Fiction reviews
Kim Stanley Robinson, Escape from Kathmandu: This isn't really a book but a collection of stories about the misadventures of two American expats in Nepal, George Fergusson and George "Freds" Fredericks (and no, it's from 1984 so you're not allowed to complain about the HP connotations). George is a trek guide and general nice guy; Freds is a total whackjob who stumbles into things like the kidnapping of an actual yeti and the lost city of Shambala (Shangri-La). Robinson's writing is in general a joy to read. He writes cleanly and clearly; he obviously loves the Earth, her geography and her wondrous nonhuman creations; and he can tell a decent story. The one story from Freds' POV is the weakest, I think, because Freds is too weird to be written straight up and when Robinson does so he seems like he's hiding the ball, keeping secrets from the readers. Overall, however, this made me very happy to have a bunch of Robinson on the to-read shelf. (Also, it only cost me $1, from Bookcloseouts.com I think.)
Rachel Caine, Ill Wind (Weather Warden, Book One): Jim Butcher offers the cover blurb for this new series about magic-workers who work in one of several elements, including the weather. Joanne Baldwin is a Weather Warden, who helps control storms so that they do less damage than they otherwise would - interesting question how global warming's going to change the job, but that isn't taken up in this book. After a confrontation with a senior Warden, the old guy ends up dead and she ends up with a demon on her back. As a result, she's on the run from the secret magical hierarchy, trying to find the one person who can help her - an old lover and the most powerful mage of his generation. Also, Weather Wardens often work with djinn, powerful creatures who can be bound to human service; on her journey, Joanne encounters more than one of these, who challenge her assumptions about the value that ought to be accorded to a nonhuman life. The good: engaging female character, possessed of strong powers but not so strong that the plot suffers; the weather-working was a different take on magic, and neat; I was surprised by the ending, which set up many interesting possibilities for the sequel. The meh: some of the non-weather details felt sloppy. For instance, one percent of the human population is not "a couple of thousand" people, as the exposition suggests. The character backgrounds in particular felt off: You can't get a law degree at Princeton - this might not be an actual error, just a confusing description of one character's background, but it sure sounded like this guy was supposed to be getting his JD at Princeton, and that really needed explaining. Princeton also has a very minimal fraternity culture (at least among white students, like the characters) - there are "eating clubs" instead - so setting a crucial event at a frat party also required explanation. Nor would I expect to find lots of "[g]irls whose biggest aspiration was to get a secretarial job at Smith Barney and vacation with their bosses in the Bahamas" at Princeton during the relevant time period. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to see what happens to Joanne next - the future promises to be entertaining, regardless of the strangeness of the past.
John M. Ford, The Last Hot Time: Ford is an interesting fellow, author of the funniest Star Trek book ever and also of a tie-in that's a deeply thoughtful look into pre-Next Gen Klingon culture. This time he's writing "a contemporary fantasy," about a world in which magic came back, some places stronger than others, in a way that was fairly disastrous for modern technological culture. Young Danny Holman, an EMT from the heartland, travels to Chicago, where magic holds sway and machines function only erratically. He falls in with a fast crowd and, as he learns more about medicine and magic, taps into some darker aspects of his own self. I liked the world a lot, and there's an interesting change in Danny's self-perception after he has sex for the first time, but the ending felt rushed and underexplained.
David Bowker, The Death You Deserve: This horrific thriller is about a bad writer who, to make a little money, interviews a mob boss in his home town of Manchester. The boss decides that he'd like to write an autobiography, and gets the writer to do it. But when the writer pisses off the boss, he's marked for death - only the assassin turns out to be his best childhood friend, triggering an escalating series of confrontations. Everybody in the book is thoroughly unpleasant. The protagonist is not just hateful to his friends (and his enemies) but stupid, stupid enough to keep making contact with people from his past when he should be hiding out. People in witness protection programs do this, to be sure, but it's not an attractive characteristic in narrative, especially when it leads to mass slaughter.
Laura Anne Gilman, Staying Dead: One of Gilman's XF stories still lives on my hard drive, years later, so I was happy to see she's gone beyond anthology editing to publish original fiction. Like Caine, she's set up her own system of magic, also known as "current," which is kind of the same thing as electricity. Her main character is a thief, but a good thief, one who works with an art dealer/badass partner named Sergei to retrieve things for publicity-shy clients. Unfortunately, her latest job, finding a stolen cornerstone with a magical protection spell on it, gets more complicated than she expects. Among other things, she looks up an old friend now driven mad by current ("wizzing"; noun describing those so afflicted, "wizzarts"); comes into conflict with the Council that regulates all human magic-users - or tries to, anyway; also comes into conflict with some dubious people from Sergei's past; and meanwhile tries to figure out her changing feelings about Sergei. The book didn't grab me, but it didn't make me mad or anything. I liked that Wren was plain, but I didn't like the repeated descriptions of her as same; likewise Sergei and the way he fills out a suit. I liked the nonhuman magical creatures who live in the cracks and crevices of New York - I didn't even mention the subplot about the bigots out to kill them all - and Gilman clearly has a lot of ideas for where Wren could go next. Although I didn't feel enough of a connection to Wren to enjoy her relationship angst throughout the book, I could be convinced to read the next in the series if the plot sounds interesting enough.
David Gerrold, Leaping to the Stars: This last book in Gerrold's YA trilogy featuring the Dingillian family pays off in a number of satisfying ways. The narrator's transition to adulthood is well integrated with the adventure story of the family choosing a colony ship and trying to make it to the new world, even as many groups contend to get control of the family's sole resource, the superintelligent computer stored in a toy monkey that got them in so much trouble in the first place. Charles/Chigger reevaluates a lot of his old beliefs, rediscovers his love for music, and recommits to some things as he discovers what it means to be human. The characterization of true religious belief could be offensive to some, though Gerrold has constructed a new sect so he doesn't have to make an existing group of Christians into the villains.
Vanishing Acts, ed. Ellen Datlow: A science fiction anthology about endangered species? Well, mostly, since the sf context allows you to posit cats or even people as the endangered species. With the exception of Joe Haldeman's poem, which seemed juvenile, I enjoyed the stories. Bruce McAllister's "The Girl Who Loved Animals," about a girl who has a very special relationship with a resurrected species, stood out for me. Avram Davidson's "Now Let Us Sleep" demonstrates why he's rightly regarded as one of the early greats of sf with a story about just how brutish humans can be. Suzy McKee Charnas contributes a story about aliens imitating an extinct humanity; Karen Joy Fowler offers a predictable but well-executed short on the pain of being a zookeeper; A.R. Morlan's story about a lost tribe that might not be quite human packs a punch as the narrator is revealed to be not quite reliable; and Ted Chiang's world in which golems exist and sperm contain homunculi remains as disquieting and fascinating as it was the first time I read the story. Other authors: Paul J. McAuley, Ian McDowell, Brian Stableford, William Shunn, David J. Schow, Mark W. Tiedemann, Daniel Abraham, Michael Cadnum, and M. Shayne Bell.
Rachel Caine, Ill Wind (Weather Warden, Book One): Jim Butcher offers the cover blurb for this new series about magic-workers who work in one of several elements, including the weather. Joanne Baldwin is a Weather Warden, who helps control storms so that they do less damage than they otherwise would - interesting question how global warming's going to change the job, but that isn't taken up in this book. After a confrontation with a senior Warden, the old guy ends up dead and she ends up with a demon on her back. As a result, she's on the run from the secret magical hierarchy, trying to find the one person who can help her - an old lover and the most powerful mage of his generation. Also, Weather Wardens often work with djinn, powerful creatures who can be bound to human service; on her journey, Joanne encounters more than one of these, who challenge her assumptions about the value that ought to be accorded to a nonhuman life. The good: engaging female character, possessed of strong powers but not so strong that the plot suffers; the weather-working was a different take on magic, and neat; I was surprised by the ending, which set up many interesting possibilities for the sequel. The meh: some of the non-weather details felt sloppy. For instance, one percent of the human population is not "a couple of thousand" people, as the exposition suggests. The character backgrounds in particular felt off: You can't get a law degree at Princeton - this might not be an actual error, just a confusing description of one character's background, but it sure sounded like this guy was supposed to be getting his JD at Princeton, and that really needed explaining. Princeton also has a very minimal fraternity culture (at least among white students, like the characters) - there are "eating clubs" instead - so setting a crucial event at a frat party also required explanation. Nor would I expect to find lots of "[g]irls whose biggest aspiration was to get a secretarial job at Smith Barney and vacation with their bosses in the Bahamas" at Princeton during the relevant time period. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to see what happens to Joanne next - the future promises to be entertaining, regardless of the strangeness of the past.
John M. Ford, The Last Hot Time: Ford is an interesting fellow, author of the funniest Star Trek book ever and also of a tie-in that's a deeply thoughtful look into pre-Next Gen Klingon culture. This time he's writing "a contemporary fantasy," about a world in which magic came back, some places stronger than others, in a way that was fairly disastrous for modern technological culture. Young Danny Holman, an EMT from the heartland, travels to Chicago, where magic holds sway and machines function only erratically. He falls in with a fast crowd and, as he learns more about medicine and magic, taps into some darker aspects of his own self. I liked the world a lot, and there's an interesting change in Danny's self-perception after he has sex for the first time, but the ending felt rushed and underexplained.
David Bowker, The Death You Deserve: This horrific thriller is about a bad writer who, to make a little money, interviews a mob boss in his home town of Manchester. The boss decides that he'd like to write an autobiography, and gets the writer to do it. But when the writer pisses off the boss, he's marked for death - only the assassin turns out to be his best childhood friend, triggering an escalating series of confrontations. Everybody in the book is thoroughly unpleasant. The protagonist is not just hateful to his friends (and his enemies) but stupid, stupid enough to keep making contact with people from his past when he should be hiding out. People in witness protection programs do this, to be sure, but it's not an attractive characteristic in narrative, especially when it leads to mass slaughter.
Laura Anne Gilman, Staying Dead: One of Gilman's XF stories still lives on my hard drive, years later, so I was happy to see she's gone beyond anthology editing to publish original fiction. Like Caine, she's set up her own system of magic, also known as "current," which is kind of the same thing as electricity. Her main character is a thief, but a good thief, one who works with an art dealer/badass partner named Sergei to retrieve things for publicity-shy clients. Unfortunately, her latest job, finding a stolen cornerstone with a magical protection spell on it, gets more complicated than she expects. Among other things, she looks up an old friend now driven mad by current ("wizzing"; noun describing those so afflicted, "wizzarts"); comes into conflict with the Council that regulates all human magic-users - or tries to, anyway; also comes into conflict with some dubious people from Sergei's past; and meanwhile tries to figure out her changing feelings about Sergei. The book didn't grab me, but it didn't make me mad or anything. I liked that Wren was plain, but I didn't like the repeated descriptions of her as same; likewise Sergei and the way he fills out a suit. I liked the nonhuman magical creatures who live in the cracks and crevices of New York - I didn't even mention the subplot about the bigots out to kill them all - and Gilman clearly has a lot of ideas for where Wren could go next. Although I didn't feel enough of a connection to Wren to enjoy her relationship angst throughout the book, I could be convinced to read the next in the series if the plot sounds interesting enough.
David Gerrold, Leaping to the Stars: This last book in Gerrold's YA trilogy featuring the Dingillian family pays off in a number of satisfying ways. The narrator's transition to adulthood is well integrated with the adventure story of the family choosing a colony ship and trying to make it to the new world, even as many groups contend to get control of the family's sole resource, the superintelligent computer stored in a toy monkey that got them in so much trouble in the first place. Charles/Chigger reevaluates a lot of his old beliefs, rediscovers his love for music, and recommits to some things as he discovers what it means to be human. The characterization of true religious belief could be offensive to some, though Gerrold has constructed a new sect so he doesn't have to make an existing group of Christians into the villains.
Vanishing Acts, ed. Ellen Datlow: A science fiction anthology about endangered species? Well, mostly, since the sf context allows you to posit cats or even people as the endangered species. With the exception of Joe Haldeman's poem, which seemed juvenile, I enjoyed the stories. Bruce McAllister's "The Girl Who Loved Animals," about a girl who has a very special relationship with a resurrected species, stood out for me. Avram Davidson's "Now Let Us Sleep" demonstrates why he's rightly regarded as one of the early greats of sf with a story about just how brutish humans can be. Suzy McKee Charnas contributes a story about aliens imitating an extinct humanity; Karen Joy Fowler offers a predictable but well-executed short on the pain of being a zookeeper; A.R. Morlan's story about a lost tribe that might not be quite human packs a punch as the narrator is revealed to be not quite reliable; and Ted Chiang's world in which golems exist and sperm contain homunculi remains as disquieting and fascinating as it was the first time I read the story. Other authors: Paul J. McAuley, Ian McDowell, Brian Stableford, William Shunn, David J. Schow, Mark W. Tiedemann, Daniel Abraham, Michael Cadnum, and M. Shayne Bell.