BOOK REVIEW: Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space is the first novel I read by this British author. His work is reminiscent of another British sci-fi author, the brilliant Peter F. Hamilton. Hamilton happens to be one of my favorite writers, so it is great praise from me to compare Reynolds favorably to Hamilton.

It takes a while to get going but around page 50 or so it had sucked me in and I had great difficulty in putting the book down. By about page 200, I started looking to buy the sequels Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap on Alibris.com.

The main idea of the Revelation Space universe is that there is something, which eventually gets named the Inhibitors, that eliminates sentient species soon after they have demonstrated the ability to travel between stars. Once they have demonstrated that they can travel significant fractions of the speed of light, something completely annihilates the species and they become extinct. This explains why spacefaring humans have discovered the remains, fossils and artefacts of nearly a dozen technological species, but never a live alien. It's an intriguing premise, but it merely serves as background to the central storylines which are more character-driven.

Here is a great summary of the characters in Revelation Space written by Ryan Anderson at The Martian Chronicles blog

 The main character, Dan Sylveste is a scientist studying that civilization, driven by an unstoppable compulsion to solve the mystery of what happened to the Amarantin. Meanwhile, Ana Khouri is an assassin who has been hired by the mysterious “Mademoiselle” to kill Sylveste and prevent him from discovering the answer. A third main character, Volyova, is one of only a handful of surviving crewmembers on a starship that holds some of the most powerful weapons ever concieved. The ship is gradually being consumed by a virus emanating from their captain, who is kept frozen in stasis to slow the spread of the infection. 

I think it is pretty significant that the two of the main characters are female. Some reviewers have complained that none of the main characters are very likable, but there is no question that they are interesting and intriguing.

I really liked seeing the world through the eyes of Irina Volyova and Anna Khouri. Dan Sylveste is the most important character in terms of the Revelation Space universe, but he was not the character that most appealed to me.

The book itself is paced pretty slowly, but is well worth the time invested to unwrap the intricate, overlapping plots. It is a great introduction to the gripping, very hard sci-fi universe of Alastair Reynolds, a place any fa of real space opera will enjoy.

Author: Alastair Reynolds.
Title: Revelation Space.
Length: 592 pages.
Publisher: Ace.
Date: May 28, 2002.

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.5/4.0).
PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: B+.

BOOK REVIEW: Peter Hamilton's Fallen Dragon

Peter F. Hamilton's Fallen Dragon is one of my favorite author's only stand-alone novels, since it is not part of any of his multiple trilogies or series.

Fallen Dragon was written soon after Hamilton had completed his masterpiece, the 3000-page Night's Dawn trilogy but I read it while waiting for the next book in the Void trilogy.

The parallels with the books in that series (The Dreaming Void, The Temporal Void) are immediately apparent. Both works intertwine Hamilton's typical hard-sci fi plot with another tale which is softer, more fantasy-related.

The main character in Fallen Dragon is Lawrence Newton, whose story is told in two different timelines: one as a teenage kid in the throes of his first love dreaming of getting off the godforsaken planet Amethi his family is colonizing and terraforming and the other as a hard-bitten mercenary working for the Zantiu-Braun corporation in the pillaging of asset-rich, defense-poor worlds.

While participating in "asset realization" on the planet of Thallspring as part of a quasi-military invasion force which is being resisted by a local insurgent population, Newton hears rumors about a "fallen dragon" in a rural village. The village Arnoon is rumored to harbor a vast treasure and a curious Newton goes to explore.

Overall, Fallen Dragon features Hamilton's typical flairs of militaristic activities, especially space battles and combat missions. It doesn't feature characters as resonant as his best work but is still a compelling suspenseful read.

Title: Fallen Dragon.
Author: Peter F. Hamilton.
Hardcover: 640 pages.
Publisher: Aspect.
Date: March 11, 2002.

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A-.

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.5/4.0).

BOOK REVIEW: Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Trilogy

TITLE: Hominids
AUTHOR: Robert J. Sawyer
PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: B+.

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.5/4.0).

TITLE: Humans
AUTHOR: Robert J. Sawyer
PLOT: B+.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: B.

OVERALL GRADE: B+ (3.33/4.0).

TITLE: Hybrids
AUTHOR: Robert J. Sawyer
PLOT: B+.
IMAGERY: B.
IMPACT: B.
WRITING: B-.

OVERALL GRADE: B-/C+ (3.0/4.0).

Robert J. Sawyer is probably best known now as the author of Flash Forward, on which the now-cancelled ABC television miniseries of the same name was based. However, the Canadian author is also acclaimed for his other science fiction work, which to date have won him Hugo, Nebula and Campbell Memorial awards.

Sawyer is the author of the Neanderthal Parallax, a trilogy of three books: Hominids, Humans, and Hybrids. I read these books this spring when I started watching Flash Forward. Sawyer is one of those speculative fiction authors who has really interesting ideas and is very creative. The central idea of the Neanderthal Parallax is that there are parallel universes, and in one parallel universe the Earth develops with Neanderthals (homo neanderthalis) as the dominant hominid species instead of humans (homo sapiens). When a quantum computer on one of the alternate earths malfunctions, a passage between the two societies is formed and Ponter Boddit, a neanderthal scientist, is transported into a society surrounded by creatures that were extinct on his planet.

Hominids is primarily concerned with using Boddit as a device to compare the two planets and societies where the two different hominid species have developed. Sawyer is at his creative best when he provides us with the details of life on the Neanderthal planet, particularly the social mores and beliefs (i.e. there is no belief in a higher power or "God" in Ponter's planet) through the Neanderthal's reactions and thoughts. Hominids won the 2003 Hugo award for Best Novel and is clearly the best book of the trilogy. Hominids other central character is Mary Vaughn, a Canadian geneticist who is also an expert on neanderthals. Since Sawyer is Canadian, much of the action takes place in Canada. Vaughn is an interesting choice to be the central homo sapiens character in the book. The main deficiency in the book is Sawyer's ham-handedness in the depiction of the characters of Ponter and Mary, as well as some of the other minor characters who are generally one-dimensional in scope.

The sequel to Hominids is Humans. It was also a Hugo award finalist. It continues the brilliant story first began in Hominids but it moves more of the action to the neanderthal version of Earth. In that case, we learn more about the differences in societal structure between neanderthal and human society. Sawyer again does a good job of depicting this surprisingly foreign world but he is somewhat hamstrung because he has to use the character of Mary Vaughn as a vehicle for taking the reader through this world. Vaughn has her own psychological traumas and predilections which influences the way she interacts and experiences the neanderthal planet and its society. Sawyer stoops to some soap opera-like relationship twists that I could have done without in the second book.

The final book in the trilogy is Hybrids which, surprisingly, was also nominated for a Hugo award. It is the least interesting of the three books, and I really only read it because I was curious as to how the plots would be resolved, but by this point I didn't really care. One of the most disturbing sub-plots is resolved in a somewhat obvious manner. Sawyer gets even more heavy-handed in his political allusions to modern Earth society, which I don't disagree with, but is still somewhat annoying.

Overall, the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy is an interesting addition to the science fiction canon, but most readers can just read the first book Hominids and forgo the other two books.

BOOK REVIEW: The Girl Who Played With Fire

The sequel to Stieg Larsson's amazing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is The Girl Who Played with Fire.

As I mentioned in my review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the book was nearly impossible to put down. It's sequel is even more addictive. The third book in what is now being called the Millenium series was released on Tuesday May 25th and is called The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

The first book really doesn't treat Lisbeth Salander as the main character, even though she is clearly the title character. The second book is clearly all about Lisbeth Salander. The book begins with her, the plot centers around her back story and the book ends with her.

There is another mystery in Fire, of course; this time it's a brutal double murder of a couple that occurs the same night (probably in the same hour) as the torture-murder of someone who had abused Lisbeth.

The reader's loyalties are severely tested--could the hyper-intelligent, violent, socially unaware, sexually ambiguous, titular Girl also be a murderer? Mikael Blomkvist, the true main character from Tattoo, returns and is basically the only one who believes in Lisbeth's innocence after she becomes Sweden's #1 Most Wanted criminal, blasted on the front page of every media outlet in the country.

Another interesting feature of Fire is that it includes the internal details of the police investigation to solve the double murder as well as an inside view on the manhunt to track down Lisbeth.

The resolution of the mysteries are skillfully done and by the end of the book we find out a lot more about Lisbeth, especially her family background. But to get there the reader is taken on a nail-bitingly suspenseful ride which is well worth the price of admission: cracking open the book.

Author: Stieg Larsson.
Title: The Girl Who Played with Fire.
Paperback: 656 pages
Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition.
Date Published: March 23, 2009.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A+.

PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A+.
WRITING: A.

BOOK REVIEW: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson has become a publishing phenomenon. It's a contemporary mystery novel set in Sweden (Stockholm, mostly), written by a debut novelist who died suddenly before his books were officially published.

Happily he wrote three books before he died, and the third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest will be released in May 2010. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has also been made into a major (Swedish) motion picture which was released in the United States in March 2010.

The book is centered around Lisbeth Sander, an anti-social hacker with a photographic memory who works with a corporate security form on private investigations of people, as well as Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist/publisher who loses a libel case against a prominent Swedish businessman. The story is set in Sweden, mostly Stockholm and the fictional Hedestad Island.

The plot is incredibly complex, built around three compelling mysteries: solving a disappearance of a 16-year old girl from a remote Swedish island over forty years before, unearthing the truth about the complicated business deal which caused Blomkvist to commit libel and fiiguring out what makes Lisbeth Salander tick.

Salander is one of the great characters in the mystery genre; it is no wonder that Oscar-nominated British actress Carey Mulligan has aggressively gone after (and apparently won) the role, with David Fincher directing.

Despite a viciously negative review from The New York Times, the novel has gone on to become a publishing sensation in several countries and won multiple awards. This is not surprising to understand. Once begun, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is almost impossible to put down. I got it for Christmas last year and had finished it and the sequel before New Year's Eve!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Author: Stieg Larsson.
Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Paperback: 608 pages.
Publisher: Vintage.
Published: June 23, 2009.

OVERALL GRADE: A.

PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A.

BOOK REVIEW: China Miéville's THE CITY & THE CITY

China Miéville, brilliant author of The Scar and Perdido Street Station is back on the top of the critics lists with his latest work, The City & The City.

I am a huge fan of China Miéville's previous fantasy work, and I'm also a big fan of mysteries, so when I heard that the genre-defying British author's latest book was a noir thriller I was excited and intrigued.

The City & The City is a very unusual book (as expected from Miéville) built from a mundane beginning: the body of a murdered woman is found in a bad part of a city and an experienced detective is assigned to the case.

The detective is Inspector Tyador Borlu and the city is Beszel. The other city is Ul Qoma. The city & the city somehow occupy the same geographical space, in what the author calls a "crosshatching" where the residents of each city have their own language, food, culture, dress but have to consciously avoid acknowledging the existence of the other twin city, or be accused of "Breach."

Breach are the mysterious enforcers of the separation between the two cities. Both sides fear breach, and as the story unfolds breach takes on larger-than-life status.

Miéville does an interesting job of subverting and supporting the murder mystery/detective thriller format.

Overall, I was somewhat disappointed by The City & The City. I'm not sure if it is because I had such high expectations from Miéville due to my love of his previous fantasy novels The Scar and Perdido Street Station. One big difference between those works and this latest work is the length. The City & The City is barely half the length of either of those works, and is nowhere as multi-threaded and multi-faceted as those works. This may be due to the form, itself, which of course has an overarching plot imperative: Will the detective solve the mystery and catch who committed the murder?

I think what happens in The City & The City is that the plot is so dominated by this one theme that even the bizarre setting of the two cities is not enough to maintain the level of fascination that Miéville is usually able to sustain when he is creating a work free of the constraints of a specific format like that imposed by the detective procedural.

If you have already read the other Miéville books, I would recommend starting with those and skipping the trip to The City & The City.

Author: China Miéville.
Title: The City & The City.
Length: 336 pages.
Publisher: Del Rey.
Date: May 26, 2009.

OVERALL GRADE: B+ (3.4/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B.
WRITING: B+.

BOOK REVIEW: Iain M. Bank's MATTER

Iain M. Banks has been on my list of science fiction authors to try for quite awhile since his name is often mentioned in the same breath as my favorite, British master of space opera Peter F. Hamilton.

I actually tried to read Banks a few years ago when his The Algebraist came out. It got excellent reviews and was nominated for big awards soI picked it up from the library and hated it. I didn't even bother to wrie up a review. In fact, I'm not even sure I finished it, but I am pretty sure I did. All Banks novels are intricately plotted with multiple threads and characters leavened with wry humor but for some reason The Algebraist just didn't work for me.

Happily, Matter, which is one of the books in the series Banks is most well-known for (The Culture series) is very different from The Algebraist although on the surface their descriptions seem somewhat similar.

Both books feature a sophisticated, galaxy-spanning society which has an intricate, hierarchical culture and a story that centers around a single key individual. In The Algebraist this person is the annoying Fassin Taak, while in Matter this person is Prince Ferbin.

Most reviews of Matter talk about its overwhelming length (600+ pages) but for someone who is a Peter F. Hamilton fan this is really not an obstacle to enjoying the book, since we are accustomed to the 1000+ page-turners Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.

Iain M. Banks' work is reminiscent of Hamilton, with a similarly complicated plot and overly detailed combat scenes. However, Banks also includes a wickedly sharp sense of humor that he deploys to great effect as he simultaneously creates and pokes fun at typical space opera tropes such as advanced weapons technology, super-smart computers, humongous artificial living environments and bizarre aliens.

Reading Matter has convinced me to try and read the earlier works in the Culture series, like Excession (1998) and Look to Windward (2001), the immediate prequel to Matter.

Title: Matter.
Author: Iain M. Banks.
Length: 624 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date: February 10, 2009.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A+ (4.08/4.0).
PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A+.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

BOOK REVIEW: Peter Brett's The Warded Man

Thanks to the book review blog Walker of Worlds, I have discovered some new fantasy and science-fiction authors from looking at Mark Chitty's This Year's Top Reads: Peter V. Brett, Neal Asher, Eric Brown and Alastair Reynolds.

I have actually read a fair number of books by these authors since I discovered Walker of Worlds in December 2009, but the first book I want to review for "Thursday Reviews" is The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. As I have mentioned before, it's much easier to read books than it is to write up reviews of them!
I have a backlog of at least a dozen book reviews that are in various stages of preparation at this point, and I just finished another novel (Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself) last night!

Chitty has a similar love that I have for grand-scale, military space opera, so he is also a big fan of Peter F. Hamilton. However, he is an even bigger fan of Neal Asher who I have just begun to get into. We both are not huge fans of fantasy unless it is done really well (like Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind) so when Chitty gave Peter V. Brett's The Warded Man a 10/10 review it caught my attention.

Since Mark Chitty does such a good job of setting the scene of the book, I will quote from his review:

The world that Peter V Brett has created here is wide in scope and full of character. From the vivid descriptions of the small towns on the outskirts of the cities, where night is always a dangerous time, to the cities themselves - huge and strongly warded against the corelings - there is much to admire. These places felt real, the rundown and ruined houses always a constant reminder of what can happen when wards fail. The cities have their big, luxurious houses while the images of despair that are brought to mind when the lowly shared shelters are mentioned add to the clear distinction of class. Despite all of this and how much I enjoyed the world every time I opened the book, the characters steal the show - and quite rightly too.

We follow our three main characters - Arlen, Leesha and Rojer - from a young age. This allows us to grow with them, feel their fear and desires and aspirations. What is good about these characters is their individuality, the way each one feels completely different from the others, yet there is a strong and wilful element that will not just lie down or continue on the road expected of them.

The corelings are demons that emerge once night falls and take different forms: sand demons, wind demons, wood demons and (the most dangerous) flame demons and rock demons. They are a fantastic invention, but I did have a quibble with Brett in that I don't think he did as good a job as he could have to make it clear what the demons were. First, I thought they were intangible spirits but by the end he makes it clear that they are completely physical beings that eat, bleed and defecate but somehow are magically prevented from violating an area with a ward (a special symbol) on it. I suppose this lack of information in the reader's mind about the nature of the corelings is meant to mimic the characters' ignorance about the demons; the fact that most people have no interest in even fighting the demons or finding out anything more than how to avoid them is a key plot point. However, I found it slightly frustrating that the demons could be both described as ghostly figures that materialized from under the ground as soon as the sunlight faded and solid enough creatures that with sharp teeth and talons and ichor for blood.

The book is quite suspenseful. Mark Chitty identified the most with the main character of Arlen (and he is given the most attention by the author) but I like Leesha more and felt that Rojer was given slightly short shrift. It is clear that Arlen is the title character (it should be noted that in the United Kingdom the book was released with the title The Painted Man, which Chitty thinks is a better, less revealing title to an important plot point but I disagree. I think The Warded Man is an improved title, although either way I figured out the plot point well before its reveal in the book). His journey takes up the majority of the book and ends up in a surprising and somewhat sad conclusion.

Excellent features of the book are its very realistic depiction of life in big cities and small towns in a culture which has almost no technology and the ways that class and gender impact the lives of the characters (there is almost no depiction of race, per se although there is some discussion of ethnicity). Also, the fight scenes between characters and the demons are uniformly excellent, with the final battle to close out the book producing a pulse-racing finale.

Overall, the book is a compelling, exciting tale set in a well-depicted, realistic world that I look forward to visiting again in future work by this first-time author.

Title: The Warded Man.
Author: Peter V. Brett.
Length: 432 pages.
Publisher: Del Rey.
Date: March 10, 2009.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A+.

PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A+.