$1.99 Kindle special, March 2, 2018, for this 2010 Newbery award winner. And karen gave it 5 stars! so I'm off to buy it now.$1.99 Kindle special, March 2, 2018, for this 2010 Newbery award winner. And karen gave it 5 stars! so I'm off to buy it now....more
3.5 stars. This space opera novel grew on me with the second read. The plot’s a bit opaque and convoluted, but I really enjoyed the characters. Review3.5 stars. This space opera novel grew on me with the second read. The plot’s a bit opaque and convoluted, but I really enjoyed the characters. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
The Cold Between is a gritty mystery mixed with romance, wrapped in a space opera setting. It begins with a brief prologue in which the Central Corps spaceship Phoenix is about to detonate a large bomb. One of the medical crew, Kate, scrambles to prepare for the explosion, a little distracted by thoughts of her family, especially her twelve year old son Greg. Jumping forward twenty-five years, the Central Corps spaceship Galileo, with Greg Foster as its captain, is visiting the colony planet of Volhynia, near the wormhole where his mother’s spaceship was accidentally destroyed in the explosion years ago. While Greg deals with the mystery of the still-high radiation from the explosion and a diplomatic incident involving a nomadic spacefaring group called PSI, much of his crew is enjoying shore leave. Galileo’s chief engineer, Commander Elena Shaw, unexpectedly finds an older man in a bar who she clicks with, Treiko (Trey) Zajec, and takes off with him for a long night of sex and gourmet desserts.
When they part the next morning, Trey finds the murdered corpse of Elena’s crewmate and former lover, Danny, practically on his doorstep. Trey is promptly accused of Danny’s murder and arrested. Elena ― realizing that Trey couldn’t possibly have committed the murder because he was with her the entire night and they never slept, at all ― determines to rescue him.
Oddly, Volhynia’s law enforcement still seems intent on charging Trey with the murder, ignoring the fact that there’s the real killer on the loose. As Elena, Trey, and Greg (who’s rather reluctantly dragged into this mess) dig deeper, they find that the current mystery has seemingly inexplicable ties to the twenty-five year old tragedy, the mysterious explosion of the Phoenix.
The Cold Between has some interesting main characters with solid characterization. Greg Foster and Elena have been friends for years, but their relationship is strained because Greg, who is (very unhappily) married, is nevertheless clearly developing strong feelings for Elena, who doesn’t understand why he’s been snapping at her and pushing her away. Her relationship with Trey is actually a healthy one, but might not be sustainable because of their different lives.
The unusually strong emphasis on the personalities and interpersonal relationships (not just romantic ones) is both good and bad: while it pulled me in, it also resulted in the world-building and the mystery getting somewhat short shrift. I never got a great feel for the Central Corps organization beyond bureaucracy, or for their sometime-allies, the PSI, who have a reputation as pirates despite their stated humanitarian work. Additionally, considering the Galileo has a military environment, the amount of arguing with superior officers, disregarding of orders, and near-mutiny is truly eyebrow-raising. Admittedly, it’s a different society, but that kind of culture doesn’t seem sustainable on board a ship.
It’s been several months since I finished reading The Cold Between, and while I did enjoy it quite a lot while reading it and remember the main characters and their personalities quite well, I recall very little of the nature of the mystery and its ultimate resolution. Bonesteel has a ways to go before she can be compared to Lois McMaster Bujold, who seems to effortlessly juggle characters, plot and setting, excelling at all. But I did get more attached to Elena, Greg and the other crew members of the Galileo than Kat (my co-reviewer at Fantasy Literature) did. If I continue with this series, it’ll be because I want to find out what happens with those characters.
Content notes: Countless F-bombs, one explicit sex scene, violence.
Original post: The publicist sent me the sequel to this book a while back, but I decided I needed to do this series in order (jumping into a series midstream doesn't tend to work so well for me). Luckily for me this one showed up on a Kindle sale! ETA: Apparently I didn't care enough about these characters to keep up with the series ... but I still have the third book on my bookshelf and keep thinking, one of these times. 2020 update: Apparently now is the time. I just reread this and then ordered a copy of the second book....more
4 stars for Umbernight, an SF suspense novella with elements of horror; 3 stars for the other two stories in this issue that I've read so far. Umberni4 stars for Umbernight, an SF suspense novella with elements of horror; 3 stars for the other two stories in this issue that I've read so far. Umbernight review first posted on Fantasy Literature. Stories are free to read online at Clarkesworld:
The colony on the world known as “Dust” has a hardscrabble existence, huddled in a cave habitat with only a few brave souls, like the narrator Michiko (Mick), venturing to explore any distance from the habitat. The ancestors of their group broke away from their homeworld due to oppression by the religious majority, taking a spaceship to Dust to live lives based on purely rationalist principles ― which have become almost a religion in themselves, especially for the older colonists. To make matters worse, Dust is a binary system with a second star, Umber, that is mostly shrouded by a dust cloud, but during the world’s years-long winter the shroud periodically parts at night, bathing Dust in fierce radiation, which killed two-thirds of the original settlers.
The colony is slowly recovering, and is now a few hundred people. But living conditions are still basic, so everyone is immensely excited to realize that a cargo capsule from the homeworld, sent long ago by their ancestors by slow solar sail, is due to land in 650 hours, several days’ journey away. Its contents are unknown, but the previous two capsules contained vital supplies. Unfortunately, winter ― and the radiation-filled nights ― are due to begin at any time. When Mick is chosen to lead a team of volunteers to fetch the capsule, she knows their quest might be a deadly one.
Umbernight is a tension-filled story, where danger, horror and ironies abound. Courage manifests in different ways with the various characters … but courage isn’t always enough to get you through. The setting reminded me of another SF short story I read several years ago, the name of which now escapes me, about a colony world where unspeakable dangers come out at night, traumatizing the reporter sent to experience a day or two of life on this planet (if this older story is familiar to anyone, I’d love to be reminded of the name of it!). Gilman puts her own unique twist on the tale of a hostile planet, with her gripping description of the group’s fight to survive and make it back home with the unknown supplies from the capsule.
2.5 stars for "The Power is Out" by A Que. This bleak story is notable mostly for its dystopian Chinese setting and often ironically-named characters (Fortune, Beauty, Innocence, etc.).
3 stars for "Deep Down in The Cloud" by Julie Novakova (this new review also now posted on Fantasy Literature). This SF short story is set in a near-future version of our world, a few years after a freak cycle of solar storms knocks out satellite communications, freely available internet and other technology and triggers a slide into what seems to be a milder form of dystopia. Mariana, Hector and Iku are on an illegal, hazardous mission to destroy the deep sea datacenter of Augur, the massive corporation that now controls society. The multiple flashbacks illuminate Mariana’s feelings toward this new Augur-controlled world and her willingness to use her hacking abilities when Iku offers her and Hector the job, as well as Mariana’s and Hector’s speculation on who, or what, Iku is. “Frogman” may not mean the same thing in this future world as it does in ours.
The world-building is slight here, but the underwater setting compelled my attention, particularly in combination with the futuristic high tech protections surrounding Augur’s data center. Toward the end, though, the story, like the water, gets a little murky. Julie Novakova intriguingly references Iku-Turso, a mythical Finnish sea monster, but doesn’t delve deeply enough into the myth or its relevance to her story to give it any lasting resonance....more
Update: Full review added for "The Starship and the Temple Cat," about a brave ghost cat. Seriously, cat lovers need to go read this story! (link beloUpdate: Full review added for "The Starship and the Temple Cat," about a brave ghost cat. Seriously, cat lovers need to go read this story! (link below) It's lovely.
There are three short stories in this issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, free online here. I've read two so far:
4.5 stars for "The Starship and the Temple Cat" by Yoon Ha Lee: The Seventy-Eighth Temple Cat of the High Bells is a ghost cat … but then, everyone else in the City of High Bells is a ghost as well. Years ago the Fleet Lords’ spaceships bombed the City, which was actually a space station, though a very restful-sounding one. But after the bombing, the cat is the only remaining temple cat ghost, and gradually all of the peoples’ ghosts have left as well.
One by one the ghosts of her people departed, despite her efforts to get them to stay. She purred—ghost cats are just as good at purring as the living kind—and she coaxed and she cajoled, as cats do. But the ghosts wearied of their long vigil, and they slipped away nonetheless.
So the cat is alone when the sentient starship Spectral Lance appears, seeking to find peace and do penance for its past misdeeds as part of the Fleet Lords’ forces. Unfortunately the Fleet Lords’ hunters are on the ship’s trail.
Stories of brave little cats are guaranteed to worm their way into my heart, but “The Starship and the Temple Cat” isn’t just a sentimental tale. Yoon Ha Lee deftly draws the temple cat’s character in a way that feels realistic and true to cats’ personalities, and fills this tale with evocative details about life in the peaceful temple, contrasting it with the vast destruction caused by the starships. This story deals with timeless themes of loyalty, courage and redemption in a way that feels fresh and new.
This story is more straightforward than some of the other Yoon Ha Lee stories I've read. Bonus points for such a lovely character in the brave and loyal temple cat! Cat lovers will be delighted with her.
4 stars for "Where the Anchor Lies" by Benjamin C. Kinney: Staff-General Eita is on a pilgrimage to a graveyard of warships, seeking the remains of the Vanguard, the ship with which she once shared a deep and devoted mental link. Eita is accompanied by two floating avatars, a journalist one and one for the Directorate. If the Chancellor realizes her true purpose in seeking out the Vanguard, she'll be in trouble. Some interesting political overtones to this one.
Theodora “Teddy” Cannon is hiding her short black hair and slight build under a long blonde wig, weighted underwear that adds thirty pounds, and cheap flashy clothing. It’s all in an effort to fool the security personnel and facial recognition software at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. There she plans to parlay her $5,000 bankroll (from selling her car) into enough money to pay back the $270,000 she owes to Sergei Zharkov, a vicious Vegas bookie, and her adoptive parents, who know Teddy has been living an aimless and trouble-strewn life but are unaware that she’s stolen $90,000 from their retirement account to make a partial payment to Zharkov. Teddy knows she has the talent to “read” other card players almost faultlessly ― it’s led to her being banned from all the casinos on the Strip ― and is confident that she can win big at Texas Hold ’Em if she isn’t spotted and kicked out. Her plan is working like a dream … until her talent suddenly abandons her in the middle of a crucial hand and she loses everything.
About that same time both Zharkov and the casino recognize Teddy ― apparently bad luck comes in threes ― and give chase. Teddy is mysteriously saved by a stranger, an NFL linebacker-sized man who springs several surprises on her: He knows who she is and how much money she owes, and to whom. Her ability to read other gamblers is actually a psychic ability. And he will pay back all her debts if she will come to the Whitfield Institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development, which is secretly a school for training psychically-gifted young adults.
Teddy is a rebel and a rule-breaker, but she’s smart enough to recognize a deal that shouldn’t be refused. A day and a plane and boat ride later, she’s at the Whitfield Institute on an island off the California coast, meeting other new students with a wide range of psychic gifts, from telepathy to animal-speaking to firestarting. So far so fun, but Teddy is also a loner with trust issues and has a hard time fitting in, especially when it becomes clear that she’s having difficulty getting a handle on her psychic gifts.
Stir in a hostile professor with a grudge against Teddy and the “Misfits” group she hangs out with, a couple of hot guys who are interested in Teddy, a conspiracy and a few mysteries, and you’ve got a breezy, fast-paced story that reads quickly. Unfortunately School for Psychics never really engaged me, for numerous reasons. The plot is somewhat choppy, occasionally skipping over periods of time or important events with a noticeable lack of subtlety or smoothness and glossing over elements that don’t really make sense (for example, how did Teddy manage to land herself almost $300,000 in debt when she had a near-infallible talent for gambling?). It’s also cliché-ridden, relying on over-familiar tropes like the misfits vs. the alphas and the main character who, initially at a daunting disadvantage talent-wise, develops ― surprise! ― an Extra-Special Super Cool Talent.
The characters are mostly one-dimensional and familiar types. Teddy, though more complex, isn’t particularly likable, though readers who appreciate rebellious and troubled protagonists may enjoy her more than I did. School for Psychics has a New Adult vibe (with no interest in a committed relationship, Teddy hops into bed with a couple of different guys) but the students at the Whitfield Institute act more like teenagers. It irritated me as a reader when Teddy and her friends made several poor decisions. In particular, there’s one mind-bogglingly bad decision toward the end that annoyed me so much that I couldn’t even make myself be interested in the details of how their caper went down. The far-fetched coincidences that enabled their scheme didn’t help. I skimmed through most of what was supposed to be a climactic scene, mentally rolling my eyes at the characters.
School for Psychics works reasonably well as the introduction for a new book series, if the concept interests you and if you don’t expect too much from it beyond set-up and character introduction. Reportedly the television rights to it have been purchased and the CW is now developing a drama based on this novel.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Thank you!
Content notes: violence and some sleeping around, not explicit....more
4.5 stars. The giant robots are back!! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Only Human wraps up Sylvain Neuvel’s excellent THEMIS FILES science f4.5 stars. The giant robots are back!! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Only Human wraps up Sylvain Neuvel’s excellent THEMIS FILES science fiction trilogy with some surprising plot turns. *Expect some spoilers for the first two books, Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods*
At the end of Waking Gods, the robot called Themis was suddenly transported back home to her original planet by remote command of her alien makers, accidentally carrying along four people who happened to be inside of her: Vincent Couture, the only human capable of piloting Themis; his 10 year old daughter Eva; Dr. Rose Franklin, the brilliant and compassionate scientist who first discovered the immense, buried hand of Themis as a child; and General Eugene Govender, commander of the newly formed Earth Defense Corps. After nine years on the planet Esat Ekt, Vincent, Eva and Rose, together with one of the natives of Esat Ekt, commandeer Themis and travel back to Earth.
They land in Estonia, where the Russian government (which controls Estonia again) is delighted to take possession of both the robot and them personally. In Waking Gods, Rose had disabled another of the giant robots that the aliens had sent to Earth, and it turns out that the U.S.A. has been ruthlessly using this other robot, called Lapetus, to take control of many other countries around the globe. (How the U.S. was able to solve the tricky robot piloting issue is disclosed later in the book.) Vincent, a Canadian, is not happy to learn that Canada is now subject to U.S. control. The Russians intend to use Themis, Vincent, Eva and Rose to combat the U.S. and Lapetus. It’s an understandable strategy, though their methodology for convincing their "guests" to go along with the plan ― personified by the veiled threats of Katherine Lebedev, a major in Russia’s intelligence agency who is assigned as the prisoners’ handler ― is decidedly unpleasant.
Meanwhile, in a panicked overreaction to the events that occurred in Waking Gods, most countries around the globe have created internment camps for people whose genetic makeup includes more than a certain percentage of alien DNA … and even executing those with the highest levels. Our world is devolving into chaos and governmental oppression, with rampant mistrust. It’s not a happy or peaceful world to which Rose, Vincent and Eva have returned.
Neuvel includes a good amount of political and social commentary in Only Human. It occasionally gets a little clunky, but there are some incisive if rather pessimistic insights into human nature and our behavior when stressed … and the massive alien-caused deaths in Waking Gods have led to unprecedented levels of worldwide fear and uncertainty.
Only Human is a dual timeline novel: the current timeline describes what occurs after Rose, Vincent and Eva return to Earth, interspersed with flashback chapters that follow their lives during their nine years on Esat Ekt. I was delighted to see Sylvain Neuvel take on the challenge of creating an alien culture but, partly because Neuvel is still following the same file-based narrative structure as the first two books, we only get a limited look at the aliens’ world and its people. It’s mostly seen indirectly, through the discussions and journals of the four humans who are involuntarily being held there. The aliens’ world of Esat Ekt is, in many ways, a familiar one despite their vast technological superiority and unswerving dedication to non-interference with other cultures. But like humans, they also have political conspiring, large portions of the population who are dispossessed because of their race … and even soup kitchens. I would have liked to have sensed more alien-ness in their society, but it was interesting to compare and contrast the flaws in their world with those in ours.
Katherine Lebedev, the military officer in charge of Rose, Vincent and Eva during their time in Russia, is a quirky combination of threats and faux-friendly chirpiness who never quite feels real. As a handler, she was a distinctly unsatisfactory replacement for the nameless handler who was such an impressively dominant force in Sleeping Giants. However, the relationship between Vincent and his now nineteen year old daughter Eva makes up for this with its painful realism. Neuvel delves into the chaotic web of love, misunderstanding, anger and concern that can make up a relationship between parents and children … especially rebellious teenagers.
Only Human is an enjoyable, thoughtfully written conclusion to the THEMIS FILES trilogy. It’s one of my favorite recent science fiction series, deftly combining hard science with interesting characters and social commentary, not to mention the excitement of giant robot deathmatches. Overall I give it an enthusiastic recommendation!
I received a free copy of this book for review from the publisher and NetGalley. Thank you!!
Initial post: THERE'S A DESCRIPTION AND A COVER! *flails* How soon can I get my hands on this??
ETA: The answer is: NOW. I have a copy from NetGalley in my hands now! *sweeps other books off the table*...more
[image] 4.5 stars for this appealing SF short story. Text and audio versions are free online at Escape Pod. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
R[image] 4.5 stars for this appealing SF short story. Text and audio versions are free online at Escape Pod. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Renee is eating lunch in the park one day when her smartphone is stolen by a small, swiftly moving robot. Since her phone case was decorated with some small opals that were a legacy from her godmother, Renee is determined to get her phone and case back. When the park’s robot caretaker shrugs her off (“That’s the problem with self-repairing, self-charging appliances—they go feral”), Renee begins haunting the park during her lunch breaks, looking for any sign of her phone case or the little robot that stole it.
Gradually Renee discovers a hidden ecosystem of tiny, wild robots in the park. She’s fascinated by it and by the various robots she encounters, giving them names and even “feeding” them bits of metal. But this doesn’t solve the problem of her Nana’s missing opals ―“That’s the sort of thing she’d cut you out of the will for” ― and her obsession is starting to affect her work. And then she finds out that the robots may be in danger …
The title comes from a famous line in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem In Memoriam A. H. H.: “Nature, red in tooth and claw,” evoking imagery of natural selection. Cat Rambo draws several lines of comparison between biological wildlife and ecosystems and the mechanical one developed by the feral robots. Rambo doesn’t soft-pedal the ferocity of either type of nature, but I still found this insightful and original story enormously appealing.*
*And no, it's not because of baby robot! ... well, not entirely, at least....more
I just finished my September 2019 reread for my IRL book club, and I am still in love with this book! Also, I just came up with a completely differentI just finished my September 2019 reread for my IRL book club, and I am still in love with this book! Also, I just came up with a completely different theory on what the “7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” REALLY means, and I’m so curious to know if I’m right. It’s horribly spoilery, and it’s behind spoiler tags at the end of this review.
Debut author Stuart Turton’s The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, originally published earlier this year in Great Britain as The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, is an intricately plotted murder mystery, set in an isolated early 20th century English mansion, with a highly imaginative speculative element that is only gradually revealed, as our main character tries to figure out who he really is, and how to solve the mystery of Evelyn Hardcastle’s pending death … or has her death already occurred?
**I've avoided spoilers BUT I do discuss a part of the basic concept of the book in this review, some of the things that are disclosed around the 12-15% mark, not to mention in the book's blurb. There's definitely something to be said, though, for going into this book completely cold, like I did. If you're interested in doing that, stop reading this review, don't look at anyone else's, and just go read this book! It's worth your time!**
The plot and setting are worthy of Agatha Christie: Lord and Lady Hardcastle have invited a number of guests to their British country mansion, Blackheath House, for a weekend party to celebrate the return of their daughter, Evelyn, from Paris. (The notable guests and household staff are conveniently listed in a copy of the party invitation at the beginning of the book.) One of the guests, Dr. Sebastian Bell, suddenly comes to himself while running through the forest surrounding Blackheath. The name “Anna” was on his lips, but he has no idea who Anna is or who he himself is. His memory is completely blank. Bell is horrified to see a man chasing a woman through the forest, and then a scream and a pistol shot.
Eventually Bell, with a little mysterious help, makes his way back to the mansion, where he tries to convince the other guests to search for the woman he is certain was murdered in the forest. But nobody at Blackheath knows (or in any case admits to knowing) a woman named Anna, and they’re dubious about Bell’s improbably story, particularly in light of his amnesia. Bell meets several of the other guests, including Evelyn Hardcastle, a blonde woman in her late twenties who quickly strikes up a friendship with him (“I loathe getting to know people, so whenever I meet somebody I like, I just assume a friendship immediately. It saves a great deal of time in the long run.”) In the late evening Bell sees something that frightens him so much he faints. He wakes up in another person’s body ― the butler, Mr. Collins ― in the morning of the same day that he just lived through as Sebastian Bell. His day as Collins is even more hellish than it was the first time around. And then he wakes up again, early in the morning of that same day, in another person’s body. Is there a way out of this nightmare?
I went into The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle without knowing anything about its plot; I had conveniently forgotten the blurb by the time I began reading the book. Normally I hate not having context in a novel, and being confused about what the book I’m reading is generally about. But in this case going in blind was highly appropriate, because our main character (who does find out his real name eventually) initially has no idea who he actually is or what is going on around him. The light sheds very gradually, but it all comes together in the end with an awesome set of twists and turns that Dame Christie herself certainly would have admired. Characters often aren’t who they seem, and events that seemed to signify one thing frequently turn out to have an entirely different meaning.
The plot of The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is so layered, with a tremendously tight timeline and so many interwoven elements and characters, that I can’t help but picture Turton writing this novel in a room filled with vast numbers of Post-it notes and crisscrossing strings tying everything together, like in the old Heroes TV show.
[image]
(Turton has, in fact, stated that he used a massive spreadsheet, a notepad for each character, and a map of the setting ― as well as the aforementioned Post-it notes ― in the process of writing this book.) The speculative element is fascinating, if slightly far-fetched, but undeniably creative. When the main character realizes that the personalities of his host bodies are leaking through, affecting his thoughts and reactions, it deepens the plot.
On top of this, Turton adds insightful writing that’s a pleasure to read. I highlighted some sixty passages in the book; some of them were to help me keep track of the plot and characters, but others were simply for the beauty of Turton’s writing.
She’s trying to anchor me with words … but I’m impervious to reason, consumed by my hatred for the man I was. His flaws I could accept, perhaps even overcome, but this is a betrayal. He made his mistakes and fled, leaving me holding the tatters of his scorched life.
Turton also adds symbolism to The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, including the decaying mansion, Blackheath, which echoes the failings and degeneracies of the upper class characters who are the guests at this dubious house party. A chess piece appears and reappears. A person in the costume of a plague doctor shares information with our main character about his situation and his mission.
This compelling murder mystery, wrapped in a soft science fiction enigma, is a truly impressive debut novel. Its combination of classic British mystery, Groundhog Day and Quantum Leap blew my mind! I enthusiastically recommend it, and I seriously can’t wait to see what Stuart Turton comes up with next.
ETA: So here’s my theory about the book’s title. DO NOT open this spoiler unless you’ve read the book. (view spoiler)[ Seriously, this ruins the plot! (view spoiler)[ The real Evelyn killed the following people: Thomas, Michael, Peter, and Helena Hardcastle (her whole family, though Michael’s death was accidental), Millicent Derby, and the stable boy Keith Parker years ago. Plus indirectly Charlie Carver, who was hanged for Thomas’ murder that she committed, and she attempted to murder Felicity Maddox and half-killed her. That’s 7 1/2! Coincidence? I think not.
P.S. It turns out this actually is one of the questions on Turton's GR author page, and I’m beyond tickled to find out that my theory is right!! (hide spoiler)](hide spoiler)]...more
4 stars for "A World to Die For" by Tobias Buckell, free online here at Clarkesworld magazine. If you like alternative world scenarios where character4 stars for "A World to Die For" by Tobias Buckell, free online here at Clarkesworld magazine. If you like alternative world scenarios where characters shift between realities, give this one a shot. It includes a sobering take on global warming, which has resulted in a Mad Max kind of life for our main character, a young woman named Chenra.
Chenra is a member of an armed group of raiders who chase down travelers who fail to pay the 10% "custom" for traveling across their territory. When they stop the latest convoy, the tables are turned on them, and the raiders are held at gunpoint by the armed convoy soldiers. Alarmingly, the convoy leader is on the search for Chenra ... but he's showing the raiders a picture of Chenra as she's never appeared before - one from a different reality. So what does he want with our Chenra?
I'm generally irritated by stories told in second-person form ("you"), but this one worked for me, as did the description of the varying realities. Worth reading!
Gouda Smid is a private investigator in Amsterdam who searches for missing people. A man named Jansen visits her, asking for her help in locating his teenage daughter who disappeared in Dordrecht two years ago. So many people disappeared two years ago that Gouda thinks something must have happened at that time, but the internet no longer works and it’s difficult to fathom what could have happened. She takes the train to Pynacker to investigate, but only finds more questions than answers, especially when a sheaf of ticket stubs falls out of her pocket: all tickets to Pynacker, evidence of trips that she doesn’t remember taking.
It’s like there’s a crater in her brain, with curling, cauterized edges, which has obliterated her memories. She probably can’t get them back, burned things don’t get unburned, but she would like to know what caused the impact.
The concern and dread build nicely through this story, and I enjoyed the setting in the Netherlands, a rarity in speculative fiction (Bo Balder is a Dutch author). But the answer to the key question, when it finally came, was vague and unsatisfying, and left me with the feeling that I’d read something like it before. If I could only remember where …...more
These are mermaids - or better, sirens - that I can really believe ... and definitely would not want to be hBest. Representation. Of. Mermaids. Ever.
These are mermaids - or better, sirens - that I can really believe ... and definitely would not want to be having a close encounter with ... on an isolated ship ... hundreds of miles from help civilization.
Into the Drowning Deep is a gripping horror/thriller of a novel. It struck me as very filmable, ready to scare the pants off people in dark theaters. It also reminded me strongly of a Michael Crichton thriller, except with a lot more diversity.
Ian Douglas’s hard science military space opera adventure series, ANDROMEDAN DARK, picks up where3.5 stars. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Ian Douglas’s hard science military space opera adventure series, ANDROMEDAN DARK, picks up where the story left off in the first book, Altered Starscape. The colony spaceship Tellus Ad Astra has been hurled four billion years into the future, when our Milky Way galaxy is slowly colliding with the Andromeda galaxy, where a nearly irresistible force called the Dark Mind or the Andromedan Dark holds sway. The Andromedan Dark is intent on expanding its reach and assimilating all intelligent life forms with which it comes in contact ― voluntarily or involuntarily.
As Darkness Falling begins, the burning question for Lord Commander Grayson St. Clair, the captain of the Tellus Ad Astra, is: what has become of Earth and humanity over the past four billion years? The humans realize that it’s not likely that either Earth or humanity is around in any form that they would recognize, but they have a small hope that finding humanity’s descendants might lead them to the technology that will allow them to travel back to their own time.
The planet Ki, which has an immense inhabited ring around it that the Ad Astra Xenosophontology Department promptly names the “Ki Ring,” currently seems like the most likely bet for humanity’s birthplace. St. Clair investigates this question while:
1. fighting battles with the forces of the vastly powerful Andromedan Dark, an unimaginably intelligent collective mind with some horror-film tricks up its sleeve;
2. engaging in power struggles with the Cybercouncil, a restive council of civilian lords who think it’s past time for St. Clair to turn over the government of the Ad Astra to them;
3. doing some tricky negotiating with the Cooperative, an organization of galactic races that for some reason expects the humans to take the brunt of the war against the Andromedan Dark; and
4. dealing with the repercussions of officially giving his robot companion Lisa her freedom … something St. Clair tries not to regret when Lisa disappears amongst the million inhabitants of the Ad Astra to find herself.
St. Clair is a busy guy.
Darkness Falling, the second book in Douglas’s ANDROMEDAN DARK series, has the same issues as the first one. In particular, there’s an overload of esoteric physics concepts and theoretical models. Alderson disks and Dyson spheres are just the beginning; there’s quite an extended exploration of artificial intelligence and digitally uploading minds. Though these ideas can be fascinating, they typically require side explanations to the reader, which gets a little clunky and slows the plot. The characters by and large remain stereotypical, with the military folks as the noble heroes and the politicians as the villains. Darkness Falling is the type of book that uses “politician” as a dirty word.
Somewhat surprisingly, though, I ended up enjoying Darkness Falling distinctly more than Altered Starscape. It’s highly imaginative, and it ends strongly, with some unexpected revelations and developments that engaged me and pulled me into the story. I’d recommend this series to readers who enjoy hard science fiction and aren’t dissuaded by limited characterization or a conservative, pro-military mindset.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review. Thank you!...more
Roadmarks is a fragmented, experimental type of SF novel, tied together by a Road (with a c3.5 stars. Full review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Roadmarks is a fragmented, experimental type of SF novel, tied together by a Road (with a capital R) that leads to all times and places and alternative timestreams in our world’s history, for those who know how to navigate it (a certain German named Adolph briefly pops up in an early chapter, eternally searching for the timeline where he won). The other constant is the character of Red Dorakeen, who has been traveling the Road for years, trying to find something, or somewhen. Sometimes he’s in company with Leila, a woman with precognitive talents. He’s also generally accompanied by one of two sentient AIs in the form of books, called Leaves (of Grass) and Flowers (of Evil) (Les Fleurs du Mal).
But life has gotten more complicated for Red since he had a falling out with his old partner Chadwick for some reason. Now Chadwick has paid ten highly skilled assassins ― known as the “black decade” ― to kill Red, hunting him down through space and time. Meanwhile, a young man called Randy Dorakeen is also on the Road, led there by a copy of Leaves of Grass, which introduces itself to him (“I am a microdot computer array”) and lures him onto the Road in search of his unknown father. And then there are the time-traveling dragons of Bel’kwinith, who originally made the Road …
In what frankly struck me as a rather gimmicky move by Roger Zelazny, the chapters of Roadmarks are all titled either One or Two; the first chapter is called “Two” and they alternate from there. The One chapters are linear and relate Red’s ongoing adventures. The Twos, about his would-be assassins and other characters that Red meets up with on the Road, are nonlinear and almost completely random. Zelazny told the story that he put all of the Two chapters on pieces of paper, shuffled them up and simply inserted them into his draft of the book in that order, although he admitted that his publisher eventually convinced him to put at least a few of these chapters in an order that made a little more sense.
Like the other two experimental novels I’ve read by Zelazny in recent months, A Night in the Lonesome October and Doorways in the Sand, Roadmarks is essentially one big mental puzzle, where Zelazny is hiding the ball from the reader on exactly what’s going on until you get quite deep into the novel. To get any real enjoyment out of these quirky and rather humorous novels, you just have to be on board with that approach and roll with it. For Roadmarks I had an entire page of notes that I took on each chapter of the book, just to try to keep all of the players and moving parts straight in my mind. It was definitely a challenging mental exercise!
The concept of the time-traveling Road is very much like that in Peter Clines‘s latest book, Paradox Bound; in fact, I think Clines owes Zelazny a rather large tip of the hat. The kaleidoscopic and non-linear nature of Roadmarks can be fairly confusing, though, and in the end I found it not as intrinsically appealing as A Night in the Lonesome October. But the many colorful characters ― both fictional (some, like Doc Savage, borrowed from pulp novels) and historical ― and Zelazny’s sheer inventiveness are impressive. Roadmarks strikes me as the type of novel that may improve greatly on reread, and at less than 200 pages, I’m sure I’ll be tempted to give it another shot sometime.
Feb. 2018 buddy read with the Zelazny group. Thanks to Evgeny (who formed the Roger Zelazny Newbies group and urges us on) and the buddy read gang!...more
Altered Starscape has its jumping off point (literally) in the year 2162. Humanity has been in contact with other galactic races for thirty-eight years, and still feels itself at a disadvantage in comparison with the many more advanced races. Earth’s government has entered into an alliance with some of those alien civilizations, receiving FTL travel capabilities, fusion power and other advanced technology in return for promised assistance in a vaguely understood alien war. Now the massive colony starship Tellus Ad Astra (“Earth to the stars”), carrying over a million people and AIs, is traveling to the Galactic Core on a cultural union mission.
The mission gets ripped off course when catastrophe strikes, resulting in the starship’s encountering the powerful black hole at the Galactic Core. When the dust settles, Commander Grayson St. Clair and the Tellus Ad Astra are some four billion years in the future. Their starship is confronted with a vastly different starscape ― our Milky Way galaxy has begun colliding with the Andromeda galaxy ― and alien spaceships and forces that attack without provocation. Can they find any help … and can they ever find their way back to their own time?
Altered Starscape combines a time travel plot and military space opera. It has an intriguing premise, but Ian Douglas seems intent on stuffing into its plot as many physics and space theories as humanly possible. The plot incorporates a myriad of scientific facts and theories, which is often quite interesting but may lose readers who aren’t well-versed in physics or don’t have the inclination to puzzle out unfamiliar scientific concepts. Actual and theoretical items like Fermi Paradox, SMBH (supermassive black hole), O’Neill colony, computronium (programmable matter), Alderson Disks, and countless other tricky concepts all elbow each other for room in the pages of this novel. Characters have a way of coming out with statements like “Either relativistic time dilation, or we encountered a Lorentzian manifold through frame-dragging” ― which then require a pause while these concepts are explained by one of the characters or the omniscient narrator. The plot often lags as a result of this frequent sidetracking.
This emphasis on science also comes at the cost of character development. The characters are easily recognizable stock types: the noble and tough-minded ship commander and Marines; the power-hungry, self-centered governmental personnel. It’s patently clear that Douglas sympathizes with the honorable military personnel and doesn’t have much use for career politicians. Human women are treated equally but there are intelligent “gynoids” (robots manufactured and sold as sex objects) that will rub some readers the wrong way, though Douglas does include a minor subplot about a movement to free these robots and other AIs from their enslavement to humanity.
Altered Starscape ends on somewhat of a cliff-hanger; the second volume in this ANDROMEDAN DARK series, Darkness Falling, was just published in November 2017. I’m interested enough to continue with the series, so we’ll see where the story goes from here. I recommend this novel for fans of hard science fiction who will appreciate its rather single-minded focus on imaginative scientific concepts.
Initial comments: The publicist for Harper Voyager sent me a paperback copy of the just-published sequel to this book, Darkness Falling: Andromedan Dark: Book Two, and I told her I was only interested in it if she wanted to send me the first book in the series too. (I've had bad luck with jumping into series midstream). So here we are!
Thoughts so far: intriguing premise, time-travel and military SF. The hardest of hard SF novels that I've taken on in a long while. All the science talk is making my head spin.
3.33 stars. This was kind of an odd book, definitely not what I was expecting from the sequel to the delightful Pimpernel, but I give the author props3.33 stars. This was kind of an odd book, definitely not what I was expecting from the sequel to the delightful Pimpernel, but I give the author props for taking a risk with it. From a crime caper/modern Scarlet Pimpernel type of plot in the first book, we veer off into a hidden, fabulously wealthy world of powerful, non-public figures, the mysterious Royals and their court, who pull strings behind the scenes. Their sworn enemies are “the Fours.” The science fiction vibes are much stronger with this book than the first one, with a definite whiff of fantasy mixed in.
Claire, our heroine, wants to join this hidden society of Royals that her boyfriend Jack belongs to, but she's up against some serious opposition at the highest levels of the court. But she gets a surprise invitation to the Royals' annual ball, and a chance to prove herself to the court on this fateful evening ... or not. Meanwhile, the author is also tying this series together with her Rhea Jensen series, with the ongoing adventures of Kali/Rhea. So this is more of a transitional book than a self-contained story, with a mild cliffhanger ending.
It was so different than what I expected, but I'm definitely interested in finding out what happens next to Jack, Claire and Kali.
I received a free copy of this book from the author for review. Thank you!!...more
After a break (after finishing Volume 1 of this collection) that was probably too long, I'm deterined to finish Volume 2 this month - all 800 pages ofAfter a break (after finishing Volume 1 of this collection) that was probably too long, I'm deterined to finish Volume 2 this month - all 800 pages of it. This volume contains two novels (The Word for World is Forest, which I've separately read and reviewed, and The Telling, which I haven't read yet), some twelve short stories, and a number of essays and notes.
This two-volume collection of Le Guin Hainish works is a must-read for any fan of Le Guin or classic SF generally. The list price is $80, but for that money you're getting something like six novels, a bunch of short stories, and some really fascinating notes and commentary from Le Guin herself. So you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.
I received a copy of this collection from the publisher for review. Thank you!!...more
A Jesuit priest, the astrophysicist on a space crew voyaging to explore the Phoenix Nebula, is having a crisis of faith. He has always been ab[image]
A Jesuit priest, the astrophysicist on a space crew voyaging to explore the Phoenix Nebula, is having a crisis of faith. He has always been able to blend religious faith and scientific knowledge in his life, but what he finds out at the destination of their voyage shakes him to the core.
"It is three thousand light-years to the Vatican. Once, I believed that space could have no power over faith, just as I believed the heavens declared the glory of God’s handwork. Now I have seen that handiwork, and my faith is sorely troubled."
"The Star" is a somber, poignant, and beautifully-told story. It deals with questions of belief, as well as the magnificent and wonderful things in our universe. I feel like Arthur C. Clarke loaded the dice a little to make his story more dramatic (view spoiler)[by having the people whose lives were destroyed by a supernova be apparently so happy, kind and lovely in every way (hide spoiler)], but that's a minor quibble.
This story raises the fundamental question of, how can a loving God allow (or perhaps even cause) terrible things to happen? I don't believe Clarke tries to answer that question, and probably the story is stronger because he didn't try. On one level it may be viewed as anti-religious, but after reading it again I don't think it's that simple or straightforward.
Clarke has a quite different take on religion in another equally well-known and much anthologized short story, The Nine Billion Names of God. It makes for an interesting contrast with this one.
4+ stars for this SF romance novella by Ilona Andrews. I've read this one a few times now, whenever I need a quick romantic adventure pick-me-up read.4+ stars for this SF romance novella by Ilona Andrews. I've read this one a few times now, whenever I need a quick romantic adventure pick-me-up read. :)
It all begins on a different planet, a bleak mining world where a bitter war has been raging for generations. Claire Shannon is a captain in the military, a "psycher," with extraordinarily strong mental powers that manifest both in real life and on the bionet (a type of virtual reality), where she leads military teams in forays against the enemy's online files and kills people with her Mind!Powers. When the war suddenly and unexpectedly ends badly for Claire's people, Claire quickly goes into hiding, since her dangerous mental powers would mean instant execution by the victorious enemy.
She ends up being deported to a new planet that has no interest in allowing any immigrants with her kind of mental gifts. So, still carefully hiding her psycher abilities, she takes a job as an administrative assistant ... to a man who's one of the most powerful psychers she's ever met, not to mention the sexiest. He's polite enough not to use his own psycher abilities to unearth Claire's secrets, but can that last?
Silver Shark was a lot better for me than the first story in this series, Silent Blade, which was about half the length of this one. I was so sucked into this story that I actually read it twice the first day I downloaded it, front to back (it's maybe 100 pages). It totally gave me all the feelz. :)
The connections between "Silent Blade" and Silver Shark are pretty tenuous - the same world, and a brief appearance by the main characters of the first story in this one - so you can read this one as a stand-alone story. This novella is only $2.99 on Kindle.
Content notes: R-rated for an explicit sex scene and a few scattered F-bombs....more
3.5 stars. A 1952 SF short story by the well-known classic SF author Philip K. Dick (Gutenberg freebie!).
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In a distant future, a council of pow3.5 stars. A 1952 SF short story by the well-known classic SF author Philip K. Dick (Gutenberg freebie!).
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In a distant future, a council of powerful men has lost patience with a pacifist movement (now embodied in a religion called the First Church), which they view as having led to the non-violent but - they say - stagnant society of their time. The Council decides that the way to solve their problem is to use their handy-dandy time travel machine and send someone back to assassinate the founder of this movement before he makes his world-changing speech in the 1960s.
They find a prisoner named Conger and offer him a Get Out of Jail Free card if he'll travel back in time and kill the Founder before he can make this speech. No one knows the Founder's name or prior history, but the Council is able to get hold of his skeleton. Conger carries the skull back in time with him to help him figure out who the right guy is, so he can kill him and bring back the new skull, and the Council can be satisfied that he got the right guy.
I saw where this story was going from the very start, so it's pretty predictable in that sense. But what was surprising, and rather interesting, is that it turned into kind of a modern-day recasting of the role and message of Jesus Christ. If you read this (it's free online here at Project Gutenberg), keep your eyes open for the connections....more
Earth has become “a dark and dangerous place” in the 23rd century, a ruined world, and so one group of people has built a floating civilization high in the air above Earth, which they call New Earth. Life is definitely easier there for the privileged, but ― for reasons that are never fully explained in this story ― everyone has a small chip in their elbow, called the Intercept, that tracks whenever they are feeling strong emotions.
When Violet, the 15 year old main character, is handed a rock from Mars with mysterious markings on it, given to her by a desperate woman on the run, she calls her group of friends together to try to figure out what the markings mean … both their literal meaning as well as their import for New Earth. This group of teenagers, together with the improbably brilliant 7 year old sister of one of the gang, bands together to outwit adults and, perhaps, save the world? Or possibly they’re making a huge mistake. (But probably not, since teenagers are invariably smarter than adults in these fictional YA scenarios.)
“The Tablet of Scaptur” has some imaginative moments, but is also highly implausible, and relies on timeworn tropes like the genius child (who solves puzzles overnight that take trained adults months) and teenagers who save the day. This short story is a lead-in to Julia Keller’s new YA novel from Tor, The Dark Intercept. “The Tablet of Scaptur” is semi-standalone; the overarching plotline is not in any way resolved. But as an introduction to this world to help readers decide whether the novel is going to interest them, I’d say this story does the job....more
Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature. Ironclads was published on November 7, 2017 in a special limited hardback edition; the Kindle editioFinal review, first posted on Fantasy Literature. Ironclads was published on November 7, 2017 in a special limited hardback edition; the Kindle edition will be published on December 31, 2017.
In Ironclads (2017), the gap between the haves and have-nots has become drastically wider in this near-future novella, especially in the military, where it’s become popular for rich young men, called Scions, to engage in war, battling foes in high-tech, weaponized and near-impenetrable suits of armor paid for by their wealthy family corporations. It’s a little like having Iron Man, Iron Patriot, and several of their friends in your military, though without, apparently, the flying ability. In contrast, the regular army “grunts” are underpaid and denied most of the high-tech protections available to the Scions, who always outrank everyone else.
Sergeant Ted Regan of the U.S. 203rd Infantry Division and two of his men, Sturgeon and Franken, are on two weeks leave in England (now a territory of the U.S.), preparing for battle against the Nords (formerly Scandinavians) when they are called to London and given a special mission: One of the Scions, Jerome Speling, has gone missing on the Nord front, and his cousin assigns Regan and his men to a covert mission and rescue Jerome, or at least find out what happened to him. Since Scion armored shells are supposedly infallible, the Speling family is concerned. Regan’s team is joined by two others, a weasel of a man named Lawes and a black woman named Cormoran who’s a drone specialist, but they’re still severely understaffed and ill-equipped for such a dangerous mission.
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s new SF novella dishes up imaginative, fast-paced military science fiction in the form of a rescue mission against long odds, with a large side of social commentary. Tchaikovsky takes some of the more worrisome elements and trends in our world today, and extrapolates from there. Global warming has caused the oceans to rise and wiped out many coastal cities, with Thailand and the Netherlands gone the way of Atlantis. Fundamental religion, sexism, and discrimination play an increasingly large role in society. Corporate interests and wealthy families rule, with the Scions’ role in the military being expressly analogized to feudal days, when the sons of the rich would go off to battle in armor unavailable to the common men, protected by the fact that if they ran into trouble, they were more likely to be captured and ransomed than killed. Now the military technology has brought them back to the battlefield:
They were like gods: human figures head and shoulders over the soldiers around them, made of gleaming silver and gold and darkly menacing black steel. And they were gods, in a way. This was what human ingenuity could achieve, when price was no object. The corporations wouldn’t shell out to give us common grunts that sort of protection, but it was only the best when their sons wanted to play soldier.
Sergeant Regan, an everyman type of character, is the jaded but still somewhat idealistic narrator of Ironclads. He’s a fairly standard military type of character, but some of the others in his group are more memorable, particularly Lawes, whose many illicit connections are helpful but untrustworthy, and Cormoran, with her fleet of small, high-tech drones and a past history that she eventually discloses to Regan, causing him to reevaluate her role and even the entire mission.
The twists in the plot are intriguing, doubling down on the social themes that Tchaikovsky explores in Ironclads. In fact, there’s a subtler meaning to the use of “ironclad” in the title, suggesting the protections that money and secrecy bring to the privileged few. On one level this novella is enjoyable as a straight-up military SF adventure, but it has additional depths and implications that are worth pondering.
I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley and the publisher. Thanks!
Content note: Scattered F-bombs and violence....more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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