A week has gone by since BookCon and I have been inundated. Unfortunately most of the books I picked up are not being released until the fall and the publishers request reviews not be posted until a certain period prior to release. The time varies by publisher, but basically nothing I have right now can be posted. Instead of a new review, I figured I would throw out a couple of previews until I get through a book I can actually write about.
First from Tor, something I am personally excited for, Is John Scalzi’s new book, Lock in. In the near future, a virus spreads through the world’s population. Everyone reacts differently with some people experiencing nothing worse than a headache or flu symptoms. The more severe cases result in acute meningitis, and only one percent gets “locked in” and are unable to move or respond, but are still conscious. This is unfortunately a real phenomenon called Locked In Syndrome. It is generally unrepeatable and the person has almost no ability to communicate, with a few notable cases trying to have interfaces where patients could at least answer “yes” or “no”.
In Scalzi’s book, however they have devised a virtual reality system where those suffering could “ride” a licenses body and once again interact with the real world. The story builds based on what actions are taken with these “loaner” bodies. Tor has released the first 5 chapters on this up coming book. Check here for links to each chapter as well as other related information. Lock In comes our August 26th 2014.
The next link I have is an excerpt from the new anthology edited by George R.R Martin, Rogues. Rogues contains stories from Neil Gaiman, Pat Rothfuss and Mr. Martin himself as well as many other authors in this genre. I know I am excited for some of these stories such as Neil Gaiman’s story “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back” which is based in his Neverwhere story. Martin’s story is based in the “Game of Thrones” universe (so calm down, you’re getting a new story), and of course Patrick Rothfuss has a story with Bast from “The Kingkiller Chronicles”. It is that story I happen to have found an excerpt of on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. Suvudu has also posted Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie reading from their stories. The release of Rogues is right around the corner on June 17th and is being published by Bantam. I really wish I had gotten a chance to review this book earlier, but I promise to try to squeeze it into my TBR list.
Luckily there are tons of great books coming out and I don’t even come close to scratching the surface. Stay tuned in to your favorite publishers, authors and blogs for the latest.
Originally self published in 2012, Andy Weir‘s The Martianwas picked up by Crown publishing (a Random House subsidiary) and was released just a few months ago. The story is about Mark Whatney, an American Astronaut on a Mars expedition. There is nothing particularly historic about this mission, it is not the first and there are already more planned. What makes this a special situation is that Whatney is left behind when his crew leaves the planet and he is presumed dead. The botanist/engineer has to figure out how to survive on a dead planet with nothing but a couple of months worth of supplies.
I was fairly backlogged at the time this was released (or re-released rather), but I am very glad that I finally got around to reading it. I have to say that while I like and support self-published authors, I do find myself sticking mainly to major SF/F publishers (and almost exclusively reviewing them) as those publishers are more experienced and have a good idea of what works. Some self published stories are amazing (Wool anyone?), but the questionable content can be difficult to sort through. It is for this reason that I am thankful to Crown. Had they not found The Martian, I may never have either and this book was too good to miss.
I loved this book. You can stop here and go read it, I’ll wait. I really cannot find any way of just objectively describing the book, I can only tell you that it was one of the best Sci Fi books I have read in a long time. Mark Whatney is a humorous, sarcastic smart-ass, who talks like a real person, not some stereotypical scientific genius. My kind of person. If there was a situation where my reaction would have been “Holy Shit!” you can bet that is exactly what the character said. From the first page to the last sentence that character does not disappoint. Looking at the SciFi angle, there is really tons of science in it. Much of the book seemed plausible when you see of all of the science, engineering, calculations and modern actual technology. The reader is taken through all of this and can really feel the amount of thought and work that must have been put into writing it. There was no trace of impossible technology from the distant future, most of this could be done right now. Even the peek in to NASA’s internal workings felt authentic, though I am sure any actual NASA staff might not agree. It was funny, well written, rarely predictable and continually fun and enjoyable. It was as perfect a SciFi book as I could ask for.
I easily give this 5 a full 5 stars and recommend this to any Science Fiction fan. I also really look forward to reading whatever comes next from Andy Weir. I cannot say enough good things about this book. If you read it and hate it, well, first stop listening to me, I may not be your best barometer. Second start reading another genre.
Disclaimer: I received this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Also, as this was an ARC, any content is subject to change by time of publication.
The Word Exchange, debut novel by Alena Graedon, is a new and quite unique book. The novel is being published by Doubleday and will be release on April 8th. The story is set in the near future when printed publications are a distant memory, held on to by only the most dedicated enthusiasts. Electronic devices reign and in the US, the Meme is king. While most of us are already constantly connected through our mobile devices and high speed data plans, Memes take it to the next level. Not only are they connected to everything and constantly using sensors to asses the user’s environment, they are also intuitive. Not in the way my Android has an “intuitive interface”, no, they actually can sense what you want. They can order for your, hail a cab, or even look something up for you without asking it. This includes looking up words in the interactive pay-per-word dictionary (well, sort of) the Word Exchange. There are even even accessories that stream data to the user, some of which can further link to your mind. Some even go as far as an implanted chip.
Anana Johnson (our main character) works with her father, Doug, at the North American Dictionary of the English Language (NADEL) in New York City. Doug is working on finishing the third edition of the NADEL for the upcoming publishing date. As a linguist, editor and general print and book supporter, Doug is not fond of Memes. More than that, he does not trust them. It is more than just seeing the electronic devices as competition, as they are also developing an electronic version of the NADEL. Doug’s behavior and attitude begins to grow more paranoid about the devices and warns Anana about them. he also preemptively give her a course of medicine in case of an upcoming sickness.
Soon after this Doug’s erratic behavior increases, he mysteriously disappears. With her father missing, Anana tries to track him down with the help of her co-worker and her father’s protege, Bart. In looking for any sign of Doug or where he may have gone, Anana stumbles into dangerous situations, subversive conspiracies and the Diachronic Society, a secret(ish) society which shares many of her father ideals and is clearly anti-Meme and against it’s parent company, Synchronic. On top of all of that, a word-flu manifests, with a combination of flu like symptoms as well as symptoms affecting the infected person’s speech (aphasia). The story is a mixture of Sci-Fi, mystery, thriller and somewhat dystopian.
The characters, especially Anana and Bart are very well developed and you get a nice sense of who they are. The writing is also very well done and the tone is unique. It is written from two perspectives, one being Anana, the other being Bart’s journal. I tend to appreciate stories with multiple perspectives as it adds depth to both the reader’s ability to interpret the events as well as an insight into how each character perceives the same things in different ways. My criticism of the writing style is somewhat difficult. I loved the way it was done, but the language seemed a little much. The author appears to have tried to find more obscure words in a thesaurus and really upped the reading level. I get it, I really do. After finishing the book I truly appreciated the value of doing this. The irony of having to look up works while reading on my Kindle was not lost on me and even caused a few errant chuckles. The language lent both to the story and the style. There was motivation there for the author, but I do see this as something that will really divide readers. Certain people will be scared off or turned off with the overly large or unknown words. In the end it works, quite well actually. I do see this as being a barrier for some people who might otherwise like this story.
The plot itself was very good as well. I have always been more into the Sci-Fi and fantasy aspects of stories and less into the mysteries, but as a plot device the mysteries surrounding both Doug and the word-flu worked well. The progression and pace of the story flowed very well in my opinion. I think that many of the allusions and points centering around technology and the loss of printed material is very valid today (have you seen how few bookstores there are in NYC now?). As is the idea that people do not feel the need to learn things when they can access everything instantly instead. Much of this foreboding content made this whole idea seem very real. I have relatives in school who do not even have text books. Entire schools districts are using nothing but a tablet.
There are some things that even with the suspension of disbelief are a little hard to accept. The way the word-flu spreads is well though out an explained… to a point. After that point of plausibility, it gave me pause. I try not to nitpick, but it bothered me a little that such a well thought out story could have that flaw. The one other thing that got to me where some of the dates. This is obviously set a few years in the future, but the year is not explicitly mentioned. Regardless, there are years mentioned concerning events in various characters’ pasts. I am not sure the years work. The time may work out, but it made me stop and think every time. Also, I am curious what this does to the value of the book in say five years. Would it then be marketed as alternative history? It might be comparable to if Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four in the late 1970’s.
In the end the overall story was very enjoyable, entertaining and absorbing. These traits more than anything are really what is important when looking for a good book. A lot of things that I was wondering about came together in the end which made many things richer upon thinking back. I really like the characters and related to both them and the main thematic ideas. While there were some flaws, everything has flaws, the question is how noticeable of distracting they are. I would give this book a 4/5. There were only a few issues I had with the book, but I really liked it very much. I was not something I sacrificed sleep over, not able put down, but it was something I really liked from beginning to end. I recommend this book without hesitation. I really wanted to go out and but some printed books after this, but something about reading on the kindle and being able to look up words just felt too right.
There is always something interesting going on in the worlds of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Here are a few items which caught my eye and hopefully you find interesting as well.
First up: John Scalzi.
On 2/7 Scalzi posted a link on his blog to an article over on deadline.com about his novel Redshirtsbeing picked up by FX for a TV series. Luckily Scalzi followed up the next day by further explain on his blog. If you do not currently follow John Scalzi’s blog or twitter, take a moment to do so, I doubt you will be disappointed. He writes an entertaining FAQ about his TV adaptation which I encourage you to check out. I for one cannot wait for this. I really liked the book so I am interested to see how the show comes out. Here is a summarized excerpt from a review I did elsewhere:
Redshirts is the story of an Ensign and his friends who notice something strange going on. What Redshirts really was is a completely original Star Trek Meta parody. The story itself was pretty good, characters were good as well. What really powered this book though was the dialogue. The conversations and situations were great. I think I enjoyed the experience of reading this book much more than I enjoyed the overall picture. That being said, I REALLY enjoyed reading this book. Chapter 24 is one of the greatest things ever. Probably the most brilliant thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’d certainly recommend this book whether someone is looking for a Sci-Fi read, a generally funny book, or just something different
The next thing I wanted to point out was that Sword and Laser‘s 2nd video season kicked off today. This season will be a set of author spotlight episodes. It was also a result of a very successful Kickstarter campaign. The first one that was released was the Hugh Howey episode. I was particularly happy about this episode since a couple of questions I had put out there were asked by the hosts. For full disclosure, as you may know from my Sand review, I am certainly a fan of Hugh Howey’s so I wanted to share this. I was also a backer of this Kickstarter. I have said it in the past, but I again encourage people to follow Sword and Laser’s podcast and forums/book club. I do.
The last item I wanted to touch on today is a post by Brandon Sanderson. I had previously put a link up to the first few chapters of his new novel, Words of Radiance. He mentions this again in his post, which he should considering the release in about a week and a half (I should have a review up mid-March). You can get spoiler free excerpts sent daily as well as read some Beta Reader tips. What I thought was really interesting though was at the bottom. Brandon Sanderson teaches a creative writing class at Brigham Young University. As you can imagine, this is not an easy class to get into. This year he opened up a larger lecture class before the writing workshop. He also is posting videos of these lecture on his YouTube channel. Anyone looking to get a creative writing lecture from an extremely successful Fantasy writer would do well to check this out.
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee Click for more info
On Such a Full Sea is supposed to be a post apocalyptic, dystopian novel. These are some of my favorite books in a SciFi sub-genre. This was probably clear when I reviewed Sand. Chang-rae Lee is a newcomer to this world. He typically writes literature revolving around Asian-Americans and the cultural issues living in America. On Such a Full Sea was not entirely unlike this. Many of the characters tended to be — but were not exclusively– of Asian descent.
The basic premise is that sometime in the future, “New China” (since China itself had already been destroyed from environmental ruin) became uninhabitable. Many flocked from New China to the already rundown urban neighborhoods of America. Since they were mostly abandoned it was easy to take over and rebuild them. Think Detroit, most of the urban area is a mess, with only the outskirts really used even in present day. The story begins, and constantly focuses on B-Mor, the old city of Baltimore. B-Mor is a walled city where (I suppose) what is equivalent to a middle class live. They are mostly assigned work detail and a good deal of their life is dictated by a Directorate.The more wealthy can open up shops, though this is usually a family business or done after retirement.
The analogue to the upper class would be the Charters. They live in charter villages, have lucrative careers, and pay to live the way they do. Their lives are a little freer, but still heavily governed. Nothing is guaranteed with them and if they lose their money, it is a one way trip to the bottom. Their biggest luxury is their medical access. The world is plagued by “C” which clearly seems to refer to cancer. Everyone gets it, everyone is born with it. The question is how long can you treat it to live your life. The charters get access regular full workups and more expensive treatments. There is little upward mobility. The top 1-2% can test out and be accepted as a charter, or is someone has an exorbitant amount of money, they can buy their way in. The complete opposite of this upper-class life is out side of the walls. The Open Counties.
Basically the open counties are the wild west. There is no government out there. They live in the wastelands and make their own life. Some live comfortable, some struggle to survive the lawlessness. The open counties are also the only way to drive from one place to another, with the exception of “Globals” which are flights around the county for the more wealthy charters. One thing to note, true to the Author’s style most charters and community residents are of Asian decent, primarily New Chinese, some have “native” aka American blood mixed in.
Now, while the story may be about this society, it is really about Fan, and her boyfriend Reg. In the beginning they are typical young B-Mor workers. Fan is a diver in the fish tanks and Reg works about in the grow areas where heavily regulated produce is grown. To really simplify the plot, Reg is called into an office and nobody sees him again. Fan goes on for a while acting normal, but eventually leaves into the open counties looking for him. After this Reg and Fan become folk heroes, cultural obsessions. They are a symbol, but of what I really cannot tell you. I am not holding anything back, I honestly am not sure. They formula to the book is as follows: Fan is in one place for a period of time, something unpleasant usually happens, she gets out and goes someplace else. The unidentified narrator, the anonymous “We” of B-Mor, goes off on a tangentially relevant (at best) exposition and we start again.
So I think the last two lines of the previous paragraph really summed up my thoughts on this book. I know that Chang-rae Lee is an artist with his prose, but I could not get into this novel. Technique is not something which can superseded content. It was as though every time the story began to build, whenever there was an interesting plot turn, it was undoubtedly broken up with some meandering commentary by the narrator about how “We at B-Mor” feel about this, relate to it, or have some deeper insight. I tried so hard to like this book. I kept saying that after this chapter it will surely pick up, it has to! But I was sadly mistaken. If the majority of the “We at B-Mor” and “What we as B-Mors know” or “As we in B-Mor know of our Fan” were taken out, I think the story would have more of a flow. Those sections added nothing in my opinion and only sought to break up and derail an otherwise interesting and cohesive tale. More importantly how does this “we at B-Mor” know so much about Fan’s tale after leaving, and how do they have such an insight into Fan herself? By all description she was extremely quite and kept to herself with the exception of her time with Reg. This little idea completely pulled me out of the story. The frustration from the interludes took my enthusiasm in the way a kick to the chest takes your breath. I struggled to find the desire to continue on to the next chapter.
The story, distilled in essence is a good one. It contained interesting commentary on humanity and showed a reasonable amount of struggle, if perhaps a bit too much for one person is a condensed period of time. For that purpose it succeeds in the realm of dystopian novels. It fails however in making that story into an truly compelling or enjoyable experience. Written differently and with only a select few passages of exposition, I know I would have liked this novel. The writing style and narrative completely ruined it for me.
I cannot in good conscience give this more than 2/5 stars. I do not discourage people from picking this up though. Maybe you disagree with me. You would neither be the first nor the last to do so. I have cut and reworked a significant amount of what I would have liked to say out to prevent spoilers so the story will still be new to you.
Check back for more SF/F book reviews and information. I will try to update more frequently.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Click for more information
Ancillary Justice is the first book in author Ann Leckie’s new trilogy, the Imperial Radch series. The novel begins by introducing us to the main character who goes by the name of Breq. We learn very early on that this name is just one chosen by our protagonist, not one they were always known by. Breq had also gone by One Esk and Justice of Toren. This character is is very interesting with many levels being peeled by throughout the course of the story. You may have noticed, but I have been a bit evasive as to use and pronouns in identifying Breq. This is because I honestly have no idea what gender the character is. Breq aka One Esk, does not deal very well with the concept of gender or the accompanying pronouns. Everyone for the most part is referred to as “she”, even when they are clearly male.
This makes some aspects rather confusing and somewhat distracting when you find yourself trying to figure out who is really what. On the other hand it does provoke thought in terms of the importance of gender in our language. This is not where the confusion ends though. While Breq is an individual, One Esk is a collection of Ancillaries, which are, formerly human, “corpse soldiers” (not zombies, trust me on this) operating on a hive mind. Their singular consciousness is uploaded to them and they are joined in a permanent up-link with their ship and (fully human) officers. To take this up another level, Justice of Toren is the ship’s AI consciousness. This shift in perspectives between the three states of one mind is actually very interesting as it allows the narrative to take turns a first person view normally could not.
The story also takes place over an extremely vast period of time, often jumping back and forth. As part of the Justice of Toren, One Esk is a part of a Radchaai fleet. The Radch government is basically a human race with visions of colonization and assimilation. They use ancillaries for both military and domestic reasons, yet consider themselves somehow more civilized than any other society. Their civilization is also one reminiscent of feudalism with the idea of fealty. One Esk serves its Radchaai masters without question. It is an AI programmed for such things, yet it does still have feeling and the ability to pass judgement. Regardless of this, all aspects of the AI still obey, even against their own wishes. This ability to think with a conscious is really what makes the plot tick, along with some strife within the Leader of the Radch’s rule. I cannot really say more of this without some plot spoiler that I feel will better serve unspoiled. If people are interested in further discussion, let me know.
I really appreciated the complexity of the main character as well as the various views the book takes. There are some really fantastic ideas and concepts that play out. Ann Leckie really put a lot of thought into the mechanism and that work paid off to build a wonderful system and a great story. The confusing pronouns were certainly a risk, and she acknowledges that. The book is very enjoyable and only gets better as all of the pieces begin to fall into place. The style may not be for everyone, but I suggest giving it a shot. As someone who really digs into the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres, something unique like this is always worth a try.
Ancillary Justice was also recently read in two SF/F book clubs which were able to get Ann Leckie involved in the discussion. A word of caution to those who have not yet read this story, these are both taking place during wrap ups and will contain spoilers.
Sword and Laser is a personal favorite of mine. They pick some great books, alternating monthly between Fantasy and SciFi. They have forums over on Goodreads and a podcast hosted by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont. They also just finished filming the next season of their video author spotlights. Keep and eye on them, I doubt any SF/F could be dissapointed. Follow this link to the podcast where they wrap up the book and are joined by Ann Leckie who gets in on the discussion and answers their questions.
The other book club which recently covered this is io9‘s. Here Ann Leckie joined the discussion in the user’s comments and answered many readers’ questions through the threads at the bottom of the page. I absolutely suggest giving that a look.
Sand by Hugh Howey. Click image for full description on Goodreads
Sand is latest book by Hugh Howey, the author best known for Wool and the rest of the Silo Saga. Like Wool, this was initially published in five parts. I initially read part of the first book, but with a full reading queue I opted to wait for the full version to come out and bump that to the top of my list. Sand starts by taking you into an unfamiliar desert world where we are introduced to a couple of divers- Palmer and Hap. Unlike the type of diving we are accustomed to, these divers traverse the sand by means of a specialized dive suit which causes the sand to flow around it. From the beginning this idea really intrigued me. The idea of swimming though sand hit me as both brilliant and obvious. I had a feeling of “Why didn’t I think of that?” followed by a daydream of swimming through sand dunes. It feels like a thought you would have as a kid sitting on a playground looking at the sand and letting your imagination wander.
We quickly learn is these divers are not on an alien world, rather a post-apocalyptic Earth. The divers use their suits to dive down below the sand dunes to scavenge whatever our modern society has left behind. Story follows the lives of several family members living on the outskirts of one of these desert towns, situated a few hundred feet above modern day Colorado. Palmer is a somewhat accomplished diver, who lives in the shadow of his more accomplished older sister Vic. Their two younger brothers Conner and Rob live at home and are still in school. While neither are divers, both are interested in the family profession. Their mother is around, occasionally supporting them financially, while their father walked out on them years prior. Though their lives are mostly separate, certain decisions and unimaginable events in their sand covered, dreary world lead them down crossing paths, forcing them to work together to survive this increasingly hostile and lawless world.
The way this world was created was truly imaginative and as the story goes progresses there are several moments of realization that only add to this. What I most enjoy about Hugh Howey’s writing is the care he takes in building solid characters. I find myself actually relating to and caring about the characters because they have such depth and history. They easily feel like real people and I feel like I have spent time getting to know them. While some might find this type of building up slow, I find it to be essential and wholly interesting. If you are one of the people who does not appreciate this as much as I do, the story does build to a much more eventful turn of events that should be able to carry anyone’s interest.
I can honestly say I loved this book because it met and exceeded my expectations of what makes my ideal post-apocalyptic story. The only criticism I have is that there were a few point which I felt were a little too predictable, but I cannot say that it had any negative effect on my enjoyment. Most reviews I have read around time of publication were comparisons to Wool. I find this to be a poor comparison. While they were written by the same author, that is not enough to warrant any expectation of similarity. Howey himself has said these are polar opposites. Wool was about a totalitarian society, whereas Sand is almost anarchistic. Wool is a bit more family friendly, Sand is completely adult with some strong adult themes and language. To the author’s credit, I prefer to judge a story on its own merit.
Then end left me wanting more, but in a good way. I did not feel that it was lacking, I just wanted to know what comes next. At the time of this entry the author has not indicated that this will be a series, but he has said that there is a lot that could be done with this world. I will remain hopeful for now.
