Bedlam / Christopher Brookmyre

Bedlam
by Christopher Brookmyre

science fiction

copyright 2013
read in November 2013

rated 7/10:  well worth reading

There is one major fault with this book: on the cover it says, "One of the funniest writers in Britain". So I started reading and expected this book to be funny.

This book is not funny.

Perhaps the creepy manager is supposed to be funny ? But I have met -- worked with -- that manager. He is not funny. Perhaps the brain-scanning scientist in his cluttered lab is supposed to be funny ? He is not. He is just an exaggerated character. Perhaps the pathos of the lost accountant is supposed to be funny ? It is not.

The IT Crowd takes a crowded "lab" and makes it funny. Hitchhiker's Guide takes almost believable characters and makes them funny. Brookmyre takes potentially funny characters and situations -- and fails to add the overlay of humour.

There are some good jokes scattered throughout the book. A couple of laugh-out-loud jokes. It is not a funny book. My expectations were unmet and this spoilt my initial enjoyment of Bedlam.

As science fiction this is an enjoyable book.

Better than enjoyable... Bedlam is a good book with a good SF theme. And it did encourage me to read up on Bostrom's simulation argument... Interesting...

The language is... appropriate. In a previous review of a book based around computer games, I wondered if the author had ever played a computer game. Brookmyre makes me wonder, has he diligently researched gamer slang but failed to listen in on actual conversations ? Or -- highly likely -- do he and I play different games.

Finally, a minor incident which places this book well above the potboiler level: Hero-alt-A says, How dare you do this to me! Hero-alt-B says, But you are me and you would have done exactly the same. To which Hero-alt-A can only reply, Oh, bugger off.

An enjoyable book, well worth reading. But it's science fiction with some humour. Not humour.

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Problems ? Solved

Starship Troopers / Robert A. Heinlein

Starship Troopers
by Robert A. Heinlein

science fiction

copyright 1959
read (again) in November 2013

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

The classic how-to manual on democracy and war. Heinlein corrects the misunderstandings of generations of political and military theorists and practitioners. Wow !

As usual -- with Heinlein -- his characters are happy to stop the action in order to spend several pages explaining how the world should be organised. Despite that, there is enough action to make for an enjoyable book

Unbelievable. But enjoyable.

Remember Haldeman's Forever War ? (I hope that I am remembering the right author ! ) Men and women fight side by side and enjoy the between-battle benefits of shared bunks. Heinlein is not just strictly segregated... His ultra-macho soldiers are inspired to fight in order to defend the delicate flowers of womanhood who are left at home... Presumably in the kitchen.

So it's badly dated. And was probably just as badly dated when it was first published...

Still, it's fun. And there are some interesting ideas.

I would guess that I agree with 20% of Heinlein's political and social ideas. And strongly disagree with (or laugh at) another 20%.

Is there a reader who would agree with all of Heinlein's ideas? Just in case, let me adapt a suggestion from an article that I recently read:

Go off by yourself. Spend an hour or two spanking the monkey. And come back when you have calmed down...

Read it, enjoy it, just don't accept it as the best way to run the world :-)

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Split Infinity / Piers Anthony

Split Infinity
by Piers Anthony

science fiction and fantasy

copyright 1980
re-read in November 2013

rated 7 / 10: well worth reading

What's not to like ? A science fiction world where all the important people are beautiful and naked. Where the powerful people have unlimited power -- which they use to create ultimate pleasure palaces. And a fantasy world where the hero appears to have unlimited magical power.

Add in a loyal and attractive support cast. A hero with an ethical standard to match Biggles. Though Stile does have to analyse the options in order to make the right decisions... Biggles simply does the right thing every time, automatically...

Split Infinity is the first of a trilogy and -- if I remember correctly -- the best of the three. It is certainly better than the follow-up trilogy. Still, that's Anthony for you: start with a great idea, work it to death and target younger and younger audiences...

Read and enjoy Split Infinity. Read and enjoy the trilogy. Perhaps find another book before committing time to the second trilogy...

But this book is a lot of fun.

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05nov21: Still a lot of fun :-)

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Interesting. I have definitely read Blue Adept -- the second of this trilogy. Read it... but not reviewed it... must have forgotten! Anyway...

Blue Adept is about as good as Split Infinity: not great but good fun.

Though... in these more woke times... Anthony's "old-fashioned" attitudes to women begin to be a bit embarrassing.

"Begin"... I suspect that it gets worse in later books.

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The Day Watch / Sergei Lukyanenko

The Day Watch
by Sergei Lukyanenko
translated by Andrew Bromfield
book 2 of 3

fantasy

copyright 1998, translated to English 2007
read in October 2013

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

So there's this attractive and likeable young woman. She has super-powers. One of a crowd, in a police-style job amongst the super-community.

She's injured on the job. Is sent to holiday camp to recuperate. Falls in love. Is killed by her lover.

What ?!

I checked the front of the book. Okay, it's volume two of a trilogy. So this is part of a larger story.

I think... This young woman -- the star of this story -- surely she has not just been killed off ?! I turn the page and find... a new story. I skim ahead... can't find any mention of the young woman.

It seems that she really has been killed off. I get involved in her story -- and she's gone.

Okay, it may make sense within the scope of the trilogy. Too bad. I've lost interest.

Oh, and you can ignore the cover... There is no "JK Rowling" style in this book.

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Last and First Men / Olaf Stapledon

Last and First Men
by Olaf Stapledon

science fiction... classic

copyright 1931
read in October 2013

rated 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else

By my -- not original -- definition, this book is a true classic: Everyone has heard of it, no one has read it.

In a very limited sense.

I have heard of it, I know that this book is a classic of science fiction. Yet I have never read it.

Finally, I have seen the book. Finally, I have started reading... And it is still a classic: I have still not read it.

Last and First Men is a future history of the human race. (Or, possibly, of the population of Earth.) It starts with the "first" men, from the author's time. A sad mistake for a predictive story.

Eighty years on and the mark had already been sadly missed. Not that that would be a worry on its own...

The book begins by boring me to sleep. There are references to -- I guess -- historical facts and acts and people. Which I don't recognise. Sorry, I'm not a student of European history.

As the book moves closer to my "now", racial stereotypes are maintained. The Germans are Germanic, the English are proper, the Asians are inscrutable. This may be a valid view -- but it would be nice to read some indication that global communication has broadened our thoughts and actions.

Then civilisation is destroyed and I stopped reading. Not because of the end of civilisation as I know it -- that chain of events was quite believable. Just that the book had failed to get me interested.

A science fiction classic. Read it -- if you're studying the classics of science fiction.

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Doctor Who: Shada / Gareth Roberts, Douglas Adams

Doctor Who: Shada
by Gareth Roberts (and Douglas Adams)

science fiction, for fans and others

copyright 2012
read in October 2013

rated 7/10: well worth reading

In 1979, Douglas Adams wrote a Doctor Who script which never went to air. In 2012, Gareth Roberts published this novel based on that script.

The novel includes some clear traces of Adams humour. Even a few covers of Hitchhiker jokes. I would guess that these were added by Roberts. That's fine... The book appeals as (1) a book starring the Doctor and (2) a book based on work by Adams.

I'm a fan of the old-style Doctor. I dislike the attitude of the new Doctors, the constant stating of the bleeding obvious, "I am the Doctor therefore I will soon solve all of your problems."

And must The Doctor be in love with his companions ?! Come on ! He's 900 years old, and they are just children who will be gone in a blink of his eye...

Well, Shada stars an old-style Doctor. Yet there is a tiny hint of romantic attachment. And more than a hint of the manic, tell the world I'm great, Doctor. With problems solved by mystic hand-waving rather than as a result of a logical plot progression.

Perhaps -- as I think about it -- perhaps the modern Doctors are a situational entertainment rather than plot-driven stories ?

Whatever.

This book is an old Doctor with a touch of what I dislike about the new. Which made sense, when I read the author's afterword.

The author is a fan of the new Doctors. The original script was well short of enough material for a complete novel. Roberts added a lot of new material, while attempting to stay true to his own understanding of the original story...

And the book is published by the BBC -- the owners of the successful, modern, Doctor Who series.

As a fan of the old Doctors -- with a dislike of the new Doctors -- I found some problems with Shada. Perhaps I should say, I have issues with the book... That said...

An enjoyable book. For old fans and for new. And perhaps even for non-fans who simply enjoy a good science fiction romp, through time and space and with solid English eccentricity.

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Problems ? Solved