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Review, SciFi

Paradox Bound by Peter Clines

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Paradox Bound by Peter Clines
Paradox Bound by Peter Clines

This is my second Peter Clines review, and I have to say that I have quickly become a fan. If you missed, last year I reviewed The Fold and strongly recommended it. I know that I normally wait until the end, after a brief synopsis, to give my opinion, but I am excited to say that I very much recommend this one as well.

We begin this novel with young Eli Teague. He is a kid growing up in Sanders, Maine. It is a boring town where noting ever changes. When being forced to play outside, Eli sees a strange person in an uncommon car, a Model A.  The car as well as the driver, Harry, intrigue Eli for the next few years. When he tries to get closer to Harry, he winds up involving himself in the most epic road trip in American history.

The story really feels like a cross between Doctor Who and National Treasure. With Harry being the Doctor and Nicholas Cage’s character Ben Gates. Eli takes on the role of a new companion, or maybe Riley. If you are a history nerd like me, a time travel nerd, also like me, and/or a SciFi/Fantasy nerd, which I assume you are since that what this site is dedicated to, this book should really appeal to you. Harry and Eli travel trough history in search of the American Dream. I am going to intentionally be vague on that to not spoil anything. The idea is bit odd, but trust me, it works. They’re not the only ones traveling through history though. You’ll be introduced to friends, acquaintances, and historical figures. Besides all of those people, there are others who are trying to stop them. All of which adds up to a fun and entertaining adventure.

I enjoyed the story, the protagonists, the antagonists, the pacing, honestly everything. It is rare for me to do this, but I think I have to give it a 5/5. No, it wasn’t perfect, but it was damn good. 4.7 might be a better representation, but lets not get too granular. Its my site, so I’m rounding up to the nearest number.

I was pretty late on this review and regret that quite a bit. I wish I had time to get to it sooner, and once I got to it, I wish I had time to devour it over a few days. Fortunately, since my last review, I got a new job. On the upside, I am happier, i like what I do, and think it will eventually allow more time for me to focus on things like reading these books. On the downside, the first few months been, and will continue to be crazy until the major infrastructure and technology changes are complete. Until then, it is going to continue taking me forever to finish and review book. I may even take another hiatus.

On that note, I have to one more time acknowledge that I received this review copy through Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. By one more time, I sadly mean one last time. Yes, Blogging for books is closing down. They have been a great site and partner to people like me, providing wonderful books, both ARCs and recent releases in exchange for nothing but an honest review. Over the past four years I have received some fantastic novels from them. I am sad to see them go and will miss them. There are plenty of resources out there for reviewers, but I liked their approach. I mean, lets be honest, it is because of them that I had the opportunity to review and recommend both The Fold and this novel, Paradox Bound, by Peter Clines.Thank you Blogging for books, and thank you to Peter Clines for another great story.

Review, SciFi

The Fold by Peter Clines

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The Fold by Peter Clines

Mike Erikson is a teacher in a small New England town. He lives a quite life and knows practically everyone around. While his life is completely mundane, he prefers the peaceful calm of his uneventful surroundings. Though Mike is much more talented than your average teacher and could essentially do anything he wants, the lack of challenges or craziness keeps his overactive mind at ease. It is his unique set of skills that his friend is interested in, and bring him to offer Mike a job, and not for the first time, with DARPA.

There is a lot going on in this book and I feel like talking about 95% of it will spoil it one way or another, so I’m going to say as litle as can while till trying to give a good representattion. First, let me talk about the feel of the book. It has a very interesting tone. It has a modern day setting, in America. The DARPA project seems really interesting and I can see it being appealing to any science nerd, like myself. There is a lot of talk of the ind of things you might read about in a Michio Kaku book. There is nth dimension theory, wormhole physics, and other theoretical physics that interest the hell out of true nerd and sci-fi buffs alike. To keep it spoiler free, This DARPA research team came up with an amazing breakthrough and there is a lot of speculation from the government and scientists as to how. Mike is asked simply to observe.

Then we jump to the second half of the book. This is where it gets weird. The reader notices little things being… off. Then it happens a little more. Before you expected, you;re out of physics class and $#!% gets weird. It gets really sci-fi-y. It was a very fun jump that I did not expect. I actually knew almost nothing when I first read this, which added to my enjoyment immensely. Which is why I also will not tell you more than that. I fear I ma have said too much already. (Yes, I know this book has been out for a while and this is really late, but I’m sticking to this dammit.)

I thought that this book was a lot of fun. Very interesting for both my nerdy hard science side, and out there enough to awaken my deep SciFi/Fantasy side. I also wanted to bring up one other thing which I usually do not address: I loved the cover. It was very cool. After reading the book it was even more interesting. I do not know about the paperback that is out now, but the hardcover even had this great texture to it. I understand that this is neither here nor there, so back to the review.  I gave it a 4/5 and would give a very strong recommendation.

For more information on The Fold and Peter Clines, please check out links to his site, his blog, and his book page:

PeterClines.com

Blog

The Fold page on PeterClines.com

Disclaimer: I received this review copy through Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

Review, SciFi

Mother of Eden by Chris Beckett

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Mother of Eden By Chris Beckett
Mother of Eden By Chris Beckett

Daughter of Eden

Before you continue reading this, please remember that this is the second book in a series. My review of the first book can be found here.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not love the first book. The childish language used with adult topics just did not appeal to me. I understand and can appreciate it as  device. It is really clever and certainly adds something to the evolution of the culture, but I just could not get into it. Many other people loved it. The story itself was fine, I just did not like the dialect that was created. I enjoyed the plot well enough, but I could have loved it if the dialogue was a bit different. It seems strange, but I find myself disagreeing with almost every other review I read on this second book. I think I may be the only person who like this better than the first book. Not only did I like it better, I actually enjoyed it significantly more. The characters and world were both very well developed in both, however I felt that this was a much more mature book.

Now that we got that out of the way, on to the main course: Mother of Eden by Chris Beckett. The first thought I had when I put the book down was, as I said earlier, “Wow, I liked this much better than the first book” though I was not exactly sure why.  Mother of Eden picks up a few generation after the events of Dark Eden.  None the characters from the first novel are still around, however the main characters are now the subjects of their own mythology, much like Gela and Tommy became in the prior story. The world is much more spread out now since the events of the previous novel as a result of John Redlantern, and different cultures have emerged. There is still heavy striation between Johnfolk and Davidfolk, though there is some trading between them. There also seem to be some outliers, those who wish to be outside of the divisions or have chosen to follow a path other than the main two. That is where this book begins.

Starlight Brookling comes from a small fishing Island where the people identify themselves as Jeff’s followers, an independent offshoot of John’s followers. They prefer to live simple, basic lives under the radar of the other factions on Eden. While this lifestyle works to the contentment of most of the island’s inhabitants, Starlight is too adventurous to be confined. Starlight convinces her uncle, as well as her friend Angie, to take a trip to the mainland. Not everyone is in favor of this, but when she sets her mind to something, Starlight is fairly persistent. The mainland shows these simple island folk a whole different culture with strange dress, real metal, advanced ships, and odd accents. What they do not know is that Starlight’s life is about to become more different than she could ever comprehend.

Without giving too much of the story away, Starlight finds herself in a land far more distant than she originally planned. Thrown into a situation that she can hardly comprehend, she must adapt quickly to strange customs, not just to fit in, but to survive. This other land is a stark contrast to the simple island. There is a much more civilized and advanced culture with political structure there. It seems that the people here have really evolved their civilization. The cost, however, seems so be that the darker and more manipulative nature of humankind emerge under these conditions. Now, faced with the recovered ring of Gela herself, Starlight must balance a responsibility to her new people, her conscience, and her life.

I really think Chris Beckett did a fantastic job in his follow up novel. The character development is really great in this book. I felt that it was pretty good in Dark Eden as well, but it felt stronger in Mother of Eden. The world building was also much richer and more in depth. With the emergence of new subcultures, it fleshed the world out even more. He re-imagined a familiar fantasy trope and made it his own in a new and unique world. If you like the first novel, this is a must read. If you didn’t love the first novel, I personally think this is a redeeming next installation. The dialect that is used still bugs me a bit, but with the richer story, less so. I gave it 4 stars for that reason. I almost passed it because of my general indifference to the first, but I am really glad that I gave it a chance.

The third and, according to the author, final book in the Dark Eden series is currently in the works. It will be titled Daughter of Eden (<-check the link) and will feature Starlight’s friend Angie living among the Davidfolk. No release date has been announced yet, but I will check it out as soon as I ave the opportunity.

Disclaimer: I receive this review copy through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Review, SciFi

The Murder of Adam and Eve by William Dietrich

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Nick Brynner, a 16 year old with a streak of curiosity, decides to take a quick trip to visit a restricted island to explore its’ old fort. His plan is to be in and out before anyone notices he has even gone. What Nick finds is way beyond anything he imagines. His simple trespass puts him on an incredible adventure of the utmost importance to the future of humanity.

The Murder of Adam and Eve takes place in several settings. Since I think it is better for any reader to really experience these in the story, than for someone to read it among my ramblings, I will only mention the previous alluded to fort and the African Savannah. No doubt the flap and any other online description give you more information, but I will keep it relatively simple. To spoil as little as possible, Nick stumbles into test to determine the fate of the world as he knows knows. Succeeding, as well as choosing that path, will keep the status quo for our world. Failing, or deciding to allow things to change, will change life on Earth in unforeseen and unknowable ways. He an his new companion Eleanor, AKA Ellie, have been chosen to represent the human race to prove that humanity is worth allowing to continue on their path. Earth and it’s people are not directly in danger of invasion, attack, or anything of the sort per se. The danger, technically is in the past, where unless Nick and Ellie prevent the death of the genetic “Adam and Eve” our entire existence will be unmade to play out an entirely different way. They are sent back to the prehistoric Savannah, 50,000 years in the past to not only figure out how to survive, but also track down the most distant ancestors to whom all current humans can track their DNA back to and stop them from being killed by a race who deem themselves judge, jury and executioner of worlds.

I have to admit the concept of this immediately intrigued me. From the sci-fi angle, there is time travel, aliens, and the progression of life as we know it all intermingled. Very promising start. From a scientific standpoint, William Dietrich took into account actual evolutionary theories and played with them in a very interesting way. The idea that there is a couple dating back to prehistoric times who all current Homo sapiens share genetic links to is not a new or solely literary idea. While the term of “Adam and Eve” is not referencing the actual biblical story, it is a nod to the concept of all humans sharing common ancestors. The author also explores the causality of an event fifty thousand years ago and how the lives of two individuals from that long ago can shape our reality today. This is some seriously interesting science fiction, blended with metaphysics.

Even the best concepts need to be properly executed. Writing a novel about the most appealing theories in the world can fall flat without a strong plot or well developed characters. Thankfully Mr. Dietrich delivers. You really get a good sense of who Nick is, how he came to be the person he is and how his thought process works. He is a very realistic teen put in a very unrealistic situation and reacts accordingly. I think he has good depth and is well formed. Ellie also seemed well created with a good background and fairly believable actions. Of course with Nick being our true main character, he does feel a bit more fleshed out, but for good reasons.

I think that the book was absorbing enough that I cannot really think of many negatives. The only thing that comes to mind is something towards the end of the book that felt pretty predictable. I did not think the whole story or even the outcome itself was, just the way one certain even plays out, I could tell for a bit before it happened that it was clearly written on the wall. Other than that I felt that it was solid. From the environment to the interactions, everything was very well done.

I think at this point it is fairly obvious that I enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it for anyone remotely as nerdy as me. If you find yourself watch the History, Discovery, and/or NatGeo channels, this may be right up your alley. I gave it 4/5 stars and looking back I think that was rather conservative. There is also a fantastic explanation after the story explaining the Author’s inspirations and the theories he incorporated in the novel. I always tend to read authors’ notes after the story, but if you are not typically one who does, I very much suggest doing so for this book… especially my fellow nerds.

Disclaimer: I received this eArc from Netgalley in exchange solely for a fair review.

Review, SciFi

Doctor Who: The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker

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Crawling Terror
Doctor Who: The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker

As the final Twelfth Doctor novel in my queue from the September 9th publication, I finally got around to The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker. There was no real method to the order I read them, I just picked them pretty much at random according to my mood when I read the description. This happened to be the third one I got to. Like the other three, I received this galley from Blogging for Books by way of Edelweiss in exchange for a fair review. It is now time for my standard Doctor Who review disclaimer: I write this review under the assumption that the reader is a fan, or at least familiar with the current Doctor Who TV series. If not, I suggest stopping here, this review will mean nothing to you and the books will be lost on you as well. If you wish to read my reviews of the other two Doctor Who novels released along side this one, See my review of Doctor Who: The Blood Cell, and Doctor Who: Silhouette.

The TARDIS brings our two (current) favorite time travelers to quiet English town. As any Who fan would expect, it does not stay a quiet little town for long. The town begins swarming with giant insects, bug of unusual size, if you will. The village becomes cut off and isolated, so it it up to the Doctor to get through this. As the body count rises, the Doctor investigates the insects, uncovers covert WWII experiments and an ominous stone circle as he tries to discern if the events are otherworldly, supernatural, or the result of human tampering.

Crawling Terror, more than some of the others, gave me a very familiar “Who” feeling. Oddly enough, I did not feel that out of the three, this necessarily captured Capaldi’s Doctor the best of the simultaneous releases, but it did not do a bad job either. It read as though it could be a script for a really good episode. It actually felt a lot like the episodes “The Poison Sky” or “Partners in Crime.” For lovers of the 2005-present Who, this novel will certainly remind you of the show you know and love. The reason I do not feel this took Twelve’s personality is that the Doctor did not seem as detached and obliviously inconsiderate as Capaldi’s portrayal. He is more of a curious detective in this book a la Tennant’s Tenth or even Eccelston’s Ninth Doctor, as opposed to the grumpy, unintentionally callous old bastard he has become. I do not mean this as a negative criticism though. As I said in previous reviews, when these novels were released, we barely had a feel for the new Doctor. On top of that, I can understand the author writing the character with his great memories of Doctor in general.

I gave this story 4/5 stars. It was a really good Doctor Who story, that could plausibly be a really good episode. It is a great read for any fan. If you are looking for a fix in between seasons, I can’t imagine being disappointed with Mike Tucker’s The Crawling Terror.

Review, SciFi

Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards

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Doctor Who: Silhouette
Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards

A Doctor Who Novel with not only Twelve and Clara, but Vastra, Jenny, and Strax? What current Who fan could turn that down? Well, not this one. This is not my first Doctor Who novel, it is not even my first staring the Twelfth Doctor. See my review of Doctor Who: The Blood Cell.  Now we come to Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards. This is another one of three Twelfth Doctor books that were released on September 9th by Broadway books. This time around I am a bit more familiar with the latest regeneration, having seen a couple more episodes since I read the last story. As I have said in my last Doctor Who review, I hope anyone reading this already knows of the show. Other books are not necessary, but without knowing the current incarnation of the show, you will be a bit at a loss. I will not recap the characters or concepts from the show here either, because if you are not a fan of the show, I just cannot see reading this book or going further in this review.

We begin the novel with three sets of main characters, in three settings, investigating three mysteries. Let us start with the most important character: The Doctor. When we first join the Doctor and Clara, they are heading for Victorian London to investigate a power spike that should not exist. Next we are brought into a seemingly impossible murder where Madame Vastra is called upon to investigate by the victim himself.  Jenny assists in the investigate, as is to be expected.  Strax has a new drinking buddy, one of the few humans he can stand without thoughts of obliterating them with scissor grenades. After a night at the pub, Strax’s new friend is found dead. Strax is now on a hunt for vengeance. Eventually The Doctor and Clara cross paths with Jenny at a carnival which seems to somehow connect their cases, and their investigations coincidentally intertwine. Strax’s quest is clearly connected as well (from the beginning I might add, really would not call this a spoiler), though it take a little longer for all parts to come together.

As I mentioned earlier, I do have a better feel for the Peter Capaldi’s Doctor now. I now feel a bit more confident in discussing other portrayals of him. I think Justin Richards really did a great job in capturing this, at the time of publication, still relatively underexposed character. Nobody really knew him at the time, but I think this novel held quite well to the personality that has been developing on screen. In the show, Twelve is quite detached from humanity now and has become a bit of a grumpy old many who rather thinks himself more charming and handsome than he is. He is quite often unintentionally (at least I think) rude and his quips with Clara always become almost innocently insulting, like when talking to a child with no real filter. Richards manages to convey this quite well in his writing of the Doctor. The other characters were very well written and were true to their live action counterparts. Strax, I think, was the most well done among them. If there was any hesitation about reading this and having these characters ruined or not brought over properly, you can forget them.

The other important factor in any Doctor Who adventure, be it a novel, an episode, or even radio production, is the villain. The main antagonist in Silhouette is very well done. Now, there are a few “badguys” in here I suppose. While any of them are good Doctor Who antagonists, especially lately, the main opponent here is really well suited to be an adversary of the Doctor. He is intelligent, difficult to figure out and even more difficult to counter. There is enough character development here to get a good feeling of who he is. There is a fair bit of exposition, but it is done well enough, and in conversation, that it feels quite natural.

Well, here comes the real question. How did I like the story? I have to say that I really did enjoy it. I did initially worry about it being too forced with the other characters, but it felt right. Perhaps there were a few too many coincidences and I thought the Doctor would normally jump on that, but maybe this is just to show a change in the current Doctor. I enjoyed the ending, but the resolution felt a bit expected to me. I have not gotten that impression from other reviewers though, so maybe it is just me. Taking all into account, I would give it 4/5. Very good story and use of well known and loved characters. An enjoyable read I would feel confident about recommending to any fan of New-Who. One final bit of not-quite spoileryness, there is a scene with some great references for fans who know not only the new series, but the classics as well. Enjoy!

Review, SciFi

War Dogs by Greg Bear

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WarDogs
War Dogs by Greg Bear

War Dogs is the first book of a new trilogy by Greg Bear. I received an early review copy at BEA this year from the Orbit desk in the Hachette pavilion. This book is scheduled for release on October 14th 2014, one month from today.

War Dogs is a futuristic sci-fi military novel. It takes place in the future, however it is not so far in the future that it is unrecognizable. As a matter of fact, humanity has not really had huge technological advances in this time and any real advances have come from external sources. Yes, that means there are aliens. These visitors are known as the Gurus. The Gurus gave Earth technological gifts and other bits of knowledge. This much is on the cover flap, so I can safely say that I am not spoiling anything. They came in peace and initially asked nothing in return. Eventually they did reveal that their actions were only partially altruistic. More of a reciprocal altruism in fact. They let it be know, to their small cabal, that they have been traveling around fighting their long time enemy which we have come to known as the antagonists. Antags for short. Earth was enlisted to help fight this ancient war as the Antags were making their way into the solar system. This was technically optional, but if you want to get new shiny toys from the Gurus, you became signatory.

Not much is known about the Antags, even by the soldiers who were sent to fight. Actually, not much is know about the Gurus either, other than by the very small group that makes up the inner council. People do not even know how many may be on Earth. What people do know is that we get all of this great stuff from them, so we might as well follow them. Soldiers are sent off to the unforgiving vastness of Mars to fight the Antags at the request of their reclusive benefactors.  This is where the story takes place, more or less. This is where we join our main character, Sgt. Michael Venn. Venn is a Skyrine. An elite fighting force trained for these Mars drops and fighting in these conditions. In his latest campaign, he is dropped onto Mars in a botched operation. With the mission in shambles and the intel uplinks not communicating or sending orders, the soldiers revert to simply trying to survive. What they come across when traversing the harsh Martian landscape is unexpected and potentially game changing. Unfortunately they are not the only group who knows what they now do and Command seems to have different ideas regarding how to deal with its tactical nature. The adventure is laced with Antag attacks, Mars settlers, racist groups, falling comets, psychedelic experiences and adverse conditions.

Now, that is only half of the setting and plot. When you open to the first chapter, you will notice that the setting is not on the red surface of a dusty planet, rather here an Earth. Sgt. Venn ha just returned to Earth from a drop and is en route to a safe house. What happens is that the viewpoint shifts between Venn recounting, in first person, the events that transpired on Mars, and the present day omniscient third person with Venn in the safe house accompanied by a friend of a friend.

What I really liked was the Mars lore Bear is establishing. What the Skyrines come across and learn is a fairly interesting plot line that sets the hook to bring readers along to the next volume of this series. Unfortunately you really only start getting to the more interesting unravelings towards the end of the book, leaving you with a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger certainly makes we want to continue on, but I do wish I learned a bit more first.

The characters were well done, but it seemed to go through quite a bit of them for such a small group. Bear takes the time to really paint each of them out and reserves a few pages for exposition on many of them. With all of that, I don’t know how much sense I got of who any of them really are, other than key one or two. Some of their personalities tended to shift, by the author’s designs of course, but that does make it a bit more difficult to really know that character. I think the characters were pretty well developed, but there feel that there were too many that I was supposed to care about, which ended with me not caring enough.

Now, here is the major criticism I have : All suspense that I thought I should feel in the Mars chapters is mitigated by the fact that the story is being retold on Earth by the main character. You really do not have to wonder if your main character will survive… he did. You already know he did. Since the first page. Obviously you could not tell the present day story without this effect, but it did have an effect nonetheless. It by no means ruined to narrative, it is still a great story, I think it just drained some of the punch.

Stepping back and look with everything in its place, It was a very good book. The Sci-Fi is somewhat believable given the time period. That characters are generally well done, and the author really does paint a very nice picture of world(s) around them. Overall I think it is somewhere between a 3.5/5 or 4/5. I think after the next book I will want it more at the 4, but right now I just want to know what happens so I have to live with that nagging feeling for now.

Greg Bear’s webiste

War Dogs page on Bear’s site

Greg Bear’s Goodreads

War Dogs Goodreads

Review, SciFi

Doctor Who: The Blood Cell by James Goss

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Doctow Who Blood Cell
Doctor Who: The Blood Cell by James Goss

Doctor Who: The Blood Cell by James Goss is one of three new Doctor Who stories being released this Tuesday September 9th, 2014 by Broadway Books, which feature the Twelfth Doctor. I  received this eARC through Blogging for Books via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. I was excited to get this book since I am a die hard Doctor Who fan. At the same time, I was not sure what to expect since at the time of this writing, only three episodes with the twelfth Doctor have aired. I even found myself reading it in Eleven’s voice, even when trying to keep Twelve’s in my head. I do wonder a little if putting these out now was in fact strategically smart with the momentum from the new season, or if it is too early since we had not yet had time to really get to know the latest regeneration or really see him as The Doctor.

Refocusing on the book, we join the Doctor in this adventure in a prison set in a remote asteroid. Very little is know upfront, we have no idea why the Doctor (Prisoner 428) is in this prison, what terrible event he is looking to avert, or where exactly Clara and the Tardis are. He obviously does have an agenda. Let’s face it, the Doctor almost always does.  What we do knows is that he believes that something bad is going to happen and if the Governor of the prison does not work with him and release him, something bad will happen and people will start getting killed, which for the record, Clara shows up and petitions the Governor claiming the same thing. With the Doctor, these statements generally hold true, even if he is not aware of some impending doom. Since the Governor does not believe him, the Doctor decides he will just have to continually break out until they get the point. I cannot get too much deeper into the plot without spoilers, but needless to say, the prison is having problems and while everyone blames the Doctor, he wants to figure out what is really going on.

What is interesting about this narrative is that it is written in a first person point of view and not that of the Doctor or Clara, but of the Governor. This is somewhat of a change from other Who novels.  It does offer a unique perspective that I can only think of one or two TV episodes that approached it this way. The plot itself was not bad. It seemed in line with what could be an episode this season. I have seen a number of other reviewers criticizing the ending, but I saw no problem with it. In all fairness, it was an ending I would come to expect from the current direction of the show. It actually felt a bit like the Satellite Five and later Gamestation episodes. Was it an amazing, epic Doctor Who adventure? Not particularly. Was it an awful adaptation of the Doctor? Certainly not. It was a fair and decent story. There were funny moments, suspenseful moments; it was Doctor Who.

One area I am normally very critical of is characterization, but novelization of a running character is really hard to fit into a regular square box. If you read the book, you should be well familiar with the character. The author should not be defining the main characters in a Doctor Who novel. They are already near and dear to the readers. Your only job is not to butcher them. What Goss did need to do was define the other characters which I felt he really did do a good job with. Also, since this is early in the 12th Doctor’s run, he did have to work with a personality we do not know much about yet and I think with that in mind, he fared quite well. The Doctor’s little quips and obliviously unflattering comments to Clara fit in with the first few Capaldi episodes. As does the spoon. I do not know if it was intentional, but a spoon does come into play in Season 8 Episode 3 as well as in this novel, which gave me a bit of a chuckle. The way it come up here though was something I may have expected more from the Tenth Doctor.

All in all I felt the book was pretty good for a Doctor Who story. As I said earlier, it is neither the worst nor best I have come across, but it was entertaining and engaging. I flew through it. I will admit it was tough to put down, I finished it in two days. It took a lot from the show and worked with a new Doctor that I honestly do not know enough about yet to criticize the portrayal. With that, it is considerably more difficult to rate. My gut says that it is a 3.5/5. If you are a Doctor Who fan, it is worth a read. Just do not expect a “Blink” or “A Good Man Goes to War”.

 

Review, SciFi

Dark Eden by Chris Beckett

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dar-eden
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett

Dark Eden was first published in 2012 which soon earned its author Chris Beckett a British Science Fiction Association Award  nomination for Best Novel that same year. It then went on to win Beckett the  Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel. In 2013 Broadway Books, an imprint of Crown Publishing, acquired the US rights. It was published here earlier this year. I received a review copy for this US publication in exchange for a fair review.

This novel is a science fiction and dystopian story. The story takes place on a planet, or more likely planetoid, called Eden. I say planetoid for two reasons; first, there does not seem to be a central mass or solar system that it orbits. There is no natural sun or close by star. Secondly, the planet appears to be fairly small. Several generations ago a few people from Earth took off into the unknown, followed by police, and landed on Eden. While some attempted to return home, two of them stayed, waiting for the possibility of Earth to return to get them. In the meantime, the two who stayed began their own family and started populating their new home. Jump to present day in the book, there are over 500 people living on Eden, all in the one area where their ancestors first landed. These humans are living on a truly alien planet. Their light and heat come from trees with hot sap pumping through them. The animals somewhat resemble the creatures of earth, yet are wholly different.

The people make the best of what they can in their little piece of this alien planet. The whole community of every human living there is called Family, while subgroups have sprung up named mostly after things around them such as Redlantern and Spiketree. These groups have their own areas within Family. The society is governed by both the group leaders as well as a council presiding over all groups. They have lived this way since the first two, Tommy and Angela, taught them.

One teen, John Redlantern, sees things a bit differently. This main character does not understand why things have not changed. He feels that the traditions are stifling them and not allowing them to grow and reach the level of those who came from Earth. John and small group of friends wish to expand Family. Traditionalists are not happy with this idea and controversy spreads. The story switches tracks from idealism to adventure on this still mostly unknown world.

There is a whole cast of unique individuals. Beckett give you a good taste of all of them, though not in major depth. I can say that while I understood most of the characters, I cannot say that I really liked any of them. Not that I did not like how the author wrote them, I did not like their personalities. I suppose that says they were developed enough to have unlikable characteristics. I started out liking John and the way he saw the world. I later found that I very much disliked him. I began to see past his altruism and saw something else. I also really liked Tina Spiketree at first, but I stopped being able to. Other characters were meant to be hated, and you do in fact hate them as you read.  While the characters were developed, I just personally have trouble getting fully immersed in a story where there is nobody to really relate to.

Another interesting thing was the language. They spoke English, since Tommy ad Angela did. They know of London, Brooklyn, television, electricity, and so on. There was no way to truly understand these things, but they had vague ideas. They however spoke about it in a manner similar to when you are teaching a three year old and they say things how they hear them. The names and words come out in hybrid English/baby talk. That is how a lot of the words in the story were. It makes sense. Slang develops in all cultures and vowel shifts, etc. It is as if you are teaching a child to say things, however you do not correct them, so their mispronunciations are passed down for generations. It worked in the story so it did not bother me most of the time. Occasionally I wanted to yell at the characters to pronounce the words properly, but that is just me. I will even point things like that out at the office.

The story was fairly interesting. The concept of stranded earthlings making their home on a distant and strange alien world is a great science fiction concept. It felt like a Lord of the Flies meets Lost in Space. OK, two classics there so it is not really a negative statement, but I felt that it could have been taken so much farther. I realize that this is only the first book in a series, with the next one slated for release in 2015, I believe. The first story did not jump out at me and make me want to continue though. I tend to have bad luck with award winning novels. Maybe I expect too much going in, or maybe I just have a completely different taste that award committees, but I tend to not love these lauded novels as much as I want to.

The book was not bad, 3/5 in my eyes. I did not love it, but I did not hate it. It seemed right in my wheelhouse, but just did not live up to expectations. Again, Dark Eden was an OK book, but I felt it was too lackluster considering all of the praise. I wanted to love it, instead I just did not mind it.

Review, SciFi

My Real Children by Jo Walton

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My Real Children by Jo Walton
My Real Children by Jo Walton

Published here on May 20th 2014 by Tor, and coming to the UK in August, Jo Walton brings us her tenth novel, My Real Children. This is the story of a woman, Patrician Conway, who is living in a nursing home with dementia. Her biggest problem is that she seems to be living two lives. Not only does she feel that she is in a different place on different days, but she distinctly remembers two different pasts.  The book dives in to those pasts. It has taken me longer than I had hoped to get to this review, considering I had gotten this from the publisher back at BEA. I even managed a signed copy, though not personal, it was pre-signed, which is still really nice.

The major thing that I have noticed about Jo Walton is that she really is a great writer. The other thing is that her writing almost fits as well, if not better into the “Non-fiction” general category than it does into the genre specific Sci-Fi and fantasy. She writes truly wonderful prose, but she does hover that genre line by having just enough to qualify. Among Others for example has a light fantasy hint to it (though I maintain that girl is crazy), but mainly it was about a weird girl from a dysfunctional family, and her books. My Real Children is really a story of two alternate histories and the way these lives played out based on an early decision. The science fiction is really in the fact that these are alternate histories. Within those histories there are further sci-fi aspects which are more of something ancillary to the plot. It also builds rather slow to this, with the first of these sci-fi aspects emerging about half way through the book.

Again, this was very nicely written and it was a nice story, though it did leave me fairly sad. It was not even the proper ending that did it, rather events leading up to the end. Jo Walton‘s greatest strength is really her development of the main character, and I do not mean solely in this novel. You really feel that you understand the main characters, both versions of them here. Having a strong character development is something that always pulls me in as I get a sense that this is a real person behind everything. I do not know if all of the characters were so developed though. I felt like I got a taste of some of their personalities, and some I did not feel I knew more than their names.

Other than the actual writing, what I loved about this is that you can feel real love for the people and places. I cannot even explain how badly I want to visit Florence right now or get a gelato. What I did not love was the overt agenda. I thought the overly liberalized agenda was way to strong. I am not commenting on the agenda itself, I do not have a problem with it directly, my problem is they way that it felt too obvious, too in my face, and it took me out of the story. I completely felt like I was being lectured about feminism, anti-war sentiment and disarmament. What if you already drank that particular kool-aid and are on board? It still feels like it is being shoved down your throat. A certain degree of it absolutely helped the plot, but I think it went on more than it was needed.

I put this novel at a 3/5. I enjoyed the story and the writing, but it really did start off slow for me. There were plenty of wonderful part as well as things that yanked me out of that world. It was a nice balance, but simply balancing does not really shift me into loving something or not. I may have brought it up another star if I was expecting a general dramatic story, but I tend to like genre driven stories, and I did not feel that is truly lived up to the genre it was billed as. I also did not love the ending. It did not offer the closure I wanted.  Is this novel worth a read? I think it is, sure. As long as you have the correct expectations going in.