Adam's Books

Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, "The Gathering Storm"

2011-07-24 15:05; in Adam's Books, Wheel of Time; 259 words

Brandon Sanderson continues the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan's death; this is the first of three Jordan-Sanderson books to complete the series, making fourteen in all. The plotting is Jordan's, but the words are largely Sanderson's — and he does an excellent job.

While Sanderson's style is distinctly different from Jordan's — and this is obvious right from the introduction — I didn't find the transition jarring; he does a decent job of the full range of Jordanian fantasy from private thoughts to big set-piece battles. Most of the characters' voices are spot on, with Egwene being especially good, and Rand and LTT being very convincing; Mat changes the most, although I suspect that's because he's just an enormous amount of fun to write.

No complaints about pacing either: things happen. This book is primarily about the reunification of the White Tower — which makes it an Egwene book, really — while Rand attempts to forge an alliance of nations and avoid going insane in the process. The plot comes together neatly, and it's pretty clear where it's got to go next. Sanderson also manages to weave in a few interesting worldbuilding details that I wasn't expecting (e.g. the scene with Cadsuane and the innkeeper); the world's got to change, but it's nice to see more detail of what's there already.

Sanderson clearly has a great deal of love and respect for the series; it's nice to see it in good hands. And yes, of course I'll be buying the next two...

ISBN 1841492329. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

Tad Williams, "City of Golden Shadow"

2011-07-18 08:39; in Adam's Books, Otherland; 74 words

A sprawling cyberpunk mystery. The author's clearly in for the long haul here: this is the first of four in the series, and it ends on a cliffhanger. I don't think it's really doing anything novel, but it's got lots of good bits; the South African setting is unusual and works well. I do wish the antagonists were a bit less cartoonishly evil, though...

ISBN 1857236041. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

Annette Hope, "A Caledonian Feast"

2011-07-12 08:59; in Adam's Books; 44 words

A history of Scottish food. Excellent stuff; all sorts of things I didn't know, plenty of practical recipes, and lots of interesting references to historical sources should I wish to know more. Thoroughly recommended.

ISBN 184195375X. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

Brian Aldiss, "The Shape of Future Things"

2011-07-12 08:58; in Adam's Books; 56 words

A 1970 collection of unstructured ponderings on life, society and technology — the sort of things SF writers put on their blogs these days. Some of his predictions pan out (he nails the smartphone, for example); some don't. Interesting but not structured enough to really grab me.

ISBN 0552095338. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

Ken MacLeod, "Engines of Light" trilogy

2011-07-12 08:58; in Adam's Books; 317 words

I was not preaching, said Salasso. I was conveying the results of a scientific investigation.

It was pretty clear by the time I was halfway through the first book that I was going to enjoy this series, so I wound up reading all three back to back. (I bought the first because it was nominated for a Hugo and sounded interesting; I'm glad in retrospect that I didn't go looking for other reviews, since many reviewers completely savage this series.)

Cosmonaut Keep: a near-alternate-future BOFH becomes embroiled in a data-smuggling plan, revealing information about space exploration that both world governments were trying to keep quiet; meanwhile, his far-alternate-future descendants work to rediscover the FTL technology they need to start trading between the worlds of their civilisation without help from aliens.

ISBN 1841490679. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

Dark Light: the traders arrive on a new world, with Entertaining Consequences. Stone and his society of hang-glider-manufacturing primitives: nicely done. Good musical bit in the middle; I wonder if he's got a tune in mind for A Lass in Rawley's Toun?

ISBN 1841491098. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

Engine City: more along the same lines; immortality, revolution, and fractal aliens.

ISBN 1841492035. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

General impressions: neat universe with lots of interesting, unconventional details, and plenty of potential for telling other stories should MacLeod decide to revisit it (please!). Brilliant aliens. I would have said that even if it'd just had the saurs — for that matter, even if it'd just had Salasso — but then there are the Multipliers, and of course the gods...

The third is darker and more political than the first two, which put me off a bit, but it's still good stuff. MacLeod consistently manages to avoid taking himself too seriously, and it's frequently laugh-out-loud funny (Guerrilla ontology!). I'll buying more of his work...

James Blish, "A Case of Conscience"

2011-05-22 10:34; in Adam's Books; 191 words

Yet the postmark read today; the letter had been mailed, in fact, only about six hours ago, just in time to catch the dawn missile to Naples. Michelis had been sitting on it—or perhaps adding to it, but the facsimile process and the ensmallment, together with Ruiz's gathering eyestrain, all conspired to make it impossible to detect differences in the handwriting or the ink.

A Jesuit exobiologist on a curiously peaceful and civilised planet begins to worry about the theological implications of his discoveries — and his suspicions are confirmed when the locals send an ambassador to Earth. I thought the alien civilisation was remarkably interesting, although for the purposes of this story it's really just background; wish there was more written about it.

While the writing hasn't dated badly at all (I would have assumed it was mid-70s, rather than 1958), the odd plot detail trips it up: the idea that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny is key to the theological crisis the book describes.

I read this in the "After Such Knowledge" paperback compilation, which I wouldn't recommend buying because it has page sequences randomly garbled at various points throughout the book.

H. Beam Piper, "Little Fuzzy"

2011-05-15 16:17; in Adam's Books, Little Fuzzy; 46 words

The release of John Scalzi's reworking, Fuzzy Nation, reminded me that I'd never read the original — which is handily available online at Project Gutenberg. A product of its time, and not terribly deep, but wryly entertaining; it's easy to see why it's got such a following.

Greg Michaelson, "The Wave Singer"

2011-05-14 18:30; in Adam's Books; 80 words

Post-apocalyptic Scotland: a tiny population hangs on after the catastrophic failure of a High Frontier power system, divided along factional lines between those who believe technology can be restored and those who're just hanging on in an increasingly brutal world. I'd like to think that technological society would do a better job of bouncing back than this, but I suspect this is worryingly accurate...

Interesting stuff; definitely worth a read.

ISBN 1906134278. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

Philip José Farmer, "To Your Scattered Bodies Go"

2011-05-11 18:27; in Adam's Books, Riverworld; 99 words

After his death, Richard Burton wakes up on an alien world — along with every other past inhabitant of Earth (although not necessarily in chronological order). I found the concept more interesting than the execution. The world is brutally simplistic by design, so the complexity has to come from the character interactions, but even with a complete cast of historical figures to draw upon, I didn't think this really went anywhere worthwhile. (Goering, honestly? Perhaps in 1966 this seemed like a better idea.) Not a series I'm likely to follow.

ISBN 0586039392. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.

Richard Morgan, "Black Man"

2011-05-08 11:55; in Adam's Books; 177 words

Good solid, detailed worldbuilding — inspired, the author says, by the Jesusland map that went around the Web a few years ago. There's plenty of technology hovering in the background, but it's not what drives the story; Morgan has an alt-history writer's feel for societal change.

The good guys — Carl, Tom, and especially Sevgi — are superbly characterised. More SF with bits set in Turkey, please. I found the villains less plausible; I'm prepared to believe that they're real people since they're not too different from those whose heads we do get to see into, but there's not really enough there to get a feel for their motivations, which means the big-picture whodunnit didn't quite work for me.

Extremely unpleasant things happen to people, many of whom die as a result, and (as an exception to the general thriller structure of the book) the ending is generally unsatisfying. This should not come as a surprise to readers of Morgan's other books. Not a happy read, but an interesting one.

ISBN 0575078138. Search for this book on Wikipedia or isbn.nu.