My wife and I are both massive bookworms at heart. Two small children and a puppy, and a mountain of DIY/refurbishment to do restrict our reading to aMy wife and I are both massive bookworms at heart. Two small children and a puppy, and a mountain of DIY/refurbishment to do restrict our reading to a book a week, rather than the book a day we'd prefer!
Ever since our youngest was born, my wife has felt kind of frazzled! There's just so much to do and her attention span for complex novels has deteriorated. She wants 'popcorn' reads.
I've been sitting there going, "Read Leviathan. Read Leviathan. It's exactly what you want. You'll love it. Read Leviathan!"
She was resisting because she'd never read any Westerfeld before, and if you've barely got two functioning brain cells to rub together, it's easier to re-read books you know and love, because you already know what's happening. I get it, I do.
But eventually she heeded my sage advice and read Leviathan, and she loved it. These books are light, fun, and tremendously imaginative. The plotting isn't going to spin anyone's head-out, but there's enough shimmys (I wouldn't call them twists) to avoid them ever becoming predictable. All in all, very consistent ya-steampunk-war adventures.
Of the three books, I'd say this was my favourite. The world has been set-up, the characters have met-up, and we're all set to crack straight on with some proper adventuring! The setting (Istanbul) is fabulous. The Perspicacious Loris is wonderful. The rebel walkers and Ottoman steam-elephants are all just marvellous!
The only thing that holds this series back from being 5-stars, is that the characters are all a little one-dimensional and 'good' - eg, Deryn is 100% brave, loyal and pragmatic. There's none of the shades of grey that nuance the y-a protagonists of a peer like, say, Bacigalupi, or the snark of Stroud. Probably closest in style to a blend of Pullman and Nix.
I've read 3 Bacigalupi books, and they've taken the maximum haul of 15 stars between them.
Why do I love his work so much? It's hard to say. He's bleakI've read 3 Bacigalupi books, and they've taken the maximum haul of 15 stars between them.
Why do I love his work so much? It's hard to say. He's bleak as f#ck - but he's also quite, quite, brilliant.
This is a sequel, but it's a new cast of characters set in the same world as Ship Breaker. It's a dystopian future: civilization in the USA has collapsed. The Chinese were peacekeepers, but even they've left now and the land is a torn-up mess of civil war, genocide and child-soldiers - rape and mutilation is a norm. They say this book is targeted at 'young adults', but I can't think of another y-a novel that pulls so few punches...
It reminded me of films set in African conflicts: Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, The Last King of Scotland, Tsotsi... but also City of God.
It's like Bacigalupi saying to the Western world - "you've seen on the news how f#cked up things can get - now stop taking what you've got for granted, because it's all built on a house of cards, and with one strong wind your whole world could come tumbling down."
It helps his moralising stance that the story itself is an awesome tale of bravery and loyalty, with some great 'real' kids as lead characters, and a kick-ass animal-human-hybrid super-soldier for the sci-fi edge :-) It's the kind of 110% page-turner that you'll want to blitz through in a single sitting and resent the world for interrupting.
My only complaint: the sequel isn't out yet. Give me more!
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my FINISHING THE SERIES! list.
I loves me a good series! But I'm terrible for starting a new series before finishing my last - so this reading list is all about trying to close out those series I've got on the go...
A quick look back: I said in my review of Count Zero that it wasn't "a direct sequel - it doesn't pick-up the same characters - but it's set in the same world, orbiting the same scene, with some common threads." Mona Lisa Overdrive proves me utterly wrong!
A quick summary: In the Sprawl, all roads lead to MLO. We're re-united with key characters from both Neuromancer and Count Zero, plus a few fresh faces, then treated to a ranging tour though Gibson's seedy world of cyberpunk espionage.
Neuromancer was a heist story. Count Zero was a thematic portmanteu. MLO is the tense, 'thriller' climax.
If anything, this is the most accessible of the series. The hard work has already been done; Gibson has already gauged out his stylistic niche. He's scattered his electric seeds in the darkness, and nurtured the neon flora that's emerged to grow under bickering strobe-lights... The ideas are still silhouetted as sharply as ever, but the characters are gentler...
A quick assessment of the cast: With the eponymous prostitute Mona and gang-lord's daughter Kumiko, we've got two young female character, less interested in crime and technology, more interested in hope, escape and survival. With Slick Henry we've got a young artist - he's looking for catharsis, healing and peace. They're reactive, submissive and accepting. It's the old characters, Molly/Sally from Neuromancer and Angie from Counter Zero, who set the agenda, drive the plot and flesh out the fiercer aspects of attitude and angst. Those two are looking to force a confrontation and settle the turmoil unleashed by Neuromancer. Together... it all... balances.
What not so good? So why didn't it get 5 stars? I thought it was better than Count Zero (4-stars), but not as good as Neuromancer (5-stars). I was torn between a 4 and a 5 for MLO... and that hesitation decided it for me. I don't hesitate over 5-star ratings.
Why I hesitated is harder for me to untangle. There's something about the ending that didn't quite nail it for me. It needed something big and bold, something that would blow my pitiful little mind. It needed something to leave me in awe. What I got was good, it was clever and nuanced, but I've been spoilt by Dan Simmons - I've experienced awe - and I didn't find it here.
Still no awards? Count Zero got swept aside in the award polls by Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead (which is awesome!) Mona Lisa Overdrive was also denied, but it was far less clear cut. Gibson missed out on the Locus, second behind Cyteen - Cyteen also took the Hugo, and Bujold's Falling Free nabbed the Nebula. For once, I've read all three! I love Bujold but this is definitely a better book than Falling Free. It's in the same ballpark as Cyteen, but in a straight head-to-head I'd have to give this one to Gibson.
Carry on? Well, this is the end of the Sprawl series, but Gibson's definitely done enough here to count me as a fan. I'll probably take a bit of a break before picking up another series... but I've now got that pleasant choice... the Bridge trilogy or the Blue Ant trilogy... anyone got any recommendations there?
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my FINISHING THE SERIES! list.
I loves me a good series! But I'm terrible for starting a new series before finishing my last - so this reading list is all about trying to close out those series I've got on the go...
A quick look at the numbers... Why is it that Neuromancer, the first book in Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, has 137,000 ratings on Goodreads - but Count Zero, the second book, has just 22,000 - and the third book, Mona Lisa Overdrive, just 17,000?
That's roughly 16% of Neuromancer readers following on to the next book and just 12% making it to the end of the series.
You have to ask - why the big drop-off?
The series scores reasonably well - between 3.8/3.9 - so it's not as if everyone is reading Neuromancer and saying "that was horrible, no more, please!" - although, I'll admit it does spark a greater love/hate split than most books.
From what investigations I've had time to do, the more common attitude seems to be along the lines of "Wow. That was quite something. I'm glad I've read it, but I don't need to read any more. Job done."
A thought on character... Count Zero isn't a direct sequel - it doesn't pick-up the same characters - but it's set in the same world, orbiting the same scene, with some common threads - but each stands alone perfectly well. For most series it's the characters which act as the hook, pulling you on. You want to read the next instalment to find out how they fare in their next adventure. Not the case here. Which, again, explains some of that drop-off rate.
But even if Gibson had rejoined Case and co, I don't think everyone would have read on because character empathy is not his strong suit. Gibson is a stylist; a poetic, lyrical, idiosyncratic and wildly imaginative dreamer. He sketches out his anti-heroes with the minimum amount of effective brush-strokes, and animates his stories with a kinetic energy and effervescence that I find enthralling.
Why not so good? Everything I love about Neuromancer is still present in Count Zero - but the story type isn't quite as suited to highlighting those strengths. Neuromancer is a heist story - and I have a special fondness for those. Heist's make criminals likeable, so they're a common lens for antihero crime tales - especially in cinema. For a classic heist tale, you collect your gang of crooks together, each bringing their own specialist skills, and set them a seemingly impossible job, which can only by overcome through careful co-operation and the whole becoming greater than the sum of the parts. Exact same formula as the classic 'gang on a quest' fantasy - and it works for Neuromancer.
Count Zero is almost a portmanteau. Several unrelated characters, each with their own smaller adventure, are tied together by the ending and some thematic resonance. While I was reading it, I kept thinking that it actually made an easier introduction to Gibson's Sprawl than Neuromancer did. The characters are mostly 'innocents' - a newbie hacker, a betrayed art dealer, a genius daughter on the run... they're all being introduced to the grimey world of corporate war, cybercrime, and god-like ghosts in the machines getting cosy with the mob.
But the portmanteau is a more artsy format, and coupled with Gibson's approach, for me, it ends-up a little too dilute. No one thread packs enough of a punch to deliver the killer blow, and the resonance between the threads isn't strong enough to compensate.
But still pretty damn good? Hell yeah! My personal highlight was the mash-up of fragmented AI personae with voodoo loa (such as Baron Samedi)! Made me wonder how much influence Simmons drew from Gibson. I love the idea of "god-like" technological entities interpreting themselves as spiritual intermediaries with God. It's a concept with far greater scope than Gibson has chance to explore here.
I have mixed feelings about the prominence of the corporate mercenary, Turner. He's the main driving force behind the plot action, but within his thread it's the scientist's daughter he rescues, Angie, who really keys into the common themes. Sadly she's massively overshadowed by Turner, which is part of the dissonance amongst the threads I alluded to earlier. But on the plus side, Turner is a very cool character in his own right and the primary inspiration (I would assume) behind Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovac books. So - swings and roundabouts, eh?
Carry on? Well, I clicked "buy, buy now!" for book 3 in the series, Mona Lisa Overdrive within about thirty seconds of finishing the book... so I think you can safely say I'm keen for the next instalment! But I'm pretty disciplined with my reading lists these days so I'll force myself to wait at last a month or two... but yeah... I'm definitely looking forward to it.
It forms part of the Destiny's Children series, which is itself part of the larger Xeelee Sequence... yet itThis is a very unusual and ambitious book.
It forms part of the Destiny's Children series, which is itself part of the larger Xeelee Sequence... yet it is very much a unique and wonderful beast.
It's a short story collection, set in the Destiny's Children universe and joining the dots between the other novels (and beyond). Because it's part of such a large, carefully developed universe each short story has powerful echoes of depth and atmosphere behind them - and because the stories form a long chain across the centuries, they have this cohesive message and momentum that is intoxicating.
It doesn't feel at all like reading a collection of unrelated short-stories. There's a Kim Stanley Robinson book, The Years of Rice and Salt, about a group of souls that live, die and then reincarnate in different constellations. Through their many lives they chart the evolution of an alternative Earth, one where Europe was wiped out by the black plague. That book is BRILLIANT.
Resplendant doesn't quite hit those heights - but there's a lot of similarities in the way Baxter weaves a single thread through many different lives down a time-line.
For me, what sets The Years of Rice and Salt above Resplendantis the vision of humanity - Robinson presents individuals who dance and love and create and dream... Baxter presents cogs in the great war machine of humanity as it grinds across the galaxy. For all it's wonder and ambition, this is a bleak assessment of humanities potential.
But I can LOVE bleak books - Willis' Doomsday Book broke my heart, but I loved it. I never loved this. I respect it enormously. It grew on me throughout as I found new aspects of it's innovative design and execution to appreciate. It's austere, and brilliantly balanced. But it's not terribly fun. The light-hearted and playful moments are few and far between.
There's a very old-school vibe about all of Baxter's work. Some essential quality reminiscent of sci-fi written by thinkers who are scientists and engineers first, and become writers second. Fans of Arthur C Clarke and Asimov may gel well with Baxter.
For fans of intelligent, serious, fascinating sci-fi - Resplendant is HIGHLY recommend. And despite being part of a bigger series, it would stand-alone perfectly well.
Considering the low number of reviews/ratings it has on Goodreads, this is also clearly a bit of an under-appreciated gem!
Good things come in threes. While reading Great North Road I found out that my wife was pregnant! While reading And Another Thing...I got offered a promotion at work! Things are looking good :-) What will the next book bring?
How many other H2G2 fans saw this release and went “Woah! That’s so... No. ” *shakes head*
I loved the Hitchikers Guide passionately as a child, and Dirk Gently too – I’ve got Starship Titanic (and the PC game) – as well as The Salmon of Doubt and The Meaning of Liff. The only Douglas Adams book I haven’t read is Last Chance to See (his non-fiction book about Madagascan animals).
I hadn’t heard anything about this book – I knew of Eoin Colfer as the Artemis Fowl writer, but I hadn’t heard anything about him continuing Adam’s work. Then boom! I got off a train and it was all over a billboard. And the very idea gave me a bad taste in my mouth (like eating a sandwich in the dark, and then discovering the bread was mouldy).
So I waited four years before eventually deciding I had to know what he’d done with it.
It’s not a bad book – Colfer is a good writer – but he’s not Adams, and he shouldn’t have continued Adam’s story.
Have you ever seen Monty Python? It’s silly... but underneath the absurd is more than a dash of venom. Have you ever seen The Meaning of Life? That film is quite dark and disturbing under the lighthearted veneer (Mr Creosotes who eats until he bursts? The live organ transplants?) Without the sour, there’s no contrast for the sweet.
H2G2 has some of the same flavors – many of the ‘silly’ tangents are actually bitterly angry rants dressed up in whimsical clothes, and it’s the balance of light and dark which makes it so good. Do you remember the aside about the planet destroyed by its shoe industry? Women kept buying shoes, so more shops sold shoes, so the economy became geared towards shoe production, everyone was farming cows for leather, it all got more and more extreme until the whole ecosystem and economy collapsed and the whole planet became a desert wasteland, and the population evolved into birds that didn’t need to wear shoes. Does that sound like a man who enjoyed shoe shopping with his wife?
There’s nothing like that in And Another Thing... Colfer has a great imagination and has a lot of fun in the H2G2 world – arguably he gets a better handle on the zaniness of Zaphod than Adams ever did –but he doesn’t get Arthur. He doesn’t get the core of creative whinging that powers the story. This book is fun and light and breezy – not necessarily a bad thing, but not a fit continuation of Adams work.
Do you know what I think they should have done? Set the book in the H2G2 world – maybe give the old cast cameo appearances – but do it as a new, book within that world. Let it have it’s own life and set its own tone within the existing framework. That would have allowed Colfer to riff off the universe he clearly adores, but without alienating the fans who jarred with his reinterpretation of beloved characters. I honestly think it would have worked better all-round.
Despite all these complaints, I still gave it three stars (probably like, 2.7 rounded up, diggit?) because there are a lot of fun ideas and scenes. The phrase “Appease the cheese or you shall bring Edamnation upon us all” quote out of context at my wife, while she was brushing her teeth, elicited baffled and delighted giggles. The graceful Vogon at the end resonated nicely. Interviewing Cthulu and Gaia for the job of a plant’s deity was done well.
Overall, I’m pleased that I read it, and it was nowhere near as painful as feared.
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my LOCUS Y-A list.
I think I’ll always have a soft-spot for imaginative young-adult speculative fiction and as the good people at Locus did such a grand job with picking their Sci-Fi winners, I’ll trust them to single out some special y-a books too.
This is a book I read before The Great Goodreads Censorship Debacle blew-up and for a few weeks all thoughts of regular reviewing went right out of the window. As a quick aside on that, while we’re here: many good people have left, but to me, the reaction of the community - the solidarity, creativity and conviction shown by the many wonderful reviewers here – has convinced me that I should stay. The almighty overlords might be incompetent, but all the regular Joes are solid gold. I’ll stand up and tell the Censor exactly where he/she/it can shove the big red delete button, but I’m not going to walk away unless they kick my trouble-making ass out on the street. And if I’m sticking around, I might as well get back to business.
Leviathan won the Locus YA award in 2010 - the same year that Boneshaker took the top Sci-Fi book, The City & The City won best fantasy, and The Windup Girl walked away with best debut. In the YA group, Leviathan polled ahead of Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) and Ness' The Ask and The Answer to win this award, which was no mean feat. Ever since then, the feel-good buzz around the book has gotten thicker and it's a book I was veryverymuch excited to eventually be reading!
Leviathan is a great book. I bought in all the Locus YA winners before I started reading any of them, then blitzed through them like Pringles – good YA is always uber-accessible easy reading, and once you get on a roll it’s a slippery slope. That’s one reason I think big YA fans are so enthusiastic about their books; this stuff is quick, uncomplicated fun. Like a no-strings f#ck-buddy. Good YA leaves you feeling buoyed-up and ready to dive into the next one – there’s no deep-and-meaningful suckerpunch in need of a good mulling-over when you finish.
Of all the YA books I read on that roll, Leviathan is my second favourite (behind Ship Breaker). The concept is pure awesome! The instigation of WW2 through a fantasy-steampunk lens. The Nazis are replaced with Clankers – mechanical geniuses who wage war in walkers (walking tanks, a la Star Wars walkers) and the Allies become the Darwinists – a fantasy science of unzipping DNA and mixing it up to breed new, custom beasties.
We follow joint protagonists, one on either side of the conflict. There’s the son of Archduke Ferdinand (the dude whose death marked the tip-off for hostilities) - running for his life to Switzerland. Then there’s the girl-pretending-to-be-a-boy working for the British Air Force, ‘manning’ the titular Leviathan, a helium-filled flying whale inhabited by a whole ecology of tweeked beasties.
As far as visual imagination goes, this is rich, heady stuff, gloriously splashed across the senses.
The adventure is quick paced, with clear, strong characters and a simple but effective plot.
For me, what let it down somewhat were the two leads. Neither really grabbed me or surprised me at any point – it felt like all the creativity had been sucked out into the wider world, leaving them grey and listless. Alright, they’re not that bad – but enough to knock a star off my rating.
Leviathan really is a fine book and for me, one that lived up to the fuss. It’s a strong enough setting to carry a dozen stories if he wants to – can you imagine an epic interweaving of plots, like A Song of Ice and Fire, but set amidst this steampunk war? Ohmygoshness, I love the potential!
Now that Mr Westerfeld has got the world up and running, I just hope he can put the same spark of genius into his characters for the sequel.
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