First Post of 2015... in... March. Oops.
Mar. 10th, 2015 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Yeah, I've fallen behind, but, in my defense, my life is pretty much just blah blah work read sleep eat over and over again, and although my crossposting my Goodreads book reviews could be done more often, it just doesn't seem like enough on its own to write about.
What's new with me? Still, not much. My birthday in about 2 weeks.
Oh, and I had my first major cooking mishap. This past Sunday, I was cooking a pork roast, and as I normally do, I was searing the sides first. Except, this time, not like usually) and largely because I was trying dredging the roast in flour first), I had oil in the pan, rather than just dropping it in fat-side-down and letting that serve as the oil-like substance. Hot oil. Can you guess where this is going? I dropped the roast in the pan, and there was splashage. Got both of my hands (the sides), and some on my chest (more of me was splattered than got burnt here, but the shirt I was wearing protected me). Yeah, it was pretty painful, but it was just a light burn, could have been a lot worse. Today, I have one big blister on a finger, and a couple tiny ones on my chest. Oddly, the parts I THOUGHT got the worst of it are fine, not even sore at all anymore (unless I'm directly pressing it).
Anyway, I consider it a victory, as not only did I finish cooking the meal, I didn't cry out or let anyone in my family know (including my brother, who ate the meal) I'd been injured. Yes, that's a strange victory condition, but I am a strange person. And I went to work today (the blister is on a part of the finger that's not directly endangered so with a little care I could still lift heavy loads). So, that's something. Hopefully this will be a lesson to me. But I've had to put off gaming a little... got the new Tomb Raider reboot free from XBox 'games with gold' but I've postponed getting into it.
TV, honestly, there's not a lot to report. A lot of things in reruns, and that which has been new is good, but not really all that memorable. Watching Walking Dead, which I enjoy, but, right now they're kind of following the comics fairly close, so it's not as exciting. Game of Thrones soon, at least.
So, let's get onto Book Foo, I have a big backlog to get through... reviews come from my Goodreads account:
Finished: The Martian, by Andy Weir
Astronaut Mark Watney is part of a team visiting Mars. He's not the first person to set foot on the red planet, but he may be the first one to die there. Only a few days into his mission, a dust storm causes his team to evacuate... and as they make the trek from their habitation module to the ascent vehicle, Mark is wounded, lost, and presumed dead. By the time he wakes up, everybody else is bound for Earth. But he's alive, unable to contact Earth, and has to stretch his limited resources until the next mission... which isn't expected for years. And there's plenty that can go wrong for one person on a hostile planet for that long.
The Martian has been receiving high praise, and is already in the process of a movie adaptation, presumably to appeal to those who liked the movie Gravity (or Matt Damon, who stars). And, after reading it myself, I can see why. I was a little leery from the description that it'd either play too fast and loose with science or be too dry, but the author manages to avoid both fates. There is a lot of science, mostly told in first person from Mark (the book is mostly told as a diary of his struggles to stay alive), and although I can't vouch for how accurate it is, it all feels accurate and even plausible (allowing for a significant amount of luck, both good and bad, to play into whether disasters occur or whether they're survivable). But it never threatens to overwhelm, it just informs what the issues are and how he needs to overcome them. Most importantly, it's fun, because the character is a funny guy who cracks jokes and makes sarcastic asides and wonders about issues arising from 70s TV shows (one of the few pieces of entertainment he has access to). His struggles feel real and we root along with him and our hearts fall at his setbacks.
This book is science fiction in the classic sense, a complicated, speculative, but thoroughly believable situation that a man has to use ingenuity and science to solve, and optimistic about his ability to do so... it's the kind of story written in the golden age (and not so much anymore), but with modern sensibilities. And yet, I think it's one of the more approachable books you can give to somebody who's not a big SF reader. It's extremely readable, and I found myself racing through the pages and wanting to see what happened next.
It does have a few flaws, or at least, points to it that felt a little weaker. While the diary entries were great, and the scenes back at Mission Control were a nice break now and then, sometimes the author drops into an omniscient, impersonal point of view to explain why, say, there was a mechanical failure. I appreciate what he's doing there in setting up that there wasn't just an "out of the blue" calamity, but these scenes felt a little more superfluous and somewhat took me out of the narrative. I'd rather have the failure comes a surprise and then read Mark or somebody else speculating on what happened. Additionally, I can understand why Mark's life on Earth is left somewhat unstated and aside from his humor he seems fairly bland (it makes it much easier to identify with him), I would have liked a little bit of a deeper feel for him, and, in particular, I'd have liked a little more on the ending. It felt like it was one of those TV episodes where they spent the whole runtime on the problem, and so as soon as everyone's fate is revealed, we cut almost immediately to credits, when, emotionally, I was longing for some epilogue-time wrapping things up, and a book DOES allow us that opportunity... it's just the author who didn't. And, tangentially related to Mark's blandness, his non-stop can-do attitude got a little unbelievable. I mean, the book could hardly exist without it, but even though he sometimes pouts and sulks at setbacks, and considers that he might have to end it all if things get too grim, I never got a feel that he was ever especially daunted by how hopeless things were or, really, suffering all that much from the fact that he was isolated for so long. Granted, ability to spend long periods of time isolated is probably one of those things they screen for when you're an astronaut, but I'd like a little more texture on him, to see a little more of the lows that DON'T coincide with a particular new problem popping up.
Still, these issues are, in the end, minor, for what is really a good book overall, and mostly they bothered me in reflection, because while reading it, I was having too much fun to worry.
Finished: Burning Paradise, by Robert Charles Wilson
It's 2014, but not our 2014. This is a world celebrating approximately a hundred years without war. But there's a dark secret underlying the seeming peace... the world is the way it is because Earth has been secretly guided away from conflict by an alien presence, a life form that's intelligent but not conscious, and only has its own interests at heart. Seven years ago they murdered nearly every member of a small group of scientists who had been putting the pieces together. Cassie is the daughter of two of these murdered scientists, and has lived in fear that the aliens will come back and finish the job, eliminating anyone left who knows the secret. And so, when she spots one of the alien's human "sims", she does what she's been trained to do... she takes her little brother and runs. But there are bigger things going on, and Cassie's got a big role to play in the future of the world. And there may even be a chance to defeat the aliens... but everything has a cost.
I'm a big fan of Wilson because, in most of his books, he seems to deal with some really cool concepts, and yet he never loses sight of the human stories, and builds characters that are believable and compelling. This book might not be his best, but it's still in that tradition and that means it's very good. On a SF side, the idea of the hypercolony and their sims is suitably creepy, evoking alien invasion stories where you can't know for sure if anybody they meet is one of Them, but also adding a few fresh twists. And although she's a fairly standard resourceful teenager, I grew to quite like Cassie, as well as some of the other characters, and I felt involved in their story all the way through, and even where I might have predicted a few of the surprises, the way they were done was still interesting and a few things still managed to shock me.
Ideally, I would have liked a bit more exploration into whether the type of intelligence is inherently more untrustworthy (after all, we humans screw each other over all the time), and the ending I have some mixed feelings about... and it's probably not as memorable as some of his other major works, but I enjoyed reading it all the way through.
Finished: Un Lun Dun, by China Mieville
Warning: I do sort of spoil one of the twists... it's sort of a twist that's part of the premise, so it's hard to talk about without it. Still, I'll leave the spoilery part of the premise behind the cut, just in case.
UnLondon is a magical city that exists somewhat parallel to London, a world where magic is commonplace, where inanimate objects have lives of their own, ghosts and half-ghosts live, and the greatest threat to everyone is an intelligent cloud of smog. Luckily, there's a prophecy in UnLondon, a prophecy of a chosen one who will save them all, and Zanna, a young girl living in regular London, is that chosen one. All she's known is that there's a lot of weird coincidences following her around. Her face appears in clouds, animals recognize her, strange people seem excited to meet her. It's only when she and her best friend Deeba Resham accidentally find their way to UnLondon does she realize what it means. Zanna is destined to save everybody... the prophecy is specific, and detailed.
It's also wrong. And when things start to go wrong, her best friend has to do it all instead.
Let's make this clear right up front. This is a kid's fantasy book, something like Alice in Wonderland crossed with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and about the reading level of the early Harry Potter books (before they started getting deeper as the characters and readership aged). It can be enjoyed by an adult to the degree they're capable of enjoying such things, which differs from person to person and, in my case is, "somewhat, although not as much as something written for slightly older kids."
Indeed, the first third or so, I was just sort of reading it to get through it, not really especially enjoying it, it was all just "okay, I can see how a kid might like this, but it's a little lightweight for me" (again, much like the early Harry Potters), and, in particular, it hit on one of my pet peeves in fantasy, where it looks like the author just throws any wild idea he can come up with at the reader. Intelligent piles of trash that act like feral animals? A guy with a pincushion head? A man's body with a canary cage in place of the head, top and when the canary's let out, the body is inanimate? Wasps in telephones? Any individual idea might be kind of interesting, but when there's no overriding theme, it doesn't work for me. There's an old saying, (paraphrased) "If literally ANYTHING can happen, who cares exactly what happens?" that applies. If it's just a parade of random creative ideas, I can do that myself (A duck with airplane wings! A pair of clothes that wears people! A bag of potato chips that turns anything placed inside of it into hot sauce), the skill, the craft of good fantasy is in fitting them together in a world that makes SENSE, even if it's not our world. And I thought Mieville was missing the mark and just doing a random-idea-parade with a story that wasn't good enough to excuse that. It seemed to pale in comparison to Neverwhere (one of the book's acknowledged influences), although to be fair it was also aimed at a younger audience.
But I stuck with it, largely because I'd heard of the twist he had in advance, where the 'sidekick' takes center stage. He does something I've long wanted to see in a "prophecy"/"chosen one" story, make the prophecy unreliable and potentially even outright wrong (every time I see one crop up in any media, I hope it's going to go this way, and I still do). And indeed, when this twist happens, the book becomes a lot better on every level. There's less of a need to bombard the reader with wild flights of fancy (which makes it easier to appreciate when a particularly clever one does show up), and the adventure becomes smart and compelling, fresh and original and fun. It also subtly comments on genre tropes we've grown up with and gotten used to without being preachy. I actually think it's better than those early Harry Potters, at least in the sense that I'd rather any hypothetical kids I had read this and absorb the messages from it, about not having to be born special or with a destiny to make a difference.
Aside from all of that, the book moves at a relatively fast pace so, despite the size, it doesn't feel like a lot, it can be read in small doses since most problems are resolved within pages of them cropping up. And there are loads of illustrations, apparently drawn by Mieville himself. He's far more talented an artist than I am, at any rate. It's also nice to have a kid's fantasy protagonist who's a little more diverse than you normally see, as Deeba Resham is a girl of Indian descent without making a big deal of it, as she's still thoroughly British (the book itself is, of course, British and does make use of local slang, but I have no trouble with it).
It's still a kid's book, so, as an adult, I only rate it a three... I liked it. But it's a high three, and I think that if I was in the target age range, I'd give it a four or five.
Finished: Ragamuffin, by Tobias Buckell
Humans are second-class citizens in the galaxy, technically free but realistically under the control of the aliens of the Satrapcy, who control the wormhole network and also have ways of controlling minds. But Nashara is an agent from a sealed-off human world who carries a weapon.... one that might be humanity's only shot, as the Satraps may be switching from a policy of repression of humanity to one of extermination.
Ragamuffin is part of Tobias Buckell's Xenowealth universe. It's technically the second book, and they're supposedly stand-alones except that there are some recurring characters. This is the first book I've read of his, so I have the rare (for me) experience of not just guessing how someone might react to coming in on the second book, but to give my own impressions. (Short, non-spoilery version: Liked the first half, but the 'part of a series' part sort of ruined it)
Of course, it's hard to tell how much I've actually missed and how much I just imagine I might have missed, but if I were to guess, I think I was highly enjoying the book up until it started tying directly in to the previous one. The setting was innovative, the main character interesting, and I was digging the plot. It wasn't perfect, but I was enjoying it and looking forward to seeing where it went.
And then, about halfway through the book, it switched to a completely different plot. And stayed with that for most of the rest of the book, save a brief bit at the end where the storylines came together.
The second storyline never seemed as interesting to me, the planetary setting felt a little hokey, and there was overall a sense that these were characters not being introduced but reintroduced, and yet I never really managed to care about them as much.
The problem may be largely structural... if they alternated between the two plots from the beginning, I wouldn't have been so impatient with and disappointed by the second plot, could learn the details about both at the same pace, but spending almost half the book on one story and then jumping to a completely separate one for again, almost half the book, just made the second suffer by comparison. By the time we got back to the first plot, I'd almost forgotten what I was liking about it, and so my overall impressions of the book are unduly burdened by the part I didn't like.
One other thing of minor note. Buckell was born and raised in the Caribbean, and his universe is inspired by this. Mostly, this was an interesting and refreshing change (although I admit I don't know enough of that area of the world to get all the cultural references), although there is one area where it grew a little distracting, where many characters spoke in patois. Slangs and dialects can always be an iffy thing, whether invented or attempting to replicate the way real people speak in some part of the world. The main problem here, at least for me, is that it often reads as though a word or verb ending is just dropped, so whenever I come across one of these snippets of dialogue, my mind stops and thinks "editing error," and even though I quickly remember what's going on, there's an interruption of flow and I'm briefly taken out of the story. The patois isn't used consistently enough that I just grow completely used to it (nor do you have the benefits and cues that you'd have were you actually hearing the language spoken, such as a specific person's voice whenever it's about to be used) and so while it was probably intended to add some vibrance and diversity, instead it remained merely distracting.
There were some cool ideas here, and a few nifty set-pieces, so despite my problems with the book, I'd be willing to give the author another look somewhere down the line.
Finished: The Mount, by Carol Emshwiller
Hundreds of years ago, diminutive aliens, the Hoots, conquered Earth. Some humans are free, but most are slaves. Those treated the best are the ones chosen as mounts, constantly feeling a Hoot's weight on their shoulders, trained for races or exhibition, treated like pets and friends... but slaves nonetheless. Young Charley is one of these mounts, serving the Hoots' future leader, and when Charley's father, a leader of the human rebellion, frees him, he's not all that happy about it. Who, after all, would want to live in the woods and struggle to survive, when you can be taken care of and treated well and complimented.
Obviously, this is one of those classic SF tricks, using an invented alien race to examine issues of slavery and how racism can be internalized and a lot of other issues, including, potentially, how we treat animals. It's such a classic trick that I was surprised that the book was released in 2002. While reading it, I thought that it was a much older work, from the 70s, perhaps. This does not mean it feels out of date... rather, it's got a timeless quality, both in the style (which is mostly told through Charley's adolescent point of view, which, among other things, means that not a lot has to be explained or justified to the audience), and in the themes. It's the kind of book I could easily be seen taught in schools.
Is it enjoyable, though? For the most part, yes. There are times when it seems to meander and get a little boring, and I think the horse/Mount metaphor was pushed a little too hard at times, but it's a solid book, the kind that discusses issues but doesn't feel overly preachy, isn't deep enough that people would struggle with it, can be enjoyed by adults and younger people, and it's not too long, either. I also appreciated that there was some decent thought put into the aliens and how they work, and they weren't all treated as monsters (although nor are they completely innocent).
It's probably not going to be one of my favorites, but I'm glad I read it and sure I'll recommend it in certain contexts to other people.
Finished: Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2014 (short fiction collection)
This is an ebook collection of what the editor thinks were some of the best stories published on Tor.com in 2014.
Any short story book is a mixed bag. But in this one, it generally felt unsuited to my tastes. Mainly, there wasn't enough SF, compared to fantasy. There were some stories that I didn't see any value in, and a number of others where the style seemed to be the point rather than the story, too many stories that I'd call 'fables' (which I like even less than fantasy), and too many that were just about romantic relationships with supernatural creatures. Nothing wrong with that in principle (and if it was aliens or robots I might even enjoy it), it's just Not My Thing and I found myself rolling my eyes and saying, "ANOTHER one?" And there were stories that were published on Tor.com in 2014 that I liked a lot more than most of the ones here, that were missing from the anthology. So clearly the editor's tastes does not especially match mine.
Still, there were a few that I enjoyed to some noteworthy degree:
“Brisk Money” by Adam Christopher
“The Color of Paradox” by A.M. Dellamonica
“The Litany of Earth” by Ruthanna Emrys
“Reborn” by Ken Liu
“Midway Relics and Dying Breeds” by Seanan McGuire
“Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome” by John Scalzi
“Sleeper” by Jo Walton
Of them, I think perhaps Liu, Dellamonica, and Emrys wrote the standouts. If the book was just these, I'd probably raise it to 4, if it was these and a few of the ones I don't like, a safe 3, but because, on balance, I felt outweighed by stories where the reading was something of a chore, so I'll leave it at 2.
Finished: The Mirrored Heavens, by David J. Williams
It's the early 22nd century, and terrorists have just destroyed the space elevator, which threatens the peace between world powers. Several operatives of various groups pursue various interests.
The Mirrored Heavens is a high-octane action cyberpunk book, full of cynicism and interesting ideas about the future of warfare and mental conditioning. It might have been a great book, if only he remembered to include anything human.
The fundamental problem is that I didn't give a damn about any of the characters. Most of them weren't sympathetic at all, selfish characters pursuing their own interests or in loyalty to a government that only seems interested in perpetuating its' own power. And when characters inevitably betrayed each other, or decided to choose loyalty when the option presented itself, it has no impact because I don't care what happens. Everyone was also relatively interchangeable... there were no normal people, they were all operatives... I had trouble keeping straight who was on what mission because there was very little distinctive about any of them.
In fairness, I think this is a common pitfall in cyberpunk, and perhaps one of the reasons it doesn't survive as a major subgenre, and only has the occasional lone book. One of the classic definition is high tech and low lifes, it's gritty and street-level. Well, this is gritty, all right, but that's about all I got out of it.
There was one story that had a little bit of interest, a love interest between two characters where they wondered if their memories of each other were implanted, but it never really got the play it deserved, and even though one of those characters did finally start to become interesting towards the end of the book... it was too little, too late. Maybe in the sequel this development would continue, but I don't have the interest.
I'm rating it as a two rather than a one, because there are some good points... some of the SFnal ideas were really interesting. And those who really enjoy action and gunfights might get a lot out of this (I tend not to get much out of them). It wasn't offensive, it just never became compelling to me. All I got was a vague sense that this could have been better if I cared about anyone.
Finished: God's War, by Kameron Hurley
God's War follows Nyx, a mercenary, former royal assassin, and occasional bounty hunter, living on a war-torn planet in a society where (due to a draft on males only and the high casualty rate) women vastly outnumber men. She and her team take on a mission that, they're told, may lead to the end of the centuries-long war.
This is the debut novel by Kameron Hurley, who's been getting a fair amount of attention lately, and, judging by this, it's well-deserved.
Despite the book hitting on a couple of areas that I tend to be leery of, I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of those is that it's an action-heavy, mercenary-centered book. While it's not a problem in all such books, for me, there's a risk that they tend to bore me, action scenes and especially combat in general can sometimes fail to engage me and the emotional and character work in these types of books can fall by the wayside, or even when there's effort put into character work, I may not like anybody or find them especially interesting, leaving me with little to hold on to. Here though, the characters are vivid and interesting, likeable despite being extremely flawed (and they're flawed in interesting ways), and to keep me invested in the action there's some incredible worldbuilding.
The setting is fascinating, particularly the setup of a world where women, culturally, have certain distinct roles and restrictions, but because of the war and extreme population dynamics that follow, they've de facto taken power and do most jobs that are considered (by their society) 'properly' the province of men (at least, in the country we spend most of the story in... other areas of the planet have different situations). The balance struck between these ideas is more interesting than either a society where women were just more numerous and in power, or just downtrodden, would be.
The setting also contains one of the other big things that would, normally, make me a little leery of a book: the combination of SF and Fantasy elements. Mostly, this is handled well... there are people called magicians, who do things that might seem magical, but there's a solid scientific underlying so it doesn't bother me. There is one element that rankles slightly, the existence of shapeshifters which, at least in this book, gets no more explanation other than being a genetic quirk, as though transforming into a dog or bird (and all the mass changes that entails) is just something humans could one day randomly develop a gene for. I hope there's better explanations in the rest of the series, but otherwise it's one sour note for me that I wish had been left out (although I can easily see others not having any problem whatsoever with this). Another aspect of the world-building is that a lot of the technology (and what is sometimes called 'magic') is based on bioengineered insects - insects that communicate long distance through radio waves, for example, might be used instead of electronic communications methods, especially since they breed themselves rather than being static machined items that need to be replaced. It really is a quite fascinating concept, even if at times it stretches credibility a little and gets a bit creepy now and then when you reflect on it.
The plot is fast-paced and always interesting, and even though the first book comes to some sort of conclusion, I find myself wanting to read more. So I almost certainly will move on to the next book in the series (something I thought almost certainly I would not be doing the first time shapeshifters were introduced).
I have to admit, I'd seen this book in stores before, looked briefly at it, and passed over it... for reasons mentioned already, it felt like "not really my thing." But I decided I'd give it a try, in part from positive recommendations about the author and book, and in part because I'm trying to make a deliberate effort to read more diverse SF authors and characters. And in this case, I'm really glad I did.
Finished: Wool Omnibus, by Hugh Howey
Wool is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the surface of the Earth is uninhabitable. What may be all that is left in humanity lives in the Silo, and has for hundreds of years, a closed, self-sufficient community about a hundred and fifty levels deep. Whole generations have grown up never seeing the outside except on the feed from the cameras on the surface... but almost nobody would have it any other way. For there is a rule, that expressing any desire to go outside gets you assigned to go out and clean the cameras... a task that nobody survives.
This is one of those digital phenomenon books, started as a self-publishing venture as a short novella, and then followed up with sequels... the first 6 books (comprising the story-arc called Wool) are in this collection.
I can see why they're popular... the ideas may not be particularly new, but the author constructs a compelling story around them, with a few surprising twists (the first few individual stories end quite well, packing a nice emotional punch). And for the most part I enjoyed them as well.
And yet... the longer the story goes on, the more cracks show... the book seems to be straining to maintain the premise. I found myself thinking about how there were much smarter ways to accomplish the goals of certain characters, or rolling my eyes a little at the newest surprise developments. In order to keep going, believability needed to stretch more and more over what started with some already somewhat hard-to-buy premises. It doesn't reach the breaking point... the book isn't ruined by any means, but it did leave me the impression that the series would have been better left as maybe just the first three or four shorter stories. That might have earned four stars (probably 3.5 unless they also wrapped it up in a slightly more satisfying way). As it is, I liked it, but wished it was a little better. In addition to the problems with length, some of the villains lacked in depth, as did a major romance story, but it's not bad. I might go on to read the other books in the series, but I'm not inspired to rush out and do so right now.
Finished: Yesterday's Kin, by Nancy Kress (novella, received for free)
I was able to read Yesterday's Kin free through NetGalley. It doesn't impact my review.
A genetic researcher has discovered something about humanity's family tree, something that interests the aliens who have just recently made contact with Earth, a discovery that causes them to reveal the truth about why they've come... and a threat that concerns both of them.
Yesterday's Kin is a novella, in that awkward stage that's too long for a short story and not nearly long enough as a novel. Although it's listed as 192 pages, it's an extremely brisk read. In fact, I think it reads more like a very long short, and yet it's sold more or less like a novel, and that's potentially a problem. Even though I got it for free, I couldn't help thinking that the price/value ratio of the full price doesn't really work out. I wouldn't be willing to pay it.
But treated as a long novella, the sort of thing that you might find in a collection of other stories, it's enjoyable... not groundbreaking, but it weaves a decent story, skillfully exploring some SF premises while at the same time telling a human-level story. I think of the two, the human story of the regularly-at-odds family started stronger, and conversely finished more poorly. It just didn't seem to have the payoff it needed, on a number of fronts. I felt like there needed to be more.
As for the rest of the plot? I have to admit I predicted many of the twists in advance, and felt they relied on characters not asking obvious questions in order to keep it secret... at the very least, it would seem as though a large number of people in the world would have guessed what was going on, even if they were never able to prove it, so for us to not even hear of the possibility felt a bit like a cheat. Still, it's not really a story that relies overmuch on the twist, that merely gives it a little extra punch at the end, and so it's not a serious flaw. Slightly more annoying is that I felt teased with a few cool ideas but they never got sufficiently developed. The science, although I can't vouch for how accurate it is, at least comes across as believable (save the few 'gimmies' like energy shields and the alien's space travel).
Despite those seeming complains, I did rather like it. It's the type of classic SF, with heart, that I enjoy, but at the same time can't always find a lot to talk about (again, it's not really a full novel). In fact, because I happened to get and read it just in time for the deadline, I did wind up nominating it for the Hugo Award (although that was partly because I didn't have many choices of novellas that I read and enjoyed, so it was easier to make the short list)
Currently in progress or finished-but-I-haven't-written-my-reviews: Light, by M. John Harrison, Behemoth, by Peter Watts (Rifters, Book 3) (put it on hold a bit to read shorter fiction), Recursion, by Tony Ballantyne, The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks, Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
And speaking of books, you might have this spoiled if you read behind the cut of the last review, but, since I've been reading more, and more new books, I've decided for the first time to buy a Worldcon membership, so I can nominate and vote for the Hugo awards. Nominations close today, so here's my list, unless I make a last minute addition or two (if anyone's interested, I can provide links to most of the shorter fiction for legal reading online, but I'm too lazy to do it right now):
Best Novel:
Echopraxia Peter Watts Tor
The Causal Angel Hannu Rajaniemi Tor
EXO Steven Gould Tor
World of Trouble Ben H. Winters Quirk Books
Zero Echo Shadow Prime Peter Samet Peter Samet (self-published)
Best Novella:
Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome John Scalzi Tor.com
Grand Jeté (The Great Leap) Rachel Swirsky Subterranian Magazine (Summer 2014)
The Regular Ken Liu Upgraded Anthology (Wyrm Publishing)
Yesterday's Kin Nancy Kress Tachyon Publishing
Best Novelette:
Jubilee Karl Schroeder Tor.com
The Colonel Peter Watts Tor.com
Brisk Money Adam Christopher Tor.com
Reborn Ken Liu Tor.com
The Litany of Earth Ruthanna Emrys Tor.com
Best Short Story:
Sleeper Jo Walton Tor.com
The Color of Paradox A.M. Dellamonica Tor.com
Wake-Rider Vandana Singh Lightspeed Magazine
Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable Cat Rambo Clarkesworld Magazine (Issue 89)
The Clockwork Soldier Ken Liu Clarkesworld Magazine (Issue 88)
Best Related Work:
What Makes This Book So Great, Jo Walton
Best Graphic Story:
Saga, Vol 3
Ms. Marvel, Vol 1: "No Normal"
Sex Criminals, Volume One: "One Weird Trick"
The Private Eye, Volume One (panelsyndicate.com)
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form):
Guardians of the Galaxy
Legend of Korra: Season 4
Predestination
Big Hero 6
Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form):
Doctor Who: "Flatline"
The Legend of Korra: "Day of the Colossus/The Last Stand"
Best Professional Artist:
Victor Mosquera
Richard Anderson
Adrian Alphona
Kekai Kotaki (mostly for the cover of The Causal Angel)
Stephan Martiniere
Best Semiprozine:
Lightspeed Magazine
Strange Horizons
The other categories I either don't feel qualified to nominate or don't know anyone eligible.
What's new with me? Still, not much. My birthday in about 2 weeks.
Oh, and I had my first major cooking mishap. This past Sunday, I was cooking a pork roast, and as I normally do, I was searing the sides first. Except, this time, not like usually) and largely because I was trying dredging the roast in flour first), I had oil in the pan, rather than just dropping it in fat-side-down and letting that serve as the oil-like substance. Hot oil. Can you guess where this is going? I dropped the roast in the pan, and there was splashage. Got both of my hands (the sides), and some on my chest (more of me was splattered than got burnt here, but the shirt I was wearing protected me). Yeah, it was pretty painful, but it was just a light burn, could have been a lot worse. Today, I have one big blister on a finger, and a couple tiny ones on my chest. Oddly, the parts I THOUGHT got the worst of it are fine, not even sore at all anymore (unless I'm directly pressing it).
Anyway, I consider it a victory, as not only did I finish cooking the meal, I didn't cry out or let anyone in my family know (including my brother, who ate the meal) I'd been injured. Yes, that's a strange victory condition, but I am a strange person. And I went to work today (the blister is on a part of the finger that's not directly endangered so with a little care I could still lift heavy loads). So, that's something. Hopefully this will be a lesson to me. But I've had to put off gaming a little... got the new Tomb Raider reboot free from XBox 'games with gold' but I've postponed getting into it.
TV, honestly, there's not a lot to report. A lot of things in reruns, and that which has been new is good, but not really all that memorable. Watching Walking Dead, which I enjoy, but, right now they're kind of following the comics fairly close, so it's not as exciting. Game of Thrones soon, at least.
So, let's get onto Book Foo, I have a big backlog to get through... reviews come from my Goodreads account:
Finished: The Martian, by Andy Weir
Astronaut Mark Watney is part of a team visiting Mars. He's not the first person to set foot on the red planet, but he may be the first one to die there. Only a few days into his mission, a dust storm causes his team to evacuate... and as they make the trek from their habitation module to the ascent vehicle, Mark is wounded, lost, and presumed dead. By the time he wakes up, everybody else is bound for Earth. But he's alive, unable to contact Earth, and has to stretch his limited resources until the next mission... which isn't expected for years. And there's plenty that can go wrong for one person on a hostile planet for that long.
The Martian has been receiving high praise, and is already in the process of a movie adaptation, presumably to appeal to those who liked the movie Gravity (or Matt Damon, who stars). And, after reading it myself, I can see why. I was a little leery from the description that it'd either play too fast and loose with science or be too dry, but the author manages to avoid both fates. There is a lot of science, mostly told in first person from Mark (the book is mostly told as a diary of his struggles to stay alive), and although I can't vouch for how accurate it is, it all feels accurate and even plausible (allowing for a significant amount of luck, both good and bad, to play into whether disasters occur or whether they're survivable). But it never threatens to overwhelm, it just informs what the issues are and how he needs to overcome them. Most importantly, it's fun, because the character is a funny guy who cracks jokes and makes sarcastic asides and wonders about issues arising from 70s TV shows (one of the few pieces of entertainment he has access to). His struggles feel real and we root along with him and our hearts fall at his setbacks.
This book is science fiction in the classic sense, a complicated, speculative, but thoroughly believable situation that a man has to use ingenuity and science to solve, and optimistic about his ability to do so... it's the kind of story written in the golden age (and not so much anymore), but with modern sensibilities. And yet, I think it's one of the more approachable books you can give to somebody who's not a big SF reader. It's extremely readable, and I found myself racing through the pages and wanting to see what happened next.
It does have a few flaws, or at least, points to it that felt a little weaker. While the diary entries were great, and the scenes back at Mission Control were a nice break now and then, sometimes the author drops into an omniscient, impersonal point of view to explain why, say, there was a mechanical failure. I appreciate what he's doing there in setting up that there wasn't just an "out of the blue" calamity, but these scenes felt a little more superfluous and somewhat took me out of the narrative. I'd rather have the failure comes a surprise and then read Mark or somebody else speculating on what happened. Additionally, I can understand why Mark's life on Earth is left somewhat unstated and aside from his humor he seems fairly bland (it makes it much easier to identify with him), I would have liked a little bit of a deeper feel for him, and, in particular, I'd have liked a little more on the ending. It felt like it was one of those TV episodes where they spent the whole runtime on the problem, and so as soon as everyone's fate is revealed, we cut almost immediately to credits, when, emotionally, I was longing for some epilogue-time wrapping things up, and a book DOES allow us that opportunity... it's just the author who didn't. And, tangentially related to Mark's blandness, his non-stop can-do attitude got a little unbelievable. I mean, the book could hardly exist without it, but even though he sometimes pouts and sulks at setbacks, and considers that he might have to end it all if things get too grim, I never got a feel that he was ever especially daunted by how hopeless things were or, really, suffering all that much from the fact that he was isolated for so long. Granted, ability to spend long periods of time isolated is probably one of those things they screen for when you're an astronaut, but I'd like a little more texture on him, to see a little more of the lows that DON'T coincide with a particular new problem popping up.
Still, these issues are, in the end, minor, for what is really a good book overall, and mostly they bothered me in reflection, because while reading it, I was having too much fun to worry.
Finished: Burning Paradise, by Robert Charles Wilson
It's 2014, but not our 2014. This is a world celebrating approximately a hundred years without war. But there's a dark secret underlying the seeming peace... the world is the way it is because Earth has been secretly guided away from conflict by an alien presence, a life form that's intelligent but not conscious, and only has its own interests at heart. Seven years ago they murdered nearly every member of a small group of scientists who had been putting the pieces together. Cassie is the daughter of two of these murdered scientists, and has lived in fear that the aliens will come back and finish the job, eliminating anyone left who knows the secret. And so, when she spots one of the alien's human "sims", she does what she's been trained to do... she takes her little brother and runs. But there are bigger things going on, and Cassie's got a big role to play in the future of the world. And there may even be a chance to defeat the aliens... but everything has a cost.
I'm a big fan of Wilson because, in most of his books, he seems to deal with some really cool concepts, and yet he never loses sight of the human stories, and builds characters that are believable and compelling. This book might not be his best, but it's still in that tradition and that means it's very good. On a SF side, the idea of the hypercolony and their sims is suitably creepy, evoking alien invasion stories where you can't know for sure if anybody they meet is one of Them, but also adding a few fresh twists. And although she's a fairly standard resourceful teenager, I grew to quite like Cassie, as well as some of the other characters, and I felt involved in their story all the way through, and even where I might have predicted a few of the surprises, the way they were done was still interesting and a few things still managed to shock me.
Ideally, I would have liked a bit more exploration into whether the type of intelligence is inherently more untrustworthy (after all, we humans screw each other over all the time), and the ending I have some mixed feelings about... and it's probably not as memorable as some of his other major works, but I enjoyed reading it all the way through.
Finished: Un Lun Dun, by China Mieville
Warning: I do sort of spoil one of the twists... it's sort of a twist that's part of the premise, so it's hard to talk about without it. Still, I'll leave the spoilery part of the premise behind the cut, just in case.
UnLondon is a magical city that exists somewhat parallel to London, a world where magic is commonplace, where inanimate objects have lives of their own, ghosts and half-ghosts live, and the greatest threat to everyone is an intelligent cloud of smog. Luckily, there's a prophecy in UnLondon, a prophecy of a chosen one who will save them all, and Zanna, a young girl living in regular London, is that chosen one. All she's known is that there's a lot of weird coincidences following her around. Her face appears in clouds, animals recognize her, strange people seem excited to meet her. It's only when she and her best friend Deeba Resham accidentally find their way to UnLondon does she realize what it means. Zanna is destined to save everybody... the prophecy is specific, and detailed.
It's also wrong. And when things start to go wrong, her best friend has to do it all instead.
Let's make this clear right up front. This is a kid's fantasy book, something like Alice in Wonderland crossed with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and about the reading level of the early Harry Potter books (before they started getting deeper as the characters and readership aged). It can be enjoyed by an adult to the degree they're capable of enjoying such things, which differs from person to person and, in my case is, "somewhat, although not as much as something written for slightly older kids."
Indeed, the first third or so, I was just sort of reading it to get through it, not really especially enjoying it, it was all just "okay, I can see how a kid might like this, but it's a little lightweight for me" (again, much like the early Harry Potters), and, in particular, it hit on one of my pet peeves in fantasy, where it looks like the author just throws any wild idea he can come up with at the reader. Intelligent piles of trash that act like feral animals? A guy with a pincushion head? A man's body with a canary cage in place of the head, top and when the canary's let out, the body is inanimate? Wasps in telephones? Any individual idea might be kind of interesting, but when there's no overriding theme, it doesn't work for me. There's an old saying, (paraphrased) "If literally ANYTHING can happen, who cares exactly what happens?" that applies. If it's just a parade of random creative ideas, I can do that myself (A duck with airplane wings! A pair of clothes that wears people! A bag of potato chips that turns anything placed inside of it into hot sauce), the skill, the craft of good fantasy is in fitting them together in a world that makes SENSE, even if it's not our world. And I thought Mieville was missing the mark and just doing a random-idea-parade with a story that wasn't good enough to excuse that. It seemed to pale in comparison to Neverwhere (one of the book's acknowledged influences), although to be fair it was also aimed at a younger audience.
But I stuck with it, largely because I'd heard of the twist he had in advance, where the 'sidekick' takes center stage. He does something I've long wanted to see in a "prophecy"/"chosen one" story, make the prophecy unreliable and potentially even outright wrong (every time I see one crop up in any media, I hope it's going to go this way, and I still do). And indeed, when this twist happens, the book becomes a lot better on every level. There's less of a need to bombard the reader with wild flights of fancy (which makes it easier to appreciate when a particularly clever one does show up), and the adventure becomes smart and compelling, fresh and original and fun. It also subtly comments on genre tropes we've grown up with and gotten used to without being preachy. I actually think it's better than those early Harry Potters, at least in the sense that I'd rather any hypothetical kids I had read this and absorb the messages from it, about not having to be born special or with a destiny to make a difference.
Aside from all of that, the book moves at a relatively fast pace so, despite the size, it doesn't feel like a lot, it can be read in small doses since most problems are resolved within pages of them cropping up. And there are loads of illustrations, apparently drawn by Mieville himself. He's far more talented an artist than I am, at any rate. It's also nice to have a kid's fantasy protagonist who's a little more diverse than you normally see, as Deeba Resham is a girl of Indian descent without making a big deal of it, as she's still thoroughly British (the book itself is, of course, British and does make use of local slang, but I have no trouble with it).
It's still a kid's book, so, as an adult, I only rate it a three... I liked it. But it's a high three, and I think that if I was in the target age range, I'd give it a four or five.
Finished: Ragamuffin, by Tobias Buckell
Humans are second-class citizens in the galaxy, technically free but realistically under the control of the aliens of the Satrapcy, who control the wormhole network and also have ways of controlling minds. But Nashara is an agent from a sealed-off human world who carries a weapon.... one that might be humanity's only shot, as the Satraps may be switching from a policy of repression of humanity to one of extermination.
Ragamuffin is part of Tobias Buckell's Xenowealth universe. It's technically the second book, and they're supposedly stand-alones except that there are some recurring characters. This is the first book I've read of his, so I have the rare (for me) experience of not just guessing how someone might react to coming in on the second book, but to give my own impressions. (Short, non-spoilery version: Liked the first half, but the 'part of a series' part sort of ruined it)
Of course, it's hard to tell how much I've actually missed and how much I just imagine I might have missed, but if I were to guess, I think I was highly enjoying the book up until it started tying directly in to the previous one. The setting was innovative, the main character interesting, and I was digging the plot. It wasn't perfect, but I was enjoying it and looking forward to seeing where it went.
And then, about halfway through the book, it switched to a completely different plot. And stayed with that for most of the rest of the book, save a brief bit at the end where the storylines came together.
The second storyline never seemed as interesting to me, the planetary setting felt a little hokey, and there was overall a sense that these were characters not being introduced but reintroduced, and yet I never really managed to care about them as much.
The problem may be largely structural... if they alternated between the two plots from the beginning, I wouldn't have been so impatient with and disappointed by the second plot, could learn the details about both at the same pace, but spending almost half the book on one story and then jumping to a completely separate one for again, almost half the book, just made the second suffer by comparison. By the time we got back to the first plot, I'd almost forgotten what I was liking about it, and so my overall impressions of the book are unduly burdened by the part I didn't like.
One other thing of minor note. Buckell was born and raised in the Caribbean, and his universe is inspired by this. Mostly, this was an interesting and refreshing change (although I admit I don't know enough of that area of the world to get all the cultural references), although there is one area where it grew a little distracting, where many characters spoke in patois. Slangs and dialects can always be an iffy thing, whether invented or attempting to replicate the way real people speak in some part of the world. The main problem here, at least for me, is that it often reads as though a word or verb ending is just dropped, so whenever I come across one of these snippets of dialogue, my mind stops and thinks "editing error," and even though I quickly remember what's going on, there's an interruption of flow and I'm briefly taken out of the story. The patois isn't used consistently enough that I just grow completely used to it (nor do you have the benefits and cues that you'd have were you actually hearing the language spoken, such as a specific person's voice whenever it's about to be used) and so while it was probably intended to add some vibrance and diversity, instead it remained merely distracting.
There were some cool ideas here, and a few nifty set-pieces, so despite my problems with the book, I'd be willing to give the author another look somewhere down the line.
Finished: The Mount, by Carol Emshwiller
Hundreds of years ago, diminutive aliens, the Hoots, conquered Earth. Some humans are free, but most are slaves. Those treated the best are the ones chosen as mounts, constantly feeling a Hoot's weight on their shoulders, trained for races or exhibition, treated like pets and friends... but slaves nonetheless. Young Charley is one of these mounts, serving the Hoots' future leader, and when Charley's father, a leader of the human rebellion, frees him, he's not all that happy about it. Who, after all, would want to live in the woods and struggle to survive, when you can be taken care of and treated well and complimented.
Obviously, this is one of those classic SF tricks, using an invented alien race to examine issues of slavery and how racism can be internalized and a lot of other issues, including, potentially, how we treat animals. It's such a classic trick that I was surprised that the book was released in 2002. While reading it, I thought that it was a much older work, from the 70s, perhaps. This does not mean it feels out of date... rather, it's got a timeless quality, both in the style (which is mostly told through Charley's adolescent point of view, which, among other things, means that not a lot has to be explained or justified to the audience), and in the themes. It's the kind of book I could easily be seen taught in schools.
Is it enjoyable, though? For the most part, yes. There are times when it seems to meander and get a little boring, and I think the horse/Mount metaphor was pushed a little too hard at times, but it's a solid book, the kind that discusses issues but doesn't feel overly preachy, isn't deep enough that people would struggle with it, can be enjoyed by adults and younger people, and it's not too long, either. I also appreciated that there was some decent thought put into the aliens and how they work, and they weren't all treated as monsters (although nor are they completely innocent).
It's probably not going to be one of my favorites, but I'm glad I read it and sure I'll recommend it in certain contexts to other people.
Finished: Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2014 (short fiction collection)
This is an ebook collection of what the editor thinks were some of the best stories published on Tor.com in 2014.
Any short story book is a mixed bag. But in this one, it generally felt unsuited to my tastes. Mainly, there wasn't enough SF, compared to fantasy. There were some stories that I didn't see any value in, and a number of others where the style seemed to be the point rather than the story, too many stories that I'd call 'fables' (which I like even less than fantasy), and too many that were just about romantic relationships with supernatural creatures. Nothing wrong with that in principle (and if it was aliens or robots I might even enjoy it), it's just Not My Thing and I found myself rolling my eyes and saying, "ANOTHER one?" And there were stories that were published on Tor.com in 2014 that I liked a lot more than most of the ones here, that were missing from the anthology. So clearly the editor's tastes does not especially match mine.
Still, there were a few that I enjoyed to some noteworthy degree:
“Brisk Money” by Adam Christopher
“The Color of Paradox” by A.M. Dellamonica
“The Litany of Earth” by Ruthanna Emrys
“Reborn” by Ken Liu
“Midway Relics and Dying Breeds” by Seanan McGuire
“Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome” by John Scalzi
“Sleeper” by Jo Walton
Of them, I think perhaps Liu, Dellamonica, and Emrys wrote the standouts. If the book was just these, I'd probably raise it to 4, if it was these and a few of the ones I don't like, a safe 3, but because, on balance, I felt outweighed by stories where the reading was something of a chore, so I'll leave it at 2.
Finished: The Mirrored Heavens, by David J. Williams
It's the early 22nd century, and terrorists have just destroyed the space elevator, which threatens the peace between world powers. Several operatives of various groups pursue various interests.
The Mirrored Heavens is a high-octane action cyberpunk book, full of cynicism and interesting ideas about the future of warfare and mental conditioning. It might have been a great book, if only he remembered to include anything human.
The fundamental problem is that I didn't give a damn about any of the characters. Most of them weren't sympathetic at all, selfish characters pursuing their own interests or in loyalty to a government that only seems interested in perpetuating its' own power. And when characters inevitably betrayed each other, or decided to choose loyalty when the option presented itself, it has no impact because I don't care what happens. Everyone was also relatively interchangeable... there were no normal people, they were all operatives... I had trouble keeping straight who was on what mission because there was very little distinctive about any of them.
In fairness, I think this is a common pitfall in cyberpunk, and perhaps one of the reasons it doesn't survive as a major subgenre, and only has the occasional lone book. One of the classic definition is high tech and low lifes, it's gritty and street-level. Well, this is gritty, all right, but that's about all I got out of it.
There was one story that had a little bit of interest, a love interest between two characters where they wondered if their memories of each other were implanted, but it never really got the play it deserved, and even though one of those characters did finally start to become interesting towards the end of the book... it was too little, too late. Maybe in the sequel this development would continue, but I don't have the interest.
I'm rating it as a two rather than a one, because there are some good points... some of the SFnal ideas were really interesting. And those who really enjoy action and gunfights might get a lot out of this (I tend not to get much out of them). It wasn't offensive, it just never became compelling to me. All I got was a vague sense that this could have been better if I cared about anyone.
Finished: God's War, by Kameron Hurley
God's War follows Nyx, a mercenary, former royal assassin, and occasional bounty hunter, living on a war-torn planet in a society where (due to a draft on males only and the high casualty rate) women vastly outnumber men. She and her team take on a mission that, they're told, may lead to the end of the centuries-long war.
This is the debut novel by Kameron Hurley, who's been getting a fair amount of attention lately, and, judging by this, it's well-deserved.
Despite the book hitting on a couple of areas that I tend to be leery of, I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of those is that it's an action-heavy, mercenary-centered book. While it's not a problem in all such books, for me, there's a risk that they tend to bore me, action scenes and especially combat in general can sometimes fail to engage me and the emotional and character work in these types of books can fall by the wayside, or even when there's effort put into character work, I may not like anybody or find them especially interesting, leaving me with little to hold on to. Here though, the characters are vivid and interesting, likeable despite being extremely flawed (and they're flawed in interesting ways), and to keep me invested in the action there's some incredible worldbuilding.
The setting is fascinating, particularly the setup of a world where women, culturally, have certain distinct roles and restrictions, but because of the war and extreme population dynamics that follow, they've de facto taken power and do most jobs that are considered (by their society) 'properly' the province of men (at least, in the country we spend most of the story in... other areas of the planet have different situations). The balance struck between these ideas is more interesting than either a society where women were just more numerous and in power, or just downtrodden, would be.
The setting also contains one of the other big things that would, normally, make me a little leery of a book: the combination of SF and Fantasy elements. Mostly, this is handled well... there are people called magicians, who do things that might seem magical, but there's a solid scientific underlying so it doesn't bother me. There is one element that rankles slightly, the existence of shapeshifters which, at least in this book, gets no more explanation other than being a genetic quirk, as though transforming into a dog or bird (and all the mass changes that entails) is just something humans could one day randomly develop a gene for. I hope there's better explanations in the rest of the series, but otherwise it's one sour note for me that I wish had been left out (although I can easily see others not having any problem whatsoever with this). Another aspect of the world-building is that a lot of the technology (and what is sometimes called 'magic') is based on bioengineered insects - insects that communicate long distance through radio waves, for example, might be used instead of electronic communications methods, especially since they breed themselves rather than being static machined items that need to be replaced. It really is a quite fascinating concept, even if at times it stretches credibility a little and gets a bit creepy now and then when you reflect on it.
The plot is fast-paced and always interesting, and even though the first book comes to some sort of conclusion, I find myself wanting to read more. So I almost certainly will move on to the next book in the series (something I thought almost certainly I would not be doing the first time shapeshifters were introduced).
I have to admit, I'd seen this book in stores before, looked briefly at it, and passed over it... for reasons mentioned already, it felt like "not really my thing." But I decided I'd give it a try, in part from positive recommendations about the author and book, and in part because I'm trying to make a deliberate effort to read more diverse SF authors and characters. And in this case, I'm really glad I did.
Finished: Wool Omnibus, by Hugh Howey
Wool is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the surface of the Earth is uninhabitable. What may be all that is left in humanity lives in the Silo, and has for hundreds of years, a closed, self-sufficient community about a hundred and fifty levels deep. Whole generations have grown up never seeing the outside except on the feed from the cameras on the surface... but almost nobody would have it any other way. For there is a rule, that expressing any desire to go outside gets you assigned to go out and clean the cameras... a task that nobody survives.
This is one of those digital phenomenon books, started as a self-publishing venture as a short novella, and then followed up with sequels... the first 6 books (comprising the story-arc called Wool) are in this collection.
I can see why they're popular... the ideas may not be particularly new, but the author constructs a compelling story around them, with a few surprising twists (the first few individual stories end quite well, packing a nice emotional punch). And for the most part I enjoyed them as well.
And yet... the longer the story goes on, the more cracks show... the book seems to be straining to maintain the premise. I found myself thinking about how there were much smarter ways to accomplish the goals of certain characters, or rolling my eyes a little at the newest surprise developments. In order to keep going, believability needed to stretch more and more over what started with some already somewhat hard-to-buy premises. It doesn't reach the breaking point... the book isn't ruined by any means, but it did leave me the impression that the series would have been better left as maybe just the first three or four shorter stories. That might have earned four stars (probably 3.5 unless they also wrapped it up in a slightly more satisfying way). As it is, I liked it, but wished it was a little better. In addition to the problems with length, some of the villains lacked in depth, as did a major romance story, but it's not bad. I might go on to read the other books in the series, but I'm not inspired to rush out and do so right now.
Finished: Yesterday's Kin, by Nancy Kress (novella, received for free)
I was able to read Yesterday's Kin free through NetGalley. It doesn't impact my review.
A genetic researcher has discovered something about humanity's family tree, something that interests the aliens who have just recently made contact with Earth, a discovery that causes them to reveal the truth about why they've come... and a threat that concerns both of them.
Yesterday's Kin is a novella, in that awkward stage that's too long for a short story and not nearly long enough as a novel. Although it's listed as 192 pages, it's an extremely brisk read. In fact, I think it reads more like a very long short, and yet it's sold more or less like a novel, and that's potentially a problem. Even though I got it for free, I couldn't help thinking that the price/value ratio of the full price doesn't really work out. I wouldn't be willing to pay it.
But treated as a long novella, the sort of thing that you might find in a collection of other stories, it's enjoyable... not groundbreaking, but it weaves a decent story, skillfully exploring some SF premises while at the same time telling a human-level story. I think of the two, the human story of the regularly-at-odds family started stronger, and conversely finished more poorly. It just didn't seem to have the payoff it needed, on a number of fronts. I felt like there needed to be more.
As for the rest of the plot? I have to admit I predicted many of the twists in advance, and felt they relied on characters not asking obvious questions in order to keep it secret... at the very least, it would seem as though a large number of people in the world would have guessed what was going on, even if they were never able to prove it, so for us to not even hear of the possibility felt a bit like a cheat. Still, it's not really a story that relies overmuch on the twist, that merely gives it a little extra punch at the end, and so it's not a serious flaw. Slightly more annoying is that I felt teased with a few cool ideas but they never got sufficiently developed. The science, although I can't vouch for how accurate it is, at least comes across as believable (save the few 'gimmies' like energy shields and the alien's space travel).
Despite those seeming complains, I did rather like it. It's the type of classic SF, with heart, that I enjoy, but at the same time can't always find a lot to talk about (again, it's not really a full novel). In fact, because I happened to get and read it just in time for the deadline, I did wind up nominating it for the Hugo Award (although that was partly because I didn't have many choices of novellas that I read and enjoyed, so it was easier to make the short list)
Currently in progress or finished-but-I-haven't-written-my-reviews: Light, by M. John Harrison, Behemoth, by Peter Watts (Rifters, Book 3) (put it on hold a bit to read shorter fiction), Recursion, by Tony Ballantyne, The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks, Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
And speaking of books, you might have this spoiled if you read behind the cut of the last review, but, since I've been reading more, and more new books, I've decided for the first time to buy a Worldcon membership, so I can nominate and vote for the Hugo awards. Nominations close today, so here's my list, unless I make a last minute addition or two (if anyone's interested, I can provide links to most of the shorter fiction for legal reading online, but I'm too lazy to do it right now):
Best Novel:
Echopraxia Peter Watts Tor
The Causal Angel Hannu Rajaniemi Tor
EXO Steven Gould Tor
World of Trouble Ben H. Winters Quirk Books
Zero Echo Shadow Prime Peter Samet Peter Samet (self-published)
Best Novella:
Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome John Scalzi Tor.com
Grand Jeté (The Great Leap) Rachel Swirsky Subterranian Magazine (Summer 2014)
The Regular Ken Liu Upgraded Anthology (Wyrm Publishing)
Yesterday's Kin Nancy Kress Tachyon Publishing
Best Novelette:
Jubilee Karl Schroeder Tor.com
The Colonel Peter Watts Tor.com
Brisk Money Adam Christopher Tor.com
Reborn Ken Liu Tor.com
The Litany of Earth Ruthanna Emrys Tor.com
Best Short Story:
Sleeper Jo Walton Tor.com
The Color of Paradox A.M. Dellamonica Tor.com
Wake-Rider Vandana Singh Lightspeed Magazine
Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable Cat Rambo Clarkesworld Magazine (Issue 89)
The Clockwork Soldier Ken Liu Clarkesworld Magazine (Issue 88)
Best Related Work:
What Makes This Book So Great, Jo Walton
Best Graphic Story:
Saga, Vol 3
Ms. Marvel, Vol 1: "No Normal"
Sex Criminals, Volume One: "One Weird Trick"
The Private Eye, Volume One (panelsyndicate.com)
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form):
Guardians of the Galaxy
Legend of Korra: Season 4
Predestination
Big Hero 6
Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form):
Doctor Who: "Flatline"
The Legend of Korra: "Day of the Colossus/The Last Stand"
Best Professional Artist:
Victor Mosquera
Richard Anderson
Adrian Alphona
Kekai Kotaki (mostly for the cover of The Causal Angel)
Stephan Martiniere
Best Semiprozine:
Lightspeed Magazine
Strange Horizons
The other categories I either don't feel qualified to nominate or don't know anyone eligible.
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Date: 2015-03-13 08:17 pm (UTC)I also have God's War (and the sequels) but haven't read it, for a really dumb reason: It's signed. See, I give away or trade most of my books after I read them but I keep signed ones. I got the signed one from my trading site just out of the blue--it was the author's sister or something who gave out some signed copies there. And now I can't read it until I've finished some other things I've gotten rid of. Woe is me. But I am pretty hype for it, also for Mirrored Empire, her new fantasy series.
Light I read a year or two ago and mostly liked. It was sometimes a bit confusing, but the interwoven narratives ultimately held their own for me, and the payoff was intriguing even if not entirely surprising. The hardest thing for sci-fi writers to do is solve their own mysteries in a satisfying way I think, and that one does a reasonable job.
I've never voted for the Hugos because I read things so out of order--it's fairly uncommon for me to read stuff the year it came out, except for some shorter pieces online, so I would always be at a loss of what to vote for. Still there's some good works in what you've listed, and I often use Hugo recommendation posts as potential reading guides. The award itself is messy--all that Hugo politics is kinda crummy honestly--but it's a reasonable excuse to reflect on what was worth looking at lately.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-14 08:20 pm (UTC)And that seems a perfectly reasonable reason not to read something right away. I've also heard a lot about Mirrored Empire, though there my own instinctive lowered interest in fantasy than SF comes into play. I'm sure it'll be good, but I'm not likely to read it before plenty of other stuff I've got my eye on (then again, if it does manage to get a Hugo nom, which seems fairly plausible, I might be reading it sooner than I think).
Light I actually finished (just haven't gotten around to doing my review) but, I did not care for it. Or at least, I didn't care for all of it. I though there were parts to it that I enjoyed, but they were too few and far between, and largely I found the world (at least the future part of it), which he seemed to take pride in leaving undeveloped, more interesting than any of the characters, who I largely found unappealing. But I only have myself to blame, I was kind of going against my instincts there: whenever I see a book that is described as being "literary" (whether in the description, blurbs from reviews, or just recommendations), that's usually a big red flag: "This Book Is Not For You"
I used to be of a similar mindset of the Hugos... it makes a good resource for finding stuff I may have missed, but I didn't read enough "current" stuff that nomming was worth it. But starting this year I've been buying (and sometimes, getting free... just joined NetGalley and getting ebook review copies of some great books... just got the last book in Ramez Naam's Nexus trilogy (which I'm going to get in hard copy eventually, but I can start reading early) and a book of short stories by Hannu Rajaniemi) a lot more new, current stuff, and in general being more engaged in SF-reading fandoms, I thought it might be worth giving it a try: and also because I discovered that buying a membership means you're entitled to an ebook packet showcasing some of the nominees (most of the short fiction and, usually though not always, the novels as well... last year since most of the novel nominees were by the same publisher they only provided excerpts, but the other publishers provided full ebooks and in fact you could have gotten ebooks of the entire World of Time series, if you were so interested, for free as part of it), it makes it a less daunting deal. Though yes, some of the Hugo politics is pretty annoying (especially the stupid Sad Puppies thing... I have to admit a small part of why I decided to join was to combat it), and it does tend towards popularity-over-quality, but at least it's somewhat resistant to outright campaigning in the votes.