The Lost Tribe, a civilization of Sith warriors, cut off from the rest of the galaxy for 5000 years, first appears as one of the antagonists in the FaThe Lost Tribe, a civilization of Sith warriors, cut off from the rest of the galaxy for 5000 years, first appears as one of the antagonists in the Fate of the Jedi series. As those novels got released over several years, a series of ebooks (short stories really) was doled out as well, telling tales of those 5000 "lost" years. This volume collects those stories in one place and then adds a final novella that caps the sequence. The tales cover several thousand years of history on Kesh, from the crash-landing of the Sith mining ship, Omen, to the Sith's eventual dominance of the entire planet and its indigenous species, the Keshiri.
As you might expect from a collection of stories, the book varies some in quality. Despite all of the material being written by John Jackson Miller, a regular contributor to Star Wars comics, his plot and character ideas are not uniformly good. Each tale has a limited amount of time - often just 30 to 40 pages - to establish the current protagonists and antagonists, lay out the social and political situation, raise the stakes, and play out any action. Miller sometimes cheats a bit on this model, pairing a couple of stories together, leaving one on a mild cliffhanger, only to resolve it in the next tale. Thus, he is able to reutilize the setup from the previous story and move ahead faster with plot and action in the second paired story.
Still, with the majority of the characters being devious, malevolent Sith, it's hard to get excited about who wins or loses in the various political schemes, interpersonal machinations, or outright battles. That makes it all the more exciting when there are characters to root for, as we find in the stories "Skyborn," "Purgatory," and "Sentinel." And of course, the real upside of the linked-story format is that the pieces are always short, so if you don't like one of them, you can quickly move on to the next installment.
The final piece, "Pandemonium," written just for this volume, promises something different. The Lost Tribe discovers that there is another continent on the other side of the world from them, and vows to conquer it. The novella-length story features long sections told from the point of view of the Keshiri preparing to defend their cities and their people. Due to the lack of metal on Kesh, the story has a bit of a steampunk flair, with the Tribe forced to resort to using animal-powered airships to invade. The Keshiri fight back with their own bronze-age tech, and some unexpected mental powers. I enjoyed much of this section, as it was quite different from anything else I've read in the Expanded Universe. Unfortunately, if you've read the Fate of the Jedi books, the ending of this one is a foregone conclusion, leaving little suspense.
I found this collection mildly engaging while reading it, but nothing in it captured my attention enough to make it feel like these tales were indispensable. At best, these stories represent a detour or side show in the overarching Star Wars mythology....more
This Star Wars novel was apparently adapted from a role playing game. Books adapted from video games are usually mediocre; is the same true of RPG's? This Star Wars novel was apparently adapted from a role playing game. Books adapted from video games are usually mediocre; is the same true of RPG's? It also was written by a novice on the series, Jeff Grubb, not an auspicious sign. Nonetheless, despite lowered expectations based on the facts above, I found this novel more entertaining than many of the other late-Legends-era books, perhaps in part because it was doing its own thing, and not trying to be anything other than a noir-esque mystery set in the Star Wars universe.
The tale starts with the death of Toro Irana, a young Pantoran Jedi Knight, whose demise is deemed accidental. However, the circumstances surrounding his death are suspicious (he jumped out a 40th floor window to his death, without apparent provocation) and his former Master, a Jedi Archivist named Mander Zuma, is dispatched to investigate. Once Zuma discovers foul play, he teams up with Toro's sister, a smuggler named Reen Irana, and her partner, a quippy Bothan mechanic named Eddey Be'ray. The mystery will take the trio to the darkest corners of Nar Shadda (and beyond) where they uncover a nasty and deadly drug trade wrapped in a simmering internecine conflict between Hutt crime lords.
Zuma proves to be an intriguing creation. His connection to the Force is not as strong as many Jedi, and his strengths lie not in combat or field work, but in research and study. He frequently mentions that his lightsaber skills are subpar, and his inner monologue suggests that he wonders whether he is a real Jedi or not - he certainly doesn't fit our stereotypes of the Order. Thus, as he follows clues and wanders through the Hutt underworld, he is fighting not only criminal elements, but his own doubts. The other characters feel more standard, but are well written enough to not be annoying. Grubb even includes the idea of a Force-sensitive Hutt in the character of Mika. The youngest scion of the Anjiliac Hutt clan, Mika struggles to identify with both their family and their species. Hutts are not supposed to be Force users - in fact they are usually antagonistic to the Jedi - so what does that mean for Mika?
If Scourge has a weakness, it could be its relentless pace. Some might find that a benefit, and its almost certainly a side effect of the story's origins in a game; the need to move from one set piece to another feels forced at times. I wished that Grubb had given his characters a little more time to breathe, talk, think, and be. But most people don't come to Star Wars novels for the character development, and I am confident that Grubb's editor told him to keep the action moving.
The novel drives to a confrontation over the manufacture of a deadly form of spice known as Tempest, and the final scenes offer some exciting action. Grubb hints at larger questions about whether one can break the chains of destiny, or whether certain behaviors and actions are programmed into us. Is a Jedi who is not a fighter still a Jedi? Does a Hutt always have to be a criminal? There are intriguing questions briefly poked at in the novel, and probably deserving of more time and space than the author gave them (or was allowed to give them).
As it stands though, Scourge plays out a bit like a gritty cop drama on TV, with Zuma as the hard-boiled (but secretly nerdy) detective, working his way through the mean streets to track down the person who killed his partner. He then stumbles on a bigger problem, the Tempest trade, and to avenge his Padawan's death, he vows to take down the entire drug syndicate. It's a clever idea to set such a motif in the Star Wars universe and, for the most part, Grubb succeeds in making this a fun and unique stand-alone tale....more
The Rise of Endymion wraps up the Hyperion Cantos, and if there's one thing you can say for Dan Simmons, it's that he goes out swinging. Everything abThe Rise of Endymion wraps up the Hyperion Cantos, and if there's one thing you can say for Dan Simmons, it's that he goes out swinging. Everything about this novel screams "epic," from the length, to the set pieces, to the stakes. One can argue with facets of the execution (and I will), but Simmons' ambition is on full display. He reaches for the stars.
Narrated by Raul Enymion while imprisoned at some point in the future, the tale picks up several years after the end of Endymion. (FWIW, we still don't know exactly why Raul is in the Schrodinger cat box, but all will be revealed in time.) As the novel opens, Aenea, Raul, and A. Bettik are stuck on Old Earth, where Aenea has become both a student of architecture and a folk teacher to a small colony of folks living in what we would call the American Southwest. She preaches to them about the Void that Binds, a mystical force that holds the galaxy together. She asks them to take communion of her blood, infecting them with the "virus" that her unique DNA represents.
When Aenea turns 16, she tells Raul that he must leave and find the Consul's ship, hidden beneath a river on one of the worlds they visited in the last novel. She gives him instructions on how to navigate to a working Farcaster, as well as information on how to reconnect with her once he has the ship. The first half of the book plays out as an action-adventure story, with Raul traveling by Farcaster to several worlds, and trying to stay ahead of pursuit from Radamanth Nemes and a group of her fellow cyborgs sent by the TechnoCore. Meanwhile, we learn that the Core and the Pax have been working together to control the human population of the Universe through religion, the cruciforms, commerce, and more. Now the aligned baddies seek to destroy the Ousters for good as a way to consolidate their power. The Pope and the Core believe Aenea to be an existential threat to their theocracy and so they seek to destroy her (and anyone associated with her, such as Raul).
If Simmons sticks with action in the first half, the big ideas for which he is famous show up in the second part of the novel, after Aenea and Raul are reunited on the planet of T'ien Shan. I won't try to dig into that (and it would involve spoilers if I did), but suffice it to say that the Pax has reason to fear both Aenea and the Ousters, as her power is larger than they could imagine. In fact, it's not even really her power . . . what she knows is accessible to anyone. But I've probably said too much.
I like much of what Simmons does here. The characters feel fresh and interesting, even when they have a basis in classic sci-fi or "hero's journey" tropes, and the world-building has a lot of depth and intricacy to it. The action scenes don't disappoint, the suspense is legitimate, and the big ideas will blow your mind if you think about them for too long. Simmons questions the very nature of reality - along with politics, evolution, science, and religion. Parts of the resolution were foreshadowed (but satisfying) while other elements took me off guard. After four books and thousands of pages, Simmons still has a few cards up his sleeves - and in doing so pays homage to other classics, ranging from the Bible to Forever Peace to The Hunger Games to Terminator 2! The author mines a lot of classic sci-fi, literary fiction, and religious texts to achieve his effects. I mean, if you're going to steal ideas, why not steal from the best?
If there's any portion of The Rise of Endymion that doesn't really work for me, it's the love story between Raul and Aenea. Although some of the age gap issues are dealt with through FTL travel and the ensuing time debt that occurs, it still feels a little awkward. And although one can perhaps understand Raul's attraction to the messianic Aenea, her attraction to him still feels forced. It's not terrible, but it's not perfect either. My other nitpicky complaints mostly involve some pacing issues near the finale, and what feels like a little bit of Deus ex Machina, as Aenea uses her powers to tie off a few loose ends a mite easily.
In some ways this novel reminded me of the original Ender quartet by Orson Scott Card. It started incredibly strong with what may be the best two novel sequence in all of sci-fi, and then worked hard to try to keep up the level of invention in the third and fourth books. Nonetheless, Card pulled out all the stops and investigated some massive ideas in those latter books, including ideas involving science, religion, and the nature of human consciousness. Simmons does nothing more or less here, and if the results are not always a home run, I have to give him an A+ for the form on his swing. The good outweighs the bad in this closing chapter; my mind will be thinking about this series for a long time, rolling the ideas around in my head like a set of rosary beads in my hands.
Were I to consider each facet of this book and measure the pros and cons (e.g., plotting, prose, pacing, ideas, entertainment), this might prove to be a three star novel. But given its heritage, it could have been so much worse, and I applaud the audacity of what was attempted. Like an Olympic gymnast performing a tricky routine, Simmons gets the four stars for degree of difficulty here, even if he doesn't quite stick the landing....more
The Star Wars Legends books have run on so long that they feel a lot like one of those intergenerational soap operas my Mom used to watch on hot summeThe Star Wars Legends books have run on so long that they feel a lot like one of those intergenerational soap operas my Mom used to watch on hot summer afternoons. Call it Tatooine Days and Coruscant Nights or The Young and the Force-Sensitive. In such a long-running series (well over 100 books when Apocalypse was published), you must either find ways to up the ante, or you have to find ways to reset, making what was old new again. This series attempted to do some of both, and was only marginally successful.
Troy Denning jumps the action ahead several weeks or months from the close of the previous novel, Christie Golden's Ascension. The Jedi make a covert assault on Coruscant, seeking to eradicate the Sith quickly and quietly. Ben, Luke, and Vestara - the Sith turned Jedi apprentice - are part of the team that infiltrates the Jedi Temple; Vestara will have a final chance to prove her trustworthiness and commitment to the Light Side. Meanwhile, a team of Jedi led by Raynar Thul travel to a Killik hive nest, seeking more information on Abeloth. Where did she come from and what are her vulnerabilities? Other subplots from the series also make an appearance. We learn the fate of Jagged Fel and the internal civil conflict within the Imperial Remnant. Tahiri Veila goes off seeking redemption, but finds only more evidence of Abeloth's tinkering in intergalactic politics and some clues as to the virus that has affected Boba Fett. We also have sections dealing with Allana's true identify as the heir to the Hapan throne, the Barabel nest under the Jedi Temple, the fate of Wynn Dorvan, and more. Whew!
This novel proves to be as action-packed and plot dense as any of the books in the series, and that's saying something. At times, that density serves it well. We move from one action to the next, with plot threads finally getting tied off, story arcs completed, and the fate of various characters being revealed. That said, the swiftness and intensity of the novel also are its Achilles' heel. We never get to linger on any of the more emotionally significant moments. Neither the victories nor the defeats are allowed to linger; Denning simply moves on to the next thing. If we had any emotional investment in the main characters (or the minor ones), we get very little time to resolve those feelings.
Given those comments, one may wonder why I give this book three stars. Well, for a couple of reasons. First, I am actually impressed that Denning lands the plane. I may find some of the resolutions rushed or not completely convincing, but when I got to the end, I couldn't find any threads that hadn't been tied off (except for a couple of ideas intentionally left as teasers for later stories). And the resolutions have their own internal logic, even if I didn't love some of the choices that were made (e.g., I agree with the reviewer who felt that Vestara gets hard done by here). Second, there was a major tie-in to the Clone Wars television series that I found pretty satisfying. It actually made the entire Abeloth narrative come into a different focus for me, and appreciate this as not just another "Dark Side monster of the week" sort of tale.
This series, like its predecessor, Legacy of the Force, will never be a classic in my mind. The feeling that this is a never-ending story, where generations of characters replace one another in an ongoing conflict between good, evil, and apathy, becomes hard to shake. Nonetheless, there are moments of enjoyment here, and the book is fast-paced enough to be relatively painless. Denning gave me more than I had hoped for, even if it is still less than Star Wars fans deserve....more
I was about to give this book three stars, as I recall liking it well enough when I read it a couple of months ago. But then I realized I couldn't remI was about to give this book three stars, as I recall liking it well enough when I read it a couple of months ago. But then I realized I couldn't remember much about it, so I looked up a few reviews, ranging from those who loved the book to those who hated it, just to recall the plot. Unfortunately, remembering more of the novel didn't serve it well in my memory. It only affirmed that my lack of recollection was probably a consequence of this book's absolute mediocrity.
The story follows Dash Rendar, a recurring character from the Shadows of the Empire novel and video game. Dash is sort of Han Solo light, a ship captain and smuggler, working with his copilot, a Nautalan by the name of Eaden Vrill, and a wise-cracking robot named Leebo. When Rendar's ship, the Outrider becomes damaged while making the Kessel Run, he must come up with some cash to make repairs. He and his crew hire themselves on as bodyguards to interstellar holostar Javul Charn. They discover that someone is trying to kill her, or slow her down, which makes the entire story a sort of noir detective tale, but, you know, set in the Star Wars universe.
I enjoyed the components of this book that focus on Charn, Rendar, and the search for the assassin. Charn was once dating a Black Sun Vigo, and he becomes an obvious suspect, as bodies keep turning up, and sabotage occurs on Charn's ship. Rendar as smuggler turned hard-boiled detective actually works.
However, in the second half of the book, Reaves and his co-author Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff seem compelled to add in canon characters (Han Solo shows up as a start) and tie the plot to the larger Star Wars mythology. They also don't really resolve the romantic tension between Charn and Rendar. That's too bad, because as a stand-alone story set in the Star Wars universe, the novel works pretty well. Once you add in the fact that this is basically The Bodyguard in space, the lack of a "happily ever after" for the leads really suppresses the joy.
A couple of the action set pieces are unique and mildly entertaining. However, this feels like a filler novel, dictated by an editorial staff, a book that ultimately has too many corporate responsibilities to really find its own path or way forward. The lack of courage and originality in some of these Star Wars tales becomes their undoing....more
From the earliest days of her career, the science fiction of Ursula LeGuin leaned toward the social sciences more than the hard sciences. Always CominFrom the earliest days of her career, the science fiction of Ursula LeGuin leaned toward the social sciences more than the hard sciences. Always Coming Home extends and elaborates on that connection, telling the tale of a future society through the lens of anthropology.
The conceit of the book is that Pandora, a researcher, has time traveled to study a people group known as the Kesh, who exist on Earth somewhere in the far future. Whether Pandora comes from a time near our own, or from a time even farther in the future is not entirely clear. The Kesh live in the valley of the Na River, which can be inferred to be in what is now northern California, probably around Napa Valley. Climate change, or some other catastrophe, has transformed the landscape though, and much of the region that we know as land in the 21st century is covered in water in LeGuin's narrative.
Structurally, the book takes an eclectic approach, including personal narratives, poetry, descriptions of flora and fauna, maps, historical documents, and more. These elements are haphazardly thrown together, with no discernible order or logic to them, as if Pandora was simply creating a journal of all of her findings without thought to structure or readability. The closest thing we have to a through-line are several long sections of narrative, told by a woman named Stone Telling, whose mother is Kesh but whose father comes from the Condor people. Stone Telling attempts to bridge the culture between the Kesh, a largely egalitarian and socialist group, and the Condor, who embrace patriarchy, violent conquest, and a certain amount of industrialization. Stone Telling's journey spans three sections of the book, fairly evenly dispersed among the other writings.
Thematically, LeGuin deals with many of her usual subjects, especially the ways in which societies organize themselves to get work done or to maximize happiness, and the relative strengths and weaknesses of various economic and political systems. The tension between capitalism and socialism, as well as egalitarianism and hierarchy are ongoing topics. But because the book focuses primarily on the Kesh, our sympathies as readers are with the quieter, non-violent people.
I had hoped to enjoy this book more, as I had heard it was one of LeGuin's true masterpieces. Instead, I found it to be mildly interesting, but meandering. The disjointed narrative and anthropological approach create a disassociation that held me at arm's length from the characters and their story. Like Pandora, I felt like an outsider looking in, with little emotional connection to the people or their challenges. Perhaps that detachment was LeGuin's point, but if she had a hope of causing her readers to reevaluate the ways in which our society might be sick, the book seems to dilute that possibility.
It is my understanding that much of the material in this book is actually a fictional retelling (or reimagining) of A Handbook of the Indians of California, a seminal work by anthropologist A.L. Kroeber, mixed with elements from The Inland Whale by Theodora Kroeber. These books, written by LeGuin's parents, coupled with her own time spent in the Napa Valley as a child, clearly had a deep influence on her. So in that sense, Always Coming Home seems to be an intensely personal work, with the title itself holding multiple layers of meaning. The research and care that went into this, coupled with LeGuin's consistently elegant prose, make it a lovely and gentle book. Nonetheless, I had hoped that I would find myself sinking into it at a deeper and more fully satisfying level and I never did.
This Star Wars book creates connections between the story arcs of several video games, most notably Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the OldThis Star Wars book creates connections between the story arcs of several video games, most notably Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II. Having never played either of these games, the novel left me underwhelmed.
The story has two main through lines. One follows the titular character, a disgraced Jedi in the Old Republic attempting to remember what happened to him several years before, during a disastrous campaign against the Mandalorians. He is having horrible insomnia and nightmares about his time as Sith Lord Darth Revan, events apparently chronicled in one of the video games. He sets off on a quest to uncover the truth, memories suppressed in him by the Jedi Order. He will reconnect with old friends and allies, and the journey will eventually take him to a confrontation with the lost Mandalorian clans and in a search for the mask of Mandalore.
Meanwhile, on the planet Dromund Kaas, a Sith warrior named Scourge works his way into favor with Darth Nyriss, a member of the Sith's Dark Council. She hires him to root out traitors and other threats to her safety, and he is sent on several missions. However, in true Sith fashion, he worries that she might be trying to assassinate him, even though she employs him. Eventually, it becomes clear that Nyriss believes the current Sith Emperor is unstable and will bring ruin to the Empire if not stopped or supplanted. She enlists Scourge and others in her plans.
The two plot threads eventually intertwine, in ways that make only a small amount of sense. I suspect that the ideas tie together better for those who have played the games, but without that context, the novel feels over-plotted, and the characters somewhat underdeveloped. I had a hard time believing or understanding the motivations, especially for Revan, who leaves a pregnant wife behind to head out on his quest. When he eventually winds up collaborating with the Sith on a plot to overthrow an Emperor, the story no longer feels like it fits into the larger Star Wars universe. Instead, one can feel the hand of the video game designer in this - creating exaggerated situations that allow for larger-than-life battles and epic confrontations - but that don't make a lot of sense on an emotional or psychological level.
The ending feels like a set-up for a sequel - presumably also a game of some sort, because, as far as I know, Karpyshyn never wrote a Revan: Part Two.
I put this book in the same category as the two Force Unleashed novels. It just seems that they don't stand alone well, without the video game infrastructure to support them. And that's a shame. In a perfect world, each element of a media tie-in would do well on its own, and be enhanced by interaction with the others (films, comic books, games, etc.) Here though, lack of knowledge of the game severely dilutes the experience. The reader is always playing catch up, and the content of the novel doesn't feel sturdy enough to carry the experience on its own. Disappointing, but typical of this era of Star Wars novels....more
When authors return to the world of their most lauded works, the results are frequently uneven. So often, fan pressure or financial considerations driWhen authors return to the world of their most lauded works, the results are frequently uneven. So often, fan pressure or financial considerations drive the decision to write a new book in a series that should have been over. Dan Simmons' Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion form a complete and satisfying story; I felt no need for further narrative in this universe. Yet here sits Endymion written six years later and waiting to be read. Would it be a disappointment?
Fortunately, Simmons avoids most of the pitfalls of late-breaking sequels. The smartest thing he does is to leap the narrative forward almost three centuries. After the destruction of the farcasters, civilization on many worlds has broken down, and interstellar travel is much slower and harder. In the wake of earlier events, Father Paul Duré was elected as Pope. He revitalized the Catholic Church with the cruciform symbiotes, refining the resurrection process and offering nearly eternal life to true believers who accepted the parasite. Now, the Church has become one of the most powerful political forces in the galaxy, known as the Pax.
The main narrative of the book though focuses on Raul Endymion, a hunting guide on Hyperion, who is sentenced to death for a murder, but is rescued by a reclusive and powerful man who has a task for him: Go to the Time Tombs and wait for a 12-year old girl to emerge. The girl turns out to be Aenea, the daughter of Brawne Lamia and the first John Keats cybrid. She has been sent forward in time for reasons unknown, but the date of her arrival is known. The Pax sees her as a threat to all of their way of life - but we don't know why. Endymion's mission, should he choose to accept it, is to sneak into the Valley of the Time Tombs, and pull Aenea out from under the noses of half of the Pax military. Due to some clever planning - and a few unexpected surprises beyond his control - he does just that.
The rest of the novel then becomes a quest and chase narrative. The Pax send a fast ship after Endymion, Aenea, and their android companion, A. Bettik. Father-Captain Federico de Soya, tasked with capturing Aenea, tries to guess where the renegades will go next. Aenea's purposes are unclear, but she appears to have powers or knowledge beyond that of a normal human (or android); and she is looking for SOMETHING. At one point she is able to activate a long-dead farcaster, sending the ragtag group halfway across the galaxy. The voyage becomes episodic, with Aenea and her group visiting a number of former Hegemony planets, including a water world, a jungle planet, and an icy rock barely capable of sustaining human life. Each new destination provides plenty of danger and adventure, while the larger background narrative plays like a quiet drumbeat. What is Aenea looking for? Why are the Pax after her? Will they catch her?
The book offers a number of teasing mysteries; Simmons initiates political and metaphysical questions that remain unanswered through almost 600 pages. In this, it is not unlike the original Hyperion; one had to wait for the sequel to gain satisfaction. I enjoyed this book as a complicated, sometimes breathless adventure tale set in the world of Hyperion. But the story is incomplete, and I sense that my ultimate enjoyment of it will depend on how the final volume resolves the various unanswered pieces.
The climax of this book reminded me a bit of the movie Terminator 2. The Shrike returns to . . . protect? . . . Aenea, but must go up against a foe with even greater powers than itself. It's one of the more original and nerve-wracking parts of the book, and bodes well for the finale. Still, much will depend on the bigger ideas that Simmons unveils in The Rise of Endymion. What made the original duology work for me was the massive revelations about the Techno Core, the various AI "gods," and the galaxy-sweeping implications of Meina Gladstone's decision to destroy the farcasters. If Simmons can come close to that level of idea generation in the final book of the series, this novel will feel like a great setup to a grand finale. That book is coming up in my reading list soon, so . . . I'll keep you posted....more
The crew of the Enterprise have been assigned to escort Pippenge, ambassador for the Maabas people, back to his homeworld, after successfully negotiatThe crew of the Enterprise have been assigned to escort Pippenge, ambassador for the Maabas people, back to his homeworld, after successfully negotiating a treaty with the Federation. The Maabas are a refugee species, having settled their planet after a great war many years (and light-years) away. Their world has traces of an older, presumably extinct, population on it.
However, upon their arrival in the Maabas system, the Enterprise is attacked by the Kenisians, a race who claims the planet and system as their own. They turn out to be a Vulcanoid race that practices an extreme form of katra transfer, wherein the spirits of many generations of ancestors exists within each modern Kenisian. The Kenisians demand that the Maabas leave the world to them.
Dave Galanter, another long-time Trek writer, starts from an interesting premise here. The idea of generations of minds existing within one physical body is exactly the kind of conceit upon which many episodes of the original Trek series thrived. The commander of the Kenisians, Zhatan, has more katras in her than most others, which proves her merit, but also makes her more troubled. Every decision she attempts to make creates an internal debate between the generations of Kenisians within her, many of whom are still locked into the politics, struggles, and bigotries of their own ages. They see only through the lenses of their own prejudices, and not with objectivity or the capacity seemingly to look at new ideas.
The story employs a familiar action/adventure framework, with Spock and Pippenge kidnapped by the Kenisians, space battles, etc. But eventually the crisis will come down to a question of the relative value of the individual vs. the collective - and whether one being has the right to self-determination or should bow to the will of their ancestors. If you've seen any episodes of TOS, you can guess how things wind up.
But the joy is in the journey, not in the destination. Galanter handles the characters relatively well and writes a novel that very much feels like whole cloth with TOS. And that nostalgic vibe is a big part of the reason I read these books in the first place so . . . mission accomplished!...more
I have really enjoyed the Vorkosigan saga thus far. Still, I was surprised that this novel, the sixth book in publication order, was the first to receI have really enjoyed the Vorkosigan saga thus far. Still, I was surprised that this novel, the sixth book in publication order, was the first to receive a Hugo award. It seems to me that both The Warrior's Apprentice and Brothers in Arms were stronger entries.
In this novel, a young Miles Vorkosigan has just graduated from the Barrayaran military academy. He finds himself assigned to serve as a weather officer on remote and frigid Kyril Island. He perceives this posting as a punishment, but tries to make the best of the location and the work. Still, it doesn't take long for him to find himself in hot water. He finds himself obliged to stand up to what he considers an unjust order from a superior officer, leading to a charge of treason. Simon Illyan from Imperial Security has to find somewhere to tuck him away until the furor dies down.
Eventually, Illyan agrees to let Miles be a field agent, supporting a more experienced operative. Trouble appears to be brewing in the Hegen Hub, and Barrayar wants to know what it is. Miles plays the role of an arms dealer, but soon finds himself deeply embroiled in intergalactic politics. He lands in a jail cell with his old friend, Emperor Gregor; encounters a femme fatale; reunites with the Dendarii mercenaries; runs into his old CO from Kyril Island (who is none too happy to see him); and much more.
Bujold has written another fast-paced tale filled with humor and intrigue. There is almost too much plot for the length of the book, but she makes it intelligible, and keeps the crosses and double-crosses coming. Much of this feels like a conjuring trick, with Bujold as the magician, pulling one rabbit out of the hat after another.
That said, for me, The Vor Game never quite hits the level of gravitas that some of the other books in this series have hit. Bujold often has serious ideas on her mind - bioethics, identity, gender equality, the cost of violence, etc. - but most of that kind of material is pretty back burner here. The story has significant in-universe stakes, as Miles and his friends attempt to avert a war, but in terms of the big ideas that sci-fi is known for, there's less of that here.
Still, Miles remains a highly engaging character and spending a couple of days with him is not a chore. The Vorkosigan saga always reminds me that science-fiction can also be fun. And on the level of adventure and humor, The Vor Game does not disappoint....more
The Capra Back-to-Back Series featured two shorter works by two different authors. From one side, you're reading Ursula K. LeGuin's The Visionary and The Capra Back-to-Back Series featured two shorter works by two different authors. From one side, you're reading Ursula K. LeGuin's The Visionary and then, if you flip the slim volume upside down and backwards, you're reading Scott R. Sanders' Wonders Hidden: Audubon's Early Years. Because I've been working my way through LeGuin's works, I stumbled across this strange amalgamation.
Leguin's contribution actually proves to be an early draft and an excerpt from her full-length novel, Always Coming Home, which would appear a few years later. That book functions as a piece of future anthropology, in which LeGuin chronicles the life and customs of a tribe called the Kesh, living in what we know as Northern California hundreds of years from now. The Visionary is one of several biographies or autobiographies embedded in that larger work. It tells of a woman who seems to be a powerful seer of some sort in the tribe, narrating her journey from childhood, into adolescence where she discovers her gifts, and further, well into adulthood. As a stand-alone piece it's OK. But as an introduction to the Kesh, and without further context, the tale falls a bit flat.
Wonders Hidden goes the other way in time, sharing an apocryphal history of the French naturalist John James Audubon. It begins with him as a child in Haiti, and then travels with him back across the ocean to France, where he witnesses the beginnings of the Revolution and considers shipping out to sea, like his father, a merchant sailor. Being largely unfamiliar with Audubon and his work, I was unsure how to feel or think about this brief piece of historical fiction. Does this provide us with new insight into Audubon? Or a revelatory new take on the famous figure? I don't know enough about the true history of Audubon to answer that.
Putting these two pieces together seems an odd choice. They don't really speak to each other, and have very little in common other than their length. It's almost as if the total here is less than the sum of the parts....more
Veteran Star Trek writer Tony Daniel mines the third season of TOS to come up with this extension/continuation/sequel to "The Savage Curtain." Kirk anVeteran Star Trek writer Tony Daniel mines the third season of TOS to come up with this extension/continuation/sequel to "The Savage Curtain." Kirk and the Enterprise find the Federation scientific outpost on Zeta Gibraltar to be deserted, along with evidence of a violent firefight. The suspects are the L'rah'hane, a group of aliens who regularly trafficked in slaves, but have not been seen for a century.
However, when the Enterprise finally catches up with the L'rah'hane, they find even more mysteries. Some of the people captured on Zeta Gibraltar bear a remarkable resemblance to figures from Earth's history, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and others. They are in fact, Excalbians, shape-shifting aliens whom Kirk and Spock have encountered before. But now, they appear to be the victims, not the villains. And they are stuck in their current forms, unable to return to the molten, rocky form known to be their natural state.
Daniel has taken the morsel that was "The Savage Curtain" and turned it into a meal. The story evolves across several large reveals, and we wind up nearly 400 pages later with multiple protagonists and antagonists. I felt like I was reading a Star Trek miniseries as opposed to something more akin to a one-off episode. Which is fine. The novel format allows for that complexity, in a way that a 45 minute stand-alone TV story doesn't.
Still, I wasn't sure what Daniel was up to at times or what his point was. The episode, odd as it was, had a clear, moral concept at its center: Is good stronger than evil? And how do we define that strength? Here, Daniel retcons some of the original material to suit his larger narrative and teases several other moral conundrums - including questions of trust, independence, mortality, power, and agency - without ever giving any one of them enough time or focus to really dig deep. There are also some subplots that don't quite land for me, including a (potential) romance between Kirk and a Vulcan ambassador and an (actual) romance between McCoy and one of the Excalbians. These may be accurate to the characters and the style of TOS, but they don't further either the plot or the ideas.
Still, Daniel is a dab hand at getting the "feel" of Star Trek right, and there is rarely a dull moment in this busy melodrama. I found it engaging on nearly every page, even though I doubt I will find it memorable a year or two from now....more
This ebook novella takes place just days after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The crew of the Enterprise is given several weeks of shoreThis ebook novella takes place just days after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The crew of the Enterprise is given several weeks of shore leave on Earth, while repairs are done to the ship. The narrative breaks into three main threads, following Spock, Kirk, and Sulu.
Spock returns to Vulcan, where he will lay down his Kohlinar training for good. In this visit home, there are some minor points of friction between Spock and Sarek and between Spock and his Kohlinar master, but no major revelations. Sulu's story involves the birth of his daughter, Demora, and a decision to stay in Starfleet or to be present to his young family. And Kirk returns to Iowa to help get his young nephew Peter back on track as he slides into depression and anti-social behaviors.
These three stories are largely quiet and internal. The book features little in the way of action, instead focusing on character development, thoughts and emotions. The stakes are relatively low, compared to many Star Trek plots, and because we know the final outcomes - or at least the final disposition of the characters - there is little suspense. Perhaps most importantly, because this is a novella with three plots, we don't spend much time on any one of them. Another reviewer wrote that they could see one or more of these stories being a good B-plot in another novel that had a more traditional Star Trek A-plot. Of course, there is no A-plot here, just a series of subplots strung together with no over-arching theme.
There's nothing really wrong with this book, but it's not memorable, and it doesn't linger. Like the bridge in a piece of music, or a transitional shot in a film, this feels like material designed to tie other things together. But it holds very little substance of its own. At its best, it might be intriguing background material. At its worst, its nothing more than filler....more
I read some of the other reviews of this novel, both positive and negative, and it really helped to solidify my thoughts on this mediocre entry in theI read some of the other reviews of this novel, both positive and negative, and it really helped to solidify my thoughts on this mediocre entry in the Star Wars Legends series. At this point, the Star Wars Extended Universe had been around for a couple of decades, and one can sense how badly the authors and editors were running out of ideas. Riptide, the sequel to the earlier Crosscurrent, is a short, quick read, but it's tedious nonetheless. It suffers from far too much repetition and the introduction of a lot of tired, overused tropes.
The novel picks up immediately where its predecessor ended. Jedi Knight Jaden Korr departs the frozen moon in the Unknown Regions in pursuit of the Force clones discovered at the end of the original novel. He is accompanied by Khedryn Faal and his co-pilot Marr Idi-Shael, a Force-sensitive Cerean whom Korr agrees to take on as an apprentice. The clones, in their stolen ship, travel to Fhost for medical supplies. They are all very sick after the encounter with the 5000 year old Sith ship, Harbinger, and its load of Lignan ore (see the first novel). Jaden and his companions track them down, but unknown to them they are in turn being chased by several Umbaran agents from the One Sith organization. Thus, the book becomes one long extended chase sequence. Various combinations of the three parties run into each other from time to time, fight, and then move on.
The final showdown occurs when the clones reach their final destination, an irradiated star system that features an abandoned space station. The station is inhabited by an entity known to the clones as Mother. Seer, one of the leaders of the clones, believes that Mother will be their salvation, but the entity has been imprisoned on the space station and is actually malevolent. Before the book is over, we will experience organic technology (reminiscent of the Yuuzhan Vong in the New Jedi Order books), zombies (reminiscent of Death Troopers and Red Harvest), and more cloning and body swapping shenanigans (reminiscent of the Dark Empire comic series). And I haven't even included the force suppressive powers of the Umbarans, which will remind you of Timothy's Zhan's ysalamiri.
Some people probably read a book like this and think, "Oooo. It's got everything." For others, like me, it all seems terribly familiar. The characters are stereotypes, not fully fledged beings, and the plot points are predictable. There just doesn't seem to be much in the way of new ideas here, nor does Kemp deepen the mythology in any meaningful way. The one idea that has a chance to be interesting is the alien entity Mother, a relic of the Rakatan Infinite Empire. What exactly is she? Why was she imprisoned in this station? These questions are not answered. Kemp also doesn't return to the question of what happened to the time-traveling Sith from Crosscurrent, preferring to leave that storyline behind.
Riptide reminds me of a soup, made from whatever leftovers one can find in their refrigerator. It may feel satisfying in the moment to make something out of scraps and remainders and the meal may even fill your stomach temporarily. But you're unlikely to remember the meal for long, and you'll probably never make this particular goulash again....more
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