Nemesis Games: The crew of the Rocinante get their own stories this time I just wrote a fantastic, insightful, and extremely clever review of this...anNemesis Games: The crew of the Rocinante get their own stories this time I just wrote a fantastic, insightful, and extremely clever review of this...and then deleted it by mistake when trying to upload it. So I'm still trying to recover from the psychological shock of this tiny tragedy. I'll just have to write a very short version instead, sorry about that.
This was a great return to form for the series, which keeps things fresh by exploring the backstories of the crew of the Rocinante: James investigates a number of ships that have gone missing after going through the protomolecule gate, Alex goes to Mars to try to patch things up with his ex, Amos returns to the mean streets of Baltimore after hearing of the death of a friend, and Naomi Nagata is forced to face the demons of her past, triggered by a horrific terrorist act against Earth and Mars that may have been done by Belters as they see their economic significance dwindle amid the mad rush to colonize the thousand new start systems now available via the gate. Since the Belters are adapted to zero gravity life and have previously made a living mining various minerals and selling this to the Earth and Mars, they are suddenly facing the prospect of becoming obsolete in this new world order, so some are ready to commit acts of terror to try to change this. Naomi is embroiled in the middle of things, and we learn about the dark secrets she has kept secret for so long.
All in all its a very enjoyable exploration of their individual stories, and we all get some time with Bobbie Draper and the foul-mouthed stateswoman Avasarala, whose insults are at such a high level of creativity that you imagine the authors must spend hours coming up with them and need to give her more story time to deliver them....more
Cibola Burn: Fizzles out, my least favorite entry to date At the end of Abaddon's Gate, we know that the alien ring has opened up the universe and a thCibola Burn: Fizzles out, my least favorite entry to date At the end of Abaddon's Gate, we know that the alien ring has opened up the universe and a thousand new suns for humanity to explore and colonize, so you might expect the series to open up in scale after the tight quarters and political maelstrom of the solar system and the conflict between Earthers, Martians, and Belters. Well, you'd be wrong. Instead, two-author duo James S.A. Corey decide to focus the entire fourth book on a single planet and the fight over a virgin planet between refugee squatters and an evil Earth corporation to control a rich lithium supply.
Little do they know the planet contains remains of an ancient and long-gone alien civilization, along with plenty of the usual dangers of settling and surviving on a new world, but the hardest thing they face is the venal rivalries and petty grudges of the two groups of settlers. It's certainly realistic for the author's to show that you can take humanity out of the solar system, but they still bring all their cultural baggage and biases and general inability to get along. So Avasarala decides to send Holden there as a neutral mediator to defuse a volatile situation. Predictably, things get very messy and there are plenty of gun battles, space battles, damaged ships and tense standoffs, along with the trademark wise-cracks of the crusty crew of the Rosinante: Holden, Naomi, Amos, and Alex.
This time we meet some new faces among the security forces and settlers, with fairly clear good guys and bad guys. However, I found the vast portion of the book a fairly dull slog, as I just didn't care who prevailed, and the little hints of alien civilization didn't add up to much of anything, even the continued mystery of the Miller construct. The whole book felt like treading water after the authors signed a control for 5 more books, so they are pacing themselves for the long haul, which is pretty disappointing considering all the large-canvas potential of a mad rush to colonize a thousand star systems. It was like looking at just a few threats in a huge tapestry without enough sneak peaks to keep the reader engaged.
I already have the fifth book in the series, Nemesis Games, on audiobook so I'll give it a listen so it isn't wasted, but I fairly doubtful I'll go the distance with so many other series clamoring for attention....more
Abandon's Gate: My least favorite installment due to annoying new characters The Expanse has been a pleasure to discover, thanks to its well-crafted blAbandon's Gate: My least favorite installment due to annoying new characters The Expanse has been a pleasure to discover, thanks to its well-crafted blend of gritty, sarcastic, idealistic, and ruthless characters, lots of meticulous world-building and technical details to describe a smaller-scale solar-system stage rather than the usual galaxy-wide canvas of space opera, and very convoluted military and political scheming plots. It's a lot of work for the two-headed team that writes under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey. I've also been watching the Sy-Fy TV series (now available on Amazon Prime) through the first three seasons, and this is the last book that has a TV equivalent to compare to.
So despite having the same great core cast of crew members on the Rocinante, namely James Holden, Naomi Nagata, Amos Burton, and Alex Kamal, the biggest problems I had with this installment were:
1) Really annoying new characters There are two major new characters introduced this time around. A) The first is Clarissa Mao, younger sister of Julie Mao and daughter of Jules-Pierre Mao. Since Holden dismantled the massive corporation of her father since it was bent on weaponizing the proto-molecule for profit, she is hell-bent for revenge at all costs, and since she still has a lot of money available as a war-chest, she then concocts the most elaborate revenge scheme to humiliate, discredit, and kill James Holden. B) Anna Volovodov is a Methodist pastor from Europa who joins a UN delegation of religious figures seeking to examine and understand the mysterious ring/gate built by the proto-molecule in the previous book.
2) Difficult to believe motivations I found the motivations of the above two female characters very difficult to believe in, particularly Clarissa Mao. While we often see stories of totally obsessed characters bent on revenge at all costs, it's just hard to buy the lengths she goes to carefully trap Holden into her revenge fantasy. There are just too many implausible elements, and frankly I find it hard to believe that someone born into wealth and privilege can become a ruthless killer and determined assassin so quick (then again, Osama Bin Laden fits that bill). The depths of her hatred seem far to deep for someone who really hasn't suffered as much as many of the other characters.
Pastor Anna is, like most religious characters in SF novels and (sometimes) in real life, very sanctimonious, unbothered by contradictions, and irritatingly self-assured in her morality while at the same time brushing away moral conundrums with the typical vapid idea that mere humans cannot understand the will of God, which can cover all manner of sins and misfortune. So pretty much every scene with her grated on my serves, though I am certainly biased in this respect. I also really do wonder how believers in the current set of archaic, outdated, and Earth-centric religions would actually react to a bona-fide alien presence. Could they really do the mental-gymnastics required to accept an alien intelligence not mentioned at all in the holy scriptures? Or would it expose their beliefs as wrong? Hard to say, but I've found the religious mentality can incorporate all kinds of nonsense since it's not based on reason, but rather on faith.
So I have two more books in the series on Audiobook, Cybola Burn and Babylon's Ashes, which do not have TV series available yet to compare with, so I'll have to create my own mental pictures this time. The series is still well worth following, I just didn't gel with the new characters this time around....more
Caliban's War: Exciting New Plotlines in Second Installment I'm now well on my way with The Expanse, having watched the first three seasons of the Sy-FCaliban's War: Exciting New Plotlines in Second Installment I'm now well on my way with The Expanse, having watched the first three seasons of the Sy-Fy series before starting on the audiobooks. Although initially hesitant, I've come to like the characters on the Rocinante, each with their quirks and moments of greatness amid the action and intrigue. Holden the idealist captain, Naomi the super-competent engineer, Amos the tough, no-bullshit mechanic, and Alex the cowboy pilot, now share the stage with three new major characters, Avasarala the elderly Indian politician with a brilliant scheming intellect and sailor's mouth, Bobby Draper the Polynesian space marine who has to go outside her comfort zone of fighting to the messy world of politics, and botanist Prax Meng who is desperately searching for his lost daughter Mei.
These characters get caught up in the complex ongoing tapestry of interplanetary military conflict between Earthers, Martians, and Belters, along with the sinister and deadly proto-molecule, which behaves at times like a bio-weapon and at other times like an alien proto-intelligence with unknown designs on humanity. Then there is the Machiavellian plots and schemes that Avasarala is deeply entwined with as she tries to defuse the every-increasing tensions between the three main power groups, as this gets stirred up by the brilliant opening set-piece on Ganymede where Bobby Draper and her Martian marine squad face a mysterious attack that ignites events beyond her understanding.
Having seen the series before listening to the audiobooks, the book characters of course mirrored the appearance of the actors in the show, so it was very easy to picture them as I listened to the story. They are depicted well in the TV series, and gain additional depth thanks to the audiobooks, so it's a nice synergy to experience the story from different media. In the last few years I've enjoyed this approach, whether it is Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Man in the High Castle, Altered Carbon, etc. Much of the pleasure derives from comparing how the stories and characters and images differ between the book and film/TV versions. As I'm enjoyed The Expanse in both media, it's on to Abandon's Gate next....more
Brothers in Arms: Miles gets seriously schizophrenic...or is it Admiral Naismith?
Now that I've thoroughly immersed in the Miles Vorkosigan Saga, like Brothers in Arms: Miles gets seriously schizophrenic...or is it Admiral Naismith?
Now that I've thoroughly immersed in the Miles Vorkosigan Saga, like other fans I can begin to appreciate all the little character details that Bujold has carefully woven into each of the volumes, and as each of the seemingly small events of previous stories have larger repercussions later on, and previously minor characters take on greater importance and depth. This story takes places directly in the aftermath of the prison camp breakout told in "Borders of Infinity" and explains why the Cetagandans are so upset with Miles.
In Brothers in Arms, the Dendarii Mercenaries flee to Earth for much-needed repairs and recuperation after their latest misadventures. Miles contacts the local Barrayaran Embassy in London to get payment for his fleets expenses and repairs, but soon finds out the Cetagandans are on the hunt for a certain Admiral Naismith, who caused so much trouble to them recently. Never having had both Miles Vorkosigan and Admiral Naismith in the same place at the same time has avoided identity complications until this point, but now Miles must play both roles while avoiding Cetagandan assassins, his own Dendarii mercenaries causing trouble Earthside when their credit is found to be no good, and eventually a very sinister plot to undermine both Miles and Naismith long in the planning. The mastermind of this is just as clever as Miles is, and has a serious axe to grind with Miles. Also, his method of getting revenge introduces an intriguing and very conflicted new character to the story, who will take on even greater importance in the next volume Mirror Dance.
This was a very enjoyable entry in the series, especially the difficulties that Miles encounters with his split identity, funding troubles for his fleet, more romantic entanglements, and finally some very intense drama as he encounters his nemesis in a tense finale in the city. Once again Bujold manages to seamlessly combine humor, improbable but madcap plot twists, tense action, but above all characters that you come to care about very much. All rolled into a fun-filled SF romp, but intelligent and above all humane....more
The Warrior's Apprentice: The first story of Miles Vorkosigan is a rollicking SF adventure It's a cliche and publisher's catchphrase to call anything aThe Warrior's Apprentice: The first story of Miles Vorkosigan is a rollicking SF adventure It's a cliche and publisher's catchphrase to call anything a "rollicking SF adventure", but if any book ever was that, this would be it. Lois McMaster Bujold has quietly and steadily created one of the most popular SF adventure franchises of the past few decades with her stories or Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan in Shards of Honor and Barrayar, but it was The Warrior's Apprentice, her second novel, where she introduced her greatest character and got the whole series going. Given how many SF paperbacks are published and disappear into the ether without a trace, and considering that for all those published books there are dozens of unpublished manuscripts that will never see print, it really is quite impressive what Mrs. Bujold has accomplished with the MILES VORKOSIGAN SAGA.
After all, the ingredients for the story don't sound that special: a young scion from a military aristocratic family has suffered serious physical handicaps due to a chemical weapons attack before he was born, and faces a host of adversity by using just his wits and his skills to motivate (or use) others to get out of an ever-spiralling series of predicaments. Of all the different subgenres of SF, the military one has always been of least interest to me, as the whole culture of discipline, order, obedience, and bravery in action just doesn't get me excited, but Bujold has chosen to explore this corner of space with such effortless skill of characterization and plotting that it's almost a mystery why she didn't choose more challenging subject matter.
After all, what distinguishes this space opera is not just its memorable and extremely likable characters, but also how smoothly it transitions from daily conversations to intense space battles, awkward romances to complex political scheming, and from wry humor to sudden tragedy. Those are the keys to making a series that fans (as opposed to just "readers") want to pick up everything Mrs. Bujold chooses to write about Miles and his fellow characters. She imbues them with depth and complexity, yet keeps them very accessible and believable. I think Miles Vorkosigan is someone we'd all love to meet and get to know, even if we are fairly certain he's several degrees smarter and more strategic than we will ever be. He is a great character and an incredibly fascinating person, one as vivid as anyone you know know in real life, and someone you root for to survive each scrape and make it out the other side in better shape, even when he doesn't get everything he wanted.
So it was with great pleasure that I revisited this book for the first time in about 25 years, having completely forgotten all of the plot details and even the names of the characters. It's a great series to read when you are in your teens, but I found it has a lot to offer for older readers as well, especially when you've experienced unrequited love, setbacks, discrimination, pre-judgement, high expectations given your background, and a series of impossible situations.
There's a difference between writing from the perspective of a young and clever man of 17, and writing about one from the perspective of an adult who has been through all that. There are just so many details that ring true in the characters' inner thoughts and behaviors that makes more believable the implausible escapades of Miles as he inadvertently creates a mercenary fleet through a series of lies and cons and clever stratagems. And there are some very compelling side stories such as his unrequited love for Elena, his relationship with the stoic and disturbed Sargent Bothari, and how he brings onto his side all the other 'strays' that he picks up along the way in this, dare I say it, rollicking SF adventure that is just the beginning of an amazing and award-winning space opera series....more
I really liked the Miles Vorkosigan Saga when I first read it in high school over 20 years ago, having read through The Vor Game before heading to colI really liked the Miles Vorkosigan Saga when I first read it in high school over 20 years ago, having read through The Vor Game before heading to college and finding myself too busy to read much SF for the next two decades.
So as I got back into genre reading a few years back, I was surprised at just how incredibly popular and extensive the series had become. Back when I first picked up Shards of Honor as a Baen paperback with mediocre cover art (this is true for the entire series, I'm afraid, even the omnibus editions, which seems to be Baen's preference for all their covers and not to my taste at all), I had no idea it would lead to such an impressive franchise over the next three decades and winning a stack of Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards and nominations along the way, including some excellent novellas like Mountains of Mourning.
As I think most SF readers know the storyline quite well, I'll just say Shards of Honor is the story of how Miles' parents, Betan captain Cordelia Naismith and Barrayan commander Aral Vorkosigan, fall in love despite being on opposing sides of an interplanetary conflict. Despite it being Bujold's first published book, its written in polished but unadorned prose, well suited to the mature personalities of the two main leads. It manages to be both a character-centric military SF adventure that focuses on military and personal honor, loyalties, betrayals, and complex political schemes, while also featuring an unlikely romance between from two individuals who are deeply committed to maintaining loyalty to their sides, even when their own sides are politically fractured and treacherous.
Military-SF and romance are strange bedfellows, but Bujold writes so naturally that it works, and lays the background for how Miles' parents met and fell in love amidst military intrigue, space battles, and even a close call with a sadistic Barrayaran commander. While this book is not as polished as later books in the Miles Vorkosigan series, it sets the stage well and delivers a very character-centric military SF adventure, itself an unusual accomplishment. There is also an unexpectedly poignant coda called Aftermaths - I didn't quite realize where it was going until the very end and it hit me hard, exploring the tragedy of space battles and war that is rarely considered in military SF. (less)...more
The Ends of the Earth: Luminous, powerful stories of war, exotic locales, and supernatural horror Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Lucius ShepardThe Ends of the Earth: Luminous, powerful stories of war, exotic locales, and supernatural horror Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Lucius Shepard had already created one of the best short story collections in the genre, The Jaguar Hunter, which won the 1988 World Fantasy Award and Locus Award for Best Collection, with “Salvador” winning the Locus Award in 1985 and “R&R” winning the Nebula Award in 1987. His work is steeped in magical realism, supernatural horror, Central America and other exotic locales, and hallucinatory depictions of futuristic warfare. In my opinion, Shepard is one of the best stylists to ever work in the genre. That’s why I can’t help including a writing sample from some stories in The Ends of the Earth — they’re just so good.
It’s always tough to come up with a sophomore effort that lives up to the hype of the original. Fortunately, when you’ve lived as dramatic and eclectic life as Lucius Shepard, working a host of random jobs to support years of exploring obscure corners of the planet, that makes for fertile ground for great, memorable, and frightening stories. I’m always amazed by authors who can come up with fantastic tales just living in a quiet house in the suburbs, where the biggest event is when a squirrel sneaks onto the bird feeder or the neighbors’ dog gets loose.
It’s a testament to the power of the human imagination, but nothing beats having BEEN to Central America and the Carribean, drinking rum at a beach-side shack with the locals late at night, and hanging out with the burned-out expats trying to escape our modern materialist society. And when you actually have the writing skills to craft stories that fascinate, repulse, and entertain, then you’ve got it made. And like The Jaguar Hunter, The Ends of the Earth also won the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 1992.
“The Ends of the Earth” (1989): This is a classic story that is immediately recognizable as a Shepard story. A successful writer named Ray has a failed affair with a married art gallery owner in New York and decided he needs to flee his life and civilization, and chooses an obscure town called Livingston in Guatemala. Being an author, he is fully aware of the artistic pretentious of seeking to escape to the ends of the earth to find inspiration in his own emotional pain along with the new environment so different from the busy streets of Manhattan.
The bar — Café Pluto — was set in the lee of a rocky point: a thatched hut with a sand floor and picnic-style tables, lit with black lights that emitted an evil purple radiance and made all the gringos glow like sunburned corpses … I was giddy with the dope, with the wildness of the night, the vast blue-dark sky and its trillion watts of stars, silver glitters that appeared to be slipping around like sequins on a dancer’s gown. Behind us the Café Pluto had the look of an eerie cave lit by seams of gleaming purple ore.
There he discovers the expected mixture of disillusioned ex-pats, impoverished locals, and drug-taking bohemian would-be artists. It’s all according to script, until he meets a rather unpleasant Brit named Carl who has set himself up as the top dog in the bohemian community, claiming to be writing an obscure academic work on local folklore and black magic, but supporting himself by selling drugs to other foreigners. Ray takes an instant dislike to Carl, not least because one Carl’s followers is an alluring young French woman named Odille, whom Ray is attracted to and who has her own emotional issues she is fleeing from. The scene is set for a classic love triangle in a tiny Guatemalan village, until one night Ray discovers a set of strange dolls that Carl has acquired from a local shaman. Supposedly they are part of an ancient game that Carl is studying, but he is very reticent to reveal more details, and when they all decide to get high on hashish and play the game, things quickly take a sinister turn…
“Delta Sly Honey” (1987): Here is another Shepard story set in a war setting, this time behind the front lines in Vietnam. Randall J. Williams is a skinny and shy young Southern guy who transforms into the “High Priest of the Soulful Truth and the Holy Ghost of the Sixty-Cycle Hum.” Randall’s job is mainly to handle the bodies of dead soldiers, but one day a lifetime sergeant named Andrew Moon decides to make meek Randall his target of bullying. One day someone using the tag line Delta Sly Honey answers Randall’s broadcast, and he freaks out and goes AWOL. As the narrator investigates, things get more bizarre and horrific…
“Bound for Glory” (1989): This is definitely a strange and memorable tale of a nightmarish train trip to Glory, a town in a post-apocalyptic Wild-West type of landscape where desperation triumphs over hope. The train passes through a strange series of border towns but the biggest danger is when it goes through the Patch, an area where the laws of physics, mysterious fauna, and behavior of the passengers all change unpredictably. Anybody who has read Jeff VanderMeer’s SOUTHERN REACH trilogy will recognize the eerie echoes of that occult sense of dread.
The train guard Roy Cole patrols up and down the train cars, looking into the eyes of each passengers for the telltale signs of madness, and doesn’t hesitate to use his shotgun if he feels it is justified. When the narrator and his female companion Tracy go through the Patch and Tracy starts to transform, he is torn between protecting her from herself and Roy Cole, but he should really be more concerned about the changes that are happening to himself. The ending of the story truly turns things on their head, but you’ll have to read it to find out why.
“The Exercise of Faith” (1987): Here’s a story that doesn’t resemble other Shepard stories I’ve read. The protagonist is a priest that heads a small group of parishioners. But he has an ability not generally available to men of the cloth. The opening paragraph describes it well: From my pulpit, carved of ebony into a long-snouted griffin’s head, I can see the sins of my parishioners. It’s as if a current is flowing from face to face, illuminating the secret meaning of every wrinkle and line and nuance of expression. They — like their sins — are an ordinary lot. Children as fidgety as gnats. Ruddy-cheeked men possessed by the demons of real estate, solid citizens with weak hearts and brutal arguments for wives. Women whose thoughts slide like swaths of gingham through their minds, married every one to lechers and layabouts.
Knowing the innermost thoughts and sinful urges of his flock leads the priest to pursue some very deviant paths and deliver possibly the most perverse sermon of all time. Depending on your temperament, you may find it either hilarious or blasphemous. A very unusual story.
“Nomans Land” (1988): This is the story of several sailors who get caught in vicious storm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard (which also features in Shepard’s story “How the Wind Spoke at Madaket”) and who find themselves stranded on a tiny deserted island appropriated named “Nomans Land”. The only survivors are Bert Cisneros, a mean-spirited Portuguese man, and the Irish cook Jack Tyrell.
There is little friendship between the two, but they take shelter in an ominous bunker overnight. The next morning, Jack encounters a strange, haunted-seeming woman named Astrid who sees to be living alone on the island, an entomologist studying the ubiquitous tiny white spiders that seem to make their webs in every corner of the island. Jack and Astrid develop a lonely and desperate relationship that suddenly takes a turn to horror (Shepard’s favorite technique), and then goes far beyond, bringing our tenuous understanding of reality into question, as the little white spiders swarm over the island.
“Life of Buddha” (1988): This is the first story in this collection that I just didn’t like. It’s the story of a heroin addict nicknamed Buddha that basically spends much of his time in a drugged-out stupor in a shooting gallery, ostensibly serving as security for his dealer. He has decided to shut out the painful memories of his family by losing himself in drugs, and encounters another lost soul who is also living in the margins and struggling with gender issues. There are some fantasy/horror elements, but I couldn’t care about the characters or the story much.
“Shades” (1987): Here is a return to form for Shepard, as a Vietnamese man named Tom Puleo returns to Vietnam to cover a story about a young soldier named Stoner who died in a village called Cam Le. A Marxist mystic has invented a device that can summon ghosts, and Stoner’s ghost has come back to haunt the village, scaring the residents away and attracting foreign attention. As a fellow soldier with Stoner, the machine inventor wants to see if Stoner’s ghost will respond more to Tom. The story is filled with intense paranormal confrontations between Tom and Stoner’s ghost, and the ending is poignant.
“Aymara” (1986): This was one of my favorite stories of the collection, another seamlessly-crafted take of revolution in Central America and the take of a gringo named Captain Lee Christmas who becomes deeply embroiled in Honduran politics at the turn of the century. The framing narrative is told by a political journalist named William who is fascinated by the story of Christmas and also looking to write a story about a mysterious US military facility and the growing presence of CIA agents around the town. As always, Shepard captures the details of the steamy daily life in the city, and when William begins a torrid love affair with an exotic dark-haired local woman named Ivie. The mystery behind the military facility involves scientists, exotic experiments, revolutionaries, and the two lovers in the middle of it all. The ending is wonderfully enigmatic, a great story.
“A Wooden Tiger” (1988): Another classic Shepard tale of supernatural horror, embittered CIA agents, incarnations of the goddess Kumari, and sordid goings on in Katmandu. An ex-CIA chief named Clement decides to track down the most recent incarnation of the dark goddess Kumari, who regularly inhabits the bodies of young girls who are treated like goddesses until the spirit moves to the next one, at which point they are discarded and shunned. Clement tries to track down a former incarnation, now a mere mortal, and encounters his former mentor D’allesandro, who taught him all the dirty tricks in the book, but who was now gone rogue Lieutenant Kurtz-style. It’s all very murky and intriguing, exactly the type of story Shepard excels in without repeating himself.
“The Black Clay Boy” (1987): This is a short and creepy story set in small-town Ohio, narrated by an old woman named Willa Selkie. She is a recluse, harassed by neighborhood boys with petty pranks. Then she reminisces back to hear early days as a beautiful young woman forced to marry a wealthy older man when she was just 18. Turns out Willa has a very intense libido that cannot be satisfied by her distant and old husband. When he discovers her pleasuring herself, he basically has a heart attack and curses her with his dying breath. She goes on to remarry, but again can’t get no satisfaction, turning to part-time prostitution just to get her fix, eventually setting her sights on a sexually-frustrated Reverend. As we flash back to the present, Willa turns now eyes on her Black Clay Boy, a type of voodoo doll, hoping for one last moment of pleasure…
“Fire Zone Emerald” (1985): Another atmospheric and intense Shepard tale of high-tech soldiers in a Central American war zone, this time in the Guatemalan rain forest. The story begins with Quinn, a soldier injured and separated from his unit after an attack and explosion, finds himself alone in Fire Zone Emerald. He is hardly able to move, and when he gets an unexpected call on his com unit from someone named Mathis of Special Forces who seems sympathetic but may have gone rogue, Quinn is suspicious. The story becomes a cat-and-mouse game as Quinn tries to evade Mathis, with some very tense action sequences. What’s that you say? Where is the trademark dark supernatural element that distinguishes Shepard’s stories? Well, you should discuss that with the queen, who takes the shape of a tiger and can place thoughts in your mind…
“On the Border” (1987): This was one of my favorite stories — a desert-based tale of desperate and marginalized hoodlums who try to rise above their origins, the classic pursuit of a reward for the kidnapping of the beautiful daughter of a rich man, and some magical realism in a surreal brujo in the desert and a bizarre mountain village that may be a total head trip into a psychedelic and violent denouement. It’s a taught tale with a lean and mean James Ellroy feel, but with the empathy of Shepard’s love of outcasts and the glimpses of sublime spiritual mysteries hiding in the sordid corners of our world.
“The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter” (1988): This is one of the longest stories in the collection and is part of Shepard’s ongoing series of fantasy stories about Griaule, the giant dormant dragon who has been trapped by a magician’s spell and has become a part of the local geography, but still exerts a subtle and sinister influence on the human communities that surround it. This story is about Catherine, the daughter of a scalehunter in Hangtown who makes his living chipping away loose scales to sell in the nearby town. She is beautiful, as the title states, but also vain and selfish, toying with the hearts of the young men and stealing them away from their girlfriends just for the malicious fun of it. One day she is resting alone and is assaulting by a village thug, and in the struggle to resist his attempted rape, she accidently kills him with her scaling hook. She is then forced to flee into the dragon’s mouth as his vengeful brothers try to kill her.
Thus begins a very surreal odyssey inside the body of Griaule, which turns out to be inhabited by all sorts of bizarre and disturbing creatures much like something from Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth or Michael Shea’s Nifft the Lean, and more importantly a lost colony of humans called feelies, descended from a pair of retarded villagers many generations past. They have formed a strange and degenerate society that seems to be swayed by the inscrutable and dark influence of Griaule’s thoughts. Catherine is taken into this society and gradually falls into the rhythms of this subterranean world, a prisoner of both the feelies and the dragon’s pervasive presence. Then one day a young scientist enters her world, changing everything.
This is one of those tales with metaphorical overtones that dares you to interpret both the situation and events and discover the hidden themes and messages. However, much like his award-winning story “The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule,” while the story is fraught with meaning, the exact interpretation of what the dragon represents is elusive and will vary from reader to reader. Is the dragon a dormant god, exerting a sinister influence on human affairs for his own unknowable reasons, or an embodiment of a more subtle evil that is not divine in nature? Themes of free will, self-determination, and imprisonment are also explored, and the will to adapt to captivity. Guilt, revenge, love, escape, freedom, and good/evil; it’s all there in a fairytale format that also reminded me of Ursula K. LeGuin’s short stories.
“Surrender” (1989): The final story is a confluence of all Shepard’s favorite elements: a dismal Central American military conflict, corrupt militia groups involved in nefarious scientific experiments, jaded journalists who discover things are even more screwed-up than their cynical outlooks were prepared to handle, and dark gun battles against subhuman creatures in dark and dangerous jungles and caves. The narrator gives the story its sarcastic attitude and challenges the reader to have an opinion of the endless miseries of US involvement in Central American wars and state-building, its failures and hypocrisy, and what we think of it while kicking back with a cold one from the comfort of our sofas in front of the TV watching ABC news and Monday Night Football....more
Ninefox Gambit: Careful or You’ll Catch Calendrical Rot Originally posted at Fantasy Literature I’m just going to add my two cents here, as a heretic whNinefox Gambit: Careful or You’ll Catch Calendrical Rot Originally posted at Fantasy Literature I’m just going to add my two cents here, as a heretic who refuses to conform to the calendrical hierarchy that forms the basis of this mathematical military hard SF space opera with some gender-bending thrown in for extra flavoring. Ninefox Gambit has drawn favorable comparisons to Ada Palmer’s Too Like the Lighting, because this book not only throws you off the deep end, but chains you up in neologisms, a complex future society that is not gift-wrapped neatly with a bow, and then chucks you in the magma of an intergalactic battle between the Hexarchate and heretics who refuse to follow the consensus reality, which powers the exotic technology and weaponry with which this empire maintains its vice-grip on its subjects. As others have observed, replace high-level mathematical formulae with magical spells, and voila, you’ve got a space-fantasy novel.
Of course Ninefox Gambit is far more complicated than that, but the basic story is of Kel soldier Charis teaming up with an immortal, homicidal, and totally insane undead general named Shuos Jedao to put down a heretical rebellion that has captured the supposedly-impregnable Fortress of Scattered Needles. Great names throughout, by the way, for that classical Three Kingdoms Chinese-fable feel but plugged into a hyper-militaristic future empire. You can react one of two ways — either your mind will rebel at the relentless stream of weird and confusing neologisms and mid-stream action opening sequence and say, “WTF was that?” Or … no that’s probably the standard response. The question then becomes, “Do I stick with it and hope that things will fall into place in time?” or “Do I ditch this book even though everyone is raving about how brilliant it is and I don’t want to be the loser who couldn’t handle the steep learning curve?”
Well, one thing about audiobooks is that even if you’re in way over your head, unlike in the print version where eventually you just cannot carry on any further, unless you click stop the audiobook keeps playing. And since 11 hours isn’t really THAT long, once you’ve gone halfway it would be silly to give up, so just let those bizarre events flow past your ears, and pluck a couple words here and there and try to figure them out. I found the exchanges between Charis and Jedao to be the most interesting, and the exotic and muddled futuristic battle sequences and protected siege to be the most boring. I mean, who couldn’t love an insane undead homicidal general who doesn’t even act apologetic for killing a million people and shooting his own officers in cold blood? Now that’s a character that will stay in your memory for a while.
Charis is a much more measured person, a soldier who is trying to do her duty, but knowing she is playing with a primal force that cannot be contained but is a “necessary evil,” that old chestnut. I found interesting echoes of Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, particularly, in the subtle subversion of genders that are casually sprinkled at random moments. Yes, we’re pretty sure Charis is female and Jedao used to be male (he’s just a computer program now), and as audiobook narrator Emily Woo Zeller chooses to use “cigar-chomping drill sergeant” for every male military character, it’s clear from the voices who should be male and who female. But then out of nowhere sexual scenes don’t play out in the usual way, and there is the same obsession with gloves and the military found in Ancillary Justice. Is this a “thing” now? I hadn’t realized.
In any case, I haven’t even bothered to describe the plot because a) it’s quite complicated, b) other reviewers have done that already, and c) I just don’t have the discipline this time. But suffice to say I was of two minds about Ninefox Gambit. One the one hand, I did like how Yoon Ha Lee just decided “screw it, I won’t explain anything – you do the work.” But that puts a lot of stress on the reader/listener, and if the events you are describing are not gripping (like Dune, for instance, equally baroque and complex but also a rip-roaring space opera extravaganza), then your attention is going to wander … like a heretic! So I found myself stopping and rewinding again and again, over and over, till I decided it wasn’t worth doing that anymore. And while I struggled to follow the storyline at many points, I appreciated the exotic world-building and mathematical magic, and the love-hate relationship of Charis and Jedao....more
The Last Colony is the third installment of the Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi, and will probably be my last visit to Scalzi world. I really enjoThe Last Colony is the third installment of the Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi, and will probably be my last visit to Scalzi world. I really enjoyed Old Man’s War, as it had the perfect blend of a sympathetic and wise-cracking main character, intriguing concept (recruiting 75 year olds with the promise of powerful new military bodies to fight aliens threatening humanity), basic training with the new bodies, first combat, and an exciting finale.
However, with each successive book I’m learning just how weak Scalzi’s descriptive powers are, and while he certainly has a breezy narrative style and refreshing sense of humor, it is starting to wear thin on me since the stories lack the fresh ideas and precise pacing of the initial book. This problem was especially apparent in Redshirts, which had a great idea (what if you found yourself as one of those unfortunate redshirt-wearing ensigns destined for a horrible death in Star Trek) but got tiresome towards the end.
This time John Perry and Jane Sagan have retired to an ostensibly uneventful life on the colony Huckleberry as an ombudsman and head of security. Guess what, aparrently the Colonial Defense Forces are not done with them, or their adopted daughter Zoe Boutin. They get dragged into being in charge of a new colony made up of 10 planet’s representatives, which is like being a kindergarten cop. Then the CDF plays a switcheroo on the colonists, and they become pawns in a chess match between the CDF and the alien Conclave on a world called Roanoke.
It’s not worth detailing the remaining plot details, but suffice to say that Scalzi has to pull out increasingly unlikely scenarios from his hat to keep the action centered on this family. Is it really plausible that an entire Conclave of 412 hostile alien races cannot get their act together to beat into submission a single colony of 2,500 settlers who are basically unarmed civilians? And does it really make sense that the alien Obin would commit their race to protecting the daughter of the human traitor who granted them consciousness? Not to mention the dubious plot device of passing on military-grade combat strength and skills to someone by slipping something into their food? I wasn’t buying that one.
To sum up, John Scalzi has a pretty reliable formula for churning out entertaining military SF, and he tries to vary it from book to book, but I don't think I can gain anything further by reading more of his output, with so many other books clamoring to be read. Not to worry though, I’m sure he’ll do just fine without me....more
There are plenty of good reviews on GR of this sequel to Old Man's War, so I'll dispense with a plot description. It was a well-written, briskly-pacedThere are plenty of good reviews on GR of this sequel to Old Man's War, so I'll dispense with a plot description. It was a well-written, briskly-paced tale, but I didn't like it quite as much as Old Man's War. That earlier first-person narrative had the perfect blend of humor, future world-building, exciting military adventure, and likeable characters. Just the fact that The Ghost Brigades did not feature John Perry from the first book was a bit of a disappointment (though he does resurface in later books).
The Ghost Brigades has a lot of structural parallels to the first book, particularly in the Special Forces training, discussions of military strategy, initial mission, surprise setbacks, tension-filled confrontation with the enemy, and action-packed ending. There were some nice touches, like the surprise twist of the opening chapter, and the exploration of identities and consciousness, with convincing pseudo-science.
On the downside, the main villain Charles Boutin gives a somewhat ridiculous evil mastermind monologue straight out of James Bond or Austin Powers, complete with the main character being incapacitated and forced to listen, while his buddies have been conveniently left under automated weapon systems guard, so that they can make a heroic escape and start blowing stuff up just in time to save our hero from certain death...
Having now read three John Scalzi novels this year, I think I've figured out his formula. He has a clever, breezy approach to storytelling, and a good sense of humor even if sometimes he tries a bit too hard. His characters also tend to be fairly likeable but lacking in real complexity (even as the story explore identity and consciousness issues). I find his descriptions of alien races to be pretty threadbare, especially their physical descriptions, to the point of having no idea what they look like other than "bird-like" or "insect-like". Though they have some interesting behavior, they still lack depth as fully-fledged alien species (except for one Rhaey scientist).
I'd say I liked Old Man's War the most, thought The Ghost Brigades was good but not great, and felt like Redshirts was initially hilarious but ran out of substance fairly quickly. So while I recognize why John Scalzi is as popular (and self-promoting) as he is, I wouldn't say he makes it into my favorite authors' circle. Still, I'll give The Last Colony a try since I do like John Perry and Jane Sagan enough to continue with their story....more
Ancillary Justice: An excellent debut about distributed AI minds, identity, colonization, and what it means to civilized Originally published at FantasAncillary Justice: An excellent debut about distributed AI minds, identity, colonization, and what it means to civilized Originally published at Fantasy Literature Sometimes debut novels just strike a chord and win a bunch of awards, and Ancillary Justice was a deserving recipient. It won the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, BSFA, and Locus awards for Best SF novel in 2013. It’s a flashy and intricate space opera that is strongly reminiscent of Iain M. Banks’ CULTURE series, but also takes a new approach to gender that echoes Ursula K. LeGuin’s masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness. It’s most interesting invention is a believable depiction of distributed consciousness, both for AIs and humans. It takes some getting used to, but that’s part of the fun of this exciting new epic.
There are hundreds of excellent reviews of Ancillary Justice on GR already, so I will just add my thoughts on the bold ideas this book introduces. The main character Breq is an ancillary, a human body whose mind has been wiped clean and has one fragment of the consciousness of a sentient ship (Justice of Toren) inserted. It takes the reader time to figure out exactly what Breq is in her solo form, and even more time to understand the complex hierarchy of the Justice of Toren ship with its mixed ancillary and human crew, and it’s mission on the planet Shis'urna, which is being annexed into the Radchaai Empire.
The intricate social and political structure of the Radchaai rivals Frank Herbert’s Dune, but in tone this Empire shares many parallels with the British Empire when it controlled a vast network of colonies. The Radchaai military relies on a rigid command hierarchy, with a Captain in charge but Ship’s intelligence is so pervasive that it’s unclear who has greater control. Social interactions among the Radchaai are also very formal and intricate. Much is implied and there is a constant battle beneath the surface for status, recognition, family honor, patronage, etc. In case it wasn’t obvious enough, the human members of the Empire crave tea and cakes as the highest form of civilized leisure. In fact, the term Radchaai is equivalent to civilization, and thus all members are citizens, and all humans outside the fold are therefore barbarians. It is okay for barbarians to be killed, enslaved, and otherwise absorbed into the Radchaai Empire, because this is a process of civilizing them, Manifest Destiny in a SF guise.
From the beginning we are shown the victims of this intricate and expansionist Empire, led by its immortal leader Anaander Mianaai, Lord of the Radsch. The moral questions that arise from the ruthless conquests of the Empire are not asked by its citizens, but instead by the barbarians whose resistance is futile, and even more interestingly, by the ancillary Breq, in the unique position of being a fragment of a ship AI. Because ship AIs themselves are subservient to their human Captains, despite superior intelligence, capabilities, and understanding. The status of AIs is an ambiguous one among the Radchaai, and yet there are heavily dependent on them for their military power and station administration. So as Breq’s independent personality develops over the course of the novel, we gain greater insight into Radchaai society. There is such an overwhelming sense of cultural superiority among the Radchaai towards barbarians that it started to really get on my nerves, which was Leckie’s intention I believe.
The Radchaai Empire presents some very interesting comparisons with Banks’ CULTURE. The former is extremely hierarchical and formalized, with an all-powerful human ruler (albeit with a consciousness spread among thousands of bodies), and AIs are there to serve human masters. In the Culture, the balance of power is firmly in favor of the artificial Minds, who have created a sprawling and decentralized galaxy-spanning Empire in which humans play a far smaller role. Instead, the Minds allow human beings to indulge in their own decadent interests and pursuits, thereby keeping them from interfering with their agendas. In fact, it is never exactly clear what the Minds of the Culture are really after, but they contact aliens and non-Culture human civilizations via Contact and Special Circumstances. That’s where most of Banks’ novels take place, in the interactions between the two. His ‘message’ in the series remains elusive, but in its refusal to provide obvious morals it allows readers to draw their own conclusions about the role of humans and AIs in a post-scarcity society.
Meanwhile, the more we learn of Radchaai civilization, the less palatable it becomes. Its casual cultural chauvinism towards other human cultures is quite odious at times, and the fact that thousands of barbarians are routinely rounded up and brain-wiped to provide bodies for ancillaries is never thought of by the Radchaai as anything other than the inalienable right of the superior civilization. They drink tea, after all! For those subject peoples who don’t submit quietly, death is frequently dealt out, but again, what else would you expect? It’s this same cavalier attitude of the British Empire towards its colonies that eventually led to its downfall, and it makes me wonder what is in store in future IMPERIAL RADSCH volumes.
There are also some tantalizing mentions of the alien Presger, who in some ways are more powerful than the Radchaii, and preyed on them until a treaty was formed to keep the two empires on peaceful terms. Part of the story here revolves around weapons made by the Presger that cannot be detected by Radchaai technology, and clearly these aliens will play a major role in the series going forward.
Ancillary Justice also garnered a lot of attention for its ambivalent approach to gender. In essence, gender exists in Radchaai society but really isn’t all that important. Therefore, there is no distinguishing of male and female in the Radchaai language, so they have trouble identifying it among barbarian civilizations. To demonstrate this, Leckie chooses to identify all characters as “she” and “her”, but occasionally throws in “sir” and “him” to confuse things. Radchaai do have males and females, and procreate like normal humans, but gender is just not a big factor. So by continuously using “she” and “her” instead of “he” and “him”, Leckie demonstrates how our own language betrays our built-in biases.
However, although this may superficially resemble the Gethenians in Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, that society consisted of genderless humans who only took on male and female traits during courtship periods, and could adopt either depending on the dynamics of the couple. Le Guin was conducting a thought-experiment of much greater subtlety, imagining what a society without male or female personalities would be like, how it would differ from our own gender-conscious world.
In contrast, Leckie’s Radchaai society has male and female, but doesn’t make a fuss about it. Being SF, it’s certainly a legitimate extrapolation to make, that after thousands of years human civilization would not be so hung up on whether we are male or female. The dominant and subservient roles would not be tied to gender anymore, but would arise due to individual personalities. However, I wasn’t entirely convinced by this, since the characters do make reference to sexual attraction and relationships, but only in passing. Is it really possible for sexual relations between men and women to NOT have any meaningful impact in their relative social status and influence?
Essentially it’s deliberately left underemphasized in the novel, but that alone does not make it convincing to me. If Leckie really wants to make a case for this, she’ll have to explore these relationships in more detail and demonstrate that they don’t really matter. Especially considering how status-conscious and hierarchical the Radchaai society is, it’s hard to believe that gender would not be one of the many areas in which status and power could be measured. Overall, I was really impressed by the complex world-building, challenging social ideas, and innovative and believable characters. Ancillary Justice doesn’t read like a first novel at all, thanks to its polished prose and intricate storyline. It also had a lot of humor driven by the strange social conventions of the Radchaai, which I wasn’t expecting (who would have thought how horribly uncouth bare hands could be)....more
Komarr: Miles the Imperial Auditor Falls in Love This is probably the eighth or ninth Miles Vorkosigan novel I've listened to this year as I work my waKomarr: Miles the Imperial Auditor Falls in Love This is probably the eighth or ninth Miles Vorkosigan novel I've listened to this year as I work my way chronologically through the series. I'm now well past the first 3-4 I read back in high school ages ago, and I can increasingly appreciate the different story arcs and overall development of Miles and the other major characters over time. Ms. Bujold has enjoyed phenomenal success with this series and an incredibly loyal fanbase thanks to her great skills in writing compelling, easily-accessible, enjoyable and moving space opera/mystery/adventure SF centered around incredibly real and likable characters.
In Komarr, Miles' investigation of a mysterious space accident (or sabotage?) gets him involved in the life of an unhappily married Vor lady, Ekaterin, which becomes the main focus of the story as it progresses. Bujold deftly weaves both the Komarran conspiracy investigation with their slowly developing understanding of each other. It is not a take of romance, so much as two people learning to understand and appreciate each others' strengths and failings before it even occurs to them that they might have feelings for each other. It was handled very well indeed, and despite the lack of almost all the other fan favorite supporting cast this time around, their relationship is a fascinating and original one, especially getting to know Ekaterin and all the baggage she brings, as you wouldn't expect anyone less complex to be a match for the manic, brilliant, but vulnerable Miles Vorkosigan....more
Memory: An Identity Crisis for Miles - Which is the Real One? Memory is the 8th volume in the Miles Vorkosigan Saga (if you exclude the stand-alones EtMemory: An Identity Crisis for Miles - Which is the Real One? Memory is the 8th volume in the Miles Vorkosigan Saga (if you exclude the stand-alones Ethan of Athos and Falling Free), and represents an important transitional phase between his free-wheeling alter-ego as Admiral Miles Naismith of the Dendarii Mercenaries, and Lord Miles Vorkosigan, son of Count Aral Vorkosigan and a key member of Emperor Gregor's inner circle of Barrayaran leaders. Therefore, this is definitely the wrong place to start reading the series - you'll not understand any of the background or experiences of Miles that have led up to this point. Therefore, of all the Miles Vorkosigan books, I felt this one was the least self-contained in the series, but a crucial transition point for Miles' character as he hits middle age and a sudden fork in his career and life path.
The story opens with an action-packed rescue mission by the Dendarii mercenaries led by Miles, but quickly goes disastrously wrong. As a result of this debacle and Miles' attempt to cover it up to ImpSec and Simon Illyan, he suddenly finds himself cut off from both the Dendarii and the Barryaran military, and in a mid-life crisis as he two key identities, which are so well developed they have taken on a life of their own. So what happens to a person when both are snatched away without warning?
Miles returns to House Vorkosigan, now empty of everything but memories, and tries to readjust to the stifling role of as a Vor lordling, but without the outlet of his Admiral Naismith identity or his pride as a military officer, the trapping of aristocracy are little solace. He visits the setting of the story "Mountains of Mourning", and does a lot of introspection and reflection on who he really is, and what gives his life purpose. This is another reason not to start with this book - it would be like starting the third season of a long-running drama.
Of course just ruminations and mid-life crisis do not a SF adventure make, so Miles does soon encounter some very eccentric behavior by long-time ImpSec chief Simon Illyan, and as these start to escalate he realizes something very sinister is happening inside the organization, and when he himself if framed for it, he needs to go back into Miles Vorkosigan hyperactive mind mode and use his wits to exonerate himself and track down the real culprit. So the book's pace and mystery are more like Cetaganda than the space opera military adventures of the earlier books.
It's a natural progression for Miles to start to grow out of his swash-buckling mercenary 20s, and as Mrs. Bujold has devoted so much care into fleshing out all the characters in this series, this book can devote itself to the inner struggle of Miles to come to grips with the inevitable life changes he and some of his close companions must go through, just like any of us. And she handles the story very well, as his inner monologues and thoughts are entirely realistic and consistent with all he has gone through before. Memory also sets the stage for a new phase of Miles' life, and it takes great confidence for an author to take a successful series and refuse to repeat the same formula over and over again, but instead force the main character to make changes he would rather not undergo, and still keep readers engaged in his story. Along with Mirror Dance, it's one of the most thoughtful and introspective of the Miles stories, and thought it may not be as exciting as earlier stories, it is done very well indeed....more
Ender’s Shadow: Better than expected - Ender’s Game from Bean’s perspective Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Ender’s Game was a SF book so succesEnder’s Shadow: Better than expected - Ender’s Game from Bean’s perspective Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Ender’s Game was a SF book so successful and critically acclaimed that it launched Orson Scott Card’s career for decades to come. In fact, it’s fair to say that the story of Ender Wiggins is one of the most popular SF novels the genre has ever produced, to the point of getting the full-budget Hollywood treatment in 2013 (grossing $125 million on a budget of around $110-115 million) with A-listers such as Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley, but receiving mixed critical reviews.
Not one to miss a commercial opportunity, Card has returned the favor, producing a whopping 15 Ender-related books with more in the works apparently. I read Ender’s Game (1985, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards) at the perfect age for that book, in junior high school and overlapping with the character’s ages. In fact, it’s fair to say that the book launched my love of SF after having mostly read fantasy such as THE LORD OF THE RINGS, CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, CHRONICLES OF PRYDAIN, etc.
I quickly went on to Speaker for the Dead (1986, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards again) and was deeply moved by its examination of the ethics of Ender’s actions in the first book and subsequent attempts at redemption. However, I found the follow-up Xenocide (1991) a bit dialogue heavy and didn’t ready anything else by him for over two decades including the fourth Ender novel Children of the Mind (1996).
In fact, I was quite surprised to discover the cottage industry Card has built around Ender during that time, when I finally re-read Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead 30 years later. I thought Ender’s Game held up well as a fast-paced but thoughtful military SF yarn, but Speaker for the Dead became fairly tedious with all its anguished moralizing. Maybe my reaction is more about how I have changed since my innocent days of youth.
In any case, I’m not so enamored of Ender’s Game that I feel obligated to read 15+ sequels and spin-offs, etc. However, having read a number of reviews, many readers claim that Ender’s Shadow (1999), essentially a re-telling of Ender’s Game from Bean’s perspective, was surprisingly good. Although it is part of a series known as THE SHADOW SAGA, following the stories of major characters from Ender’s Game such as Bean, Peter, Petra, Achilles, etc.
I've read THE SHADOW SAGA gets much more into the political and military intrigue back on Earth after Ender prevails over the alien Buggers, and I have to admit I’m not that interested in that direction (and reviews I’ve read have been fairly negative too). Ender’s Game captured readers’ attention, especially YA readers, because the story was about a lonely 12-year old military genius who had to survive Battle School, prove his leadership skills against older kids and the manipulative generals in charge of him, and beat an implacable alien fleet with only his tactical ingenuity. It’s easy to get pulled into his story and so it makes sense to revisit it, but only if you have something new to add and not just rehash it.
So I was hesitant to try Ender’s Shadow but I was drawn into the story of tiny Bean trying to survive on the mean streets of children’s gangs in Rotterdam in in 2170. At the opening, Bean is supposedly just 4 years old and starving to death. Despite being almost too weak to put food to mouth, he manages to convince a small street gang led by female boss Poke to keep him alive by giving them critical survival tips to gain entry to food kitchens and stave off older bullies. Bean’s special skills and behind-the-scenes influence on the entire power balance of the street gangs brings him to the notice of Sister Carlotta, who runs one of the food shelters but also is a recruiter for the IF (International Federation) that is looking for promising candidates for Battle School.
Against all odds, tiny Bean excels enough to get picked for Battle School, where he intersects with the famous storyline of Ender Wiggins. It’s unlikely that readers will come to Ender’s Shadow without having first read Ender’s Game, so Card has to achieve the difficult goal of giving us a fresh look at the events of Ender Wiggin’s time at Battle School from Bean’s perspective, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that he pulled it off quite well.
Bean is a very different character from Ender. He is a child-genius that has grown up on the streets with only one goal — to survive at all costs by using his wits and tactical skills to manipulate stronger people around him, both children and adults, but remaining behind the scenes and avoiding the notice of powerful enemies. So while Ender is constantly under the spotlight and is forced to prove his leadership again and again, Bean stays in the shadows, carefully gathering data on the other commanders in battle school, the trainers, and the generals who think they are controlling events. He surreptitiously helps Ender when he can, but sometimes makes crucial mistakes that actual expose Ender to potentially fatal danger.
Eventually Bean’s tactical skills become apparent to the other children, but it is Ender’s leadership that captures their hearts and loyalty, not Bean. So there is the emotional dynamic of love/jealousy with which Bean observes how Ender can control those around him, and even when more credit for tactics in the battle simulations should be given to Bean, it is generally Ender who gets the accolades.
At the same time, the intense and unrelenting pressure of Ender’s success in the games is also a burden that Bean can only observe from outside, unable to share the cross that Ender bears each day. As the games get more relentless as the generals accelerate the pace, knowing that the real battle with the Buggers at their home world is rapidly approaching, it is Bean who seems most aware of the real situation, and Ender who is withering under the pressure.
I was impressed with how exciting the story remained even when I knew in detail what was going to happen. Card managed to give the reader new angles that make us reexamine the same events with greater emotional depth and understanding of the greater context of the story. Card called it a “parallax” story, and it’s something that might have failed in lesser hands. I think after having written so many books about Ender over the years, Card has a deep knowledge of the characters, storyline, and universe, and also what appeals to fans.
The audiobook is an all-star production featuring Scott Brick, Stefan Rudnicki, and Gabrielle de Cuir. They provide a level of dramatic range to the characters that really enhances an already-compelling story. Ender’s Shadow is a great companion piece to Ender’s Game, so give it a try....more
Leviathan Wakes: Gritty, Exciting Near Space Opera with Noir and Horror Elements I didn't initially believe this series could be worth reading, as it lLeviathan Wakes: Gritty, Exciting Near Space Opera with Noir and Horror Elements I didn't initially believe this series could be worth reading, as it looks like just another ongoing lengthy SF space opera series (8 novels and 6 shorter works at present), and written by two authors under a pseudonym, so I was pretty reluctant to give it a try. However, several friends recommended it, and then I discovered it had been made into a TV series called The Expanse for the Sy-fy Channel, so a few years back I watched the first two seasons and immediately said, "Wow, was I wrong. This series is fantastic; dark, gritty, scary, and yet rich in humor and characters."
It's got some very detailed world-building and hard-SF elements, but restricts itself to the Earth, Mars, and the Inner Belt of the Solar System, meaning it's hard to label it "Space Opera" as practiced by Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, and others. There is no FTL, quantum drives, planet-busting weapons, and most of all lacks a cast of alien space-faring races that battle humanity for supremacy. There is an alien element, called a protomolecule, that drives the larger story, but its more like a virus that makes its victims into "space zombies", so at times it reminded me of that old SF horror classic Lifeforce.
Anyway, what makes this series worth following is the characters. They fit some broad stereotypes, like the jaded veteran detective, idealistic young ship captain, super competent female ship engineer, tough but loyal square-jawed sidekick, and even a pilot with a Texas drawl. There is plenty of Machiavellian politics revolving around the constantly shifting rivalries between the Earth, Mars, and Belters. This all gets spun into new directions when the alien protomolecule is let loose on Eros Station, apparently on purpose. Won't reveal more than that, but I am fairly sure you'll be hooked after book one, and the TV drama is very good indeed....more
Cetaganda: A murder mystery amid exotic political intrigue This is the third book about Miles Vorkosigan in internal chronology, and unlike its manic pCetaganda: A murder mystery amid exotic political intrigue This is the third book about Miles Vorkosigan in internal chronology, and unlike its manic predecessors The Warrior's Apprentice and The Vor Game, there are no space battles, Denarii Mercenaries, Sargent Bothari, Cordelia, Aral, or Emperor Gregor. In fact, Miles's only companion this time is his slightly dim playboy cousin Ivan Vorpatril. Still, as a comic foil Ivan does yeoman work, and this time the story is a murder mystery set in the intricate court of the Cetegandan Empire on the occasion of the death of the Dowager Empress.
The elite part of Cetagandan society is a complex mix of Ghem lords, gender-neutral courtiers, Haut ladies hidden in opaque energy field bubbles, and the the Emperor and Dowager Empress. When Miles and Ivan literally stumble into trouble straight out of the airlock and find themselves in an altercation with a servitor and then in possession of a mysterious key, things quickly spiral out of control in typical Miles fashion, as his quick wits seem to get him as much into trouble as out of it.
This time he falls for the stunningly beautiful Haut lady Rian, and these aristocratic ladies hold the knowledge of the extensive genetic engineering that underpins Cetagandan society. Bujold spends a lot of time describing the intricate details of the society, which gets full points for creative SF world-building that explores the infinite permutations that human societies can take, it sacrifices a lot of the excitement and tension of the earlier Miles space adventures, though I appreciate Bujold wanting to flesh out her larger galactic civilization.
There are a number of comedic episodes involving Ivan, particularly involving an "anti-aphrodisiac", and the larger conspiracies and treasonous plots that Miles uncovers without the permission or blessing of the Barrayar ambassador or his head of security are suitably intricate, so perhaps listening to it in audiobook while riding the London underground is not ideal for keeping track of the many characters and motivations is a difficult task. Nevertheless, the resulting story is certainly entertaining and worthwhile, but perhaps not quite as frenetic as the first two books....more
Mirror Dance: The Best Miles Adventure, and He's Not Even the Main Character This entry in the Miles Vorkosigan Saga won the Locus and Hugo Awards for Mirror Dance: The Best Miles Adventure, and He's Not Even the Main Character This entry in the Miles Vorkosigan Saga won the Locus and Hugo Awards for Best SF Novel in 1995, and lives up to its billing. Having read a number of other reviews (because I try to avoid repeating what has been said already), this volume is perhaps the darkest and most emotionally-involved book in the series, with a mixture of adventure, her signature depth of characterization, tragedy, humor, familial drama, and a very in-depth exploration of identity and how the traumas of the past shape a person's life, but also the power to transform oneself and overcome these obstacles.
I won't describe the plot in detail, as it is quite involved and ingenious and I'd rather focus on Mrs. Bujold's bravery as an author to suddenly take her beloved protagonist Miles off-stage for the entire middle section while giving center stage to his clone Mark, who we first meet in Brothers in Arms, and who frankly is a quite unpleasant and petulant person at first, hardly leading-character material. But in Mrs. Bujold's skillful hands, she takes this very unlikeable character and then put him through a series of tribulations and adventures that force to grow up, face his inadequacies and failings, his jealousy of his beloved clone brother Miles, and to finally dig down deep into some very ugly events of his past and channel some dark places in order to save the day and Miles as well. There are some pretty horrific torture scenes that recall those in Shards of Honor, but are far more focused on psychological terror, that are rough going for poor Mark.
There is also a very interesting but slower-paced middle section that focuses on the damaged Mark as he get's to know Miles' famous and intimidating parents Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan. His resistance to their attempts to accept him as a son are very believable considering his cruel upbringing being trained as an assassin and imposter, and his struggles to overcome that legacy and find himself are handled extremely well. It's what marks this book as a high point in the series, as Mrs. Bujold has already proven she can do thrilling military SF action with three-dimensional characters, so has earned the right to explore inner space instead for much of the middle section, before segueing back into some of the most intense and thrilling action in the third act.
All in all, definitely one of the best books in the series, once again skillfully narrated by Grover Gardner....more
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