First Book Foo of 2016! + A Few TV stuff
Feb. 10th, 2016 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Before we dip into the books, some TV stuff to talk about because I keep saying I might do it in another post and forgetting...
Superhero TV:
I'm enjoying Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl more or less. Not perfect, but solidly enjoyable. Legends of Tomorrow I'm more mixed on. I like the characters and their interactions but on a plot level it's just not working for me, time travel plots are hard to make work long term, and Vandal Savage is not enough of a "mission" especially when they keep making dumb mistakes (I remember recently reading someone say that it's a problem with chaining your ongoing TV show a movie-style single-mission plot... if you're not careful all your heroes have to fail every single week). And, fundamentally... I'd rather see certain characters like Captain Cold on the OTHER DC shows, even if only occasionally, rather than used here. Lucifer's not really a superhero show but it was based on a comic, but typically they ruined it by making it a procedural.
Upcoming:Daredevil season 2 starts soon.
Book-inspired TV:
The Expanse: Enjoyed it for the most part, although I'm a bit confused at where they stopped, cause I don't think there's enough story left in Book 1 to make a 13 ep second season, so are they going to wrap up book 1 in the first few episodes then jump to book 2? IDK. But I'm looking forward to it regardless.
The Magicians: Never read the books, but I tried the series on a whim, and am surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. For those who don't know, it's a bit of a cross between Harry Potter and Narnia for adults... college students learn they're magicians and go to a magical college (and one of them has a connection to another world). Not perfect and the characters are occasionally rather unlikable, but they're likably unlikable, if that makes sense. Mostly enjoying the story of Julia, who takes the entrance exam for the school and told that no, she's not magical enough.
The Man In The High Castle: Was actually quite impressed with this series overall, looking forward to next season.
The 100: Technically based on a book series but IIRC was created before the book even came out (which I've never read), but what the hell, I'll call it here. Still, for a show based on a YA series on the most "teen-centric" of the networks, it's remarkably deep and daring, and I look forward to it. Also, even though it took a while to make that clear, yay for having a bisexual lead protagonist.
Upcoming: 11/23/63, an adaptation of Stephen King's time travel "save Kennedy" story, starts on Hulu or something in a few days with James Franco as the lead. King's stories are usually ones where the journey is fun but the endings suck (although this novel wasn't TOO bad in that regard), so it works for a series. Probably a few others in the long term, but nothing particularly soon that I can remember.
Other Shows: Watching Colony, fairly basic "living under and occupation, only the occupiers are aliens!" type story, but I think it's well done so far. And I'm still annoyed that Doctor Who is taking a year off (except for the Christmas ep) for the stupid Olympics, but on the other hand pleased Moffat's going to be leaving after the next full season, but on the gripping hand, not all that impressed by Chris Chibnall so far. So, overall, meh on that.
Now, onto January (and early February) books!
Finished: Planetfall by Emma Newman
Renata maintains the 3D printers on a new colony on an alien world, one that was half-religious pilgrimage, lead by her ex-lover and settled at the edge of an alien city that is nearly incomprehensible. For decades the Pathfinder has been gone, and the colony believes she's communing with God inside the city, but there are dark secrets surrounding the Planetfall and when a newcomer arrives to the colony, they threaten to tear Renata apart.
I'd heard that the book involved a main character with a mental illness, and at first I found her to be one of the more relatable protagonists I'd read in a while... which might say some uncomfortable things about me. But I could relate to her anxiety issues and her being uncomfortable around people, particularly when it's a topic she's unprepared for. Eventually, though, the rug is pulled out from under you and you realize that she's a lot worse off than you thought, and some offhanded references were actually signs you missed. In that way, it seems like it's a particularly effective exploration of the phenomenon, how somebody can get so bad and go without help, without people even noticing. This part of the storyline does threaten to overwhelm the book at time and turn into a preachy "trying to help someone who won't accept it" story, but by the end it works together mostly well, save for one bit I'll discuss later.
Other than the mental illness content, there is of course the wider SF plot, and it works surprisingly well. The mysteries of the city are engaging, the author does one of the best jobs I've seen in a while of incorporating and extrapolating social media in a SF environment, and the 3D printing technology thread running through everything is really cool. I had some worries, what with the character who was said to be communing with God, and the fact that they were led to the planet by a revelation, that the science fictional aspect would give way to mysticism and psionic powers, two things that typically sour me on a SF novel, but, for the most part this was handled excellently... until the end, which again, we'll get to in a bit.
The characters? Well, aside from Renata, sometimes they were undeveloped or bordered on caricatures, but the handful of main characters were done well enough that I wasn't bothered.
All in all, I was ready to give it four stars... up until the ending. Without spoiling, it felt as though the author just dropped some of the plots in progress and abandoned everything they were building for, for a shock revelation and some kind of ending that seemed out of nowhere and to not really end things. Even the struggle for the main character to accept help felt like it was rendered irrelevant by what happened, both immediately before the ending, and the actual ending, which crossed over that line into mysticism. To be honest, I'm not even 100% sure I understand what the author was going for there, it felt like maybe I missed something, but if I did (and I'm not sure I did), I think it was done in such a way that I'm still willing to blame the author, not myself. I would have happily read a little bit longer of book that had an ending that actually felt connected to the rest of the story, but here, it came just too fast and too out of left field (and, still, too left the story I'd been engaged in completely unfinished in my mind) that I can only give it three stars. Still, what came before that was done well enough that the author's on my radar for the future.
Finished: Stars: Stories Inspired by the Songs of Janis Ian (short story collection)
As the title indicates, this is a set of stories inspired by the songs of singer-songwriter Janis Ian.
I'll be honest, I'm not really a big music guy, in that while I might enjoy individual songs when I hear them, I don't feel the need to seek it out or follow in detail the people who produce it. So, when I got this book (it was actually part of an ebook bundle), Janis Ian's name wasn't only not a draw, I had no idea who she was. I couldn't think of a single thing I'd heard her sing, but hey, I don't have to know the musical inspiration for a short stories to enjoy it, so I dug into it. In the introduction, I learned that she had indeed written, and sung, songs I'd heard of, even at least one I'd say I particularly like, I just hadn't known the artist. But, more importantly, I learned she was a lifelong science fiction fan. Not only is she a fan, but she was engaged enough in the fan community that this collection idea was sparked at a convention while talking to a writer/editor who was a fan of hers as well, and many authors she enjoyed were thrilled to participate. So I instantly like her more than I otherwise would, since she's just my kind of people.
That said, the anthology, well, it's a typical anthology, not every story is going to land, some are in subgenres I just don't care for, others with themes I don't connect with, and a few seemed to rely on too much resonance with a song I'd never heard. There was a secondary problem, in that my favorite stories in the collection... were ones I realized I had read before (and after the first couple, a dim recollection formed of a "Year's Best SF" collection that contained a number of stories that were mentioned written in tribute to somebody's songs, which was obviously her). So, although they were still good, they weren't as novel, and thus I didn't enjoy them as much as I would have when they were fresh.
Still, my favorites in the collection were probably "Ej-Es" by Nancy Kress, "In Fading Suns and Dying Moons" by John Varley, "Riding Janis" by David Gerrold, "All In A Blaze" by Stephen Baxter
Of the rest, there were decent ones but few really stood out. Although there were a variety of songs that served as inspiration, a few were used again and again, most notably "Society's Child", although I don't think any of them really did justice to the idea. One wrote a story that was barely science fiction at all (with just a mention of a technology lurking in the background) but had the concept of the two characters from the song meeting at a reunion decades later, and the others just literally reinterpreted the story in a science fictional context (one played for laughs). The only one to do it in a particularly interesting way was "An Indeterminate State" by Kay Kenyon.
Also of note, Janis Ian has a short story of her own in the collection, I believe it's her first (but not her last), called "Second Person Unmasked," and it's actually quite well-done. The only reason I didn't include it in my list of favorites above was because I wanted to talk about it separately. For a first story it did remarkably well and although it was probably lower on my list of favorites than the others, still managed to be one of the more memorable ones.
The collection might do particularly well with somebody who's a bigger fan of her than I am, but otherwise, it's solid.
Finished: Aliens: Recent Encounters (short story collection)
Recently, I read an anthology, Alien Contact, and found myself somewhat disappointed... while there were a couple good stories, not only were a lot of the contacts not first contacts, but also, many of the aliens seemed to either go to extremes of "even if ridiculous things happen that's just because aliens are completely incomprehensible, so why bother trying" to "humans in funny suits with a few cultural differences". I found it hard to understand how an anthology pulling the best first contact stories from all of SF history could wind up so uninspiring.
But I still had that itch that needed to be scratched, stories of the alien, but with a sense that there was a real something behind them, something that may be hard for the the human mind to grasp, but not impossible to at least approach. So I tried again, with Aliens: Recent Encounters. The Recent is because these stories were all pulled from the year 2000 or later, which should make it less likely to get great stories, but somehow the opposite happened.
I didn't like every story in it, of course (including, oddly enough, the one story that both anthologies shared). And a few stretched the definitions of "alien" and "encounter" (in one, the alien interaction seemed to consist solely of hypothetical aliens who might one day find a record left behind for them). But on the whole, I liked them a lot more, and even many of the ones I couldn't get into, I could easily see other enjoying a lot more than I.
My favorites of the collection were "Honey Bear" by Sofia Samatar, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" by Ken Liu, "The Tetrahedron" by Vandana Singh, "The Beekeeper" by Jamie Barrass, "My Mother, Dancing," by Nancy Kress, and "The Godfall's Chemsong" by Jeremiah Tolbert, though many of the ones I didn't list also were quite enjoyable in one way or another, giving an intriguing look at an alien life cycle and culture, or telling an important emotional story, or both. Only a few were a chore to get through for me.
Most importantly, it successfully scratched that particular itch, for stories of the alien... for a while, at least.
Finished: City by Clifford D. Simak
Long after Mankind has left Earth behind, the planet has gone to the dogs... literally. They have risen to intelligence and created their own society, aided by robots, and been on their own so long that many have come to doubt the stories about Man were mere legends. But they study the stories anyway.
Sounds like Pixar's next great movie!
Of course, it's not quite so commercial. It's a set of short stories, ostensibly from different periods, including a few written by men themselves (although the scholarly dogs in the frame story believe that was an unlikely pawsability). It starts a little ruff, with a rather implausible seeming story of humanity abandoning cities. After that, the stories progress farther into the future and explore a variety of different ideas, most of them pretty well, although some have may seem to be well-worn because popular media has used them in the decades since this book.
Through the framing device, we're told these are stories that come across centuries from a variety of different writers, which is an interesting device, but I don't think Simak entirely pulls it off. The "voices" in the separate stories are too similar to each other, and the characters (or in some cases, families) too consistent that it's hard to buy it as anything other than a single writer. But that's a particularly hard trick, and in this case, made harder by the fact that this is a fix-up novel... the individual short stories came first, then they were given a new leash on life as a novel. So I don't really hold it against the author, except to say that it pulled me out of the immersion, just a little.
The stories don't all focus on dogs, either, there's a huge variety of concepts sharing space, from a race of supermen, to superintelligent ants, to Martians, to robots, to other dimensions. My favorite part of the book almost feels like it doesn't really belong with the rest of it, a short story of men transforming themselves to live on Jupiter. Although that one contains the presence of a dog, and the tail is tied back in with the rest of the dog stories, it could stand alone (and indeed, a story I've read before, in a multi-author collection).
This variety is one of the book's strengths, but it's also somewhat of a weakness. I can't help but feel like I might have enjoyed the book if it had a stronger central story that centered on the dogs and their society after Mankind had em-barked off to places unknown. Maybe what I wanted was the Pixar version after all.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book at all, just that I wanted something a little different than what it gave me. It still left me pondering plenty of ideas, which is part of what of science fiction is fur.
Note: All the cheap dog puns in this review are my own, not in the book itself.
Finished: Vast by Linda Nagata
Third book in a trilogy, so the synopsis is cut.
On the Null Boundary, a spaceship travelling across the vast universe, several people may be all that's left of humanity, albeit from different planets and through nano and bio-technology they may not be recognizeable to humans of today. But those differences, dramatic as they are, may not be enough... an incomprehensible alien race, the Chenzeme has mercilessly attacked humanity everywhere it's been found with possibly automated war machine. One of those machines is following the Null Boundary now and they expect to encounter more as they head into Chenzeme space searching for some kind of answers or meaning.
This is the third book of a series that began with The Bohr Maker (or arguably fourth, as there is a prequel as well). I've heard some places say that each of the books can be read independently, and while that's more or less true of the other books, this one's a little different. It follows characters from the previous book directly, and without the context of their earlier lives, a lot of this book might be difficult to follow.
Then again, this book is probably going to be difficult to follow anyway, for all but the most hardcore SF readers. There's wild, out there concepts, like communication via chemical signals, philosopher cells that render decision through argument, viruses that promote cult behavior, atrium organs that allow you to keep copies of other people in your head, and many more, and it's tough to keep all the rules for these in your head at once. So it might be true to say that this one can be read independently, but only because if you've already got it in you to tackle all these concepts, not having the complete backstory isn't that much of an additional barrier. Still, I think it helps a lot to know what's going on. This isn't the kind of book most people can just dive into... even with the context, it may be a difficult read.
Indeed, while I liked it, a lot of the time I admit I had only a limited idea of what was going on, and was reading mostly for tantalizing technological speculation of the far future. The characters didn't entirely connect, mostly because they were too different from what I can relate to, and when they weren't engaged in an urgent battle for survival, some of their motivations seemed a little obscure (as did, I'm afraid, any romantic pairings, although a large part of that may have been because I really couldn't remember the connections or arrangements they had from the last book).
This book in particular has been listed as an influence on Alastair Reynolds who read it and thought highly of it before writing his Revelation Space series, and you can see some of the legacy, a few similar ideas, not theft by any means, but playing with a few of the same concepts, and feel. That seems to have, unfortunately, been a running theme of Nagata's career... being right at the forefront of a new trend or idea in SF, relatively unnoticed by mainstream readers but quietly influential all the same, a strong voice of hard SF that doesn't seem to be listened to as much as she deserves. I enjoyed the book, maybe on the low end of the scale because I think the ideas may have ran away with her, a little, at the expense of compelling story and characters this time around, but it really makes me crave her return to more farther future speculation. If she could somehow blend this talent for far out SF ideas with the more personal character work she displayed in her Red trilogy, I think she'd easily generate a book I don't just enjoy, but consider a favorite.
Finished: Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
I recieved an electronic advance review copy from NetGalley. Since I technically said I'd only post my review on Goodreads until closer to the publication date, instead of copy/pasting it, I'll just link directly to that one for now. But in short, I quite liked it and would like to see more in that universe.
Finished: Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield
Tomorrow and Tomorrow tells of Drake Merlin, a composer who discovers his wife, and love of his life, Ana, is dying of an incurable disease. Unwilling to lose her, he has her froze in the hopes that later there will be a cure... and then soon after, freezes himself, so that he can be around to take care of her and make sure she's brought back. But things may be more difficult than he anticipated, and he must go further and further into the future in the slim hope that he and Ana might be reunited.
This is my first experience with Sheffield, at least in novel form, but I don't think it'll be my last. It's not perfect, but there's some really cool stuff here, from the expansive view of the lifespan of the universe and interesting ideas on how humanity might develop (and indeed, what it might be once it's no longer anywhere remotely human at all), combined with a whole mess of traditional SF tropes like in-depth explorations of alien life cycles and consequences of new technologies.
There are flaws, but it's a collection of small things that could have been better rather than anything independently book-breaking. Some of the future speculation didn't ring entirely true (but that's to be expected). The characters, well, they're a bit on the weak end, but not dramatically so. At a certain point the single-mindedness of Drake's quest becomes a little ridiculous, as is the long timescales he occasionally lives through, but they're sort of part and parcel of the plot, so I can let it slide. My biggest complaint is that at time the book drags. That's right, I'm telling you a book that spans billions of years, jumping ahead long stretches of time on a regular basis, drags a little in the middle. What, you want to fight about it? Seriously though, there are times when not even a particular adventure, but a particular side exploration of an adventure seems to take a lot of pages to get through, and I found myself wishing those bits were more summarized to get to more interesting stuff. Even this never completely soured my enjoyment on those parts, I just wanted to move on.
All in all, I think it's a three, but a very high three, and enough tickled my sense of wonder that I'm interested in checking out what else the author's done.
Still Reading (or finished but haven't put up reviews: The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway, Murasaki (early 90s shared world project by 6 Nebula-winning authors), Trident's Forge by Patrick S. Tomlinson (eARC from Netgalley, sequel to The Ark), Faith by John Love
Only 4 days from the day that shall not be named and the associated rubbing-the-face-in-unhappiness. :P At least it's on a Sunday so I have to go to sleep early that day anyway.
Superhero TV:
I'm enjoying Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl more or less. Not perfect, but solidly enjoyable. Legends of Tomorrow I'm more mixed on. I like the characters and their interactions but on a plot level it's just not working for me, time travel plots are hard to make work long term, and Vandal Savage is not enough of a "mission" especially when they keep making dumb mistakes (I remember recently reading someone say that it's a problem with chaining your ongoing TV show a movie-style single-mission plot... if you're not careful all your heroes have to fail every single week). And, fundamentally... I'd rather see certain characters like Captain Cold on the OTHER DC shows, even if only occasionally, rather than used here. Lucifer's not really a superhero show but it was based on a comic, but typically they ruined it by making it a procedural.
Upcoming:Daredevil season 2 starts soon.
Book-inspired TV:
The Expanse: Enjoyed it for the most part, although I'm a bit confused at where they stopped, cause I don't think there's enough story left in Book 1 to make a 13 ep second season, so are they going to wrap up book 1 in the first few episodes then jump to book 2? IDK. But I'm looking forward to it regardless.
The Magicians: Never read the books, but I tried the series on a whim, and am surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. For those who don't know, it's a bit of a cross between Harry Potter and Narnia for adults... college students learn they're magicians and go to a magical college (and one of them has a connection to another world). Not perfect and the characters are occasionally rather unlikable, but they're likably unlikable, if that makes sense. Mostly enjoying the story of Julia, who takes the entrance exam for the school and told that no, she's not magical enough.
The Man In The High Castle: Was actually quite impressed with this series overall, looking forward to next season.
The 100: Technically based on a book series but IIRC was created before the book even came out (which I've never read), but what the hell, I'll call it here. Still, for a show based on a YA series on the most "teen-centric" of the networks, it's remarkably deep and daring, and I look forward to it. Also, even though it took a while to make that clear, yay for having a bisexual lead protagonist.
Upcoming: 11/23/63, an adaptation of Stephen King's time travel "save Kennedy" story, starts on Hulu or something in a few days with James Franco as the lead. King's stories are usually ones where the journey is fun but the endings suck (although this novel wasn't TOO bad in that regard), so it works for a series. Probably a few others in the long term, but nothing particularly soon that I can remember.
Other Shows: Watching Colony, fairly basic "living under and occupation, only the occupiers are aliens!" type story, but I think it's well done so far. And I'm still annoyed that Doctor Who is taking a year off (except for the Christmas ep) for the stupid Olympics, but on the other hand pleased Moffat's going to be leaving after the next full season, but on the gripping hand, not all that impressed by Chris Chibnall so far. So, overall, meh on that.
Now, onto January (and early February) books!
Finished: Planetfall by Emma Newman
Renata maintains the 3D printers on a new colony on an alien world, one that was half-religious pilgrimage, lead by her ex-lover and settled at the edge of an alien city that is nearly incomprehensible. For decades the Pathfinder has been gone, and the colony believes she's communing with God inside the city, but there are dark secrets surrounding the Planetfall and when a newcomer arrives to the colony, they threaten to tear Renata apart.
I'd heard that the book involved a main character with a mental illness, and at first I found her to be one of the more relatable protagonists I'd read in a while... which might say some uncomfortable things about me. But I could relate to her anxiety issues and her being uncomfortable around people, particularly when it's a topic she's unprepared for. Eventually, though, the rug is pulled out from under you and you realize that she's a lot worse off than you thought, and some offhanded references were actually signs you missed. In that way, it seems like it's a particularly effective exploration of the phenomenon, how somebody can get so bad and go without help, without people even noticing. This part of the storyline does threaten to overwhelm the book at time and turn into a preachy "trying to help someone who won't accept it" story, but by the end it works together mostly well, save for one bit I'll discuss later.
Other than the mental illness content, there is of course the wider SF plot, and it works surprisingly well. The mysteries of the city are engaging, the author does one of the best jobs I've seen in a while of incorporating and extrapolating social media in a SF environment, and the 3D printing technology thread running through everything is really cool. I had some worries, what with the character who was said to be communing with God, and the fact that they were led to the planet by a revelation, that the science fictional aspect would give way to mysticism and psionic powers, two things that typically sour me on a SF novel, but, for the most part this was handled excellently... until the end, which again, we'll get to in a bit.
The characters? Well, aside from Renata, sometimes they were undeveloped or bordered on caricatures, but the handful of main characters were done well enough that I wasn't bothered.
All in all, I was ready to give it four stars... up until the ending. Without spoiling, it felt as though the author just dropped some of the plots in progress and abandoned everything they were building for, for a shock revelation and some kind of ending that seemed out of nowhere and to not really end things. Even the struggle for the main character to accept help felt like it was rendered irrelevant by what happened, both immediately before the ending, and the actual ending, which crossed over that line into mysticism. To be honest, I'm not even 100% sure I understand what the author was going for there, it felt like maybe I missed something, but if I did (and I'm not sure I did), I think it was done in such a way that I'm still willing to blame the author, not myself. I would have happily read a little bit longer of book that had an ending that actually felt connected to the rest of the story, but here, it came just too fast and too out of left field (and, still, too left the story I'd been engaged in completely unfinished in my mind) that I can only give it three stars. Still, what came before that was done well enough that the author's on my radar for the future.
Finished: Stars: Stories Inspired by the Songs of Janis Ian (short story collection)
As the title indicates, this is a set of stories inspired by the songs of singer-songwriter Janis Ian.
I'll be honest, I'm not really a big music guy, in that while I might enjoy individual songs when I hear them, I don't feel the need to seek it out or follow in detail the people who produce it. So, when I got this book (it was actually part of an ebook bundle), Janis Ian's name wasn't only not a draw, I had no idea who she was. I couldn't think of a single thing I'd heard her sing, but hey, I don't have to know the musical inspiration for a short stories to enjoy it, so I dug into it. In the introduction, I learned that she had indeed written, and sung, songs I'd heard of, even at least one I'd say I particularly like, I just hadn't known the artist. But, more importantly, I learned she was a lifelong science fiction fan. Not only is she a fan, but she was engaged enough in the fan community that this collection idea was sparked at a convention while talking to a writer/editor who was a fan of hers as well, and many authors she enjoyed were thrilled to participate. So I instantly like her more than I otherwise would, since she's just my kind of people.
That said, the anthology, well, it's a typical anthology, not every story is going to land, some are in subgenres I just don't care for, others with themes I don't connect with, and a few seemed to rely on too much resonance with a song I'd never heard. There was a secondary problem, in that my favorite stories in the collection... were ones I realized I had read before (and after the first couple, a dim recollection formed of a "Year's Best SF" collection that contained a number of stories that were mentioned written in tribute to somebody's songs, which was obviously her). So, although they were still good, they weren't as novel, and thus I didn't enjoy them as much as I would have when they were fresh.
Still, my favorites in the collection were probably "Ej-Es" by Nancy Kress, "In Fading Suns and Dying Moons" by John Varley, "Riding Janis" by David Gerrold, "All In A Blaze" by Stephen Baxter
Of the rest, there were decent ones but few really stood out. Although there were a variety of songs that served as inspiration, a few were used again and again, most notably "Society's Child", although I don't think any of them really did justice to the idea. One wrote a story that was barely science fiction at all (with just a mention of a technology lurking in the background) but had the concept of the two characters from the song meeting at a reunion decades later, and the others just literally reinterpreted the story in a science fictional context (one played for laughs). The only one to do it in a particularly interesting way was "An Indeterminate State" by Kay Kenyon.
Also of note, Janis Ian has a short story of her own in the collection, I believe it's her first (but not her last), called "Second Person Unmasked," and it's actually quite well-done. The only reason I didn't include it in my list of favorites above was because I wanted to talk about it separately. For a first story it did remarkably well and although it was probably lower on my list of favorites than the others, still managed to be one of the more memorable ones.
The collection might do particularly well with somebody who's a bigger fan of her than I am, but otherwise, it's solid.
Finished: Aliens: Recent Encounters (short story collection)
Recently, I read an anthology, Alien Contact, and found myself somewhat disappointed... while there were a couple good stories, not only were a lot of the contacts not first contacts, but also, many of the aliens seemed to either go to extremes of "even if ridiculous things happen that's just because aliens are completely incomprehensible, so why bother trying" to "humans in funny suits with a few cultural differences". I found it hard to understand how an anthology pulling the best first contact stories from all of SF history could wind up so uninspiring.
But I still had that itch that needed to be scratched, stories of the alien, but with a sense that there was a real something behind them, something that may be hard for the the human mind to grasp, but not impossible to at least approach. So I tried again, with Aliens: Recent Encounters. The Recent is because these stories were all pulled from the year 2000 or later, which should make it less likely to get great stories, but somehow the opposite happened.
I didn't like every story in it, of course (including, oddly enough, the one story that both anthologies shared). And a few stretched the definitions of "alien" and "encounter" (in one, the alien interaction seemed to consist solely of hypothetical aliens who might one day find a record left behind for them). But on the whole, I liked them a lot more, and even many of the ones I couldn't get into, I could easily see other enjoying a lot more than I.
My favorites of the collection were "Honey Bear" by Sofia Samatar, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" by Ken Liu, "The Tetrahedron" by Vandana Singh, "The Beekeeper" by Jamie Barrass, "My Mother, Dancing," by Nancy Kress, and "The Godfall's Chemsong" by Jeremiah Tolbert, though many of the ones I didn't list also were quite enjoyable in one way or another, giving an intriguing look at an alien life cycle and culture, or telling an important emotional story, or both. Only a few were a chore to get through for me.
Most importantly, it successfully scratched that particular itch, for stories of the alien... for a while, at least.
Finished: City by Clifford D. Simak
Long after Mankind has left Earth behind, the planet has gone to the dogs... literally. They have risen to intelligence and created their own society, aided by robots, and been on their own so long that many have come to doubt the stories about Man were mere legends. But they study the stories anyway.
Sounds like Pixar's next great movie!
Of course, it's not quite so commercial. It's a set of short stories, ostensibly from different periods, including a few written by men themselves (although the scholarly dogs in the frame story believe that was an unlikely pawsability). It starts a little ruff, with a rather implausible seeming story of humanity abandoning cities. After that, the stories progress farther into the future and explore a variety of different ideas, most of them pretty well, although some have may seem to be well-worn because popular media has used them in the decades since this book.
Through the framing device, we're told these are stories that come across centuries from a variety of different writers, which is an interesting device, but I don't think Simak entirely pulls it off. The "voices" in the separate stories are too similar to each other, and the characters (or in some cases, families) too consistent that it's hard to buy it as anything other than a single writer. But that's a particularly hard trick, and in this case, made harder by the fact that this is a fix-up novel... the individual short stories came first, then they were given a new leash on life as a novel. So I don't really hold it against the author, except to say that it pulled me out of the immersion, just a little.
The stories don't all focus on dogs, either, there's a huge variety of concepts sharing space, from a race of supermen, to superintelligent ants, to Martians, to robots, to other dimensions. My favorite part of the book almost feels like it doesn't really belong with the rest of it, a short story of men transforming themselves to live on Jupiter. Although that one contains the presence of a dog, and the tail is tied back in with the rest of the dog stories, it could stand alone (and indeed, a story I've read before, in a multi-author collection).
This variety is one of the book's strengths, but it's also somewhat of a weakness. I can't help but feel like I might have enjoyed the book if it had a stronger central story that centered on the dogs and their society after Mankind had em-barked off to places unknown. Maybe what I wanted was the Pixar version after all.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book at all, just that I wanted something a little different than what it gave me. It still left me pondering plenty of ideas, which is part of what of science fiction is fur.
Note: All the cheap dog puns in this review are my own, not in the book itself.
Finished: Vast by Linda Nagata
Third book in a trilogy, so the synopsis is cut.
On the Null Boundary, a spaceship travelling across the vast universe, several people may be all that's left of humanity, albeit from different planets and through nano and bio-technology they may not be recognizeable to humans of today. But those differences, dramatic as they are, may not be enough... an incomprehensible alien race, the Chenzeme has mercilessly attacked humanity everywhere it's been found with possibly automated war machine. One of those machines is following the Null Boundary now and they expect to encounter more as they head into Chenzeme space searching for some kind of answers or meaning.
This is the third book of a series that began with The Bohr Maker (or arguably fourth, as there is a prequel as well). I've heard some places say that each of the books can be read independently, and while that's more or less true of the other books, this one's a little different. It follows characters from the previous book directly, and without the context of their earlier lives, a lot of this book might be difficult to follow.
Then again, this book is probably going to be difficult to follow anyway, for all but the most hardcore SF readers. There's wild, out there concepts, like communication via chemical signals, philosopher cells that render decision through argument, viruses that promote cult behavior, atrium organs that allow you to keep copies of other people in your head, and many more, and it's tough to keep all the rules for these in your head at once. So it might be true to say that this one can be read independently, but only because if you've already got it in you to tackle all these concepts, not having the complete backstory isn't that much of an additional barrier. Still, I think it helps a lot to know what's going on. This isn't the kind of book most people can just dive into... even with the context, it may be a difficult read.
Indeed, while I liked it, a lot of the time I admit I had only a limited idea of what was going on, and was reading mostly for tantalizing technological speculation of the far future. The characters didn't entirely connect, mostly because they were too different from what I can relate to, and when they weren't engaged in an urgent battle for survival, some of their motivations seemed a little obscure (as did, I'm afraid, any romantic pairings, although a large part of that may have been because I really couldn't remember the connections or arrangements they had from the last book).
This book in particular has been listed as an influence on Alastair Reynolds who read it and thought highly of it before writing his Revelation Space series, and you can see some of the legacy, a few similar ideas, not theft by any means, but playing with a few of the same concepts, and feel. That seems to have, unfortunately, been a running theme of Nagata's career... being right at the forefront of a new trend or idea in SF, relatively unnoticed by mainstream readers but quietly influential all the same, a strong voice of hard SF that doesn't seem to be listened to as much as she deserves. I enjoyed the book, maybe on the low end of the scale because I think the ideas may have ran away with her, a little, at the expense of compelling story and characters this time around, but it really makes me crave her return to more farther future speculation. If she could somehow blend this talent for far out SF ideas with the more personal character work she displayed in her Red trilogy, I think she'd easily generate a book I don't just enjoy, but consider a favorite.
Finished: Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
I recieved an electronic advance review copy from NetGalley. Since I technically said I'd only post my review on Goodreads until closer to the publication date, instead of copy/pasting it, I'll just link directly to that one for now. But in short, I quite liked it and would like to see more in that universe.
Finished: Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield
Tomorrow and Tomorrow tells of Drake Merlin, a composer who discovers his wife, and love of his life, Ana, is dying of an incurable disease. Unwilling to lose her, he has her froze in the hopes that later there will be a cure... and then soon after, freezes himself, so that he can be around to take care of her and make sure she's brought back. But things may be more difficult than he anticipated, and he must go further and further into the future in the slim hope that he and Ana might be reunited.
This is my first experience with Sheffield, at least in novel form, but I don't think it'll be my last. It's not perfect, but there's some really cool stuff here, from the expansive view of the lifespan of the universe and interesting ideas on how humanity might develop (and indeed, what it might be once it's no longer anywhere remotely human at all), combined with a whole mess of traditional SF tropes like in-depth explorations of alien life cycles and consequences of new technologies.
There are flaws, but it's a collection of small things that could have been better rather than anything independently book-breaking. Some of the future speculation didn't ring entirely true (but that's to be expected). The characters, well, they're a bit on the weak end, but not dramatically so. At a certain point the single-mindedness of Drake's quest becomes a little ridiculous, as is the long timescales he occasionally lives through, but they're sort of part and parcel of the plot, so I can let it slide. My biggest complaint is that at time the book drags. That's right, I'm telling you a book that spans billions of years, jumping ahead long stretches of time on a regular basis, drags a little in the middle. What, you want to fight about it? Seriously though, there are times when not even a particular adventure, but a particular side exploration of an adventure seems to take a lot of pages to get through, and I found myself wishing those bits were more summarized to get to more interesting stuff. Even this never completely soured my enjoyment on those parts, I just wanted to move on.
All in all, I think it's a three, but a very high three, and enough tickled my sense of wonder that I'm interested in checking out what else the author's done.
Still Reading (or finished but haven't put up reviews: The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway, Murasaki (early 90s shared world project by 6 Nebula-winning authors), Trident's Forge by Patrick S. Tomlinson (eARC from Netgalley, sequel to The Ark), Faith by John Love
Only 4 days from the day that shall not be named and the associated rubbing-the-face-in-unhappiness. :P At least it's on a Sunday so I have to go to sleep early that day anyway.
