Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Aaron, I mean Bach.

Forturne's Pawn
by Rachel Bach

*****
SciFi
November 2013


cover - How can you not love this cover.  there's a space suit helmet, an intense face in there, and all those code and symbols running across her visor.... all her feeds.  Yep.  Intense.

I just love a good SciFi novel, especially when there are gadgets and implants, wetware, soft ware, etc., along with a good strong intense female lead.  I'm not crazy about the almost out of control temper on this particular woman, but she's not my best friend or family member, so it's all just part of a good story.  Except in the place where I'm rolling my eyes because she's a little quick to lash out with her temper, when she's supposed to be a highly trained soldier....but - it's all story line.  To be fair, I do find my self rolling my eyes at many random things lately - maybe I'm just cranky.  ;)

In this book, Deviana - aka Devi -  has signed on to a ship that is well known as an illfated ship to be on.  She signs on to it, because she's too impatient to rise up the ranks and be noticed for an elite position in an elite kings' guard position.  This position just about backfires on her.

She ends up almost dying a few times, has some adventures and falls for this cook who seems to be more than your average cook.  In fact, everyone on this ship is  a little more than appears.

I enjoyed the characters - except for the stereotypical almost sexist co-mercenary who has signed on at the same time.  I would hope that by the time any civilization gets into space, and terraforms many planets that the usual male looking down on female coworkers would have been on the down swing; what with evolution, the fact that there are many females in the armies, etc.  I would hate to think that we could possibly go thousands of years and still be dealing with males pulling the whole cock of the roost thing.   But - then Devi wouldn't have been able to show off her macho state of being, her toughness, and her armor.  (Wink)

Aside from that, I enjoyed the story along with the strange characters on the ship.  I like the universe and other beings that Bach as written into the story.  The backgrounds of each race are interesting - you have to read to appreciate....

Even the Doctor of the ship is of a being that are usually known to humans as a warring race, and Devi almost shoots the navigator before they are introduced.  The doctor in fact, is one of my favorite characters.

There are some fun plot twists in this novel - one of three so far. (novels, not plot twists).  There is a romance that is nipped almost before it starts, unrequited love, friendships where Devi never expected to find friendships, mysterious crew and captain, a ship raid or three that they barely survive, and some freaky deaky stuff that goes on.  

I am looking forward to reading the next in the series - and according to some of the other reviews, book three is even more intense than the first two.  wow.

Rachel Bach also writes as Rachel Aaron (The Spirit Thief)

The Burn Zone by James Decker - Review

The Burn Zone
James Decker
Feb 2013
SciFi


cover - YES.  here is a cover that actually represents the main character - a girl, a tough girl who is obviously ready for a fight...


Well.  Sometimes I read a book and I don't enjoy it, don't finish it and then don't review it.  Other times, I read a book and enjoy the hell out of it but for some (lazy) reason, I put off writing the review because.....I don't why.  Who knows what's going on in my head?  I don't.  This time, I read The Burn Zone, loved it, put off reviewing it and then when I FINALLY decide to review, I find out that not only is this guy a "debut" author of The Burn Zone, he's also an author of a trilogy of books under the name of James Knapp.  I don't pretend to understand all the reasons for using different names, but in this case it doesn't matter to me, especially when I haven't read anything under either of the names.  How many of you have steered away from reading a certain genre (coughromancecough - coughbodicerippercough) only to pick up an interesting looking URBAN fantasy book and then read it, find it vaguely disturbingly romance like (or totally like a romance) novel, and THEN find out that - yes - the reason said book reads like a romance is because the author has been writing romance for 500 YEARS, making it a bit hard to write a book that doesn't read like a romance with paranormal elements.  And then there's the whole OOh, I'm not soandso author, oh no, and other fans go on the attack, how dare you even ask, etc, and then a year or so later it turns out it WAS  a certain author, for some reason keeping it completely SECRET....ahhhh I digress (and possibly sound a little disturbed er bitter) let's just get back to THIS book. 

So, as I was sayin', James Knapp, James Decker - same guy, not a secret, no rabid fans ready to attack me (I hope) - either way, this James guy can write a hell of a good story.

First of all, let me remind y'all, it's been almost a year since I read The Burn Zone.  And when I finished it, it kept echoing in my mind.  That's a pretty good book.  Now let's see if I can remember enough to write a coherent review.

Set in the future, and in Asia, life has become...hard to live.   Most of the masses are living hand to mouth, eating some kind of nutrient cake made of some kind of insect byproduct (gross, right?).  One of the reasons people are so poor and food challenged, is that a huge spaceship landed in a section of a city, instantly killing millions of people - and one of the results is a treaty between the nation and the spaceship occupants to divert a percentage of food to the aliens as well as provide women surrogates for their young.  It's complicated, and much more to the story, but the Haan (the aliens) are supposed to be fragile.

One of the women taking part in the incubation/foster - Sam Shao has started life out in difficult circumstances.  Seems there are these meat providers who aren't particular about what kind of meat they provide - she was saved at the last minute by a cop, who later adopted her.  When the story starts, she's been living with him for a while, he's away on a trip, and she's just coming home and is taking care of her haan baby.  He barely comes home when their apartment is raided, cops are there to arrest her father.  Since she's been enhanced to sense the haan infant needs, she also is able to sense things about one of the cops - and it seems like this cop is actually a not so fragile Haan.

She escapes the raid, and is on the run for pretty much the rest of the book.  One of her goals is to find her father, who has disappeared into the depths of ....where ever prisoners end up when they're so expedient.  There's a conspiracy afoot.

Besides the main plot, Decker has weaved a pretty rich atmosphere - future gadgets, like motorcycles that can fly, space travel, air travel, computer whizzes, one who is a friend to Sam, a crowded city full of people who cannot be trusted and danger at every turn.  Sam has to stay clear of meat slavers and from the police who seem to be able to find her wherever she goes.  Despite seemingly hopeless odds, Sam begins to make a little headway into the mystery of why her father - a respected cop - is being accused of treason and where he ends up.  She takes a huge risk attempting to rescue her father and finds way more than she ever dreamed.  There's much more to the conspiracy than she suspected.

Everything about this story works - the setting, the aliens, the creepy people, the disgusting black market human meat thing, the dialog, betrayal.....it's all packaged in a hell of a novel.    The cover notes that it's part of the Burn Zone series, so I am hoping to read more of this story.  A very enjoyable and at times disturbing read.

Seventy by Liana Brooks - review

Seventy
Liana Brooks
SciFi
e-book

*****  five out of six stars

Cover - just .... cool.  I love covers like this, that have a planet, stars, space....love it

This was one of my Kindle reads.  I was happy to find a SciFi by a woman e-book to download.  This is a short story, or novella, but there was quite a bit packed in.

sooo - a bit of background - Humans have been terraforming and colonizing other planets for quite a while. They've got one planet in the works.  Unfortunately, aliens have attacked one of their planets, one they've been living on, and they're given the order to travel to the newly terraformed planet even though things aren't quite ready.  But they're in danger of annihilation if they delay any longer.

Jeff is one of the leaders of this expedition, and they take off for Dauphin despite some of the  colonists' reservations.  Unfortunately there's a problem.  The new planet isn't quite stable and things get very bad very fast...they have to make a decision - take off and live in the terraforming pods - or try to stay on the planet even though they most likely will die there.

The pods can get back out to space, but they don't have enough fuel to travel anywhere.  And they don't have enough food or supplies....But no problem.  Another ship is due to come in 70 days...

I liked this story - even though the ending is kind left up in there, you can judge for yourself how things are going.  One of the scientists at the beginning is so strident and abrasive, hostile even - that it seems that Jeff has an enemy.  But no - she and Jeff end up coming to terms...

The few things that I didn't really like was this female's portrayal and some of the dialogue felt... off.  It just seemed over the top - she's so angry.  It just doesn't match with someone who is supposed to be a scientist who works on potentially dangerous missions like terraforming planets, making sure they're stable etc.  Some of the dialogue was great, but then some of it seemed off to me - such as the way this scientist would yell at Jeff.  

But the story as a whole is pretty cool, making you think about what if?  What if you end up on a planet with no way to communicate, no answers when you try and end up having to make a decision on whether to live out in orbit in pods that were never meant to be permanent houses in orbit?

I looked for other SciFi from Brooks, but didn't see much else that was quite this SciFi - but then I didn't look that hard either. What I found were some work by her that seemed to have a higher concentration of romance to SciFi, and I'm not  that crazy about a Romance/Scifi mix that would be like say...(just to pull a number out of my ass, lol) 70:30 mix of romance:Scifi.  I enjoyed this novel, and one day (when I have more disposable income) I will search out some more from her.

Android's Dream by John Scalzi - review

Android's Dream
John Scalzi
SciFi
2007

****** 6 out of 6 stars

cover - I love this cover.  The first few times I glanced at this cover in the book stores, I didn't get why there were sheep all over, thought maybe it was about an android sleeping...well, you have to read the book.  But the cover totally fits.

This Scalzi guy - he really knows how to build a layered story.  The Android's Dream had so many twists and turns, I had fun reading it.  I kept thinking I knew what was going to happen and then DAYAMN!  Another twist.  Amazing.

It's never really specified what year this novel takes place in, but it's clear that it's futuristic.  Technology has advanced so far that there are ways to listen in on conversations using a paper with special ink - a way to download information from a wire using a vending machine; a way to wear a wire without it being visible even showing up on a scan.

I usually do not enjoy pages of explanation or history, infodumps, etc.  This book did have quite a bit of it, but it was handled almost as if a storyteller was performing a story.  It was actually interesting.  I only felt myself feeling that glazed over look just a couple of times, and it was fleeting.  I'm impressed.  It isn't often that I find myself actually enjoying reading an "infodump".  I'm not even sure that these sections should really be called infodumps, but it works for me.  I shall call them fun infodumps.

Quick summary - which of course you can read on Goodreads....

Earth has been 'visited' by the Nitu - among other races from other planets.  The earth or the United States are and have been in the midst of intense import/export negotiations with the Nitu.  The Nitu also happen to be an arrogant, extremely caste conscience race of people; a people with clans that are ever competing with each other.

The only problem - not everyone is happy with the negotiations, and one of the participants is actively working to sabotage the efforts... with unforeseen results. 

A very strange chain of events follows, involving sheep, gene splicing, a decorated hero/computer genious, a geek, an odd church, a rich old lady, space ships, war, and an interesting mix of interstellar aliens.

John Scalzi had been an amazing writer for quite a while, but I think this particular novel is past amazing and right into brilliant.  I read this book in a one day period of time.  Did not want to stop reading it.  The narration is interesting, the dialogue was great, especially the banter between the characters, and the fight scenes - whether it's between people or more subtle attacks were great.

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys scifi, and anyone who enjoys scheming characters.  You won't regret it.

It's way past time for a review... Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold - review

Young Miles 
{Warrior's Apprentice}
Lois McMaster Bujold
vorkosigan series
SciFi 1986

Cover - it's trippy, but then it's an older style of cover.  Looking at the cover, at the face makes me feel shallow, because I don't want to read about someone with that face - it's not handsome.  See?  Shallow, it's not supposed to matter what someone's face looks like.  Hell, my face isn't that pretty anymore...  sigh!  But I'm being honest.  The rest of the cover I like - the background colors, the stars, the design, the two images of Young Miles....

This is one of those books that is SciFi, but also reads like a fantasy.  completely different world, many planets, starship travel, feudal systems, different cultures...

There are quite a few novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan - but The Warrior's Apprentice is the first one I've read.  It came in an omnibus titled Young Miles which contains three Miles stories.  Miles is a young man, son of a powerful military man who served as regent for a while.  Miles also is very weak, with brittle bones, short stature, and more from the result of chemically induced birth defects.  The people of his world look on him with a mixture of horror, pity and superstition since usually babies with his problems were either aborted or assisted to die.

In this story, Miles has just broken both legs while in academy - despite his body limitations, he's determined to be in the military and to do what everyone else can.  He ends up at home and from there goes on adventure, eventually getting involved in war.  In trying to solve a dispute, he ends up somehow in charge of many ships and mercenaries.  He also ends up in violation of a treason law.  He also finds out some devastating news about an old and trusted employee and friend.

This novel was well written, with very good dialog.  The inner voice of Miles was humorous and snarky, while his manners were always polite.  The surprises and twists were entertaining, as well as the SciFi 'bits' that were peppered throughout the story.  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and immediately started the next on in the series.  Lois McMaster Bujold is a hell of a story weaver, building a background of rich worlds and customs, using dialog and atmosphere to help tell the story.  Great reading.

Agent of Change by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - review

Agent of Change
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
***** (5 out of 6 stars)
A Liaden Universe Novel
from the Agent's Gambit Omnibus edition
Sci/Fi  originally published 1988

Cover - it's okay - for a SciFi cover, a SciFi with a touch of romance. Except neither character resembles these pictured here.  At least the background is very Science/Fiction-y.  It's also important to realize that these books have been around forever, and have probably had numerous covers.  I've seen a couple and just randomly selected this one because I don't know any better.  At all.

Ever since reading Fledgling, I've been suffering from a Science Fiction craving - actually this craving has been hitting me off and on for a few years, it gets very strong, then wanes, then comes back with a vengeance - kind of like bad habit cravings (snicker).  Anyway, at least this habit is reading, which can't be consider bad unless you read total SMUT...and even then, it's all relative, right?  One man's Smut is another man's literary masterpiece and all that....

I've been getting as many of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's novels as I can.  Some I enjoy way more than others....either way - these two can sure put together a story.

In Agent of Change we meet Theo's half brother (Theo is the main character of Fledgling)  - a relative she didn't even know she had until she was grown.  This novel takes place before Fledgling does and is the story of Val Con yos'Phelium (I am NEVER sure just how to pronounce these names, so I end up using the vowel sounds used in the Spanish language)  and his last mission as a spy.  He's been altered in a non-specified way, giving him the capability of continuously running percentages and odds of survival and mission success.  It can be very distracting and part of his training is a type of brainwashing away of family ties. This isn't the greatest thing, because Val is part of a very close knit clan of a family, a people whose society is built on family ties, clan ties and responsibilities to clan and family.

Part of Val's story intersects with Miri Robertson - a former mercenary soldier who has quite a past, growing up on a planet filled with poor and desperate people.  Miri is on the run from a mob-like sect of people - this mob has far reaching fingers - reaching across the universe to many planets and they are ruthless.  Val accidentally comes across Miri during an attempt on her life very soon after he has escaped his own deadly mission; people involved on the other side of this mission are, of course after Val.  They're not quite sure who, at first, he is or even what he looks like since the tech he uses on his spy missions are so advanced. Think futuristic Mission Impossible disguises.  Very cool.

Even though they at first don't really want to be around each other - for differing reasons - the two have to rely on each other at first for survival because suddenly there are more than one enemy after them, and then it seems that circumstances have them working together against many enemies.  Fortunately for them, they come across allies here and there who help them on their way.

I think that Agent of Change is one of Lee's & Miller's more action packed novels.  Though not full of gore, some of their side characters go through some intense and wicked deaths - they just aren't very graphic about these fights and deaths.  The dialogue between characters is natural, some teasing, some snark and some plain old good conversations.  There are a few characters that have a completely different outlook on everything from time to the length and importance of names and life actions.  A certain turtle like species of people who are very large, live for hundreds of years and therefore ponder and think for some time before making decisions.  Val is an honorary brother of one of these clans, knife growers (seriously they grow some wicked chrystal knives) and by extension, Miri becomes part of their family/clutch (like a clan) - which at first she's not sure is such a good thing.  One of this T'Carais men - young leader has been on a discovery tour for his clutch - has been for 7 years, which is lucky for Val, as this brought them in the same vicinity just when Val and Miri need some help.  His visa name is "Twelfth Shell Fifth hatched knife Clane of Middle River's Spring Spawn of Farmer Greentrees of the Spear-makers Den, The Edger"; being rather young by T'Carais standards at 900plus years, his real name takes three hours to tell, but for the sake of his 'hasty human' brother/friend, he goes by the name Edger.  His clan name for Val is "Val Con yos'Phelium Scout, Artist of the Ephemeral, Slayer of the Eldest Dragon, Knife Clan of the Middle River's Spring Spawn of Farmer Greentrees of the Spearmaker's Den, Tough Guy" (The 'Tough Guy' was added because Miri called Val tough guy, and in the custom of the Clutch, this was added to their version of Val's name - I love this detail of names and naming, adding to your name as your life progresses - just think what some of our names would be...."Mardel, Hasty Human, Mother of Four, Grandmother of Two, Friend to Dogs, Reader of Books, keeper of Library, Herder of Children, of One Working Lung{haha}, Daughter of Many, Player of Castleville"  It would be great, lots of fun, though possibly giving a bit too much info about ourselves, yeah?)  And Miri's Clutch name ended up to be "Miri Robertson Mercenary Soldier, Retired, Personal Bodyguard, Retired, Have Weapon Will Travel" - this is how she introduced herself to Edger, after listening to a long list of names of the turtle Clutch Brothers.

Agent of Change was a fun, satisfying read with adventure, danger, slowly growing romance and a bit of angst - not too much - as well as suspense and a fun array of science fiction gadgets - space ships, thin armor that is like a second skin, lots of planets and a very dangerous enemy to all --the Yx-strange (I might have the spelling wrong).  These guys scare even the mob-like gang of outlaws.  And they are part of a cliff hanger ending which leads to the book titled Carpe Diem - which I read as soon as I finished Agent of Change-  thanks to having the omnibus edition containing both novels in one huge book.

I thing this is good reading for people who enjoy SciFi, a bit of romance, a good story, suspense and danger without lots of gore, and interesting varied characters and worlds.  Though these novels by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller might be tamer than many others, there's a lot to recommend them and you will end up with a good solid story to read.

Mirror Space by Marianne de Pierres - review

Mirror Space
Marianne de Pierres
Sentients of Orion #3
SciFi 2009

****** (6 out of 6 stars)

Cover - The cover that I have is from the set printed in the US, and matches the other covers of this series.  Very industrial/engineering look with lines,  the faces, the starships, the stars and hint of planets.....all very space fiction.  The whole cover is good - with the colors and artwork.


The Sentients of Orion is a series about an entity - a vast, all knowing, all seeing entity - group of 'godheads' {those sent to study with the entity}including Tekton and Ra, an invaded planet, biozoons {sentient space ships who contract with humans to work together} and various factions of people and their governments/planet who all have their own agenda in regards to Sole {the entity} and survival & knowledge.  In the last two books we were introduced to Mira Fedor, the only female in hundreds of years (if ever) to be born with the gene that allows her to fly and interact with the biozoons, Trinder who is the heir to a vast fortune and leadership who has been a spoilt young man, Jo-Jo the man who first came into contact with Sole {almost dying, being saved by the entity and having his brain be 'refitted' into two minds - logic and emotion} as well as Rast and her fellow mercenaries, Bethany - the young biologist/mother who recently lost her daughter and husband, Djes - the young daughter who is bi-species, Thales - the young disappointed scholar from Scolar, Laspar Farr - former war hero cum opportunist...-there are many characters in this series, but if you start at the beginning (Dark Space) and work your way through the series it's easy to follow along with the characters, plot and storyline.

The planet, Araldis, has been invaded by the Saaqr - a huge insectlike being that seems to have the sole purpose of feeding from the brains of humans, taking all the liquid from thier brains first then getting all the liquid they can.  Araldis was already a hot, windy pretty much.  With the help of Rast and her two mercenary men, Mira was able to escape and end up in the tunnels of a mine, where she met up with Trin - the cousin that was going to receive her unwillingly-to-be-given gene that allows communication and compatability with the biozoons.  So Trin and his group, Mira and her group had together traveled through the mines until they were at a point where Mira was able to fly a biozoon that had been stashed away from the planet looking for help from other planets.  This all happened in the previous books....

Now Trin is still with the remaining survivors of Araldis and Mira is now pregnant (unwillingly so) and traveling with the biozoon looking for help.  Her paths intersects with JoJo at one point, and again with the mercenaries (they had parted ways earlier).  JoJo is searching for his stolen biozoon, Mira is looking for help, the Mercenaries are looking for a buck and survival.  Mira is kidnapped, saved and almost loses the baby...

After coming together for a short while, JoJo, Rast, Mira, Beth & Thales end up separated from each other - all on differing paths that will eventually meet up again.  Mirror Space is the story of their travels and close calls.  Mirror Space starts out where Chaos Space left off - Mira had been kidnapped from the Extros planet, and JoJo had leapt onto the Biozoon's entry portal, while Rast was taking off, hoping to be let on the ship rather than falling off.  

Mira wakes up in a room, being studied by some extros - they are studying things like reactions to pain and other things.  She meets Wanton, an extro who is the one doing the procedures to her.  Meantime, Trin is continuing to lead the survivors in search of an island of safety through the tunnels and then island chain, looking for a safe place to stay while hoping for rescue.  Though Trin has forced Mira to fly off in search of help, he's telling the survivors that she abandoned them.  Trin is weird, spoiled and can't seem to stop plotting.  JoJo and Rast are looking for Mira and Tekton - along with Bethany.  All are looking for a way to survive and to get help to Araldis, to make those in charge listen to what's been happening t0 Araldis - and this is harder than it should be since there are other plots that have been in motion for a while...

The story is told from the POVs of Tekton, JoJo, Mira, Trin, and in short bursts - Sole.  Marianne de Pierres does an excellent job of jumping from pov to pov, her characters never lose their 'voice', the plot seems to keep moving forward.  You're never quite sure who is to be trusted - will JoJo really remain substance-free or will he fall back on his old habits?  Will the mercenary Rast continue to help?  Rast is after all, completely in love with Mira, though Mira isn't crazy about this, JoJo seems obsessed with Mira - though he doesn't know why, and even the biozoon seems to have her own agenda regarding Mira and her unborn baby. 

There are definitely some machinations goin on - you're never quite sure what's going on, yet it's done in such an entertaining way, that you're enjoying this intricately plotted mystery.  It's hare for me to put forth a straight synopsis of the book, since there is such a intricate plot going on here, along with some twisted brains at work.  It all makes for a rather twisted story, with twisted characters, and a whole universe at the mercy of a bunch of people who usually only think of themselves and one woman who is pregnant and wanted by a few people for different reasons.  And then it's the end of the book - and time to pick up the final - Transformation Space.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, along with the first two of the series.  Marianne de Pierres is a master story teller, in my opinion, who has quite a way with Science Fiction, world building, plotting, language and characters.  What a woman!  What a story!

Saltation by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - review

Saltation
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
The Liaden Universe
SciFi/ ppb version

****  4 out of 6 stars 
cover - I like this cover - except the girl is supposed to have this super curly hair that she can't do anything with, and here it's pictured straight.  Whatever - that's minor.  Cool looking little flying machine though.

Basically, Saltation is the story of Theo Waitley's school career.  In the first Theo book, Theo went from a "clumsy" danger to society at large type of kid to a self possessed, graceful young woman who has the potential of becoming a great pilot, and being a pilot is no small thing in these novels.

In Fledgling a pilot scout has offered to sponsor Theo in an elite piloting school - so Theo ends up going.  Problem is, that there's unrest on the planet where the school is situated.  Seems the locals aren't to happy about all the "interlopers" who have the audacity to expect equal treatment.  So the beginning of the book is concerned with Theo finding her way, coming into her own as a leader and keeping her scores up as well as keeping a long distance relationship going.  The second part of the book contains a charge of fighting between Theo and another student, which has even stronger ramications than expected...

Although I did enjoy reading this novel, I didn't enjoy it as much as I liked reading Ghost Ship (the third in Theo's story) or Fledgling.  The book spanned a few years, and Theo did quite a bit growing up but she might come across to some as a pretty strong "mary sue" type of character - the girl is so busy keeping her grades up that she seriously does NO Wrong - ever.  On top of that, she's kind of naiive to human nature and the "evils" that people can get up to.  So she's usually surprised when something bad happens.  I already know that the third book was more enjoyable for me, and I've already read two other Liaden Universe novels or I might have been turned off from the series based on this book alone.  Enjoyable, but not a book that would keep me reading a series without knowing the other books were better.

Dialogue was okay, plot lines pretty simple with the typical boarding school politics; good kids vs stuck up kids; rich kids vs local kids, etc.   There are some fun characters - a certain one armed professor and an old woman professor who is sooooo wrinkled it's amazing she's still standing (and her hourglass!), and the NorBears that are on a space station that Theo befriends (the NorBears, not the spacestation, *g*).

All in all - a decent book, just not very exciting.  Because I have read some other novels concerning other characters in this universe that I've enjoyed, I will keep reading the series

Worldwired by Elizabeth Bear - review

I'm going to be completely honest here....I read this novel over a year ago.  Yes, I did.  A year ago.  And then I read some more books, and read other posts, and wrote some reviews, and read some more novels, and went to work, played with grandchildren, slept, read some more, goofed around on the ol' internet....and did not write a review for quite a few of the novels I've read in the last couple of years.  So, I'm trying to rectify that now.  Consequently, I'm going a bit from memory and have re-read a book blurb or two  (click here for Goodreads blurb) to refresh my mind on character names - but the gist remains the same.

I read it.  Enjoyed it.  

Would love more Jenny Casey from Ms Bear, but this was a trilogy;

 here is my review on the finale of the Jenny Casey SciFi/Cyberpunk book - Worldwired.  

Worldwired
Elizabeth Bear
SciFi
2005

******  (six out of six stars)

cover - as with the other two covers in this trilogy, I love the simplicity with the hint of danger.  And those boots.  Would love a pair of boots like that!  Anyway, boot envy aside, the drama of the black background with the blue foreground is just perfect for this cover.

As with the first two novels of this trilogy I completely enjoyed reading Worldwired, this last of the trilogy about Jenny Casey, a future Earth, aliens and artificial intelligence.  In the first and second novels, Jenny went from a 'retired' special ops military with old cyberware in the form of a 'cyberarm' and other parts which are eroding (or deconstructing, failing, whatever the correct term would be for failing prosthetics), intense pain, post traumatic stress (the cause of her having to have a cyberarm complete with metal hands that can CRUSH things), to a reluctant reassignment to the military complete with prosthetic and wetware upgrades.  Only these upgrades come with a port to her brain - the wetware, which also controls the spine.  This is very cool stuff to read about when written about the way that Bear writes it.  It wasn't done in a dry manner that made me feel like I was taking an advanced neurology class with no prerequisited under my belt.   Things have happened, horrible things to the world in the last novel and there are some character losses (one of my favorite characters, in fact) - but the story continues.

**Spoilers Abound! 

(There Be Spoilers Ahead)**

{p.s. It HAS been out for 7 years now - wink, grin}

Worldwired takes place after the meteor was thrown on Toronto by one of the other superpowers - the PanChinese government, and it has caused major destruction of the ecosystems, the deaths of millions of people, starvation, and all the other disasters that come with an event like this.  The starship Montreal and another starship is in orbit around the world, and there is the possibility of race between the governments to find another planet to colonize.  Jenny Casey and the younger pilots are in the Montreal, along with the AI Richard and Richard has been busy trying to contact the other starship, facilitate cleaning up of the ecology with super advanced technology, and splitting himself into at least one more AI (if I'm remembering this right).  And there's a court case on top of everything else.  Chaos reigns on the world, and the starships are under a lot of pressure.  

Then there are the visitors!  from another system.  If I remember right, there are two types of alien starships that appear, and the Montreal crew needs to decide on visiting the starships, hell, they have to figure out a way to even communicate with the new arrivals.

There is a lot packed into this last novel, just as in the other novels.  This was done superbly with dialogue, narration, and some action scenes.  I enjoy Bear's style of writing, and in the first two novels had no sense of being overwhelmed with information that I didn't understand.  With Worldwired, there was a bit more - not quite information dumps, but there was some conversations going on about language and theory that were a little hard to completely get for me (I'm a little lazy brained, but I don't think I'm dense).  This wasn't a big enough issue to bother me though, Ms Bear definitely does not overwhelm the reader with pages of incomprehensible information to non-scientists.

Some characters from the previous two novels are shown to have even more hidden depths than hinted at.  Other characters have aged, and some have matured.  Valen's, his grandchild, Jenny herself has changed in more than mechanical ways.  Ms Bear is a wonderful storyteller with a talent for characters and dialogue, along with the plots and intricate subplots.  And she must have a hell of a scientific brain.  I'm impressed.

BUT....with this novel, and the other two, there were lots of French sentences peppered through out the story.  I don't speak French.  At first I considered using Google translate, but it definitely would have taken some time to translate...and there was enough French that I wish Ms Bear would have taken a little pity on us non multilingual readers and at least given a few HINTS on what was being said.  Even so - enjoyed the hell out of this last Jenny Casey book.  This trilogy is one of those sets that I know I'll end up re-reading some summer vacation.

Marsbound by Joe Haldeman - review

Marsbound
Joe Haldeman
SciFi
2008
****  (4 out of 6)

cover - It's a good cover; you have the planet and it looks like a space elevator.  There is this very bright light - which might be representing an event later in the novel.

I've never read anything by Joe Haldeman before and I picked up Marsbound on a whim (looking for some new Sci/Fi).  I've finished reading it, read it pretty quickly, but can't say that I feel wowed by it.  It was interesting - or I wouldn't have been able to finish reading it.  But it wasn't "DAMN!" for me.  

Marsbound is about a young woman and her family.  They've decided to go to the planet Mars for a year to study.  Carmen, Card (her brother) and her parents go to Mars after a year of studying in preparation.   The beginning of the novel is about the family traveling up the elevator, meeting other passengers and the pilot and their experiences on the elevator.  This is a significant part of the story - they travel up to a space station where tourists visit, stay for a bit then travel on up a little higher until they get boosted on over to Mars.

The second part of the novel is about the family and others settling in, getting to know the Mars longtimers and how Carmen rubs the person in charge the wrong way.  The kids plan to try something that they end up getting caught for, Carmen has twice the punishment that others do.  She's angry about it and sneaks out at night to walk around, thinking vaguely about pulling a prank  when she falls through a hole in the surface, damages her suit, and starts to freeze to death as well as run out of air when she is saved by....something that resembles a potato.  They are not the first people on Mars afterall.

Third part of the novel deals with the "Martians" and the humans getting to know each other and the danger they all eventually face.  On top of that, Carmen is still the main suspect - she's spied on by this crazed administrator.

The story itself was interesting - interesting plot and sublpots.  The characterizations are possible the first time that I can understand when people say they didn't "connect" with the characters.  I never really got that - because I don't feel like I need to understand or empathize with a character to enjoy a story.  But I felt absolutely nothing while reading about any of the characters in this novel.  The writing style itself might be the cause - it's written in a journal-esque style.  It's first person and there's a lot of what I think is passive voice (not quite sure, just think so).  There is some dialogue (which isn't bad, it's actually okay) but most of the story is the main character telling what happened.  This is probably why i didn't really enjoy the story so much.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but I was almost bored, and the whole time I was reading there was no moments of wonder or excitement.  It was like being told a story in a monotone.  that's the best way I have of describing it.    There is a sequel, but I'm not sure I want to read it.

I do want to note though, that there were some things I did find kind of interesting - the Martians, for one.  There was an interesting story behind them - they were families of Martians who all had their functions - one was a memory family, there were the healers, and there was one that stood out, the leader.  He was bigger than the rest, and the only one of his family born at the same time.  They had a language that used sounds as well as voice and though they could learn other languages people weren't able to really learn the Martian language.

The explanations of the space elevator was interesting and never relied on infodumps - no longwinded explanations of how it worked, the gravity, etc.  The way it was presented by Carmen was interesting.  And there were teases of disasters that befell people on earth, mentioned a few times before Carmen explained exactly what happened.  So it was a relief to me that there was no informational dumps, especially since they style of writing just felt flat for me.

Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi - review

Zoe's Tale
John Scalzi
Science Fiction
2008
Young Adult
***** 


cover-This is a nice cover, but a little boring.  Now I like the cover I saw done by the Subterranean Press - THAT's a cover.




Zoe's Tale is a fun novel that kind of ended up to be young adult.  It is written from the point of view of a 17 year old girl.  First person 17 year old girl.   There are also characters from Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigade featured here.  Not having read other books from that series, I don't know if there are others...


John Perry (Old Man's War) and Jane Sagan (The Ghost Brigades) are now married and have adopted Zoe.  They've been living on a planet - colonized.  They're given a chance to head up a new planet colonization.  For some strange reason (that seems to be tempting fate) the new planet is to be called Roanoke. (remember the missing colony in early America?)  Only something goes wrong during the skip and they end up on a different colony - one that actually kind of stinks.


Making the best of things, they begin their colony.  The first few months are endured by Zoe and her new friends.  Suddenly, Zoe's bodyguards (take a look at the cover mentioned, under the link), rock her world by telling her she needs to learn self defense.  They proceed to teach her - painfully.  This is good, because it does become necessary....


I liked this novel.  Zoe's voice was interesting, she was snarky just like my favorite teenagers.  She is also smart, and very teen like as well as being a bit wiser than your average teen.  She has quite history, before she was adopted by John and Jane.  And the two bodyguards happen to be two beings from another planet - beings who know a heck of a lot about war.


Scalzi wrote an interesting novel with a few twists and turns.  I loved the ending.  Enjoyed the narration style with Zoe's voice and teenisms.  Because I liked Zoe's Tale, I ended up buying Old Man's War.  I liked Zoe's Tale more - but both are good reads.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi - review

****Boy - I have been a flake lately about posting reviews.  I've been reading, and finishing some novels.  I've been enjoying them, but for some reason I haven't been posting reviews.  I mean to.  I always plan to.  Yet I find myself saying, I'll write a review soon and post it, then next thing I know, it's been almost a year and I still haven't written a review of a certain book.  I think there's still some books from 2010 that I haven't reviewed.  Now there are times when I purposely don't write about a book - usually because I didn't finish it, or because I pretty much hated it, or was bored.  So I don't waste my time.  My aim is to review books that I enjoy - to share them with others who might enjoy them.  So if I don't enjoy, I don't post.  So, I'm giving myself a goal to review at least two books a week from now on.  At least then, even if I don't read two books a week (sometimes I don't, gasp!) at least I'll be catching up, slowly but surely.  Ummm, wish me luck, I can be pretty lazy (G)***

With that said, and done - on to a review!

Old Man's War

John Scalzi

SciFi

2005 (ppb)

****

cover- I like this cover.  Sure, it's like a lot of SciFi covers - except this one doesn't have the dramatically serious face floating above or below the planet/ship that is about to be blown up.  I like the fighter spaceships.  I'm probably naming the flying ships the wrong thing, but I don't really care if I'm accurate about names of things....just names of authors and books...and grandchildren, or children.  The important things. :)

I've seen this title around for quite a long time.  Old Man's War.  I have to admit here that from the title (you should never ever judge a book by either its cover OR title, though it's mighty tempting) I thought it was going to be about a war that was caused by the usual - rich old men who want to get richer or keep rich or hide something.  The usual.  I was pleasantly surprised about the way the soldiers came into being.  Sure, the reasons for all the wars and military actions are still about greed, etc.  But the fighters, refreshingly, are old men at the end of their life expectancy.  This is refreshing.  In a way.

The reason I even picked up this book, was because on a whim, I bought Zoe's Tale, though I didn't read it until after I - on another, later whim - bought Fuzzy Nation.  I read Fuzzy Nation and loved it.  Even though Scalzi warns that Fuzzy Nation is unlike any other novel written by him, I still went right from there to Zoe's Tale.  Now Zoe's Tale is also reportedly unlike his other books....still I liked it enough that I thought I would buy the very first of this series and try it.  I did like it.  Not as much as I liked Zoe's Tale or Fuzzy Nation, but I like it enough that I'll be looking out for the next novel - The Ghost Brigades.

Old Man's War seemed to me, to read more like an account of a man's journey from old man to soldier than a story.  It was interesting, though I'm still not sure if I quite enjoyed the style of narration.  It was first person, which I enjoy - but seemed a bit dry.  That's okay, though once in a while.  It was, after all, an interesting account.  The premise was good - when people turn a certain age, they are given a chance to sign up to join the army at the age of 75 years.  It's a mystery to everyone on Earth what happens then, because people who join the space army - or Colonial Defence Forces never return to Earth.  Joining with the CDF means you give up your entire life.  All assets go to relatives, you're declared dead and you never ever return to Earth or expect to see your past family/friends.  But in return you are assured a new life, and after two, possibly ten years, you are given the option of retiring from the CDF and living a new lifetime on a settled planet.  

The first part of the book is about how John Perry turns 75, joins up with the CDF, gets his new life and goes through training.  Things are very different now - the least of the changes is his new green skin.  After training, he and thousands of other recruits - after some changes - begin a tour of Colonial Defence - with the emphasis on Forces.  He's not entirely proud of the way the CDF runs business.  However, he's joined and now is part of a squad, so makes the best of it.  Afterall, at this point, you're fighting with your troop, your co-soldiers and that's what you focus on.  Interesting.

The other section of the novel is where he meets Jane Sagan and has an encounter with the Special Forces - aka The Ghost Brigades.  The ending of the book leaves an opening for a future as a person - possibly with a mate, possibly farming.

There's way more to the novel that the above.  There are computer like brains, smartblood, the green skin which has a purpose, and lots of fighting sequences.  Some battle strategy and sadly (for me) a little bit of infodumping in the guise of conversations about things such as skip drives, politics, etc.  Thankfully, these infodumping conversations were short enough that I wasn't quite tempted to quit reading and each time I almost got the point of the burning stomach feeling, these conversations would end. Those were the only real drawbacks to the novel for me.  The rest of the novel, though written a bit dry or emotionless (hey - I enjoy just a touch of feeling, not too much, but not a complete lack, either) was still interesting enough with the SciFi elements that I had fun reading it. So, while I don't quite give it my highest score of six stars, I do rate it at a four stars.  It's apparent that Scalzi knows how to write a good plot, and he's good with dialogue.  His characters are interesting - and each one holds his own.  So even though I didn't LOVE this book, I'm still looking for the next novel which might feature Jane Sagan, and maybe has John Perry in it.  Maybe not.  Either way, I would like to read The Ghost Brigades and I found overall, his novels interesting and varied enough that if I see his name on a book, I'm going to most likely buy that book. 

The Myriad and Wolf Star by R.M. Meluch - reviews

There are times when I'm not completely wise about the way I might read a book or series. In this case, for some weird reason, decided to buy three books from a SciFi series. That's not the issue - the issue is that I'd never read or even heard of this author, and yet I STILL bought not one, nope - not two, but THREE books. Luckily I picked the first three and yes - even almost bought the fourth -would have, but it wasn't there on the store shelf. I must have been bored.

So here's the thing....

(by the way...There will be spoilers, because....well, there's going to be spoilers. No names, but spoilers)

Here's the thing - I began by reading The Myriad (Tour of Merrimack #1). Wasn't too into the characters in the beginning. Read quite a few books after putting it aside....For some reason, I then decided to pick of Wolf Star (Tour of Merrimack #2). Now this book I enjoyed. So much. So much that I decided to go ahead and read #1 again...

But

Hello Confusion

My confusion: Seems The Myriad begins right where Wolfstar ends. Indeed, characters that are dead by the end of Wolfstar are alive again even though the events seem to be AFTER the end of Wolfstar. Feeling a little confused, I of course skip to the middle where some of these same dead/alive characters have died again. Then or course, I skip close to the end and find these same characters who have died twice now, breathing again. OMG it was driving me crazy (admittedly, not a long drive) and then remembered - Girl, (okay, slightly OLD girl) this is SCIENCE FICTION. So then I relaxed and just sat back and read the first book - which I should have read before reading the second - only if I hadn't read the second book, I probably wouldn't have read the first book - Oh Jeez, it's a PARADOX!!!! And of course, having enjoyed the second book, which lead to me reading the first book, taking a shortlived drive to crazytown, then relaxing and reading first book - I enjoyed the hell out of it.

So now I'm reading the third book. Hoping that some of the characters will get back to.....well, those are spoilers that I'm not going to give. I am hoping to come across some of the still alive characters though. Fun series.

The Myriad - by R.M. Meluch. John Farragut is a wild card captain of the U.S.S Merrimack, a space ship of huge proportions that travels space protecting U.S. interests, and in general causing havoc, saving lives, surviving chaos, etc. There are quite a few side or secondary characters who are just as interesting to read as the captain. Kerry Blue, one of the Marine "grunts", T.R. Steele the head of the Marines on board the Merrimack, Glenn "Hamster" Hamilton who is a female officer of the ship; Callie Carmel, another officer who is impossibly beautiful; Augustus, a Roman augmented man/machine patterner. There are many more and Meluch brings their characters to life on the pages of The Myriad. While on the trail of a rabid eating hive of well...Eaters, they stumble across a set of three planets that have never been noticed. Of course, these three planets are in the middle of a globular cluster of stars, which apparently is unheard of. I don't even pretend to understand all the SciFi information about stars, probabilties, gas giants, planets, etc. I just read the novels, sit back and enjoy (when I'm not going crazy because I've forgotten that I'm reading SCI FI, LOL). The Merrimack seems to have lost the trail of these eating monsters (which are very deadly and hard to kill) and they make contact with one of the planets' people - these people have darkish coloring, are humanoid and the males are short with manes traveling down their backs; the females are tall and subservient to the men.

Wolf Star - the second novel in the series, yet the first novel I read - has the Merrimack not only fighting the Romans, but dealing with the Gorgons (those pesky eating machines). There is much more to both stories, but I've already let loose with enough spoilers.

What I enjoy about the series so far - besides the crazed plot and events - is the narrative style and the dialogue. Meluch does a great job with dialogue. Sometimes when reading a book, you KNOW you are reading dialogue. Other times, it's such a seamless part of the story that you almost forget you're actually reading a novel. Know what I mean? It's hard for me to emphasize enough how important dialogue is to me while reading. But Meluch does a great job of writing dialogue. The narrative is damned good too - it just flows. Now that I've read both books, I'm not sure why exactly I put aside The Myriad the first time I read it. I think I just hadn't really become absorbed by the character of Farragut yet - who is one of those annoyingly charismatic leader who you can't help but become fond of - even though at first you might not like him. Ever meet anyone like that? They are so good at seemingly letting things roll off their backs, so easygoing that it's refreshing when they show their beserker side - and Farragut loves a good fight. He's also sly like a fox - only one is never sure if it's by accident or for real. Either way, once you get used to his sheer exuberance, he's one of the favorite characters.

The other night, after being very close to finishing the second book (really the first book, but the second one I read) I went to the bookstore and found the fourth book - luckily in paperback. Strength and Honor is the fourth book. I'm currently reading the third - The Sagitarious Command. While looking around for excerpts, I found out that there's even a fifth novel titled The Ninth Circle, which was released in hardcover November 2011. I guess I have a bit to wait for that one; very few authors are going to be my hardcover purchases from now on. (way too many of them are going to hardcover - which I think is a fine way for the publishing houses to reward the fans that loyally purchase books...but that's a soapbox topic). At least I'll know that there's books coming in the future that I'll want to read. Something to look forward to, right? - waiting for them to come out in paperback. Silver lining to every cloud - cough, cough.

If you like your SciFi kind of crazed with lots of twists, turns, some gore (not too bad) and suspense with a teeny bit of romance, then this will be a great series to read. It's got it all, light on the romance (no heaving bosoms, but there are some lingering hot looks - though not a huge part of the stories), heavy on action, great dialogue with laughs and sarcasm; wonderful characters who are can be full of honor and yet can surprise you. This series is really feeding my SciFi cravings. :)

R.M. Meluch is also the author of Eagles of September. She's also woven a Navajo Blanket (I find this interesting)