, who they were losing to before the change to New Coke), hopefully, but one that sends a message about what a bad idea it was, not necessarily conceptually, but in execution.
Whatever, I won't be reading it until they make some serious reversals on a few decisions they've made.
Other recent comic news is the announcement of Brian K. Vaughn's new comic series, Saga. It's described as a SF epic but very few details about the plot exist, at least that I've found. So far I'm not super excited about it (for me, comics are for superheroes, for SF, I'd much prefer to read a novel), but I'll probably check it out at least, because he's one of the few writers for whom I'd be willing to go outside superheroes.
So, for me, the biggest squee-inducing thing to come out of Comicon?
Avatar: The Legend of Korra!!!! (I'm sorry, I know the official title is "The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra", but that's a stupid title caused by James Cameron, and I will not use it). They released the official trailer, and you can watch it here. Looks awesome to me. If you want some info on some of the characters and setup (some spoilers, I guess), including character designs, you can look here.
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Date: 2011-07-27 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-27 11:29 pm (UTC)