Science Fiction – Page 13

hot dust?

Posted on May 5, 2006January 5, 2012 by Greig

Revelation Space

Alastair Reynolds

This is Reynolds’ debut novel and what a remarkable debut it is.
He takes three separate story threads taking part in completely different environments, gives you taste of them and their cultures. He stretches events across decades, gives you flashbacks hundreds of years in the past. Then he sets events in motion that draws these threads together with minimal clunkiness.
There are some fabulous pieces of alien tech, some remarkably plausible extrapolations of past galactic history and future human development.
There’s really interesting characters, great set pieces and it’s all done with real style.
I think I’ll be buying more of his books.
I’d recommend this to anyone starved for a genuinely great piece of hard SF in the current market of post-geek Singularity science fiction.

Rating: A

static?

Posted on April 21, 2006January 5, 2012 by Greig

Double Vision

Tricia Sullivan

Karen “Cookie” Orbach is a sci-fi loving nerd. An overweight, over naive, African American woman that can see the events of a war taking place far from Earth when she watches TV.
This book is quite interesting, especially as you watch Cookie’s character become more self aware and self confident throughout the story.
The alien side of the story is very interesting, but the best of the book is reserved for the real world as Cookie’s wall of denial starts to collapse around her after a family tragedy.
I’d recommend it to science fiction fans looking for something a bit different and very much so to anyone looking for a book with a full on female perspective.

Rating: A-

extropian?

Posted on April 17, 2006June 25, 2007 by Greig

Singularity Sky

Charles Stross

Stross’ debut novel takes place in a universe shaped by the intervention of the post singularity entity known as the Eschaton.
This strongly superhuman intelligence has perpetuated a human diaspora far out into the light cone of Earth. This creates many new civilisations of vaguely like minded people out among the stars.
One such civilisation is the New Republic, where technology (or the lack of) is used to keep the population firmly under the control of a centralised aristocracy. When the colony of Rochard’s World is visited by the unknown force that is the Festival people’s wishes are suddenly granted in exchange for stories, entertainment and information of all kinds. This the New Republic views as an attack on their sovereignty. In retaliation they are prepared to defy the Eschaton and the prohibition on causality violation by attempting to arrive in the system just after the arrival of the Festival.
On board the attacking fleet are Earth’s UN inspector Rachel Mansour and drive engineer Martin Springfield who both have hidden agendas.
This book is piled with ideas and some great humour. Unfortunately it’s let down by some mind blowingly dull "action" sequences and characters with large roles to play that don’t even make it to cipher level. It’s something that Stross has since gotten much better at.
I’d recommend this to lovers of idea rich science fiction and in light of the fact that the sequel is a much better book in the same setting.

Rating: B

fourths?

Posted on April 3, 2006September 24, 2009 by Greig

Spin

Robert Charles Wilson

I made the decision to get this book after reading this post by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Even though he has an interest in the book doing well his passion for the work was obvious to see. Taking into consideration the many positive reviews in the comments the purchase became a foregone conclusion.
The story is told from the perspective of Tyler Dupree. In one stream he recounts the story of his life as measured against the mysterious “Spin” and his friendship with the Lawtons. The second, alternating, stream takes place in his current day.
I don’t know if it would be at all helpful to go into any further detail with the plot – the book unfolds beautifully and the plot, ideas and characters are never less than fascinating.
This is one of the best science fiction books I’ve read in a very long time. I suspect it’s even better than The Chronoliths and if you read my review of that you can see how impressed I was.
If you have any love for science fiction do yourself a favour and read this book.

Rating: A+

quinn?

Posted on March 30, 2006December 15, 2006 by Greig

The Chronoliths

Robert Charles Wilson

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

black plan?

Posted on March 28, 2006May 8, 2007 by Greig

The Star Fraction

Ken MacLeod

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-

his girl friday?

Posted on January 22, 2006July 25, 2007 by Greig

Steel Beach

John Varley

This book is very much a tribute to the style and themes of Robert A Heinlein.
Hildy Johnson is a star reporter for a top Luna City dirt sheet. Life is good except for the bit where he keeps on attempting suicide. And just why is the Central Computer taking such a close interest in his case?
This book seems to occupy a strange place among Varley’s work, almost entirely taken over by the aping of Heinlein. It also seems to both be part of and simultaneously outside Varley’s previously created timeline.
I’d recommend this to people who are huge fans of Heinlein and can stomach the politics, violence, suicides and cold blooded murder of innocents.

Rating: B-

brief update (6)

Posted on February 22, 2005June 18, 2007 by Greig

Pattern Recognition

William Gibson

A near future novel about the implications of branding, guerilla marketing and niche internet communties set two years before the novel came out.
This is the story of a person whose sensitivity to brands makes her ideal for marketing companies wanting to know if their strategies are likely to work or not.
She gets involved in an intrigue related to a community she participates in to do with snippets of film that appear in strange places on the net.
With complex and dangerous results.
This is probably Gibson’s most satisfying novel, if not his flashiest.
I’d really recommend it.

Rating: A