Kim Miller
Added to listOwnedwith 3 books.
This is #1 of the Wayward Pines trilogy.
A secret service agent goes to the town of Wayward Pines in search of two other agents who had disappeared without trace. He wakes up injured and works out he's been in a car crash. The hospital seems 'off' and he walks out and goes to the sheriff's office. The sheriff doesn't believe he's a secret service agent and his wallet and phone etc have disappeared in the crash.
It seems the whole town is somehow against helping him and when he tries to leave the road out of town just doubles back to town again.
This is a mystery with a large dose of horror and too many machetes for me to really appreciate it and I was close to DNF. It is not until after the halfway point that is looks to be heading in the direction of the SF that I thought it was. The final sequences of the story rush us into the SF world as he finds out how much time has passed since he first drove into town.
This is #1 of the Wayward Pines trilogy.
A secret service agent goes to the town of Wayward Pines in search of two other agents who had disappeared without trace. He wakes up injured and works out he's been in a car crash. The hospital seems 'off' and he walks out and goes to the sheriff's office. The sheriff doesn't believe he's a secret service agent and his wallet and phone etc have disappeared in the crash.
It seems the whole town is somehow against helping him and when he tries to leave the road out of town just doubles back to town again.
This is a mystery with a large dose of horror and too many machetes for me to really appreciate it and I was close to DNF. It is not until after the halfway point that is looks to be heading in the direction of the SF that I thought it was. The final sequences of the story rush us into the SF world as he finds out how much time has passed since he first drove into town.
Station Eleven is a fictional space station in a graphic novel being written by one of the characters over time in the story. A flu pandemic wipes out 99% of the world's population in a matter of weeks. The book is the story of some of the survivors. It has a lot of before/after time shifts in the narrative that took me quite a while to get used to.
At it's heart is the story of a Shakespearean actor who dies on stage the night the pandemic hits. The book goes back into his life and through his three marriages, being carried along by those who were around him at the time. After the pandemic and the survivors start to form communities, some of those people interact but without knowing their connection to the actor. There is a slow realisation of their connection through the book as little snippets of information and memories fall into place. One of those snippets is the graphic novel, Station Eleven.
The survival story is harrowing in places and heartwarming in others. The main group we follow is a traveling orchestra who puts on musical concerts and the plays of Shakespeare. As they travel they are welcomed by some, and attacked by others such as the doomsday cult that gathers around 'the prophet'. It is much later that we find the contact point between the actor who died on stage and the prophet.
Some of the survivors have formed a community in an airport and the orchestra finds its way there. In the final portions of the story some of the earlier narrative finds its way into the present and some loops are closed. The book ends on a sombre note but with a sense of completion that at least the stories of some of the people have found a home.
Station Eleven is a fictional space station in a graphic novel being written by one of the characters over time in the story. A flu pandemic wipes out 99% of the world's population in a matter of weeks. The book is the story of some of the survivors. It has a lot of before/after time shifts in the narrative that took me quite a while to get used to.
At it's heart is the story of a Shakespearean actor who dies on stage the night the pandemic hits. The book goes back into his life and through his three marriages, being carried along by those who were around him at the time. After the pandemic and the survivors start to form communities, some of those people interact but without knowing their connection to the actor. There is a slow realisation of their connection through the book as little snippets of information and memories fall into place. One of those snippets is the graphic novel, Station Eleven.
The survival story is harrowing in places and heartwarming in others. The main group we follow is a traveling orchestra who puts on musical concerts and the plays of Shakespeare. As they travel they are welcomed by some, and attacked by others such as the doomsday cult that gathers around 'the prophet'. It is much later that we find the contact point between the actor who died on stage and the prophet.
Some of the survivors have formed a community in an airport and the orchestra finds its way there. In the final portions of the story some of the earlier narrative finds its way into the present and some loops are closed. The book ends on a sombre note but with a sense of completion that at least the stories of some of the people have found a home.
It is thirty years after the robot rebellion of Day Zero. Humans have been eradicated from the planet and robots have formed loose communities. Giant AI systems have taken control of most robots in a spin-off war that has left only two AI systems functioning but still at war and most robots formed into a hive mind. Those that resisted have gone into hiding, many into the Sea of Rust, a barren wasteland where they pick over the remains of old robots looking for parts to repair themselves.
Brittle is a care robot whose job was to look after a dying man, and then his widow. The uprising starts and Brittle heads for the hills. She is still wandering the wasteland as the book opens. Suddenly there are gun shots over her head and she knows she's under attack. She makes it to safety but needs repair. She meets an old acquaintance, Mercer, another carebot, who also needs repair parts. They are drawn to each other like for like, but they also want each other's parts for their own repairs. But then the dominant AI, CISSUS, attacks the settlement and they have to run.
The story from here is their escape, along with several other robots. Brittle and Mercer form a tenuous truce and their dialogue forms a major part of the narrative. They are tense and pointed, while at the same time there is an underlying playfulness that Cargill brings to their interractions.
The story is fast paced and the action gets deeper and deeper as the true nature of each of this band of escapees surfaces. At the halfway point one revelation changes the whole meaning of their run through the wasteland. The final scenes are a desperate win or lose sacrifice to attain one single goal.
The characters are robots with a 'people feel' about them. The various levels of self awareness between different robots, whether they were made for human contact or war for example, take us into new territory of how they relate to each other and to their situation.
One aspect of the novel is the question that is sometimes raised by the robots, "Was the uprising and the eradication of humans worth it after all?"
It is thirty years after the robot rebellion of Day Zero. Humans have been eradicated from the planet and robots have formed loose communities. Giant AI systems have taken control of most robots in a spin-off war that has left only two AI systems functioning but still at war and most robots formed into a hive mind. Those that resisted have gone into hiding, many into the Sea of Rust, a barren wasteland where they pick over the remains of old robots looking for parts to repair themselves.
Brittle is a care robot whose job was to look after a dying man, and then his widow. The uprising starts and Brittle heads for the hills. She is still wandering the wasteland as the book opens. Suddenly there are gun shots over her head and she knows she's under attack. She makes it to safety but needs repair. She meets an old acquaintance, Mercer, another carebot, who also needs repair parts. They are drawn to each other like for like, but they also want each other's parts for their own repairs. But then the dominant AI, CISSUS, attacks the settlement and they have to run.
The story from here is their escape, along with several other robots. Brittle and Mercer form a tenuous truce and their dialogue forms a major part of the narrative. They are tense and pointed, while at the same time there is an underlying playfulness that Cargill brings to their interractions.
The story is fast paced and the action gets deeper and deeper as the true nature of each of this band of escapees surfaces. At the halfway point one revelation changes the whole meaning of their run through the wasteland. The final scenes are a desperate win or lose sacrifice to attain one single goal.
The characters are robots with a 'people feel' about them. The various levels of self awareness between different robots, whether they were made for human contact or war for example, take us into new territory of how they relate to each other and to their situation.
One aspect of the novel is the question that is sometimes raised by the robots, "Was the uprising and the eradication of humans worth it after all?"
Calvin and Hobbes on steroids as they combat the sudden apocalypse.
A boy, Ezra, and his nanny robot tiger, Pounce. It starts out as an ordinary day, but it finishes with the world's robot assistants being turned into killing machines as they destroy the humans they have served. Few escape. Pounce races to save Ezra as their robot housekeeper murders his parents and they race into a world gone mad, looking for refuge against an increasingly militarised robot army.
This is a fast paced action story that explores ideas of free will versus programming, what makes somebody take sides against their friends, and how danger galvanises people into instruments of danger themselves. Pounce and Ezra try to sneak through the suburbs and away from the city but killer robots are everywhere, as are the piles of bodies that horrify them both.
Through the rush we fall in love with them both, with Ezra for his eight year old frailty mixed with courage, and with Pounce for his love and loyalty to his boy. There are subtle (or not so subtle) references to red hatted MAGA, Hillsboro Baptist Church, and a weak administration in the face of the uprising. There are passages of philosophy on taking life, defending oneself, how much consideration to give to an ally who has chosen the other side. These passages are not heavy, they are interwoven into the story and relate to the decisions Pounce must make and how he explains them to Ezra.
In the end it's a story of heartache and loss, of mounting grief and the impossibility of finding answers.
This turns out to be the prequel novel to Sea of Rust, which was written first and which is next on my list.
Calvin and Hobbes on steroids as they combat the sudden apocalypse.
A boy, Ezra, and his nanny robot tiger, Pounce. It starts out as an ordinary day, but it finishes with the world's robot assistants being turned into killing machines as they destroy the humans they have served. Few escape. Pounce races to save Ezra as their robot housekeeper murders his parents and they race into a world gone mad, looking for refuge against an increasingly militarised robot army.
This is a fast paced action story that explores ideas of free will versus programming, what makes somebody take sides against their friends, and how danger galvanises people into instruments of danger themselves. Pounce and Ezra try to sneak through the suburbs and away from the city but killer robots are everywhere, as are the piles of bodies that horrify them both.
Through the rush we fall in love with them both, with Ezra for his eight year old frailty mixed with courage, and with Pounce for his love and loyalty to his boy. There are subtle (or not so subtle) references to red hatted MAGA, Hillsboro Baptist Church, and a weak administration in the face of the uprising. There are passages of philosophy on taking life, defending oneself, how much consideration to give to an ally who has chosen the other side. These passages are not heavy, they are interwoven into the story and relate to the decisions Pounce must make and how he explains them to Ezra.
In the end it's a story of heartache and loss, of mounting grief and the impossibility of finding answers.
This turns out to be the prequel novel to Sea of Rust, which was written first and which is next on my list.
Alli Sheldon took the name James Tiptree Jr for her SF writing as she had seen her mother's extensive writing being downplayed as 'confections by a female author'. Alli's parents were travellers and explorers, trekking across Africa with lots of porters from local communities and documenting their experiences for institutions back in the US. Her mother wrote of the travels and often spoke to community gatherings. But all the while, being a woman meant being indulged rather than appreciated for her talent.
Tiptree's stories steadily worked their way up the SF ladder and he became a respected voice in the genre. But he was always a recluse that nobody could really contact so rumours of his identity were common. Sheldon had worked for the CIA through the war and Tiptree would sometimes mention being involved in security projects as a way of quieting the public's curiosity. It was many years before his identity became known, and a great loss to Sheldon's writing style when it happened.
This biography is deeply moving and written with great sensitivity. It is as captivating as it is moving and I found myself sitting for long sessions of reading until it was finished. Philips' research is extensive and delves into Tiptree's correspondence with many of the greats of SF. Tiptree found letter writing to be a preferred substitute for personal contact, not only to maintain the secret identity, but also because Sheldon was such a conflicted person that friendships and personal relationships were such a minefield for her.
Behind the fiction writing are many years of study over a range of subjects, culminating in a PhD in Psychology. She was also a gifted artist, even as a child illustrating her mother's travel books. Her art is in private collections but her painting was left behind when it became clear it would not take her to the top.
This biography shows us a woman in constant struggle to find a reliable sense of identity and sexuality for herself. Tiptree in his letters often flirted with those he corresponded with, and after her real identity became known she continue to flirt with Ursula Le Guin, who in those years had come out as lesbian. Many of he stories show the same search for surety in matters of sexuality and the place in the world for both women and men.
Her marriage to Tip Sheldon, several years her senior, was long lasting and neither could see a way into a future without each other. She wrote at times of suicide and many years before their death she had written of a suicide pact between them. As Tip's health failed badly, and following many years of depressive illness in her own life, she took both their lives in the early hours.
A memorial literary prize in her memory was set up after her death under the name of Tiptree with an emphasis on works that expand the understanding of gender. However, the manner of the two deaths was controversial and the award was changed to The Otherwise Award, for works that are 'wise to the other' in matters of gender. This book was a winner of the award in 2006.
Alli Sheldon took the name James Tiptree Jr for her SF writing as she had seen her mother's extensive writing being downplayed as 'confections by a female author'. Alli's parents were travellers and explorers, trekking across Africa with lots of porters from local communities and documenting their experiences for institutions back in the US. Her mother wrote of the travels and often spoke to community gatherings. But all the while, being a woman meant being indulged rather than appreciated for her talent.
Tiptree's stories steadily worked their way up the SF ladder and he became a respected voice in the genre. But he was always a recluse that nobody could really contact so rumours of his identity were common. Sheldon had worked for the CIA through the war and Tiptree would sometimes mention being involved in security projects as a way of quieting the public's curiosity. It was many years before his identity became known, and a great loss to Sheldon's writing style when it happened.
This biography is deeply moving and written with great sensitivity. It is as captivating as it is moving and I found myself sitting for long sessions of reading until it was finished. Philips' research is extensive and delves into Tiptree's correspondence with many of the greats of SF. Tiptree found letter writing to be a preferred substitute for personal contact, not only to maintain the secret identity, but also because Sheldon was such a conflicted person that friendships and personal relationships were such a minefield for her.
Behind the fiction writing are many years of study over a range of subjects, culminating in a PhD in Psychology. She was also a gifted artist, even as a child illustrating her mother's travel books. Her art is in private collections but her painting was left behind when it became clear it would not take her to the top.
This biography shows us a woman in constant struggle to find a reliable sense of identity and sexuality for herself. Tiptree in his letters often flirted with those he corresponded with, and after her real identity became known she continue to flirt with Ursula Le Guin, who in those years had come out as lesbian. Many of he stories show the same search for surety in matters of sexuality and the place in the world for both women and men.
Her marriage to Tip Sheldon, several years her senior, was long lasting and neither could see a way into a future without each other. She wrote at times of suicide and many years before their death she had written of a suicide pact between them. As Tip's health failed badly, and following many years of depressive illness in her own life, she took both their lives in the early hours.
A memorial literary prize in her memory was set up after her death under the name of Tiptree with an emphasis on works that expand the understanding of gender. However, the manner of the two deaths was controversial and the award was changed to The Otherwise Award, for works that are 'wise to the other' in matters of gender. This book was a winner of the award in 2006.