Posts Tagged ‘action’
Particle Horizon, by Selso Xisto
Posted on: June 30, 2012
Particle Horizon, by Selso Xisto
published in 2012
where I got it: received copy from the author
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How deep into the foundations of the universe can we truly observe? What will we see when we get there? Famous researcher Dr. Baghdarasian has made learning those secrets his life’s work. The phrase “particle horizon” refers to how far we can see with a microscope.
As the story opens, we get some minimal background about the current state of humanity. With Earth as the center of our civilization, we’ve colonized planets and moons all over the place, even hollowed out a handful of asteroids and very small moons. Once outside the solar system, humanity is generally split into two psuedo Empires: the Union which follows a strictly atheistic culture and has no room for any type of religious faith; and the Alliance, a very religious culture with no room for any kind of doubt in their deity and priests. The two cultures are polar opposites with no space for anything inbetween, so of course there is a lot of tension between them, not to mention the pressures their citizens are under to conform.
The space navies of both cultures have converged on the hollowed out asteroid of Angelhaven, where a battalion of Alliance Lightbringer troops have attacked the main city. Angelhaven is also the home of Dr. Baghdrasarian and his android daughter Una. Una was designed with what amounts to a quantum computer for a brain, and until now she’s never really paid attention to the numbers she’s been crunching. Her father has discovered something amazing. Something that could change the course of humanity’s future, and both the Alliance priesthood and the Union governments desperately want to get their hands on it, or on Una, who stores the secret deep in her mind.
Arctic Risi
ng, by Tobias Buckell
Published in 2012
Where I got it: borrowed
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Anika Duncan was just doing her job. As an airship pilot for the United Nations Polar Guard, her job is to watch the waters. For drugs, human trafficking, and radioactive material. In the not too far future, the ice has started to melt, the Northwest Passage has opened, and floating bergs and barges all the up on the pole act as a loosely conglomerated not-country called Thule.
On a routine mission Anika’s instruments pick up something they shouldn’t. And then her airship is fired on, killing her co-pilot. At first, the government goes all out to find her attackers and find out what they were smuggling, but before long the terrorists disappear and she’s told there was absolutely nothing on their ship. But she knows what she saw on her instruments. On the run and with few friends to help her, Anika heads north in hopes of learning what was on the ship and who her true friends are.
Once the action starts in this eco-thriller, it never stops. Imagine a Bond movie where Bond and the beautiful ass-kicking Bond girl got melded into one character, and you’d have Anika Duncan. As a pilot with the UNPG, she can fly any airship and shoot any gun. She never backs down, and has no idea what she’s gotten herself into. From the islands of Northern Canada and all points north, whoever thought so much could happen in the Arctic Circle?
Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed
published in Feburary 2011
where I got it: the Library*
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I’ve been trying to write this review for two days now, and it just hasn’t been happening.
The only important part of this review is: Read this book now. really. I adored it. Ask my husband, I’ve been talking of nothing else for the last few days.
There is nothing I can say that will do this book justice.
But you know I’ll try.
If Ellen Kushner showed me what effortless writing looked like, then Saladin Ahmed has shown me what truly fully developed characters read like. These characters are so real and so true that I didn’t feel like I was reading them so much as spending a few precious days with them. I feel like I could tell you what Adoulla’s bookshelves look like (cluttered but organized?), like I could describe the look on Raseed’s face when he instantly regrets something he’s said, the sound of Zamia sleeping while in her lion shape. I want to have tea at Yehyeh’s, I want to follow Adoulla through the city as his conflicted feelings force his actions.
Beyond the exquisite characterization, Throne of the Crescent Moon is so deliciously atypical of so much of the fantasy that’s currently available. Yes, it’s a fantasy adventure in a secondary world, and yes there is some magic. But show me another recently written fantasy novel where the hero is a middle aged fat man whose magic stems from phrases and quotations out of a religious prayerbook. Show me a recently written fantasy adventure where the endgame is all about ending up with the person you love, the person who waited for you.
Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon (Burton & Swinburn #3) by Mark Hodder
published in January 2011
where I got it: received review copy from Pyr
why I read it: Highly enjoyed the first two books in the series, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man.
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Shortly after starting this book, I had two predictions. and I was right on both of them.
The year is 1863, but not as it should be. Two decades of unrestrained genetic engineering and eugenics have nearly covered London with the giant hollowed out insects filled with steam powered machinery, foul mouthed messenger birds and fouler breathed messenger dog-things. Sir Richard Francis Burton has always felt an outsider in London, but things are getting out of control, even for him.
After an attempt on his life, Burton is approached by Prime Minister Palmerston to return to Africa. The trip will be publicized as another attempt to find the source of the Nile, but in reality, Palmerston has tasked Burton with finding the African Eyes of the Naga. The Eyes, black diamonds that fell as asteroids, had already been found in Cambodia and South America. Connected to an impossible myth, the shards of the diamonds can retain thoughts impressed upon them. And Burton isn’t the only one searching for the Eyes.
But meanwhile, we have another story line happening. It’s 1914, and in the trenches of a Great War far more horrific that the one in your history books, a man has lost his memory. Befriended by a journalist who recognizes him, the man very slowly regains his memories. What he remembers is even more impossible than the Great War his eyes are showing him.
Artemis, by Philip Palmer – DNF
Posted on: February 5, 2012
Artemis, by Philip Palmer
published December 2011
where I got it: purchased new
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This book starts with a bang, that’s for sure. Doctor Artemis McIlvor may be guilty of a few things, but being bashful, shy, or afraid of danger aren’t those things.
Finally published many many generations after her death, Artemis is the thought-diary of it’s title character. Heavily edited and commented upon by the editors, many pages have footnotes that further explain, condense, generalize, and sometimes make fun of the diary entries. I’ve seen this trick played a few times elsewhere, and as expected, it succeeds in the humor department.
And because this is a thought-diary, Artemis’s comments aren’t always in chronological order, sometimes she leaves important details out, she lies, and her ego gets full reign. For example, the story opens in the middle of a prison riot, and only later, after the first betrayal, in fits and starts and asides, do we find out why the riot got started, and what a high IQ augmented human like Artemis was doing in prison anyways. We’re talking flashbacks within flashbacks with in asides within tangents within flashbacks.
I don’t mind flashbacks, I don’t mind violence, or swearing, or completely randomly casual sex in books. I don’t mind inadvertently funny footnotes, I don’t mind augmented/invulnerable humans. Put all those things in a blender with good characters and a compelling storyline, and you just might end up with one of the best science fiction books ever written.
Fenrir, by M.D. Lachlan
Posted on: December 27, 2011
Fenrir, by M.D. Lachlan
Published in Oct 2011
where I got it: library
why I read it: enjoyed the first book in the series, Wolfsangel
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For no good reason, I had a tough time getting into Fenrir. I think I was expecting a similar opening as Wolfsangel had, with Vikings and raids and witches and such, so I was caught off guard by being introduced to so many characters who were clearly, not Vikings. Where were Vali and Feileg, the twin brothers I cried for in Wolfsangel? Where was the beautiful Adisla, whom they both swore to protect? I know my mythological friends are here someplace, for it is their destiny to be reborn, if only to be tortured by the gods again and again and again. Perhaps they were born into Vikings, or perhaps traders from the East, or perhaps Frankish Christians. Hiding Odin and Fenris in Frankish Christians who haven’t a clue what’s going on? That’s just cruel.
Aelis, a minor Frankish princess, is worth her weight in political marriages. And everyone wants Aelis. Helgi, an Eastern Viking Prince of Constantinople wants to maybe marry her, maybe sacrifice her. Her brother, a Parisian Count, opts to keep her, hoping for a better offer. Multiple Viking factions know she’s worth her weight in ransom, so the new name of the game is kidnap Aelis.
Jehan, oh, poor Jehan. Stricken with paralysis and blindness as a youth, he is now a monk, and seen as a living saint. His timing to Paris couldn’t be worse, and he is trapped in the church when the Vikings attack. The Vikings know all about relics, and the worth of the bones of a saint, so suddenly Jehan is also worth quite a bit in ransom, dead or alive. Years from now, I will still pity Jehan.
And then we have Munin and Hugin, the horrific sibling priests of Odin. More on them later.
Reamde, by Neal Stephenson
published Sept 2011
where I got it: library
why I read it: I suffer from Stephensonitis masochism
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It took me a while, but I got through Reamde (a play on words of the ubiquitous readme file that comes with most software), Neal Stephenson’s latest door stopper of a book. This isn’t so much a review as it is a reaction, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
So I don’t have to go thru the plot bits again, please read my first blab on Reamde, found here. Amazon plot blurb can be found here.
A mainstream book review site (Salon? Slate? someone like that) blurbed Reamde as being Stephenson’s most accessible book yet. And it is. No weird futuristic monks or cyberpunk guys with odd names, no generational flashbacks, nothing “weird” or inaccessible on that front. A globe spanning thriller that falls somewhere between a Ludlum style “pick off the bad guys one by one” and a Doctorow-esque “the Chinese gold farmers aren’t the bad guys!” , Reamde is surprisingly normal, or at least normal compared to what I’ve come to expect from Stephenson. It is in a word, it is utterly accessible.
For us Speculative Fiction fans, accessible is the double edged sword of the decade.
the right way to infodump
Posted on: October 3, 2011
About the size of the 4th Harry Potter book, but w/about 300 more pages.
Last weekend I got Neal Stephenson’s Reamde out of the library. It’s been a busy week, so I’m only maybe 300 pages into this 1000+ page monster, but so far? I am LOVING it. A book this long and involved deserves more than just a “review” post.
The gist of the plot so far is Richard owns a software company that runs the biggest MMORPG to hit the interwebs since WoW. His neice, Zula, does some work for his company as well. When Zula’s boyfriend does something incredibly stupid, Zula and stupid (ex)boyfriend find themselves “guests” of the Russian mafia, and “invited” to China. And when I say guest I mean hostage and when I say invited I really mean abducted. You see, a virus has broken out in Richard’s MMO, T’Rain. This is a bad thing because it has compromised some sensitive info belonging to the Russians. They wanna find the hacker who started the virus and kill him. Richard wants to find the hacker and hire him.
All that in only the first 150 pages. I feel like I’m reading the incredible end bit of Cryptonomicon (if you’ve read it, you know what I’m talking about) with the breakneck pace of Zodiac.
Because this is a Stephenson, it is jam packed with detail. And not those boring details about what color someone’s hair or clothing is, but the good kind of details, like how Richard and his buddies built the back story of T’Rain, of how his programmers are geologists who literally built the world up from planetary accretion disks, plate technonics and where volcanoes and gold and ore deposits would naturally occur on an Earth sized planets. How they hired fantasy writers (one of Tolkien-esque quality and the other of well, not) to create their own mythologies and histories of elves and dwarves and such.
And that’s just the beginning of the glorious infodumps.
Zodiac, by Neal Stephenson
Posted on: September 28, 2011
I wrote this review about a year ago for an online ‘zine, figured it couldn’t hurt to repost it here. I’m currently reading Stephenson’s Reamde (posts coming soon! it’s incredible so far!), so when I eventually say “it was sorta like the pace of Zodiac”, people can know what the heck I’m talking about. Never read Stephenson because his books are so damn long and weigh a ton? Zodiac is the perfect place to start, as it’s only a few hundred pages long.
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Zodiac, by Neal Stephenson
originally published in 1988, recently reprinted by Subterranean Press.
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Imagine if you could be a superhero. Save people’s lives, keep families safe, make sure large corporations aren’t taking advantage of the little people, do your part to help the world. Sangamon Taylor, who goes by ST, does that for a living. He isn’t a caped or masked crusader, his landlord is about to evict him, the newspapers affectionately refer to him as an ecoterrorist, and he’s no stranger to spending the night in jail. So much for saving the world. Neal Stephenson’s Zodiac is ST’s first person version of his exploits and adventures, and he can be as obnoxious and volatile as the chemicals he rails against.
ST spends his days trolling Boston Harbor looking for signs of pollution such as oily water or dead or dying animals. Pipes spitting out sludge is a dead give away too. His evenings are spent exposing the corporations responsible for the pollution, usually by cementing the pipes shut and listening for who complains. The media loves him, local law enforcement doesn’t know what to do with him, and the corporate thugs wish he would just move someplace far away. Technically ST is employed by an anti-pollution nonprofit called GEE, and it’s a life saver, as donations to GEE are what keep him fed, clothed, and in parts for his fleet of Zodiacs, the small one person inflatable crafts that get him around the harbor. Under the auspices of GEE, he’s able to hire university interns, and gain access to the university labs and chemical analysis tools.
The local repeat offender for corporate pollution is a large company called Basco, run by the wealthy Pleshy family. When Pleshy senior enters national politics, ST knows there will never be a better time to take down Basco. All he needs now is proof. But when you’re dealing with an ever changing body of water that’s seen 200 plus years of pollution and dumping, finding proof of who is responsible for what can be next to impossible.
Smart but poor, ST knows a super cheap way to see what’s happening in the harbor waters is to dissect the creatures who live there, see what’s in their stomachs and what chemicals have built up in their systems. Friends with everyone, it’s easy for ST to get a few sickly looking lobsters from the nets of the local lobster men. If the insides look like something a lobsterman would eat, all is good. But when a yellow oily pus filled lobster sends an intern crying from the lab, ST knows he’s hit contamination gold.
World House: Restoration, by Guy Adams
published July 2011
where I got it: rec’d review copy from Angry Robot Books
why I read it: really enjoyed the first book in the series, The World House
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There is a box, and through that box is a house. A house that is often entered through violence. It has the power to change all who enter it, and one who enters it will have the power to change the house.
Picking up right where the first book, The World House left off, World House: Restoration offers action, betrayal, some brilliantly put together time paradoxes and a satisfying conclusion.
As I don’t know how many of you have read the first book, I will try to keep the review for the second book as spoiler free as possible.
In the opening scenes of Restoration, most of our favorite characters from the first book find themselves in the train station of the house. Some are ready to go kick some ass, others are thankful for some time to rest. The House itself has promised to help them, and Sophie is so busy bonding with the house that she has no idea what’s going on. The trains will take them where they need to go, when they need to be there. While Miles, Carruthers and Tom head to Florida hoping to run into Alan at an auspicious place, Penelope and Alan watch over Sophie at the station, leaving Ashe has the unsavory quest of going back in time to make sure all the pieces end up in their proper places so this game can play out.
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