Derek
I love Heinlein, and I love Spider Robinson even more, so I really should love this book. It is typical Robinson (essentially, it is Robinson's work, as Heinlein had only left 7 pages of summary, and 15 index cards of notes), filled with dance and jazz and bad puns.The novel starts with a dance scene written as only Spider could ([b:Stardance 1504729 Stardance Spider Robinson http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1336059520s/1504729.jpg 2177257] is the definitive SF dance story). There are a couple of great passages about playing the saxophone (I played alto, and have done the circular-breathing trick, so I understood immediately just how impossible he meant it to be, to perform a 15 minute piece on a baritone sax, using circular breathing).The interminable puns would put some people off, but as far as I care, the only thing better than a good pun is a bad one.The problem with this book is not Robinson's writing, it's just that it's such a bad storyline. It gets to the point where every second chapter, you're waiting to hear “...and that's when disaster struck!”. How are we possibly supposed to suspend our disbelief: “G2 stars don't go nova!” If we were told that G2 stars were known to go nova, but that scientists had thought it shouldn't be possible, then the rest of the plot falls (barely) into place, but he tells us himself that it can't happen, because it hasn't happened - and that's when disaster struck.
I'm amazed - both by the fact that some (many) people consider this book unreadable, and by the fact that I had never heard of this fine Canadian author.Common complaints have concluded that the characters have no depth. I guess if you want character-based stories, this book, and presumably its sequels, are not for you - but then I wonder where you're going to find that in modern fantasy. Fantasy is nearly invariably plot-driven — certainly one of the things that draws me to it — and this tale has one of the most intricate plots I've ever read. The characters are not so much one-dimensional as simply sketched. I fully expect the significant characters to be more fleshed out as the series continues: which is exactly how the characters of people you actually meet develop in your own mind.There's no doubt that it could be difficult to concentrate on the story, especially at the very beginning. The reader is thrown into a world with very few similarities to ours, and it's immediately “sink or swim”. Why are people rioting? What is a warren? How, and why, was the Emperor overthrown? As time goes on, we learn some of the answers, but not all, and anyway - far more questions arise! Where fantasy is frequently a simple good-vs-evil conflict, and we almost always expect Good to triumph, in [b:Gardens of the Moon 55399 Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1) Steven Erikson http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316129563s/55399.jpg 2646042] I count at least 8 different “sides” to conflict, none of whom are wholly good and none wholly evil (excepting the Jaghut Tyrant). For limited periods, and limited objectives, alliances are made, and broken, exactly as happens in our world. I started (and haven't finished) both [a:Robert Jordan 6252 Robert Jordan http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1175475715p2/6252.jpg]'s and [a:Terry Goodkind 3441 Terry Goodkind http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1209913798p2/3441.jpg]'s massive fantasy epics, and got frustrated by both because they had clear objectives — destroy the source of Evil — and at the conclusion of each 1000+ page volume (OK, Goodkind's weren't quite that long), they didn't seem any closer to conclusion. The tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen promise to have much more staying power - precisely because there is no obvious target.
The writing is fine, the plot decent - but after 400+ pages, you'd like to think the characters had accomplished something. I don't understand how a post-apocalyptic society — even one run by an oppressive, anti-scientific, church — which is in continual war with its neighbours, could fail to progress scientifically — at least in the field of war. At least, in [a:George Orwell 3706 George Orwell http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1175614486p2/3706.jpg]'s [b:1984 5470 1984 George Orwell http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312633918s/5470.jpg 153313], the three mega-powers clearly want a stalemate. In this book, America is trying to win its war: how is it not possible that they have at least reinvented the hot-air balloon to provide spotting for artillery?Finally, an American who has made his home in Canada should recognize just how repugnant is the idea that Canadians would willingly become part of America. Wilson doesn't even try to explain how this could come to pass, but that isn't enough! He then places a significant part of the story in Quebec, and there isn't a single French terrorist. Many French Quebecers can't stand the thought of being part of Canada, with language rights. They will never tolerate becoming part of the US with no language rights at all.
I used to love Hogan, and perhaps part of the problem with this book is that it was the book I was reading on my phone when I had nothing else available - so I read it over a period of a month and a half.
Still, it was just not believable. Fine, Americans might, conceivably, in a completely alternate universe, have been convinced to scrimp and conserve because the world's resources are finite - while letting the Eastern world go ahead and consume in a completely American manner. I might be convinced to swallow that. But then to expect me to believe Hogan's propaganda that of course there really isn't any need to conserve - because we can just spend our way out of any problems we cause, flies in the face of reality, common sense, and scientific consensus. Even if you don't think we're going to run out of oil at any time in the near future, it has to happen sometime. To assume we can hand-wave an oil-shortage out of existence by using cheap fusion energy - something that has been researched for 50 years now, and is still no closer to existence - is cheating.
It shouldn't even have been necessary to force me to try to believe all that, because none of it is really germane to the story: it's just a chance for Hogan to spout his “science will cure all ills” claptrap.
Comic book characters with comic book depth. The version I had has a sticker on the front says “Now a major motion picture — Read it before you see it”. Thankfully I got the book from the library and can now save the cost of the movie ticket.
I'm not against comic books, but please don't try to pass one off as a novel when it doesn't even have pictures. These characters have far less dimension than Superman or Spiderman. Its only saving grace is that it's so superficial that it took me very little time to get through the 79 pages I endured before giving up.
Very reminiscent of [a:Philip Pullman 3618 Philip Pullman http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1196023994p2/3618.jpg]'s [b:The Golden Compass 119322 The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1) Philip Pullman http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510AEGjZ9yL.SL75.jpg 1536771], but without the anti-theism. Unfortunately, a little too juvenile even for my taste.
I can understand that some would give up after the first couple of pages — it's a pretty weird, possibly juvenile, introduction to the story.But it turns out to be surprisingly similar to the last book I read, [b:Zendegi 7029563 Zendegi Greg Egan http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1284380988s/7029563.jpg 7277378]: a well-thought-out investigation into what it means to be human. Zendegi asked the question, “what can you remove from a human, and have the result still be human. [b:The Gone-Away World 7125178 The Gone-Away World Nick Harkaway http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267262594s/7125178.jpg 3038235] asks “If you start with something undeniably non-human, what does it take to make it human?”.Along the way, Harkaway points out how corporate mentality strips one's humanity — and why it's inevitable.Recently I got into an argument about The Road, when somebody told me “It is a great book because it's literature” — a self-fulfilling prophecy if I ever saw one — and that literature and popular fiction are different things. Well, this book is clearly intended to be “popular”, yet by the definition given in that thread, it must be literature. I just call it a darn good read.
When Greg Egan is good, he's great, and this one is a keeper.
Intertwining a perfectly believable near-term future of Iran with highly realistic experimentation into artificial intelligence, it covers human (and AI) rights, life extension, ancient Farsi stories, virtual realities and what it means to be a family; blending it all seamlessly into a touching narrative.
As a computer geek, I'm always eager to read stories about artificial intelligence, and naturally have a pretty high threshold of believability for the subject. This story, and especially the ending, has my belief from start to finish.
The novel is labelled as “Young Adult”, but I'd consider it simply “easy reading” (or does YA just mean “no sex” these days?)The ending was a little too much like the end of the Will Smith I Am Legend movie for my taste. Otherwise I found it quite enjoyable, and read it in one sitting.It's a fairly typical “[b:Lord of the Flies 7624 Lord of the Flies William Golding http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VaoqPM%2BUL.SL75.jpg 2766512]” scenario, where we can expect civilization to crumble particularly quickly when only the very young survive the apocalypse, but Aguirre rather ruins this with her afterword in which she quotes a number of highly speculative websites - and one scientific paper which used popular media as a source for data on modelling a zombie outbreak! My advice, just don't read the afterword - there's nothing wrong with most of the story without the pseudo-scientific background.
Not a mystery, as such, because you know “whodunnit” almost immediately, and not a thriller or even much of a crime novel, despite the fact that it's the tenth of a series about Inspector Konrad Sejer.
This is really a novel about what happens to relationships when they are placed under extreme stress, and it does that very well.
Still, I'm a bit miffed that the only actual killing in the book remains unsolved...
This was [a:Kevin D. Mitnick 10953 Kevin D. Mitnick http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1311855926p2/10953.jpg]'s “get even” book. The sole reason for writing it seems to have been to name everybody who ever did him a bad turn. The hacking, and particularly the social engineering, is fascinating, but the character is a louse. He seems to think that just because he didn't intend to make a profit from his hacking, he should be treated as innocent. I'm sorry: like many smart people who go to jail, he spent a good bit of his time learning the law. He knew when he was hacking exactly what laws he was breaking and what the penalties could be. If there hadn't been penalties, he probably wouldn't have found the hacking interesting enough. So don't expect sympathy from us when you finally got caught, and don't expect us to agree with you when your co-conspirators turn out to be spying on your for the FBI.
A novel concept, in my experience, but the writing just isn't that interesting. After the apocalypse, remaining scientists find a way to genetically remove all emotions from humanity except fear. Almost 500 years later, a few people find a way to restore those emotions. I can understand that a massive influx of previously unknown emotions could drive a person to catatonia, and even someone who was functional might prefer their previous state, but I'd really like a little character development before somebody goes off and does something stupid! They've been given emotions and even if, as more than one character says, that interferes with rational thinking, that doesn't mean they've become stupid!
Kress's short stories are outstanding. I own one or two of her novels, and they don't do much for me, but I'll walk a mile for her short stories, and this one is as good as they come.
From the effects of cheap energy and nano-engineering on society (covered differently in two stories) to the (or at least “a”) logical conclusion of easy embryo implantation, her stories are often frightening (though not “horror”) visions of potential futures, and always thought provoking.
Every story comes with an afterword, and after one she says that she felt she hadn't done it justice because it should have been a novel. I beg to differ - these stories all work at the length they are.
A good story, if a little hard to swallow, but really, we've read this before.If you want to read about a man unfairly convicted and sentenced to hard labour for political differences with the ruling elite, then set “free” to investigate crimes against the same people who jailed him in the first place, while all along he's sympathizing with the downtrodden people cast out of his peoples' paradise, read [b:The Skull Mantra 716534 The Skull Mantra (Inspector Shan, #1) Eliot Pattison http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312011713s/716534.jpg 702786] and it's sequels. The only real difference here is that we are in a post-apocalyptic America, rather than a post-invasion Tibet.On top of the fact that Pattison is reusing old plots, there's the whole issue of how — only a generation after the war that's blasted America back to the early Industrial age — two communities a hundred miles or so apart can find the resources for one to be able to invade the other.
I was absolutely stunned. I love Niven and Pournelle, and when they get into a threesome it usually works too.
I can't give this book an honest review because I gave up about 10 pages in. It was terrible!.
First, this was written in 2002, still believing that we're going to be going into another Ice age. Yeah, I've always known Pournelle was an unbeliever, but most scientists haven't believed that for over 20 years. It's true that naturally the Earth is in a cooling cycle - but we've been pumping out the greenhouse gases long enough to stall it indefinitely. Early on, a character laments that we'd had the technology to stop it. Well, duh!
But the straw that broke the camel's back was the completely silly idea that reading Science Fiction could get you blacklisted. Sure, we SF fans don't get no respect, but something has to matter before anybody would do something so drastic, and their premise was that SF wasn't considered real writing.
Are Niven & Pournelle running an author factory these days? This bears no resemblance to any of the great books they've written independently or together.
Not, imo, anywhere close to his best. It dragged, and dragged, and ultimately reminded me far too much of [b:Moby-Dick or, The Whale 153747 Moby-Dick or, The Whale Herman Melville http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309376917s/153747.jpg 2409320] - and not actually because of the “avanc” (“Godwhale”) they hunt. It's an extended ocean hunt with no resolution at the end. I'm not letting this stop me from jumping right into [b:Embassytown 9265453 Embassytown China Miéville http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518ITSFEWDL.SL75.jpg 14146240], which I'm already enjoying far more.