Hodgepodge

A disappointing issue with two exceptions:

Broken Windchimes by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is a novella about a singer who leaves a life of perfection and discovers a whole new world of music. Touching, with a twist of irony. Rusch rarely writes a poor story and this is no exception.

Soulmates by Mike Resnick and Lezli Robyn is a tale of a human befriending a robot and both of them growing out of the experience. Mike writes these kinds of story with insight and feeling that is not often seen in short fiction. If you see his name on the cover of an anthology or magazine - buy it. His writing is always excellent.

Corrected to add Lezli's name to Soulmates. I overlooked her name in the credit. My deepest apologies to Lezli and thank to Mike Resnick for pointing it out.

A typical issue with only three stories worth mentioning:

Michael Flynn's novella Where the Winds Are All Asleep has a very Journey to the Center of the Earth feel to it and is exciting to the conclusion where it falls it a little flat.

The Autumn of the Empire by Jerry Oltion is a short that looks at what happens when the Emperor is always right on a planetary scale in a humorous way.

The real gem is Shallow Copy by Jesse L. Watson. It is a novelette that looks at what responsibility we have when creating an A.I. from both sides of the equation. IT is wonderfully written and conveys a great depth of emotion and is very thought provoking. Definitely going on the Hugo list.

The other highlight is Stan Schmidt's editorial on blindly following what today's technology tells us.

TITLE Denver Is Missing
AUTHOR D. F. Jones
PUBLISHER Berkley –mass market paperback -256pp
COPYRIGHT 1971
PRINTING 1974

Written in the era of great disaster films such as The Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno and Earthquake, this book could have been made into such a film with one exception – it focuses more on the four main characters than the disaster.

 

The event that underlies the story is the release of huge volumes of nitrogen when a expedition to penetrate the earth’s mantle succeeds. He release is not a onetime event, however, as the nitrogen continues to spew causing a great cloud to drift over the U.S. mainland. While the nitrogen is harmless, in the high concentrations, it actually thins the oxygen to a dangerous level, causing problems for people with breathing or heart problems and eventually worsens to affect any body.

 

The four main characters are:

                Mitch - a geologist who was a key member of the team that released the gas

                Bette – a doctor who is friends with Mitch who is deeply scarred by her experience in Denver

                Bill – The English captain of the sailing yacht Mayfly. He is a friend of Bette who is a very good sailor.

                Karen – the girl friend of Bill who has an interesting past.

 

As things gets bad in Northern California – a tidal wave among other things – Our impromptu band sails south on the Mayfly looking to escape and start over. Things are not good in San Diego so they end up sailing for Australia. The main story deals with this odyssey as well as the inevitable personal relationships that develop in such close quarters.

 

The pace of the novel is steady, and while not quite a page-turner, it kept my interest up. We don’t learn a lot about the characters past but we do get to know how they feel now in a close sense. The Sailing details are solid and exciting at times. What I liked about the novel was that while Jones focuses on the four main characters, he brings the pending disaster back into focus when needed and the description of the aftermath once the geological climax has occurred is well done and believable.

 

Not a must-read novel but if you run across it in a library or used book store it will be worth your time.

Rating       Three Rings of Saturn

TITLE The Stars My Destination

AUTHOR Alfred Bester

PUBLISHER Vintage -Trade paperback -258pp

COPYRIGHT 1956

PRINTING 1996

Considered by some to be Bester's best novel, it is the tale of Gully Foyle, a spacer of no renown who speaks gutter and gets only the lowest jobs on a ship. His life changes drastically when he is marooned for six months as the only survivor of the wreck of the Nomad. The Vorga passes by close enough to hail but it goes on leaving Foyle stranded. He gets so worked up over this he manages to find a way to leave the ship and lands in the asteroid belt where a group of people rescues him but disfigures his face.

The story from here is all about the grudge against the Vorga, and no one holds a grudge like Gully Foyle. He rapes, maims, and murders to find the crew of the ship that left him to die. He becomes the most wanted man in the solar system and poses as a circus master to cover his tracks. In the end, he finds out why he was passed by and even more shocking information.

This is a fantastic story, but it is quite dated, as are many classic science fictions stories of the 40 and 50. I also felt that the character of Gully Foyle is not very well developed and that many of his escapes from certain capture are too contrived to be believable.

There is a quote on the cover that states this is considered by many to be the greatest science fiction novel ever. I dispute that strongly. Several novels by Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov and others wrote much more interesting stories that stand up today. In fact, I would say this isn't near as good a novel as The Demolished Man. The novel is worth reading certainly and I enjoyed it, but it has its flaws.

Rating

TITLE Blood and Iron

AUTHOR Elizabeth Bear

PUBLISHER Roc - mass market paperback - 431pp

COPYRIGHT 2006

PRINTING 2008

This is first in the Promethean Age series. It is a story about the Prometheans - a group of mortal mages - and the fairies. These two forces are at an uneasy peace but that's about to change. The catalyst is the knowledge that a new Merlin is in the world. Merlins only appear every generation or two and they are special - they do not use magic they control it. That power makes them a valuable ally so as you can guess, both sides decide to woo the Merlin.

The story winds through a complex plot that involves werewolves, power struggles within the fae world, and even the minions of hell get involved. The climax takes place in Times Square in front of the mundane world and that will require some clean up.

I have not read many books that deal with the world of the fae and so many of the in jokes and plot lines were not easy for me to get. That combined with the pace of the book in the beginning, made me almost put it down after the first few chapters. I persevered and enjoyed the book somewhat. I felt the book suffered from an identity crisis; it couldn't decide if it was action, fantasy, or romance. In the end it gets sorted out but not clearly.

If you are a fan of this type of fantasy, you will probably like it more than I did. Other wise - I would recommend you pass.

Rating

 

This is a wonderful collection of short stories featuring Scottish detective John Rebus. Rebus is the character Rankin is best known for and the subject of nearly twenty novels.

The dozen stories here range from light mystery to macabre thrillers and all are good. Rebus' character shows many layers in these stories when reflected on as a whole and the reader will discover some things about the venerable detective that aren't revealed in each novel.

My favorites:

The Dean Curse - A thief steals the wrong car and gets blown up. Things are not as random as they may seem in this cold tale.

Being Frank - A lighter tale about misunderstanding and instinct. One of the couple of non-murder plots.

Sunday - What John Rebus does on his day off with the night before being the catch.

Auld Lang Syne - A compelling story that shows Rebus' fallible side.

If you are a fan of Inspector Rebus you should read this. If you haven't discovered the somewhat depressing detective, read this and you will want to read the novels. Every story is good, something I rarely find in a collection.

Not scifi/fantasy but 4 rings of Saturn nonetheless

 

This is a thriller from page one. The small town of Tyler near Washington D.C. is ground zero for a canine virus that is driving the family pet into a killing frenzy. Tessa is an ex-FBI agent who is a recent widow. Her late husband was an Arab from Tunisia which was a big problem with the bureau. Mix in small town politics and fervor, FEMA ineptitude and a terrorism connection and you have a page turner that you will not want to put down.

Kress develops the characters just enough to make them interesting but not so much as to bog down the story. At times some things are a little hard to piece together but in the end she wraps it up neatly and the twist at the very end caught me by surprise.

Once you read this you will look at fido in a different light I'll wager. A solid effort from a great writer.

Four rings of Saturn.

 

I just posted my review on Goodreads for Hugo nominated Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi.

Just added the following review to the website:

Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker - This is third in the Company series and features Mendoza in the Los Angeles of the Gold Rush.

Three new book reviews up on the website

Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold - A collection of novellas in the Vorkosigan universe.
Superluminal by Tony Daniels - A tale set a milennia in the future about civil was in space
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - A story right out the headlines of today's fear induced security and the consequences of it.

Enjoy and let me know if you prefer the more conventional format I am now using.

Hi all,

Two new book reviews up on the website:

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold - another in the Vorkosigan saga
Three Days to Never by Tim Powers

Enjoy!

Two new additions-

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
Phoenix Without Ashes by Edward Bryant and Harlan Ellison

Just posted two new reviews to the website:

Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold - Part of the Vorkosigan series
Metal Swarm by Kevin J. Anderson - Book 6 of the 7 part Saga of the Seven Suns series

It has been a while, but here are three new book reviews for your reading pleasure:

A Feast for Crows by George R.R.Martin - Fourth and most recent of The Song of Ice and Fire saga
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold - The first chronologically in the Vorkosigan saga
Star Fish by Peter Watts - A deep sea hard science fiction story

Enjoy and check out the main Bosswriter page for some new tweaks.

I just posted two new book reviews on the website:

The Sharing Knife - Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is the second in the series.

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag by Robert A. Heinlein. An old collection of 5 shorts and one novella.

I also made a few changes to the regular Bosswriter page.

Enjoy!

The latest review is up - A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin.
This is the third in the Song of Ice and Fire series and you should be reading this series!
Enjoy!

I just posted three new reviews on the site:

The Other Side of the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke - an oldie but goodie
The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove - Part of the Crosstime Traffic series
One Jump Ahead by Mark L. Van Name - a first effort by another Baen author

How is it that I have so much review goodness at once? The Clarke I finished just before we went to the farm, the Turtledove was a free Tor ebook that I finished while on the road, and the Van Name book was so much fun I finished on the way home from the farm. It will be a while though before the next one goes up - I'm reading A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin and it is an 1100 page tome that will be a slog. A fun one though!

Just put up my review of George R. R. Martin's second installment in the Song of Ice and Fire series.

The review is here.

Most of you know that I post book reviews on my website of whatever I am reading, but I have never done a review of a magazine. Why now you may ask? Because F&SF posted on their blog that they would send out a free copy of this issue to a limited number of bloggers on the condition that they read it, and blog it.

I have read all three of the "BIG 3" scifi magazines in the past (Analog and Asimov's being the other two) and enjoy all three. The editorial differences mean that each one has a different flavor. I have also submitted short stories to all three with no success - yet. For an odd reason I had the issue sent to the farm address so I didn't get it until this weekend so on the way home I read it and here is my review.

( Click here to read the review.. )

 

I just finished the last of the five novels and here are my comments:

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon - A well written, often funny novel that is basically a murder mystery with a slight alternate history twist. To me, the alternate history angle is not strong enough to qualify it Hugo worthy. I know that alt history is a sub genre of sci-fi/fantasy but not all should be.

For example, Eric Flint has written two excellent alternate history novels: 1812 - the Rivers of War and 1824 - The Arkansas War. In this series he took one event, Sam Houston doesn't die in the War of 1812, and he uses it to paint a different picture of the scope of America's relations with the Native American Indians. Both are terrific stories and I recommend them highly (my review of 1824 is here). But there is no scifi or fantasy element at all to them and as such I would never nominate or vote for them as Hugo novels. On the other hand consider the 1632 series, also by Eric Flint (with various collaborators). In those books the alternate history is in your face - a chunk of W. Virgina is sliced out by unknown forces and plopped down in the middle of Germany during the Thirty Years war. That is definitely scifi/fantasy and would be worthy of Hugo consideration.

This is unfortunately (IMHO) why the small base of people nominating and voting on Hugo's has become an issue.

Brasyl by Ian MacDonald - I could not get into this story at all. It is filled with cultural references and hip language and tech, but the plot was razor thin and the characters were uninteresting. I guess I am a classicist when it comes to novels; I like a good plot with developed characters and good pacing. This story failed in all three IMHO. I could not even finish it which for me is rare.

Halting State by Charles Stross - Very similar to Brasyl in that the story, characters and pacing were not there. Again, lots of tech talk and web 2.0 references but not much story for me. Another unfinishable book. It was another Accelerando and while that won a Hugo I hated it.

Rollback by Robert Sawyer - Excellent story of a man who is able to undergo rejuvenation and carry on his wife's work and the issues that surround such a profound change. This is classic Bob Sawyer; taut story, excellent characters and well paced. He has a flair for this kind of story-telling and I hope he keeps writing these kinds of books for a long time.

The Last Colony by John Scalzi - The third book in the Old Man's War universe, and in many ways wraps up the story from the first book. I enjoyed the first two and this did not let me down. Humor, action, good characters and fast paced. A solid author and deserving of a Hugo.

Who am I voting for? I have narrowed it down to Rollback and The Last Colony but still can't decide. The favorite from what I can tell is Yiddish but hopefully Rollback or Last Colony can take the prize.

The review for Yiddish is here. Rollback and Last Colony I read before I started doing reviews, and I didn't think it was fair to do a review on the other two since I did not finish them.

Feel free to sound off.