Horse war.
3 out of 5
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Monday, September 19, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
And Ministers of Grace - Tad Williams
Lamentation Kane, Guardian religious nut human weapon.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Monday, August 29, 2011
Mammoths of the Great Plains - Eleanor Arnason
Extinct, frozen, stewarded, revived, frolicing in casino rivers.
4.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Mammoths of the Great Plains - Eleanor Arnason
Extinct, frozen, stewarded, revived, frolicing in casino rivers.
4.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
City of the Dog - John Langan
Not so groovy ghuly girl.
4 out of 5
http://a1018.g.akamai.net/f/1018/19025/1d/randomhouse1.download.akamai.com/19025...
4 out of 5
http://a1018.g.akamai.net/f/1018/19025/1d/randomhouse1.download.akamai.com/19025...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
At the Riding School - Cody Goodfellow
Hunt mystery school beast stable mistress rebellion.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
The Starship Mechanic - Jay Lake and Ken Scholes
Alien booknerd byebye.
2.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=58363
2.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=58363
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The Emperor of Mars - Allen M. Steele
Prefer planetary romance to reality.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2010/12/21/aural-delights-no-168-allen-steele/
3.5 out of 5
http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2010/12/21/aural-delights-no-168-allen-steele/
Friday, August 19, 2011
In-Fall - Ted Kosmatka
Big black hole no death threat chop off.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/in-fall/
3.5 out of 5
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/in-fall/
Flower Mercy Needle Chain - Yoon Ha Lee
Bullets yet again.
2.5 out of 5
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/flower-mercy-needle-chain/
2.5 out of 5
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/flower-mercy-needle-chain/
Sleepover - Alastair Reynolds
Unfrozen for basal simulation AI Realm war peoplesicle platform robot repair back up, hopefully not to be eaten by inter-reality sea monsters.
4 out of 5
http://freesf.strandedinoz.com/wordpress/2011/01/sleepover-alastair-reynolds-2/
4 out of 5
http://freesf.strandedinoz.com/wordpress/2011/01/sleepover-alastair-reynolds-2/
Elegy For A Young Elk - Hannu Rajaniemi
Booze, bears and quantum relatives plague.
4 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-elegy-for-a-...
4 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-elegy-for-a-...
Under The Moons Of Venus - Damien Broderick
'Massri’s dinosaur fantasy was off by a factor of at least 7.4.' Sporky.
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-mo...
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-mo...
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The Things - Peter Watts
Communal network rejection assimilation Goes There, that's Who.
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
The Night Train - Lavie Tidhar
No-name no girl chop choice.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100614/nighttrain-f.shtml
3.5 out of 5
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100614/nighttrain-f.shtml
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Swords and Dark Magic - Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders
As a sword and sorcery anthology this generally succeeds, and in general the writers understand what that actually means.
Except for Gene Wolfe. Having read a lot of stuff by Wolfe, I see no evidence of him ever having the ability to produce a sword and sorcery story.
And I still don't. As a story his is passable - and I do happen to like chess. However, passable, but a failure as a S&S tale. A case of editor really likes writer and wants the name perhaps, but they certainly should have dumped this. You wouldn't ask Glen Cook to write fluffy unicorn stories, so same thing, wrong writer.
They also could have got rid of the Silverberg. Maybe the Majipoor thing was a selling point, but this was ordinary and predictable and also outside the subgenre.
While I don't think you'd ever get a sword and sorcery story out of Wolfe, even if you beat him over the head with a hammer, it seems that Michael Moorcock can still do it if he wants to - and with what he has produced here, he could probably manage it with one hand while beating Gene Wolfe in the head with the hammer in the other.
Steven Erikson, along with the camel-killing sized novels has shown a talent for shorter work in the novella, and this is shorter still. Goats of Glory is one of the three best stories in this book, the other two being the aforementioned Moorcock, and Tim Lebbon's 'Echo City' tale. The other standouts are Enge's Singing Spear and Lynch's library exam outing.
I like the Black Company a lot, so was very happy to see another story, however I think that those unfamiliar may find this one a little lacking.
Rounding up, this book gets a 4.5. Without the bad cases of editormusthaveitis and replaced with something that fits it would approach the top score.
Swords and Dark Magic : Goats of Glory - Steven Erikson
Swords and Dark Magic : Tides Elba A Tale of the Black Company - Glen Cook
Swords and Dark Magic : Bloodsport - Gene Wolfe
Swords and Dark Magic : The Singing Spear - James Enge
Swords and Dark Magic : A Wizard of Wiscezan - C. J. Cherryh
Swords and Dark Magic : A Rich Full Week - K. J. Parker
Swords and Dark Magic : A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet - Garth Nix
Swords and Dark Magic : Red Pearls An Elric Story - Michael Moorcock
Swords and Dark Magic : The Deification of Dal Bamore - Tim Lebbon
Swords and Dark Magic : Dark Times at the Midnight Market - Robert Silverberg
Swords and Dark Magic : The Undefiled - Greg Keyes
Swords and Dark Magic : Dapple Hew the Tint Master - Michael Shea
Swords and Dark Magic : In the Stacks - Scott Lynch
Swords and Dark Magic : Two Lions A Witch and the War-Robe - Tanith Lee
Swords and Dark Magic : The Sea Troll's Daughter - Caitlin R Kiernan
Swords and Dark Magic : Thieves of Daring - Bill Willingham
Swords and Dark Magic : The Fool Jobs - Joe Abercrombie
We kill demons for a living, silly shovel boy.
4 out of 5
Taken generation garrison not hairy.
4 out of 5
Chess tyrant chop.
3 out of 5
You killed my bartender, demon. You're really in the shit now.
4 out of 5
Tewk me. I'm an illusion Master.
3.5 out of 5
DeadHeadroom for improvement
3.5 out of 5
Maladroit music mishaps, evil entity. Naked God preferred.
4 out of 5
Sphere world Phroom pirate slaughter dragon dad distraction White Sword steal.
4.5 out of 5
Sorcerer torture scare stunt revenant rebellion ending.
4 out of 5
Potion deflowering rebound problem.
3 out of 5
Godridden good riddance, virgins.
3.5 out of 5
Slymire crystal revelation.
3.5 out of 5
Vocabuvore giant exam passing psycho roommate consumption.
4 out of 5
Better if you geas don't think about it, brothers.
3.5 out of 5
Kill dad, no big deal short girls. Want furs?
3 out of 5
Sorcerers. If you stab them and they don't die they have an absolute shitload of deathtraps.
4 out of 5
No, get that thing.
3.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Except for Gene Wolfe. Having read a lot of stuff by Wolfe, I see no evidence of him ever having the ability to produce a sword and sorcery story.
And I still don't. As a story his is passable - and I do happen to like chess. However, passable, but a failure as a S&S tale. A case of editor really likes writer and wants the name perhaps, but they certainly should have dumped this. You wouldn't ask Glen Cook to write fluffy unicorn stories, so same thing, wrong writer.
They also could have got rid of the Silverberg. Maybe the Majipoor thing was a selling point, but this was ordinary and predictable and also outside the subgenre.
While I don't think you'd ever get a sword and sorcery story out of Wolfe, even if you beat him over the head with a hammer, it seems that Michael Moorcock can still do it if he wants to - and with what he has produced here, he could probably manage it with one hand while beating Gene Wolfe in the head with the hammer in the other.
Steven Erikson, along with the camel-killing sized novels has shown a talent for shorter work in the novella, and this is shorter still. Goats of Glory is one of the three best stories in this book, the other two being the aforementioned Moorcock, and Tim Lebbon's 'Echo City' tale. The other standouts are Enge's Singing Spear and Lynch's library exam outing.
I like the Black Company a lot, so was very happy to see another story, however I think that those unfamiliar may find this one a little lacking.
Rounding up, this book gets a 4.5. Without the bad cases of editormusthaveitis and replaced with something that fits it would approach the top score.
Swords and Dark Magic : Goats of Glory - Steven Erikson
Swords and Dark Magic : Tides Elba A Tale of the Black Company - Glen Cook
Swords and Dark Magic : Bloodsport - Gene Wolfe
Swords and Dark Magic : The Singing Spear - James Enge
Swords and Dark Magic : A Wizard of Wiscezan - C. J. Cherryh
Swords and Dark Magic : A Rich Full Week - K. J. Parker
Swords and Dark Magic : A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet - Garth Nix
Swords and Dark Magic : Red Pearls An Elric Story - Michael Moorcock
Swords and Dark Magic : The Deification of Dal Bamore - Tim Lebbon
Swords and Dark Magic : Dark Times at the Midnight Market - Robert Silverberg
Swords and Dark Magic : The Undefiled - Greg Keyes
Swords and Dark Magic : Dapple Hew the Tint Master - Michael Shea
Swords and Dark Magic : In the Stacks - Scott Lynch
Swords and Dark Magic : Two Lions A Witch and the War-Robe - Tanith Lee
Swords and Dark Magic : The Sea Troll's Daughter - Caitlin R Kiernan
Swords and Dark Magic : Thieves of Daring - Bill Willingham
Swords and Dark Magic : The Fool Jobs - Joe Abercrombie
We kill demons for a living, silly shovel boy.
4 out of 5
Taken generation garrison not hairy.
4 out of 5
Chess tyrant chop.
3 out of 5
You killed my bartender, demon. You're really in the shit now.
4 out of 5
Tewk me. I'm an illusion Master.
3.5 out of 5
DeadHeadroom for improvement
3.5 out of 5
Maladroit music mishaps, evil entity. Naked God preferred.
4 out of 5
Sphere world Phroom pirate slaughter dragon dad distraction White Sword steal.
4.5 out of 5
Sorcerer torture scare stunt revenant rebellion ending.
4 out of 5
Potion deflowering rebound problem.
3 out of 5
Godridden good riddance, virgins.
3.5 out of 5
Slymire crystal revelation.
3.5 out of 5
Vocabuvore giant exam passing psycho roommate consumption.
4 out of 5
Better if you geas don't think about it, brothers.
3.5 out of 5
Kill dad, no big deal short girls. Want furs?
3 out of 5
Sorcerers. If you stab them and they don't die they have an absolute shitload of deathtraps.
4 out of 5
No, get that thing.
3.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Friday, July 8, 2011
To Hie From Far Cilenia - Karl Schroeder
Oversatch sanotica it 2.0/3.0 plutonium dispersal.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
All The Love In The World - Cat Sparks
Postapocalyptic inconsistency, goodbye old crush on to surfing and beer.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
A Preliminary Assessment Of The Drake Equation - Vernor Vinge
Planets For Sale - all for us.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Under The Moons Of Venus - Damien Broderick
'Massri’s dinosaur fantasy was off by a factor of at least 7.4.' Sporky.
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-moons-of-venus-by-damien-broderick/
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-moons-of-venus-by-damien-broderick/
Graffiti In the Library of Babel - David Langford
They is tagging our stuff.
3 out of 5
http://martyhalpern.blogspot.com/2010/06/graffiti-in-library-of-babel-by-david.h...
3 out of 5
http://martyhalpern.blogspot.com/2010/06/graffiti-in-library-of-babel-by-david.h...
How To Become A Mars Overlord - Catherynne M. Valente
One morning you will wake up and ask Y.
2 out of 5
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/how-to-become-a-mars-overlord/
2 out of 5
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/how-to-become-a-mars-overlord/
The Hebras and the Demons and the Damned - Brenda Cooper
Predator prey colonist diplomacy.
3.5 out of 5
http://futurismic.com/2011/02/28/the-hebras-and-the-demons-and-the-damned/
3.5 out of 5
http://futurismic.com/2011/02/28/the-hebras-and-the-demons-and-the-damned/
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi
Posthuman Arsene Lupin on Mars.
So here you have a Finnish bloke doing his own homage to a famous French character while writing in English with greater skill than most native speaking writers can manage.
Not to mention his own spin on the planetary romance. Here's a habitable Mars, populated by weird beings and ancient superscience in places (even if the latter is of human origin and not millions of years old - although certainly the domain of scary immortals with godlike powers.) More smart matter and quantum missiles than heat guns, electro blasters and big strange machines.
So combine the flamboyant Gentleman Thief archetype with the planetary setting and it would be very hard not to like this book. The characters are addressed in the French manner at times, to keep with the overall Lupin feel. He mentions Leblanc an done of the novels by name, and takes a detective character from another that is mentioned to become an antagonist. To add to this twistily, the Thief's ex-girlfriend is a super powered vigilante known as The Gentleman. (The detective of the piece's girlfriend is a Valkyrie.)
However, even the best thieves sometimes get busted, and that is where you find le Flambeur at the start, in an AI-created prison. Others have use for his talents and assist him in getting the hell out, if he will agree to do a job for them. Plus be monitored by a hardarse and her spaceship.
This all leads back to Mars, and as the mystery to be solved unfold, including the regaining of memory, so does the sociopolitical and historical setting on the Red Planet come into play. In this information rich privacy focused (everyone has an interface to obscure what they look like and what they are doing) society everything is not as it seems. Which probably won't come as a surprise to those familiar with the Lupins of the world. Misdirection is the name of their game. So is taking down bad guys that are worse than they are. While avoiding the authorities, of course.
Really good.
4.5 out of 5
So here you have a Finnish bloke doing his own homage to a famous French character while writing in English with greater skill than most native speaking writers can manage.
Not to mention his own spin on the planetary romance. Here's a habitable Mars, populated by weird beings and ancient superscience in places (even if the latter is of human origin and not millions of years old - although certainly the domain of scary immortals with godlike powers.) More smart matter and quantum missiles than heat guns, electro blasters and big strange machines.
So combine the flamboyant Gentleman Thief archetype with the planetary setting and it would be very hard not to like this book. The characters are addressed in the French manner at times, to keep with the overall Lupin feel. He mentions Leblanc an done of the novels by name, and takes a detective character from another that is mentioned to become an antagonist. To add to this twistily, the Thief's ex-girlfriend is a super powered vigilante known as The Gentleman. (The detective of the piece's girlfriend is a Valkyrie.)
However, even the best thieves sometimes get busted, and that is where you find le Flambeur at the start, in an AI-created prison. Others have use for his talents and assist him in getting the hell out, if he will agree to do a job for them. Plus be monitored by a hardarse and her spaceship.
This all leads back to Mars, and as the mystery to be solved unfold, including the regaining of memory, so does the sociopolitical and historical setting on the Red Planet come into play. In this information rich privacy focused (everyone has an interface to obscure what they look like and what they are doing) society everything is not as it seems. Which probably won't come as a surprise to those familiar with the Lupins of the world. Misdirection is the name of their game. So is taking down bad guys that are worse than they are. While avoiding the authorities, of course.
Really good.
4.5 out of 5
The Dervish House - Ian McDonald
A novel with a short timeframe, following the events of a week in Istanbul. The story follows several characters.
A dodgy finance trader and his dodgy art dealer wife.
A young boy with a heart condition and a nanotech shapeshifting pet toy.
A Greek retired professor of economics.
A youth with a trouble violent past.
A fresh out of business college young woman.
A suicide bomber detonates on a tram in odd circumstances - the only person killed is herself. As the story unfolds the various strands of the book link together. The troubled youth was at the scene, affected by the nanotechnology delivery that the bomb was for. The young boy notices a robot watching the scene and begins to track down some information. The professor is a friend of his, taken a grandfatherly interest in the young lad and realises he has discovered something disturbing.
The dodgy trader and his mates are planning a short term gas price coup when they find out the company they work for is ridiculously insolvent - and are also the company that our young marketer has approached as a financier for the nanotech dna information writing project the two young men who have hired her have going.
And a gas pipeline is the final target for the terrorists who snatch the troubled youth to test the effects of their ideological conversion nanotech.
The problem with having so many disparate sections is that it feels somewhat fractured at times, compared to say, Brasyl, which does get a bit annoying.
A good book though.
4 out of 5
A dodgy finance trader and his dodgy art dealer wife.
A young boy with a heart condition and a nanotech shapeshifting pet toy.
A Greek retired professor of economics.
A youth with a trouble violent past.
A fresh out of business college young woman.
A suicide bomber detonates on a tram in odd circumstances - the only person killed is herself. As the story unfolds the various strands of the book link together. The troubled youth was at the scene, affected by the nanotechnology delivery that the bomb was for. The young boy notices a robot watching the scene and begins to track down some information. The professor is a friend of his, taken a grandfatherly interest in the young lad and realises he has discovered something disturbing.
The dodgy trader and his mates are planning a short term gas price coup when they find out the company they work for is ridiculously insolvent - and are also the company that our young marketer has approached as a financier for the nanotech dna information writing project the two young men who have hired her have going.
And a gas pipeline is the final target for the terrorists who snatch the troubled youth to test the effects of their ideological conversion nanotech.
The problem with having so many disparate sections is that it feels somewhat fractured at times, compared to say, Brasyl, which does get a bit annoying.
A good book though.
4 out of 5
Friday, June 10, 2011
Under The Moons Of Venus - Damien Broderick
'Massri’s dinosaur fantasy was off by a factor of at least 7.4.' Sporky.
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-moons-of-venus-by-damien-broderick/
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-moons-of-venus-by-damien-broderick/
Troika - Alastair Reynolds
Future message machine shell game madness infectious with music box.
4.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
The Night Train - Lavie Tidhar
No-name no girl chop choice.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100614/nighttrain-f.shtml
3.5 out of 5
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100614/nighttrain-f.shtml
The Things - Peter Watts
Communal network rejection assimilation Goes There, that's Who.
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Things - Peter Watts
Communal network rejection assimilation Goes There, that's Who.
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
Monday, April 25, 2011
That Leviathan Whom Thou Hast Made - Eric James Stone
First swale or anything, Neuter Kimball.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Troika - Alastair Reynolds
Future message machine shell game madness infectious with music box.
4.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
The Lifecycle of Software Objects - Ted Chiang
Digient maturity porn port choice.
4 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2010/fiction-the-lifecycle-...
4 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2010/fiction-the-lifecycle-...
The Dervish House - Ian McDonald
A novel with a short timeframe, following the events of a week in Istanbul. The story follows several characters.
A dodgy finance trader and his dodgy art dealer wife.
A young boy with a heart condition and a nanotech shapeshifting pet toy.
A Greek retired professor of economics.
A youth with a trouble violent past.
A fresh out of business college young woman.
A suicide bomber detonates on a tram in odd circumstances - the only person killed is herself. As the story unfolds the various strands of the book link together. The troubled youth was at the scene, affected by the nanotechnology delivery that the bomb was for. The young boy notices a robot watching the scene and begins to track down some information. The professor is a friend of his, taken a grandfatherly interest in the young lad and realises he has discovered something disturbing.
The dodgy trader and his mates are planning a short term gas price coup when they find out the company they work for is ridiculously insolvent - and are also the company that our young marketer has approached as a financier for the nanotech dna information writing project the two young men who have hired her have going.
And a gas pipeline is the final target for the terrorists who snatch the troubled youth to test the effects of their ideological conversion nanotech.
The problem with having so many disparate sections is that it feels somewhat fractured at times, compared to say, Brasyl, which does get a bit annoying.
A good book though.
4 out of 5
A dodgy finance trader and his dodgy art dealer wife.
A young boy with a heart condition and a nanotech shapeshifting pet toy.
A Greek retired professor of economics.
A youth with a trouble violent past.
A fresh out of business college young woman.
A suicide bomber detonates on a tram in odd circumstances - the only person killed is herself. As the story unfolds the various strands of the book link together. The troubled youth was at the scene, affected by the nanotechnology delivery that the bomb was for. The young boy notices a robot watching the scene and begins to track down some information. The professor is a friend of his, taken a grandfatherly interest in the young lad and realises he has discovered something disturbing.
The dodgy trader and his mates are planning a short term gas price coup when they find out the company they work for is ridiculously insolvent - and are also the company that our young marketer has approached as a financier for the nanotech dna information writing project the two young men who have hired her have going.
And a gas pipeline is the final target for the terrorists who snatch the troubled youth to test the effects of their ideological conversion nanotech.
The problem with having so many disparate sections is that it feels somewhat fractured at times, compared to say, Brasyl, which does get a bit annoying.
A good book though.
4 out of 5
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Care And Feeding Of Your Baby Killer Unicorn - Diana Peterfreund
Vermin crunching nookie beast raising.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
The Man With the Knives - Ellen Kushner
He's dead, marry her next.
3 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/12/the-man-with-the-knives?start=3
3 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/12/the-man-with-the-knives?start=3
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
The Dervish House - Ian McDonald
A novel with a short timeframe, following the events of a week in Istanbul. The story follows several characters.
A dodgy finance trader and his dodgy art dealer wife.
A young boy with a heart condition and a nanotech shapeshifting pet toy.
A Greek retired professor of economics.
A youth with a trouble violent past.
A fresh out of business college young woman.
A suicide bomber detonates on a tram in odd circumstances - the only person killed is herself. As the story unfolds the various strands of the book link together. The troubled youth was at the scene, affected by the nanotechnology delivery that the bomb was for. The young boy notices a robot watching the scene and begins to track down some information. The professor is a friend of his, taken a grandfatherly interest in the young lad and realises he has discovered something disturbing.
The dodgy trader and his mates are planning a short term gas price coup when they find out the company they work for is ridiculously insolvent - and are also the company that our young marketer has approached as a financier for the nanotech dna information writing project the two young men who have hired her have going.
And a gas pipeline is the final target for the terrorists who snatch the troubled youth to test the effects of their ideological conversion nanotech.
The problem with having so many disparate sections is that it feels somewhat fractured at times, compared to say, Brasyl, which does get a bit annoying.
A good book though.
4 out of 5
A dodgy finance trader and his dodgy art dealer wife.
A young boy with a heart condition and a nanotech shapeshifting pet toy.
A Greek retired professor of economics.
A youth with a trouble violent past.
A fresh out of business college young woman.
A suicide bomber detonates on a tram in odd circumstances - the only person killed is herself. As the story unfolds the various strands of the book link together. The troubled youth was at the scene, affected by the nanotechnology delivery that the bomb was for. The young boy notices a robot watching the scene and begins to track down some information. The professor is a friend of his, taken a grandfatherly interest in the young lad and realises he has discovered something disturbing.
The dodgy trader and his mates are planning a short term gas price coup when they find out the company they work for is ridiculously insolvent - and are also the company that our young marketer has approached as a financier for the nanotech dna information writing project the two young men who have hired her have going.
And a gas pipeline is the final target for the terrorists who snatch the troubled youth to test the effects of their ideological conversion nanotech.
The problem with having so many disparate sections is that it feels somewhat fractured at times, compared to say, Brasyl, which does get a bit annoying.
A good book though.
4 out of 5
Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
An interesting novel that subverts the whole twee girl and special animal bond fantasy sub-genre.
In this case, you don't get to associate with such a beast because you are the chosen one, special, or anything like that.
Here, more the opposite. For example, if you are a junkie killer who writesinternet scams for a crimelord is when you will score the non-human companion.
Metaphysical punishment is what these creatures appear to be - and obviously if you are dragging a sloth, bunny, goat or crocodile around you become fairly easy to identify. The beginnings and current situation for this strange phenomenon is revealed to some degree in background 'excerpts' of the media in this particular milieu. Punishment, apocalypse, or something worse coming?
e.g., one of the background parts from the novel :
""I didn't have the tapir when I got here. She came on the second night, after I was jumped by a couple of the 4161's from Melbourne. Lucky my mate Len was already inside, and knew their game. He gave me a shank when I arrived, and it ended up in the neck of one of them, a tattooed fuckwit called Cal.
That night, at about the same time Cal was dying in a hospital in Geelong, the tapir appeared outside my cell. I heared her scratching at the door of solitary confinement. Scared the hell out of me. The guards said she was still covered in jungle mud when they found her.
I mean, there's cameras everywhere. And this thing's from a different continent. How come no one saw her arrive? How did she get here? If she can walk through walls or fly or something, why can't she carry me out of here?
Anyway, I love her. They let me look after her good, take her on walks around the yard. She's a stupid-looking creature and she's dopey as shit, but when they see her at my side, they remember what happened to Cal. They remember not to fuck with Carter.""
Hence Zoo City - a ghetto for such unfortunates and their animal encumbrances. The fantasy angle is expanded upon as people in this situation may have psychic abilities. The anti-heroine of the piece is a recovering drug addict and worse, and a psychic locator, able to make cash by having people hire her to find stuff
they have lost. Even her sloth is crippled.
Working off a debt to some bad people by writing and participating in hooking suckers over the net she also has a client employing her locator talents come to a nasty end. This gets her involved in something far more sordid than drugs and extracting money from the gullible: the music industry.
A pair of teen sibling pop sensations have issues - one being that the female of the pair likes to be a disappearing party girl. So, a somewhat youthful investigator with knowledge of the scene that doesn't smell 'cop' as soon as you see her, and a handy supernatural talent appears to be useful to the management of our pop idols.
It is all good up to here, but it seems to me that the actual find the missing person part is extended and somewhat aimless. Not sure if this is supposed to be a commentary on her existence or if it could just do with being shorter. Stories of the private investigation type tend to suffer at greater length, I think. I'd imagine more than a few people might think a little more of this space could have gone on a little more of the supernatural situation the world finds itself in. Or even the protagonist in particular.
What does make this more interesting is the South African setting. In fact, the author could even have thrown in a local music playlist perhaps, to add flavour.
After seeing the above, yes, it does end in the sort of violent depravity it is setting up.
So, interesting novel, but not as seamlessly excellent as her first book.
3.5 out of 5
In this case, you don't get to associate with such a beast because you are the chosen one, special, or anything like that.
Here, more the opposite. For example, if you are a junkie killer who writesinternet scams for a crimelord is when you will score the non-human companion.
Metaphysical punishment is what these creatures appear to be - and obviously if you are dragging a sloth, bunny, goat or crocodile around you become fairly easy to identify. The beginnings and current situation for this strange phenomenon is revealed to some degree in background 'excerpts' of the media in this particular milieu. Punishment, apocalypse, or something worse coming?
e.g., one of the background parts from the novel :
""I didn't have the tapir when I got here. She came on the second night, after I was jumped by a couple of the 4161's from Melbourne. Lucky my mate Len was already inside, and knew their game. He gave me a shank when I arrived, and it ended up in the neck of one of them, a tattooed fuckwit called Cal.
That night, at about the same time Cal was dying in a hospital in Geelong, the tapir appeared outside my cell. I heared her scratching at the door of solitary confinement. Scared the hell out of me. The guards said she was still covered in jungle mud when they found her.
I mean, there's cameras everywhere. And this thing's from a different continent. How come no one saw her arrive? How did she get here? If she can walk through walls or fly or something, why can't she carry me out of here?
Anyway, I love her. They let me look after her good, take her on walks around the yard. She's a stupid-looking creature and she's dopey as shit, but when they see her at my side, they remember what happened to Cal. They remember not to fuck with Carter.""
Hence Zoo City - a ghetto for such unfortunates and their animal encumbrances. The fantasy angle is expanded upon as people in this situation may have psychic abilities. The anti-heroine of the piece is a recovering drug addict and worse, and a psychic locator, able to make cash by having people hire her to find stuff
they have lost. Even her sloth is crippled.
Working off a debt to some bad people by writing and participating in hooking suckers over the net she also has a client employing her locator talents come to a nasty end. This gets her involved in something far more sordid than drugs and extracting money from the gullible: the music industry.
A pair of teen sibling pop sensations have issues - one being that the female of the pair likes to be a disappearing party girl. So, a somewhat youthful investigator with knowledge of the scene that doesn't smell 'cop' as soon as you see her, and a handy supernatural talent appears to be useful to the management of our pop idols.
It is all good up to here, but it seems to me that the actual find the missing person part is extended and somewhat aimless. Not sure if this is supposed to be a commentary on her existence or if it could just do with being shorter. Stories of the private investigation type tend to suffer at greater length, I think. I'd imagine more than a few people might think a little more of this space could have gone on a little more of the supernatural situation the world finds itself in. Or even the protagonist in particular.
What does make this more interesting is the South African setting. In fact, the author could even have thrown in a local music playlist perhaps, to add flavour.
After seeing the above, yes, it does end in the sort of violent depravity it is setting up.
So, interesting novel, but not as seamlessly excellent as her first book.
3.5 out of 5
Ghosts of New York - Jennifer Pelland
Fallen Tower afterlife.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.apexbookcompany.com/2010/12/dark-faith-ghosts-of-new-york-by-jennifer-pelland/
3.5 out of 5
http://www.apexbookcompany.com/2010/12/dark-faith-ghosts-of-new-york-by-jennifer-pelland/
Declare - Tim Powers
Declare - Tim Powers
Other things exist on Mount Ararat than the possibility of some rotting old boat. A complex web of spy organisations and agents have to work out what to do about the world's largest colony of djinn.
Mother Russia has a supernatural guardian that is holding the state together. Kim Philby, and our protagonist, Andrew Hale, are involved in both of these events, as is another agent, a woman named Elena, that both of them fancy, and have fancied.
The spycraft predominates.
3 out of 5
Other things exist on Mount Ararat than the possibility of some rotting old boat. A complex web of spy organisations and agents have to work out what to do about the world's largest colony of djinn.
Mother Russia has a supernatural guardian that is holding the state together. Kim Philby, and our protagonist, Andrew Hale, are involved in both of these events, as is another agent, a woman named Elena, that both of them fancy, and have fancied.
The spycraft predominates.
3 out of 5
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Occultation - Laird Barron
I believed that Laird Barron was the greatest new horror writer around after reading his first batch, so it was slightly nervously that I approached Occultation. I had already read two of the stories - The Forest, which is an extremely good science fictional mad scientist not-quite horror depending on how you look at it story, and The Lagerstatte, which is a good ghost story. Not much of a fan of ghost stories in general, either. Could he keep it up?
I need not have worried. Occultation is every bit as outstanding as The Imago Sequence, and even a little better (3.94 as opposed to 3.89). There's nothing to match the novella Hallucigenia, but there's nothing as weak as The Royal Zoo is Closed, either. Only problem is that there are only 9 stories to be found here. Unfortunately, Barron is no speed demon.
The collection starts with its strongest story (4.5), and branches out from there. There are two 'nameless couple' terrors in Occultation (4) and Six Six Six (3.5), another Asian mundane horror story is found in Strappado (3.5), and this time in India, and another similarly in the Pacific Northwest.
This is a setting that more normally has his Mythos horrors lurking, but here a pair of investigators are alone with a past relationship on the site that used to house a cult of serial killers. So goes --30-- (4).
Catch Hell gets outside of Seattle and all pentagram and devil summoning on us, and is also a very good scary vacation tale (4).
Mysterium Tremendum (4) and The Broadsword (4.5) return to supernatural Mythos Washington State and surrounds, the former a camping and drinking tour to the site of an ancient dolmen, and the latter, despite its title, a horror hotel-now-apartments experience. These two tales demonstrate that he has established a baseline output at a very high level, and continues to build on that. As the number of tales increases, the interconnectedness between his story cycles grows, which is sure to delight his fans. On his livejournal he wrote that an upcoming story 'Blackwoods Baby' is loosely connected to Catch Hell. There you will also find his notes on what he is working on every so often, as well as announcements of new work.
The only real horror is having to wait so long for more.
So check out Occultation and his previous collection the Imago Sequence.
There is a master at work, here.
Occultation : The Forest - Laird Barron
Occultation : Occultation - Laird Barron
Occultation : The Lagerstatte - Laird Barron
Occultation : Mysterium Tremendum - Laird Barron
Occultation : Catch Hell - Laird Barron
Occultation : Strappado - Laird Barron
Occultation : The Broadsword - Laird Barron
Occultation : --30-- - Laird Barron
Occultation : Six Six Six - Laird Barron
I need not have worried. Occultation is every bit as outstanding as The Imago Sequence, and even a little better (3.94 as opposed to 3.89). There's nothing to match the novella Hallucigenia, but there's nothing as weak as The Royal Zoo is Closed, either. Only problem is that there are only 9 stories to be found here. Unfortunately, Barron is no speed demon.
The collection starts with its strongest story (4.5), and branches out from there. There are two 'nameless couple' terrors in Occultation (4) and Six Six Six (3.5), another Asian mundane horror story is found in Strappado (3.5), and this time in India, and another similarly in the Pacific Northwest.
This is a setting that more normally has his Mythos horrors lurking, but here a pair of investigators are alone with a past relationship on the site that used to house a cult of serial killers. So goes --30-- (4).
Catch Hell gets outside of Seattle and all pentagram and devil summoning on us, and is also a very good scary vacation tale (4).
Mysterium Tremendum (4) and The Broadsword (4.5) return to supernatural Mythos Washington State and surrounds, the former a camping and drinking tour to the site of an ancient dolmen, and the latter, despite its title, a horror hotel-now-apartments experience. These two tales demonstrate that he has established a baseline output at a very high level, and continues to build on that. As the number of tales increases, the interconnectedness between his story cycles grows, which is sure to delight his fans. On his livejournal he wrote that an upcoming story 'Blackwoods Baby' is loosely connected to Catch Hell. There you will also find his notes on what he is working on every so often, as well as announcements of new work.
The only real horror is having to wait so long for more.
So check out Occultation and his previous collection the Imago Sequence.
There is a master at work, here.
Occultation : The Forest - Laird Barron
Occultation : Occultation - Laird Barron
Occultation : The Lagerstatte - Laird Barron
Occultation : Mysterium Tremendum - Laird Barron
Occultation : Catch Hell - Laird Barron
Occultation : Strappado - Laird Barron
Occultation : The Broadsword - Laird Barron
Occultation : --30-- - Laird Barron
Occultation : Six Six Six - Laird Barron
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
That Leviathan Whom Thou Hast Made - Eric James Stone
First swale or anything, Neuter Kimball.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
The Lifecycle of Software Objects - Ted Chiang
Digient maturity porn port choice.
4 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2010/fiction-the-lifecycle-...
4 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2010/fiction-the-lifecycle-...
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model - Charlie Jane Anders
Just a million year exploitation job.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/08/the-fermi-paradox-is-our-business-model
3.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/08/the-fermi-paradox-is-our-business-model
No Time Like the Present - Carol Emshwiller
Much cheaper in the past.
3 out of 5
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/no-time-like-the-present/
3 out of 5
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/no-time-like-the-present/
Elegy For A Young Elk - Hannu Rajaniemi
Booze, bears and quantum relatives plague.
4 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-elegy-for-a-...
4 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-elegy-for-a-...
Under the Moons of Venus - Damien Broderick
'Massri’s dinosaur fantasy was off by a factor of at least 7.4.' Sporky.
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-moons-of-venus-by-damien-broderick/
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-moons-of-venus-by-damien-broderick/
Under the Moons of Venus - Damien Broderick
'Massri’s dinosaur fantasy was off by a factor of at least 7.4.' Sporky.
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-moons-of-venus-by-damien-broderick/
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-under-the-moons-of-venus-by-damien-broderick/
The Naturalist - Maureen F. McHugh
Zombie reserve fire Bug.
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-the-naturali...
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-the-naturali...
The Night Train - Lavie Tidhar
No-name no girl chop choice.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100614/nighttrain-f.shtml
3.5 out of 5
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100614/nighttrain-f.shtml
Amor Vincit Omnia - K. J. Parker
Total defense training.
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2010/fiction-amor-vincit-...
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2010/fiction-amor-vincit-...
Amor Vincit Omnia - K. J. Parker
Total defense training.
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2010/fiction-amor-vincit-...
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2010/fiction-amor-vincit-...
The Things - Peter Watts
Communal network rejection assimilation Goes There, that's Who.
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
The Things - Peter Watts
Communal network rejection assimilation Goes There, that's Who.
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
4.5 out of 5
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/#
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
The Nimble Men - Glen Hirshberg
The trees didn't get us.
3 out of 5
http://media.libsyn.com/media/pseudopod/Pseudo210_TheNimbleMen.mp3
3 out of 5
http://media.libsyn.com/media/pseudopod/Pseudo210_TheNimbleMen.mp3
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Slow River - Nicola Griffith
A story about a rich kid whose family has Scrooge McDuck cubed piles of filthy lucre thanks to their bioremediation work. They are, of course, part of the initial problem, as well, their class. As such, her parents are not very nice people.
A kidnapping and the fallout of such lead her away from this existence and into a life of street level cyberpunk crime and vice. That is, she gets taken in by an exponent of such.
A novel from the mid-1990s, there is a whopping great big Internet-sized hole in it that amuses you when one of the things they do is run tv advertising scams for cash. Something more of the Max Headroom era than what happens now. If you can get around the quaintness of that it is a pretty good novel all around.
Revelations about both old and new lives come to a decision point.
3.5 out of 5
A kidnapping and the fallout of such lead her away from this existence and into a life of street level cyberpunk crime and vice. That is, she gets taken in by an exponent of such.
A novel from the mid-1990s, there is a whopping great big Internet-sized hole in it that amuses you when one of the things they do is run tv advertising scams for cash. Something more of the Max Headroom era than what happens now. If you can get around the quaintness of that it is a pretty good novel all around.
Revelations about both old and new lives come to a decision point.
3.5 out of 5
Friday, October 15, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Blood of Ambrose - James Enge
Blood Of Ambrose, where to begin? It is very rare I get extremely interested in a novel these days significantly ahead of its arrival, at least if the names involved don't start with Egan, Morgan, or Reynolds. However, this was one of those rare volumes.
This, of course, was because I was quite acquainted with the extremely unique individual known as Morlock Ambrosius, Master Of Makers, thanks to the following tales :-
These are online :-
A Book Of Silences - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2009/03/book-of-silences-james-enge.html
A Covenant With Death - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/06/covenant-with-death-james-enge.html
Fire and Sleet - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2009/03/fire-and-sleet-james-enge.html
The Gordian Stone - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/11/gordian-stone-james-enge.html
The Payment In Full - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/07/payment-in-full-james-enge.html
Red Worm's Way - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/06/red-worms-way-james-enge.html
These are to be found in Black Gate magazine, which you can still buy, and even now buy electronically if as you might just find the desire for more Morlock to overtake you, like, right now.
The Lawless Hours - http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12/lawless-hours-james-enge.html
The Payment Deferred - http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12/payment-deferred-james-enge.html
Turn Up This Crooked Way - http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12/turn-up-this-crooked-way-james-enge.html
That was enough for me to preorder.
Given the apparently pseudonymous Mr Enge is a academic of an (ancient) literary bent, perhaps we can call this an episodic bildungsroman. That's about the outer limit of my literature nomenclature abilities, so no more of that. Enge apparently means hero in some ancient tongue. So a reverse-Stephenson manoeuvre by the author, if you like.
The novel itself. Or is it? Suffice it to say, this book has five parts, that could certainly work as novellas. The first three are closer together in time and circumstance, and so are the last two. It also gets progressively stranger as you progress throughout.
Now, the style. Some different. Paul Cornell likens it to Conan crossed with Raymond Chandler. I think he must have been smoking some of that whacky baccy you can get in the Faerieland some of his comics superagents go to, because, just, no. There is nothing hardboiled about this at all. Morlock is ultracompetent, certainly, but shares nothing with the Conans and Marlowes of the world apart from the tendency of the former to make a very bad enemy.
If you want an intimation of the style, then this is perhaps much more Steven Brust, with a lengthy leavening of Leiber.
More on Brust later, but a character comparison that could be made with Morlock is actually that of Doctor Who, not something I'd do often for a literary character. However, plenty of books of the former. Here you do have an extremely long-lived individual, alien, dispassionate and given to thinking his way out of trouble, where possible, helped by a large array of arcane engineering knowledge. His relationship with his sister is also rather reminiscent of the fond bickering between the Doctor and Romana. He's also prone to collecting proteges and companions. The 21st century vintage doctor has been known to get a bit gung-ho with a sword, too. Morlock, however, is not given to huge rantypants oratorically declamatory scenery-chewing. Nor of making goo-goo eyes at girls younger than his underpants, come to that, given his ex-wife. There's no K-9, but Morlock has one of the coolest pets as such that I have ever come across. Those who have read 'Turn Up This Crooked Way' will be pleased to note the reappearance of such.
The setting is a fair bit more Brust than anything involving a TARDIS, however. You could place Morlock somewhere on the continuum between Vlad and Morrolan. Deadly magic weapon, more concern for the normal human than the dragonlord end, not so much for the killing for money, though. Smartarse sidekick, certainly (even if not a telepathic flying lizard). Estranged, dangerous ex-wife, check. The elephant in the room here from a Brustian point of view is of course, Sethra Lavode. A long-lived sorceress, not human, of more than one personality, and the supreme general of her age. This description fits Morlock's sister Ambrosia one hundred percent. We'll get to squabbling lords and crazed magical situations later.
There are a few more characters, and I believe a bildungsroman book has to have someone coming of age. Given the other major characters are all well into three figures in age, even exceedingly well, we need to talk about the young King. In the first part, he's just a kid, with a Protector around who has designs on the throne, and his grandmother trying to help him. She being Ambrosia of the Ambrosii. In other words, someone the Protector would like to kill. A city divided, and supernatural agents. Civil war, magic, and mayhem in the offering. Morlock has a sister and a young king to save, if anyone can find him. That's the other thing, he's an alcoholic, and sometimes as you would expect, drunk. His dwarven assistant has to hope he can stall for time and keep the important people alive until he gets there.
The young king Lathamar is certainly the weak point of the book. While a way in for the more traditional fantasy reader, he's rather generic except for his relatives. Just a kid, so to be expected. Also Enge has skipped the whole high fantasy trope of farmboy or pigkeeper to king and just made the bloody boy the crown wearer to start with.
That doesn't disguise the fact that Morlock and various acquaintances and enemies are considerably more interesting in word and deed, as they try all manner of strangeness, tricks, magic and machines to either stay alive or kill each other. This flaw certainly prevents it from reaching the top score.
Therefore, when the young king is the main viewpoint character for extended period of times, it tends to pall a little, especially if attention is on him too long. The same thing goes for the weakest of the Morlock stories, too. There is a longer tale, 'The Lawless Hours' that features another viewpoint character for a considerable portion - but this is a veteran warrior who lives in a very strange place and is not the blank slate cypher a sheltered fearful royal child is to begin with. This is not such a problem when he's more like an older teenager than a tween.
The start of this is book is a lot better than it sounds in the above explanation, and one of the best starts to a book I have seen in a long time. You can see the first three chapters for yourself here :- http://freesf.blogspot.com/2009/04/blood-of-ambrose-1-3-james-enge.html
The second part has things getting worse, before they get better, and the third with a desperate struggle to save Ambrose, with the whole city divided thing.
I had mentioned the bickering before, so there are plenty of funny parts. Online, Enge has mentioned the unusability of the unicorn in fantasy bec
ause it has been 6-year-old-girlified to death. Here he also thumbs his nose at another piece of such pony porn, the flying horse. Somehow his antigravity alchemy tricks return him a horse than can fly. Rather, however, than a sleek painting-poster-posed-winged steed that exists to show off the rippling thews of heroes, or be directed by lithe warrior maidens over battlefields, this horse jumps around basically doing the equine equivalent of yelling 'this flying stuff is great, think I'll do some more, you monkeyboys and girls might want to get off'.
The fourth and fifth parts of the story have to do with things nastier and a lot more supernatural. The young king is a lot more competent in all arenas, including slicing things with handheld lengths of metal. A good thing, too, as Ambrosia, the Regent, is tiring, and, well, to put it simply, evil sorcerers and fanatic zombies. It isn't that simple, though, and again, a lot better than it sounds. They aren't your standard zombies, either, but this is as close a name as the characters themselves can come to describing them. Not the only monsters, either.
There are a couple of appendices on very brief appendices on the local religion and calendar.
Back to things Brustian, though. When Morlock's old comrades Guardians turn up, three of them, no less, then you may well find the repartee getting a little Dumas, or at least Brust, as thich bunch may remind you of Musketeers or Phoenix Guards a little. Especially with how those sorts of characters interact. Plus the strong one, the urbane one, the heartbroken one. No idea if the author has read Brust, but I'd find it highly unlikely he has missed Dumas, even if he has no knowledge of Romanas and robot dogs.
It should also not be forgotten than Morlock and Ambrosia are Ambrosii, which means of the line of Merlin Ambrosius. This is an alternate-Merlin. No Lancelots and kingdom destroying love triangles, or grails, either, it seems.
Anyway, I could write a lot more, but wouldn't want any deaths by boredom. A novel that is inventive and refreshingly different, especially so if you haven't seen any of the Morlock stories before, and I'll read it again. At least I'd be surprised if you've read a book before about a drunken, ex-hero, divorced son of Merlin, foster-dwarf who is a magical artificer with a dwarven sidekick, strange pets, a backpack, and a hunchback, among other things.
Plus I'd be happy to order the second book in advance.
Here are a few interviews to go on with :-
http://sfscope.com/2009/04/interview-with-james-enge-cond.html
http://www.ifyourejustjoiningus.com/podpress_trac/web/83/0/james_enge(If_Youre_Just_Joining_Us).mp3
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view;=blog&id;=18925#preview
4.5 out of 5
This, of course, was because I was quite acquainted with the extremely unique individual known as Morlock Ambrosius, Master Of Makers, thanks to the following tales :-
These are online :-
A Book Of Silences - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2009/03/book-of-silences-james-enge.html
A Covenant With Death - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/06/covenant-with-death-james-enge.html
Fire and Sleet - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2009/03/fire-and-sleet-james-enge.html
The Gordian Stone - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/11/gordian-stone-james-enge.html
The Payment In Full - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/07/payment-in-full-james-enge.html
Red Worm's Way - http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/06/red-worms-way-james-enge.html
These are to be found in Black Gate magazine, which you can still buy, and even now buy electronically if as you might just find the desire for more Morlock to overtake you, like, right now.
The Lawless Hours - http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12/lawless-hours-james-enge.html
The Payment Deferred - http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12/payment-deferred-james-enge.html
Turn Up This Crooked Way - http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12/turn-up-this-crooked-way-james-enge.html
That was enough for me to preorder.
Given the apparently pseudonymous Mr Enge is a academic of an (ancient) literary bent, perhaps we can call this an episodic bildungsroman. That's about the outer limit of my literature nomenclature abilities, so no more of that. Enge apparently means hero in some ancient tongue. So a reverse-Stephenson manoeuvre by the author, if you like.
The novel itself. Or is it? Suffice it to say, this book has five parts, that could certainly work as novellas. The first three are closer together in time and circumstance, and so are the last two. It also gets progressively stranger as you progress throughout.
Now, the style. Some different. Paul Cornell likens it to Conan crossed with Raymond Chandler. I think he must have been smoking some of that whacky baccy you can get in the Faerieland some of his comics superagents go to, because, just, no. There is nothing hardboiled about this at all. Morlock is ultracompetent, certainly, but shares nothing with the Conans and Marlowes of the world apart from the tendency of the former to make a very bad enemy.
If you want an intimation of the style, then this is perhaps much more Steven Brust, with a lengthy leavening of Leiber.
More on Brust later, but a character comparison that could be made with Morlock is actually that of Doctor Who, not something I'd do often for a literary character. However, plenty of books of the former. Here you do have an extremely long-lived individual, alien, dispassionate and given to thinking his way out of trouble, where possible, helped by a large array of arcane engineering knowledge. His relationship with his sister is also rather reminiscent of the fond bickering between the Doctor and Romana. He's also prone to collecting proteges and companions. The 21st century vintage doctor has been known to get a bit gung-ho with a sword, too. Morlock, however, is not given to huge rantypants oratorically declamatory scenery-chewing. Nor of making goo-goo eyes at girls younger than his underpants, come to that, given his ex-wife. There's no K-9, but Morlock has one of the coolest pets as such that I have ever come across. Those who have read 'Turn Up This Crooked Way' will be pleased to note the reappearance of such.
The setting is a fair bit more Brust than anything involving a TARDIS, however. You could place Morlock somewhere on the continuum between Vlad and Morrolan. Deadly magic weapon, more concern for the normal human than the dragonlord end, not so much for the killing for money, though. Smartarse sidekick, certainly (even if not a telepathic flying lizard). Estranged, dangerous ex-wife, check. The elephant in the room here from a Brustian point of view is of course, Sethra Lavode. A long-lived sorceress, not human, of more than one personality, and the supreme general of her age. This description fits Morlock's sister Ambrosia one hundred percent. We'll get to squabbling lords and crazed magical situations later.
There are a few more characters, and I believe a bildungsroman book has to have someone coming of age. Given the other major characters are all well into three figures in age, even exceedingly well, we need to talk about the young King. In the first part, he's just a kid, with a Protector around who has designs on the throne, and his grandmother trying to help him. She being Ambrosia of the Ambrosii. In other words, someone the Protector would like to kill. A city divided, and supernatural agents. Civil war, magic, and mayhem in the offering. Morlock has a sister and a young king to save, if anyone can find him. That's the other thing, he's an alcoholic, and sometimes as you would expect, drunk. His dwarven assistant has to hope he can stall for time and keep the important people alive until he gets there.
The young king Lathamar is certainly the weak point of the book. While a way in for the more traditional fantasy reader, he's rather generic except for his relatives. Just a kid, so to be expected. Also Enge has skipped the whole high fantasy trope of farmboy or pigkeeper to king and just made the bloody boy the crown wearer to start with.
That doesn't disguise the fact that Morlock and various acquaintances and enemies are considerably more interesting in word and deed, as they try all manner of strangeness, tricks, magic and machines to either stay alive or kill each other. This flaw certainly prevents it from reaching the top score.
Therefore, when the young king is the main viewpoint character for extended period of times, it tends to pall a little, especially if attention is on him too long. The same thing goes for the weakest of the Morlock stories, too. There is a longer tale, 'The Lawless Hours' that features another viewpoint character for a considerable portion - but this is a veteran warrior who lives in a very strange place and is not the blank slate cypher a sheltered fearful royal child is to begin with. This is not such a problem when he's more like an older teenager than a tween.
The start of this is book is a lot better than it sounds in the above explanation, and one of the best starts to a book I have seen in a long time. You can see the first three chapters for yourself here :- http://freesf.blogspot.com/2009/04/blood-of-ambrose-1-3-james-enge.html
The second part has things getting worse, before they get better, and the third with a desperate struggle to save Ambrose, with the whole city divided thing.
I had mentioned the bickering before, so there are plenty of funny parts. Online, Enge has mentioned the unusability of the unicorn in fantasy bec
ause it has been 6-year-old-girlified to death. Here he also thumbs his nose at another piece of such pony porn, the flying horse. Somehow his antigravity alchemy tricks return him a horse than can fly. Rather, however, than a sleek painting-poster-posed-winged steed that exists to show off the rippling thews of heroes, or be directed by lithe warrior maidens over battlefields, this horse jumps around basically doing the equine equivalent of yelling 'this flying stuff is great, think I'll do some more, you monkeyboys and girls might want to get off'.
The fourth and fifth parts of the story have to do with things nastier and a lot more supernatural. The young king is a lot more competent in all arenas, including slicing things with handheld lengths of metal. A good thing, too, as Ambrosia, the Regent, is tiring, and, well, to put it simply, evil sorcerers and fanatic zombies. It isn't that simple, though, and again, a lot better than it sounds. They aren't your standard zombies, either, but this is as close a name as the characters themselves can come to describing them. Not the only monsters, either.
There are a couple of appendices on very brief appendices on the local religion and calendar.
Back to things Brustian, though. When Morlock's old comrades Guardians turn up, three of them, no less, then you may well find the repartee getting a little Dumas, or at least Brust, as thich bunch may remind you of Musketeers or Phoenix Guards a little. Especially with how those sorts of characters interact. Plus the strong one, the urbane one, the heartbroken one. No idea if the author has read Brust, but I'd find it highly unlikely he has missed Dumas, even if he has no knowledge of Romanas and robot dogs.
It should also not be forgotten than Morlock and Ambrosia are Ambrosii, which means of the line of Merlin Ambrosius. This is an alternate-Merlin. No Lancelots and kingdom destroying love triangles, or grails, either, it seems.
Anyway, I could write a lot more, but wouldn't want any deaths by boredom. A novel that is inventive and refreshingly different, especially so if you haven't seen any of the Morlock stories before, and I'll read it again. At least I'd be surprised if you've read a book before about a drunken, ex-hero, divorced son of Merlin, foster-dwarf who is a magical artificer with a dwarven sidekick, strange pets, a backpack, and a hunchback, among other things.
Plus I'd be happy to order the second book in advance.
Here are a few interviews to go on with :-
http://sfscope.com/2009/04/interview-with-james-enge-cond.html
http://www.ifyourejustjoiningus.com/podpress_trac/web/83/0/james_enge(If_Youre_Just_Joining_Us).mp3
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view;=blog&id;=18925#preview
4.5 out of 5
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Her Voice In A Bottle - Tim Pratt
Very mushy porting.
2.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/winter-2009/fiction-her-voice-in...
2.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/winter-2009/fiction-her-voice-in...
The Death Of Che Guevara - Lewis Shiner
Rivers of blood and big Southern walls.
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2009/fiction-the-death-of-c...
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2009/fiction-the-death-of-c...
The Island - Peter Watts
Gate Mission live Dyson sphere violence Chimp conflict.
4 out of 5
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061562358
4 out of 5
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061562358
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Handover - Michael Marshall Smith
Would the last one to die please take down the sign?
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Island - Peter Watts
Gate Mission live Dyson sphere violence Chimp conflict.
4 out of 5
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/in...
4 out of 5
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/in...
One Of Our Bastards Is Missing - Paul Cornell
Queenfold deception Balance rescue.
4.5 out of 5
http://www.solarisbooks.com/downloads/New_SF_3_-_One_of_Our_Bastards.pdf
4.5 out of 5
http://www.solarisbooks.com/downloads/New_SF_3_-_One_of_Our_Bastards.pdf
Overtime - Charles Stross
Tentacle monstrosities like mince pies too.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=58511
3.5 out of 5
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=58511
Palimpset - Charles Stross
Stasis self-inflicted senior self slaying separation self-Opposition.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Vishnu At the Cat Circus - Ian MacDonald
Too much AI and uploading could be bad for lots of universes.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
Thai generip terror.
It Bacigalupi ever writes anything that is sweetness and light, that right there would be likely proof of the Many Worlds Theory and the fact that you had slipped into an alternate universe.
The setting is Bangkok, or, colloquially, Krung Thep. It is also a near future dystopia. The city now houses many displaced Chinese refugees from a Malaysia turned fundamentalist muslim fanatics. (See his story Yellow Card Man for background) Bangkok itself is only kept from drowning by engineering and technology.
This is a post-oil world, with very little petroleum technology available, remaining. No evidence of solar tech, either, really. Power is provided by human labor and genetically engineered highly efficient animals pourding kinetic energy into springs, which then can be used to power machines. Treadle computers, even. Countries have shrunk in upon themselves as a result, but are beginning to look outward again, with ships, and dirigibles. This makes this setting rather unlike the mass-media or AI ridden future India and Brasil etc. of Ian McDonald's devising.
Particularly nasty are the 'calorie companies' - organisations that have the ability to manufacture crops in large supply: but their crops are sterile, so you always need to go back for more. That is if bugs and plagues 'weevils' and 'blister rust' do not get them. Much dirty, violent dealing in support of this activity (see his story The Calorie Man) and there are mentions of it going horribly wrong in other countries. One of the questions this raises is how they manage to stay around - why, with such hatred of them, are the calorie men and women not mercilessly hunted and slaughtered. The only intimations you get of this are economic power, based in the USA. Also China is apparently dysfunctional, and many other countries are devastated. Thailand, through foresight, is struggling on, and is hence a point of interest. Their genetic stocks and the genetic engineering expert they have on hand to help defend them are of interest to all.
The rapidly mutating diseases caused by genetic engineering meddling and conflict kill many - with mainly the calorie companies having the resources to combat their own hellish offspring, if they care to. Mutated cats with no real predators except humans have also destroyed a lot of the food chain.
The novel has many viewpoints:
Anderson Lake, An American calorie man representative, brought in to try and increase productivity at a factory working on more efficient power springs. More than he seems, however.
Hock Seng, The Yellow Card Man, an elderly fallen Chinese merchant who escaped massacres and now works for Lake.
Emiko, The Windup Girl. A Japanese artificially created human. Unable to reproduce, overheats easily but has many unknown talents. Left behind by her owner, currently a working bar girl.
Kanya, an officer in the Environment Ministry's corps of field soldiers responsible for protecting the city from incursions of disease, animals and artificial humans.
Conflict develops from many angles - there is longstanding resentment between the Environment Ministry and Trade Ministry because of different philosophies, inward, and outward looking, respectively. The foreign merchants look to exploit this. Then there is of course anti-refugee racism. As mentioned before, and historically, the Asian against Asian racism or nationalism is quite horrific.
The novel leaves you uneasy the whole way through, but fascinated. After many thousands of stories I am not easy to surprise. I had no idea what the hell was going to happen in this book, apart from the fact that it was likely to be bloody. The writing is excellent. Bacigalupi is a major talent, if unfortunately not very prolific.
Hard to predict, but I think this novel is quite likely to be important in the sense of SF history. It is brilliant, in its all sweating dystopian style.
Forget whatever else you are reading, and speed browse to Webscriptions where this is a available multiformat DRM free (thankfully, given its theme). Hopefully it will do well enough so his collection 'Pump Six' becomes available, too. This is good enough to buy in any or all varieties, however.
It is that rare beast, a 5 star novel. Great at the start, great in the middle, great at the end.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/315952/The_Windup_Girl_Paolo_Bacigalupi.pdf
http://freesf.blogspot.com/2010/01/windup-girl-paolo-bacigalupi.html
It Bacigalupi ever writes anything that is sweetness and light, that right there would be likely proof of the Many Worlds Theory and the fact that you had slipped into an alternate universe.
The setting is Bangkok, or, colloquially, Krung Thep. It is also a near future dystopia. The city now houses many displaced Chinese refugees from a Malaysia turned fundamentalist muslim fanatics. (See his story Yellow Card Man for background) Bangkok itself is only kept from drowning by engineering and technology.
This is a post-oil world, with very little petroleum technology available, remaining. No evidence of solar tech, either, really. Power is provided by human labor and genetically engineered highly efficient animals pourding kinetic energy into springs, which then can be used to power machines. Treadle computers, even. Countries have shrunk in upon themselves as a result, but are beginning to look outward again, with ships, and dirigibles. This makes this setting rather unlike the mass-media or AI ridden future India and Brasil etc. of Ian McDonald's devising.
Particularly nasty are the 'calorie companies' - organisations that have the ability to manufacture crops in large supply: but their crops are sterile, so you always need to go back for more. That is if bugs and plagues 'weevils' and 'blister rust' do not get them. Much dirty, violent dealing in support of this activity (see his story The Calorie Man) and there are mentions of it going horribly wrong in other countries. One of the questions this raises is how they manage to stay around - why, with such hatred of them, are the calorie men and women not mercilessly hunted and slaughtered. The only intimations you get of this are economic power, based in the USA. Also China is apparently dysfunctional, and many other countries are devastated. Thailand, through foresight, is struggling on, and is hence a point of interest. Their genetic stocks and the genetic engineering expert they have on hand to help defend them are of interest to all.
The rapidly mutating diseases caused by genetic engineering meddling and conflict kill many - with mainly the calorie companies having the resources to combat their own hellish offspring, if they care to. Mutated cats with no real predators except humans have also destroyed a lot of the food chain.
The novel has many viewpoints:
Anderson Lake, An American calorie man representative, brought in to try and increase productivity at a factory working on more efficient power springs. More than he seems, however.
Hock Seng, The Yellow Card Man, an elderly fallen Chinese merchant who escaped massacres and now works for Lake.
Emiko, The Windup Girl. A Japanese artificially created human. Unable to reproduce, overheats easily but has many unknown talents. Left behind by her owner, currently a working bar girl.
Kanya, an officer in the Environment Ministry's corps of field soldiers responsible for protecting the city from incursions of disease, animals and artificial humans.
Conflict develops from many angles - there is longstanding resentment between the Environment Ministry and Trade Ministry because of different philosophies, inward, and outward looking, respectively. The foreign merchants look to exploit this. Then there is of course anti-refugee racism. As mentioned before, and historically, the Asian against Asian racism or nationalism is quite horrific.
The novel leaves you uneasy the whole way through, but fascinated. After many thousands of stories I am not easy to surprise. I had no idea what the hell was going to happen in this book, apart from the fact that it was likely to be bloody. The writing is excellent. Bacigalupi is a major talent, if unfortunately not very prolific.
Hard to predict, but I think this novel is quite likely to be important in the sense of SF history. It is brilliant, in its all sweating dystopian style.
Forget whatever else you are reading, and speed browse to Webscriptions where this is a available multiformat DRM free (thankfully, given its theme). Hopefully it will do well enough so his collection 'Pump Six' becomes available, too. This is good enough to buy in any or all varieties, however.
It is that rare beast, a 5 star novel. Great at the start, great in the middle, great at the end.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/315952/The_Windup_Girl_Paolo_Bacigalupi.pdf
http://freesf.blogspot.com/2010/01/windup-girl-paolo-bacigalupi.html
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Inquiry Concerning The Curvature Of The Earth's Surface - Roger Price
Roundly conservative.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Monday, March 1, 2010
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Patient Zero - Jonathan Maberry
If Green Lantern Hal Jordan is The Man Without Fear, then police officer Joe Ledger is The Man Without Hesitation. The Green Lantern reference is actually explicit in the novel, as the head scientist points out that Joe Ledger is the secret identity of the Marvel Comics analogue of Green Lantern - Dr Spectrum. There is in fact a Marvel Zombies ad at the back of the book, too. With a few more references throughout.
This lack of hesitation with either handgun or hands and feet saves Joe's life when he comes across a rather shocking terrorist. It also brings him to the attention of the Department of Military Science and their recruiters. (Yes, it is a thriller, you have to have a clandestine yank government department). I think it is close to mandatory that you have a traitor when you have a secret department, too. Particularly if the head of such is a man of mystery. When they bring him in for an interview, he is extremely surprised to discover the terrorist he killed is still walking around, even if zombified.
The DMS have come across this before, to their great cost - which is why they need Ledger's so far survivability skills - as run of the mill agents and soldiers freeze up or freak out when facing zombies. Which is a pretty reasonable reaction.
There's also a middle eastern terrorist plot, a supervillain biologist-billionaire team-up, and of course a coming attack on the USA to deal with along with a lot of zombie killing.
There are some minor problems - the only bisexual character, proclivities highlighed in detail is the amoral evil assistant - although apparently military types aren't allowed to talk about that, so perhaps more likely here.
Also, the clue from captured dying terrorist flunkie researcher is obvious to everybody reading the book - except for the geniuses at the DMS who are supposed to be a lot smarter than us, and have super software apparently way ahead of Carnivore and Echelon.
Still, Joe is an engaging character. So much so that the part of the books with the supervillains as viewpoint characters you want to finish, so you can get back to Ledger and his hardarsed arsekickery with his new team.
I'll call this a 3.75 rounded up, because hey, bonus points for Squadron Supreme references.
4 out of 5
This lack of hesitation with either handgun or hands and feet saves Joe's life when he comes across a rather shocking terrorist. It also brings him to the attention of the Department of Military Science and their recruiters. (Yes, it is a thriller, you have to have a clandestine yank government department). I think it is close to mandatory that you have a traitor when you have a secret department, too. Particularly if the head of such is a man of mystery. When they bring him in for an interview, he is extremely surprised to discover the terrorist he killed is still walking around, even if zombified.
The DMS have come across this before, to their great cost - which is why they need Ledger's so far survivability skills - as run of the mill agents and soldiers freeze up or freak out when facing zombies. Which is a pretty reasonable reaction.
There's also a middle eastern terrorist plot, a supervillain biologist-billionaire team-up, and of course a coming attack on the USA to deal with along with a lot of zombie killing.
There are some minor problems - the only bisexual character, proclivities highlighed in detail is the amoral evil assistant - although apparently military types aren't allowed to talk about that, so perhaps more likely here.
Also, the clue from captured dying terrorist flunkie researcher is obvious to everybody reading the book - except for the geniuses at the DMS who are supposed to be a lot smarter than us, and have super software apparently way ahead of Carnivore and Echelon.
Still, Joe is an engaging character. So much so that the part of the books with the supervillains as viewpoint characters you want to finish, so you can get back to Ledger and his hardarsed arsekickery with his new team.
I'll call this a 3.75 rounded up, because hey, bonus points for Squadron Supreme references.
4 out of 5
Divining Light - Ted Kosmatka
Double slit experiment not froggy or doggy, or even hairy ape. Most of the monkeyboys are collapsible though.
4 out of 5
Divining Light - Ted Kosmatka
4 out of 5
Divining Light - Ted Kosmatka
The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
Thai generip terror.
It Bacigalupi ever writes anything that is sweetness and light, that right there would be likely proof of the Many Worlds Theory and the fact that you had slipped into an alternate universe.
The setting is Bangkok, or, colloquially, Krung Thep. It is also a near future dystopia. The city now houses many displaced Chinese refugees from a Malaysia turned fundamentalist muslim fanatics. (See his story Yellow Card Man for background) Bangkok itself is only kept from drowning by engineering and technology.
This is a post-oil world, with very little petroleum technology available, remaining. No evidence of solar tech, either, really. Power is provided by human labor and genetically engineered highly efficient animals pourding kinetic energy into springs, which then can be used to power machines. Treadle computers, even. Countries have shrunk in upon themselves as a result, but are beginning to look outward again, with ships, and dirigibles. This makes this setting rather unlike the mass-media or AI ridden future India and Brasil etc. of Ian McDonald's devising.
Particularly nasty are the 'calorie companies' - organisations that have the ability to manufacture crops in large supply: but their crops are sterile, so you always need to go back for more. That is if bugs and plagues 'weevils' and 'blister rust' do not get them. Much dirty, violent dealing in support of this activity (see his story The Calorie Man) and there are mentions of it going horribly wrong in other countries. One of the questions this raises is how they manage to stay around - why, with such hatred of them, are the calorie men and women not mercilessly hunted and slaughtered. The only intimations you get of this are economic power, based in the USA. Also China is apparently dysfunctional, and many other countries are devastated. Thailand, through foresight, is struggling on, and is hence a point of interest. Their genetic stocks and the genetic engineering expert they have on hand to help defend them are of interest to all.
The rapidly mutating diseases caused by genetic engineering meddling and conflict kill many - with mainly the calorie companies having the resources to combat their own hellish offspring, if they care to. Mutated cats with no real predators except humans have also destroyed a lot of the food chain.
The novel has many viewpoints:
Anderson Lake, An American calorie man representative, brought in to try and increase productivity at a factory working on more efficient power springs. More than he seems, however.
Hock Seng, The Yellow Card Man, an elderly fallen Chinese merchant who escaped massacres and now works for Lake.
Emiko, The Windup Girl. A Japanese artificially created human. Unable to reproduce, overheats easily but has many unknown talents. Left behind by her owner, currently a working bar girl.
Kanya, an officer in the Environment Ministry's corps of field soldiers responsible for protecting the city from incursions of disease, animals and artificial humans.
Conflict develops from many angles - there is longstanding resentment between the Environment Ministry and Trade Ministry because of different philosophies, inward, and outward looking, respectively. The foreign merchants look to exploit this. Then there is of course anti-refugee racism. As mentioned before, and historically, the Asian against Asian racism or nationalism is quite horrific.
The novel leaves you uneasy the whole way through, but fascinated. After many thousands of stories I am not easy to surprise. I had no idea what the hell was going to happen in this book, apart from the fact that it was likely to be bloody. The writing is excellent. Bacigalupi is a major talent, if unfortunately not very prolific.
Hard to predict, but I think this novel is quite likely to be important in the sense of SF history. It is brilliant, in its all sweating dystopian style.
Forget whatever else you are reading, and speed browse to Webscriptions where this is a available multiformat DRM free (thankfully, given its theme). Hopefully it will do well enough so his collection 'Pump Six' becomes available, too. This is good enough to buy in any or all varieties, however.
It is that rare beast, a 5 star novel. Great at the start, great in the middle, great at the end.
5 out of 5
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/315952/The_Windu...
It Bacigalupi ever writes anything that is sweetness and light, that right there would be likely proof of the Many Worlds Theory and the fact that you had slipped into an alternate universe.
The setting is Bangkok, or, colloquially, Krung Thep. It is also a near future dystopia. The city now houses many displaced Chinese refugees from a Malaysia turned fundamentalist muslim fanatics. (See his story Yellow Card Man for background) Bangkok itself is only kept from drowning by engineering and technology.
This is a post-oil world, with very little petroleum technology available, remaining. No evidence of solar tech, either, really. Power is provided by human labor and genetically engineered highly efficient animals pourding kinetic energy into springs, which then can be used to power machines. Treadle computers, even. Countries have shrunk in upon themselves as a result, but are beginning to look outward again, with ships, and dirigibles. This makes this setting rather unlike the mass-media or AI ridden future India and Brasil etc. of Ian McDonald's devising.
Particularly nasty are the 'calorie companies' - organisations that have the ability to manufacture crops in large supply: but their crops are sterile, so you always need to go back for more. That is if bugs and plagues 'weevils' and 'blister rust' do not get them. Much dirty, violent dealing in support of this activity (see his story The Calorie Man) and there are mentions of it going horribly wrong in other countries. One of the questions this raises is how they manage to stay around - why, with such hatred of them, are the calorie men and women not mercilessly hunted and slaughtered. The only intimations you get of this are economic power, based in the USA. Also China is apparently dysfunctional, and many other countries are devastated. Thailand, through foresight, is struggling on, and is hence a point of interest. Their genetic stocks and the genetic engineering expert they have on hand to help defend them are of interest to all.
The rapidly mutating diseases caused by genetic engineering meddling and conflict kill many - with mainly the calorie companies having the resources to combat their own hellish offspring, if they care to. Mutated cats with no real predators except humans have also destroyed a lot of the food chain.
The novel has many viewpoints:
Anderson Lake, An American calorie man representative, brought in to try and increase productivity at a factory working on more efficient power springs. More than he seems, however.
Hock Seng, The Yellow Card Man, an elderly fallen Chinese merchant who escaped massacres and now works for Lake.
Emiko, The Windup Girl. A Japanese artificially created human. Unable to reproduce, overheats easily but has many unknown talents. Left behind by her owner, currently a working bar girl.
Kanya, an officer in the Environment Ministry's corps of field soldiers responsible for protecting the city from incursions of disease, animals and artificial humans.
Conflict develops from many angles - there is longstanding resentment between the Environment Ministry and Trade Ministry because of different philosophies, inward, and outward looking, respectively. The foreign merchants look to exploit this. Then there is of course anti-refugee racism. As mentioned before, and historically, the Asian against Asian racism or nationalism is quite horrific.
The novel leaves you uneasy the whole way through, but fascinated. After many thousands of stories I am not easy to surprise. I had no idea what the hell was going to happen in this book, apart from the fact that it was likely to be bloody. The writing is excellent. Bacigalupi is a major talent, if unfortunately not very prolific.
Hard to predict, but I think this novel is quite likely to be important in the sense of SF history. It is brilliant, in its all sweating dystopian style.
Forget whatever else you are reading, and speed browse to Webscriptions where this is a available multiformat DRM free (thankfully, given its theme). Hopefully it will do well enough so his collection 'Pump Six' becomes available, too. This is good enough to buy in any or all varieties, however.
It is that rare beast, a 5 star novel. Great at the start, great in the middle, great at the end.
5 out of 5
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/315952/The_Windu...
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Highway Code - Brian Stableford
Long haul robots must roll, except in case of volcano rescue.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
The Island - Peter Watts
Gate Mission live Dyson sphere violence Chimp conflict.
4 out of 5
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/in...
4 out of 5
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/in...
This Peaceable Land Or The Unbearable Vision Of Harriet Beecher Stowe - Robert Charles Wilson
Liberty Lodge pictorial illumination.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5