Review: mini-reviews for The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet, Wild Cards 11, Nemesis Games, and The Goblin Emperor

 Vandana Singh first came to my attention with her short story, Infinities, in Tor's anthology, Twenty-first Century Science Fiction.  It's quite a good story with a bit about math set in India, which then led me to this collection by a feminist India publishing house.  While a few stories in this collection have a more fantastical and realism bent, the rest are more grounded in science fiction and often have a strong Indian and Asian feel.  I'm glad to have found a new author that does something outside the norm for speculative fiction. 

Rating: 8/10.

Wild Cards 10 did not work for me at all, despite being written by Melinda Snodgrass who can usually be counted on to give a good story.  So after #10, 11 was a bit of a relief.  This one is back on Earth finishing off the plots featuring the jumpers, Bloat, and the Rox as they face off against aces and the US military.  While it's a straightforward and entertaining story, it does suffer from a lack of plot and has a fair bit of padding.  Nevertheless, it's good to finish off the stories and I'll soon be ready to move on to the next in the series.

Rating: 7/10.

 I have a few conflicting feelings about the fifth book in the Expanse series.  It starts off very slowly with the ship in repairs and the crew splitting off getting their own POV chapters.  This part felt very contrived to me.  However, once it gets going, it goes and gives the readers some major sucker punches worthy of George R.R. Martin to the mind and soul.  Then it slows down again at the end and finishes almost with a whimper.  So a wham-bam middle bookended by slow starts and finishes, Nemesis Games is still another compelling entry in the series and I'm looking forward to the next.

Rating: 8/10.

I wasn't planning to read this one.  But I got the whole book in the Hugo reading packet and I was planning to try all the Hugo nominees this year so I gave it a try.  It's fairly average feel-good political story about a nobody and nice guy who becomes emperor and does a good job at it.  However, despite the rave reviews about it, I didn't find anything particularly good about it, nor anything particularly new about the story.  It's been billed quite often as the antithesis to recent surge in "grimdark" and my feeling is why is such a thing needed?  There is enough stuff being published in speculative fiction these days that a reader shouldn't feel overwhelmed by "grimdark".  And it's hardly the first feel-good story about a nice guy so I'm a little baffled by this one.

Rating: 7/10.

 

Review: Old Venus

Old Venus
edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois




Format: Hardcover, 589 pages
Publisher: Bantam
Cover Art: Stephen Youll
Release Date: March 3, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0345537287



George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois have previously edited an anthology titled Old Mars, of stories written in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury.  Of Planetary Romance before the robotic explorers started showing us what the planets really looked like, and in the case of Mars we get a dry, red planet of canals and dead alien cities.

Old Venus is the same idea, but with Venus instead.  A Venus of rain, jungles, and dinosaurs like the stories of Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore. Some of the stories deliberately imitate the same plots and styles of Planetary Romance, while most of them just use the basic inspiration and go for something more original. 

"Frogheads" by Allen Steele.  The first entry in the anthology follows a private investigator hired by a wealthy family to find a missing heir.  It's a somewhat dark story exposing the seedy underbelly of the illegal Venusian drug trade.  Nothing to write home about, but enjoyable enough.

"The Drowned Celestial" by Lavie Tidhar.  This is kind of an odd story about a human and a native Venusian who get involved with evil men, gods, and mysticism in the deep jungle.  It's technically well written, but I never really connected with it. 

"Planet of Fear" by Paul McAuley.  Standard strange planet mystery story.  Russian miners send a distress signal and when the military investigates they find the crew dead or missing.  The Russian distrust concerning Americans and science borders on cliche.  It's a fairly decent sci-fi story, not especially good, but not especially bad either. 

"Greeves and the Evening Star" by Matthew Hughes.  I had a rough start with this one trying to get a handle on the names and setting, but once I did I quite enjoyed it.  Victorian explorers come to Venus for adventure and to study native newts, however, the Venusian species are considerably more dangerous than their Earthly ones.  It's a straightforward alien monster story, but it helps that it's also something of a comedy so it's more enjoyable than you would think. 

"A Planet Called Desire" by Gwyneth Jones.  This is the first piece of fiction by this author that I've read.  It's also the first story in the collection that deliberately follows the same style of Planetary Romance as Edgar Rice Burroughs.  The main character uses some weird, inexplicable interplanetary mechanism to travel to Ancient Venus and has myriad adventures there with the native people, especially one woman in particular.  Rather forgettable actually.

"Living Hell" by Joe Haldeman.  Another monster story of a pilot trying to rescue some crash-landed scientists from the hostile jungle and learning a truth about Venus in the process.  Nothing particularly noteworthy, but it is written by Joe Haldeman after all so it's quite good.

"Bones of Air, Bones of Stone" by Stephen Leigh.  A man, crippled in an accident, attempts to reconnect with his former girlfriend, an adventurer who plans to dive down a deep hole in Venus's ocean after a previously failed attempt.  This story has a little bit of emotional change, a little bit of adventure, and a little bit of native mystery, but not much is really done with any of it.  Decent enough story, though I could have done with a bit more resolution. 

"Ruins" by Eleanor Arnason.  Locals are hired to guide a National Geographic team for a wildlife safari into the Jungles, but wind up with clashing with the CIA over alien ruins.  This is obstentiously a "into the jungle" story, which has some interesting stuff, but the bulk of it is really a political story about interference by America and the CIA.  It's a fairly good story if you don't mind a little preaching. 

"The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss" by David Brin.  Brin's story is quite good, though it doesn't quite fit the theme of the anthology as it's set on a Venus more like the real one.  Earth had started terraforming Venus when it was attacked by a hostile alien species.  Survivors took refuge in habitats at the bottom of Venus's newly formed ocean and are now eking out a meager existence.  Still, it's a pretty good story about hope and the future, and certainly worth reading.

"By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers" by Garth Nix.  Like "Ruins", this is another political story, about the American military experiments coming to light.  It doesn't follow the previous story point-for-point, and it does its own stuff, but it is similar.  That being said, it's still an interesting story. 

"The Sunset of Time" by Michael Cassutt.  I have to be honest, I've never cared for Cassutt's fiction and this story isn't any different.  It's about an engineer building a wormhole-like device on Venus, while the native Venusian population is preparing for some kind of apocalyptic event.  What really jerked me out of the story though was the planet's day.  As most fans of astronomy know, Venus has one of the strangest rotation periods in the solar system, and while all of the other stories in the anthology have days that reflect that of the real Venus or one more like Earth's, Cassutt's Venus is tidally locked with the sun like Earth and the Moon.  It's really strange.

"Pale Blue Memories" by Tobias S. Buckell.  Set during the 60s and 70s where the space race never  cooled down and now the race is on for Venus.  The Americans get there first only to crash-land and be enslaved by the natives.  A sad, but well written story about how some evils are not limited to one world and that the struggle always goes on. 

"The Heart's Filthy Lesson" by Elizabeth Bear.  A scientist has a fight with her wife and runs off into the jungle alone to prove herself by finding alien ruins.  Another "into the jungle" story, but it's really about how people, especially those who sometimes have big egos, relate and get along with each other.  A pretty decent story. 

"The Wizard of the Trees" by Joe R. Lansdale.  Like the Jones story, Lansdale copies the old style Burroughs, but is even more "faithful" and absurd, right down to the ridiculous plots and corny dialogue.  Good grief, the author could tried for something more original.  I haven't enjoyed any of Lansdale's work in the past and this one is no exception. 

"The Godstone of Venus" by Mike Resnick.  This one is actually a sequel to Resnick's short in Old Mars, though each story stands alone.  Reappearing are the two main characters: Scipio, kind of a mercenary/adventurer, and Merlin, an intelligent, telepathic, Venusian beast.  The plot is a straightforward treasure hunt into the jungle, but it's quite good and I enjoyed it.  Made me wonder if Resnick will write any more stories with these two characters. 

"Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts  by Ida Countess Rathangan" by Ian McDonald.  This story is perhaps the most creative and imaginative in the whole anthology.  McDonald pulls out all the stops to create a truly unique alternate history Venus with multiple races and humans, with politics, war, and class struggle, all as the backdrop for a Victorian widow researching Venusian flowers as a pretext for searching for her long-lost brother.  It reminded me a lot of Howard Waldrop and how he can create a truly unique story.  Absolutely fascinating and probably the best in the anthology.  

As with any anthology there are bound to be a few stinkers that a reader can't get into, but get past that and you'll find a good and interesting anthology with Old Venus.  Recommended for something a little different with a touch of nostalgia. 

Rating: 8/10.

Review: more mini-reviews of The Vanished Library, The World of Ice and fire,and A Fine and Private Place

The Vanished Library, as library fans may guess, is about the lost library of Alexandria.  It imagines what the library might have been like by examining contemporary accounts from the ancient world.  Somewhat interesting for history buffs, but it's a little dry and I feel it doesn't really go far enough to bring the accounts across to a more modern audience. 

Rating: 7/10.

Being a huge fan of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as well as a sucker for world-building, it's not a big surprise that I just had to pick up this book.  Sort of an artbook, sort of a fictional history book, you could probably call this a sourcebook/guidebook to the history and world of the series.  Sometimes Martin gets a little carried away with the details, but the details are certainly worth it for more background on the characters, lands, and houses.  I also really loved reading about areas of the world that we haven't seen yet in the books though the lack of entries for Qarth and Slaver's Bay seems rather curious.  Possibly an oversight?

Rating: 9/10.

Wow, this is an oldie.  Written in 1960, a full eight years before The Last Unicorn, this is Peter Beagle's debut novel.  It's a short, quiet, introspective little book about two ghosts, a man who lives in a cemetery, and a cynical, talking raven.  There is a great deal of examination about issues of death, dying, and living by those on both sides of the great divide.  Perhaps worth a look if you're a fan of Beagle.

Rating: 7.5/10. 

Review: more mini-reviews of The Widow's House, Full Fathom Five, The Leopard, Rogues, and The Causal Thief

If you're not already reading the Dagger and the Coin series, I can't help you.  It's not Abraham's best series, but it's very good and enjoyable.  Definitely a must for all fans of epic fantasy.  One of the things I liked about the fourth book was how the re-appearance of a dragon did not become the "deux ex machina" plot device it could have been.  Abraham's ability to play on the tropes of the genre is one of the things I like about these books.

Rating: 8/10.

Full Fathom Five is the third book in the loosely connected Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone.  One of the really interesting things about these books is how closely interconnected gods and mages are their world.  Gladstone does this by using a very legalistic component in his books so that there are lawyers, contracts, courtroom drama, etc.  This gives the books a very unique feel in a genre that sometimes feels stagnant.

This particular book features people who create idols for foreign businesses on an island much like Hawaii.

Rating: 8/10. 

This is my second book by K.V. Johansen.  The first was 2011's Blackdog, and while the world was interesting, the story felt too long and drawn out for the plot.  The Leopard is an improvement, featuring some characters from Blackdog as well as new ones.  The writing feels stronger and never gets bogged.  The two books written so far have a very mythic feel to them with gods, demons, sorcerers, curses, and quests.

Rating: 8/10.

After the disappointment that was last year's Dangerous Women, Rogues was quite a relief.  It is clearly a much stronger anthology than the other.  Most of the stories are quite strong and entertaining.  Even the authors I don't generally read or like managed to write decent stories.  This anthology may not be quite as impressive as Warriors, but it's certainly worth a look.

Rating: 8/10.

This is another sequel and third book for a series that doesn't seem to have a name, I think.  This loose series is very much on the science fantasy scale, like the Clarke quote, where any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.  In this future, matter and information are interchangeable and virtually indistinguishable.  

This third outing was not quite as enjoyable as the first book, but I liked it a lot.  Rajaniemi is an author to watch.

Rating: 7.5/10. 

I've seen this one called a "side-quel" to Blindsight, which doesn't make much sense to me.  What I think is more accurate, it that it's a companion piece to the 2006 book about sentience and intelligence.  This tackles some of the same ideas, but in a different way that is kind of hard to describe.  In the appendix to this book, the author suggests, "faith-based hard sci-fi", which is certainly interesting.  I didn't enjoy Echopraxia quite as much Blindsight, but then a lot of ideas in this one were over my head.  The two books together are certainly full of fascinating ideas and just beg for multiple re-reads.

Rating: 8.5/10.

Inside Straight

Having heard a lot about the Wild Cards series, and being edited by my favorite author, I just had to pick up Inside Straight, the 18th Wild Card book. Wilds Cards is a shared-universe series that was created and edited since 1987 by George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass. It tells the history of the world since the disruption of the alien wild card virus and the heroes that emerged from the chaos.
Inside Straight is the new generation of the Wild Card series and begins appropriately with the second generation of aces and jokers. The book begins with the Caliph, ruler of several Arabic nations, being murdered, allegedly by Joker terrorists. This causes a crackdown and genocide of Jokers in Egypt by Arab extremists vowing revenge. In America, the second plotline follows the development of the newest and most popular reality show to date: American Hero. All contestants are aces who will compete to win a million dollar prize as well as for the title of “Hero”. At first separate, the two storylines intertwine as contestants become determined to make a difference.
While I was excited to be reading my first Wild Cards book, I was a little worried by the setting of the reality show. Personally, I hate reality shows because of the politics and backstabbing that has become a mainstay of such programs. Such a backdrop certainly created intense character moments, especially as it is a complete contradiction to the concept of a hero. Indeed, many of the contestants leave the show for precisely this reason.
Inside Straight reads more like a mosaic novel than a collection of short stories as Martin did a hell of a job editing to ensure that the stories ran seamlessly and correctly. Character development is very well handled and the reader is treated to in-depth look at several characters providing for a wide perspective on events. I loved reading about the aces and their powers. Their powers (and deformities) are so much more varied and richly imagined than a typical comic book.
The only real drawback was that the book sometimes bordered on cheesy, but thankfully managed to avoid it. I enjoyed how the characters had to find their own definitions of the word hero. Highly recommended.
Rating: 9/10.
Other reviews can be found at OF Blog of the Fallen and Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. Also check out the Wild Cards website at http://www.wildcardsbooks.com/.

Hunter's Run

A three-way collaboration between George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham, Hunter’s Run tells the tale of Ramon Espejo. Ramon is a prospector on the colony world Sao Paulo who is always searching for the big strike. He happens to kill an important figure in a bar fight and flees to the outback to escape justice, however, out there he encounters a strange alien race who force him to be used for their own purposes. In the process, Ramon will discover truths about himself as well as prove what it means to be alive and what it means to be human.
Hunter’s Run was a long time in the making; Dozois originally wrote it as a novella in the late 1970s. In 1977, Martin invited Dozois to read his story at a workshop. The story received a chilly reception, however Martin liked it and suggested it could be made into novel form. He worked on it until 1981 before sending it back to Dozois who consequently buried it in his desk for 20 years. Martin then suggested the story needed a fresh writer and in enters Daniel Abraham, who carried the book to its conclusion, before returning it to Dozois for the finishing touches.
I liked this book quite a bit, which is hardly surprising considering Martin is my favorite author. The aliens in the book are distinctive and fleshed out as is the colony world of Sao Paulo. Though of course the story is really about Ramon Espejo. Ramon is a very gray character that struggles to control his drinking and his rage while among others. Yet anyone who knows the impulses of solitude and wanderlust will understand what drives him to explore. Martin and Dozois are close friends and both influenced Abraham so it’s no surprise that the writing style is consistent throughout the novel. In fact, I found it difficult to tell where one author left off and another began. I’ve never read Dozois, but the nicely ambiguous ending of Hunter’s Run, plus the grittiness of the setting, is quite typical of both Martin and Abraham. I felt that the story’s only real drawback was that it could have been expanded a bit more. The book also includes an afterword covering the history of the story as well as an interview with the three authors.
Final Rating: 9/10.