Review::A World Out Of Time by Larry Niven

A World Out of Time by Larry Niven
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A World out of Time by Larry Niven. I’ve had this book so long I didn’t remember having read it and I probably wouldn’t have re-read it had I not read a more recent book called We Are Legion[We Are Bob] by Dennis E. Taylor.

I chanced to pick up A World out of Time and began reading the first several pages and was intrigued by the notion that this sounded a lot like We Are Legion[We Are Bob] only it is more likely the other way around. They both start with a man who has signed up to the dubious honor of being frozen for future decanting. In Bob’s case it is done as a security against any accident or anything that might kill him prematurely. In A World out of Time Corbell is trying to beat cancer; with a hope that in the future they will have a cure.

In Both stories they fall prey to a future state government where they are considered non-persons and they can be used for whatever the state decides. Bereft of any money’s or valuables they may have tried to set up for their future, they are slaves of the state. In Bob’s case his mind is installed in a machine while Corbell’s is placed in a criminal who has been wiped of mind. Both are being prepped for operating starships that will help the state explore new worlds for colonization. And after this is where the stories really begin to separate from each other. However I have to think the author of Bob’s story might have read Niven’s novel; however, if not, I think he should to experience the striking similarities. For those who want to find out more of Bob’s story you will have to hunt down that book.

Both stories take some time, for training the starship captains, A World out of Time goes much faster to get into space and there we find that he will be traveling with an uploaded consciousness that will be helping operate his ship and sort of keep an eye on him. The uploaded consciousness is a portion of the consciousness of his original handler on the Earth. The handler is, in fact still on the Earth, though this iteration of his consciousness seems to be fairly complete.

There is a period of test of wills as the handler, Peerssa, tries to get Corbell to do what he was activated for and Corbell begins his quest for a way to live longer: perhaps forever. The story becomes a quest for immortality.

Failing to complete the intended mission the Peerssa consciousness finds a way to speed up their return to Earth so that Corbell might still be alive by the time they get there. This involves the use of a black hole and some wonky science that, though it moves them quickly toward Earth—it is an Earth that is billions of years older and the State no longer exists.

On the ancient new Earth there is a strange civilization that would probably suit Peter Pan. Where boys live forever young and rely on other humans that grow old for renewal of their numbers. Corbell suspects there is something in the arrangement that he’s not being told and that there must be a way for everyone to live longer lives. However he will have to live to find that out and his search might be the death of him. As I got closer to the end there were some elements about the technology on the Earth that I recognized to affirm that I really had read this long ago.

As usual with Niven this a pretty good yarn with interesting notions about the future.

If you love good science fiction and/or have read Dennis Taylor’s We Are Legion[We Are Bob] you should love this. If you haven’t read Taylor’s book you should read it next.

JLD 3-2021

View all my reviews

Review::Destroyer by Brian G. Turner

Destroyer by Brian G. Turner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Destroyer by Brian G. Turner Is a bit different from his first novel of the Chronicles of Empire Series. However it is not quite what I expected and definitely doesn’t quite match what the title Destroyer might conjure.

Destroyer is the first of three novels about space travel—the migration of man from his home into the unknown of a new planet. At first I expected a generation ship and though it might be loosely defined that way it really isn’t. However I’m not real clear on what the mission called for in respect to the crew operating the ship. There may have been plans for some rotation. Otherwise the settlers were all frozen, waiting for arrival and landfall.

The whole of the Chronicles of Empire has a similarity to Gene Wolfs New Sun-Short Sun-and Long Sun novels; the sheer suggestion of something in a magnitude of Epic. Though in style and setting the first Novel of Chronicles did bear some similarities to the New Sun portion of Gene Wolfs work, this the generation ship was less so in comparison to the Long Sun. Having recently finished the New Sun and the Long sun books I would be more inclined to compare this set of books to another generation ship set of book I recently read by Beth Revis; her Across the Universe trilogy of books. Even so, there are elements of style and theme that make Destroyer and her sister books something more of Brian G. Turner than anything else.

I might confess of looking at the cover and thinking that this could contain some space battles, what with the massive design of the ship portrayed and the title Destroyer. That’s not the case, and for me it wasn’t a make or break situation. In fact, the author quickly makes it clear that this story is about something else. And as I suggested I was originally thinking of Generation Ship and Colonization of new worlds. To some small extent this is a novel of colonization. Once again, though, the author makes it clear that this is going to be a novel of survival.

Still; none of those adequately describe what this novel is all about. This is a novel about a disparate group of people who have just met under dire circumstance who have to learn to work together to survive. They have to learn to trust each other and or to put aside differences long enough to find a solution to their situation. But more surprisingly this book and the series of three are more about relationships and particularly the relationship of two of these people. Jaigar, we learn early on, is a possible saboteur, though it is unclear what his agenda is. Vannick is a political officer of the government that is funding this program. If Vannick even suspected Jaigar he has the means and duty to squeeze it out of Jaigar. This becomes just the tip of the iceberg of distrust that threatens to end the group before it gets started.

Aboard a ghost ship, the crew have all mysteriously died, this group is, for unknown reasons, brought out of cryo and left to deal with an uncertain crisis where the ship might be dying and taking them and all the other frozen settlers with it. If they can’t work together they are surely doomed and even if they manage to muddle through, there are no guarantees they can solve the problems.

If you enjoy a good mystery and have enjoyed other Generation novels, this should please you, and I think anyone who loves Science Fiction should enjoy this set of books

J.L.D 2021


View all my reviews

Review::Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams

Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams is a book I read originally because someone was searching for a book by some loosely defined description of a book about the singularity and a man with a talking cat. I have picked up a number of books because of someone’s haphazard search for something they once read.

This was one of two that were found and I can’t remember now which was the one they were looking for. However the other book was Accelerando (Singularity) by Charles Stross[third book of the the Singularity series]. Oddly enough Amazon has a quote from Stross on William’s page—giving him some support kudos for his work on implied Spaces.

Both feature the talking cat and the singularity.

I was trying to remember what I liked about Implied Space. It’s definitely not the prose at the end that might be said to mirror epic poetry such as the Odyssey or Iliad and though it is not nearly as dense as Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Odyssey A Modern Sequel, I still don’t have a taste for it.
I decided to read it again.

What I did like was the notion of the Implied Spaces. Our hero Aristide is traveling through the multi-worlds of the singularity and examining the implied spaces[unused spaces created through the architecture]where he discovers interesting things exist. This is how we are introduced to him. However it goes deeper as it’s revealed that he is one of the architects of the group of AI who run(maintain)the multi-worlds. His cat is in fact a construct of one of those AI’s that is used to give that AI freedom to travel with Aristide.

In the beginning we see Aristide as he tries to blend in with the different cultures that exist within the multi-worlds and we also get a sample of his morals and character as the story evolves. The important thing though is that his musing over what exists in the implied spaces is going to be disrupted by a threat to the multi-worlds. Someone or thing is trying to destroy the multi-worlds connections and possibly trying to free the AI’s from perceived slavery: under the authority that presides over the singularity’s multi-worlds.

While pursuing the perpetrators Aristide becomes convinced(applying what he’s learned about implied space)that the universe exists within an Implied Space, which both points to an architect in creation and yet also that mans existence is a non-planned event that filled an otherwise unused void.

That’s not a spoiler. Since the most important thing seems to be the revelation of who the perpetrators of the disruption are.

There are some things that I found predictable(that’s predictable the first time I read it, since this time everything should have been predictable).

Great depiction of what the singularity could be along with some bonus adventure and interesting characters.

J.L.D 2021


View all my reviews

Review:: On the Loop by J.D. Robinson

On the Loop by J.D. Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having read the author's The Hole in the World , it didn't take an arm twist to pick up On the Loop.

The first novel is listed in young adult and this one is not--so, there is that.
This one takes us to a resort island; however it is about a group of people who are getting ready to leave the planet to settle on another far off world. This is their farewell to Earth party and the company sending them has put some rather strange limitations on them(limits that are vital to the plot).

I have to say that the author is beginning to show a style preference in his plot threads.
This is not a bad thing, just an observation.

Once again we have a good start that leads to a bit of a slowdown as we build an image of things that are taking place, because things are going to get turned on their ear again. For this reader it was easy to figure out; however the author doesn't belabor the point as the story becomes something reminiscent of such movies as Groundhog Day.

All this build up is because there is something going on in the background that eventually has to be dealt with.

There are a handful of characters that take the focus: all of them well developed with their own idiosyncrasies.
It's interesting to watch how they work(or fail to work)together.

Once more the editing could be a bit tighter; however again this is only mildly distracting for this reader. Though there is one place where a he is referred to as she and that one might need fixing.

This author has at least three more novels almost completed.

So, lets hurry it up.

JLD

View all my reviews

Review::The Hole in the world by J.D. Robinson

The Hole In the World by J.D. Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up The Hole in the world by J.D. Robinson on someones suggestion.

This is one of those books that starts out with an interesting beginning and then sort of wanders off to do some world building and if you are in a hurry you might get annoyed; however it is helpful to continue on because the nature of the story is such that it needs this buildup.

This is one of those types of stories similar to Philip K Dicks work where things happen for a reason and everything is building up to that point where the reader discovers that everything you just processed has been turned on its ear. For this reader that part was easy to figure out so it was more a matter of waiting for that other shoe to drop. When it does--things get fun. The focus is mostly on three main characters that are done quite well and keep the reader on his toes.

As I mentioned there are a number of word problems. Places where the word in the text doesn't make sense until the reader figures out what should be there. It's not real bad, because after stopping to process it, it is easy to figure out. However for me this lost it a star.

The book could end without the Epilogue--which incidentally leaves room for a sequel.

Definitely heading on to the author's next offering.

JLD


View all my reviews

Review:: Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World Book 1) by Rebecca Roanhorse

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I wanted to love this book and give it a 5 star after reading all of the Editorial Review listed. However there is something to say toward not trying to build something up beyond its measure. I had great expectations. I did not expect a typical zombie apocalypse story.

Add to it that there were moments that I kept thinking there were too many fragmented sentences and pages that I would have to scan back over to try to figure out what was being said. Maybe that was my own measure of denseness or maybe there was a need for editing to find a measure of simplification that would at least let the reader stay in the story without so much stumbling. I really wanted to give a 4 star but this was getting in the way.

That gets us to three stars so how did I get to 4 again?

I had to step back from preconceived notions garnered from misleading reviews and look at this through the eyes of this reader and what I like about reading fiction. Maybe it would have been helpful to put a warning at the front that: the people and the nation depicted in this book do not always match reality. Maybe it is just that I should remember it is fiction and writers often take license regardless how much research they do or whether or not they have firsthand knowledge.

For me characters are the most important part of the story. Sure setting and culture and sociopolitical structure can add to it; however, I don’t particularly care that they dominate and in all truth I mostly am concerned that internally they reflect the reality of the story and not necessarily our reality. Sure it would have been great to get some real insight into what the Navaho nation is all about and I was somewhat disappointed, however that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story.

Who doesn’t love Zombie Apocalypse?

It’s clear from the beginning that the main character, Maggie, is more an outsider to her people than anything else. It is also clear that one weakness she has is that she is naïve enough to be vulnerable to the mystical in the story, to the point that the Trickster is confident that he can fool her despite her resistance to his overtures. I don’t expect Maggie to have a concise view of the beliefs of her people.

Is that the goal in the story?

I’m not certain.

And there is a point where the story reaches a dramatic tragic solution that cuts to the heart of the main character and seems the culmination of her growth and her strength. For this I could almost give 5 stars.

However the story should have ended quite close to this point and it goes on mercilessly to a virtual reversal, which could have waited for book two revelations.

Four Stars and I’ll be looking forward to Storm of Locusts sometime soon.
J.L.D




View all my reviews