The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft
Editor, annotator: Leslie S. Klinger
Norton & Co
ISBN: 9780871404534
852 pages.
Collection of most of Lovecraft's "Arkham Cycle" stories, from Dagon to the Haunter of the Dark.
Read ALL FREAKING SUMMER
Confession. I've never actually read any Lovecraft, other than At the Mountains of Madness and The Call of Cthulhu. This is a fantastic way to have remedied that oversight. The collection puts them all in roughly chronological order, and only includes the stories that have major elements of what Klinger calls the "Arkham Cycle" of nebulous mythology. (Interesting discovery that the idea of a coherent and complete "Cthulhu Mythos" was more likely the hero-worshipping tendencies of the young author who oversaw the preservation of Lovecraft's legacy.)
Anyway - if you like Lovecraft, or enjoy a good annotation (don't be ashamed to admit it - I've got my eye on that Laura Ingalls Wilder annotated autobiography Pioneer Girl next...) then this is an excellent collection. Just be warned. It's a freaking TOME, and it's heavy and awkward as hell. This is a desk read if I ever saw one.
Stories: great fun, occasionally a bit overwrought. Not actually frightening, which was a bit unexpected. He name-dropped his own mythos and his own stories (and to be fair, the mythos, characters, and stories of other authors) with truly astounding frequency. Not much for subtlety.
Annotations: usually very interesting, occasionally a bit too densely architectural or local-history-centric. Really drove home the amount of research (or, alternatively, the really terrifying amount of arcane science and historical knowledge) that went into writing; setting these stories in superbly realistic, everyday, mundane surroundings, up to and including citing recent scientific discoveries and having accurate moon phases referenced ALL THE TIME (I'm giving Tolkien a dirty look here).
Author: (ie Lovecraft) blazing racist asshat with really severe anxiety about progress and "otherness." Lots of weird fascination with the size and scope of the universe, and of our solar system, and humanity's relative un-importance in relation to that. Lots of body horror. Overly concerned with inhuman things coming out of the ocean or from space, from what we now know as the Kuiper Belt.
So, that's Lovecraft for me done.
Now I really want to go out and hit up Klinger's Annotated Sherlock and Annotated Sandman. I'll leave you with a lovely link to a really nice interview by Klinger and Neil Gaiman about Lovecraft and the New Annotated collection.
Showing posts with label science fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fantasy. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Fantasy: Short Stories: Old Venus, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Old Venus
Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Stories by Allen M. Steele,
Lavie Tidhar,
Paul McAuley,
Matthew Hughes,
Gwyneth Jones,
Joe Haldeman,
Stephen Leigh,
Eleanor Arnason,
David Brin,
Garth Nix,
Michael Cassutt,
Tobias Bucknell,
Elizabeth Bear,
Joe R. Lansdale,
Mike Resnick,
Ian McDonald
ISBN: 9780345537287
Short Story Collection:
Read June 2015
This collection asks modern fantasy and sf authors to imagine that Venus was actually the
steamy jungle (or water) world it was imagined to be in the pulp sf years, and write new stories set in that mythical world. And did they ever deliver!
Allen M. Steele's Frogheads takes us to an ocean world where the locals are very fond of chocolate, and the Russian bureaucracy is still shaking off the accumulated inertia of failed communism. We follow a jaded and taicturn PI searching for the missing son of a rich shipping magnate, and he finds that the son isn't exactly missing.
Lavie Tidhar then gives us the seriously creeptastic and more-than-slightly-Lovecraftian The Drowned Celestial, where our hero is dragooned into a sinister cult, but on the flip side, manages to find a lover! Bonus points for the Aztec link.
Paul McAuley's Planet of Fear pits a tenacious scientist against a war-mad general who is convinced that the evil Americans are plotting against him. And of course a science outpost filled with evidence of crazy people, and lots of dead pigs.
We get my favorite story of the collection, Greeves and the Evening Star, from Matthew Hughes. This was a Jeevsian romp through the most politest of society gentlemen as they attempt to wrap their heads around the amorous advances of a most persuasive and persistent Venusian. Hughes language nearly killed me in this story, and it's the only one that I've gone back and re-read. Just as enjoyable the second go round.
A Planet Called Desire, by Gwyneth Jones, was strange. It had the bones of a white colonial "Crocodile Dundee" sort of story, but the lead driver of the action was an enigmatic scientist mired in regnal red tape, and it resolves itself with a lingering creepy hope. Extra points for being one of the only stories to delve into teleportaton.
Joe Haldeman gives a short creepy first-contact sort of story set in a truly nasty jungle Venus. Living Hell is a perfect descriptor of a place where everything seems designed to do horrible damage to humans. We arrive mid-crisis, as our rescue pilot attempts a desperate rescue of a science outpost that has been cut off due to a giant solar flare. Our pilot is about to get real close and uncomfortable with the biota.
Bones of Air, Bones of Stone, is Stephen Leigh's contribution to oceanic Venus lore, with a strange tale of a pair of ex-lovers united and driven apart by the urge to conquer the extreme - do what's never been done. Here, it's the Great Darkness, a huge pit of deep black water that laughs at the Marianas Trench. Complicating matters is the lore of the locals, who believe that oceanic darkness to be their sacred resting place, and forbid anyone from diving there.
Eleanor Arnason also likes the idea of Communists on Venus, and Ruins gives us a National Geographic meets Washington Post intrigue featuring a team of scientists and explorers, and yes, a National Geographic photography team, complete with "Autonomous Leica. My model name is AL-26. My personal name is Margaret, in honor of the twentieth-century photographer Margaret Bourke White. You may call me Maggie." which juust about killed me. They're headed into the back country in search of a persistent rumor about ancient ruins, but they discover something a lot more sinister.
The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss by David Brin was my second favorite story, and also the second-best serious tale in the bunch. I was in awe of this story the whole time I was reading, and I'm still in awe at how well it all flowed. I can't say much without destroying the impact, but the tale reminds me that even when things go badly wrong, life finds a way. So very very good.
Garth Nix gives military sf a whirl with By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers, which, really, that title is just about all you need to know about this story. Oh, and clones. And military draft rules. And really colorful personal fungi.
The Sunset of Time didn't quite work well for me. Michael Cassutt gives it a good shot, and the story is interesting, but the weird parentheticals took too long to be explained, and the characters never quite gelled for me. Earth has gone all Handmaid's Tale, and deviants are shipped out to exile on sinful Venus. The natives are prepping for their regularly scheduled End Times, but humanity just keeps tootling along, although our protagonist Jor is beginning to have his concerns.
We follow that one up with a gut-punch of a story, beautifully and hauntingly told by Tobias S. Buckell. Pale Blue Memories has a light-skinned black member of the exploratory astronaut team narrate the horrible, but oh-so-human consequences of his team's ill-fated Venus landing. Painful to read, but so very well done.
Elizabeth Bear follows this one up with a tale of a bruised spirit who takes refuge in death-defying exploration - far away from her perfect and overbearing co-worker and lover. The Heart's Filthy Lesson balances the pain of jealousy with the overwhelming ecstasy of discovering new places and pushing your limits.
The Wizard of the Trees is John Carter of Venus, and god bless Joe R. Lansdale for giving him to us. Unlike Carter, our hero is plucked from his world by a slimy glowing thing, and chucked into a muddy hot pool. Things don't get much prettier from there, but Jack Davis, our intrepid US Buffalo Soldier, isn't afraid of a challenge. He even has a kick-ass princess encounter of his own!
Mike Resnick works from the same basic story structure as Tidhar, but The Godstone of Venus is a lot less Lovecraft and a lot more Indiana Jones. A merc and his partner are picked up by really strange clients in a run-down bar. The partner can't read the lady's mind, which is odd, because he can read anything's mind. They're on a quest for an artifact that can't exist, and things only get weirder from there.
Our last story is, in my opinion, the absolute best. Ian McDonald delivers to us Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan. It was absolutely and incontrovertably perfection. I loved the conceit, I loved the execution, the story was gripping, and the mystery was lovely. Utterly, utterly delightful.
Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Stories by Allen M. Steele,
Lavie Tidhar,
Paul McAuley,
Matthew Hughes,
Gwyneth Jones,
Joe Haldeman,
Stephen Leigh,
Eleanor Arnason,
David Brin,
Garth Nix,
Michael Cassutt,
Tobias Bucknell,
Elizabeth Bear,
Joe R. Lansdale,
Mike Resnick,
Ian McDonald
ISBN: 9780345537287
Short Story Collection:
Read June 2015
This collection asks modern fantasy and sf authors to imagine that Venus was actually the
steamy jungle (or water) world it was imagined to be in the pulp sf years, and write new stories set in that mythical world. And did they ever deliver!
Allen M. Steele's Frogheads takes us to an ocean world where the locals are very fond of chocolate, and the Russian bureaucracy is still shaking off the accumulated inertia of failed communism. We follow a jaded and taicturn PI searching for the missing son of a rich shipping magnate, and he finds that the son isn't exactly missing.
Lavie Tidhar then gives us the seriously creeptastic and more-than-slightly-Lovecraftian The Drowned Celestial, where our hero is dragooned into a sinister cult, but on the flip side, manages to find a lover! Bonus points for the Aztec link.
Paul McAuley's Planet of Fear pits a tenacious scientist against a war-mad general who is convinced that the evil Americans are plotting against him. And of course a science outpost filled with evidence of crazy people, and lots of dead pigs.
We get my favorite story of the collection, Greeves and the Evening Star, from Matthew Hughes. This was a Jeevsian romp through the most politest of society gentlemen as they attempt to wrap their heads around the amorous advances of a most persuasive and persistent Venusian. Hughes language nearly killed me in this story, and it's the only one that I've gone back and re-read. Just as enjoyable the second go round.
A Planet Called Desire, by Gwyneth Jones, was strange. It had the bones of a white colonial "Crocodile Dundee" sort of story, but the lead driver of the action was an enigmatic scientist mired in regnal red tape, and it resolves itself with a lingering creepy hope. Extra points for being one of the only stories to delve into teleportaton.
Joe Haldeman gives a short creepy first-contact sort of story set in a truly nasty jungle Venus. Living Hell is a perfect descriptor of a place where everything seems designed to do horrible damage to humans. We arrive mid-crisis, as our rescue pilot attempts a desperate rescue of a science outpost that has been cut off due to a giant solar flare. Our pilot is about to get real close and uncomfortable with the biota.
Bones of Air, Bones of Stone, is Stephen Leigh's contribution to oceanic Venus lore, with a strange tale of a pair of ex-lovers united and driven apart by the urge to conquer the extreme - do what's never been done. Here, it's the Great Darkness, a huge pit of deep black water that laughs at the Marianas Trench. Complicating matters is the lore of the locals, who believe that oceanic darkness to be their sacred resting place, and forbid anyone from diving there.
Eleanor Arnason also likes the idea of Communists on Venus, and Ruins gives us a National Geographic meets Washington Post intrigue featuring a team of scientists and explorers, and yes, a National Geographic photography team, complete with "Autonomous Leica. My model name is AL-26. My personal name is Margaret, in honor of the twentieth-century photographer Margaret Bourke White. You may call me Maggie." which juust about killed me. They're headed into the back country in search of a persistent rumor about ancient ruins, but they discover something a lot more sinister.
The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss by David Brin was my second favorite story, and also the second-best serious tale in the bunch. I was in awe of this story the whole time I was reading, and I'm still in awe at how well it all flowed. I can't say much without destroying the impact, but the tale reminds me that even when things go badly wrong, life finds a way. So very very good.
Garth Nix gives military sf a whirl with By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers, which, really, that title is just about all you need to know about this story. Oh, and clones. And military draft rules. And really colorful personal fungi.
The Sunset of Time didn't quite work well for me. Michael Cassutt gives it a good shot, and the story is interesting, but the weird parentheticals took too long to be explained, and the characters never quite gelled for me. Earth has gone all Handmaid's Tale, and deviants are shipped out to exile on sinful Venus. The natives are prepping for their regularly scheduled End Times, but humanity just keeps tootling along, although our protagonist Jor is beginning to have his concerns.
We follow that one up with a gut-punch of a story, beautifully and hauntingly told by Tobias S. Buckell. Pale Blue Memories has a light-skinned black member of the exploratory astronaut team narrate the horrible, but oh-so-human consequences of his team's ill-fated Venus landing. Painful to read, but so very well done.
Elizabeth Bear follows this one up with a tale of a bruised spirit who takes refuge in death-defying exploration - far away from her perfect and overbearing co-worker and lover. The Heart's Filthy Lesson balances the pain of jealousy with the overwhelming ecstasy of discovering new places and pushing your limits.
The Wizard of the Trees is John Carter of Venus, and god bless Joe R. Lansdale for giving him to us. Unlike Carter, our hero is plucked from his world by a slimy glowing thing, and chucked into a muddy hot pool. Things don't get much prettier from there, but Jack Davis, our intrepid US Buffalo Soldier, isn't afraid of a challenge. He even has a kick-ass princess encounter of his own!
Mike Resnick works from the same basic story structure as Tidhar, but The Godstone of Venus is a lot less Lovecraft and a lot more Indiana Jones. A merc and his partner are picked up by really strange clients in a run-down bar. The partner can't read the lady's mind, which is odd, because he can read anything's mind. They're on a quest for an artifact that can't exist, and things only get weirder from there.
Our last story is, in my opinion, the absolute best. Ian McDonald delivers to us Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan. It was absolutely and incontrovertably perfection. I loved the conceit, I loved the execution, the story was gripping, and the mystery was lovely. Utterly, utterly delightful.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Two Serpents Rise, Max Gladstone
Two Serpents Rise
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765333124
Sf/fantasy/urban fantasy/alternate world fantasy
Craft Sequence: Book 2 (following Three Parts Dead, followed by Full Fathom Five, with upcoming working title Last First Snow)
Read April 2, 2015
I read Three Parts Dead already, so I have no idea if someone new to this world with this book would be totally confused, but I think not. The references to the past are not info-dumps, and they are subtly different from the ones in the previous book (which is natural, since we're across an ocean and in a very different society with a completely different perspective on the world's history) but I think they explain the background sufficiently. I can't know, since I'm coming at this with that info already known.
If you did read Three Parts Dead, now we're across the ocean and in an openly Craft-ruled city, built on the ruins of a previously very Incan/Aztec society, complete with pyramid temples, heart sacrifices and soccer played with people's heads.
Our hero is Caleb, a gambler and mid-level "risk management executive" with Red King Consolidated, the Concern (craft-magic bureaucracy) that manages the city's water and power supplies. It's a decent job, until the water in the city's major reservoir literally turns into bloodthirsty inky ooze demons. That's despite the massive wards and guards, naturally. Now Caleb has to balance his duty to the company with his fraught history with religion, with his family, and with his growing attraction to a runner (parkour!) who is most certainly more than she seems.
In addition to this, there's a huge Craft business merger going on between RKC and Heartfire, a smaller water/power Concern run by a former priest turned Craftsman. Finally, Caleb's best friend Teo has to navigate the difficult currents of having a lover who is more politically (perhaps even radically) active than she is comfortable with.
Caleb is a gambler, but he's lost his nerve. In the coming days, he'll either find it again, or die in the process.
I very much enjoyed the read, but I think that I liked the characters and characterization in Three Parts Dead a little more. Teo was awesome, as was the RK himself, but I really would have liked to know Temoc and even Caleb himself a little better.
On the other hand, I feel like the setting and worldbuilding for Dresediel Lex is much more clear and vibrant than for Alt Columb. There were times that AC felt very like a glossed-over "standard western european fantasy city" just because of how the world is set up, and with this location, that was very much not an issue.
Descriptions of magic and of magical effects are still strong and visceral, but on the flip side, the battles were still a little confused.
Some of the plotting is a little tenuous to think about after the book is finished, but the overall concept is so engaging that I didn't notice while I was reading.
Again, the power levels here are super crazy - humans who are able to kill gods, and power that can be used in ways only limited by imagination and reach. Still, there are coffee chains, taxis, and people calling in sick on Mondays because they drank too much the night before. An interesting and sometimes slightly uneasy combination, but I like it.
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765333124
Sf/fantasy/urban fantasy/alternate world fantasy
Craft Sequence: Book 2 (following Three Parts Dead, followed by Full Fathom Five, with upcoming working title Last First Snow)
Read April 2, 2015
I read Three Parts Dead already, so I have no idea if someone new to this world with this book would be totally confused, but I think not. The references to the past are not info-dumps, and they are subtly different from the ones in the previous book (which is natural, since we're across an ocean and in a very different society with a completely different perspective on the world's history) but I think they explain the background sufficiently. I can't know, since I'm coming at this with that info already known.
If you did read Three Parts Dead, now we're across the ocean and in an openly Craft-ruled city, built on the ruins of a previously very Incan/Aztec society, complete with pyramid temples, heart sacrifices and soccer played with people's heads.
Our hero is Caleb, a gambler and mid-level "risk management executive" with Red King Consolidated, the Concern (craft-magic bureaucracy) that manages the city's water and power supplies. It's a decent job, until the water in the city's major reservoir literally turns into bloodthirsty inky ooze demons. That's despite the massive wards and guards, naturally. Now Caleb has to balance his duty to the company with his fraught history with religion, with his family, and with his growing attraction to a runner (parkour!) who is most certainly more than she seems.
In addition to this, there's a huge Craft business merger going on between RKC and Heartfire, a smaller water/power Concern run by a former priest turned Craftsman. Finally, Caleb's best friend Teo has to navigate the difficult currents of having a lover who is more politically (perhaps even radically) active than she is comfortable with.
Caleb is a gambler, but he's lost his nerve. In the coming days, he'll either find it again, or die in the process.
I very much enjoyed the read, but I think that I liked the characters and characterization in Three Parts Dead a little more. Teo was awesome, as was the RK himself, but I really would have liked to know Temoc and even Caleb himself a little better.
On the other hand, I feel like the setting and worldbuilding for Dresediel Lex is much more clear and vibrant than for Alt Columb. There were times that AC felt very like a glossed-over "standard western european fantasy city" just because of how the world is set up, and with this location, that was very much not an issue.
Descriptions of magic and of magical effects are still strong and visceral, but on the flip side, the battles were still a little confused.
Some of the plotting is a little tenuous to think about after the book is finished, but the overall concept is so engaging that I didn't notice while I was reading.
Again, the power levels here are super crazy - humans who are able to kill gods, and power that can be used in ways only limited by imagination and reach. Still, there are coffee chains, taxis, and people calling in sick on Mondays because they drank too much the night before. An interesting and sometimes slightly uneasy combination, but I like it.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Classic SF: Power Play, Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Power Play
Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
ISBN: 0345388267
Read January 28, 2015
Third (final) book of the Petaybee trilogy (Powers that Be, Power Lines)
Oof. The well water gets a bit gritty towards the bottom. Overall storyline concludes nicely - the assholes from the two previous books hire a notorious space pirate to kidnap Yana, Marmion, Diego, and Bunny. Meanwhile, the planet and the people on the surface (mainly Sean, Johnny, and 'Cita/Aoife/Goat-Dung/Youngling) repel invaders intent on despoiling the ample hunting grounds and medicinal biota of the planet.
Plot-devices that were faintly apparent and easy to overlook in the first books got much worse: the slang is dated and ill-used, the language (especially dialogue) is stilted and ridiculous, and situations are obviously contrived for effect rather than sense.
Despite that, and the many eye-rolls and sighs, I did enjoy reading it, and I'm glad I finished off the set. Namid especially is a good character, and it was nice to see the religious supplicants actually being useful characters (although we never find out what happens with "Brother Granite" who isn't who he appears to be).
Also, with the epilogue, can we stop with the fantasy of women giving birth with no pain and it being a magical dreamy perfect experience that ends with them immediately rising from the birthing pool looking "flat-bellied and lithe again"? Seriously? It's patronizing.
Third (final) book of the Petaybee trilogy (Powers that Be, Power Lines)
Oof. The well water gets a bit gritty towards the bottom. Overall storyline concludes nicely - the assholes from the two previous books hire a notorious space pirate to kidnap Yana, Marmion, Diego, and Bunny. Meanwhile, the planet and the people on the surface (mainly Sean, Johnny, and 'Cita/Aoife/Goat-Dung/Youngling) repel invaders intent on despoiling the ample hunting grounds and medicinal biota of the planet.
Plot-devices that were faintly apparent and easy to overlook in the first books got much worse: the slang is dated and ill-used, the language (especially dialogue) is stilted and ridiculous, and situations are obviously contrived for effect rather than sense.
Despite that, and the many eye-rolls and sighs, I did enjoy reading it, and I'm glad I finished off the set. Namid especially is a good character, and it was nice to see the religious supplicants actually being useful characters (although we never find out what happens with "Brother Granite" who isn't who he appears to be).
Also, with the epilogue, can we stop with the fantasy of women giving birth with no pain and it being a magical dreamy perfect experience that ends with them immediately rising from the birthing pool looking "flat-bellied and lithe again"? Seriously? It's patronizing.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Classic SF: Power Lines, Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Power Lines
Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
ISBN: 0345387805
Read January 21, 2015
Second book of the Petaybee trilogy (Powers that Be, Power Play)
Book two of the set was as interesting, perhaps more-so than the first, but suffered from un-wrapped threads at the ending, especially regarding Shush.
Petaybee has just forced a confrontation with Intergal, and they've sent a duo of company execs to determine the best course of action to continue making money from the planet. The lady capitalist Marmion is our added protagonist, along with Goat-Dung (good grief) and Coaxtl on the planetary side. Our new antagonists appear in the form of the "ethnographer" Matthew Luzon, and the continuing obstruction of Torkel Whittaker from the first book.
The planet is melting, the growing season is either early or the climate is shifting, and Intergal is desperate to find pockets of colonists who don't believe Petaybee is a benevolent sentient being (since finding anyone who doesn't believe that it's sentient at all is a bust) and Luzon is off to the southern continent to find them.
There are missing siblings, miraculous rescues, pointedly-useful biota, and general asshattery from the corporation. I thought the pacing was better, and the variety of cultures and attitudes was refreshing, but at the end, there were too many strings to tie up, and some were left to hang, or were tied up in ways that don't make sense even by the very loose plotting standard set by the rest of the book.
Still, fun to read. I'm going to try the last, just so I can say I finished the trilogy.
Second book of the Petaybee trilogy (Powers that Be, Power Play)
Book two of the set was as interesting, perhaps more-so than the first, but suffered from un-wrapped threads at the ending, especially regarding Shush.
Petaybee has just forced a confrontation with Intergal, and they've sent a duo of company execs to determine the best course of action to continue making money from the planet. The lady capitalist Marmion is our added protagonist, along with Goat-Dung (good grief) and Coaxtl on the planetary side. Our new antagonists appear in the form of the "ethnographer" Matthew Luzon, and the continuing obstruction of Torkel Whittaker from the first book.
The planet is melting, the growing season is either early or the climate is shifting, and Intergal is desperate to find pockets of colonists who don't believe Petaybee is a benevolent sentient being (since finding anyone who doesn't believe that it's sentient at all is a bust) and Luzon is off to the southern continent to find them.
There are missing siblings, miraculous rescues, pointedly-useful biota, and general asshattery from the corporation. I thought the pacing was better, and the variety of cultures and attitudes was refreshing, but at the end, there were too many strings to tie up, and some were left to hang, or were tied up in ways that don't make sense even by the very loose plotting standard set by the rest of the book.
Still, fun to read. I'm going to try the last, just so I can say I finished the trilogy.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Classic SF: Powers that Be, Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Powers that Be
Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
ISBN: 078572852X
Read January 16, 2015
First book of the Petaybee trilogy (Power Lines and Power Play)
Really more Science Fantasy than SF, this is very much like Pern in that "psy" type abilities and planetary sentience are treated as having equal possibility with space travel and terraforming.
Most extra-Solar work these days is done by Intergal, a massive company that discovers, colonizes, and exploits the resources of planets across the galaxy. Our hero is an ex-company soldier, who was injured during a "terrorist attack" on a remote colony world.
Now she's sent to Petaybee, a small rural, backwards ice-ball of a planet, to live out her last few years on the company's dime before her injury does her in. Except, now that she's here, would she mind horribly integrating with the locals (a bizarro mix of Inuit and Irish cultures) and spying on them because they keep obstructing company efforts to locate and mine the planet's valuable resources? If so, she'll find that her pension is increased, and she'll get access to the company base, rather than the useless empty company store meant for the locals.
Now, she's stuck between loyalty to her employer, and a growing sense of unease that the company is about to commit a terrible moral offense against a sentient mind.
I enjoyed it enough to pick up the next, but it was a bit weak in places. It's fairly obvious that the weird Irish/Inuit blend was the reason for the story, and everything else was sketched in to support that odd premise. The company goons are company goons, the locals are nearly all wonderful people, and the "powers" of the planet and the genetically-altered (good lord the dithering about with genetic manipulation and genetic alteration and adaptations was enough to drive one nuts) residents were even more thinly-related to actual science than the magic dragons of the Pern books.
Fun to read for the history lesson, and to see how far the genre has come; I'm reading Ancillary Justice at the same time, and the contrast is mind-blowing.
Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
ISBN: 078572852X
Read January 16, 2015
First book of the Petaybee trilogy (Power Lines and Power Play)
Really more Science Fantasy than SF, this is very much like Pern in that "psy" type abilities and planetary sentience are treated as having equal possibility with space travel and terraforming.
Most extra-Solar work these days is done by Intergal, a massive company that discovers, colonizes, and exploits the resources of planets across the galaxy. Our hero is an ex-company soldier, who was injured during a "terrorist attack" on a remote colony world.
Now she's sent to Petaybee, a small rural, backwards ice-ball of a planet, to live out her last few years on the company's dime before her injury does her in. Except, now that she's here, would she mind horribly integrating with the locals (a bizarro mix of Inuit and Irish cultures) and spying on them because they keep obstructing company efforts to locate and mine the planet's valuable resources? If so, she'll find that her pension is increased, and she'll get access to the company base, rather than the useless empty company store meant for the locals.
Now, she's stuck between loyalty to her employer, and a growing sense of unease that the company is about to commit a terrible moral offense against a sentient mind.
I enjoyed it enough to pick up the next, but it was a bit weak in places. It's fairly obvious that the weird Irish/Inuit blend was the reason for the story, and everything else was sketched in to support that odd premise. The company goons are company goons, the locals are nearly all wonderful people, and the "powers" of the planet and the genetically-altered (good lord the dithering about with genetic manipulation and genetic alteration and adaptations was enough to drive one nuts) residents were even more thinly-related to actual science than the magic dragons of the Pern books.
Fun to read for the history lesson, and to see how far the genre has come; I'm reading Ancillary Justice at the same time, and the contrast is mind-blowing.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone
Three Parts Dead
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765333100
Sf/fantasy/urban fantasy/alternate world fantasy.
Craft Sequence titles: Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, and (upcoming book's working title: Last First Snow)
This is a world where Gods exist, and live in (mostly) symbiotic spiritual cohabitations with humans: humans provide worship (soul energy) to the Gods, and the Gods use (some of) that energy to protect and prosper their people. The Gods also use the energy to protect and prosper themselves, and once they are strong and savvy enough (through worship and assiduous soul energy use) they also create complex power-sharing and alliance deals with other Gods.
A few generations ago, science finally caught up to religion, and Crafters were realized - essentially scientists realized that this soul energy could be measured, realized, and harnessed, and quite a lot of scientists became essentially mages who reaped soul energy from anywhere they could find it (usually destructively) as they tested the limits (pretty much non-existent) and abilities (pretty much endless) of their new power-source. The Gods realized they were in danger from these atheistic power-hungry humans, and Craft-less humans realized that these upstarts were either going to 1) compete with their Gods for available soul energy (weakening the Gods by cutting into their power-monopoly), and/or 2) destroy the countryside in their mad scientific pursuit of knowledge (and, let's be honest here, more power).
So the Craft and the Gods fought a huge and bitter war, leaving many Gods dead, most normal people scarred by the flagrant abuse of powers on both sides, and the Craft hiding in the skies from the potentially pitchfork-wielding mobs.
Now, the Hidden Schools and the countries ruled by the elder statesmen of the Craftspeople do their best to stay hidden, to find and nurture young Crafters, and, secondarily, to provide services and scientific advances for the enclaves of the religious, and to the people in the countrysides.
Got all that?
Into this world, a traumatic and potentially catastrophic event: One of the few remaining Gods, Kos Everburning of the city of Alt Coulumb, is dead. Gods are really not meant to die, and this specific death is being blamed on a power imbalance (the party line is that either Kos or his Church didn't adequately monitor the soul energy contracts he was involved in, and an unexpected call for aid precipitates his fall). Our heroines are essentially soul-lawyers and Craft-investigators, and they have their suspicions.
I love this world, and the interesting balances of power and responsibility, and the differences in knowledge and worldview provided by different characters who are either religious or not, or who are conversant in Craft or not, are really clever ways to present information about the world that may or may not be so much fact as opinion.
On the downside, the way this world deals with nearly unlimited potential power-scales and abilities made it a perfect recommendation for my husband, which is a real shame because he devoured this one in two days and started on Two Serpents Rise before I could get my hands on it!
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765333100
Sf/fantasy/urban fantasy/alternate world fantasy.
Craft Sequence titles: Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, and (upcoming book's working title: Last First Snow)
This is a world where Gods exist, and live in (mostly) symbiotic spiritual cohabitations with humans: humans provide worship (soul energy) to the Gods, and the Gods use (some of) that energy to protect and prosper their people. The Gods also use the energy to protect and prosper themselves, and once they are strong and savvy enough (through worship and assiduous soul energy use) they also create complex power-sharing and alliance deals with other Gods.
A few generations ago, science finally caught up to religion, and Crafters were realized - essentially scientists realized that this soul energy could be measured, realized, and harnessed, and quite a lot of scientists became essentially mages who reaped soul energy from anywhere they could find it (usually destructively) as they tested the limits (pretty much non-existent) and abilities (pretty much endless) of their new power-source. The Gods realized they were in danger from these atheistic power-hungry humans, and Craft-less humans realized that these upstarts were either going to 1) compete with their Gods for available soul energy (weakening the Gods by cutting into their power-monopoly), and/or 2) destroy the countryside in their mad scientific pursuit of knowledge (and, let's be honest here, more power).
So the Craft and the Gods fought a huge and bitter war, leaving many Gods dead, most normal people scarred by the flagrant abuse of powers on both sides, and the Craft hiding in the skies from the potentially pitchfork-wielding mobs.
Now, the Hidden Schools and the countries ruled by the elder statesmen of the Craftspeople do their best to stay hidden, to find and nurture young Crafters, and, secondarily, to provide services and scientific advances for the enclaves of the religious, and to the people in the countrysides.
Got all that?
Into this world, a traumatic and potentially catastrophic event: One of the few remaining Gods, Kos Everburning of the city of Alt Coulumb, is dead. Gods are really not meant to die, and this specific death is being blamed on a power imbalance (the party line is that either Kos or his Church didn't adequately monitor the soul energy contracts he was involved in, and an unexpected call for aid precipitates his fall). Our heroines are essentially soul-lawyers and Craft-investigators, and they have their suspicions.
I love this world, and the interesting balances of power and responsibility, and the differences in knowledge and worldview provided by different characters who are either religious or not, or who are conversant in Craft or not, are really clever ways to present information about the world that may or may not be so much fact as opinion.
On the downside, the way this world deals with nearly unlimited potential power-scales and abilities made it a perfect recommendation for my husband, which is a real shame because he devoured this one in two days and started on Two Serpents Rise before I could get my hands on it!
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