Double Vision / Tricia Sullivan

Double Vision

category: science fiction, author:

Tricia Sullivan

published by Orbit,
original copyright 2005, read in July 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10

I tried to like this book. Really. I thought, second book, almost a new author, not bad for a second book... but I could not quite agree with myself.

It's a bit hard to work out what's going on. By the time it was explained, it was almost the end of the book. Okay, fine -- but I still did not really understand. Worse yet -- I did not really care.

The protagonist is a nice enough person. Meek, mild, accepting, room for growth. And she does grow -- too little, too late. A little more life, a little more action and I might have enjoyed the book. As it is... so what?!

The idea of the book is interesting but does not fill the book. I would have liked to see all this book squeezed into half a book -- then continue with some response to the final almost-action of this book. I was glad that the girl finally developed some gumption -- I liked her enough to be glad to see her develop -- but I just wished she then did something more interesting and more useful.

Okay... I've just checked Sullivan's website.

She has written some other books but not many. Plus some short stories. Now spending more time raising three children. The website did remind me of one aspect of the book that I did really like:

Sullivan's husband runs a martial arts academy. Martial arts is a great source of inspiration for some authors. The power, the responsibility, the calm mysticism of the extremely honourable exponents of the art... Good grief!

At last -- an author who can see past the mysticism!

Sullivan has some very human characters in charge of the martial arts academy. Some are honourable, others less so. The senior people in the organisation are in it for the money, the power, the growth of the organisation... They are real people, with real and not always nice intentions.

Double Vision has some good ideas and some good -- and real -- characters. It just doesn't do enough with the ideas and characters to make a good novel.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Lord Forrest Hotel, Bunbury

The Lord Forrest, Bunbury

category: accommodation,
a Quality Hotel,

We stayed there one night, in July 2010

My strongest memory of The Lord Forrest is the alarm which rang at quarter to five on the Sunday morning.

Just one of those things, I suppose. One guest wants to wake up early. The alarm stays set... for the next guest. Is there a point in the star rating for, "Turns alarm off between guests"?

At a quarter to five, I was annoyed. I hit out in the dark and must have hit a button.

At five to five -- when it alarmed again -- I was even more annoyed. More hitting. I could neither see nor feel buttons but thought that they would be somewhere at the top or front of the alarming device. Whatever I hit had a more permanent effect on the alarm.

By nine thirty, when I handed in the key and commented on the alarm, I was more cheerful about it... But I was well and truly crook with a cold and it probably showed. I suspect that my cheery comment about being "a bit annoyed"... would have looked and sounded more like a stormy customer about to explode. Sorry about that!

The Lord Forrest is a fine hotel. In star ratings it is one or two stars above our usual away-from-home accommodation. Was it worth the extra cost? As a special treat, Yes.

The Forrest is an "atrium" hotel: rooms run off narrow balconies which all overlook a central open area, or atrium. The atrium includes reception, restaurants and swimming pool. Open spaces, smell of chlorine, something to stare out at.

The atrium view makes me think of goldfish in a bowl. But it is far more pleasant than the alternative, of narrow, blank, closed-in corridors.

The room itself -- the cheapest, "standard" room -- was spacious. Not huge but big enough. It felt larger because the usual extra single bed was replaced by a couple of comfortable chairs and some empty space.

There was also a balcony -- which more than made up for the closed-in feel of the atrium. The view was... okay... it was Bunbury. With ocean. Whatever the view, an outside view is always better than an internal atrium.

An aside

Why is an outside view always better than an internal atrium? Let me try to explain.

Years ago, the latest hotel in Perth was called The Merlin. I visited...

My first thought was, Wow! this could be a first-class hotel anywhere in the world!

My second thought was, What a pity.

Meanwhile, back in Bunbury

The quality of room facilities was mixed...

An excellent kettle, quicker boiling that our home kettle.

Not enough lights to read by. Entry/kitchen area light, light over the mirror next to the tv, two bedside lights. The bedside lights were so dim that it was uncomfortable to read. (Luckily, with my cold, I did not really want to read.) And that was it! No ceiling light in the main room. No standard lamp beside the comfortable chairs. Very dim indeed.

The tv was good. Except that the remote control did not work. The controls on the tv itself barely worked.

Good, firm pillows on the bed, thank goodness. With a doona, so you had a choice of being too cold or too hot... Sure, a doona is probably great for sleeping under a snowdrift -- but useless for any other climate. "Shake the 'feathers' somewhere else"? Oh, sure, if they move at all. Shake the feathers down so that your feet get even hotter? And what do you do when your partner rolls over and shakes them all back again?!

Of course, being a hotel, we also had the sound effects of our neighbours.

There were the children, having a game as they settled down for the night. The young women, having a loud giggle. The long and satisfying midnight visit to the toilet, from a nearby fellow-guest. The showers, as early risers prepared for a Sunday outing...

We ate breakfast in the atrium buffet. A good variety of good food. The scrambled eggs were either overcooked or had sat too long in the bain-marie, nothing unusual in that. We agreed that the hash browns had been deep fried and preferred this to our more common experience of just fried hash browns.

It was quite pleasant, eating breakfast in the open area. There was, indeed, a pleasantly spacious feel -- better than the usual cramped conditions of breakfast in the room. The balconies had a good growth of greenery. There was an air vent, very high up, with a thick coat of dust, but the air itself was fresh and at a good temperature.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at The Lord Forrest. It was convenient to be right in the centre of Bunbury, with parking beneath the hotel. It was perhaps 40% more expensive than our usual country-WA motels. It was clean, comfortable and offered some benefits for the extra price.

For our one overnight stay -- not enough extra benefits to justify the price. For an occasional more upmarket bed & breakfast -- acceptable value for money.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait / K. A. Bedford

Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait

category: science fiction, author:

K. A. Bedford

published by Fremantle Press,
original copyright 2009, read in July 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

I had to think carefully about my rating. Balance gut feel with lasting impressions. Consider all the factors:

• It's by a West Australian author. I like to support Australian authors. I enjoyed the way that the action takes place in familiar -- futur-ified -- local locations. But I don't want that to bias my rating.
  
• It's about time machines. (Okay, we all guessed that one!) There are some good -- and original -- ideas in dealing with time machines. But some of the bigger ideas are not new -- and are not satisfactorily dealt with.
  
• The conclusion was... well... inconclusive.
  

I enjoyed the book. I hope that plenty of people support a good -- local -- author. It could have been better.

Really, I feel let down by the ending.

You know how time travel works: quantum theory, plans sent anonymously from the future, go back and kill your own grandfather, stuff up that key point in history... Well, Bedford mentions the theory that history is already the result of numerous idiots stuffing up historic events! Brilliant! A simple explanation for so much historical idiocy :-)

A smaller but equally clever mention of the problems with cats: They are always getting lost inside the quantum engine. Pull the thing apart, no sign of the cat. Open the same engine cover yet again -- and there's the cat...

The splitting timelines stuff is more common. It's accepted quantum theory, if I understand my quantum theory. (Not that I do.) This sort-of leads Bedford's hero to the conclusion that there is no such thing as free will. Nor is there predestination. Good point -- but I see it somewhat differently...

Every time you make a decision, the timeline splits: one line for each decision. In one timeline you paint the town red but in another you decide to stay home and admire your black and white etchings. There are umptazillions of timelines, one for each possible combination of decisions. So. Why bother to decide at all?

You decide to go out and paint the town red. Which means that -- in a parallel timeline -- you decide to stay home. So what's the point of making a decision?!

In Time Machines the hero keeps getting advice on what to do from his future self. But why bother?! Every time he takes the advice -- time splits, and in a new timeline he decides to not take the advice. In the "story" timeline he saves the girl -- which means that, in other timelines he fails to save the girl. So what's the point of it all?!

Bedford writes a good story -- but fails to convince me that the action was worth following.

Then there's the ending.

Trying not to give it away... So what?! Other than being a manipulative, power-mad megalomaniac, what was wrong with the villain? What was he doing that made him a villain? Other than being a self-centered creep, that is. What valid reason was there, for the hero to attempt to destroy the villain?

At the end of the book I thought, that was pointless. Still...

The ending seems to suggest a sequel. That would be good: the book was fine, it's just the plot that lacked a point. I just hope...

I just hope that, in a sequel, Bedford provides a more convincing explanation of the villain's villainy. And that a major villainy is really prevented, hopefully with the quantum bomb which wipes out a person or action from all timelines. (What's the point of stopping it once, when quantum theory tells you that it still happened in another timeline?)

Great view of the impact of time machines. Good characters. Needs a better purpose.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Prodigal Sun / Sean Williams & Shane Dix

The Prodigal Sun

category: science fiction, author:

Sean Williams & Shane Dix

book 1 of Evergence
published by Voyager,
original copyright 1999, read in July 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

I think that I am beginning to see a pattern in the Williams & Dix books... Okay, I've only read two (that I remember). Still: galactic in scope, science to the max, characters who snipe. In Echoes of Earth the sniping was a bit too much. In The Prodigal Sun the balance is much better.

In Sun, the characters do snipe. But, as the book progresses, they do the expected: see past surface differences to the nice person beneath. Sure, it's expected -- perhaps cliched -- but it does make for a more enjoyable book. The Sun characters also take more independent action... No bureaucratic stalling, just reasonable discussion followed by relevant action.

The Galaxy is a big place and humankind has filled it. All the alien-type creatures are really just evolved, devolved or changed humans. The many millennia of human expansion have also resulted in scientific advancement but with several gaps yet to be explored. This all adds up to a setting with scope, science, interest and variety... and plenty of humanity.

Many of the main characters are "pristine" humans, based on the original human genetic stock. These characters give us relatively simple associations, people with whom we can associate. For the more extreme amongst us -- we can associate with the "aliens", the modified humans.

In reality, the modified humans are stereotypes given vastly altered shapes. The ESPers are small, cute and hairy. The traders are lean, bald, almost rubbing their hands together as they do a deal. The brown and bear-like Mbata are peaceful lovers of their land who speak Bantu. Stereotypes and, mostly, two dimensional.

Still, this is science fiction: no room here for three-dimensional characters!

There's action a-plenty, great (or do I mean greatly exaggerated) science and good ideas. Here, for example, is a vat-bred super-soldier from a long-extinct culture: why does he help the heroes? There is the super-computer in a box: is it really "just" a computer? And -- as with plenty of good science fiction -- there are big ideas which are fully grounded in today.

What happens when one nation invades another? Do the original citizens -- now second-class citizens on their own world -- have any rights? In a democratic Commonwealth but with limited travel rights, how can they get a fair hearing?

Plus, largely in an appendix, there is an overview of the Commonwealth. Is this just background reading? Or is it the authors' extra emphasis on the way in which they believe that a democracy could be organised... At the very least, it can make the reader think.. and that is the sign of good science fiction.

Science fiction. Human scale. Planetary action. Galactic scope and current relevance. All good.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Sex and the Single Vampire / Katie MacAlister

Sex and the Single Vampire

category: fantasy, author:

Katie MacAlister

book 2 of Dark Ones
published by Hodder,
original copyright 2004, read in July 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

Take the wide-eyed, forgetting-to-breath-while-kissing love of Twilight, replace that "love" with "lust", add the magic from the Harry Dresden books but without the underlying urge to do right. Make the heroine a lovable drip and add lots of humour. That's the essence of Sex and the Single Vampire.

Oh, and if you like all that, let me remind you of The Hunted, with its vampires, humans, cross-cultural love -- and heavy sex. Nothing to do with Single Vampire -- just a less famous but good book to read :-)

Another story which does have relevance, is the movie, The Frighteneres. Sure, the movie has no vampires. But it does have ghosts. And the Frighteners ghosts are very similar -- in their fluffy, friendly style -- to the ghosts of Single Vampire.

What I seem to be saying is, there is an awful lot of derivative material in Single Vampire. The truth of it is -- I have not read many contemporary vampire stories and am only now realising the overlaps and similarities in the genre... Unless, of course, I have read so few that I am completely mistaken!

If there really are overlaps, I make no pretense to claim that one is a copy of the other... Any book is a combination of ideas, some old, some new. What makes a good book is the way in which those ideas are used.

Sex and the Single Vampire takes a combination of ideas, some of which are definitely original, others may not be. The author... ummm...

The author. The author is "Katie MacAlister". So it says on the cover. On the inside, though, "The right of Marthe Alends to be identified as the Author of the work has been asserted by her..." Marthe Alends?!

As far as I can tell (from a brief search of the internet) Alends has written one historical, romantic novel and several textbooks on genealogy. Search for her name and you get Katie MacAlister, with no visible link. So, I guess, the author is Alends, publishing as MacAlister. And why not... So, to continue:

The author has combined ideas old and new, original and copied -- and written a vampire romance with humour and sex. A very enjoyable book.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Poison Master / Liz Williams

The Poison Master

category: gothic, fantastic, science fiction!?, author:

Liz Williams

published by Bantam Press,
original copyright 2003, read in July 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

Quite an... unusual book. In a good way!

It's science fiction. No question. Yet the science is, well, mystical! Presented as science -- from the era of mysticism, astrology, philosopher's stone for transmutation... and counting angels on a pinhead. Very strict scientific from the very early days of scientific discovery. The author is "the daughter of a Gothic novelist" -- so, I decided, The Poison Master may itself be "Gothic"... whatever that means :-)

The heroine is an apothecary. As she breathes in the fumes (or otherwise ingests) the various potions of her trade, she communicates with the spirit of the potion. Clever idea! She is able to follow, influence, ignore, listen to and occasionally direct, the spirit. The apothecary's art includes the ability to interact with these spirits.

The various planets are influenced by the basic elements: a hot planet of "fire", a swampy planet of "water" and so on. Aliens from another dimension are the Lords who rule planets. They appear to the more religious humans as angels. This is science fiction as it could be written by an alchemist.

The action is, perhaps, a little weaker than the science. On the other hand, it is a book of the human spirit overcoming obstacles, rather than bashing over obstacles. Good guys and bad are not always as they seem, baddies are defeated rather than exterminated, the heroine wants to save her world but that does not stop her from saving her friends.

When the bad guys are defeated it is revealed that they were glad to be sent back to their own dimension. The heroine has dreamt of the happy life ahead once she has rescued her family. Then the family demonstrate that they are uncrushed by past suffering, by setting off on their own visions for a happy future. A happy ending with no predetermined dream ending!

I enjoyed this book. Reading required some concentration at first -- the unique science needed to be followed. Then I slipped into the world and read happily to the end.

Strange, distinctive, enjoyable, good.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

House of Suns / Alastair Reynolds

House of Suns

category: science fiction, author:

Alastair Reynolds

published by Gollancz, original copyright 2008, read in June 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

Big picture stuff! Or, as the cover says, "A genius for big-concept SF." What's so "big" about this book? Well...

The main characters have been around for six million years. They have circumnavigated the galaxy more than thirty times. Their spaceships are big enough to have a few dozen more normal spaceships stacked in the hold... The scope is more than big, it's gigantic! Yet we still have sympathy for the lives and worries of the heroes.

Sort of.

Sure, they're meant to be immortal, so potential death is a bit of a bummer. But they're clones. And 800 of the 1000 clones of one character are killed off by the time the plot gets serious. So why don't they clone another 800? No explanation.

The characters are okay... but the technology is the real star of this book. You name it, the technology makes it possible. Except for FTL travel: the characters think nothing of being frozen for the 6,000 years that it takes for the final "car" chase.
It's a lot of fun, over the top, super-science science fiction.

But is it "Space Opera"?

The back cover of the book indicates that this is "space opera". I'm not too sure... I may have to use my own definitions here:

I see space opera as being larger-than-life characters, super-duper science, galactic scale and evil aliens. Yes, House of Suns has super-duper science. The scale is definitely galactic -- and more. But...

The characters are not large enough. Sure, they are millions of years old, but that is due to technology which exists from the start of the story. I prefer my space opera heroes to invent the technology for themselves, or to find it in new civilisations -- which are discovered by the heroes. House of Suns is like the Star Wars movies -- the technology is always there, an accepted part of the background.

The characters themselves, have just a bit too much depth for my views of space opera. They are almost two-dimensional but not quite. Flat enough for SF but not flat enough for space opera.

The aliens are even worse...

What aliens?

House of Suns is a human universe. Every civilisation is human, though possibly extremely mutated. Without a tentacled and slimy alien, this is just SF. Sure, there's a secret and galaxy-wide organisation -- but it's human. Worse yet, the secret enemy has apparently good reasons for its evil deeds... In a proper space opera, the secret organisation is unspeakably evil -- and they know it.

So House of Suns is large scale science fiction. But it is not space opera.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.