Early December 2015 Book Foo!
Probably the second last of the year.
But first, just a couple brief TV thoughts:
Doctor Who: Last week's episode (with the Veil) was one of the best in recent memory, marred only by tying it to the annoying Hybrid plot, which, well, it depends on how it turns out but I'm not optimistic about it being anything other than a clumsy and not very good retcon. But we'll see.
Jessica Jones: Really enjoyed it. I do have some thoughts on some things I might like to see in future seasons, but I don't really want to get into them right now. Maybe I'll do a separate TV post.
The Expanse: Haven't watched the first ep yet, even though it's been streaming all over, but I'm enjoying the books and looking forward to it.
The Man In The High Castle: Just started watching this one (Though I saw the pilot months ago), still not sure about it but on a production-values/acting/etc standpoint it looks really good.
Flash/Arrow: Still enjoy it, but the season so far have been hampered by how hard they're pushing towards the Legends of Tomorrow spinoff. So much doesn't feel natural but rather driven because they need to introduce/reintroduce characters and get them into position. Hopefully once it's gone they'll settle down a little. Flash is better off on that front because at least it has the Zoom plotline.
Walking Dead: I can't believe they ended the midseason on that point and not a point what would be, in the comic, a few pages later.
Anyway, now to books!
Finished: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
Breq, still in command of the ship given to her by one faction of the Raddch emperor, awaits the coming fleet of the other faction of the same person, who hates Breq with a passion. Breq actually wants to take down all versions of the Emperor if she can, but mostly, she just wants to protect the people she's responsible for.
I was quite impressed with the first book in the series, and clearly I wasn't alone, as it won many of the major SF awards. It had some great SF ideas, asked us to question a number of our assumptions, and a driven character on a clear mission that, even if it was hopeless, was easy to root for. The second book was a quieter book that seemed to be more about trying to fight against systemic unfairness and inequality, the kind of oppression where often those in power don't realize there's anything wrong. I still enjoyed it, but not as much. The third book is somewhat of a blend, starting much closer to the second book, although the second half picks up, and while I'm not sure I'm quite as impressed as I was with the first book, it does manage something none of the previous two did. Ancillary Mercy does have a satisfying ending. Even taking into account that they were part of a trilogy, the other two didn't seem to, the first was too messy, and the second was left too open and dangling. In this one, things wrap up in a way that not only makes perfect sense, but also keeps in the spirit of the series so far in a way I didn't entirely see coming. It still leaves the universe open for future tales, and things aren't completely settled, but when I closed it I felt like it was an ending.
Otherwise, the book was fun, actually more fun than, although perhaps not as inventive as, the first book. A good deal of this increase in fun was because of the antics of the Translator Zieat. I've seen others saying they'd like to see a novel focusing on her, and I'm not sure I agree. It could get tiresome at that length... but I'd love to see a short story or novella. But there was also more of a sense of humor, like the author was more comfortable balancing it with more dramatic moments and risking making the readers take things less seriously. The personal storylines of many of the characters also progressed well, although some of them felt too easy, like they were directed towards their path... but then, that's a risk when your viewpoint is one character who has something approaching an omniscient viewpoint of many of the people she deals with. And, even a few of the arguments made on the social front, while perhaps not something I was inclined towards disagreeing with anyway, made their points particularly well, brilliantly turning around a situation in which someone, say, demanded consideration for their feelings without offering any in return.
I recommend the series as whole and can't wait to see more from this author.
Finished: Forgotten Suns by Judith Tarr
On a distant planet, a young girl in a family of archaeologists accidentally releases a man who looks human, but is an alien king with psionic powers, left behind in stasis by his people because he was too much of a threat... but now, he may be the only one who can save them.
I did not care for this book at all. It was a slog to get through.
Before I go into why, I should perhaps explain something about my life and reading history that might help you understand where I'm coming from.
I used to love psionic powers. Some of my favorite comics focused on characters with them, I imagined myself with them, I wrote stories about them, I ate up SF that had them in it. The Force in Star Wars was this cool thing I loved watching and wished I had, more than lightsabers. I loved the Vulcans in Star Trek because they were ultra logical and yet had these powerful telepathic abilities. I even enjoyed the Betazoid episodes. But at some point, I just got... tired of them. It wasn't that I read a particularly bad example that turned me off, I guess I just burned out... one day I read something I should have liked and realized that I just didn't care anymore, and it never seemed to lift on that topic, unless they were doing something particularly novel with them. I had a similar experience with vampires, incidentally, but I only mention that to point out that with psionics, it wasn't quite so absolute... I still liked them in, say, superhero stories, or if psionic powers were the one unusual element in an otherwise normal setting. But when I encountered space operas with Psi-Corps or aliens who were telepathic, by an large, it just didn't work for me anymore. It wasn't quite dislike, it was like they radiated fundamental particles of anti-interest that, once it got in contact with particles of genuine interest I had, annihilated both in a rain of 'meh' radiation. Sometimes, if the psionic element was small, there was enough interest left over to enjoy, but having it in a book was usually a bad sign for my enjoyment.
I heard a few descriptions that implied there was a psionics element to this book, but I was willing to give it a try (I probably wouldn't have purchased it on it's own, but it was part of an ebook bundle so it was effectively free at that point), there was an intriguing technological-looking artifact on the cover, so I had hopes that it was a grand SF story that had psi as a minor element. And it started okay, I guess. But the psi element grew quickly to be the driving force in the whole book to the point where by the end it was the only thing that mattered. And I couldn't bring myself to care, because (and the awareness of this fact might have been one of the reasons I burned out on this trope) everything worked under whatever rules the author needed at any given time. If she needed psi to overcome overwhelming force, it could do that. If the main characters needed a clue as to where to go next, psi could provide that. If it needed to be blocked by something, something could be produced or a stronger psi or will would just prevail. In general, psi doesn't feel, to me, like something that has independent rules and limitations beyond how the author wants it to work at a given moment, one of the essences of good SF. A FTL drive might be as imaginary as telepathy, but at least it has a limited context of usefulness and the rules are set up in advance. You don't set up a drive that takes a month to travel between stars, and then in the climax reveal it that just by adding a little more power and disabling some safeties, it can make the same trip in an hour, and incidentally can also heal the deadly wounds the protagonist suffered, because it would break that context we have accepted it within. But psi is potentially a swiss army knife of universal applicability, subject to change at any moment. Used judiciously it might be okay, but it's far too easy to go overboard.
And in this book, the situation is only made worse because the character of Rama is such an extremely powerful psi, more powerful than anyone in the other character's society has ever seen before. So whatever the writer wants him to be capable of, he is.
The more I got into this book, the less I cared about anything that happened. The ironic thing is that a few of the characters I actually enjoy. The two women who are arguably the main characters (Rama being less a character as a massive gravity source they orbit around) were fairly interesting and appealing (even though they had unappealing characteristics), and I connected with their personal stories to a degree. Even where their stories involved psi powers, there were some dynamics that I could have gotten into... the young girl who fears being dragged off by the Psi-Corps, the aunt who's own latent abilities were removed when she was rejected, but which seem to be coming back. Both were potentially good building blocks for a story. But then they were dragged along in Rama's orbit, an epic quest where only godlike psi could save everything, and their own stories didn't seem to matter, because it was all about this glorious warrior king with unimaginable psi power, and I just could not be bothered. By the end, they changed the galaxy, but I didn't care about the galaxy anymore because it failed as a story.
In the end, I just didn't give a damn about what happened. It felt more like a fantasy novel with a light papering over of sci-fi tropes, and worse, not even a particularly interesting fantasy novel, where characters make clever or difficult decisions in high-stakes situations, but rather one where characters are dragged along by destiny and prophecy.
Finished: Children of the Comet by Donald Moffitt (recieved for free)
Six billion years in the future, Earth is uninhabitable, beneath the surface of the red giant sun. But life persists, in the outer reaches of the solar system, huge trees grow from comets, and people live there too, keeping air in hand-made suits. But things threaten to change when a ship arrives, a ship full of humans returning to see what home is like after a long, time-dilated trip to another galaxy.
I received this book for free through a giveaway (although not through Goodreads).
The book is one of those built around a compelling out-there idea, this one a suggestion by Freeman Dyson (best known for the Dyson Sphere), which seems pretty crazy at first glance, of trees growing on comets. I can't judge the scientific merit, but the author here does manage to successfully sell the idea that with enough bioengineering, these comet ecosystems could exist and that humans, even ones who are primitive by our standards, could live there. It's an incredible exploration of the idea that could be the setup for a fabulous story.
Unfortunately, that is not this story.
It's not the plot itself, but rather much of the writing. The comet-bound sections are actually fairly well-done, actually, maybe a little cliche in some areas, but an enjoyable story. Unfortunately, everything else is much weaker, the secondary plot with the recognizable-as-human humans is where the author seems to get too wrapped up in his ideas to put together a well-crafted story. Exposition is particularly bad early on, where we get a lot of clumsy dumps of the basic ideas the author's playing around with, of the worst, "As you know, Bob," variety, and it continues throughout the book, although it gets slightly more deftly handled. To inject tension and conflict, internal strife that I never really bought into... or, at least, I could buy into the different points of view, but how everybody went about it didn't ring true.
Characterwise, too many of people seemed flat, or basic tropes, or occasionally, caricatures.
The pace was also a little weird... again, it started okay on the comet, but many of the troubles wrapped up quickly and then we had suddenly everybody getting along and new people arrive, and have a negotiation about where everyone will live. It's almost comical that the book advances, straight-faced, visions of completely peaceful cooperation over centuries between vastly different people who are limited by the same pool of resources, taken as a given, when it started with immature power struggles approaching civil wars over what to do with a single spaceship. It started to feel like the author spent too much time setting up his incredibly vivid setting and show the readers all the ideas that went into it, more than actually telling a story.
The book would almost have been better if it focused entirely on the comet-bound primitive population, which, I expected when I started, to be the part of the book that I'd like least. But at least there, there's the core of a really cool classic-style SF story, done well. If it were a shorter story focused on the good parts, I might have given it a 3 or possibly even a 4. Everything else... well, it certainly could have been done well, but in this case, it wasn't, and the entire book suffered for it.
Finished: Crashing Heaven by Al Robertson
Jack Forster has returned to his home after a war. Home is a giant space station, run by the Pantheon, artificially intelligent corporations that, to the human population, fill the role of gods, in the Ancient Greek mold. Jack's not welcome at home, because during the war he surrendered to the other side, but the terms of the peace allow him home, and he wants to wrap up loose ends before his looming death... for Jack has an AI war machine named Hugo Fist, in his head, and once the license expires in a few more months, Hugo will overwrite him. He came to peace with that with the help of an old flame, and wants to see in her last days... only he discovers she's already dead, and it's connected to an old case that may involve the Pantheon.
For a first novel, this is quite impressive and right up my alley. It's somewhat a blend of Post-Singularity fiction and Cyberpunk, which might make it Singularitypunk I guess. In any event, there are a lot of cool ideas here, and a setting which has a lot of flaws but a strange appeal at the same time, and richly conceived. It might be a bit challenging to people who haven't already been exposed to some of these concepts, but I don't think it's too bad, and if you like these sort of books, it's absolutely worth checking out. In some ways it works as a counterpoint to books like the Culture, showing ways that friendly, helpful AIs that manage everything can still be pretty awful.
Speaking of AIs, one of them is a main character, or at least, part of the main character. While I'm probably not as impressed with Hugo Fist, the bloody-minded AI in Jack's head, who takes the form of a wooden puppet, as the author was, he did grow on me, and following the two of them made for quite a fun ride, and he's certainly be one of the more memorable AI characters I've encountered in a while.
The book does fall apart a little towards the end... it's not so much the plot being bad or incomprehensible or anything like that, but earlier in the book the way things worked seemed to be weird but believable on their own as how a far future society might function. Towards the end though, it seemed more and more like any new development worked the way it did not because that's the natural outgrowth of everything else we know, or even that it was a reasonable way it could work, but rather because that's the way it needed to work for the story to go exactly the way the author wanted. To use the appropriate puppet metaphor, the strings started to become visible, towards the end.
Still, it was only a minor disappointment, and I otherwise had a lot of fun with the book, and it would probably make my personal shortlist for the Hugo nominations of this year. I'm definitely going to have to look out for whatever Robertson does next.
Finished: Strong-Arm Tactics by Jody Lynn Nye
Lt. Wolfe has just taken command of the Cockroaches, a platoon full of some of the most highly skilled--yet least regarded--soldiers in the Galactic Defense Force. They don't always follow the rules, but in a pinch, they'll get things done, and they're a good squad to lead... if you can earn their respect.
This is a light comedic military SF story, first in a series, apparently, although there don't seem to be any sequels in the ten years since it was first published, so perhaps that plan fell through. In any event, it's something of a mix between traditional military SF, with pitched battles and (at least in the first books) various training sequences, but with a vibe something like McHale's Navy added on top of it. These are the types of soldiers who have prank wars and rivalries with other groups, who in their off hours might make some extra money by running an illegal still, or creatively using official equipment.. but when lives are on the line, they're among the best there is. Of course, some of the battles themselves get to be humorous as well, but the characters take it seriously like the professionals they are.
Honestly, it didn't leave a huge impression on me... it was mildly diverting, I cracked a smile now and then, but it wasn't especially my kind of book and nothing novel enough that convinced me to jump past it. And there were a few irritations, like it being set something like 5000 years in the future but, aside from it being a galactic community, seemingly very little change in society or how people live. The villains, also, were rather cartoonish, which I guess fits into the spirit of the book, but I didn't see the need to read a decent chunk of the book from their perspective.
It was an easy read, never a slog, and I don't regret the time I spent on it, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to read more if there were sequels available.
Finished: Hellspark by Janet Kagan
A multi-cultural science team is studying a newly-discovered planet teem with life... some of which, they think might be intelligent. But they're not sure, because they've been unable to establish any meaningful communication. After one of the survey team is killed, possibly by the natives, the team's leader is ready to declare them non-sentient and the planet ripe for exploration. But other members of the team disagree, and a human trader, a Hellspark, is called upon to investigate the issue and perhaps decide the fate of a whole world.
On the face of it, this feels like a fairly standard pulp SF novel of the era. But the author does wind up having some really interesting points on communication and how culturally-instilled concepts and taboos that we're not even aware of can affect relationships between people and cultures. It's especially worthy of reading the book for the acknowledgement and examples of how important things like body language and positioning can be in how you relate to people. I can't even count how many different cultures the author creates in the book, each with their own set of biases and rituals, some which seem doomed to come into conflict, but also seems to show the idea that with a little work and a bit more understanding, these can be gotten around.
This strength is perhaps also one of the flaws. In order to have so many different cultures, there have to be a lot of characters, and not all of them are distinctive except as exemplars of their unique culture. Also, a lot of them come off in a way where it's too easy to dismiss the differences as primitive superstitions that somehow persisted into a spacefaring race. Perhaps that is some of the point (that these world views are just as valid), but I think it would have sold that idea much more effectively if the author had also included, and skewered as completely irrational, some universal human taboos (or, at least, near-universal among the Western audience she was writing to) as well, as something that no other race thinks is necessary or good, to show how some of the reader's more sacred views could likewise be dismissed as primitive superstitions by an outsider.
Those characters who do stand out of the crowd, though, are generally appealing. The main character does sometimes seem a bit too much of a know-it-all with understanding all the cultural traditions, but it's not so much it's annoying, and her AI companion is, for the most part, appealing, whoever they're interacting with. There's also a character who has a rather creative and interesting illness that I still think fondly on.
As for the big mystery of the book... well, it turns out to be a little obvious, and the characters take too long to figure it out, but makes for a readable adventure regardless.
The biggest problem of the book is that the ending drags on way too long after that big issue is resolved. There were certainly a few loose ends at that point that needed to be tied up, but the author took too long to do it, with long conversations involving the AI not understanding jokes and asking for clarification (and they weren't terribly good jokes) or other territory that was already well-trod. The last fifty pages could probably have been condensed into ten, and it would have made for a much better book. It felt like the author just enjoyed her characters too much and wanted to continue with them for a while, at the expense of the story, or perhaps that she needed to pad things out to meet a word quota. Either way, it's not a huge flaw, but it did blunt the book's impact. Instead of putting it away satisfied, my final impression was of getting to the end of the STORY and then having to read on, somewhat impatiently until I reached the end of the BOOK.
But on the whole, I enjoyed it.
Finished: The Ark by Patrick S. Tomlinson
When the people of Earth discovered a rogue black hole that would destroy the planet, they spent their last years trying to save some shred of humanity, building the Ark, a massive generation starship bound for a new world. That was two hundred years ago, and they're now nearing the other side of the journey. But when somebody goes missing, Detective Brian Benson must investigate. He soon finds it's murder, and it could mean very bad things for the human race.
Full disclosure: I received this book for free through a giveaway (though not through Goodreads). I don't think it affected my review.
"Murder Mystery on a generation starship" is one of those quintessential SF premises, which makes it all the more surprising that I can't think of very many examples. A few, sure, but it's not a concept that has been done to death in recent years, which means it's one that feels, potentially, fresh and exciting.
In addition to things like basic writing skill and characters you enjoy, there are two big things in this kind of story that should, ideally, be done well. First, the generation starship, and second, the mystery.
The author succeeds admirably on the first one. The setting is well-realized and feels both reasonably plausible and lived-in, with a myriad of little details on how life is different. The author really sells the setting, and that's a large part of the enjoyment of the book. Sure, I could quibble about a few of the details (particularly, with such a relatively small population and after two hundred years, ethnic and cultural groupings still seem to be rather distinct, which seems a bit odd considering reproduction has to be authorized and presumably genetic diversity is considered), but they're just the kind of thing you think about rather than interferes with the story, and there was plenty I didn't consider that made it in. It's pretty clear a significant amount of thought did go into things. The author also succeeds in making these details not too intimidating... while someone who isn't interested in SF at all might still avoid this, the technological context is, I think, pretty easy to grasp for people who aren't steeped in SF tropes and want to read something that's not too intimidating.
The second big aspect, the mystery itself... well, it's nothing to complain about, but didn't really wow me either. It was the kind of thing where the journey was more interesting than the destination, and that's okay. Some characters motivations, once revealed, weren't entirely satisfying... but by that time, I'd just gone through, and enjoyed, the adventure where the main character goes through all the steps of finding out, and said adventure is on a generation starship (starships make everything better), so, in the end, I didn't really care. The mystery does hang together well, at least, on the first read, anyway.
As for the everything else, the characterization, writing, they seemed to also be in the 'pretty good' territory. While Benson won't be, probably, one of my favorite SF characters, he's consistently likable, despite being a fairly standard type of detective character, and a few of the side characters were also entertaining. There's a good dose of humor in the book as well, but it's fairly subtle, which is a good thing. I'd heard the author is also a comedian, so I feared he might go too jokey, but, with the possible exception of a few things like tinfoil hats having a legitimate purpose, the humor comes from believable human interactions and everyday funny situations rather than things obviously set up to garner a laugh.
This is a first novel, and typically I give a little bit of a bump in scores, but this one didn't really need it... it probably would have scored near enough to a 4 star rating as it was. It's also the first book of a series, and I liked it enough that I'm pretty sure I'm going to try the second as well, so that also says something.
Finished: Going Dark by Linda Nagata
Description cut because it was the third book in the series...
James Shelley has been presumed dead, but he's still on duty... just not for the government. Instead, he works directly for the Red, a non-human AI that seems to be seeking out and nullifying potential threats to humanity as a whole, keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the wrong hands and deescalating conflicts. At least, that's the goal... but the last few missions have gone badly, and things are getting more precarious. And there's a possibility that some people are finding out ways to hide from the Red's ever-present gaze... and others may be positioning themselves to take control of it.
I've been enjoying this series quite a bit so far, which is a bit unusual for me as Military SF isn't really the kind of thing I get excited about. Mostly, it's the kind of thing that once in a while I'll read just for a change. With this series, typically, the books have followed a certain pattern in my enjoyment... it starts off with fairly conventional military missions, which are interesting but to my tastes not why I'm there. Then, as things go on, they delve more into the nature of the AI and some tantalizing implications are made that start to ignite my imagination and I get into the story, even when it's still largely mission-oriented. This final book in the trilogy also follows that pattern, more or less, but the highs are a little shallower and I was, a little, disappointed in the final outcome.
As a conclusion to the series, well, it works on a character level, as a wrap-up for the story of some of the main characters, but I was hoping for more about the world as a whole. Perhaps Nagata deliberately left it open so that she could write other books in the same universe, or maybe she just decided it was too big to get that kind of easy wrap-up, from the perspective of the main character anyway. Either way, it was what I was hoping for and didn't feel I got, so although I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it less than the others in the series.
If Nagata writes more in the universe... I'm not sure, really, it depends on what the plot looks like. I'm not sure if I'd have the enthusiasm for another tale of a soldier under the Red's guidance, especially if I thought that the greater plot would get no more resolution than this one. Still, I really enjoy Nagata's writing and if she tried another type of SF I'd be much more interested.
(If you noticed and were amused that those last three titles rhymed, congratulations and/or condolences, you're like me!)
Still Reading (or finished but haven't done my review): The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, Lock-In by John Scalzi, The Phoenix Code by Catherine Asaro, Other Worlds Than These (short story collection).
I probably will next post around the very end of the year, so, I hope everyone has a happy holiday season of whatever type they prefer to enjoy.
But first, just a couple brief TV thoughts:
Doctor Who: Last week's episode (with the Veil) was one of the best in recent memory, marred only by tying it to the annoying Hybrid plot, which, well, it depends on how it turns out but I'm not optimistic about it being anything other than a clumsy and not very good retcon. But we'll see.
Jessica Jones: Really enjoyed it. I do have some thoughts on some things I might like to see in future seasons, but I don't really want to get into them right now. Maybe I'll do a separate TV post.
The Expanse: Haven't watched the first ep yet, even though it's been streaming all over, but I'm enjoying the books and looking forward to it.
The Man In The High Castle: Just started watching this one (Though I saw the pilot months ago), still not sure about it but on a production-values/acting/etc standpoint it looks really good.
Flash/Arrow: Still enjoy it, but the season so far have been hampered by how hard they're pushing towards the Legends of Tomorrow spinoff. So much doesn't feel natural but rather driven because they need to introduce/reintroduce characters and get them into position. Hopefully once it's gone they'll settle down a little. Flash is better off on that front because at least it has the Zoom plotline.
Walking Dead: I can't believe they ended the midseason on that point and not a point what would be, in the comic, a few pages later.
Anyway, now to books!
Finished: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
Breq, still in command of the ship given to her by one faction of the Raddch emperor, awaits the coming fleet of the other faction of the same person, who hates Breq with a passion. Breq actually wants to take down all versions of the Emperor if she can, but mostly, she just wants to protect the people she's responsible for.
I was quite impressed with the first book in the series, and clearly I wasn't alone, as it won many of the major SF awards. It had some great SF ideas, asked us to question a number of our assumptions, and a driven character on a clear mission that, even if it was hopeless, was easy to root for. The second book was a quieter book that seemed to be more about trying to fight against systemic unfairness and inequality, the kind of oppression where often those in power don't realize there's anything wrong. I still enjoyed it, but not as much. The third book is somewhat of a blend, starting much closer to the second book, although the second half picks up, and while I'm not sure I'm quite as impressed as I was with the first book, it does manage something none of the previous two did. Ancillary Mercy does have a satisfying ending. Even taking into account that they were part of a trilogy, the other two didn't seem to, the first was too messy, and the second was left too open and dangling. In this one, things wrap up in a way that not only makes perfect sense, but also keeps in the spirit of the series so far in a way I didn't entirely see coming. It still leaves the universe open for future tales, and things aren't completely settled, but when I closed it I felt like it was an ending.
Otherwise, the book was fun, actually more fun than, although perhaps not as inventive as, the first book. A good deal of this increase in fun was because of the antics of the Translator Zieat. I've seen others saying they'd like to see a novel focusing on her, and I'm not sure I agree. It could get tiresome at that length... but I'd love to see a short story or novella. But there was also more of a sense of humor, like the author was more comfortable balancing it with more dramatic moments and risking making the readers take things less seriously. The personal storylines of many of the characters also progressed well, although some of them felt too easy, like they were directed towards their path... but then, that's a risk when your viewpoint is one character who has something approaching an omniscient viewpoint of many of the people she deals with. And, even a few of the arguments made on the social front, while perhaps not something I was inclined towards disagreeing with anyway, made their points particularly well, brilliantly turning around a situation in which someone, say, demanded consideration for their feelings without offering any in return.
I recommend the series as whole and can't wait to see more from this author.
Finished: Forgotten Suns by Judith Tarr
On a distant planet, a young girl in a family of archaeologists accidentally releases a man who looks human, but is an alien king with psionic powers, left behind in stasis by his people because he was too much of a threat... but now, he may be the only one who can save them.
I did not care for this book at all. It was a slog to get through.
Before I go into why, I should perhaps explain something about my life and reading history that might help you understand where I'm coming from.
I used to love psionic powers. Some of my favorite comics focused on characters with them, I imagined myself with them, I wrote stories about them, I ate up SF that had them in it. The Force in Star Wars was this cool thing I loved watching and wished I had, more than lightsabers. I loved the Vulcans in Star Trek because they were ultra logical and yet had these powerful telepathic abilities. I even enjoyed the Betazoid episodes. But at some point, I just got... tired of them. It wasn't that I read a particularly bad example that turned me off, I guess I just burned out... one day I read something I should have liked and realized that I just didn't care anymore, and it never seemed to lift on that topic, unless they were doing something particularly novel with them. I had a similar experience with vampires, incidentally, but I only mention that to point out that with psionics, it wasn't quite so absolute... I still liked them in, say, superhero stories, or if psionic powers were the one unusual element in an otherwise normal setting. But when I encountered space operas with Psi-Corps or aliens who were telepathic, by an large, it just didn't work for me anymore. It wasn't quite dislike, it was like they radiated fundamental particles of anti-interest that, once it got in contact with particles of genuine interest I had, annihilated both in a rain of 'meh' radiation. Sometimes, if the psionic element was small, there was enough interest left over to enjoy, but having it in a book was usually a bad sign for my enjoyment.
I heard a few descriptions that implied there was a psionics element to this book, but I was willing to give it a try (I probably wouldn't have purchased it on it's own, but it was part of an ebook bundle so it was effectively free at that point), there was an intriguing technological-looking artifact on the cover, so I had hopes that it was a grand SF story that had psi as a minor element. And it started okay, I guess. But the psi element grew quickly to be the driving force in the whole book to the point where by the end it was the only thing that mattered. And I couldn't bring myself to care, because (and the awareness of this fact might have been one of the reasons I burned out on this trope) everything worked under whatever rules the author needed at any given time. If she needed psi to overcome overwhelming force, it could do that. If the main characters needed a clue as to where to go next, psi could provide that. If it needed to be blocked by something, something could be produced or a stronger psi or will would just prevail. In general, psi doesn't feel, to me, like something that has independent rules and limitations beyond how the author wants it to work at a given moment, one of the essences of good SF. A FTL drive might be as imaginary as telepathy, but at least it has a limited context of usefulness and the rules are set up in advance. You don't set up a drive that takes a month to travel between stars, and then in the climax reveal it that just by adding a little more power and disabling some safeties, it can make the same trip in an hour, and incidentally can also heal the deadly wounds the protagonist suffered, because it would break that context we have accepted it within. But psi is potentially a swiss army knife of universal applicability, subject to change at any moment. Used judiciously it might be okay, but it's far too easy to go overboard.
And in this book, the situation is only made worse because the character of Rama is such an extremely powerful psi, more powerful than anyone in the other character's society has ever seen before. So whatever the writer wants him to be capable of, he is.
The more I got into this book, the less I cared about anything that happened. The ironic thing is that a few of the characters I actually enjoy. The two women who are arguably the main characters (Rama being less a character as a massive gravity source they orbit around) were fairly interesting and appealing (even though they had unappealing characteristics), and I connected with their personal stories to a degree. Even where their stories involved psi powers, there were some dynamics that I could have gotten into... the young girl who fears being dragged off by the Psi-Corps, the aunt who's own latent abilities were removed when she was rejected, but which seem to be coming back. Both were potentially good building blocks for a story. But then they were dragged along in Rama's orbit, an epic quest where only godlike psi could save everything, and their own stories didn't seem to matter, because it was all about this glorious warrior king with unimaginable psi power, and I just could not be bothered. By the end, they changed the galaxy, but I didn't care about the galaxy anymore because it failed as a story.
In the end, I just didn't give a damn about what happened. It felt more like a fantasy novel with a light papering over of sci-fi tropes, and worse, not even a particularly interesting fantasy novel, where characters make clever or difficult decisions in high-stakes situations, but rather one where characters are dragged along by destiny and prophecy.
Finished: Children of the Comet by Donald Moffitt (recieved for free)
Six billion years in the future, Earth is uninhabitable, beneath the surface of the red giant sun. But life persists, in the outer reaches of the solar system, huge trees grow from comets, and people live there too, keeping air in hand-made suits. But things threaten to change when a ship arrives, a ship full of humans returning to see what home is like after a long, time-dilated trip to another galaxy.
I received this book for free through a giveaway (although not through Goodreads).
The book is one of those built around a compelling out-there idea, this one a suggestion by Freeman Dyson (best known for the Dyson Sphere), which seems pretty crazy at first glance, of trees growing on comets. I can't judge the scientific merit, but the author here does manage to successfully sell the idea that with enough bioengineering, these comet ecosystems could exist and that humans, even ones who are primitive by our standards, could live there. It's an incredible exploration of the idea that could be the setup for a fabulous story.
Unfortunately, that is not this story.
It's not the plot itself, but rather much of the writing. The comet-bound sections are actually fairly well-done, actually, maybe a little cliche in some areas, but an enjoyable story. Unfortunately, everything else is much weaker, the secondary plot with the recognizable-as-human humans is where the author seems to get too wrapped up in his ideas to put together a well-crafted story. Exposition is particularly bad early on, where we get a lot of clumsy dumps of the basic ideas the author's playing around with, of the worst, "As you know, Bob," variety, and it continues throughout the book, although it gets slightly more deftly handled. To inject tension and conflict, internal strife that I never really bought into... or, at least, I could buy into the different points of view, but how everybody went about it didn't ring true.
Characterwise, too many of people seemed flat, or basic tropes, or occasionally, caricatures.
The pace was also a little weird... again, it started okay on the comet, but many of the troubles wrapped up quickly and then we had suddenly everybody getting along and new people arrive, and have a negotiation about where everyone will live. It's almost comical that the book advances, straight-faced, visions of completely peaceful cooperation over centuries between vastly different people who are limited by the same pool of resources, taken as a given, when it started with immature power struggles approaching civil wars over what to do with a single spaceship. It started to feel like the author spent too much time setting up his incredibly vivid setting and show the readers all the ideas that went into it, more than actually telling a story.
The book would almost have been better if it focused entirely on the comet-bound primitive population, which, I expected when I started, to be the part of the book that I'd like least. But at least there, there's the core of a really cool classic-style SF story, done well. If it were a shorter story focused on the good parts, I might have given it a 3 or possibly even a 4. Everything else... well, it certainly could have been done well, but in this case, it wasn't, and the entire book suffered for it.
Finished: Crashing Heaven by Al Robertson
Jack Forster has returned to his home after a war. Home is a giant space station, run by the Pantheon, artificially intelligent corporations that, to the human population, fill the role of gods, in the Ancient Greek mold. Jack's not welcome at home, because during the war he surrendered to the other side, but the terms of the peace allow him home, and he wants to wrap up loose ends before his looming death... for Jack has an AI war machine named Hugo Fist, in his head, and once the license expires in a few more months, Hugo will overwrite him. He came to peace with that with the help of an old flame, and wants to see in her last days... only he discovers she's already dead, and it's connected to an old case that may involve the Pantheon.
For a first novel, this is quite impressive and right up my alley. It's somewhat a blend of Post-Singularity fiction and Cyberpunk, which might make it Singularitypunk I guess. In any event, there are a lot of cool ideas here, and a setting which has a lot of flaws but a strange appeal at the same time, and richly conceived. It might be a bit challenging to people who haven't already been exposed to some of these concepts, but I don't think it's too bad, and if you like these sort of books, it's absolutely worth checking out. In some ways it works as a counterpoint to books like the Culture, showing ways that friendly, helpful AIs that manage everything can still be pretty awful.
Speaking of AIs, one of them is a main character, or at least, part of the main character. While I'm probably not as impressed with Hugo Fist, the bloody-minded AI in Jack's head, who takes the form of a wooden puppet, as the author was, he did grow on me, and following the two of them made for quite a fun ride, and he's certainly be one of the more memorable AI characters I've encountered in a while.
The book does fall apart a little towards the end... it's not so much the plot being bad or incomprehensible or anything like that, but earlier in the book the way things worked seemed to be weird but believable on their own as how a far future society might function. Towards the end though, it seemed more and more like any new development worked the way it did not because that's the natural outgrowth of everything else we know, or even that it was a reasonable way it could work, but rather because that's the way it needed to work for the story to go exactly the way the author wanted. To use the appropriate puppet metaphor, the strings started to become visible, towards the end.
Still, it was only a minor disappointment, and I otherwise had a lot of fun with the book, and it would probably make my personal shortlist for the Hugo nominations of this year. I'm definitely going to have to look out for whatever Robertson does next.
Finished: Strong-Arm Tactics by Jody Lynn Nye
Lt. Wolfe has just taken command of the Cockroaches, a platoon full of some of the most highly skilled--yet least regarded--soldiers in the Galactic Defense Force. They don't always follow the rules, but in a pinch, they'll get things done, and they're a good squad to lead... if you can earn their respect.
This is a light comedic military SF story, first in a series, apparently, although there don't seem to be any sequels in the ten years since it was first published, so perhaps that plan fell through. In any event, it's something of a mix between traditional military SF, with pitched battles and (at least in the first books) various training sequences, but with a vibe something like McHale's Navy added on top of it. These are the types of soldiers who have prank wars and rivalries with other groups, who in their off hours might make some extra money by running an illegal still, or creatively using official equipment.. but when lives are on the line, they're among the best there is. Of course, some of the battles themselves get to be humorous as well, but the characters take it seriously like the professionals they are.
Honestly, it didn't leave a huge impression on me... it was mildly diverting, I cracked a smile now and then, but it wasn't especially my kind of book and nothing novel enough that convinced me to jump past it. And there were a few irritations, like it being set something like 5000 years in the future but, aside from it being a galactic community, seemingly very little change in society or how people live. The villains, also, were rather cartoonish, which I guess fits into the spirit of the book, but I didn't see the need to read a decent chunk of the book from their perspective.
It was an easy read, never a slog, and I don't regret the time I spent on it, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to read more if there were sequels available.
Finished: Hellspark by Janet Kagan
A multi-cultural science team is studying a newly-discovered planet teem with life... some of which, they think might be intelligent. But they're not sure, because they've been unable to establish any meaningful communication. After one of the survey team is killed, possibly by the natives, the team's leader is ready to declare them non-sentient and the planet ripe for exploration. But other members of the team disagree, and a human trader, a Hellspark, is called upon to investigate the issue and perhaps decide the fate of a whole world.
On the face of it, this feels like a fairly standard pulp SF novel of the era. But the author does wind up having some really interesting points on communication and how culturally-instilled concepts and taboos that we're not even aware of can affect relationships between people and cultures. It's especially worthy of reading the book for the acknowledgement and examples of how important things like body language and positioning can be in how you relate to people. I can't even count how many different cultures the author creates in the book, each with their own set of biases and rituals, some which seem doomed to come into conflict, but also seems to show the idea that with a little work and a bit more understanding, these can be gotten around.
This strength is perhaps also one of the flaws. In order to have so many different cultures, there have to be a lot of characters, and not all of them are distinctive except as exemplars of their unique culture. Also, a lot of them come off in a way where it's too easy to dismiss the differences as primitive superstitions that somehow persisted into a spacefaring race. Perhaps that is some of the point (that these world views are just as valid), but I think it would have sold that idea much more effectively if the author had also included, and skewered as completely irrational, some universal human taboos (or, at least, near-universal among the Western audience she was writing to) as well, as something that no other race thinks is necessary or good, to show how some of the reader's more sacred views could likewise be dismissed as primitive superstitions by an outsider.
Those characters who do stand out of the crowd, though, are generally appealing. The main character does sometimes seem a bit too much of a know-it-all with understanding all the cultural traditions, but it's not so much it's annoying, and her AI companion is, for the most part, appealing, whoever they're interacting with. There's also a character who has a rather creative and interesting illness that I still think fondly on.
As for the big mystery of the book... well, it turns out to be a little obvious, and the characters take too long to figure it out, but makes for a readable adventure regardless.
The biggest problem of the book is that the ending drags on way too long after that big issue is resolved. There were certainly a few loose ends at that point that needed to be tied up, but the author took too long to do it, with long conversations involving the AI not understanding jokes and asking for clarification (and they weren't terribly good jokes) or other territory that was already well-trod. The last fifty pages could probably have been condensed into ten, and it would have made for a much better book. It felt like the author just enjoyed her characters too much and wanted to continue with them for a while, at the expense of the story, or perhaps that she needed to pad things out to meet a word quota. Either way, it's not a huge flaw, but it did blunt the book's impact. Instead of putting it away satisfied, my final impression was of getting to the end of the STORY and then having to read on, somewhat impatiently until I reached the end of the BOOK.
But on the whole, I enjoyed it.
Finished: The Ark by Patrick S. Tomlinson
When the people of Earth discovered a rogue black hole that would destroy the planet, they spent their last years trying to save some shred of humanity, building the Ark, a massive generation starship bound for a new world. That was two hundred years ago, and they're now nearing the other side of the journey. But when somebody goes missing, Detective Brian Benson must investigate. He soon finds it's murder, and it could mean very bad things for the human race.
Full disclosure: I received this book for free through a giveaway (though not through Goodreads). I don't think it affected my review.
"Murder Mystery on a generation starship" is one of those quintessential SF premises, which makes it all the more surprising that I can't think of very many examples. A few, sure, but it's not a concept that has been done to death in recent years, which means it's one that feels, potentially, fresh and exciting.
In addition to things like basic writing skill and characters you enjoy, there are two big things in this kind of story that should, ideally, be done well. First, the generation starship, and second, the mystery.
The author succeeds admirably on the first one. The setting is well-realized and feels both reasonably plausible and lived-in, with a myriad of little details on how life is different. The author really sells the setting, and that's a large part of the enjoyment of the book. Sure, I could quibble about a few of the details (particularly, with such a relatively small population and after two hundred years, ethnic and cultural groupings still seem to be rather distinct, which seems a bit odd considering reproduction has to be authorized and presumably genetic diversity is considered), but they're just the kind of thing you think about rather than interferes with the story, and there was plenty I didn't consider that made it in. It's pretty clear a significant amount of thought did go into things. The author also succeeds in making these details not too intimidating... while someone who isn't interested in SF at all might still avoid this, the technological context is, I think, pretty easy to grasp for people who aren't steeped in SF tropes and want to read something that's not too intimidating.
The second big aspect, the mystery itself... well, it's nothing to complain about, but didn't really wow me either. It was the kind of thing where the journey was more interesting than the destination, and that's okay. Some characters motivations, once revealed, weren't entirely satisfying... but by that time, I'd just gone through, and enjoyed, the adventure where the main character goes through all the steps of finding out, and said adventure is on a generation starship (starships make everything better), so, in the end, I didn't really care. The mystery does hang together well, at least, on the first read, anyway.
As for the everything else, the characterization, writing, they seemed to also be in the 'pretty good' territory. While Benson won't be, probably, one of my favorite SF characters, he's consistently likable, despite being a fairly standard type of detective character, and a few of the side characters were also entertaining. There's a good dose of humor in the book as well, but it's fairly subtle, which is a good thing. I'd heard the author is also a comedian, so I feared he might go too jokey, but, with the possible exception of a few things like tinfoil hats having a legitimate purpose, the humor comes from believable human interactions and everyday funny situations rather than things obviously set up to garner a laugh.
This is a first novel, and typically I give a little bit of a bump in scores, but this one didn't really need it... it probably would have scored near enough to a 4 star rating as it was. It's also the first book of a series, and I liked it enough that I'm pretty sure I'm going to try the second as well, so that also says something.
Finished: Going Dark by Linda Nagata
Description cut because it was the third book in the series...
James Shelley has been presumed dead, but he's still on duty... just not for the government. Instead, he works directly for the Red, a non-human AI that seems to be seeking out and nullifying potential threats to humanity as a whole, keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the wrong hands and deescalating conflicts. At least, that's the goal... but the last few missions have gone badly, and things are getting more precarious. And there's a possibility that some people are finding out ways to hide from the Red's ever-present gaze... and others may be positioning themselves to take control of it.
I've been enjoying this series quite a bit so far, which is a bit unusual for me as Military SF isn't really the kind of thing I get excited about. Mostly, it's the kind of thing that once in a while I'll read just for a change. With this series, typically, the books have followed a certain pattern in my enjoyment... it starts off with fairly conventional military missions, which are interesting but to my tastes not why I'm there. Then, as things go on, they delve more into the nature of the AI and some tantalizing implications are made that start to ignite my imagination and I get into the story, even when it's still largely mission-oriented. This final book in the trilogy also follows that pattern, more or less, but the highs are a little shallower and I was, a little, disappointed in the final outcome.
As a conclusion to the series, well, it works on a character level, as a wrap-up for the story of some of the main characters, but I was hoping for more about the world as a whole. Perhaps Nagata deliberately left it open so that she could write other books in the same universe, or maybe she just decided it was too big to get that kind of easy wrap-up, from the perspective of the main character anyway. Either way, it was what I was hoping for and didn't feel I got, so although I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it less than the others in the series.
If Nagata writes more in the universe... I'm not sure, really, it depends on what the plot looks like. I'm not sure if I'd have the enthusiasm for another tale of a soldier under the Red's guidance, especially if I thought that the greater plot would get no more resolution than this one. Still, I really enjoy Nagata's writing and if she tried another type of SF I'd be much more interested.
(If you noticed and were amused that those last three titles rhymed, congratulations and/or condolences, you're like me!)
Still Reading (or finished but haven't done my review): The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, Lock-In by John Scalzi, The Phoenix Code by Catherine Asaro, Other Worlds Than These (short story collection).
I probably will next post around the very end of the year, so, I hope everyone has a happy holiday season of whatever type they prefer to enjoy.