For unknown (to Earth) reasons Earth has been cut off from the wider galaxy, and its tech is as behind the galactics' as the city of Shantiport's leadFor unknown (to Earth) reasons Earth has been cut off from the wider galaxy, and its tech is as behind the galactics' as the city of Shantiport's leaders are corrupt. Generations of them have slowly, repeatedly, sucked all the resources and money out of Shantiport. Now the city is gradually sinking and the main source of money seems to be from tourists who come to gawk at the former trade capital.
Alina is a tour guide by day, but she's a revolutionary by night. She and her brother Bador (a monkey robot) have been looking for ancient galactic tech for years, until at last they find it. Functionally, the tech is a jinn, sworn to manifest any three wishes for each of its owners. Alina and her mother Zohra argue over how best to use their wishes to help Shantiport (and their debate and how to best overthrow the oligarchs and create a better world is a highlight of the book for me--read it here(view spoiler)[
*
"...why not take out all oligarchs and clans, and distribute their wealth to every person?" "Because it wouldn't be to every person, not without a larger restructuring of social systems. It is for the people who take charge after us to see that through. If we rushed wealth redistribution, all it would cause is chaos. Mass deaths, ruined generations, and the eventual restoration of the same systems and inequalities with a few new faces, as has happened with every major wealth-hack." "We could work out better instructions [for the jinn], instead of just not trying the idea." "No, because the underlying principles are flawed. We've been through this before, Alina, but it's worth saying again--the imposition of large social adjustments, just like shiny new tech, doesn't work beyond theory, and reeks of imperialism and megalomania. The only way to progress is consensus, local solutions, and continuous microtesting and adjustment from the ground up and not the sky down." ... "You talk a lot about systemic problems, but when it comes down to it, your microtested local solutions are basically small actions in self interest," Lina said. "I want to do more while we have power in our hands." ... "All right, then. I like that you have grand visions, we can't function without dreaming of a better world. But these visions, even if they start wholly benevolent, lead to dictatorships. Progress that is inclusive is slow, boring, and difficult to hold together. We need community-based approaches to specific problems, carefully tested...don't underestimate the strength of community, and remember, we are from Shantiport. Before the Tigers, or the other clans, or the eras before, the algorithms, the megacorps, the nations, the empires, all the way back to the first city-states--no ruler has looked after our people, they have had to look out for one another. It is why Shantiport continues to exist, against all logic, and that's the spirit that we have to find a way to channel. No system works, no authority is benevolent, no promise is kept. When the megastorms and floods come, when the genocides come, and the famines and diseases, the rest of the world will not even bother to look, let alone help. If they know about us it is as a symbol of poverty, or decay, or despair. But despite all this, sometimes clusters of people emerge, however flawed, who build institutions and culturewaves larger than themselves. And somehow the city survives." ... "I'm sorry, but I have more. I think you're being too optimistic. The progress that your clusters of amazing people build over generations gets destroyed in a few years by the next set of conquerors and colonists, foreign or local. And the long-term problems never go away. Which is why I want to use the jinn to address those. You want to use him for small bursts of advantage, not disturbing the overall equilibrium, or drawing too much attention. But this little effect after so much research, on a limited number of wishes?...I believe very strongly that we should use the jinn to solve the problems we are unable to solve ourselves, systemic problems, multigenerational problems, worldwide problems that somehow humans have been unable to solve for millennia. It's space admin tech with godlike powers. With your small-steps method, there will always be some crisis that will prevent us from handling our bigger goals. And eventually we'll run out of chances." ... "The jinn is just technology, and technology can't fix problems for us--we need people to do that...If a group of smugglers in a poor city were able to bring the jinn in, do you not think the powers that actually rule the world could in response bring in or build much worse?...the jinn is an outsider, and self-reliance is paramount...For the society we want to build, self-governance, optimal representation and participation, nonviolence, sustainability, and operational expertise are nonnegotiable. Tech cannot give us that, no foreign intelligence can. It can promise us all these things, but those promises are always lies, and humanity's surrender of its own agency to algorithms and oligarch-owned tech has brought us to the brink of absolute ruin..."
(hide spoiler)] but before they can finish their plans, other players get hold of the jinn.
This book is a fascinating mixture of bodacious action scenes (Bador the monkey bot gets a lot of these), wry narration from a bot that's distant but still interested in humanity, political and philosophical discussions, and underhanded heists. ...more
A collection of recent short sff stories by writers of color. There isn't an organizing principle beyond that, so one never knows what style or theme A collection of recent short sff stories by writers of color. There isn't an organizing principle beyond that, so one never knows what style or theme one will get from a story.
I liked: "The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex" by Tobias Buckell. Set in the future, when Earth is a tourist attraction for much-more-advanced alien civilizations. Told from the point of view of a human trying to survive by catering to galactic customers. The world is detailed, the pov character believable, and the use of sf as a tool to look at colonialism feels right rather than clunky.
"The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations" by Minsoo Kang. Centuries after the fact, historians begin to uncover clues that a famous peace treaty between an emperor and a piratical sea king was actually manipulated into place by their translators. I always like historical revision, and the worldbuilding here is rich. Parts of this, especially near the end, felt a little too obvious.
"Give Me Your Black Wings Oh Sister" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Told from the point of view of a vampire. Creepy and just the right length.
"Harvest" by Rebecca Roanhorse. A chef is lured into serial killing by a deer woman who wants to recreate America before it was colonized. This just felt very well written to me.
Apathetic toward: "Come Home to Atropos," by Steven Barnes. Commercials for a Caribbean "paradise" where tourists can be euthanized. I like the late-capitalism cynicism of the first few pages, but as it gets longer it gets heavier handed and less and less believable as a commercial. Personally I'd have liked this shorter and snappier, or at least with more of the funny&terrible interjections from the marketing team.
"unkind of mercy" by Alex Jennings. An unnamed main character chatters incessantly on about her awful boyfriend before finally revealing that strange empty entities killed him horrifically in front of her. The bits where the narrator talks about the empty entities are super creepy; well done there. But the main character's voice is really uneven, and at the end of the story I felt like there maybe was a connection between humans being apathetic and the entities that I didn't get. If not that, I don't even know what the point of this was.
"The Freedom of the Shifting Sea" by Jaymee Goh. A girl and a mermaid fall in love. Years later her daughter returns to Malaysia and this time, perhaps she will not leave...The way the mermaids work is really cool. I just didn't connect with the characters and was annoyed that Salmah seems to age out of her chance to become a mermaid.
"Kelsey and the Burdened Breath" by Darcie Little Badger. Kelsey and the ghost of her dog Pal herd the final breaths of the dead into the afterlife. She's tasked with tracking down a serial killing breath. I liked the way last breaths had their own specific gravity, and the explanation/reveal of the killer breath. But for whatever reason I didn't feel any particular way about this story.
Did not like: "Three Variations on a Theme of Imperial Attire" by E. Lily Yu, a remake of the Emperor's New Clothes. No part of this worked for me.
"Blood and Bells" by Karin Lowachee. I was too confused and overwhelmed in the first few pages to continue.
"Dumb House" by Andrea Hairston. Cinnamon is an older woman trying to avoid corporate products. 19 pages in it was still getting more confusing and I gave up.
"One Easy Trick" by Hiromi Goto. A woman's belly fat leaves her on a hike to find someone that will appreciate and love it. Too late, the woman realizes she misses it. This is not my kind of sff.
I really liked: "Deer Dancer" by Kathleen Alcala. Set after cataclysmic climate change and the collapse of human civilizations recognizable to us, Tater and her community work closely together to create a space of health and safety. The main character is a plumber and sometimes a prophet, which is a combination I've definitely never seen before. I really like the details here, which don't feel infodumped but do paint the world for the viewer.
"The Fine Print" by Chinelo Onwualu. Nuhu is part of a village where every year a djinn answers one wish per man. Nuhu has recognized the emptiness of his wish for a perfect wife, and tries to convince the Djinn to let him give up his wishes. Again, great worldbuilding; I love the combo of modern Nigeria with folk tales from around the world.
"Burn the Ships" by Alberto Yañez. An alternate history fantasy, where the Aztecs really can do magic through their gods but choose not to...until a group of women have suffered so much that they commit to a profane but powerful ritual. The Tzitzimimeh are terrifying, and I really liked the conversation in here about what the gods want or what they can demand.
"The Shadow We Cast Through Time" by Indrapramit Das. An old woman approaching her death talks about the myths, customs, and actions of her people. They are human colonists on a remote alien planet inhabited by an infectious colony lifeform that manifests as spires and buildings. I am truly fascinated by the worldbuilding here. The alien life and how the humans talk about it are just on the edge of too weird/obfuscatory/purple, which really kept my attention.
"The Robots of Eden" by Anil Menon. At first I didn't like this; the main character didn't make sense to me. As I read further I realized why: he's one of the Enhanced, the elite who everyone views as superior because their implants help them maintain serenity and happiness no matter their difficulties. Actually the main character felt totally fleshed out. As the story went on I realized I was putting together things he didn't remember or understand thanks to his implant, which was a great way to deliver this tale....more
Inspector Mielikki Neith is one of the most trusted members of the justice department in a future version of Britain. This Britain operates via immediInspector Mielikki Neith is one of the most trusted members of the justice department in a future version of Britain. This Britain operates via immediate democracy; every societal decision is decided by a vote of some randomly chosen representative sample of the population. Every moment of a person's life is watched and recorded by a computer system that lacks all prurient or personal motives but will intervene in the name of health and safety. An old woman who once wrote cult-favorite books and eventually became a reclusive dissident dies during an interrogation, and Britain is shocked. Immediately Neith is put on the case, to find out if Diana Hunter's death was an accident or foul play--and if the latter, who was involved.
Or at least, that's how I entered into the book. I was fascinated by the society Neith was living in, and read avidly as each little clue to how it operates and is viewed by those within it. And I really like Neith, who is brave, sensible, has an affectionate weakness for noir, and eminently moral. But then a whole bunch of other narratives join the fray: St.Augustine's ex, who became an alchemist and is now begged by the Romans to resurrect a favored commander; a bombastic Greek mathematician living in the modern day; an Ethiopian painter in the very near future who creates art for a new video game that seems suspiciously like Neith's Britain; an interplanetary, multi-bodied intelligence that seeks to consume universes. And I liked all of those characters too, and was fascinated by their tales too. I kept trying to pick out what the "real" story was, and which were "just" framing devices, dreams, or tricks...and I kept having my entire view of the book flipped on its head when I least expected it.
I thought this was an absolutely fascinating exploration of identity, surveillance, democracy, what actually constitutes freedom...Highly recommend it to anyone willing and able to put in the time to work through it....more
A collection of sf short stories set in the Eclipse Phase universe, in which you can "save" your mind and implant it into any kind of body you'd like.A collection of sf short stories set in the Eclipse Phase universe, in which you can "save" your mind and implant it into any kind of body you'd like...if you have enough money, at least. Like most short story collections, this is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of tone and quality. I love the questions of what aspects of identity, consciousness, or physical form matter, what value judgments are in play when people are almost functionally immortal, and all the casual gender bending and mind melding.
Ken Liu, "White Hempen Sleeves." In the luxuriant society of Casey, one person has made their wealth through the ultimate taboo: creating an identical copy of a person's mind, putting it into lethal danger, and then allowing the original person to experience their own death. They reveal this secret business to their newfound lover, (view spoiler)[only to be betrayed (hide spoiler)]. I love stories about consciousness and clones, about who gets to be considered "real" or "original" or "human," and this story does a good job of playing with those questions. The descriptions are poetic, but not so much that they hindered the imagination.
Tiffany Trent, "Spiritus Ex Orcinus." All Rani wants to do is get back into a whale body and have a child. But as an indentured servant with a rebellious reputation, Rani has little chance of ever achieving their dream. Then they find a whale tooth from old, long gone Earth, and go on a mission to find the last whale of the original species. I felt the dissonance, disgust, and dysmorphia the narrator felt toward the human body they were trapped in, and the ending is a (view spoiler)[unexpected but, in retrospect, totally believable shocking twist. No one's form or mind is truly their own! (hide spoiler)]
Jack Graham, "Into the White."Inspector Nordqvist investigates a murder far below the surface of Iapetus. The use of Eclipse Phase concepts and jargon was pretty skillfully & naturally incorporated, but the new terms were so pervasive that it was a little much for someone like me, who doesn't already know this stuff. I liked the suspense and paranoia in the dark, icy tunnels.
Fran Wilde, "The Thousandth Cycle." Hanni sells her emotions and sensations to an AI. But then the AI loses a bet, and Hanni must keep an even larger and more complex AI's attention for a thousand cycles. This is trippy and kinky (the way machine intelligences can be kinky) and I liked it a lot.
Nathaniel Dean with Davidson Cole, "Interference." A professor is in town for a conference, but something unsettling is going on...I like the way this story deals with academia and ambition in a strange sf universe (the conference call between all the professors was the perfect combo of familiar and fantastical) and the lies we tell ourselves to mask our darker impulses.
Kim May, "The Fukuda Cube." An AI investigates a ship transporting the minds of Earth refugees. I liked the ruminations on being un-bodied, but otherwise thought this was workmanlike prose at best.
Rob Boyle & Davidson Cole, "Lack." Sava and a team of Firewall agents search the Kilimanjaro space elevator for a long dead courier. As they walk through halls full of corpses left behind by a past war, each of them has to make a choice whether to cut and run, leaving their latest experiences behind. For some, forgetting the last few days would be a mercy. For others, losing time is a horror.
Georgina Kamsika, "Nostalgia." Charumati infiltrated a rich household in order to get access to their vault. When another faction makes a move on the vault, she has to choose between the mission and the baby she's been pretending to care for. I liked the way the old Earth artifacts are viewed by hackers like Charumati, and the way her opinion of an old school bodyguard changes as the story progresses.
Jack Graham, "Nostrums." Jake Carter looks for Bobdog, finds a whole mess of a conspiracy to steal body parts from uplifted primates, and then an even bigger plot that might actually be too much to handle. This has some cool set pieces, but I'd have liked more personality from the characters.
Andrew Penn Romine, "Prix Fixe." Jule Cortez is on a mission to find a long-lost metacelebrity chef. She's been a fan of his since she was a child (which we're told in a delightful little aside that reminds me of past children's yearning for an EZBake oven, but also just how different things are in a post-scarcity future:
"Batuk's recipes were copied widely. Anyone with a half-way decent fabber could churn out his famous enoki-stuffed polenta shells or wet-print his divine poitrine de porc souffles with jus rouge. Growing up, Jule had fabbed whole feasts from his recipes, using her EZPrint from Prosperity Group, Batuk's chief sponsor. She had all the XPs, too."
). But as we all expect, the reclusive chef is up to no good. I liked the plot here, which is both creepy and kinda decadently enticing, and the writing does a great job of conveying futuristic haute cuisine.
Stephen Mohan Jr, "An Infinite Horizon." Iftikhar is part of a team sent to investigate a research station that's gone dark. One by one team members are picked off...but by who? Or what? I liked this until the last few lines, which felt a bit trite.
"The young man was glad for Firewall's existence. Transhumanity was at the center of a strange political struggle whose rules it couldn't begin to even guess. There would be great danger. But perhaps also great opportunity. Iftikhar Quraini looked up, past the trees, past the beach, even past the broad ocean, his gaze settling finally on an infinite horizon."
F. Wesley Schneider, "Stray Thoughts." A PI and her nearly-adult kid take a job to track down a menton who's cut contact with his hyper-mind. Finding Vine takes on a more personal edge than either expected. I really liked this, particularly because the characters immediately intrigued me. I'd love to read more about Wehilani Lonoehu and her body-switching family.
Rob Boyle and Davidson Cole, "Melt." Two mining corporations on Venus battle for supremacy, only realizing at the last moment that someone else is pulling their strings.
Madeleine Ashby, "Thieving Magpie." Possibly my favorite of the collection. SO CREEPY.
Karin Lowachee, "A Resleeving of Love." A spy transfers his consciousness into a common prostitute, but finds out to his horror that he's now part of a being he can't really control....more
Two soldiers from opposite sides of an intergalactic war fall in love and go on the run. They are hunted by bounty hunters, hungry ghosts, and even PrTwo soldiers from opposite sides of an intergalactic war fall in love and go on the run. They are hunted by bounty hunters, hungry ghosts, and even Prince Robot IV, who has a television for a head. It's weird and gory and wonderful, and I can't wait to read more of it. Vaughan's writing is good and imaginative, and Staples's art is my favorite type of illustration, with clean lines, realistic body types, recognizable faces, and a good sense of movement....more
In the underground city of Caribe in the near-future, Mayla is in the midst of tense financial negotiations. Her insurance agency requires her to haveIn the underground city of Caribe in the near-future, Mayla is in the midst of tense financial negotiations. Her insurance agency requires her to have a bodyguard, so she hires David Dai, a former French soldier with an injured knee and a veiled case of PTSD. After terrorists approach David for help and then make an attempt on Mayla's life, David vanishes into Caribe's underworld. Mayla soon follows.
Starts wonderfully, but peters out into mind-numbing quotidian detail and plots that the main characters are affected by but don't understand. I wished the characters' emotions were a little less tamped down; even though it felt believable, it also made it hard to care about what happened to them. Still, an excellent and almost too-realistic rendering of alienation and the tension of living in a corrupt society with unspoken, unclear rules. ...more
Lesbian speculative fiction, most of it very good.
My favorites: "To Follow the Waves" by Amal El-Mohtar. Hessa is a dream-crafter, but when someone coLesbian speculative fiction, most of it very good.
My favorites: "To Follow the Waves" by Amal El-Mohtar. Hessa is a dream-crafter, but when someone commissions her to create a dream of the sea, she is at a loss. She doesn't like the sea, or salt water, or beaches. Her art at a stand-still, Hessa goes to a cafe for a break--and there sees a woman so desirable that Hessa is truly inspired for the first time. Beautifully told, with an emotionally complex plot. I've never read anything like it.
"Ours is the Prettiest," by Nalo Hopkinson, is a wonderful mixture of urban and fairy, set in Bordertown.
"D is for Delicious," by Steve Berman is the tale of one school nurse's struggle between starvation and eating children. It's delightfully macabre.
"God in the Sky" by An Awomoyela. A new and unexplained astronomical phenomenon appears, and an astronomer tries to work out what to think. Thoughtful without being preachy or clear-cut.
My least favorite: "Feedback" by Lindy Cameron is hackneyed old-school cyberpunk. Nothing feels believable, the main character has basically no personality beyond "would-be noir," and the writing is clunky and hard to follow, with more than its fair share of imaginary "futuristic" slang....more
Climate change meets action adventure! After years working in war zones, Anika Duncan is happy to have found a peaceful job piloting airships for the Climate change meets action adventure! After years working in war zones, Anika Duncan is happy to have found a peaceful job piloting airships for the UN. Then her ship is shot down while patrolling arctic waters, and she realizes it's part of a conspiracy with global consequences.
The action in this is top-notch: easy to follow but inventive and absolutely thrilling. Anika is a great, unique character, with a strong moral center and a lot of guts. And the plot itself is a lot of fun, with twists and turns and cool world-building that builds up to an explosive climax (or four). There's a little too much monologuing during some of the action scenes, but overall this was a load of fun to read....more
Any story that follows at least seven different characters and is told entirely in the 2nd person would drive me mad. Stross is also guilty of pages wAny story that follows at least seven different characters and is told entirely in the 2nd person would drive me mad. Stross is also guilty of pages worth of infodumps about made-up AIs. His characters' internal monologues are nearly indistinguishable and utilize strained, over-long metaphors that aren't nearly as clever as Stross thinks they are. The characters themselves are each a unique blend of characteristics, but in the end the only one I was even slightly interested in was the psychopath criminal, which I doubt was intended. And the AI's pov is the stupidest one I've heard yet.
So no, I didn't like this. It gets 2 stars from me on the basis that Stross is clearly trying to use new character types and I liked the economics subplot. But overall I found this to be turgid, boring, and a serious slog to get through. ...more
After decades wandering the universe, first as an Envoy and then as a killer/detective for hire, Kovacs has finally returned to his home planet. As thAfter decades wandering the universe, first as an Envoy and then as a killer/detective for hire, Kovacs has finally returned to his home planet. As the years go by, he's become increasingly aimless, until now all that still motivates him is vengeance. In the midst of his not particularly meaningful slaughter of a misogynistic religious cult, he falls in with a hard-as-nails civilian contractor. They haven't been traveling together long when he realizes that another personality is seeping through her cybernetic implants--a personality that thinks it's Quellcrist Falconer, the long-dead revolutionary hero.
This is the most openly transhumanist book I've read in some time. review tbc...more
Takeshi Kovacs is a man for hire. He exists in virtual reality, like all minds without bodies, and is "re-sleeved" into a body when he has a job to doTakeshi Kovacs is a man for hire. He exists in virtual reality, like all minds without bodies, and is "re-sleeved" into a body when he has a job to do. And this time, his job is to get an archaeologist to an abandoned Martian spaceship. To get there, the team has to make their way through a war zone--a war in which Kovacs has already fought on both sides. The ship is flooded with radiation, drifting in the middle of space, and the architecture of the Martians is enough to literally drive humans mad.
It's one hell of an adventure. Less enjoyable than the last, though, I think mostly because there's nothing fun about war. Especially when Morgan, master of emotional and physical trauma, writes it. ...more
Takeshi Kovacs, formerly an Envoy and currently a convicted criminal, is transported to Earth to solve a mystery for the unbelievably rich and powerfuTakeshi Kovacs, formerly an Envoy and currently a convicted criminal, is transported to Earth to solve a mystery for the unbelievably rich and powerful Bancroft. All the physical evidence shows that Bancroft committed suicide, but Bancroft is sure he'd never kill himself. The police refuse to investigate further, so Kovacs is hired onto the case.
Morgan takes the tropes of hard-boiled detective fiction and cyberpunk and mixes them together into something exhilarating and novel. The twists and turns of the plots are great, but what really makes me crow about this book is the universe-building. AIs have rights; the hotel AI that Kovacs stays in is People's consciousnesses can be stored and even transferred into new bodies. A great idea, but Morgan is wise enough to see how this kind of technology could easily widen existing disparities. The rich and powerful are well-nigh immortal and can travel between planets practically instantaneously (by sleeving themselves in a body already in whatever place they want to travel to) while the poor are often just one accident or criminal charge away from having their body taken and used. On Kovacs's world, one reaction to these kinds of huge, insurmountable inequalities is a terrorist movement/philosophy based around the words and deeds of a woman named Quell. A few samples: "The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice."--Poems and Other Prevarications. Or "Her name was Iphigenia Deme, Iffy to those of her friends who had not yet been slaughtered by Protectorate Forces. Her last words, strapped to the interrogation table downstairs at Number Eighteen, Shimatsu Boulevard, are reputed to have been: 'That's fucking enough!' The explosion brought the entire building down." Or my personal favorite, spoken by Quell herself: "When they ask how I died, tell them: Still Angry."
The book is often brutal--Kovacs endures and delivers horrifying violence and mayhem. But there's a commitment to the idea of individual autonomy and dignity behind it, and an understanding of the ways class/race/religion etc are used as tools to maintain existing power structures, that I really respect. When Kovacs finally uncovers the mystery behind Bancroft's death, he explains it all a little too info-dumpy, but it's an easy mistake to make. I love the thoughtful way Morgan has created the universe, the odd little details (like Kovacs's sentient hotel, desperate for guests) and overarcing themes of it. I really like Kovacs himself, and I look forward to reading more stories about him....more
A collection of sf/f short stories and poems. Definitely better than most of the genre collections out there, but like most anthologies, there are at A collection of sf/f short stories and poems. Definitely better than most of the genre collections out there, but like most anthologies, there are at least as many misses as hits. The Good: "I Know of Snow White and Her Apple" by Maria Velazquez. Dark poem with a building rhythm to it. "Nodespace" by Karen J.H. Thistle. Cyberpunk. The standout of the collection. Captain Vex is a fantastic character, and the world building here is top-notch. My only complaint is that I wish this was a novel instead of a short story--it's that good. "Crawl,"by Kate Bachus, is a real novelty in the sf genre. A few hours in the life of a middle-aged, blue-collar woman trying to both survive and make some money in the midst of a terrifying conflagration. Lots of grit and great character details--another stand-out story.
The Bad: "The Trouble With Dragons" by Joyce Chng. Steampunk set in 1800s China. Clunky writing. The main character was odd--it was told from his perspective, and he very much bought into Victorian ideals of gender and beauty. "Los Pequenos" by Maria Deira "Heart of Brass" by AH Jennings would undoubtedly have been enjoyable, but it seems to end in the middle of the action. Later in the collection, there's another story by the same author, with the same characters. Again, it starts in media res and finishes in the middle of the plot, without resolution. Very odd. "The King of" by AH Jennings makes *no sense.*...more
Generations in the future, those willing to embrace AIs, body mods, and genetic manipulation ascended to live technologically advanced lives far aboveGenerations in the future, those willing to embrace AIs, body mods, and genetic manipulation ascended to live technologically advanced lives far above Earth's atmosphere. Now variations on humanity and sentience travel throughout the galaxy, looking for new planets, resources, and adventures. Those left behind on Earth content themselves with religion, endless rehashings of old wars...and controlling the best known source of water and wild-type genetics. Ordinarily, a Syndicate clone like Arkady would probably never set foot on old poisoned Earth, nor encounter a non-genetically manipulated human. But his exploration team found something astounding on an alien planet, and the Syndicate wants him to deliver it to Earth. Among the bidders for his discovery are our old friends Catherine Li (possibly a war criminal, definitely a hardass ex-soldier) and Cohen (the longest lived AI, whose relationships are integral to maintaining his sense of self). They decided to share a consciousness in the last book, but their marriage of true minds isn't that comfortable in this one.
The world building is fascinating and top notch. I would love to read more about any one of the characters or their societies. The plot got a bit too convoluted for me, and I'm still not entirely sure what the Syndicate's plan was: (view spoiler)[spread fertility through Arkady's infection, I get, but why do they want Earth-humans to be more fertile? To have more wild-type stock to turn back to if something goes wrong with their genetic pruning goes too far, to increase Earth's power and thereby destabilize or diminish the Hub's, thus getting the Hub off the Syndicate's back, or something else entirely? And the Israeli plan also felt a little out of control to me, like too many people were lying or doublecrossing in too many ways for me to figure out what was going on. (hide spoiler)] I really look forward to reading more in this universe....more
Reads a bit like a William Gibson novel. A young member of the intellectual corprate elite is sent to prison and learns to deal with a whole new set oReads a bit like a William Gibson novel. A young member of the intellectual corprate elite is sent to prison and learns to deal with a whole new set of problems. I wish the main character had used more of her social-manipulation whiles, but the author blew her load early in regards to those and let it drop after. ...more
In the far future, humans cling to relevance through a combination of money and military. They are dependent on sentient AIs with impenetrable motivesIn the far future, humans cling to relevance through a combination of money and military. They are dependent on sentient AIs with impenetrable motives and on the Bose-Einstein condensates, which enable them to communicate and travel instantaneously through the universe. But the condensates are only found on Compson's World, and humanity's greatest scientist was just killed in a cave-in there. Catherine Li, a UN peacekeeper with secrets of her own, is sent to investigate Hannah Sharifi's death, and find what her latest discovery was.
The universe she lives in is fascinating, teeming with gene modded humans living in hive minded Syndicates, shunting one brain through another body, wiring fighters for greater reflexes and strength...And Moriarty mines modern quantum physics for sf ideas, coming up with teleportation that leads to imperceptible loss of people's mental states and memories every time they are reconstituted (because you can perfectly recreate their atoms, but not their constituents' spin). This is a fast paced thriller with excellent action scenes and...yet its also a beautifully sensitive portrait of Li's mind. I loved her vicious fighting style and pragmatic view of social interactions, but I also really felt like I got to know her, inside and out. Li has had to hide parts of herself to maintain her career, but when (view spoiler)[she starts opening up to Cohen she is forced to face the monstrous decisions she's made and lived with. I loved their romance; it's possibly the first time I've ever felt like the vastness and complexity of an AI came across. By the same token, (hide spoiler)] Moriarty also shows us what we might look like to other intelligence forms, ex:
She looked across the little distance between them and had a sudden shadowy glimpse of herself as he saw her. A fierce dark mystery, gloriously tangled in a too-fragile body, slipping away from him down a hall-of-mirrors perspective of increasingly pessimistic statistical wave functions.
I was so tempted to give this four stars, because the emotions and thought this book evoked were so intense and complex. But I felt like the mystery of Sharifi's death and final discovery were too convoluted, with too many players that I was expected to remember. Nevertheless, an excellent posthuman adventure....more
A collection of stories about paradigm shifts. This is easily the best anthology I've read this year (although the single author collection Pump Six sA collection of stories about paradigm shifts. This is easily the best anthology I've read this year (although the single author collection Pump Six still contains my favorite short stories of the year). The editor kept his choices to the best, not the biggest names, and thus captured some of the most innovative work in sf. Unlike pretty much every other anthology I can think of, there are no losers here--no stories that insulted or frustrated me, no lazy writing or poorly thought out plot points. These are stories with muscle and brain behind them, taking place all over the globe, all over the future. The best: "N-words" by Ted Kosmatka, is of course about racial prejudice, but also has a great deal to say about biology-as-destiny, and the effects of genetic diversity. "Faceless in Gethsemane" by Mark Budz. A group has removed their ability to tell facial features and skin colors apart. A man tries to deal with his sister's choice to join the movement. "Resistance" by Tobias S Buckell. A cameo appearance by Pepper does not distract from the work this story sets out to do: observe and pick apart the end results of a truly democratic republic....more
Jenny Casey is a war hero, but she's also a middle-aged woman with increasingly debilitating disabilities and a drug habit. Then tainted batches of HaJenny Casey is a war hero, but she's also a middle-aged woman with increasingly debilitating disabilities and a drug habit. Then tainted batches of Hammer (the combat drug she was addicted to) pop up on the streets of her home town. While her friends trace the drug back to its source, Jenny is coerced into joining a dangerous research project.
I really wanted to like this book, but it frustrated me all too often. This is the first in a trilogy, but there's a lot of backstory to this universe. I generally love in media res, but all the characters made vague statements like "She wouldn't let him try--not after the last time" and what happened "last time" is never explained! There are a half dozen different point-of-view characters, and all but two or three of them are unnecessary. I'd have preferred a single view point with a single tense than mishmash of every character even tangentially involved getting their own chapters. The narrative randomly jumps forward and backward in time, going from three weeks ago in one person's narrative to the present told from Jenny's pov to fifteen years ago...it's needlessly confusing.
I also don't see why the entire subplot of Razorface, Barb, Mitch, and the tainted Hammer existed. This is only the first book in the trilogy, so perhaps it will gain greater importance later, but as it stood it just provided more proof that Unitec was up to no good. Obviously! We already know! 50% of this book doesn't need to switch between Razorface, Mitch, etc's povs in order to tell the really basic story of "Unitec dumped some tainted drugs onto the street to test them." Look, I just did it in one sentence! Hell, the characters themselves figure it out in the first few chapters, so I'm confused by how drawn-out it was. It was like Bear had originally written this drug war as a stand-alone story, and then awkwardly grafted it onto Jenny Casey's.
I did like the characters. Jenny Casey is my favorite kind of badass--the kind that's very damaged but has mostly come to terms with it, and still inspires a mixture of fear and awe in those she meets. The lady psychiatrist was pretty fun too, with her blase attitude toward romance and sex. But my appreciation for the characters was hampered by the often unnatural dialog (there's a great collection of examples here) and the fact that by the end, half the dialog was in untranslated French. I do not speak French! When I come across whole pages of unintelligible dialog in nineteenth century novels, at least those authors have the excuse of assuming their readers are polyglots. Bear is writing in the 2000s! At least give us endnotes or something! (ps, sex scenes often have unintentionally hilarious dialog, but the repitious "je t'aime"s and "mon amour"s tipped it over into farce)
And I did like Jenny Casey's plot. I would have loved to read more scenes of her figuring out how to (view spoiler)[ use her new body, or pilot the space ship. (hide spoiler)] What is there is written pretty well, although Bear has to strain to get her prose beyond "workman-like". If there had been more of Casey's adventure, and less incredibly obvious and unnecessary street fighting, I would have enjoyed this more. As it stands, I doubt I'll bother reading the rest of the series....more
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