Author Archives: Keith West

A Review of Night’s Engines by Trent Jamieson

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Night’s Engines
Trent Jamieson
Angry Robot Books
US/CAN
29 May 2012
416pp mass-market paperback
$7.99 US $8.99 CAN
eBook
29 May 2012
£4.49

UK/RoW
7 Jun 2012
384pp B-format paperback
£7.99 UK

This book won’t be released for another week here in the States, and later in other parts of the world, so if you haven’t read Roil yet (reviewed here), don’t worry.  You still have time before the conclusion of The Nightbound Land duology hits the shelves.

This is a science fiction novel that reads like fantasy, but a careful reading of either book shows it’s clearly science fiction (or at least science fantasy), which is why I’m reviewing it here rather than at Adventures Fantastic.  It’s different than most anything I’ve seen lately, further proof of my conclusion that Angry Robot is one of the publishers you should be reading.

Night’s Engines is old fashioned adventure, the kind we don’t see enough of these days.   One of the advantages of being in the Robot Army is getting to read some of the most exciting new science fiction and fantasy before anyone else does.  And while not every title I’ve previewed has worked for me, most of them have.  This series certainly does.

The story picks up where Roil left off.  David Milde and Margaret Penn are trying to reach the Engine of the World located in the polar city of Tearwin Meet.  Leaving their companions Buchan and Whig behind in the city of Hardacre, they travel north, pursued by the Old Men, a group of almost immortals who may be as old as the world of Shale itself.

Along the way they face treachery, betrayal, dangers, and their own flawed selves.  They change and grow and act like real people.  There’s a tendency in novels such as this one, where the setting is so far removed from what most readers experience, that the people never seem to live and breathe.  That isn’t the case here.  David, Margaret, and Kara are all fully fleshed people.  Jamieson shows us their growth, using the hardships they endure and the sacrifices they make to give them depth.

I found the books, both of them, to be a blend of steampunk and Edwardian fantasy.  Indeed the series has a feel that reminded me at times of Europe in general and England in particular in the early years of the twentieth century before two World Wars and a global Depression permanently altered the national character.  Jamieson has a clear love for the fantastic literature of the time period.  This duology has strong echoes of Hodgson’s The Night Land, and there are other homages, such as some of the place names, Mirlees in particular.

The pace is fast, the action thrilling, and the dialogue real.  I blew through this one, it moves so quickly.  It’s a fresh and original piece of work, one I recommend highly.

 

A Review of Mary Sisson’s Novel Trang

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Trang
Mary Sisson
$2.99 ebook Kindle Nook Smashwords
Print $11.99 trade paper $18.99 large print

Although it’s been years since I read them, I was reminded a little bit of Keith Laumer’s Retief stories while reading Trang.  But only a little bit.  Phillipe Trang is also a diplomat, but he’s cut from an entirely different cloth that Retief.  For one thing, he’s more idealistic.  For another, mankind is just entering what passes for galactic society in Trang. 

Most of the novel takes place five years after the discovery of a portal in the Saturn system (that’s the moon system of the planet Saturn, in our solar system, in case you were wondering).  Phillipe Trang is a rising young diplomat who has been selected to be the first ambassador to the alien station on the other side of the portal.

From the beginning things begin to go wrong.  First of all, instead of having United Police as his security detail, Trang is horrified to discover he’s been assigned a squadron of Special Forces.  United Police are less inclined to use deadly force than Special Forces.  Also, SF members tend to say what they think, whereas the UP keep their mouths shut.  And the SF talk like you would imagine hardened killers, as Phillipe thinks of them, to talk.  If you’re offended by hard profanity, this might not be the book for you. 

There’s immediate friction between Phillipe and the leader of the SF over his security arrangements.  Before things are over, he’ll be glad they’re there. And that’s before the alien messiah shows up proclaiming him to be the Chosen One.

Of course, all is not peace and love among the aliens, either.  There are factions among them, and the crustacean-like Hosts, who built the station, refuse to change anything about how they run things.  Who built the portals is a mystery.

This book is essentially anthropological science fiction.  Much of the conflict comes from the politics, although there are some combat scenes.  Sisson presents a number of different aliens races.  We don’t learn a great deal about all of them, but she does give us some insights into the Hosts.  While I would have liked there to have been more detail about them as well as some of the other aliens, there were distinct differences between the cultures that were more than just physiology and appearance.

The novel wasn’t without what I would consider a few minor flaws.  Several characters are introduced in the early chapters, given names and backgrounds, then disappear never to be seen again.  I don’t know if they will be making an appearance in future installments or not.  With the exception of the astrophysicist on the shuttle to Titan, I tend to doubt it.  I’m fairly certain we’ll be seeing her again.  Anthropological science fiction can be a little slow.  For the most part this wasn’t, especially once the machinations among the aliens picked up speed about halfway through, the second chapter tended to slow things down a bit. Trang attends a reception in his honor just before he departs to Titan, and this was where most of the characters we don’t see again are introduced. 

As interested as I was in the aliens, it was Trang’s interactions with his security team that I found most intriguing.  (The game of laser tag with the Swimmer drone and one of the team members was a great touch.)  The members of the team came off as individuals, not cardboard cutouts.  Trang had to do as much to understand their culture as he did the cultures of the aliens.  And there were hints at one point of a possible future romantic relationship between him and the head of his security team.

This is the first novel in a projected four volume series, with the second currently due in either May or June.  Based on the blurb on her website (the books don’t have their own pages), we’re going to see more of a group of aliens called the Cyclopes.  If you enjoy anthropological sf, and you aren’t put off by the language, this one might be for you.  While most of the major plotlines were resolved, there is enough left hanging for a natural sequel.

Now, production values.  Once again, an indie author has put together a book that is essentially error free.  I only noticed one typo (although I don’t remember what page now).  There was an interactive table of contents.  The formatting was good, and the cover told you this was a novel set in space.  Somehow New York can’t seem to figure this out. 

In summation.  While anthropological science fiction is not my first choice of subgenre (that would be space opera or hard science), I enjoyed this book.  It held my interest, made me care about what happened to the characters, and kept me reading.  Which is what I want from a book.

RIP Ralph McQuarrie

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I’ve been traveling this weekend, so I just heard the news when I got home and logged in to the computer.  Ralph McQuarrie has passed away.  He was most famous for his work on Stars Wars, but I think my favorite work of his was the set of illustrations for Isaac Asimov’s Robot Dreams, back in the 1980s.  He will be missed.  Rest well, Ralph, and peaceful dreams.

Strata in the Sun

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Strata
Bradley P. Beaulieu and Stephen Gaskell
various ebook formats (Kindle, Nook) $0.99

Between dayjobbery and a number of fantasy novels I’d committed to review, it’s been a while since I read any science fiction.  I’m trying to restore a little balance to what I’ve been reading, and so between things I’ve committed to review, I decided to take a quick break with Strata.  Beaulieu’s The Winds of Khalakovo was one of my favorite novels last year (see my review here), so when I saw he had co-written this short novel with Stephen Gaskell, I knew I had to read it.

And I’m glad I did.  While it’s not what I would consider hard science (the authors don’t go into a great deal of technical detail), they did do their research.  I’ve always been skeptical of stories where spacecraft, never mind whole stations such as those here, get right up next to the Sun.  So when I say the authors made me suspend my disbelief, that’s saying something.

This is the story of two men, the young Kawe and the older Poulson, and a rebellion.  It’s also about skimmer races meters above the Sun’s convection zones.  In other words, science fiction the way it was meant to be and too often isn’t these days.  Full of excitement and a sense of wonder.  And the race scenes were downright fun, while being pretty intense at the same time.

A handful of stations which have been granted independent status by Earth’s courts orbit the Sun, harvesting energy from the violent magnetic fields.  Workers from Earth, mostly forced there by harsh situations, are little more than slaves, with few chances to make it home.

Poulson is a former union man, now the lover of a woman from the management levels.  At one time he was the hero of the underground.  Then a skimmer accident in a race put him on the sidelines, forcing him to be a handler for other racers.

Kawe came to the station as a fourteen year old, when he and his mother fled the death threats of his father.  He’s the most talented racer currently active, probably the most talented ever.  Poulson is his handler.  Unbeknownst to Poulson, Kawe is also involved in the resistance, which has gotten more ruthless since Poulson’s days.  Kawe is using the races to drop devices into the Sun in the hopes of triggering a coronal mass ejection.  This will shut down the stations, allowing the resistance to lead a rebellion.

The story is told from the viewpoints of Kawe and Poulson.  The action is fast, the suspense intense, and the races scenes exhilarating.  And don’t think this short novel is long on plot and short on character.  It’s not.  A great deal of what drives the story is the internal conflict both characters undergo, especially Poulson. 

This was great read, and I finished it in a few hours.  I can see Beaulieu and Gaskell expanding it into a full length novel.  There are enough secondary characters here that they could flesh the story out without padding it.  We get glimpses of the future in which this novel is set, but no detailed looks.  That’s appropriate for a novel this short, but I would like to see more of this world.  I enjoy a good, near future science fiction story, and this is a fine example of such.  Gaskell is working on his first novel, and you can be sure I’m going to read it when it comes out.  In the meantime, I’m waiting on Beaulieu’s second novel, due out later this year.  If you aren’t familiar either of these authors, Strata is a great introduction.

Franzen Says Ebooks not for Serious Readers

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Literary author Jonathan Franzen says that ebooks aren’t for serious readers.  You can read  his comments here.

As a person who considers himself a serious reader, I take great offense at these remarks.  The medium through which a person chooses to read, whether paper, electronic, or (as in my case) a combination of both, is in no way a reflection of whether that person is a “serious reader”. 

Of course, Mr. Franzen doesn’t define what a “serious reader” is.  Is it someone who places a high priority on reading and buys numerous books every year or month or in some cases every week?  Or perhaps it’s a person who only reads serious Literature?  (Capitalization mine.)  

Aside from the brain-dead connection Mr. Franzen tries to make between paper books and responsible self-government, his remarks show just how out of step he is with vast numbers of readers, both here in America as well as other parts of the world.  Franzen is a darling of the literati, those arbiters of taste and snobbery, most of whom wouldn’t deign to read genre fiction.  At least not in public.  Franzen clearly seems to share this elitist view, despite the fact that his books are available in electronic editions.  He states that paper books provide a level of permanence.  He’s also gone on record saying that “It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.”  I strongly beg to differ, but good fiction is in the eye of the beholder. 

Still, I doubt Franzen would recognize good fiction if it bit him in the ass. 

Of course, Franzen’s remarks illustrate one of the results of a recent survey by Verso Digital.  Among their findings was that resistance to ereaders is growing, even among avid readers.  If I’m understanding the survey correctly, the resistance is from people who have never been inclined to read on an ereader.  Frankly, I don’t care what format you choose for reading.  Just don’t take a condescending attitude toward those of us who don’t choose the same as you.

Franzen also says that if printed books become obsolete, he’s glad he won’t live long enough to see it.  Given his attitude, I find it hard to disagree with that statement.  In the meantime, I’m going to read some good indie fiction.

On my ereader.

Over the Horizon

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Things have been rather hectic for the last couple of weeks as the semester has started up and I’ve assumed new responsibilities in the land of dayjobbery.  My reading rate has slowed down, and I’ve hardly made any progress on my own personal fiction writing.  Blogging has diminished as well,

This week will be the first “normal” week.  I’m hoping to post at least one or two reviews here every month in addition to smaller posts.  I’ve got a a number of eARCs and one or two paper ARCs publishers have sent me, but they’re all fantasy, so those reviews will go up at Adventures Fantastic.  If I start getting any science fiction eARCs/ARCs, the rate of posting here will increase.  As I’m doing with fantasy/historical adventure, I’ll try to review indie published books on a regular basis.

So what’s in store of the next few months?

I’ve got an indie published novel by Mary Sisson that will probably be the next thing reviewed unless I decided to look at some short fiction first.  I’ve also got a couple of novellas in ebook format.  The recent Solaris Rising anthology has been sitting there calling to me for about six weeks; I need to answer the call. 

I’d like to finish Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series.  I’ve looked at the first two, and have two to go.  Those would be good tie-ins to the John Carter film. Sword and Planet stories are a little tricky.  Are they science fiction, or are they really fantasy in sf drag?  Depends on how you squint at them.  Although I’m trying not to do much of this, I may cross post anything related to John Carter to both blogs.

ConDFW is in a few weeks, and I’ll be attending that.  (Probably cross post the con report, since the con will have both fantasy and science fiction.)  While I’m there, I’m going to try to do some more interviews.  Hopefully I can get my first interview up on this site.  All the previous ones have been posted at Adventures Fantastic. 

Between what I’ve listed here and all the fantasy I’ve got to review, I have plenty to keep me busy.  Thanks to everyone who follows this blog, and to everyone who has recently starting following, good to have you along.

David Gaughran’s "Transfection"

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“Transfection”
David Gaughran
various ebook formats, currently free

This is a fast paced little ebook, essentially a short story.  There’s still plenty of story crammed into it for all its brief length.  The plot concerns one Dr. Carl Peters.  He’s a molecular biologist working with genetically modified foods.  When a scare erupts following the announcement that GM foods can cause cancer, he manages to take advantage of the situation and get considerable research funding.  That’s when his troubles really start.  He makes a discovery that costs him, in more ways than one.

 I’ll not go into too much detail because I don’t want to spoil the reading experience.  I also don’t want this review to be longer than the ebook. 

Gaughran moves the story along at a fast pace.  He manages to flesh out the character of Peters quite well.  The other characters don’t get a lot of time in the story, so they don’t come across as three dimensional as Peters does.  Still, this is a short story, not a novel, and as such there is sufficient characterization.  Gaughran does a stellar job with Peters’ graduate student Jim Glover, especially in what he doesn’t say about him.  Instead the reader is left inferring certain things about Glover’s character and the situation as a whole rather than being outright told about them.  I found this approach to be highly effective, making the ending more of a shock than it would have been if Gaughran had simply taken the easy way out and told us everything going on behind the scenes.  Instead, we piece together what actually happened based on the actions of one of the characters in the final scene, in particular the final sentence.  That’s not something I’ve seen much of lately, and it was good to read an old fashioned twist in the last line.

There’s enough story here that, if he were so inclined, Gaughran could probably expand this tale into a short novel.  I have no idea if he intends to do so.  The only thing that I really had trouble with was how quickly Peters got funding and how quickly he was fired from the university.  It seemed to me that those things were brushed over a bit too smoothly, and I got the impression Gaughran hasn’t had much experience with either scientific funding agencies or university politics, at least not in the States (he’s an Irishman living in Sweden).  I can tell you from personal experience, neither funding agencies nor university bureaucracies move swiftly.  (I know of one situation in which a university took nearly two years to fire a professor who couldn’t keep his  hands to himself where the female students were concerned.)  Anyway, I digress.

That minor gripe aside, this was a fast paced and enjoyable read.  Gaughran has recently published a historical novel set in South America that I’ll probably be looking at over at Adventures Fantastic later this year.  The price (at least for a while) on this ebook is unbeatable, so check it out.  It provides an introduction to a new author’s work, one I hope to see more of in the future.

Let’s Get Digital
David Gaughran
various ebook formats
$3.99

In addition to writing fiction, Gaughran has become one of the leading proponents of digital self-publishing.  In addition to running a blog on the subject and commenting at places like The Passive Voice, he has written a how-to book summarizing all he’s learned.  I’ve only read a little so far, so I’m not going to attempt to review it.  Nor am I going to endorse it for the same reason.  I’m not going to endorse a book I haven’t finished, although I will say  what little I’ve read has been worth the time and cost.  I merely mention it here for those of you who are interested in going into indie publishing and aren’t aware of this resource.  In other words, I’m performing a public service by making you aware of the book. 

When Gaughran emailed me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing “Transfection”, promoting this book wasn’t part of the deal. David, I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of doing so.