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newnumber6So, I guess life continues. Not much has changed for me personally, except for one piece that has gone firmly in the negative column: My job. Oh, it still exists, and objectively I can't complain compared to other people, but, they changed all the times around. So now instead of, on work days, waking up and going in early, then coming home and having the rest of the day (and not to mention hitting the grocery stores on the way home), I have one in the middle of the afternoon and the others are at night, which means having to go to work hangs over me the whole day, I usually can't do much grocery shopping on the way home, and, sometimes, I feel messed up the next day (whereas before sometimes I feel a bit messed up the day I work, but it's gone by the next day). And of course, it means any family events I have to schedule around, instead of being pretty much available any time anyone else is. Bleh. Unfortunately, it's unlikely to change much, due to everything from cost-cutting at the head office, our new mayor's parking laws, and some stupid sports games all colliding into a perfect storm.
I guess there is one other piece of mild news, I went to Wonderland for the first time in years (Canada's, not Alice's). My brother got me a season's pass for my birthday, and one for himself as well, so we went down to ride some of the roller coasters, and probably will go one or two times more during the summer (and possibly on some other trip with my dad, who separately got a pass with his wife, so he can take the step-grandkids). It was fun, especially the Leviathan, which had a huge drop.
Adventures in Food... still doing most of the cooking, and have gotten a bit more adventurous. I've done some baking experiments that have mostly turned out well... I've made peanut butter cookies a few times, and oatmeal peanut butter cookies once, and last week I did a cheesecake for the first time, including home-made graham cracker peanut butter crust (and topped with sliced fresh strawberries which were on sale the day I made it). The cheesecake wasn't as dense as I was hoping, I think I need more cheese in the mix, but I think the flavors were good. And I cooked ribs for the first time, which turned out awesome, fall off the bone tender (and, since I have a bag full of oatmeal from when I made the cookies, I tried something I read online and made a savory oatmeal side dish with onions and mushrooms that turned out really well and I'll probably be making again tonight). Not sure what I'll try next (that I haven't already done, I mean, tonight I'm making meatloaf).
TV stuffs:
I'm not going to try to recap most of TV. I will say that the new shows for the networks are dull dull dull. A few looked like they might be kind of interesting, SF concepts, except they tagged on "And helps the police solve crimes!" at the end and I lost all my interest. I'll probably watch Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl, and, perhaps surprisingly, I'm more excited about the latter (LoT has a lot of cast members I like, but I'm not sure how they're going to make it work and I think it's going to mess up some stuff I liked about Arrow and Flash).
I did watch a couple Binge-Watch shows. There's Netflix's Daredevil, which turned out to be pretty good. I mean, yeah, there were a few issues, but overall I liked it and the cast was well done (especially Foggy, who was perfect).
And I checked out Sony's Playstation-network-exclusive series Powers, based on the Bendis comic. There are... good parts and bad parts.
The good:
Once I got over them not following the comics, except very loosely, I liked the general world building.
The actress playing Deena really nailed the attitude and was great (but see the bad section)
Johnny Royale and his plot were surprisingly sympathetic and I wound up really rooting for him, even at the expense of the main characters. I often felt he was wrong, but I sympathized.
Michelle Forbes as Retro Girl worked well.
I thought Zora, although very different, was executed pretty well (and I was hoping for her 'origin story' to be lie the comics), except... when she started getting into the heroing, they ditched the cool visor in favor of black paint around the eyes and that was such a mistake. :P
The bad:
The guy playing Walker was dull and I never bought him in the role.
There was a severe paucity of Deena/Walker banter. I mean, seriously, their relationship was one of the best parts of the comics, and Deena barely got anything to do... the few times she did, she shined, but it wasn't enough. And part of it was that they went with the decision of making everyone know that Walker was Diamond... I can forgive the other changes to the plot, but I really think they should have kept that one a little longer (even if it was a 'open secret' type thing), so they could have the plot of her discovery and them getting to know each other.
Callista being a teen instead of a little girl, I guess worked in general, but it meant we never got the "Do you know what a clitoris is yet?" line (followed by Deena cracking up).
There were a lot of gaps and jumps in the storyline, like they expected to have twice as many episodes or something, or maybe they just weren't good at clear storytelling.
Chinsy, chinsy, chinsy. I mean, I didn't expect much, but it didn't even meet those. (There was one time when even a person speaking in front of a SMALL CROWD was an obvious greenscreen). Characters would often strike a pose, fly a few feet (looking like they're holding in place while some wirework moves them), then land, in the most ridiculously pointless moves ever. If you can't do flight, don't try to do flight.
Overall, though, I liked it, and I'll watch the next season.
There are a couple SF Netflix or Cable Channel series starting soon (or already started) that I plan on checking out, though: Sense8, Dark Matters, Killjoys, and The Expanse (though that's probably not for a few months).
And since the last one is based on a book series, that segues us nicely into Book Foo.
First, a word about the Hugo awards: Bleh.
Bleh's a word, right? Yeah, many words have been written about it already, but I am not happy, the Puppies campaigns were, in my mind, cheating, even if they were technically allowed by the rules (last year, they were a little closer to the line of "I think the choices are despicable but they went about it fairly"). I almost feel like I wasted the money to get a Worldcon membership so I could nominate and vote because of this stupid campaign. *I* played fairly, reading and choosing stories that made ME passionate, but most of the categories get dominated by people gaming the system. I will mostly be voting No Award against the slate-nominated works, because it's the only way to discourage such tactics (although I'll try to give the nominees a fair chance to impress me as "independently worthy of winning one").
But on to the books I HAVE read since my last post. As usual, reviews taken from my goodreads account, and spoilers should be generally minor and limited to back-of-the-book type descriptions (or I'll try to warn if anything greater), but I can't promise.
Finished: Recursion, by Tony Ballantyne
Recursion interweaves three stories set at different time periods in the future. One's a woman in the near future who starts to feel that her life is being manipulated by outside forces... not just the ones she knows about, involving an intrusive society who interferes with people's lives for their own good, but one people are growing to suspect that is not human at all. Another is a secret agent a century later who is to help make a decision that could affect all of humanity... although others want what he knows. And finally there's the story of Herb, a rich dilettante whose illegal attempts to use self-replicating machines to custom design his own planet goes horribly wrong, and as punishment he's recruited to fight an AI menace that encompasses part of the galaxy, and expanding.
The book deals with a lot of SF themes that I really enjoy, and it does have some particularly interesting thoughts on those themes. The stories mostly move at a decent pace (although they seem annoyingly irrelevant to each other at first, and even towards the end don't tie in quite as well as I'd hoped), and although I was something more interested in getting back to another time period than the one I was in, I was never bored with any of them.
So why does this only get three stars (which of course, does mean I enjoyed it, if somewhat less enthusiastically than other books)? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. There was just something slightly off about things, particularly the characters, that I couldn't put my finger on. Not a fatal flaw (although, I was particularly annoyed with the character of Robert Johnson... even though I expect part of the point was to be annoyed by him, it still lowers my enjoyment to have to go through it), just it wasn't as smooth as I'd hoped.
I did grow to like the book more as it reached the conclusion, mainly because this was where more of the more interesting speculation started to kick in, and some of the problems I thought I had earlier began to have reasonable explanations. It's probably closer to 3.5 stars than a straight three, and that's largely because of the second half of the book.
I'm willing to write off the problems as either a personal experience (I was reading them during the winter blues!) or the traditional first novel problems where authors hopefully improve, and I'm still interested in trying the second book in the series.
Finished: Behemoth, by Peter Watts (Rifters, #3)
The world is slowly dying from a nigh-unstoppable plague, a plague that Lenie Clarke unwittingly spread years ago while on a quest for personal vengeance. Clarke herself has been living under the sea, cybernetic rifters like her living in an awkward alliance with another party partly responsible for the state of the world. That alliance is fraying, however, as a new strain of the disease is making and appearance in what they once believed their shelter, and when neither side trusts the other, it could lead to war and death for everybody. But Lenie might also get a chance to redeem herself, somewhat, and save the rest of the world outside.
This is the final installment of Peter Watts' Rifters series, a dark near-future tale full of cybernetically enhanced psychopaths, biotech terrors, and darkness blacker than you might find at the bottom of the ocean. Yet for all that dourness and cynicism, there's a surprisingly upbeat thread you can dig out, even the ultimate villains who lack what we recognize as empathy have some redeeming qualities, even in the midst of the apocalypse there are people willing to try their best to make things right, and even a sense that our irrationality might save us from horrors that can come from "the greater good."
Although I read it in a single ebook edition, Behemoth was originally published as two separate novels (Behemoth: β-Max and Behemoth: Seppuku), split up at the publisher's request. I'm sure the author will disagree, but I actually see the logic in this, because there is a sharp division, where one plot ends and is barely even mentioned again, in order to start a new one, and it really does feel like two separate books (albeit the first one feels like a lot of setup and possibly not satisfying on its own). Each plot moves at a pretty good pace and holds interest, although where their strengths lie are divided: the first half may meander a bit more but what's going on seems more tied to the characters, while the second half is more conventionally exciting but, being mostly "on the road" lacks a bit of emotional connection. Still, neither suffers overmuch from it's flaws, although the ending does come a little abruptly and left me feeling, "...that's it?" Still before it comes some pretty good twists and fascinating ideas, and I enjoyed myself reading it, although not quite as much as some of his other books. My rating teeters... I'd really rate it a 3.5, but since Goodreads doesn't do half-points, and I enjoy the author in general very much, I'll go with the 4.
The book does contain, it should be noted, some scenes of very graphic sexual violence and torture. They are relatively short, but gratuitous in detail. It'd be a mistake to assume that this reflects some perversity of the author, it's done to a what I feel is a very specific point and not for titillation value like various torture-porn movies can sometimes get. Still, I can see the mere presence of such scenes a dealbreaker to some readers who would feel too uncomfortable, and I can't blame them... they probably deserve fair warning.
Finished: Light, by M. John Harrison
Light tells three stories... a serial killer in the modern day and, in the far future, a woman bonded to a starship and a man who's addicted to virtual reality scenarios. They wander about doing a variety of things more or less on whims but there are connections between them that supposedly makes it all something more than a pointless exercise.
I'm being a little harsh on this book, and it's unfair, especially because I only have myself to blame. I have a rule of thumb... if a book is described as being "literary," either in the synopsis, the blurbs they put there, or even recommendations from people I know, I usually take this as a big black and red sign saying "This Book Is Not For You!" But once in a while I choose to ignore that sign. Occasionally, it works out. But mostly, it's like this case.
Generally, the problem for me boils down to such authors focusing on style over substance. Here, there's some of that... but it's not impenetrable, and the prose even, occasionally, got me to notice that a particular passage was well-written. More problematic, though, was that the book was full of uninteresting, unappealing characters who, say, casually murder people or betray friends (and yet don't at other times when it actually would make sense to), and often talk in non sequiturs (and not in the way where it mimics a real conversation, but where it feels additionally artificial and posed). The book's got a few twists that are pretty telegraphed while the whole story ends in mysticism and deus ex machina. There's also a generous smattering of sex that is both thoroughly untitillating and not particularly necessary to the story in detail.
Perhaps the worst thing is that there are a few good SF ideas in here, which is why I'm giving it two stars rather than one... sure, there are things that don't really make sense together, and some of the ideas are fairly old hat, but there are a few genuine gems here and the setting itself could be wonderful, and there are hints of things that are extremely compelling... but none of it's developed enough to really enjoy it. I feel like I've been served a sandwich topped with fancy ingredients that I want to spit out, and yet I can also tell there's also some delicious burger patty in the center... except it's served undercooked. If the author had just focused on a few elements and put effort into doing them right, and limited everything else, he could have produced something that was, to me, great. Instead, I feel like it's a waste of the good material. No doubt defenders will say it's deliberately challenging and it invites you to do the development... but a book full of unappealing characters does not inspire me to take up challenges, and if I want to develop something I can do it without an author's help... I read so that I can see somebody else's development. The author, has written an essay about how worldbuilding is a negative... that should have been even bigger warning than the word "literary," as it shows that he doesn't value the work I'm paying for.
I'm sure there will be plenty of fans of the sort of thing he does, but I am not one of them.
Finished: The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks
The Gzilt, a galactic civilization that was very nearly one of the founding members of the utopian Culture, is about to move on, to Sublime, to ascend, as an entire civilization, to another plane of existence, along with most of its population. But, as the days wind down before the big event, an ancient secret is discovered, and, fearing that it might cause some percentage of the population to have second thoughts about subliming, there's an attempt to cover it up, and other attempts to learn of it. One citizen is caught up in events because she once knew somebody who was alive when the events were unfolding, thousands of years earlier, a man who is still alive but in hiding. Meanwhile, members of the Culture learn about the secret and decide they should find out the truth, even if they're not sure whether it's a good idea to reveal that truth once they learn it. Wackiness ensues.
This is (sadly) the final book set in the Culture, the author himself having passed on. From what I understand, he didn't realize he was sick while he was writing this novel, so although it might be tempting to view the book as a dying man's meditation on afterlives and finding meaning in your own life even if, potentially, that meaning is arbitrary, it's probably not the case. It is rather eerie, though.
Overall, I enjoyed this book... but it wasn't as good as others in set in the universe. The stakes seemed to be too low, and maybe there were a few too characters to keep track of, and a few of the subplots seemed to be dropped rather than given a satisfying conclusion (I particularly wanted to see more with the robot that was convinced everything was a simulation). These might sound like pretty big problems, but really, they're not, because in a Culture book, it's often not about what's happening, it's about enjoying an imagined existence in a universe that in many ways is more appealing than our own, and even if you might not want to live there (particularly where something novel-worthy is happening), it's a fun place to visit. The problems merely mean that it isn't my favorite Culture novel, it's just one I enjoyed. I want to give it an extra star just for that, but under the scoring system, three is more honest, even though I'd give the Culture series as a whole five.
The title refers to a musical composition designed for an instrument that had not been invented, that was notoriously complicated and, although obviously an achievement to perform, not all that pleasing to listen to. I've said this before about some of Banks' other works, but it applies here as well... this is a book that should not work as well as it does. A novel about hyper-intelligent AIs trying to find out a rather meaningless secret that doesn't involve them at all, full of characters with long and complicated difficult-to-remember names, where most of the protagonists are not in serious danger... it shouldn't work. But "should not work as well as it does" probably applies to the Culture as a concept... after all this is a functional SF utopia with a thoroughly nice society, which should be unfathomably boring. And perhaps that is a good legacy for Banks... he wrote stories that shouldn't have worked, and he made them work. It's almost like he's been performing a Hydrogen Sonata of his own, with one key difference... even thought it have might be clunky at times, it's been a pleasure to experience it.
And I'm sad as hell that the last note has been played.
Finished: Collected Stories, by Hannu Rajaniemi (short story collection, received for free)
I received an ebook of this book for free through NetGalley. I don't think it affected my review.
This collects short stories by Hannu Rajaniemi, perhaps best known for the hard SF post-singularity series that starts with The Quantum Thief.
Short story collections are by their nature a mixed bag... and ones that are all by the same author occasionally disappoint, when the things that attracted you to the author in the first place don't seem to be there, or are only a small part. Occasionally it's even a dumping ground for stories that didn't get much traction.
Luckily, none of this is the case here. I can't say for certain that if you really liked The Quantum Thief, you'll really like this book. But I can say that it's true of me, I got exactly what I wanted from this book, that same sensation of being awash in mind-bending high tech fantasies.
One of Clarke's famous laws is that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Rajaniemi has a special talent in exploring those levels of sufficiently advanced technology, while still explaining it in such a way that it completely feels, to me, thoroughly like technology, not magic. He excels at providing the visceral sensation, even if it may be partly illusion, that these really are the types of things we might be dealing with in the far future or after an explosion of intelligence either augmented by or comprised of AI. That particular theme is also explored in several stories, and it's one of my favorites, and one of the reasons I love Rajaniemi's works is because he sells it, makes it feel real, even when the story's not about that, but rather about more human concerns.
The book is not exclusively hard science fiction, though, as much as I might personally prefer that. There's also a good deal of fantasy, even one I might consider a fable. But even here, I was more interested in it than I might otherwise be, largely because it draws heavily on the mythology of Finland, of which I've not been overexposed to (except, perhaps, now, through this book).
Rajaniemi is himself Finnish, and with this collection, it really shows. Most, if not all, of the stories have at least one major character who is Finnish, although most are also set outside of Finland. It was interesting to learn, in small dribs and drabs, about a culture that I don't hear a lot about, but I can see how it might feel a little repetitive to some readers (at least, when read as a collection rather than in individual stories here or there). In the end, though, I appreciate him wearing his country and culture on his sleeve (and I'm sure if I released a collection of stories, there'd be a lot of Canada in it).
I'm actually struggling to find anything negative to say about it. I was going to comment about how, at least in the ebook edition, the formatting sometimes made it difficult to identify changes in setting... but then I realized that it was mostly a problem with my own settings. About the only thing I can say is, aside from a few stories not really doing much for me, that there were times I wished the story was longer, that more was done with a concept. But as flaws go, "left me wanting more" is a good one to have.
My favorite stories, I think, were: "The Jugaad Cathedral," "Deus Ex Homine," and "Invisible Planets." There's also an incredible experiment with "Snow White is Dead," but that is difficult to completely appreciate in book form... it literally needs to be read while hooked up to a machine that monitors your brain.
I give it four stars rather than five solely because a few of the stories weren't really the kind of thing I like to read... and that's a very personal thing. It's just enough to keep it from me being comfortable as describing it as "loved it" (but perhaps I'm stingier on that word than I should be). Better than a numeric rating, though, I have to say two things... that this may be one of my favorite single-author collections I've ever read, and that, despite receiving it for free with NetGalley, I actually would buy this collection with my own money... at least if it gets released in paperback. The original print run is a hardcover and apparently limited only to 2000 copies... and, aside from preferring the paperback format in general, I'd rather somebody else get to enjoy the stories than get a separate copy for my own later rereading.
Finished: Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
Perdido Street Station tells of a city of humans, insect-headed women, cactus people, toad people, and more. One of them is Isaac, a scientist, involved in a secret cross-species relationship, and hired to restore flight to a bird-man who was punished by his people with the removal of his wings. In the course of this assignment, something is accidentally unleashed that threatens the entire city.
Obviously, this is a fantasy novel, with elements of steampunk (although I personally wouldn't consider it pure steampunk). And I should probably start out by saying that I'm not a big fan of either genre, in terms of novel-reading (movies or TV, fine, and I like the steampunk aesthetic, I just typically don't enjoy reading either genre). However, Mieville has impressed me with some of his other work that I've read, so I decided I'd stretch outside of my comfort zone and give it a try, since it is, perhaps, his most famous work.
I'm glad I did, because this really is something interesting. Instead of just riffing on Tolkein as too many fantasy novels feel like, this is a world full of novel creatures (yet many of which also have roots in mythologies of various cultures), and, more importantly, they're largely treated, not as inexplicable magic creatures, but merely products of a world where science doesn't run quite the same way as ours. This approach is what appealed to me first, not just in the creatures (which occasionally have paragraphs explaining their life cycle or breeding method), but also to elements of what we could call "magic." There's an overall scientific approach that make this book, although fantasy, feel more like science fiction. There are even a few direct science fiction themes in the book, translated into a fantasy context.
I was enjoying it so much that if the whole book was Isaac's scientific research progressing with no greater apocalyptic threat and just the drama just revolving around personal relationships, politics, or organized crime, I probably still would have enjoyed it. But of course, there is a greater threat which kicks up the creepy factor significantly, although there were elements here where it proceeded a little too conventionally for my tastes (mixed in with moments of wonder and impressiveness).
I've heard a lot of praise about this book since it came out, and I can absolutely see why. My score, although it's three stars, is on the high end of that (the somewhat too-conventional main plot and a few creations which just fell flat for me, some dawdling on minor characters that seemed to go nowhere, as well as my own bias against fantasy, kept it from reaching a four), and I'm actually doing what I never imagined I would when I tried this one: planning to pick up one of the other books set in the same setting.
Definitely worth a try, at least, even if you're like me, a science fiction reader who doesn't generally enjoy fantasy.
Finished: Apex, by Ramez Naam (Nexus #3, received for free)
I received an advanced review ebook of this for free through NetGalley. I don't think it affected my review. What may have affected the review was my enjoyment for the previous books, which is why I signed up to get the early look... I just couldn't wait until it came out in stores.
Nexus, the nanotechnological drug that connects people mind-to-mind, continues to spread and make changes on the world. Kaden Lane continues to struggle with preventing abuses of the technology, and preventing those who oppress those who might use it, and hopes to secure the rights of a group of Nexus-capable children he's trying to protect. Meanwhile, in the US, a contentious Presidential election is about to explode with accusations that they were behind a terrorist group that has been the bogeyman used to excuse their own abuses of civil rights. But the fate of the world might all depend on what is happening in China, where the remnant of one of the first true post-humans, the digitally uploaded consciousness of Su-Yong Shu, which has escaped an imprisonment that functioned much like torture with the drive and possibly the capability to take over the world... and she's also gone mad.
This book caps off the Nexus trilogy, one of my favorite series in recent years, and, like the predecessors, it's filled with action, disturbingly plausible speculation on near future technology, and a large cast of characters that, mostly, you can sympathize with and understand even when they're making decisions you abhor.
It also almost completely satisfies, both on it's own (although it probably should not be read without the other two books), and as a conclusion. That's difficult to do while juggling so many balls, but for the most part, it works remarkably well. There are a few elements to the conclusion that, were I reading another book, I might criticize as overly schmaltzy or a cheat, but here, it flows naturally from premises that have existed throughout the series, so I have no objection.
Despite the technological speculation that forms the basis of the series, and talk of posthumans and transhumans, there's a strong humanistic streak in the book, a belief in the fundamental decency of most people, whether they're baseline human or augmented, or hive minds or digital uploads, where they may do the wrong things for the usual selfish reasons, or operate from faulty premises, but they're trying to be the most moral they can within that. I really enjoy that feeling. Even people deep in the political process occasionally struggle with their conscience, and change their minds. Maybe it's not realistic, but it's appealing, especially when too often in SF there are tropes like evil emperors who are evil because they're pure evil.
Again, I read an Advanced Review Copy, so there were a few typographical or grammatical errors that I hope and assume will be fixed in the final edition, and the only reason I mention them is because they're about the biggest complaint I have. Well, there is one other... the book jumps around a lot, particularly at the end, between the various storylines. This isn't the problem... the problem is that a few times they recap the same events multiple times, and it feels unnecessarily repetitive. But in the end, it's a very small problem in a very good book. And as long as I'm listing minor disappointments, I might have also liked a little more peek at the future, but I suppose there's always potential for other books that might supply that, or, failing that, my own imagination. Whatever the case, I look forward to seeing what Naam does next.
I still have the ebook, but I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to buy a physical copy, so the series will look nice together on my shelves, and, if our technological civilization ever totally collapses, I can read by candlelight and imagine a world that might have been.
Finished: A Song Called Youth, by John Shirley
War is gripping the world, but that's not the real danger. The real danger is that it's being used by secretive powers to promote a new wave of racist fascism, where 'undesirables' can be accused of being enemy agents, terrorist sympathizers, or security risk, and systematically eliminated from power... and, eventually, just eliminated. However, there are forces working for freedom, the New Resistance, often struggling just to stay alive and to expose the villains for who they are. But it's harder than ever, especially in a world where, if you fall into enemy hands, their machines can extract every secret and even turn them to their side.
A Song Called Youth is actually a collection of three late-80s, early-90s cyberpunk novels: Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona, collected in an omnibus under a new title for the 21st century. For the sake of my reading challenge, I considered just marking down and reviewing each book separately, despite reading it in an omnibus, but I decided not to when I read the first mention of Facebook, in a book written in the 80s. I'm pretty sure this doesn't signify that John Shirley has precognitive powers, but rather that, in collecting all three novels, he also "updated" them to reflect current concerns (I had my suspicions before Facebook was mentioned that this was happening, but that sealed it). It's impossible for me to be sure of what elements were unique to this update and which were in the original story, so I must review the omnibus on its own merits.
I don't have an objection to such updating, incidentally (although it is a case where I'd love to not only have both versions in ebook, but also a function where I could flip back and forth to the equivalent page in each just to see how things changed), it just depends on how it works. And, largely, it works better than you'd think. Sometimes there's a reference that's a bit jarringly out of date, but most of the time I can ignore it and pretend it's an extrapolation of today, not of the 90s... although it does feel retro in some areas, particularly in the focus on music. Still, the ideas about creeping fascism, subtle propaganda in mainstream media, and racism are timeless and perhaps even more relevant and timely than ever, and on those it reads as almost chillingly plausible.
For enjoyment, though? There's a bit too much of stuff that's just not for me, the military aspect of the resistance didn't interest me nearly as much as the space station or the worries about the extractors, and it also seemed the least plausible given the level of surveillance that not only the world of the book has, but also that we have... any such organized armed resistance would seem to be easy to squash out, if the enemy had the will and resources that these obviously do. There are ways for resistance groups to work around it, I believe, but it doesn't work for me as written. And, in part because of the resistance elements that don't interest me, but not exclusively so, the book felt a bit like a slog to me. There were moments I was riveted to the book, but not often, mostly I was just getting to the next good part.
Breaking it down by section, I think the middle one was the strongest, but for one glaring flaw (where people who know that the enemy machines can turn a loyal friend into a traitor, and know that a certain person has been in enemy hands, nonetheless refuse to believe that he could now be an enemy agent and take simple precautions). Still, it was the sub-novel that I enjoyed the most.
I'm rating it three stars, which means "I liked it", while the truth is I'd probably describe it as "ok"... it gets the extra star because it's one of those rare books that I'm glad I read despite it being a slog, despite not enjoying it on a pure pleasure, because I think it has some important ideas that'll stick with me.
Finished: The Lives of Tao, by Wesley Chu
An alien race has been with humanity, guiding us, since the beginning. They can only survive inside bodies and provide advice and insight to the people they're bonded to, until that person dies and they must quickly find a new body. They've guided some of the most well-known people in history. And they're at war with each other, two factions, one who want to provoke humanity into war and conflict, and another who want to guide them to being better. Tao is on the latter side, but when his last partner dies on a mission, he's forced to find another quickly or die, and the only choice available is Roen Tan, an out-of-shape computer geek going nowhere in life. Not agent material, but Tao has to make the best of it and train him for the conflicts ahead.
I don't really have a lot to say about this book. I enjoyed it, but it felt a little on the lightweight side. It's the SF-novel equivalent of a popcorn action movie, not especially deep or innovative, but nonetheless, fun. The characters aren't especially complex, the good guys are good, the bad guys are evil (verging on cartoonishly so), and I would have hoped the aliens were a little more alien (with a voice that reflects their unique perspective rather than just coming off as a slightly smarter agent giving advice on a earpiece), but on the whole you like everybody (at least, everybody you're supposed to). The prose is clear, it moves at a fast pace (maybe a bit too fast of a turnaround from completely useless to not-very-good-but-competent-enough agent), with plenty of action pieces, but I'd have preferred a bit more quieter character moments. But other than that, there's no major flaws (although some of the book's "all of your problems could be fixed with a little more effort and confidence" tone kind of grated at times), it just doesn't quite wow me. Of course, it's a first novel, so there's every hope that the author will get better.
But as it stands, it's the kind of middle-of-the-road SF book that is good enough that I can enjoy it, but not so good that I despair in my own ambitions because I'd never be able to write anything even close to as good... and that's an important niche in my reading life too. It's the kind of book where I'll probably decide to try the author again with another book if it had a good premise. And in this case, this is only the first book in a series (although you can read it as a stand-alone without problems), and I liked the world and premise and characters enough that I'm willing to commit to reading the next book in it, The Deaths of Tao, at least eventually... I'm not rushing out to buy it, but if I spot it on a book run and have some spare cash and space in my bookbag/order, I'll probably grab it.
Finished: Capacity, by Tony Ballantyne
In the future, humanity is watched over, arguably controlled by AIs, and only a small fraction of people live in what we think of as the "real" world... many citizens are digital copies, living in simulations of reality, albeit with a human lifespan. An agent of the government rescues one of these digital copies from an illegal simulation used for torture fantasies, and the two go on a quest to find the creator of the sim and bring him to justice. And in deep space, a human is sent to investigate a planet where super-intelligent AIs seem to be effectively killing themselves by reducing themselves to below human intelligence.
This is set in the same world as Recursion, although it's hard to call it a sequel, as really the only character in common seems to be the Watcher, an AI that guides humanity. I liked Recursion, although it had flaws. This one... I'm a lot more mixed on.
There are some really brilliant bits here, arguments on human nature both now and in the far future, thoughts on free will, and a couple of really cool SFnal concepts. Some of the book could be viewed as a deliberate answer to the Culture books, showing off how horrifying a world where AIs, even benevolent AIs, in control of humanity could be, in a way that's really visceral.
And yet... as a whole, the story just doesn't really work for me. Part of this is that the author set a very high difficulty for himself. It's not impossible to tell a coherent story where there are multiple copies of the same people operating at the same time, jumping in and out of different artificial realities, and manage to make it easy for the reader to both keep straight exactly what's going on where, and also to care about what happens to any one instance. I've seen authors do it... but it's incredibly difficult, and I think Ballantyne's attempted it on a scale beyond any successful attempt I've seen. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite live up to it. And with that central piece faltering a bit, the story as a whole doesn't hang together very well. The characters feel somewhat flat, and some of the future society exploration, given the setting, don't feel realistic... even considering they're artificially hemmed in by the rules of the Watcher, everyone seemed too... conventional, and there was a lot of focus on sex that, while not offensive (save the human trafficing/sexual abuse playground aspect which, thankfully, happens mostly off-page), provoked a few eyerolls. Finally, while it's a cool idea, I can't really buy into the premises behind the big threat revealed at the end. If the was my only problem, I could suspend that disbelief and just run with the cool concept, but as it stands it's one more thing that doesn't quite work for me.
I rated it a three, but it's on the edge between two and three. I was hoping to like it more. There is a third book in the series/universe, and, right now, I'm not sure I'll follow through to it. Maybe if I'm browsing a used bookstore and see it I might try it, but I don't have a drive to seek it out.
Finished: Untaken, by J.E. Anckorn (ebook received for free)
Aliens ships appear in the sky, and, at first do nothing but wait, leading people to wonder what their goal is. But suddenly, they strike, and soon most of the population is gone, killed or taken up in one of their ships, which might amount to the same thing. Two teenagers are among those left behind, though, and they must struggle to survive and take care of a young child who was also left behind.
I was able to read this book free through NetGalley. It had a premise just intriguing enough to request it... it is, of course, a YA book, and while I enjoy these kinds of books when they've got a good plot, I've not yet read a YA alien invasion story, which is a staple of SF in general. (short version: enjoyed it a lot until a certain thing happened, tiny bit spoilery)
The book alternates perspectives, with different chapters written from the perspective of, at first, the two teens, who are from two different worlds (figuratively, not literally), do not know each other at first, and, were it not for the alien invasion, were unlikely to ever know each other. By and large, this works... at first. The characters feel real and are appealing, even if they sometimes screw up (the girl is a little closer to 'perfect except socially awkward', but not so dramatically so that it's hard to take her seriously as a character). I enjoyed following them through the early part of the drama, and although certain aspects of their meeting and getting to know each other went pretty much as expected, I was glad that the author didn't rush into it and gave us plenty of time with each character on their own.
The aliens might not have been the most rigorously thought out, but the author succeeded in creating a sense of creepiness with how they defied easy understanding and labels and remained a mystery.
The book might not have been perfect, but I was enjoying myself...
At least, I was up until the little kid arrived. Specifically, once he had his first POV chapter, my enjoyment of the book started to take a sharp drop. I don't mind kids of his age in a book, and I read about him in the description of the book so I knew he would be there, but the way he factored into the plot just soured me, a little, on everything, and his POV chapters never felt authentic to me. I was hoping he'd just be a kid, somebody that complicated survival for the two teens but, because they were good people, they did their best to do right by him. Instead, it felt like the story became ABOUT him. And, while it may not be related, it was about this time that other elements of the story started to come apart, either jumping too far ahead in time too soon, elements not getting enough payoff, or just generally stretching credibility too much. It's probably not related, but I'm going to blame the Kid anyway, because without his POV chapters we might have had time and space for the other stuff.
Did it ruin the book for me completely? No, or at least it never got to the point where I thought it was a complete waste of my time, but it did dampen a lot of enthusiasm. If my enjoyment stayed at the level of the first half or so, it might have rated a high three or even a four. And it's possible that much of this is completely subjective, the author hit on pet peeves of mine but didn't actually make any serious mistakes. I think there is definitely some talent here in creating appealing characters and building a creepy setting, and for a first novel it certainly shows promise.
With YA, I always try to look at it two ways... how do I enjoy it now, and how do I think I would have enjoyed it were I in the target age range. In this case, the second one is particularly hard, because I'm really not sure how I would have reacted to the things that turned me off. Maybe they wouldn't have bugged me at all and I would have rated it a four. As it is, I think I have to stick with my overall rating of a two, and maybe guess that, were I a YA, I'd have bumped it up to a three at least.
Finished: City of Savages, by Lee Kelly
In the future, all of New York City is a POW camp, although most of the survivors cluster near Central Park. Two sisters, Skye and Phee, are among the minority who spend only the cold months there, because their mother doesn't like to be under the rule of the camp leader, Rolladin any more than she has to. As the time comes to move back, the sisters share a special bond as they discover their mother's hidden journal, which dates back to the start of the war, a time she never talks about it, and secretly begin to read it. But also, forces from outside the city make a startling appearance that threatens Rolladin's power. Both of these events will cause the sisters to question everything they thought they knew about the city, their family, and world.
City of Savages is a YA book, but the premise really drew me. I mean, look at the first few words of my summary... all of New York City as a POW camp. It's immediately interesting. And the author does a good job of bringing you into that world right away.
The book is told from the perspective of the two sisters, alternating sections to tell the whole part of the tale, and it is this relationship that drives the book. Skye, the older sister, is bookish and uncertain, while Phee (Phoenix) is strong, both in will and physically. There is jealousy there, mostly from Skye to Phee, but the sisters do love each other and are both fully realized and engaging characters. It was nice to read a book with a sisterly relationship as a core, that it was almost a shame when the obligatory-love-interest-drama part cropped up. Still, even that was handled more or less with skill as they each negotiated the awkward territory of trying to make a connection with a guy while they know their sister is also interested.
The plot also went forward well, sure, there were certain elements that were predictable, but I was still enjoying myself thoroughly... up until a point. Before that point, if the rest of the book had continued in that vein, I would have given it 4 stars, probably. After, my enthusiasm dropped.
It's not that they went into fundamentally awful territory, there was no moment that made me want to throw the book across the room, it's just... the book suddenly introduced a completely different plot, starting off with a rather ridiculous coincidence (a friend of their mother's from before the war suddenly encountering them in the huge city), and suddenly everyone was propelled into another, quite separate, adventure. And, for me, this adventure wasn't nearly as exciting, it had some interesting aspects, but it stretched my suspension of disbelief more, and was less interesting, and I kept wondering what happened to the adventure I was enjoying so much.
It's reminded me, a little, of what sometimes happens in episodic TV, where maybe the first couple episodes deal heavily with the overall plot of the series, like, say, fighting an alien invasion, and then suddenly there's an episode that is about something completely different, like, an old friend comes to town, and it turns out he's a vampire, and they have to clear out this vampire nest because vampires also exist in this world. And sure, there's no reason why they couldn't (maybe the vampires are descendants of a separate alien race), and some of the ongoing plot or character threads from before continue, and they're all still in deadly danger, but it's just... different, doesn't feel like it's part of the same series you signed on for, it's a second, throwaway plot. Except, in this, it isn't one forgettable episode, it's half the book. So it feels like the author ran out of steam on one idea, or realized they'd nearly wrapped it up after only halfway through the book, and jumped onto another. Perhaps there would have been ways to set it up better. And to be fair, the two plots do come together in the conclusion in an interesting way, it's just... I wasn't as into it. It wasn't what I was here for. I'd have preferred they spend a lot more time in the 'living in a POV camp' angle, even if it meant the story didn't kick into gear as fast.
That plot choice was probably the biggest disappointment in the book, and it might just be me that it rubbed the wrong way. Most of the other flaws I found (to choose one that came to mind, some of the journal entries seemed conveniently spaced and written, to provide revelations at just the moment and in easy to digest packages, rather than a real journal which would contain a lot of extraneous information and things that would be written about at separate times and not realized they fit together until later) were minor and, especially for a first-time novelist, quite forgiveable. And, although the author could certainly decide to write a sequel, the book didn't feel like it was SET UP for a sequel, and I appreciate that. I quite possibly would read a sequel if there were one (and the description sounded interesting), because I do find I like the main characters and want to see where they go from here.
As I said, I was on track to give it 4 stars... after, I still enjoyed it, but I'd give it three. Now, I'm not precisely in the YA target market, so I try to guess at what I think I would have thought of it if I were... I think I would have been still annoyed at the plot change, but a lot more forgiving of it, and I don't know if it would have gotten a 4, but at the very least, a much higher 3.
But this site doesn't allow partial stars, so I'll stick with 3 stars as my official rating. I'd still recommend it to teenagers who like adventure stories along the lines of the Hunger Games (but different).
Finished: Galactic North, by Alastair Reynolds
Galactic North is a series of short stories all set in the author's Revelation Space universe, spanning a time period from less than two hundred years in the future, to thousands and thousands of years beyond (and arranged in roughly chronological order).
In some SF discussion forums, when the topic of the third book of the Revelation Space trilogy, Absolution Gap, comes up, there is usually some griping about the ending. I won't spoil the ending itself, but suffice to say many find it deeply unsatisfying, and I was one of them (to the point that I feel the need to warn people embarking on the series, so they can prepare themselves and not risk delicate electronics with an angry book, or e-reader, hurled across the room). In these discussions, occasionally, I hear the comment that Galactic North, somewhat, makes up for it, the elements that seemed to come out of nowhere get depth and development and you get more context for what was happening.
Having now read this book, I can say with assurance that this opinion is wrong. While one of the stories does provide a bit of context, the book in no way makes up for that abomination of an ending.
It does, however, mostly satisfy on its own merits, and for those who, like me, enjoyed the worldbuilding of the universe, you'll probably enjoy getting to see more of that, with a variety of different short stories that explore some of the lesser-developed areas of the universe, with plenty of familiar nods to plot points from the original books, including familiar characters, alien races, and factions. They are still short stories of course, so some work better than others, and sometimes you wished there was a little more, but they explore interesting ideas and none of them felt like a waste of time. None of them completely blew me away, either, but they were a solidly enjoyable batch that shows off Reynolds strengths as a writer.
To somebody who isn't familiar at all with the universe, I don't know how well these will land, but I think they're pretty accessible (to somebody who enjoys space opera with a lot of hard SF elements). If you're a fan of the novels, though (regardless of your thoughts on the ending) it's absolutely worth picking up.
Currently Reading (or finished but haven't put up reviews): Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by Judd Trichter, The Blondes by Emily Schultz (received for free), The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Shelter by Susan Palwick, River of Gods by Ian McDonald.
I'm considering reviving my Unreachable Star site, that I used to do comic reviews on, and remaking it as a general SF review site, since I'm doing these book reviews anyway. Even if they're just mirroring my Goodreads reviews, at the very least, it might get me more free review copies of upcoming SF novels. Anyway, not today, I'm lazy.
Hope everything's been good with y'all.
I guess there is one other piece of mild news, I went to Wonderland for the first time in years (Canada's, not Alice's). My brother got me a season's pass for my birthday, and one for himself as well, so we went down to ride some of the roller coasters, and probably will go one or two times more during the summer (and possibly on some other trip with my dad, who separately got a pass with his wife, so he can take the step-grandkids). It was fun, especially the Leviathan, which had a huge drop.
Adventures in Food... still doing most of the cooking, and have gotten a bit more adventurous. I've done some baking experiments that have mostly turned out well... I've made peanut butter cookies a few times, and oatmeal peanut butter cookies once, and last week I did a cheesecake for the first time, including home-made graham cracker peanut butter crust (and topped with sliced fresh strawberries which were on sale the day I made it). The cheesecake wasn't as dense as I was hoping, I think I need more cheese in the mix, but I think the flavors were good. And I cooked ribs for the first time, which turned out awesome, fall off the bone tender (and, since I have a bag full of oatmeal from when I made the cookies, I tried something I read online and made a savory oatmeal side dish with onions and mushrooms that turned out really well and I'll probably be making again tonight). Not sure what I'll try next (that I haven't already done, I mean, tonight I'm making meatloaf).
TV stuffs:
I'm not going to try to recap most of TV. I will say that the new shows for the networks are dull dull dull. A few looked like they might be kind of interesting, SF concepts, except they tagged on "And helps the police solve crimes!" at the end and I lost all my interest. I'll probably watch Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl, and, perhaps surprisingly, I'm more excited about the latter (LoT has a lot of cast members I like, but I'm not sure how they're going to make it work and I think it's going to mess up some stuff I liked about Arrow and Flash).
I did watch a couple Binge-Watch shows. There's Netflix's Daredevil, which turned out to be pretty good. I mean, yeah, there were a few issues, but overall I liked it and the cast was well done (especially Foggy, who was perfect).
And I checked out Sony's Playstation-network-exclusive series Powers, based on the Bendis comic. There are... good parts and bad parts.
The good:
Once I got over them not following the comics, except very loosely, I liked the general world building.
The actress playing Deena really nailed the attitude and was great (but see the bad section)
Johnny Royale and his plot were surprisingly sympathetic and I wound up really rooting for him, even at the expense of the main characters. I often felt he was wrong, but I sympathized.
Michelle Forbes as Retro Girl worked well.
I thought Zora, although very different, was executed pretty well (and I was hoping for her 'origin story' to be lie the comics), except... when she started getting into the heroing, they ditched the cool visor in favor of black paint around the eyes and that was such a mistake. :P
The bad:
The guy playing Walker was dull and I never bought him in the role.
There was a severe paucity of Deena/Walker banter. I mean, seriously, their relationship was one of the best parts of the comics, and Deena barely got anything to do... the few times she did, she shined, but it wasn't enough. And part of it was that they went with the decision of making everyone know that Walker was Diamond... I can forgive the other changes to the plot, but I really think they should have kept that one a little longer (even if it was a 'open secret' type thing), so they could have the plot of her discovery and them getting to know each other.
Callista being a teen instead of a little girl, I guess worked in general, but it meant we never got the "Do you know what a clitoris is yet?" line (followed by Deena cracking up).
There were a lot of gaps and jumps in the storyline, like they expected to have twice as many episodes or something, or maybe they just weren't good at clear storytelling.
Chinsy, chinsy, chinsy. I mean, I didn't expect much, but it didn't even meet those. (There was one time when even a person speaking in front of a SMALL CROWD was an obvious greenscreen). Characters would often strike a pose, fly a few feet (looking like they're holding in place while some wirework moves them), then land, in the most ridiculously pointless moves ever. If you can't do flight, don't try to do flight.
Overall, though, I liked it, and I'll watch the next season.
There are a couple SF Netflix or Cable Channel series starting soon (or already started) that I plan on checking out, though: Sense8, Dark Matters, Killjoys, and The Expanse (though that's probably not for a few months).
And since the last one is based on a book series, that segues us nicely into Book Foo.
First, a word about the Hugo awards: Bleh.
Bleh's a word, right? Yeah, many words have been written about it already, but I am not happy, the Puppies campaigns were, in my mind, cheating, even if they were technically allowed by the rules (last year, they were a little closer to the line of "I think the choices are despicable but they went about it fairly"). I almost feel like I wasted the money to get a Worldcon membership so I could nominate and vote because of this stupid campaign. *I* played fairly, reading and choosing stories that made ME passionate, but most of the categories get dominated by people gaming the system. I will mostly be voting No Award against the slate-nominated works, because it's the only way to discourage such tactics (although I'll try to give the nominees a fair chance to impress me as "independently worthy of winning one").
But on to the books I HAVE read since my last post. As usual, reviews taken from my goodreads account, and spoilers should be generally minor and limited to back-of-the-book type descriptions (or I'll try to warn if anything greater), but I can't promise.
Finished: Recursion, by Tony Ballantyne
Recursion interweaves three stories set at different time periods in the future. One's a woman in the near future who starts to feel that her life is being manipulated by outside forces... not just the ones she knows about, involving an intrusive society who interferes with people's lives for their own good, but one people are growing to suspect that is not human at all. Another is a secret agent a century later who is to help make a decision that could affect all of humanity... although others want what he knows. And finally there's the story of Herb, a rich dilettante whose illegal attempts to use self-replicating machines to custom design his own planet goes horribly wrong, and as punishment he's recruited to fight an AI menace that encompasses part of the galaxy, and expanding.
The book deals with a lot of SF themes that I really enjoy, and it does have some particularly interesting thoughts on those themes. The stories mostly move at a decent pace (although they seem annoyingly irrelevant to each other at first, and even towards the end don't tie in quite as well as I'd hoped), and although I was something more interested in getting back to another time period than the one I was in, I was never bored with any of them.
So why does this only get three stars (which of course, does mean I enjoyed it, if somewhat less enthusiastically than other books)? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. There was just something slightly off about things, particularly the characters, that I couldn't put my finger on. Not a fatal flaw (although, I was particularly annoyed with the character of Robert Johnson... even though I expect part of the point was to be annoyed by him, it still lowers my enjoyment to have to go through it), just it wasn't as smooth as I'd hoped.
I did grow to like the book more as it reached the conclusion, mainly because this was where more of the more interesting speculation started to kick in, and some of the problems I thought I had earlier began to have reasonable explanations. It's probably closer to 3.5 stars than a straight three, and that's largely because of the second half of the book.
I'm willing to write off the problems as either a personal experience (I was reading them during the winter blues!) or the traditional first novel problems where authors hopefully improve, and I'm still interested in trying the second book in the series.
Finished: Behemoth, by Peter Watts (Rifters, #3)
The world is slowly dying from a nigh-unstoppable plague, a plague that Lenie Clarke unwittingly spread years ago while on a quest for personal vengeance. Clarke herself has been living under the sea, cybernetic rifters like her living in an awkward alliance with another party partly responsible for the state of the world. That alliance is fraying, however, as a new strain of the disease is making and appearance in what they once believed their shelter, and when neither side trusts the other, it could lead to war and death for everybody. But Lenie might also get a chance to redeem herself, somewhat, and save the rest of the world outside.
This is the final installment of Peter Watts' Rifters series, a dark near-future tale full of cybernetically enhanced psychopaths, biotech terrors, and darkness blacker than you might find at the bottom of the ocean. Yet for all that dourness and cynicism, there's a surprisingly upbeat thread you can dig out, even the ultimate villains who lack what we recognize as empathy have some redeeming qualities, even in the midst of the apocalypse there are people willing to try their best to make things right, and even a sense that our irrationality might save us from horrors that can come from "the greater good."
Although I read it in a single ebook edition, Behemoth was originally published as two separate novels (Behemoth: β-Max and Behemoth: Seppuku), split up at the publisher's request. I'm sure the author will disagree, but I actually see the logic in this, because there is a sharp division, where one plot ends and is barely even mentioned again, in order to start a new one, and it really does feel like two separate books (albeit the first one feels like a lot of setup and possibly not satisfying on its own). Each plot moves at a pretty good pace and holds interest, although where their strengths lie are divided: the first half may meander a bit more but what's going on seems more tied to the characters, while the second half is more conventionally exciting but, being mostly "on the road" lacks a bit of emotional connection. Still, neither suffers overmuch from it's flaws, although the ending does come a little abruptly and left me feeling, "...that's it?" Still before it comes some pretty good twists and fascinating ideas, and I enjoyed myself reading it, although not quite as much as some of his other books. My rating teeters... I'd really rate it a 3.5, but since Goodreads doesn't do half-points, and I enjoy the author in general very much, I'll go with the 4.
The book does contain, it should be noted, some scenes of very graphic sexual violence and torture. They are relatively short, but gratuitous in detail. It'd be a mistake to assume that this reflects some perversity of the author, it's done to a what I feel is a very specific point and not for titillation value like various torture-porn movies can sometimes get. Still, I can see the mere presence of such scenes a dealbreaker to some readers who would feel too uncomfortable, and I can't blame them... they probably deserve fair warning.
Finished: Light, by M. John Harrison
Light tells three stories... a serial killer in the modern day and, in the far future, a woman bonded to a starship and a man who's addicted to virtual reality scenarios. They wander about doing a variety of things more or less on whims but there are connections between them that supposedly makes it all something more than a pointless exercise.
I'm being a little harsh on this book, and it's unfair, especially because I only have myself to blame. I have a rule of thumb... if a book is described as being "literary," either in the synopsis, the blurbs they put there, or even recommendations from people I know, I usually take this as a big black and red sign saying "This Book Is Not For You!" But once in a while I choose to ignore that sign. Occasionally, it works out. But mostly, it's like this case.
Generally, the problem for me boils down to such authors focusing on style over substance. Here, there's some of that... but it's not impenetrable, and the prose even, occasionally, got me to notice that a particular passage was well-written. More problematic, though, was that the book was full of uninteresting, unappealing characters who, say, casually murder people or betray friends (and yet don't at other times when it actually would make sense to), and often talk in non sequiturs (and not in the way where it mimics a real conversation, but where it feels additionally artificial and posed). The book's got a few twists that are pretty telegraphed while the whole story ends in mysticism and deus ex machina. There's also a generous smattering of sex that is both thoroughly untitillating and not particularly necessary to the story in detail.
Perhaps the worst thing is that there are a few good SF ideas in here, which is why I'm giving it two stars rather than one... sure, there are things that don't really make sense together, and some of the ideas are fairly old hat, but there are a few genuine gems here and the setting itself could be wonderful, and there are hints of things that are extremely compelling... but none of it's developed enough to really enjoy it. I feel like I've been served a sandwich topped with fancy ingredients that I want to spit out, and yet I can also tell there's also some delicious burger patty in the center... except it's served undercooked. If the author had just focused on a few elements and put effort into doing them right, and limited everything else, he could have produced something that was, to me, great. Instead, I feel like it's a waste of the good material. No doubt defenders will say it's deliberately challenging and it invites you to do the development... but a book full of unappealing characters does not inspire me to take up challenges, and if I want to develop something I can do it without an author's help... I read so that I can see somebody else's development. The author, has written an essay about how worldbuilding is a negative... that should have been even bigger warning than the word "literary," as it shows that he doesn't value the work I'm paying for.
I'm sure there will be plenty of fans of the sort of thing he does, but I am not one of them.
Finished: The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks
The Gzilt, a galactic civilization that was very nearly one of the founding members of the utopian Culture, is about to move on, to Sublime, to ascend, as an entire civilization, to another plane of existence, along with most of its population. But, as the days wind down before the big event, an ancient secret is discovered, and, fearing that it might cause some percentage of the population to have second thoughts about subliming, there's an attempt to cover it up, and other attempts to learn of it. One citizen is caught up in events because she once knew somebody who was alive when the events were unfolding, thousands of years earlier, a man who is still alive but in hiding. Meanwhile, members of the Culture learn about the secret and decide they should find out the truth, even if they're not sure whether it's a good idea to reveal that truth once they learn it. Wackiness ensues.
This is (sadly) the final book set in the Culture, the author himself having passed on. From what I understand, he didn't realize he was sick while he was writing this novel, so although it might be tempting to view the book as a dying man's meditation on afterlives and finding meaning in your own life even if, potentially, that meaning is arbitrary, it's probably not the case. It is rather eerie, though.
Overall, I enjoyed this book... but it wasn't as good as others in set in the universe. The stakes seemed to be too low, and maybe there were a few too characters to keep track of, and a few of the subplots seemed to be dropped rather than given a satisfying conclusion (I particularly wanted to see more with the robot that was convinced everything was a simulation). These might sound like pretty big problems, but really, they're not, because in a Culture book, it's often not about what's happening, it's about enjoying an imagined existence in a universe that in many ways is more appealing than our own, and even if you might not want to live there (particularly where something novel-worthy is happening), it's a fun place to visit. The problems merely mean that it isn't my favorite Culture novel, it's just one I enjoyed. I want to give it an extra star just for that, but under the scoring system, three is more honest, even though I'd give the Culture series as a whole five.
The title refers to a musical composition designed for an instrument that had not been invented, that was notoriously complicated and, although obviously an achievement to perform, not all that pleasing to listen to. I've said this before about some of Banks' other works, but it applies here as well... this is a book that should not work as well as it does. A novel about hyper-intelligent AIs trying to find out a rather meaningless secret that doesn't involve them at all, full of characters with long and complicated difficult-to-remember names, where most of the protagonists are not in serious danger... it shouldn't work. But "should not work as well as it does" probably applies to the Culture as a concept... after all this is a functional SF utopia with a thoroughly nice society, which should be unfathomably boring. And perhaps that is a good legacy for Banks... he wrote stories that shouldn't have worked, and he made them work. It's almost like he's been performing a Hydrogen Sonata of his own, with one key difference... even thought it have might be clunky at times, it's been a pleasure to experience it.
And I'm sad as hell that the last note has been played.
Finished: Collected Stories, by Hannu Rajaniemi (short story collection, received for free)
I received an ebook of this book for free through NetGalley. I don't think it affected my review.
This collects short stories by Hannu Rajaniemi, perhaps best known for the hard SF post-singularity series that starts with The Quantum Thief.
Short story collections are by their nature a mixed bag... and ones that are all by the same author occasionally disappoint, when the things that attracted you to the author in the first place don't seem to be there, or are only a small part. Occasionally it's even a dumping ground for stories that didn't get much traction.
Luckily, none of this is the case here. I can't say for certain that if you really liked The Quantum Thief, you'll really like this book. But I can say that it's true of me, I got exactly what I wanted from this book, that same sensation of being awash in mind-bending high tech fantasies.
One of Clarke's famous laws is that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Rajaniemi has a special talent in exploring those levels of sufficiently advanced technology, while still explaining it in such a way that it completely feels, to me, thoroughly like technology, not magic. He excels at providing the visceral sensation, even if it may be partly illusion, that these really are the types of things we might be dealing with in the far future or after an explosion of intelligence either augmented by or comprised of AI. That particular theme is also explored in several stories, and it's one of my favorites, and one of the reasons I love Rajaniemi's works is because he sells it, makes it feel real, even when the story's not about that, but rather about more human concerns.
The book is not exclusively hard science fiction, though, as much as I might personally prefer that. There's also a good deal of fantasy, even one I might consider a fable. But even here, I was more interested in it than I might otherwise be, largely because it draws heavily on the mythology of Finland, of which I've not been overexposed to (except, perhaps, now, through this book).
Rajaniemi is himself Finnish, and with this collection, it really shows. Most, if not all, of the stories have at least one major character who is Finnish, although most are also set outside of Finland. It was interesting to learn, in small dribs and drabs, about a culture that I don't hear a lot about, but I can see how it might feel a little repetitive to some readers (at least, when read as a collection rather than in individual stories here or there). In the end, though, I appreciate him wearing his country and culture on his sleeve (and I'm sure if I released a collection of stories, there'd be a lot of Canada in it).
I'm actually struggling to find anything negative to say about it. I was going to comment about how, at least in the ebook edition, the formatting sometimes made it difficult to identify changes in setting... but then I realized that it was mostly a problem with my own settings. About the only thing I can say is, aside from a few stories not really doing much for me, that there were times I wished the story was longer, that more was done with a concept. But as flaws go, "left me wanting more" is a good one to have.
My favorite stories, I think, were: "The Jugaad Cathedral," "Deus Ex Homine," and "Invisible Planets." There's also an incredible experiment with "Snow White is Dead," but that is difficult to completely appreciate in book form... it literally needs to be read while hooked up to a machine that monitors your brain.
I give it four stars rather than five solely because a few of the stories weren't really the kind of thing I like to read... and that's a very personal thing. It's just enough to keep it from me being comfortable as describing it as "loved it" (but perhaps I'm stingier on that word than I should be). Better than a numeric rating, though, I have to say two things... that this may be one of my favorite single-author collections I've ever read, and that, despite receiving it for free with NetGalley, I actually would buy this collection with my own money... at least if it gets released in paperback. The original print run is a hardcover and apparently limited only to 2000 copies... and, aside from preferring the paperback format in general, I'd rather somebody else get to enjoy the stories than get a separate copy for my own later rereading.
Finished: Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
Perdido Street Station tells of a city of humans, insect-headed women, cactus people, toad people, and more. One of them is Isaac, a scientist, involved in a secret cross-species relationship, and hired to restore flight to a bird-man who was punished by his people with the removal of his wings. In the course of this assignment, something is accidentally unleashed that threatens the entire city.
Obviously, this is a fantasy novel, with elements of steampunk (although I personally wouldn't consider it pure steampunk). And I should probably start out by saying that I'm not a big fan of either genre, in terms of novel-reading (movies or TV, fine, and I like the steampunk aesthetic, I just typically don't enjoy reading either genre). However, Mieville has impressed me with some of his other work that I've read, so I decided I'd stretch outside of my comfort zone and give it a try, since it is, perhaps, his most famous work.
I'm glad I did, because this really is something interesting. Instead of just riffing on Tolkein as too many fantasy novels feel like, this is a world full of novel creatures (yet many of which also have roots in mythologies of various cultures), and, more importantly, they're largely treated, not as inexplicable magic creatures, but merely products of a world where science doesn't run quite the same way as ours. This approach is what appealed to me first, not just in the creatures (which occasionally have paragraphs explaining their life cycle or breeding method), but also to elements of what we could call "magic." There's an overall scientific approach that make this book, although fantasy, feel more like science fiction. There are even a few direct science fiction themes in the book, translated into a fantasy context.
I was enjoying it so much that if the whole book was Isaac's scientific research progressing with no greater apocalyptic threat and just the drama just revolving around personal relationships, politics, or organized crime, I probably still would have enjoyed it. But of course, there is a greater threat which kicks up the creepy factor significantly, although there were elements here where it proceeded a little too conventionally for my tastes (mixed in with moments of wonder and impressiveness).
I've heard a lot of praise about this book since it came out, and I can absolutely see why. My score, although it's three stars, is on the high end of that (the somewhat too-conventional main plot and a few creations which just fell flat for me, some dawdling on minor characters that seemed to go nowhere, as well as my own bias against fantasy, kept it from reaching a four), and I'm actually doing what I never imagined I would when I tried this one: planning to pick up one of the other books set in the same setting.
Definitely worth a try, at least, even if you're like me, a science fiction reader who doesn't generally enjoy fantasy.
Finished: Apex, by Ramez Naam (Nexus #3, received for free)
I received an advanced review ebook of this for free through NetGalley. I don't think it affected my review. What may have affected the review was my enjoyment for the previous books, which is why I signed up to get the early look... I just couldn't wait until it came out in stores.
Nexus, the nanotechnological drug that connects people mind-to-mind, continues to spread and make changes on the world. Kaden Lane continues to struggle with preventing abuses of the technology, and preventing those who oppress those who might use it, and hopes to secure the rights of a group of Nexus-capable children he's trying to protect. Meanwhile, in the US, a contentious Presidential election is about to explode with accusations that they were behind a terrorist group that has been the bogeyman used to excuse their own abuses of civil rights. But the fate of the world might all depend on what is happening in China, where the remnant of one of the first true post-humans, the digitally uploaded consciousness of Su-Yong Shu, which has escaped an imprisonment that functioned much like torture with the drive and possibly the capability to take over the world... and she's also gone mad.
This book caps off the Nexus trilogy, one of my favorite series in recent years, and, like the predecessors, it's filled with action, disturbingly plausible speculation on near future technology, and a large cast of characters that, mostly, you can sympathize with and understand even when they're making decisions you abhor.
It also almost completely satisfies, both on it's own (although it probably should not be read without the other two books), and as a conclusion. That's difficult to do while juggling so many balls, but for the most part, it works remarkably well. There are a few elements to the conclusion that, were I reading another book, I might criticize as overly schmaltzy or a cheat, but here, it flows naturally from premises that have existed throughout the series, so I have no objection.
Despite the technological speculation that forms the basis of the series, and talk of posthumans and transhumans, there's a strong humanistic streak in the book, a belief in the fundamental decency of most people, whether they're baseline human or augmented, or hive minds or digital uploads, where they may do the wrong things for the usual selfish reasons, or operate from faulty premises, but they're trying to be the most moral they can within that. I really enjoy that feeling. Even people deep in the political process occasionally struggle with their conscience, and change their minds. Maybe it's not realistic, but it's appealing, especially when too often in SF there are tropes like evil emperors who are evil because they're pure evil.
Again, I read an Advanced Review Copy, so there were a few typographical or grammatical errors that I hope and assume will be fixed in the final edition, and the only reason I mention them is because they're about the biggest complaint I have. Well, there is one other... the book jumps around a lot, particularly at the end, between the various storylines. This isn't the problem... the problem is that a few times they recap the same events multiple times, and it feels unnecessarily repetitive. But in the end, it's a very small problem in a very good book. And as long as I'm listing minor disappointments, I might have also liked a little more peek at the future, but I suppose there's always potential for other books that might supply that, or, failing that, my own imagination. Whatever the case, I look forward to seeing what Naam does next.
I still have the ebook, but I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to buy a physical copy, so the series will look nice together on my shelves, and, if our technological civilization ever totally collapses, I can read by candlelight and imagine a world that might have been.
Finished: A Song Called Youth, by John Shirley
War is gripping the world, but that's not the real danger. The real danger is that it's being used by secretive powers to promote a new wave of racist fascism, where 'undesirables' can be accused of being enemy agents, terrorist sympathizers, or security risk, and systematically eliminated from power... and, eventually, just eliminated. However, there are forces working for freedom, the New Resistance, often struggling just to stay alive and to expose the villains for who they are. But it's harder than ever, especially in a world where, if you fall into enemy hands, their machines can extract every secret and even turn them to their side.
A Song Called Youth is actually a collection of three late-80s, early-90s cyberpunk novels: Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona, collected in an omnibus under a new title for the 21st century. For the sake of my reading challenge, I considered just marking down and reviewing each book separately, despite reading it in an omnibus, but I decided not to when I read the first mention of Facebook, in a book written in the 80s. I'm pretty sure this doesn't signify that John Shirley has precognitive powers, but rather that, in collecting all three novels, he also "updated" them to reflect current concerns (I had my suspicions before Facebook was mentioned that this was happening, but that sealed it). It's impossible for me to be sure of what elements were unique to this update and which were in the original story, so I must review the omnibus on its own merits.
I don't have an objection to such updating, incidentally (although it is a case where I'd love to not only have both versions in ebook, but also a function where I could flip back and forth to the equivalent page in each just to see how things changed), it just depends on how it works. And, largely, it works better than you'd think. Sometimes there's a reference that's a bit jarringly out of date, but most of the time I can ignore it and pretend it's an extrapolation of today, not of the 90s... although it does feel retro in some areas, particularly in the focus on music. Still, the ideas about creeping fascism, subtle propaganda in mainstream media, and racism are timeless and perhaps even more relevant and timely than ever, and on those it reads as almost chillingly plausible.
For enjoyment, though? There's a bit too much of stuff that's just not for me, the military aspect of the resistance didn't interest me nearly as much as the space station or the worries about the extractors, and it also seemed the least plausible given the level of surveillance that not only the world of the book has, but also that we have... any such organized armed resistance would seem to be easy to squash out, if the enemy had the will and resources that these obviously do. There are ways for resistance groups to work around it, I believe, but it doesn't work for me as written. And, in part because of the resistance elements that don't interest me, but not exclusively so, the book felt a bit like a slog to me. There were moments I was riveted to the book, but not often, mostly I was just getting to the next good part.
Breaking it down by section, I think the middle one was the strongest, but for one glaring flaw (where people who know that the enemy machines can turn a loyal friend into a traitor, and know that a certain person has been in enemy hands, nonetheless refuse to believe that he could now be an enemy agent and take simple precautions). Still, it was the sub-novel that I enjoyed the most.
I'm rating it three stars, which means "I liked it", while the truth is I'd probably describe it as "ok"... it gets the extra star because it's one of those rare books that I'm glad I read despite it being a slog, despite not enjoying it on a pure pleasure, because I think it has some important ideas that'll stick with me.
Finished: The Lives of Tao, by Wesley Chu
An alien race has been with humanity, guiding us, since the beginning. They can only survive inside bodies and provide advice and insight to the people they're bonded to, until that person dies and they must quickly find a new body. They've guided some of the most well-known people in history. And they're at war with each other, two factions, one who want to provoke humanity into war and conflict, and another who want to guide them to being better. Tao is on the latter side, but when his last partner dies on a mission, he's forced to find another quickly or die, and the only choice available is Roen Tan, an out-of-shape computer geek going nowhere in life. Not agent material, but Tao has to make the best of it and train him for the conflicts ahead.
I don't really have a lot to say about this book. I enjoyed it, but it felt a little on the lightweight side. It's the SF-novel equivalent of a popcorn action movie, not especially deep or innovative, but nonetheless, fun. The characters aren't especially complex, the good guys are good, the bad guys are evil (verging on cartoonishly so), and I would have hoped the aliens were a little more alien (with a voice that reflects their unique perspective rather than just coming off as a slightly smarter agent giving advice on a earpiece), but on the whole you like everybody (at least, everybody you're supposed to). The prose is clear, it moves at a fast pace (maybe a bit too fast of a turnaround from completely useless to not-very-good-but-competent-enough agent), with plenty of action pieces, but I'd have preferred a bit more quieter character moments. But other than that, there's no major flaws (although some of the book's "all of your problems could be fixed with a little more effort and confidence" tone kind of grated at times), it just doesn't quite wow me. Of course, it's a first novel, so there's every hope that the author will get better.
But as it stands, it's the kind of middle-of-the-road SF book that is good enough that I can enjoy it, but not so good that I despair in my own ambitions because I'd never be able to write anything even close to as good... and that's an important niche in my reading life too. It's the kind of book where I'll probably decide to try the author again with another book if it had a good premise. And in this case, this is only the first book in a series (although you can read it as a stand-alone without problems), and I liked the world and premise and characters enough that I'm willing to commit to reading the next book in it, The Deaths of Tao, at least eventually... I'm not rushing out to buy it, but if I spot it on a book run and have some spare cash and space in my bookbag/order, I'll probably grab it.
Finished: Capacity, by Tony Ballantyne
In the future, humanity is watched over, arguably controlled by AIs, and only a small fraction of people live in what we think of as the "real" world... many citizens are digital copies, living in simulations of reality, albeit with a human lifespan. An agent of the government rescues one of these digital copies from an illegal simulation used for torture fantasies, and the two go on a quest to find the creator of the sim and bring him to justice. And in deep space, a human is sent to investigate a planet where super-intelligent AIs seem to be effectively killing themselves by reducing themselves to below human intelligence.
This is set in the same world as Recursion, although it's hard to call it a sequel, as really the only character in common seems to be the Watcher, an AI that guides humanity. I liked Recursion, although it had flaws. This one... I'm a lot more mixed on.
There are some really brilliant bits here, arguments on human nature both now and in the far future, thoughts on free will, and a couple of really cool SFnal concepts. Some of the book could be viewed as a deliberate answer to the Culture books, showing off how horrifying a world where AIs, even benevolent AIs, in control of humanity could be, in a way that's really visceral.
And yet... as a whole, the story just doesn't really work for me. Part of this is that the author set a very high difficulty for himself. It's not impossible to tell a coherent story where there are multiple copies of the same people operating at the same time, jumping in and out of different artificial realities, and manage to make it easy for the reader to both keep straight exactly what's going on where, and also to care about what happens to any one instance. I've seen authors do it... but it's incredibly difficult, and I think Ballantyne's attempted it on a scale beyond any successful attempt I've seen. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite live up to it. And with that central piece faltering a bit, the story as a whole doesn't hang together very well. The characters feel somewhat flat, and some of the future society exploration, given the setting, don't feel realistic... even considering they're artificially hemmed in by the rules of the Watcher, everyone seemed too... conventional, and there was a lot of focus on sex that, while not offensive (save the human trafficing/sexual abuse playground aspect which, thankfully, happens mostly off-page), provoked a few eyerolls. Finally, while it's a cool idea, I can't really buy into the premises behind the big threat revealed at the end. If the was my only problem, I could suspend that disbelief and just run with the cool concept, but as it stands it's one more thing that doesn't quite work for me.
I rated it a three, but it's on the edge between two and three. I was hoping to like it more. There is a third book in the series/universe, and, right now, I'm not sure I'll follow through to it. Maybe if I'm browsing a used bookstore and see it I might try it, but I don't have a drive to seek it out.
Finished: Untaken, by J.E. Anckorn (ebook received for free)
Aliens ships appear in the sky, and, at first do nothing but wait, leading people to wonder what their goal is. But suddenly, they strike, and soon most of the population is gone, killed or taken up in one of their ships, which might amount to the same thing. Two teenagers are among those left behind, though, and they must struggle to survive and take care of a young child who was also left behind.
I was able to read this book free through NetGalley. It had a premise just intriguing enough to request it... it is, of course, a YA book, and while I enjoy these kinds of books when they've got a good plot, I've not yet read a YA alien invasion story, which is a staple of SF in general. (short version: enjoyed it a lot until a certain thing happened, tiny bit spoilery)
The book alternates perspectives, with different chapters written from the perspective of, at first, the two teens, who are from two different worlds (figuratively, not literally), do not know each other at first, and, were it not for the alien invasion, were unlikely to ever know each other. By and large, this works... at first. The characters feel real and are appealing, even if they sometimes screw up (the girl is a little closer to 'perfect except socially awkward', but not so dramatically so that it's hard to take her seriously as a character). I enjoyed following them through the early part of the drama, and although certain aspects of their meeting and getting to know each other went pretty much as expected, I was glad that the author didn't rush into it and gave us plenty of time with each character on their own.
The aliens might not have been the most rigorously thought out, but the author succeeded in creating a sense of creepiness with how they defied easy understanding and labels and remained a mystery.
The book might not have been perfect, but I was enjoying myself...
At least, I was up until the little kid arrived. Specifically, once he had his first POV chapter, my enjoyment of the book started to take a sharp drop. I don't mind kids of his age in a book, and I read about him in the description of the book so I knew he would be there, but the way he factored into the plot just soured me, a little, on everything, and his POV chapters never felt authentic to me. I was hoping he'd just be a kid, somebody that complicated survival for the two teens but, because they were good people, they did their best to do right by him. Instead, it felt like the story became ABOUT him. And, while it may not be related, it was about this time that other elements of the story started to come apart, either jumping too far ahead in time too soon, elements not getting enough payoff, or just generally stretching credibility too much. It's probably not related, but I'm going to blame the Kid anyway, because without his POV chapters we might have had time and space for the other stuff.
Did it ruin the book for me completely? No, or at least it never got to the point where I thought it was a complete waste of my time, but it did dampen a lot of enthusiasm. If my enjoyment stayed at the level of the first half or so, it might have rated a high three or even a four. And it's possible that much of this is completely subjective, the author hit on pet peeves of mine but didn't actually make any serious mistakes. I think there is definitely some talent here in creating appealing characters and building a creepy setting, and for a first novel it certainly shows promise.
With YA, I always try to look at it two ways... how do I enjoy it now, and how do I think I would have enjoyed it were I in the target age range. In this case, the second one is particularly hard, because I'm really not sure how I would have reacted to the things that turned me off. Maybe they wouldn't have bugged me at all and I would have rated it a four. As it is, I think I have to stick with my overall rating of a two, and maybe guess that, were I a YA, I'd have bumped it up to a three at least.
Finished: City of Savages, by Lee Kelly
In the future, all of New York City is a POW camp, although most of the survivors cluster near Central Park. Two sisters, Skye and Phee, are among the minority who spend only the cold months there, because their mother doesn't like to be under the rule of the camp leader, Rolladin any more than she has to. As the time comes to move back, the sisters share a special bond as they discover their mother's hidden journal, which dates back to the start of the war, a time she never talks about it, and secretly begin to read it. But also, forces from outside the city make a startling appearance that threatens Rolladin's power. Both of these events will cause the sisters to question everything they thought they knew about the city, their family, and world.
City of Savages is a YA book, but the premise really drew me. I mean, look at the first few words of my summary... all of New York City as a POW camp. It's immediately interesting. And the author does a good job of bringing you into that world right away.
The book is told from the perspective of the two sisters, alternating sections to tell the whole part of the tale, and it is this relationship that drives the book. Skye, the older sister, is bookish and uncertain, while Phee (Phoenix) is strong, both in will and physically. There is jealousy there, mostly from Skye to Phee, but the sisters do love each other and are both fully realized and engaging characters. It was nice to read a book with a sisterly relationship as a core, that it was almost a shame when the obligatory-love-interest-drama part cropped up. Still, even that was handled more or less with skill as they each negotiated the awkward territory of trying to make a connection with a guy while they know their sister is also interested.
The plot also went forward well, sure, there were certain elements that were predictable, but I was still enjoying myself thoroughly... up until a point. Before that point, if the rest of the book had continued in that vein, I would have given it 4 stars, probably. After, my enthusiasm dropped.
It's not that they went into fundamentally awful territory, there was no moment that made me want to throw the book across the room, it's just... the book suddenly introduced a completely different plot, starting off with a rather ridiculous coincidence (a friend of their mother's from before the war suddenly encountering them in the huge city), and suddenly everyone was propelled into another, quite separate, adventure. And, for me, this adventure wasn't nearly as exciting, it had some interesting aspects, but it stretched my suspension of disbelief more, and was less interesting, and I kept wondering what happened to the adventure I was enjoying so much.
It's reminded me, a little, of what sometimes happens in episodic TV, where maybe the first couple episodes deal heavily with the overall plot of the series, like, say, fighting an alien invasion, and then suddenly there's an episode that is about something completely different, like, an old friend comes to town, and it turns out he's a vampire, and they have to clear out this vampire nest because vampires also exist in this world. And sure, there's no reason why they couldn't (maybe the vampires are descendants of a separate alien race), and some of the ongoing plot or character threads from before continue, and they're all still in deadly danger, but it's just... different, doesn't feel like it's part of the same series you signed on for, it's a second, throwaway plot. Except, in this, it isn't one forgettable episode, it's half the book. So it feels like the author ran out of steam on one idea, or realized they'd nearly wrapped it up after only halfway through the book, and jumped onto another. Perhaps there would have been ways to set it up better. And to be fair, the two plots do come together in the conclusion in an interesting way, it's just... I wasn't as into it. It wasn't what I was here for. I'd have preferred they spend a lot more time in the 'living in a POV camp' angle, even if it meant the story didn't kick into gear as fast.
That plot choice was probably the biggest disappointment in the book, and it might just be me that it rubbed the wrong way. Most of the other flaws I found (to choose one that came to mind, some of the journal entries seemed conveniently spaced and written, to provide revelations at just the moment and in easy to digest packages, rather than a real journal which would contain a lot of extraneous information and things that would be written about at separate times and not realized they fit together until later) were minor and, especially for a first-time novelist, quite forgiveable. And, although the author could certainly decide to write a sequel, the book didn't feel like it was SET UP for a sequel, and I appreciate that. I quite possibly would read a sequel if there were one (and the description sounded interesting), because I do find I like the main characters and want to see where they go from here.
As I said, I was on track to give it 4 stars... after, I still enjoyed it, but I'd give it three. Now, I'm not precisely in the YA target market, so I try to guess at what I think I would have thought of it if I were... I think I would have been still annoyed at the plot change, but a lot more forgiving of it, and I don't know if it would have gotten a 4, but at the very least, a much higher 3.
But this site doesn't allow partial stars, so I'll stick with 3 stars as my official rating. I'd still recommend it to teenagers who like adventure stories along the lines of the Hunger Games (but different).
Finished: Galactic North, by Alastair Reynolds
Galactic North is a series of short stories all set in the author's Revelation Space universe, spanning a time period from less than two hundred years in the future, to thousands and thousands of years beyond (and arranged in roughly chronological order).
In some SF discussion forums, when the topic of the third book of the Revelation Space trilogy, Absolution Gap, comes up, there is usually some griping about the ending. I won't spoil the ending itself, but suffice to say many find it deeply unsatisfying, and I was one of them (to the point that I feel the need to warn people embarking on the series, so they can prepare themselves and not risk delicate electronics with an angry book, or e-reader, hurled across the room). In these discussions, occasionally, I hear the comment that Galactic North, somewhat, makes up for it, the elements that seemed to come out of nowhere get depth and development and you get more context for what was happening.
Having now read this book, I can say with assurance that this opinion is wrong. While one of the stories does provide a bit of context, the book in no way makes up for that abomination of an ending.
It does, however, mostly satisfy on its own merits, and for those who, like me, enjoyed the worldbuilding of the universe, you'll probably enjoy getting to see more of that, with a variety of different short stories that explore some of the lesser-developed areas of the universe, with plenty of familiar nods to plot points from the original books, including familiar characters, alien races, and factions. They are still short stories of course, so some work better than others, and sometimes you wished there was a little more, but they explore interesting ideas and none of them felt like a waste of time. None of them completely blew me away, either, but they were a solidly enjoyable batch that shows off Reynolds strengths as a writer.
To somebody who isn't familiar at all with the universe, I don't know how well these will land, but I think they're pretty accessible (to somebody who enjoys space opera with a lot of hard SF elements). If you're a fan of the novels, though (regardless of your thoughts on the ending) it's absolutely worth picking up.
Currently Reading (or finished but haven't put up reviews): Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by Judd Trichter, The Blondes by Emily Schultz (received for free), The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Shelter by Susan Palwick, River of Gods by Ian McDonald.
I'm considering reviving my Unreachable Star site, that I used to do comic reviews on, and remaking it as a general SF review site, since I'm doing these book reviews anyway. Even if they're just mirroring my Goodreads reviews, at the very least, it might get me more free review copies of upcoming SF novels. Anyway, not today, I'm lazy.
Hope everything's been good with y'all.
