SF/? and last night's Chuck
Until last night's firefight, I had no interest in Adam Baldwin's character (much as I love Jayne, and have a yen for River/Jayne). But now I want an NSA/CIA/Chuck threesome. Stress-induced lust: works every time. And: a gesture at a reason Bryce sent the info to Chuck! It's sweet that you're trying, show. Though given how hard Bryce worked to keep Chuck out of his world, I now (1) require an explanation of why he thought it was a good idea, or at least the least bad idea, to bring him back in, and (2) want flashback Chuck/Bryce, or even UST.
Richard K. Morgan, Thirteen: The worst legacy of early genetic experimentation is the thirteens, atavistic and violent men with no loyalties to any group, bred and trained as violent soldiers then, as part of an international treaty regime, exiled to Mars. Carl Marsalis is a thirteen who hunts down rogue thirteens for UNGLA, the UN Genetic Licensing Authority (or so I presume; it’s one of the nice details that Morgan generally writes as if the reader knows basic geopolitical facts). A hunt goes bad and, indirectly, lands him in a South Florida jail in a secessionist Republic that is very much Republican, the Northeast and the West Coast having gone their own ways. To get out, he signs on for an unauthorized hunt for COLIN, a corporation that generally defies UN mandates but that is having a tiny thirteen problem of its own. Morgan’s toned down the anti-capitalist rhetoric - here the West in the twenty-second century is merely dominated by corporations, but they don’t seem much worse than other rulers - but in grand sf tradition gives us plenty of discussion of human nature and historical forces. At least he waits until we’re midstory to do the idea-dump, and it does all end in explosive violence. Not quite as gripping as his earlier novels, but still full of energy and, in grand noir style, bad men who decide to do something right just this once.
Matt Ruff, Bad Monkeys: Jane Charlotte is being interviewed in custody. Apparently she killed “the wrong man,” in her words. She works for a secret, all-pervasive organization dedicated to fighting evil, she says. But her bizarre story conflicts with confirmable facts, and as the narrative goes on it becomes increasingly obvious that this is a detailed fantasy - or is it? Somehow, it goes back to her childhood and the younger brother she mistreated; maybe this is all a guilt-induced delusion, or maybe there’s something more. Ruff displays considerable inventiveness and comfort with treating the bizarre as obvious, but I couldn’t help feeling that there was supposed to be a moral center to the book that I couldn’t find. The ending seemed to elevate the question of whether Jane was a good person or a bad one over the question of what her acts were, but that would have needed a lot more explanation to work for me.
The SWFA Grand Masters, vol. 3, ed. Frederik Pohl: Reading sf from before I was born is always interesting because of the assumptions about the persistence of gender arrangements that in fact have already lost their unquestioned hegemony (however much oppression remains). This volume features stories by Lester Del Rey, Frederik Pohl (not self-dealing; Pohl’s a grand master by any standard), Damon Knight, A.E. Van Vogt, and Jack Vance. The stories, mostly from the 1930s-1960s are good representatives of type; the ideas vastly outshine the prose - which is okay by me. Del Rey’s “For I Am a Jealous People!,” about a religiously motivated invasion of the Earth, was my favorite, though Knight’s “The Handler” had a creepy psychedelic feel that left a persistent impression. For 1970s sexual permissiveness, Pohl’s “The Gold at the Starbow’s End” features young, smart people sent on what they don’t know is a fatal voyage in order to inspire them to solve the problems of the world back home. It doesn’t work out the way anyone planned - but they do have a lot of vaguely described sex.
Richard K. Morgan, Thirteen: The worst legacy of early genetic experimentation is the thirteens, atavistic and violent men with no loyalties to any group, bred and trained as violent soldiers then, as part of an international treaty regime, exiled to Mars. Carl Marsalis is a thirteen who hunts down rogue thirteens for UNGLA, the UN Genetic Licensing Authority (or so I presume; it’s one of the nice details that Morgan generally writes as if the reader knows basic geopolitical facts). A hunt goes bad and, indirectly, lands him in a South Florida jail in a secessionist Republic that is very much Republican, the Northeast and the West Coast having gone their own ways. To get out, he signs on for an unauthorized hunt for COLIN, a corporation that generally defies UN mandates but that is having a tiny thirteen problem of its own. Morgan’s toned down the anti-capitalist rhetoric - here the West in the twenty-second century is merely dominated by corporations, but they don’t seem much worse than other rulers - but in grand sf tradition gives us plenty of discussion of human nature and historical forces. At least he waits until we’re midstory to do the idea-dump, and it does all end in explosive violence. Not quite as gripping as his earlier novels, but still full of energy and, in grand noir style, bad men who decide to do something right just this once.
Matt Ruff, Bad Monkeys: Jane Charlotte is being interviewed in custody. Apparently she killed “the wrong man,” in her words. She works for a secret, all-pervasive organization dedicated to fighting evil, she says. But her bizarre story conflicts with confirmable facts, and as the narrative goes on it becomes increasingly obvious that this is a detailed fantasy - or is it? Somehow, it goes back to her childhood and the younger brother she mistreated; maybe this is all a guilt-induced delusion, or maybe there’s something more. Ruff displays considerable inventiveness and comfort with treating the bizarre as obvious, but I couldn’t help feeling that there was supposed to be a moral center to the book that I couldn’t find. The ending seemed to elevate the question of whether Jane was a good person or a bad one over the question of what her acts were, but that would have needed a lot more explanation to work for me.
The SWFA Grand Masters, vol. 3, ed. Frederik Pohl: Reading sf from before I was born is always interesting because of the assumptions about the persistence of gender arrangements that in fact have already lost their unquestioned hegemony (however much oppression remains). This volume features stories by Lester Del Rey, Frederik Pohl (not self-dealing; Pohl’s a grand master by any standard), Damon Knight, A.E. Van Vogt, and Jack Vance. The stories, mostly from the 1930s-1960s are good representatives of type; the ideas vastly outshine the prose - which is okay by me. Del Rey’s “For I Am a Jealous People!,” about a religiously motivated invasion of the Earth, was my favorite, though Knight’s “The Handler” had a creepy psychedelic feel that left a persistent impression. For 1970s sexual permissiveness, Pohl’s “The Gold at the Starbow’s End” features young, smart people sent on what they don’t know is a fatal voyage in order to inspire them to solve the problems of the world back home. It doesn’t work out the way anyone planned - but they do have a lot of vaguely described sex.