Category: Books

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Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

The novel is well written, about a group exploring a strange area that doesn’t quite conform o the world’s rules. While their minds aren’t wiped, they are subject to oddness–particularly in their perceptions. It pairs nicely with our strategically unreliable narrator.

Things fall apart very quickly and continue getting worse. The exploration is very well done; it’s not hard to imagine ourselves in the unnamed narrator’s shoes. (That’s one bit of interesting story building: the conscious avoidance of names–of the exploration crew, but also for just about everything. It makes the timelessness and undefined seem strategic…

Anyway, the rest of the trilogy also sounds interesting, so I’ll add them to my library queue.

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The Fireman by Joe Hill

The world ends before our eyes–not in a hazy before time, but as we read. Harper is our viewpoint character, and she’s very engaging. While her love of Mary Poppins may be going a little far, she’s exactly the conscientious neighbor we all want, or person we want to be. She does a good job of being selfless, but not in a fake feeling way.

The disease that’s killing everyone is tragic–and it’s clear that the old world is mostly over. Fortunately, it’s mostly over in a believable way, instead of a YA shortcut to societal dissolution. The limited viewpoint makes what’s obvious (and hidden) not always what an omniscient observer would find obvious, which is nice. Harper finding Harold’s notes is a nice way around their limited perceptions.

It’s also a more rugged tale of survival; the book covers about a year, not a deadly weekend. Old norms fall fast… but after watching our panic over Ebola in the west, it’s not that hard to imagine society failing to overcome the challenges of this much deadlier spore.

I look forward to reading more books by the author, though this story is done enough for me.

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The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper

After a slow start, The Margarets does a great job of showing a plausible future. It has a strong ecological backbone and a quieter but sometimes obvious resistance to everyone-succeeds initiatives. You can almost see the real world spark that kindled the book.

As the book picks up its pace, its never about running gun battles, but it’s very good at making the many forms of conflict engaging. The Margarets are distinct but kin; the differentiation is handled well and didn’t stumble that I noticed.

While it’s sci-fi in setting, it’s much more like a LeGuin novel–the colonies are different takes, but recognizably close to human. The first chapter feels like a misstep–it elevates a very minor storyline that doesn’t fit the rest of the book for two-thirds of its length.

It does a good job of making unusual heroes interesting; I look forward to reading more of her backlog.

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One Jump Ahead by Mark L Van Name

Fast, straightforward and shooty, this is great golden era inspired sci-fi. The gates are alien and weird; the nano-technology is filled with hand waving, but feels limited (particularly by requiring time), while the other technologies feel like reasonable extrapolations–and are completely taken for granted by the locals. The hero is a craft, clandestine survivor–he reminded me a bit of the Stainless Steel Rat.

It’s a fun universe with a lot of “now” aspects carrying forward–Corporations are much like today’s multinationals, just expanded to mutli-planetary. Similarly, despite extensive body modding, gender is basically 20th century, while race has mostly dropped out of description and consideration.

Again, it’s fun and fast–I’ll read the sequels from the library and enthusiastically recommended it to Jennifer.

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Species Imperative by Julie E Czerneda

A followup to Survival: Species Imperative, this is the whole trilogy (Survival, Migration, and Regeneration) all under one cover.

The first book, Survival, I discussed in the linked post above. It’s a solid start to the series, with a seriously out of the norm heroine–capable, but uninterested in space, travel, and foreign to conflict.

The second book (Migration) returns less than a year later; Mac’s back on earth preparing for the next crop of grad students and the next salmon run. But she’s different–impatient to hear about offworld activity now that she’s experienced it. There’s a bit of misdirection, kind of a slow speed evasion that’s interesting–and we meet 14, who’s a very interesting character.

That said, this book is slower–in part because it’s the middle book of a trilogy, but also because the second half of the book is basically a scientific conference. It’s interesting to read, but it’s not action packed–it’s definitely something that’d get butchered in a movie, cut down to a series of speech snippets, instead of feeling like an academic conference.

The last book (Regeneration) begins on a tenser note, but that quickly bleeds away. (The excitement has passed over to Nick, but we only get erratic updates on that front.) In the second half of the last book, the aliens are all revealed as truly alien, a scientist and Mac together discover a secret that reveals a new future for the Dhryn, war almost breaks out… it’s a tense end. Still no light sabers or running gunfights–it’s true to a science centered investigation.

Definitely a different approach than most SF&F, treating the science part with honesty as sometimes grindy and never as exciting as a space battle.

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The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Such a good book, so well written.

The book touches a number of tough topics. Baru is a deviant (at least in the society she chooses), exploited talent in a colonial system, a skilled administrator and accountant–and how easy is it to make accounting sound interesting?

At the heart of it is Baru, who is very engagingly written and someone I was interested in seeing both what she chose to do, and what she’d pay doing it.

The author does a great job of making her viewpoint consistent and engaging; I was a huge fan of Baru, even as a child in a terrible system. The empire she serves feels like a well established empire, successful at recruiting and converting at least some locals to support the system.

It’s engaging and well written; while there is strong closure, I can also imagine a sequel. Whichever way it goes, I’ll pay attention to Seth Dickinson going forward.

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The Secrets of Bone and Blood by Rebecca Alexander

A second book where I didn’t read the first previously; it suffered for it.

There are three major characters who went through a big conflict last book, and now its time to beat themselves up about their efforts and miscalculations along the way.

Edward Kelley gets flashback chapters to renaissance Venice, where he’s a fish out of water, taken by the locals, in the crosshairs of the inquisition, and manipulated by the duchess. It’s well written and interested me in renaissance Venetian politics, wondering what created the deep forces that Edward only perceives the edges of.

Felix begins the story in modern New Orleans, where he’s worried about the consequences of blood sorcery (probably used at the highlight of the previous book). It’s a tense investigation of various blood drinking societies… but it never really feels tense or dangerous. It’s interesting, held at a studied distance.

Jack gets the main chapters, along with her “sister” Sadie. It begins with an almost homey inheritance of an English cottage, with the associated work to tame the overgrown garden and clear out the house where the previous owner died. It’s not that simple… but the threat lays quiet throughout the first half.

As a second book, on the heels of the first, it’d probably work better for pacing. As a stand alone, there are well drawn characters spread out and non-interactive, investigating different topics that we assume are linked. Eventually, they gather, and the conflict becomes a lot more direct.

I’ll have to read The Secrets of Life and Death at some point; without it, the book doesn’t inspire a demand to read on into a sequel.

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Survival: Species Imperative #1 by Julie E Czerneda

Mac (Dr. MacKenzie Connor) is one of the last characters that you’d expect to go to space. She’s a dedicated, hands in the earth biologist, who studies salmon in an earth post-diaspora.

Brymn is a Dhryn, an alien who comes to get her help with his people’s struggles. They are set against by mysterious aliens–the Ro–who are long on murder attempts and short on slaughter.

The heart of the story is the Chasm, a stretch of dusty, long abandoned worlds. Disappearances along the Chasm have begun, and the fear that some dark force is active again spurs Mac and Brymn into investigation.

It’s a good story, but clearly incomplete. I’ll check out the whole trilogy, Species Imperative, and see how it is as a greater story.

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The Deed of Paksenarrion reread

I was looking at books to recommend to Jennifer and thought she’d enjoy The Deed of Paksenarrion. A few weeks later, I decided that I must have been craving it for myself, so I reread it.

It’s still very good. It’s interesting, in that each book goes 20% past what you think the conclusion is going to be. Like, book 1 is training, and the first year, which is dramatic–including the awesome return from Dwarfwatch sequence. But the book continues on into season 2, which has a few dramatic scenes–including one where Paks is knocked out and almost dies after fighting priests of Liart. Her calling is clear as she recovers… but the book doesn’t stop there, either. The campaign continues until its end against Siniva… but even there hangs with deeds undone.

The second book begins with dismay at garrisoning cities that… fear their new pirate lord, Alured. That’s brief (a few chapters), followed by a couple of chapters as a caravan guard, followed by a novella long quest alongside Meaceon. Then into Brewersridge for another several chapters–it’s the heart of the book. Then on to Fin Panir, then onto the quest, then onto the bitter consequences. It’s really interesting–it’s five or so discrete and pretty balanced chunks, each with its own tone.

Anyway, it was good to read again. I’ll probably ask for the five book sequel trilogy that follows; I’ve read a few from the library, but think I’d like to have them all.

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The Ballad Of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

A well written, interesting take on Cthulhu’s mythos, with an engaging main character to start–Black Tom. Unfortunately, at the midpoint the book shifts protagonists (due to madness), where it’s somewhat less successful.

The story of New York as its various barely connected cities, each with their own character, was great to read and experience. I had little idea that the city’s boroughs were so stratified; that Harlem was black and cool, yes, but the degree of suspicion and exclusion out on the lines was a solid reminder that less than 100 years ago the world was very different.

Tom is a great hustler, and his POV feels consistent, rich, and full of intriguing detail. His relationship with his father, work, and Lovecraftian mysteries were all interesting. The police officers, on the other hand, are shallow to start-particularly from Tom’s POV, but we’re barely asked to ally with them once the story is theirs.

In the end, I really enjoyed the first half–and some of the details of 1920s life all through.