Martin's Booklog

Double Star – Robert A. Heinlein

Published on December 2, 2007

Double Star
Robert A. Heinlein
127 pages
published in 1956

There are times when you can no longer understand why Heinlein has such a good reputation in science fiction, considering his often pernicious influence on other writers and the vileness of his later books, when even the “good Heinleins” do not look so good anymore in retrospect. At such times, it’s good to reread a novel like Double Star and remember why you liked Heinlein in the first place. Double Star has long been one of my favourite Heinleins, but after this reread it may just very well be my alltime favourite. It has all of Heinlein’s strengths and few to none of his weaknesses.

If you’re familiar with Heinlein, especially late Heinlein, you’ll know these weaknesses: a tendency to preach and pontificate, a weakness for obnoxious blowhards as his heroes, an inordinate fondness for incestious relationships… None of these are present here. Instead you get Heinlein at his best, packing a rollicking adventure story, political intrigue and a fully realised future in less than 128 pages.

Players – Paul J. McAuley

Published on November 25, 2007

Cover of Players

Players
Paul J. McAuley
390 pages
published in 2007

Paul J. McAuley used to be one of my favourite science fiction writers. Used to be, because unfortunately he seems to have chucked it in favour of writing crime and thriller novels. Probably for some silly reason as that they sell better. Not that I mind writers trying out other genres, but whereas I devoured McAuley’s science fiction novels, I couldn’t finish Mind’s Eye, the first of his thrillers I try, stopping halfway through and returned it to the library after it had been lying on my shelves accusively for a few weeks. It’s therefore with some trepidation that I approached Players, but I wanted to give him another chance. And it worked, in as far as that I finished this one.

What’s interesting is that Players shares its opening gimmick, a crime in an online game having repercussions in the real world, with Charlie Stross’ very different Halting State, which was also published this year. But whereas Charlie’s novel is set some years in the future and is quite clearly science fiction, Players is set in the here and now and quite clearly is not.

Gardens of the Moon — Steven Erikson

Published on November 24, 2007Leave a comment

Cover of Gardens of the Moon

Gardens of the Moon
Steven Erikson
703 pages
published in 1999

This may very well be the ultimate epic fantasy series. Ten books are projected, of which seven so far have been published –this being the first one– and as far as I know each sequel is bigger then the previous book. Size of course isn’t everything and there have been enough other fantasy brick series
published, so what makes this one so special?

It has everything.

A horrendously complicated system of magic, the Undead (they’re good guys, sort of) dragons, a multitude of lesser and greater gods, epic battles, a plot that makes the Wheel of Time look simple, a grittiness that matches anything Glen Cook wrote about in the Black Company series, great and powerful heroes and villains (but who is who depends on your point of view), several innocents caught up in it all, worldweary and cynical soldiers still trying to do what’s right, wizards and demons by the ton, even honest to god ninjas. Gardens of the Moon is the first book of a new fantasy series, but it feels as if you’re dropped in the middle of a long running one. There’s no slow start, no gradual acclimatising; what little clues are given to the greater story you have to find for yourself. Little is explained, there are no handy infodumps and if you’re not familiar with epic fantasy in general, do not even start this.

Neuromancer – William Gibson

Published on November 21, 2007

Cover of Neuromancer

Neuromancer
William Gibson
271 pages
published in 1984

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” The first time I read that sentence was a year or two after Neuromancer had been published; it immediately made all the science fiction I had read before seem oldfashioned and dull. Only other cyberpunk still seemed relevant, though none as relevant as Neuromancer. Gibson had seen the future and pinned it down for us to enjoy. Fast forward ten years and what seemed so radical then now looked dated and silly. It was clear Gibson knew nothing of computers, that his vision was a fraud and Neuromancer an overrated piece of hackwork. Fast forward another ten years and neither view seems true. Enough time has now passed to see Neuromancer for what it really is, a novel that sits comfortably within the science fiction continuum, one part in a thread that runs from Heinlein’s juveniles through Brunner’s late sixties disaster novels like Stand on Zanzibar to modern works like Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon or Stross’ Halting State.

It had been over a decade since I last read this; I’d convinced myself that Neuromancer was actually a bad book and Gibson a hack writer for a few years so I’d buried his novels in the back of my book collection and forgot about them. But having read both Snowcrash and The Diamond Age this year I felt the urge to reread Neuromancer as well and rediscovered that this is actually quite a good novel, if you can take it on its own terms.

Brasyl – Ian McDonald

Published on November 14, 2007

Cover of Brasyl

Brasyl
Ian McDonald
404 pages
published in 2007

Call Ian McDonald the anti-Niven. Whereas Larry Niven has often been accused of writing all his characters as if they belong at an early sixties Californian cocktail party, McDonald’s characters always come across as belonging to the particular ethnic and cultural background they’re said to belong to. This is because McDonald, like the best science fiction writers is genuinely interested in culture as well as science, and genuinely interested in cultures other than his own. He has a knack for painting a picture of a given culture, whether real or invented, through the judicious use of background detail and character interests. So far I’ve not yet read a McDonald novel in which the world he created didn’t convince me. His latest novel, Brasyl, continues that trend. It’s set, of course, in that perpetual country of the future: Brazil.

Comparisons with McDonald’s 2004 novel River of Gods are therefore quickly made, though unjustified. Apart from that both novels take place in countries that are not often used as a setting in science fiction and apart from these settings being an essential part of them, not just an exotic background for some displaced westerners adventure to take place against, the two novels have nothing muchin common. Which is just as well.