quinn?

The Chronoliths

This is the first novel I’ve read by Wilson, and I am deeply impressed.
Scott Warden is the book’s protagonist. As the novel begins he’s living a slacker’s beach life in South East Asia with his wife and young daughter. One day he heads off with a dodgy friend to have a look at a mysterious object that arrived overnight in the rainforest. This object is made of unidentifiable matter, is hundreds of feet tall and devastates a wide area around it’s arrival point. At the same moment in time his wife is left stranded as their daughter develops a life threatening ear infection.
Life for Warden is never the same afterward – his wife leaves him, his daughter loses all hearing in one ear and the mysterious object turns out to be a monument commemorating a military victory by some unknown warlord called Kuin 16 years in the future – causing a journalist to dub it a Chronolith.
Over time the world is spun into chaos as more and more of these Chronliths appear, first in South-East Asia (including the destruction of Bangkok) and across the third world. The world economy collapses and political sentiment among the world’s population splits into pro-Kuin and anti-Kuin factions.
The novel is written from Warden’s perspective as he tells the story of how his life unfolds against this despairing backdrop as he is continuously finds himself at the centre of events as they unfold.
This is a really well written book full of complex, fleshed out human beings reacting to horrendous events in the world around them. It’s among the best science fiction I’ve read in years.
I’d recommend it to readers of science fiction hungering for more than cutout characters and who can handle the pretty much unremitting darkness of the novel’s world.

Rating: A

A, Books, Rated, Science Fiction

A, Books, Rated, Science Fiction
10:12, March 30th 2006

black plan?

The Star Fraction

MacLeod’s debut novel. Set in a Britain fractured into small territories divided by religion, politics, etc. after a political settlement imposed after the fall of the British republic.
Lead character is Moh Kohn, a mercenary for a trotskyist defence collective who defends technological businesses from attack by militant green and anti-tech groups.
Through a strange combination of memory enhancing drugs, the limited AI of Kohn’s Gun and his father’s software development Kohn finds himself at the centre of the Black Plan and the mysterious Star Fraction.
This is thoroughly enjoyable science fiction. Let down only by a circuituous set up, no real payoff on the Star Fraction of the title and some poorly developed secondary characters. For a first novel, this is brilliant.
I’d recommend it to anyone with a weakness for literate science fiction and a decent awareness of the breadth of political thought.

Rating: A-

A-, Rated, Science Fiction

A-, Rated, Science Fiction
10:17, March 28th 2006

johnny?

Black And Blue

This book is Ian Rankin’s masterpiece. Using the device of a Bible John copycat, Rankin examines Scotland through the lens of it’s
reaction to the original murders. Rebus is, as always, a fascinating puzzle of a character. Rebus is someone who must know the truth, must find out the answers and no cost is too high for him to pay – because only the truth heals.
This was the first book of Rankin’s I ever read and by god did it set a high standard. I don’t I’ve ever read a crime novel that was more interesting, more insightful, more revealing.
This book is recommended to everyone. You will not read a better crime novel or a better book about Scotland pre-devolution than this.

Rating: A+

A+, Books, Crime Fiction, Fiction, Rated

A+, Books, Crime Fiction, Fiction, Rated
16:35, March 8th 2006