WWW: Wake - Robert J. Sawyer

After finishing Connie Willis' rather big book All Clear I decided to dive into Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. It will perhaps not come as a surprise to you but I won't be able to finish it in time for a midweek review. To keep you entertained until I finish it an older piece. I wrote this review in April 2009. I rewrote part of the introduction because the original doesn't make sense for this blog. Other than just some polishing. I hope to read the second part in the WWW trilogy sometime in December.

WWW: Wake is the first part in Sawyer’s new WWW trilogy. It was released in April 2009, followed by WWW: Watch two in 2010. The final part, WWW: Wonder, is expected in 2011. This book is my first exposure to Sawyer’s work. One of his novels, Hominids, has been gathering dust on my to read pile for quite a while now. It’s one of those books I intend to read whenever I can fit them into my review schedule. So far I haven’t found an opening but after reading this book I think I may have to make an opening for it soon, WWW: Wake was a very entertaining read.

Fifteen year old Caitlin has been blind from birth. She has a very rare medical condition that affects the link between her eyes and the part of her brain interpreting visual signals. So far no treatment has helped but now a Japanese doctor contacts her with a proposal for an experimental treatment. It involves an implant that will restore the connection between her brain and eyes digitally and hopefully allow her to see. The procedure itself seems to be a failure but soon Caitlin notices some interesting side effects. She can visualize the world wide web.

In the mean time some seemingly unrelated events take place elsewhere on the planet. In China an outbreak of the bird flu is handled by the Chinese government by shutting the country off from the outside word completely and taking some very rigorous containment measures. In a research facility in southern California a Bonobo/Chimpanzee hybrid Hobo, taught to communicate with it’s caretakers by using American Sign Language, shows it is capable of producing representational art. Soon a fierce battle over it’s custody erupts. All of these events are witnessed at some level, by a rising intelligence on the world wide web. It’s struggle to gain awareness is hard, without a physical environment it is a very abstract way of evolving. It is learning fast however and it seems to have found a teacher in Caitlin.

Sawyer has written a pretty fast paced novel with WWW: Wake. Deceptively so in fact. Although it does not slow the story down, he has packed the text with references to developments in information technology, mathematics, physics, linguistics and a number of other fields. He does so without the reader having to understand every detail of the science he describes, the general idea is usually enough, but all this scientific and technical detail does create a second layer into this novel. Parts of the novel read like Oliver Sacks writing science fiction. There is a wealth of references to all manner of technological and scientific ideas and a number of books (including some science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey for one). I’m pretty sure that after this first reading in I missed quite a few too.

By using all of these different ideas Sawyer creates an interesting view on the main theme of the novel, the development of self-awareness. The debate on how intelligent Chimpanzees are for instance, and to which extend they are capable of using language is one that has been going on for quite a while. The researchers in this book are constantly battling disbelief and prejudice, but are also faced by the question of whether what they are seeing is truly intelligent behaviour or just copying an example. What is happening on the web is something of a different nature, a being without a physical component, or at least not aware of the fact is has one, struggling to master concepts that are more mathematical in nature. While Hobo already exhibits complex behaviour the web entity starts from scratch. The contrast between those two is one of the most interesting parts of the novel.

The main part of the novel is devoted to Caitlin. Sawyer obviously put in a lot of effort to try and understand how a person who has never been able to see, experiences the world. Not being blind, I have no idea how accurate it is but it certainly feels convincing. Sawyer doesn’t overdo it though, despite her handicap Caitlin is pretty much what you’d expect of a teenage girl. Apart from a perverse enjoyment of mathematics that is. Seriously, that can’t be healthy. There was one thing that did bother me however, Caitlin’s discovery of her father’s autism. Even without the visual clues that seems to be hard to miss if you live with someone on a day to day basis.

There are plenty of interesting ideas in this book but it is the first in a trilogy. I guess it is not surprising but while the end of the novel is satisfying in a way, it does leave an awful lot of open questions. The main story lines are beginning to converge but the relevance to the story of Caitlin of both Hobo’s story and that of the bird flue outbreak in China is far from clear. WWW: Wake is a very good read but with so many open ends it does feel like the introduction to a much larger story. I guess the wait for the second part in the trilogy, WWW: Watch, begins. Sawyer still has a long way to go on this project but he is certainly off to a good start.

Book Details
Title: WWW: Wake
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Publisher: Ace Books
Pages: 356
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-441-01679-2
First published: 2009

All Clear - Connie Willis

All Clear is the sequel to Willis' novel Blackout, a new work on the Oxford time-travelling historians, which appeared earlier this year. Blackout and All Clear were written as one novel, but the book was split because the story grew beyond what a single hardcover could handle. I enjoyed Blackout a lot but it ended with a huge cliffhanger so a nine months wait to find out how the story ends was a bit on the long side. In my review of Blackout I said I would read another book by Willis in the mean time. I got so far as to buy a copy but I am afraid it is still on the to read stack. Looks like it is going to be a project for next year. I couldn't resist finding out what happened to the characters in Blackout however, so I started All Clear almost as soon as it arrived. All Clear proved to be a satisfying read although the two books combined left me with the feeling that they were a bit longer than the story needed.

All Clear picks up the story where Blackout ended. Our historians come to realize that their drops are not working and that they are trapped in the past. Despite frantic attempts to find one that works, the space-time continuum seems to conspire against them. The characters find themselves in London during the Blitz or in the south-west of England during the preparations for D-day, with V-1 and V-2 rockets descending around them. Not the most comfortable position to be in, even with knowledge of future events. To make matters worse, some of them have a deadline. It is not possible to visit is time you've already been to. If the historian does not make it back to the 2060s before the time of an earlier visit to the past arrives, the continuum will correct itself by killing the historian.

In twenty-first century Oxford, the historians have realized something is seriously wrong and start pulling their people out. When this proves to be impossible for the historians stuck in WWII England other means of rescuing will have to considered. A search for working drop points and the exact location of the missing historians is started. All across the space-time continuum historians are realizing that their understanding of time travel and the impossibility of altering history may not be complete. Perhaps the answer lies in a new way of looking at the historian's role in making history.

All Clear starts pretty much the same way Blackout ended. The characters trapped in the 1940s are running around trying to find a working drop. Where Willis used this to great comical effect in Blackout, in this book their activity slowly turn nightmarish. The first part of this book read likes one of those recurring dreams where you desperately need to be somewhere on time and you just might make it if not one obstacle after another is thrown in your path. Just when the historians conquer one problem and there still seems to be time to get to where they need to go, something else pops up. A development in the book that reaches a climax with Willis' vivid description of the particularly heavy raids on December 29th 1940. An event I consider to be something of a turning point in the novel.

This pair of books was conceived as one novel and at times I did wonder if it should perhaps have fitted in one volume. The crux of the matter is the way the characters view time travel and that their theory might be flawed. Willis takes a long time to have the characters arrive at this conclusion. By the end of Blackout the reader could have the feeling that the problem lies in this imperfect understanding. The characters take about half of All Clear to catch up with the reader in that respect. By the time we reach the breaking point formed by the raids of the 29th, I did feel Willis was taking too much time. I'm not sure if tightening this section would have made it fit into one volume, the two hardcovers have a combined page count that exceeds 1100, but there does seem to be some room to shed a few pages. On the other hand, and this is going to sound like a contradiction, I loved the way the story turns from comical via desperate to a downright nightmare over the course of the first three hundred pages of All Clear. The author handed her editor a pretty problem here. Perhaps they picked the best solution after all.

Like the first volume, this book is absolutely packed with historical facts from the Blitz and the preparation for the invasion of Normandy. The author points out lots of little things that made a difference in the war and that while none of them individually can be said to have won the war, each contributed to tipping the balance. Again the level of details is overwhelming at times, but in this book it is also more important. The characters are mortally afraid of having fatally altered history, examining each little fact that doesn't match with their knowledge of history for discrepancies and possibly the much dreaded proof that history has indeed been changed. The period Willis covers is the subject of libraries full of books but I still believe that there is a lot in these novels for the WWII history fanatics. The book depicts how all-encompassing the British war effort was and what it took the keep the nation on its feet after the evacuation of Dunkirk a very vivid way. It brings the every day life of those days very close, even for someone who is two generations removed from the actual events.

Blackout and All Clear are quite an investment on the part of the reader but despite the nine month wait and perhaps a few pages more than strictly necessary, I thought All Clear was a very rewarding read. The way in which Willis untangles the mess time travel has created and handles the looming paradoxes the historians are always on the verge of creating very well. Whether you will like this book or not really rests on two things. You need to be able to handle a lot of historical detail and cliffhangers shouldn't bother you. Like the previous book, All Clear is full of them. Willis' most ambitious work to date is not a book that will be universally loved. Despite my quibbles with some aspects of this work, I enjoyed it tremendously.

Book Details
Title: All Clear
Author: Connie Willis
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages: 641
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-553-80767-7
First published: 2010

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

In the spring of 2007 my girlfriend won a contest organized by the Elf Fantasy Fair, one of the larger Fantasy oriented events in the Netherlands. The price included a meet and greet with one of guests of honour of our choice. We went over the list and quickly figured out we didn't have a clue who most of these people were. The only name that was vaguely familiar was that of Scott Lynch, who's début was a big hit in the English language world. The Lies of Locke Lamora was doing quite well in Dutch translation too. To make sure I didn't come across as a complete idiot, I quickly ordered the book and it arrived with a week to spare more me to read it. It took me just tree days. The Lies of Locke Lamora proved to be one of the best books I've read in 2007. In think my verdict at the time was that it suffered from a slight overuse of the word 'piss' but that it was otherwise excellent. After this reread my opinion hasn't changed.

The Lies of Locke Lamora is set in the city of Camorr. The city-state of Camorr thrives on trade and is a centre of ruthless mercantilism on the Iron Sea. The city is ruled by an ageing Duke who's ideas on justice are quite hard. Hanging of thieves is a common occurrence and more colourful punishments are frequently meted out as well. To keep crime in his city at an acceptable level, the Duke has made a pact with the leader of Camorr's thieve guild, Capa Barvasi. An agreement that prevents the city's thieves from preying on the nobility in exchange for certain privileges. This tactic has worked very well for the past two decades. There are always some who are not happy with those restrictions however. In recent years the Thorn of Camorr, a mysterious thief thought to be a rumour, has conned several members of the city's nobility out of huge sums of money, relying on sense of honour of the nobility to prevent them from talking. And now he is getting ready for a new confidence game, once again threatening the balance of power in the city.

A second strand of the story is set years earlier. It deals with Locke, a young boy fallen in the hands of a man called the Thiefmaker. This man runs a gang of boys and girls too young to be of use to the other gangs in the city and learns them the tricks of the trade in a rather brutal fashion. Locke proves to be a great actor and thief but he does not usually think beyond the immediate consequences of his acts. This gets him in trouble more than once. When the Thiefmaker finds out Locke is responsible for the deaths of several members of his own gang, there is only one option. The boy has to die. Unless the Thiefmaker can sell him to Father Chains, the man who runs the most peculiar gang of thieves in the city of Camorr.

Scott Lynch has the doubtful honour of being on the list of most anticipated releases of the year in the fantasy genre for several years running now. After the release of Red Seas under Red Skies (2007), the second book in what is planned as a seven book series, it grew very quiet and book three, The Republic of Thieves was postponed again and again. Earlier this year, what I assume to be part of reason for this became apparent when Lynch posted on his Livejournal that he was seeking therapy to deal with the bouts of depression and panic attacks he's been suffering. The contrast with the man I met couldn't be greater. He was in a very good mood that day. Obviously enjoying his time at the Fair, probably slightly bewildered by all the fruitcakes pretending to be elves around him. I certainly hope he'll be able to find that cheerful guy I met in April 2007 again. It looks like The Republic of Thieves will see publication next year, so I am going to try and reread the second book before that time a well.

The Lies of Locke Lamora is one of the strongest débuts I've ever read. Lynch wrote a thoroughly entertaining tale, combining a very interesting fantasy setting with what is essentially a heist story. There is some good action, smart dialogue, a dash of caper and a sympathetic but flawed main character, all worked into an irresistible mix. I suppose it is not the most complex or deep work of fiction I have come across, the book doesn't aspire to that. It is a terribly fun read however, in terms of sheer entertainment value it succeeds gloriously.

What I mostly admire about this book, and what I think raises it above other strong débuts, is the techniques Lynch uses to tell the story. A large part of the novel is written completely out of chronological order. The author weaves two story lines into his tale that are set years apart, the present story line is contained in the regular chapters and the past story line in interludes. Within the chapters he also writes out of chronological order, show us a scene and then going back to how this event came about. It sounds a bit confusing but Lynch manages in such a way that the story is perfectly clear even on a first reading. For an inexperienced author this is quite an achievement. The downside is that Lynch seems to like cliffhangers and awful lot. As a reader, I think it's very easy to overuse this technique and Lynch is constantly in danger of doing so. I must admit it didn't bother me in this novel, I guess the author recognized this danger as well.

The setting Lynch uses is a port city reminiscent of medieval Venice. As with a lot of fantasy, this novel contains quite a few made up words. In this novel, most of them seem to be derived from Spanish and Italian, reinforcing the Mediterranean atmosphere of the city. The author has clearly invested in developing his world. He describes a city with a turbulent history, founded by an ancient race that disappeared long ago but left remnants that cannot be reproduced by the humans that took their place. Lynch leaves all manner of historical and geographical hints that could be used in later books. He doesn't burden the reader with things they don't need to know (yet) but it is clear that he is planning ahead. Something that can also be seen in what is revealed about Locke's past. Lynch is very selective in what he shows the reader in the interludes, hinting at things to come in future books. There is one member of Father Chains' gang that has yet to make an appearance in the series. Someone who clearly has a lot of influence on Locke.

It is clear that Lynch is not done with this setting and these characters but despite this, The Lies of Locke Lamora stands very well on its own. The book is an absolute joy to read. It remains to be seen if Lynch can manage to keep meeting the high standard he set in future books, I have my doubt if this approach will work for seven books, but even if that does not turn out to be the case, this book should absolutely be present in the collection of any fan of the fantasy genre. You'll rarely find an author so in control of the story, with such a feeling of what to tell the reader and when to do it. If you haven't read it already, go find a copy.

Book Details
Title: The Lies of Locke Lamora
Author: Scott Lynch
Publisher: Bantam Books
Pages: 499
Year: 2006
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-553-80467-7
First published: 2006

The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth

Although the most successful period in Pohl's career is probably the late 1970s when he won a number of Nebula and Hugo awards for novels like Gateway and Man Plus, he had already written a lot of other work before then. More than a few of these books were collaborations with other writers and fellow Futurian Cyril M. Kornbluth was one of his regular partners in crime. Kornbluth's career was unfortunately a short one, he died in 1958 at the age of 34. He left behind 10 novels, most of them collaborations with other authors and a bunch of short fiction. For such a short career his output was impressive. Most of it is not that easy to come by though, but The Space Merchants is still available as part of Gollancz' SF Masterwoks series. I've read a number of science fiction novels form the genre's golden age recently and this one is the best by a fair margin.

The Space Merchants is set sometime in the 21st century. An exact date isn't mentioned but an event that took place in 2010 is firmly in the past so I'd place it a few decades from now. The word is vastly overpopulated with unbelievable numbers of people stacked into tiny spaces in the world's big cities. Although resources like oil have practically run out and real meat is a delicacy only availably to the wealthy, science has managed to keep one step ahead of a major food crisis and the world seems to be confident that even in the face of a rapid growth of the population this will remain so. Consuming seems to be the highest possible achievement and large companies throw every trick in the book at their customers to keep them buying their products. Tricky advertising, easy credit, addictive additions to foodstuffs, assassinations of rival company's personal and plain old lying and bribing all seem to be permissible.

But growth has to come from somewhere and it is clear possibilities on earth are limited so one of the leading US companies, Fowler Schocken Associates, as cast its eye to the heavens. Venus is within reach of modern space faring technology and offers a completely unexploited planet ready for the taking. The minor difficulty of the place being a hell hole unable to support a human population without years of terraforming is not going to stop the company from attracting colonists. The man who is going to lead the project, Mitch Courtenay, has got his work cut out for him.

Although some aspects of the book are undeniably dated, knowledge of the true conditions on Venus was scarce in the early 1950s for instance, it is still a highly relevant piece of fiction. I suppose you could say it is a satirical piece, many of Pohl's novels have a slightly satirical tone to them, but it deals with a number of serious environmental problems related to unbridled consumerism and perpetual economic and population growth that still haven't been tackled. In 1950 the world population was about two and half billion people. Right now, and we're not even at the date of the novel yet, we're approaching seven billion. The consequences of this enormous growth are being felt in ways that could very well lead to conditions described in the book. And all this twenty years before the Limits to Growth (1972) report caused a stir with its dire predictions of resource scarcity.

Another shockingly accurate prediction seems to be on the consumption of meat. Already many environmental groups are pointing out that the production of meat is wasteful, taking up food and land that could be used to produce for human consumption as well as being a driving force for large scale deforestation. Soya meat replacements can be found in every supermarket and research into possibilities to "grow" meat more efficiently is being researched. It certainly makes the reader wonder if the scene in which the authors describe Chicken Little (interesting name by the way) is where we are heading with our food production.

It was a great concrete dome, concrete floored. Chicken Little filled most of it. She was a grey-brown, rubbery hemisphere of some fifteen yards in diameter. Dozens of pipes ran into her pulsating flesh. You could see than she was alive.
Herrera said to me: 'All day I walk around her. I see a part growing fast, it looks good and tender, I slice.' His two-handed blade screamed again. This time it shaved off an inch thick Chicken Little steak.
Chapter 9

Sounds appetizing, doesn't it?

Environmental issues are my personal bias however, they are important to the novel but the plot is mostly concerned with Courtney and the ideological change he goes through. The novel opens with a chapter detailing a board meeting of Fowler Schocken Associates, a great introduction of what to expect from the 21st century advertising business. In a slightly over the top scene we are confronted with a group of people seemingly completely oblivious to the consequences of their greed and able to justify just about anything with growing profits. The contrast between how the reader would see this and the absolute faith in the reversal of our values the characters display is comical as well as disturbing. Not everybody agrees with this view though. As Mitch descends on the social ladder and meets the people who are exposed to the products his company tries to sell, his view change drastically. An interesting conversion.

By the standards of its time it was not particularly short but at 186 pages it doesn't waste time making its point. It's quire a fast read.The Space Merchants is one of the few books I have read from the golden age era, where the writing and themes are still relevant and powerful. Although it is clearly over the top at some points, several of the predictions don't seem so unlikely upon closer inspection. A novel that is both entertaining and thought-provoking and one that aged very well. This novel is without a doubt worthy of the term classic. I think I even prefer this book over Pohl's most successful work; Gateway.

Book Details
Title: The Space Mercants
Author: Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 186
Year: 2003
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-575-07528-3
First published: 1953

The Jesus Incident - Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom

In 1966 the novel Destination: Void was published. The story was about an experiment to create artificial intelligence, a crew sent out into space with only two alternatives. Succeed or die. In the late 1970s, Herbert would return to the Destination: Void universe, with a new novel co-authored by Bill Ransom. Herbert rewrote parts of the original novel which he felt were dated, and the new version was published in 1978, slightly before The Jesus Incident. According to Dreamer of Dune, Brian Herbert's biography of his father, the writing of this new novel was not without its challenges though. They based the story on a shorter piece named Songs of a Sentient Flute. When the first draft for the almost completed, copyright issues arose. The planet they set the story on could not be used. With a deadline fast approaching, whole sections of the novel had to be rewritten. As a result the authors were not entirely happy with the final product. It did well enough though. In fact, there would be two sequels.

Ages has past since Voidship Earthling issued his first command after gaining conciousness. You must decide how you will WorShip me. The echoes of this question can still be heard when one of the original creators of Ship is woken again from hybernation. Chaplain/Psychiatrist Raja Lon Flattery finds things quite different from when he went to sleep. The ship has expanded and is supporting a large populations of humans. Or at least, humanoids sufficiently alike Flattery that he could breed with them. They are currently engaged in a desperate attempt to colonize the planet Pandora. Only with employment of a large number of clones, genetically engineered for fast responses, has humanity managed to gain a toe hold on the hostile planet. Nightmarish predators roam what little dry land is available, humanity takes staggering losses to just hold on to what little has been gained. Food shortages, brutal treatment of clones and the high casualty rate ensure that the colony is always on the edge of violence. To make matters worse, Ship has lost patience with the feeble attempts at WorShip that have evolved in the time Flattery was asleep. He is sent out by to rectify the matter. Failure is not an option, Ship will terminate the human race if its demands are not met.

This is a second reading for me. I picked up this copy on a trip to Gothenburg, Sweden in 2005 (a memorable party it was) for 110 Kr. No idea how much that is but thinking back on it, it sounds expensive. I had read a number of his non Dune works at that time and since some of them were pretty hard to come by, bought this copy. It then spend almost a year on the to read stack until I finally read it in the summer of 2006. One of my reactions to this book back then was that I probably should have read Destination: Void first. Having read both now, I guess that reaction was correct. It is possible to read this book without having read Destination: Void, but certainly early on in the story there are a lot of references to to events in the previous book. I also think the reader appreciates the move of Ship to wake up Flattery a bit more. The Jesus Incident has seen publication more recently though, it may not be easy to get your hands on either book.

Herbert did not make a habit of collaborating with other authors. Besides the three books in this trilogy he co-authored only one other novel. Man of Two Worlds (1986), written together with his son Brian. I own a copy of that book but I haven't read it yet. The Jesus Incident reads like a real Frank Herbert novel but in some places the touch of Bill Ransom does appear to shine though. Besides writing novels, Ransom is a poet as well and the poet's view on the world is quite important to this novel. Bits of poetry are scattered throughout the text. There's no telling who wrote what of course, but on the whole the novel seems a bit concerned with images. Not images as a tool to influence others but as a way of better understanding the world. The poet's view is a bit more spiritual than what one would expect in a Frank Herbert novel but definitely worth paying attention to.

Thematically this book is linked to just about everything Herbert has written before. Pandora is just as demanding an environment as Arrakis or Dosadi, driving the inhabitants to extreme adaptations, both psychologically and physiologically. The ecological component of this problem doesn't receive a lot of attention though. Understanding of the environment is minimal and Morgan Oakes, the man currently in charge of the colony, is not about to waste any more resources on researching it. Even the hints that the kelp that inhabits much of the planet's oceans may be sentient does not change that. It is a pest to be eradicated, not an object of study. The repercussions of this decision are hinted at in the final part of the novel, where Pandora or the kelp take on Gaia-like qualities. The fate of this creature and it's control of Pandora's environment is vital to the plot of the second book, The Lazarus Effect, but I felt they didn't really receive the attention this issue warranted. Perhaps one of the elements that suffered from a rushed rewriting.

As the title suggests, religion is another major theme in the book. Or religious violence to be more precise. Hali, one of medical staff on board Ship, is shown the crucifixion of Jesus. The scene itself is pretty much what what one would expect, although from a far future perspective it makes less sense than it would through our eyes. The interpretation is what matters though. Ship is trying to teach Hali something of human behaviour. The kind of cruelty religion can inspire people to. To drive this home the actual scene is, how shall I put it... quite direct, not overly dramatic or tragic. Hali is mostly trying to stop herself from interfering, something Ship tells her, will have dire consequences, and wondering why this act of cruelty is necessary. It's definitely one of the more interesting scenes in the book and another expression of a theme found in his other books, Dune in particular.

The third major thematic link with Herbert's other work is the way he tackles leadership. In this book two very different personalities go up against each other. There is no way Flattery and Oakes are going to be able to coexist. Ship is steering towards a confrontation and expects the fallout of this conflict to carry the seeds of humanity's salvation. The leaders in most of Herbert's works often feel themselves at the mercy of an unruly universe but rarely are they so openly manipulated by another intelligence as in this book. Without giving too much away, the final confrontation between the two doesn't turn out like one would expect.

The Jesus Incident is a curious book. It is clearly a little rough around the edges, not quite as good as it might have been. On the other hand, it is a book that contains a lot of ideas that are key to Herbert's writing. Apart from the works in the Dune universe this book is probably the most ambitious project in his oeuvre. It is clearly recognizable as a novel by Herbert but the collaboration with Ransom does steer a number of familiar themes in a different direction. This new angle makes it a very interesting read. It's a shame the two didn't get the opportunity to do the rewriting in less of a hurry. I think it could have been a marvellous book then. As it is, it's a very interesting piece in Herbert's bibliography and certainly hints at much more. It'll be interesting to see if The Lazarus Effect is a bit more polished.

Book Details
Title: The Jesus Incident
Author: Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 405
Year: 2000
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 1-85798-945-7
First published: 1979

All the Windwracked Stars - Elizabeth Bear

This week has been a very demanding week so I am a little behind schedule on my current reading project. I may finish it this evening but I don't know if I will be able to write the review tomorrow. Even if I do I will probably run into more scheduling problems next week so I decided to throw on an older review. The original was written in October 2008. I meant to move this anyway, in anticipation of the final part in this series, The Sea Thy Mistress, scheduled for spring 2011. A review of the second book in the series, By the Mountain Bound, can be found here. I've had to rewrite the introduction since it didn't make sense in the Random Comments setting. Other than that I only eliminated the most embarrassing typos.

All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear is the first of three books in the Edda of Burdens series. Bear has been quite prolific in the past few years. She is perhaps best know for her ambitious Promethean Age novels, the fourth of which appeared in 2008. As far as I know, the fifth instalment has not been scheduled (yet). She’s written a number of other novels as well, ranging across the fantasy and science fiction genres, creating an impressive body of work for someone who's career didn't really take of until five or six years ago. Although I have read the first Promethean Age novel, Blood and Iron, since reading this book in 2008, All the Windwracked Stars, was the first novel by Bear I've read. Until that point my only experience with her writing was one short story in the Wastelands anthology, edited by John Joseph Adams. I didn’t think the story in Wastelands stood out in that particular company but All the Windwracked Stars turned out to be a very interesting book indeed.

The story is set in a world that borrows heavily from Norse mythology. As such, it opens at the end of the world, or Ragnarök. Our main character is Muire, a Waelcyrge (or Valkyrie) and destined to fight for the forces of Light at the end of the world. Muire is not the warrior type however, as her people fall, sworn to fight till the bitter end, her courage breaks and she runs. Wounded, her powers diminished, she walks the battlefield after the end, finally finding the last surviving Valraven Kasimir. His rider was killed in battle and he himself is badly wounded. A Valraven is no simple steed, he chooses to serve his riders. And he chooses Muire. Together they decide to live.

More than two thousand years on a new civilization has risen and is about to meet it’s own apocalypse. Pollution, chemical and biological warfare and all manner of disasters have reduced the world to a wasteland. One city manages to survive, using a mixture of technology and rune lore. In the middle of all that despair Muire is still clinging to life. Then an old acquaintance makes an appearance. Minegan, the Grey Wolf, the Sun-eater. Mingan has seen many things end, he hopes to make this one his last Ragnarök. Despite all she has been through, Muire begs to differ.

All the Windwracked Stars is a very hard book the categorize. It contains elements of high fantasy, steampunk and post apocalyptic fiction, creating a very unusual blend of the three. I guess you could say it takes a while for the reader to get a feel for the world and enough elements of the story to fall into place for the readers to get an idea of where Bear is taking the story. It makes the beginning of the book a bit confusing. Bear’s prose contributes to that to an extent. Although I liked the style of writing it doesn leave a lot of gaps for the reader to fill in. It makes All the Windwracked Stars a book that demands the reader’s full attention.

Paying full attention is rewarding though. Bear manages to create a fascinating character in Muire. One who carries the burden of guilt. A woman possessing the wisdom of a very long life, but also one who lives in a word she isn’t truly part of. Muire is continually fighting the urge to accept the inevitable and give up but somehow manages to find the courage to go on. Muire is far from the only well drawn character too. Although many would express a preference for Mingan, I liked Cathoair in particular. The way Bear manages to make combine in his damaged soul, the young and slightly naive fellow who thinks sex is a fix for many of his problems and a hint of the ancient reincarnated Waelcyrge Muire sees in him.

These characters move in a world that is every bit as desperate as they are. A city in a wasteland using ever more draconian measures to survive. To the point where the question whether survival using these means is actually desirable. It is the key question the characters will have to answer and it certainly isn’t an easy one. Although the setting of the book, and especially the interesting blend between technology and magic, leaves a lot of questions unanswered, the book itself doesn’t leave the reader hanging on a cliffhanger. It’s a satisfying end to an interesting novel.

It took me a while to grow into this book but nearing the end I realized this was one of the best books I’ve read in 2008. With Bear’s choice of themes it is not a happy tale. Desperation, a sense of loss and a good deal of guilt are present throughout the story. The characters don’t wallow in it however. They get on with their lives no matter what, and provide a measure of hope in the bleak word they inhabit. Norse legend, magic, strange technology and strong characters, I have high expectations of the other books in this series. If Bear keeps up the standard she sets in All the Windwracked Stars it could be a remarkable trilogy. Look beyond the slow beginning, read it start to finish and you will be rewarded.

Book Details
Title: All the Windwracked Stars
Author: Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 368
Year: 2008
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1882-4
First published: 2008

Foundation - Isaac Asimov

I while ago I asked what would be a good place to start reading Asimov. Normally I can figure out a good place to start but this man's output is enormous, even if you don't take all the non-fiction into account. I ended up with Foundation (1951), probably his best known novel and one of the earlier ones. I'm calling it a novel but that is probably not accurate. Foundation itself is a collection of five shorter pieces, four of which appeared in Astounding Magazine between 1942 and 1944. A fifth was added when Foundation appeared in book form. Although the Foundation series was originally a trilogy, Asimov wrote several more books in this setting later in his career and at some point tied up his Robot and Empire series as well, creating a series of more than a dozen novels. A whole bunch more have been added by other authors, creating a vast future history in which, chronologically, Foundation is one of the later books. Having only read one, it all seems like an unholy mess to me. So for now I am just going to stick to this novel.

In de distant future one huge galactic empire rules the planets settled by humanity. For over twelve millennia this empire has brought peace and prosperity to the galaxy but now it has grown old and tired. A brilliant mathematician named Hari Seldon, working in the field of psychohistory, develops a technique to predict large scale sociological and economic events. He soon realizes that the empire is doomed. He considers the empire to be in a spiral of decline that cannot be stopped or slowed and so he sets his mind to the time after the empire's collapse. A time when the empire will be fragmented, incapable of maintaining its scientific and technological infrastructure. A time of violence and barbarism is inevitable but Seldon sees ways to radically shorten this new dark age. He creates the Foundation.

I guess it is very much a Golden Age novel. It's short and to the point, there is not a woman in sight, lots of people seem to be addicted to tobacco and the writing is not the main attraction of the novel. That last point in particular struck me when I read the first pages. His prose has been called functional, sparse or unadorned, in some places those are very generous descriptions. To me it feels like he did one round of quick editing and that was it. Especially the relatively rare scenes that do not rely on dialogue are often rambling. On the other hand it is this reliance on dialogue that made the book age more gracefully than some of its contemporaries. There are very few descriptions of what the future actually looks like, and therefore few things that appear dated to us. Given the fact that the first story of this collection is almost seventy years old, that is quite an achievement.

Asimov is known as one of the big three of hard science fiction and this novel shows why. There is no doubt in Seldon's mind that his mathematical descriptions of society are accurate and that the predictions, very scientifically always expressed in percentages, as reliable as the math indicates. The Foundation is run as a scientific experiment, in which the participants are carefully kept ignorant to avoid influencing the outcome. Asimov even mentions a second Foundation on the other end of the galaxy. I wonder if we'll find out what happens if these two meet, later on in the series.

Science dominates the Foundation to the point where it turns into a religion. I was struck by the similarities between Frank Herbert's Dune series, in which an organisation known as the Bene Gesserit designs religions for specific purposes. It doesn't stop there. Paul Artreides and his son Leto II also have detailed knowledge of the future (acquired through a different mechanism but no less reliable) and try to force humanity on a path that will be the least costly in terms of human suffering. Interesting enough Herbert's final conclusion is that we shouldn't keep all our eggs in one basket but in Asimov's book the dream is to once again unite humanity and create a second empire.

Part of the novel is inspired by Edward Gibbons' The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (first published between 1776 and 1789), one of the first modern historic studies on the subject. In this book Gibbons states that the Roman Empire fell to the barbarians because it's citizens were no longer willing to do the civic duties necessary to maintain the empire. Which I suppose is what happens to the Galactic Empire, even if it does not have to deal with outside stresses such as barbarian invasions. The Empire frays at the edges, its influence every receding towards the centre. At the end of the 175 years covered in the book it is still mentioned as being around, far away from the Foundation and it's home at the fringe of the galaxy.

I finished this novel two days ago and I still haven't quite decided if I actually like it. It was not a boring read by any means but Asimov's style is awfully direct. On top of the general bad habits of Golden Age writers Asimov leaves absolutely no room whatsoever for ambiguity or doubt. He tells you what happens, as long as you follow his reasoning, there is very little room for any input by the reader in the form of interpretation. The most you can do is disagree with him. I guess I wouldn't have minded if Asimov had made the reader work a little harder. The idea is wonderful, I can even see why it stands out among its contemporaries, but to say it is a great novel... no, I wouldn't go that far. Still, I have decided to read the other two books in the original trilogy as well. Let's see if Foundation and Empire requires more effort on my part.

Book Details
Title: Foundation
Author: Isaac Asimov
Publisher: Bantam Spectra
Pages: 244
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-553-80371-6
First published: 1951

Dreadnought - Cherie Priest

Last year Cherie Priest had a big hit with her zombie steampunk novel Boneshaker. It got her award nominations and a deal for several more books in this Clockwork Century setting. Earlier this year the novella, or short novel, Clementine appeared from Subterranean and now Tor has released the second full novel in the series, Dreadnought. Given the success of the previous part, expectations were high. I guess this book is going to get it's share of mixed reviews. Although the setting is the same, Dreadnought is not a direct sequel, some of the characters from Boneshaker make a brief appearance but most of the novel is focussed on a new main character. I guess it can be read independently of the others but you probably get more out of it if you have read Boneshaker at least. It's also quite a different story, with the machine the book is named after, very prominent in the tale. I enjoyed Boneshaker a lot but I still think Dreadnought is the better book.

Vinita 'Mercy' Lynch is a nurse in one of the hospitals where the south tries to patch up its victims from the civil war battlefields. A civil war that has raged for two decades now, with no end in sight. Mercy's husband is a young man from across the border, they'd only been married for a few months when he went north to fight for the Republican side. Now, almost two years later, news arrived that he has died, not at the front line but in one of the prisoner of war camps. That is not the only shock that week that Mercy has to endure. A telegram arrives from the west coast. One sheriff Wilkes sends her a message that her father is seriously hurt and that his life is in danger. He has asked her to come see him in Seattle.

Mercy has not seen her father since she was a little girl and she isn't in the least tempted to undertake the long and dangerous journey to see a man who abandoned her. After talking to one of her patients she changes her mind though. It may be the last chance she'll get after all. Mercy resigns her position and with her savings and severance pay she buys tickets for the first leg of her journey. A trip by dirigible to Chattanooga, far enough from the front lines to be uneventful according to the captain. As it turns out, the war is quite a bit closer than Mercy would like. And her journey is just beginning.

In a way this book is a bit more like Clementine than Boneshaker. In Boneshaker we stayed in and around Seattle, where the war was far away and people mostly worried about their own unusual circumstances. Clementine shows us some more of the US in this alternate 19th century but due to the word limit Priest does not really flesh it out as well as she might have. In Dreadnought she has some more space to show us what is going on in the east. Priest's series is not a traditional alternate history. As far as I know there is no clear point of divergence, the author more or less rearranges some events. Some of the changes include a still independent Texas (informally allied with the Confederacy) and the mentioning of Diesel engines a decade before Rudolf Diesel patented his design. Another interesting detail is the abolition of slavery in most of the southern states during the 1870s. The history as Priest paints it does not strike me as the most realistic scenario, sorting out the differences with our history is still interesting. I suspect that people who know a bit more about the American Civil War era will get even more out of it.

Where Boneshaker had a few sections where the pace of the story dropped a bit, the pace is absolutely unrelenting in this novel. The story unfolds with the speed the Dreadnought itself (it is a nasty piece of war machinery on rails by the way). Once Mercy has boarded, she is in for the ride of her life. Travelling across the continent we get a much better view of the bigger picture, events that are only distant rumour in Boneshaker. The plot is a bit more complex than in the previous novel, with several developments in various parts of North America converging. Boneshaker undeniably has an emotionally powerful plot, with a mother trying to rescue her son, but I have to admit that the story in Dreadnought is more to my taste.

Both earlier tales in the Clockwork Century setting had strong female main characters and Dreadnought follows this example. Mercy is a bit younger than Briar and Maria but like the other two ladies she is definitely the no nonsense type. She does not fear the sight of blood or gunpowder to put it mildly and she has a very interesting bedside manner. One particularly fine example of that is shown in the scene where Mercy helps out at a Salvation Army hospital in exchange for a bed for the night. The contrast with the Salvation Army nurse couldn't be greater. There is one thing about her character that made me wonder though, she hardly takes any time at all to grieve. The late husband is perhaps a bit too much a device to explain why Mercy is out on her own in a time when decent ladies didn't go out unescorted.

One of the few things I didn't like about this book is the way Priest deals with racism. I think Priest is trying a little to hard to keep the racism of the time out of her books. It crops up a number of times but certainly not in the fashion one would expect. Even with slavery abolished, it was so ingrained in society that being black or Chinese or native American, was not a comfortable position to be in. When Priest refers to it, it is always at a distance. Making it a bit more prominent would not have hurt this novel.

Following up on such a successful first book is always challenging. I think Priest delivered an even stronger novel with Dreadnought. It combines the setting, steampunk elements and zombies that made the first novel such a fun read but also manages to expand the reader's view of her alternate history. It's one of those book that will keep you reading just because the excitement of the story never lets up. I liked Boneshaker a lot, I absolutely loved Dreadnought. I can't wait for the next Clockwork Century novel, Ganymede, which unfortunately for me, is not expected until the fall of 2011.

Book Details
Title: Dreadnought
Author: Cherie Priest
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 400
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2578-5
First published: 2010

Iron Council - China Miéville

Iron Council is the third book set in Miéville's Bas-Lag world. I read the The first novel, Perdido Street Station some years ago and the second, The Scar, in August during my holiday. Although I thought Perdido Street Station had some problems, I liked The Scar an awful lot so I was very much looking forward to this third book. These books may share a world, Iron Council is not a sequel to either The Scar or Perdido Street Station. Miéville mentions events in Perdido Street Station, this novel can be read without having read the earlier books. Even if you have, Iron Council will not be what you expect, each of these three books take very different directions. Miéville was clearly not aiming for a standard fantasy trilogy when he wrote these novels.

The city of New Crobuzon is shaking on it's very foundations. War, revolution and riots are keeping the authorities more than occupied and political violence, strikes and other subversives activities are a daily occurrence. Although the mayor is trying to suppress the rumours it is clear that the war with Tesh is not going well. Tales by horribly scarred veterans of battles gone wrong reach all who wish to hear. Never before has the government of New Crobuzon needed so much repression to keep things under control. The city is a powder keg about to explode. A desperate company of renegades leaves the city on a mission to find the legendary Iron Council. The perpetual train, a legend that may bring the city hope. To find it our they must cross an entire continent every bit as strange as the city itself. Strange creatures roam the plains they must cross and even the supernatural is never far away. Reality on this continent is not what the city folks are used to but to rescue their city, they will have to face it.

One of the points I didn't like about Perdido Street Station was Miéville's tendency to use every word in the dictionary to describe the city. Vivid though these descriptions were, they made the book feel a bit overwritten. The Scar, which is mostly set outside New Crobuzon showed a rich vocabulary as well but I didn't think it was nearly so distracting in that book. In Iron Council we get flashes of what Miéville did in Perdido Street Station again, which is one of the reasons it took me a week to read, despite it being the shortest of the three. The story is told by three different narrators, one a dissatisfied revolutionary in New Crobuzon itself, the second a man involved in the original breaking free of the Iron Council and the third is a man who join the former councillor in a bit to find the current location of the train. The breaking free of the council is set years before the other two so the novel is not entirely in chronological order and Miéville takes quite a bit of time make the reader see how these three stories intersect.

The novel may be tough going in places, there are certain aspects of it I very much enjoyed. One of the interesting aspects of this novel is the way in which Miéville's political ideas surface. In fact it is probably the most politically charged of the three. Miéville's no stranger to Marxist political theory and even ran for the House of Commons once for the Social Alliance in 2001. In Iron Council the revolution Miéville describes, bears similarities to what you'd find in left wings movements all over Europe in the 20th century. The strikes, the spreading of illegal newspapers and pamphlets and brutal way in which this movement is being repressed could have been Berlin shortly after the end of the Great War. Dissatisfaction is almost tangible in New Crobuzon.

While a significant part of the novel is set in the city, a large part of Iron Council deals with the exploits of this legendary company. Originally an ambitious plan to build a transcontinental rail road, the Iron Council has developed into a very peculiar society. Cut loose form its corporate masters in the city, it has evolved into a community without a monetary economy, lead by leaders elected by various groups within the community. What New Crobuzon's rebels are talking about, the labourers of the Council have created. Not a situation that can last, years after their initial except the city is still trying to get to them. And besides, isn't it any good revolutionary's duty to spread the revolution?

This part of the story is very much influenced by the western genre. The train, the badlands they are travelling, hostile natives, unruly labourers and boom towns, it is al clearly reminiscent of that genre but Miéville gives it an entirely different twist. Unfortunately this part of the tale also contain a lot of descriptive passages. Miéville's vivid world is one of his strength but personally I feel he tends to overdo it. The scenes on the open spaces of the continent and the supernatural creatures they encounter were almost too strange at times, providing an imaginary overload to the reader, that for me at least, was hard to process.

I suppose you could say Iron Council, while thematically wildly different, shares certain traits with both of the previous books. I didn't think it was a great match though. There were certain aspects of the story I enjoyed but as a novel I didn't think it works quite as well as The Scar or even Perdido Street Station. A wildly inventive climax of the story is not really enough to overcome the feeling that the surreal, somewhat chaotic scenes in New Crobuzon's hinterland and the revolutionary activity in the city had real problems fitting into one story. Although Iron Council is an interesting work I didn't like it as much as The Scar. That being said, the Bas-Lag novels are a fascinating attempt to send the fantasy genre in new directions and as such, all three are very much worth reading.

Book Details
Title: Iron Council
Author: China Miéville
Publisher: MacMillan
Pages: 471
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0-333-98973-2
First published: 2004

More tinkering

Trying out some new designs today so you may see some changes. I kinda like this template but I think it may need some more tinkering. As always this is a good reminder of how much of a computer illiterate I really am ;)

I finally made some decent pages for the review index and links/blogroll pages (if you want on let me know, I am going to be changing the content of that page this weekend anyway).