Learning the World / Ken Macleod

Learning the World
by Ken Macleod

science fiction
published 2005
read in November 2012

rating 8: really quite good

An author from Scotland. Writing science fiction. Surely there can't be two of them. Surely I've read another of his books... So I searched through the list of books I've read. And sure enough: The Night Sessions by Ken Macleod...

Is this really the same author? The books are so different! And both are really quite good.

At the start, though, I have a problem... The (first) main character is a bit of a pain. So I think. A whingey boy with silly opinions of other people... Then this character is referred to as "she"... And the character is suddenly much more reasonable.

Interesting, really. Am I so full of stereotype bias?! Is a girl allowed to hate a man -- yet the same hate makes a boy whingey? Oh dear. Oh well...

So I start with a vague dislike of one character. Make a sudden switch to acceptance and liking. Then enjoy the rest of the book.

Not that the book is perfect!

I have a lot of trouble distinguishing the various characters -- especially the humans. The character's names are unusual... interesting... but so unusual that I have trouble remembering them... As I meet a character I think, which one is this? So I may be missing some of plot!

Apart from that... I'm not too fond of the ending...

I always have problems with the multiple universe theories. (Except in Anathem, where out all seems to make sense.)

Okay, the creation of multiple universes is thrown up early on in the book. Then it is used to emphasise the less than perfect role of humans... Okay, point made. Just made -- in my opinion :-)  -- a bit too bluntly.

On the other hand... the humans are, indeed, less than perfect. And the aliens are better, in a very straightforward way.

An enjoyable story with a lot of good characters. And a message for humanity, whether or not I agree with it :-)

====
Problems ? Solved

Gardens of the Moon / Steven Erikson

Gardens of the Moon
by Steven Erikson
fantasy / action
book 1 of Malazan Book of the Fallen

published 1999
read in November 2012

my rating: 6, read to pass the time

The book begins with an Introduction by the author. If the introduction does not put you off, okay. The author is smarter than us. He knows what makes a great fantasy book. Everyone else is wrong. So he says.

As one of those wrong people, I believe that an author should provide a story for the readers. A story. You know, one of those things with a beginning, a middle and an end. With plot to link them all. And characters to add interest.

Okay... in this story, Erikson has done that. So why am I complaining? It's not just the patronising introduction...

As I began to read, I began to think, these people are familiar. And yes, I have read another Erikson book. I read it in 2007, before I began this blog. The memory has stayed with me.

Erikson writes that his work is a history. So he can't help out if it's not a neat and self-contained story. What a cop-out! An author too lazy to pick out a coherent storyline, so he claims that it's part of a grander epic.

Just to interrupt this rant... Gardens is a coherent story. Feel free to read and, probably, enjoy.

Do not read later books on the series. Not unless you are prepared to read every book in the series.

My memories of that later book are awfully clear... One group of people battle across a continent, following another, smaller group. The smaller group do nothing much other than the minimum required to keep ahead of the first group. Meanwhile, two other people (?) also set off across the continent. Half way across, one of them is killed. Another person takes his place. The new two carry on.

The two groups do not interact. They never meet each other. The entire book is dedicated to journeys which would be one or two connecting chapters in any more reasonable book. As a single book -- a load of rubbish.

But, as I said, Gardens is more like a real novel. Beginning, middle and end. I have no trouble accepting a to-be-continued end to the book. At least the current adventure reaches some sort of conclusion.

Yet there are still problems with the author's view of his book as one chapter of a history.

Other authors use coincidences to link the plot. You know, the young man with the magic sword just happens to be the lost prince... It can be embarrassing. Done well, the links and coincidences can build to a gripping novel.

Erikson takes a simpler approach... Need to introduce some essential linking action? Just add a new character. Need more tension? Just add a new character. Need a reason for the characters to conquer a city? Introduce a new character who is mentioned in passing but never appears...

Gardens of the Moon is a mass of characters doing a loosely related set of exciting actions. In this book, it all adds up, eventually. In the one later book that I have read, the various actions fail to add up to a story. They remain as chapters of unrelated books. Total fail.

Read this book. Ignore the rest.

====
Problems ? Solved

Shadow of the Scorpion / Neal Asher

Shadow of the Scorpion
by Neal Asher

science fiction
published 2008, read in November 2012

rating 6 / 10: read to pass the time

Six out of ten? Or possibly 7 -- if you're a fan of Agent Cormac of the Polity.

I enjoy Asher's books (the few that I've read, and I want to read more). The Polity is rough, tough and enjoyable. But this is my first meeting with Agent Cormac. So as far as I can tell:

Cormac has spent several books righting wrongs. Scorpion appears to be providing an insight into his childhood. Into the early days of his violent life. Which I would appreciate more -- if I had previously read of his adult adventures!

As a standalone book...

Scorpion is a modern equivalent of For Mars! Young man goes through basic training and comes out as a man.

Aside: My reviews are now being posted as an email from a tablet PC. This approach limits my flexibility. Specifically, I cannot proved you with a hot link to other reviews... Sorry! It also explains why the format of recent posts is so boring :-)  Anyway...

I have only just read For Mars! (Yes, the ! is part of the title.) As I read Scorpion I began to see similarities. In more than the basic boy-becomes-man plot.

I began to suspect that Scorpion was written for the "young adult" SF fan: young hero and simplistic style. Short sentences, simple plot logic. Group of young "cadets" thrown together, forced to build an effective team...

Of course this idealised world was soon shattered by the typical Polity violence. Still... it did make me think, how SF has changed since 1952 (the year of For Mars!). Similar themes -- such a different treatment!

Comparisons aside, Scorpion is not a great book. Gung ho action in a tough universe. An enjoyable adventure. A weak plot.

If you have already read previous Cormac adventures then this book will -- I believe -- fill in some gaps, build the back story. As a standalone novel... some of the points seem to be a little pointless.

And the gaining of a nifty personal weapon -- right at the end of the book -- is totally contrived. Except, I guess, as a necessary explanation for earlier books with a more experienced Cormac.

Enjoyable by itself. Perhaps a must-read for Cormac fans.

====
Problems ? Solved

For Mars! / Carey Rockwell

For Mars!
by Carey Rockwell

science fiction

published 1952, read in October 2012

rating 6 / 10: read to pass the time

Clean-cut heroic leader, strong but not so smart sidekick, super smart but troubled 2ic... Stereotyped (space) adventure.

Early pulp fiction. To be read with a touch of embarrassment. To be read and enjoyed. Critical faculties switched off.

Wikipedia does say that -- for its time -- the science is good. But the story logic! Unbelievable... yet enjoyable :-)

The heroes rescue passengers from a stricken spaceship. They then risk their lives to save the ship itself. Why? Because it's a valuable asset worth many millions of space dollars.

Two chapters later and they have destroyed the ship by crashing onto Mars. Does anyone now mention the value of the ship? Nope...

Aside from the dodgy plot, this is very clearly a "science fiction" adventure. How can you tell? Check the equipment:

The Space cadets wear their Space uniform, including Space boots. They fly a Space ship to the Space ship yards. Their Space watches tell them the Space time as they wish each other, Spaceman's luck... You get the idea! Why is a Space boot different from any other boot? We are not told.

This story is fun but not great. As a modern book I would score it as 4, bad but could be read. Set in context -- as "old" SF, available free from Gutenberg Press -- it is well worth reading.

If only to see how science fiction has changed.

And for more on that -- how science fiction has changed -- see my review of Shadow of the Scorpion...

====
Problems ? Solved

Chronic City / Jonathan Lethem

Chronic City
by Jonathan Lethem

published 2010, read in October 2012

category: general fiction

rating 3 / 10: so bad it's embarrassing

Let's be clear: the rating of 3 out of 10 is *my* rating. There may be readers who enjoy reading this sort of drivel. Or perhaps something interesting does happen if you can bear to read past page 85.

Not that I expected much. In Barcelona for a week, wanting a book to fill some idle moments. The nearest bookshop had a few metres of English-language books, a highly eclectic mix indeed.

I chose the one book which was written recently, vaguely SF and I had not read before. Perhaps I should have selected from the very small range of "classics".

In its general theme, this book reminds me of The Great Gatsby: a story of the rich and the beautiful, as seen by a jealous outsider. Where Fitzgerald hated the rich because he did not belong, Lethem longs to join them. Or so it would seem, from the styles of the books.

Lethem, though, takes his readers to new levels of self-indulgent boredom.

By page 85 -- which is as far as my good sense would allow me to go -- nothing has happened. The first-person storyteller has met a man with a sharp mind and poor dress sense. The two have smoked dope, eaten the same meal at the same restaurant several times, and dropped numerous references to characters and actors from TV and movies.

Are these characters and actors real? Are they invented? Are they "clever" inventions based on real people? Who knows?! Who cares.

The novel appears to be named for a favourite brand of marijuana. Perhaps it is the same brand that the author uses when writing. Because that's the way that the book reads...

Remember the stereotype Hollywood hippies? That friend of Dobie Gillis, for example... the hippies who ramble on, speaking a language of their own, making very little sense to the rest of the world. To their own drug-addled senses they are providing deep insights into the mysteries of the world. To the rest of us, they are mumbling nonsense.

Chronic City is mumbling nonsense.

====
Problems ? Solved