Category: Review

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A Just Determination – John G. Hemry

The first book in the “JAG in Space” series is a short and neat novel about a young ensign, an incident, and a court martial. Hemry delivers a page turner. Not the heaviest reading, to be sure, but there are depths between the lines. There is in fact quite a decent coming of age story between the covers.

I am always partial to books where I can identify with and feel sympathetic with the characters. Hemry is excellent at making the reader (well, this reader at least) identify with protagonist Paul Sinclair during his struggles on his first deployment. The other crew members of the U.S.S. Michaelson are a mix of good and bad, with wildly varied motivations, just like in real life. Overall, the characters feel well fleshed out, and Hemry is skilled at portraying both them and the action, entirely from young Sinclair’s perspective.

It could perhaps be argued that this novel’s setting is incidental, and that it would have worked just as well on the sea. That may be so, but that does not detract from its appeal. A fine read.

Note: Hemry also writes under the pseudonym Jack Campbell.

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Friday – Robert A. Heinlein

I bought this book mainly for the cover but in my defense I was sixteen. And yes, there is quite a bit of sex in it. Friday is a vat-grown superwoman who seeks love. And finds it. Ah well…

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The Eden Trilogy – Harry Harrison

What if dinosaurs had not become extinct, but instead evolved sentience? These sentient dinosaurs have also developed biotech to a certain extent, using non-sentient dinosaur species for various purposes. In the trilogy, the dinosaur civilization founds a colony in America and comes into contact with Stone Age humans. This whole thing could rapidly have descended into sillyness but it is mildly entertaining and thought provoking. The three novels are:

  • West of Eden
  • Winter in Eden
  • Return to Eden

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Enigma – Robert Harris

Although this novel of British code breaking during World War II received good reviews, and I have no doubt of it’s historical accuracy, it thoroughly failed to captivate me and I gave up on it after only about a hundred pages.

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The Truth of Valor (Confederation V) – Tanya Huff

The fifth Confederation novel sees Torin retired from the Marine Corps and starting to make a living as a salvage operator together with her boyfriend Craig Ryder. All seems to be going fine until pirates grab Craig and she must rescue him.

The characterization is as good as ever in this series. Unfortunately the plot is a not very entertaining compared to past installments. The cool military bits are missing. This is more or less a spy novel, and not a very good one at that. I would love to see Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr back in uniform for the next installment, but I fear it will not happen. Also, Ms. Huff has all this great backstory going on with the plastic aliens, but hardly uses it for more than character development.

 

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Fatherland – Robert Harris

In this classic alternate history novel, Germany won the Second World War. The premise is very interesting, of course, but it is only the background as Harris weaves an interesting tale of crime in an alternate Berlin of the nineteen sixties. It provides interesting insights about what can happen when a totalitarian society on a war footing must in the end “settle down” and become a nation at peace. And then there is that deep, dark, covered-up secret that nobody wants to talk about: The Holocaust.

 

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Fallen Dragon – Peter F. Hamilton

This novel is about a young man whose illusions are shattered in a cruel society. He runs away from home to become a mercenary. The story jumps back and forth between his youth and his part in plundering a colony world during his career as a corporate soldier. He is sick of the society he lives in, and gets that rarest of things, a second chance.

There is much else going on too, including a legacy left by ancient spieces, and Hamilton’s views on what to do with societal immortality. Although I felt it to be awesome in the scope of the macrostory, the main characters are easily within our reach, and the unexpected ending may well bring tears of joy to your eyes.

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The Greg Mandel Series – Peter F. Hamilton

Consisting of:

  • Mindstar Rising
  • A Quantum Murder
  • The Nano Flower

These three loosely connected novels share the same protagonist, Greg Mandel. He is a psychic former soldier who now works as a sort of private investigator/mercenary. Greg comes into contact with a billionaire named Julia Evans, a very interesting characted in herself.

Although they can be read as straightforward SciFi crime novels, there is much more depth here. The location, a post ecodisaster England recovering from climate change is a fascinating place. Add to that a brave new kind of capitalism that has superseded rabid socialism, and the social commentary becomes top notch. Highly recommended.

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The First Immortal – James L. Halperin

This story about how cryonics succeed follows a small group of people “through” cryogenic freezing to the society evolving in the aftermath of its success. The subject matter is very interesting and the book raises some fascinating questions. Unfortunately the writing itself is not particularly inspired.

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Spook Country – William Gibson

This is the second book in the Bigend Trilogy, following the superb Pattern Recognition. Once again, Hubertus Bigend is looking for something. Our protagonist Hollis Henry is a former rock star who ends up entangled in a weird scheme to deter the laundering of money destined for Iraq.

As usual, Gibson knows how to construct a sentence, a paragraph, and a chapter in a flamboyantly artistic fashion that both dazzles and explains perfectly what is going on. Descriptions of places, things, actions and people are all finely balanced and constructed with the obsessive care that is the author’s trademark. The prose is simply breathtaking.

Pity about the plot, then. Nothing really happens as the characters chase after the initially mysterious but, after its revelation, rather pedestrian MacGuffin. The conclusion left me with a “so what?” feeling. The story was rather slow and plodding and the ending left me indifferent.

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The Bridge Trilogy – William Gibson

Consisting of:

  • Virtual Light
  • Idoru
  • All Tomorrow’s Parties

This series of three books is very loosely connected through some of the central characters. Although Gibson’s prose stands out as always, I felt that these novels were more an exercise in writing in a cool fashion than actual attemts at storytelling. The writing is even more florid and pared back than in the Sprawl Trilogy, and the books are not terribly interesting in their own right. It is Gibson, and worth reading, even though he has done much better.

 

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In the Stormy Red Sky (RCN VII) – David Drake

The seventh book in the RCN series sees Leary take his new command, the heavy cruiser Milton, on what is supposed to be a milk run: escorting a senator to the Montserrat Stars to re-establish relations with the local authorities. Once they get there, it is clear that the Alliance has more or less taken over, having handed the Republic of Cinnabar Navy a humiliating defeat. IT should come as no surprise to regular readers that Leary and the rest must now fix the problem.

Lots of action and a strong story make for an entertaining book. The fact that Leary has now “graduated” to a larger ship, and spends some time in command of a makeshift squadron, is a definite plus. While tooling around in the Princess Cecile was all well and good, Drake couldn’t have Leary and Mundy do that forever. Speaking of Adele Mundy, this book is definitely very much about her, with significant developments for her character.

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Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman

Fabulous gothic fantasy novel set in a set of parallel world under modern day London. Our hero is an ordinary securities guy working in the City of London. He has a job, a fiancé, an apartment, a meaningless life. One day, he is kind to what he thinks is a homeless person. This act propels him onto an adventure beyond his wildest imagination.

The clever and twisted use of London iconography and places is of course of most value if you actually know something of the city itself. However, anyone can enjoy this novel of courage and tolerance, of destiny and choice. Enchanting.

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In Conquest Born – C.S. Friedman

Certainly impressive for a first novel, In Conquest Born details the struggle between Anzha and Zatar, prime representatives of their endlessly warring nations. The structure of the novel is unusual, as every chapter is somewhat like a short story in itself, often with different narrators, viewpoints and styles. The advantage is that exposition can be made from several angles. The disadvantage is a certain feeling of disjointedness as the device weakens the motivation to find out what happens next.

The narrative is epic with regards to time, space, and character development. The characterization is masterful indeed. Friedman goes on a deep dive into the conflicting cultures of the novel, especially the secretive Braxaná. This is, in fact, more a story of people than of technology. Few scenes have more than two or three characters, and we are treated to a well written exposé of the workings of the mind. It is very far from hard SF. While it could be called Space Opera, I would define it a psychological SF story.

Friedman proves that she can write a very complex novel without leaving the reader hopelessly confused. For that she definitely deserves credit. I enjoyed this odd semi-classic, despite the fact that it was a slog at times. At the end was the reward. The surprise ending made everything clear, tying up the many many tangents.