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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Problems ? Solved

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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Problems ? Solved

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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Problems ? Solved

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

The Long Earth / Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter

The Long Earth
by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter

science fiction

copyright 2012
read in October 2013

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

My main problem with The Long Earth is that it lacks a point.

Sure, there's a huge Earth-threatening monster to be discovered -- but so what ?! Monster discovered, monster left alone. Threat still exists.

This book is -- as I understand it -- an introduction to a series. So the monster can be dealt with in later books. Which leaves very little point to this first book !

Interesting but not great characters travel across the Long Earth. Going places, meeting people, doing nothing much. The book is very much an exploration of a new world. And the impact of the new world on the old. With all the excitement of a textbook on geography.

Okay, the new world is an interesting idea. But the SF question of "what if" is largely replaced by "so what".

At the end of the book is the unpublished short story which was the germ of the idea. Very much a biff-sockee adventure yarn. Not great science fiction, so much more fun to read !

If The Long Earth grows into a series -- that will be interesting. If subsequent books focus on smaller aspects of the world -- that will be much better. If the scope of this first book had been narrower -- it would be a lot more fun to read.

An odyssey across an entire new world lacks the potential interest of a more detailed dip into just one part. This book offers too much of the general overview.

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Problems ? Solved

The Moon Maze Game / Larry Niven, Steven Barnes

The Moon Maze Game
by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes

science fiction

copyright 2011
read in October 2013

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

The core of the story is a virtual reality game. The game theme is Wells' First Men in the Moon. With other book by Wells thrown in to add variation.

What is it with HG Wells rip-offs? Is it the season ? Is it his birthday ? Is it just coincidence that this is the second that I have recently read ? Moon Maze at least adds a more modern story round the rip-off. Not that it really helps.

First, the science sucks. Or does it ? Heinlein, in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, had people leaping through the vacuum of space. On Mars, Schwarzenegger's eyes bulged badly. In Moon Maze, vacuum will lead to instant death by boiling blood. Which is correct ? My money is with Heinlein.

Then, the game sucks. Okay, it's a virtual reality game, not a screen simulation. Still... My impression is that the authors have never ever played a computer game. The book makes me think of non-players trying to impress readers with their own rather weak extensions to something that they have read about but never actually tried. (Sorry about the length of that sentence ! )

Finally (?) the story is weak, the successes are questionable and the explanations are unclear.

Willing suspension of disbelief ? Try, willing suspense of critical faculties... If you can do that, you can read this book.

Sort of fun. Could be better.

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Problems ? Solved

Fatal Revenant / Stephen Donaldson

Fatal Revenant
by Stephen Donaldson
Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (2)

fantasy

copyright 2007
read in October 2013

rated 4 / 10: bad but could be read

This is a book which makes Financial Accounting seem interesting.

I'm studying a financial accounting unit online. Less than half way into Revenant and I preferred to do a bit more study. Doesn't say much for the book, does it !

Okay, there's a lot of action. Meet a new character -- there will be a ludicrously over-the-top battle. Visit a new place -- it will be destroyed by the side-effects of the next battle. Stop for a picnic lunch -- and the picnic ants will be gigantic fire-breathing chitinous dragons.

Then there's the pseudo-suspense...

A super-powered being will appear. A member, probably, of a race that no-one has heard of before now. This new character plans to destroy the heroine -- but first, will answer any three questions... So the heroine asks something like, How long do I have to ask the questions ? What time is it now ? Did you say, just three questions ? Then kicks herself for wasting the three questions...

So the POV character, the heroine, does not know what is going on. Everyone else does but they won't tell. The reader is left in the dark. This is not suspense -- it's a cheap trick by the author.

In the second half of the book the heroine decides exactly what she is going to do. It's her POV, so the reader will get some information ? Nope. I know but I'm not telling, she says...

And when she finally acts... Everyone groans... There are cries of, You should not have done that... And the book ends.

This is a book of action-packed adventure with very little purpose. There's a feeling that Donaldson is trying to wrap up loose ends in the millennia-long history of the Land. With a plethora of new super-villains to plug the gaps. Is it worth the effort ?

So far, so tedious. The first book was readable. This second book really dragged. Perhaps... the third one's the charm ?

But...

I can't stop there. I must mention a problem with a key feature of these books, the "Falls".

The Falls are places where every instant of time is present, all at once. Like a food-processor for time... Step inside a Fall and you are hit by whirling bits of the Land, each bit from a different era...

So how can a Fall move ?!

The Fall is here, now. And it's hitting you with stuff from here, ten minutes ago. And with stuff from here, ten minutes in the future. So the Fall was definitely here ten minutes ago. And will definitely be here ten minutes from now... So it *was* exactly here and it *will be* exactly here.

So how can it have moved ?!

And if a Fall exists -- and stretches from the distant past into the far future -- then how can it be banished in the present ?! By definition, it exists in the future. Yet -- when we reach that future -- it is not there.

Too much angst and not enough explanation. I can't claim to have enjoyed this book.

But I will be looking out for the final (?) Thomas Covenant book. If only to see who lives, who dies... and who is brought back to live to provide a possibly happy ending.

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Problems ? Solved