Ancients of Days / Paul McAuley

Ancients of Days
by Paul McAuley
Confluence (2)

science fiction

copyright 1998
read in August 2014

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

Book one, Confluence, introduced a far-future world with a fascinating mix of scientific wonders and primitive lifestyle. It ended with the hero's escape to a sanctuary of hoped-for knowledge.

Ancients of Days continues the story with more exploration of the world and its history. It drags so badly that I was longing to reach the end. Unfortunately the book ended but the story did not.

Book two is not a story on the way to an exciting conclusion. It is a chapter with no conclusion. Book one could be read on its own. Book two is really book two part one.

Then there's the drag factor...

I was a third of the way through the book when I thought, will anything ever happen ?! Oh yes, there was action aplenty. But the action did not seem to be developing the plot. He did this, he did that, then on to the next action scene.

So I thought, Will nothing significant ever happen ? No sooner thought than the hero thought, It's about time I stopped reacting and did something significant... Then he carried on reacting.

An exploration of his world ? An expose of its history ? All there... but so what. No excitement, no tension, no sense of wonder. Just bald recording of facts.

Is this "traditional" science fiction ? Amazing science in a weak story ? Oh well. Ho hum.

Luckily I have all three books in one volume. No need to pause to absorb book two. Straight on to book three. It is, after all, just the next chapter...

And finally... Will everyone reach the end of book three and live happily ever after ? At the present kill rate, the hero is the only named character likely to survive. And it's possible that he won't be the same person anyway.

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Problems ? Solved

Confluence / Paul McAuley

Confluence
by Paul McAuley
1 of 3

science fiction

copyright 1997
read in August 2014

rated 8/10: really quite good

Confluence starts rather slowly. Then picks up speed. There are sections where the hero thinks deep thoughts -- authorial opinions -- for a page or two. A bit annoying but this world is different enough to need extra background reading.

And it is a different world ! Not amazingly uniquely fascinating... but fascinating enough. By the end of this book I think I understand the structure of this world... But why does it exist ? And what about the rest of the universe ??

The science, however, is unique... Rather, the knowledge of science is unique... within my own reading at least :-)

There is a mix of technology, from spears to ray guns, from horse and cart to antigravity floaters. People can no longer produce the more advanced technology -- but they do not think of it as magic.

Science and technology ability has been lost. Understanding and application remains. There are primitive people but the world civilisation is not -- technologically -- primitive.

The standard magic sword is understood to be an intelligent artifact. The search for parents is understood to be a search for people with a shared pattern of DNA. The spaceship parked by the mercenary market is known to be... a spaceship.

All this allows the hero to immediately embark on a more advanced level of quest. More advanced than in the usual primitive hero in a constructed world story, that is.

Yet the hero still teams up with the cunning yet loyal thief and the strong and impetuous warrior. With the hero -- a likeable trio of adventurers !

Then, at the end of the book, stage one is complete. Yes, it's clearly only the beginning of the quest. Yet it is a satisfactory ending. I could stop reading here and be satisfied.

Yet I do have the next two books.

I enjoyed this first book. I'm looking forward to reading the next.

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Problems ? Solved

Kiteworld / Keith Roberts

Kiteworld
by Keith Roberts

science fiction, early steam punk

copyright 1985
read in August 2014

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

A series of stories provides a series of views of Kiteworld. A series of depressing views provides a confused view of a miserable world.

Okay, it's not the worst book that I've recently read. I started reading The Chalk Giants by the same author, Keith Roberts. That one is either a series of snippets -- not stories -- about one character but jumping round in time and space. Or it's a series of unrelated snippets about several unrelated and unpleasant people... I gave up reading before any of it made any sense.

Kiteworld continues the author's confusing style of writing. He doesn't bother to name his characters. I'm left wondering, who is this ? Is it the character that I met in a previous story ?

Finally... well past halfway through this book... Roberts realises that... perhaps a book needs to reach some sort of conclusion. Several characters appear in more than one chapter. There is a feeling of a plot progressing.

Then there's the revolution.

The two arms of the state church kill and burn and loot. The "Ultras" suddenly appear -- I don't remember them from earlier in the book, perhaps I was asleep. These Ultras are really scary -- so we are told.

Then the not-really-magic plane appears. All the miserable characters from the earlier stories reappear. There's the man who swore revenge so he became a shopkeeper ?! His adopted daughter the thief and procurer. He loved her so much that when she continued her old line of work, he raped her then threw her out of the house.

There's the rich slut. She had finally given in to blackmail and married a rich child molester. Now she's killed him and let the lunatics out of the asylum.

The girl with no mind slept with her brother. When found out, the brother killed himself... Rather that trying to protect the girl that he claimed to love.

This mixed grab bag of killers and rapists and assorted nasties... These are the "innocents" who are saved. To be taken to a mysterious land which we have never heard of before. A land of happiness and light and of it's-not-really-miraculous healing.

Good grief.

Still. After struggling through the start I did manage to read all the way to the end.

Which is more than I can say for The Chalk Giants. So that's a recommendation.

Of sorts.

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Problems ? Solved

Zero Point / Neal Asher

Zero Point
Owner (2)
by Neal Asher

science fiction

copyright 2012
read in August 2014

rated 7/10: well worth reading

Shades of Doc Smith ! Though the science has been updated. Oh, and Doc Smith would have had his heroes across the galaxy by book two...

And that surprised me...

In Owner book one, the goodies escape from an oppressive Earth. Okay, I thought, book two will have them half way to the next star system... Plenty of baddies already on board. Add a few aliens and there's enough material for an entire book. Or two.

But no. We're still in our own Solar System. With an interesting shift in the politics of still-oppressive Earth.

Because that is a major theme of the Owner books... Politics. Well, politics in the broad sense of, what people will do to maintain the personal power that they get through practical application of political ideas.

Book one slathered on the message, rather too thickly. Book two makes its point just as strongly but more subtly.

Each chapter begins with a pointed message -- presented as an extract from a "current" book, or article, or notes from a meeting. These are outside the story so I read them as being separate from the story. They do not intrude.

Remember Heinlein ? Remember the characters who would spend several pages "discussing" the author's political views ? I find that the pointed messages at the start of each chapter are far less intrusive. And just as powerful.

Oh, and I suppose I could say something about the story itself...

A lot of fun !

Action, adventure, mad despot driving the hasn't-really-got-a-chance threat. Superhero laid low by kryptonite but offers just enough support to help clever assistants to survive the morning -- then superhero returns just on time to save the day... Followed by ridiculously over the top effort to save his only surviving relative.

What I mean is: great fun !

Solid science fiction, boys own adventure, adult level violence.

Not so much "what if". More a book of "why not".

I think I'll enjoy the third Owner book. But I wonder if they'll ever get out of the Solar System...

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25may20:  I read it again. Which I didn't realise -- until a gruesome little scene, well into the book. Worth reading again... though I was glad to reach the end. This time round it just didn't match what I was looking for.

I did enjoy the science. Having recently attempted to read a possibly more recent Asher book, this one is ... not realistic... but believable. Still "science fiction"; the other book was mad science that may as well have been fantasy magic.

On this reading I seem more aware of the characters. None of whom are likable. Both hero and villain are -- to my mind -- equally self-centred, self-deluding, up themselves with power. Neither looks for advice. Though the hero does at least pretend to listen. And, at the end, he does feel that he is still somewhat human.

I enjoyed reading it, though less than the first time. At the end I have no urge to seek out book three... but then, I'm now looking for different things in the books that I'm reading.

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Problems ? Solved

Demi-Monde (1): Winter / Rod Rees

Demi-Monde (1): Winter
by Rod Rees

science fiction, chick lit

copyright 2011
read in August 2014

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

A great idea for a world -- all the psychopathic, murderous, power-mad nuts from history, all in one world. I was afraid it could be too nasty for me... but it wasn't.

Demi-Monde is chick lit. Very violent chick lit. Though the violence is muted -- once a character is well-known to the reader, they are very unlikely to die.

Chick lit ? Most of the main good guys are gals... Heroines rather than heroes. Supported by a male who is smart, brave and most importantly -- in love with the heroine.

One hero is so "modern" that he buys clothes for his heroine. Sexy clothes which fit ! Barely ... :-) And the emphasis on what the heroine is wearing -- is a key indicator of chick lit.

It's a lot of fun. Perhaps worth more than six out of ten. But...

The book does not end.

Rather, the book ends but the story does not. Okay, the Winter on the title suggests that there are four books in the series. But really... Does it have to end with so *many* cliff-hangers ?!

Annoying.

Very, very, annoying.

 . . . 

Afterword: I may have been a bit harsh.

I did enjoy this book. I enjoy the chick lit aspects -- I enjoy the softer approach to action and violence.

There was some excellent word-play, mostly on the names of the various groups of people. As an example -- pure word-play: "4telling" is speaking of the future, 3telling is speaking of the present, 2telling of the past... and 1telling is keeping silent. Brilliant !

Since the Demi-Monde is a grab-bag of history's worst haters, racists, xenophobes, misogynists, etc, etc -- there's a lot of casual name-calling. The sort of stuff that would get you arrested in our "more enlightened" cultures. Is this acceptable ? Doesn't worry me... But I'd be surprised if the professional hate-haters are not upset. So, another interesting aspect to this book.

Then I reached the end of the book. And found that it is the middle -- or earlier -- of the story.

Will I read Spring ? And, presumably, Summer and Autumn ? But what if there's Winter2 ?! And a continuation of the story via Great Beyond: Close By, and Great Beyond: Further Out ??!

No... without a clear indication that this story will ever end...

I'll cut my losses.

I may read more books in this series.

I certainly will not search for them.

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Problems ? Solved

Brokedown Palace / Steven Brust

Brokedown Palace
by Steven Brust

fantasy

copyright 1986
read in August 2014

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

This story is an allegory. I know it is because the author tells us the message in the last chapter. Un. Subtle.

There are also a lot of loose ends: The mysterious fan. The know-all girl. The source of all the major changes to the palace. Are we meant to guess ? Or are these simply loose ends which Brust failed to explain...

What's it all about ?! Other than the stated message, that is...

It's a bit like the old myths... (Is that deliberate ? ) Something may have happened, no-one quite understands it, so the storytellers make up what may have happened. And leave gaps where their imagination is lacking.

It's a fun fairytale with an unsatisfying conclusion. Okay, change occurs -- somehow. One man will get the girl -- we are told -- after the end of the book. And a few people found their purpose in life.

All a bit unsatisfactory.

A fun fairytale. But unsatisfactory.

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Problems ? Solved