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Steve's Bookshelf 2014


Karsa Orlong

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Willful Child by Steven Erikson

 

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2014 - Transworld Digital ebook - 349 pages

 

 

 

From Amazon:

 

A wickedly entertaining spoof SF space adventure by Steven Erikson, life-long 'Star Trek' fan and author of the multi-million copy selling 'The Malazan Book of the Fallen' series.

 

 

Thoughts:

 

I fancied something completely different after the epic Shogun, so this seemed to fit the bill.  It's Steven Erikson's attempt to write a spoof sf adventure.  It's about Captain Hadrian Sawback and the crew of the starship ASF Willful Child causing chaos across the galaxy in a succession of very politically incorrect ways, as their vessel gets dragged into a number of episodic encounters that will ring bells with anyone who's watched Star Trek.  It riffs mainly on the original series with Sawback returning from every encounter with his shirt ripped to expose at least one nipple (as invariably happened to James T Kirk :lol:) and making passes at every woman who has the misfortune to wander into his line of sight.  He also has the habit of hurling himself sideways at groups of aliens and knocking them down like bowling pins (again, like a certain other captain . . . ). The ship gets taken over by an artificial intelligence, named after Tammy Wynette of all people, which proceeds to dump the crew in the deepest mire and pretty much start interstellar wars at the drop of a hat.  And there's an alien species that may or may not resemble the Borg.

 

Erikson has digs at practically every sf trope going.  Unfortunately, Hadrian is such an unsympathetic character, obsessed with sex, spending most of his time ogling the women crew members and not giving a hoot about who he offends on the way, that it's tough to care.  Some of the jokes are, admittedly, funny, but they are thrown at you with barely a pause for breath, in page after page (after page) of supposedly witty dialogue, with very little in the way of a coherent plot.

 

I think I've said before that I have a problem with books that set out to be humorous.  They very rarely work for me and, even here where I knew so much of the source material he was poking fun at, I found it wearisome, largely unfunny, lacking in character (barring that which was required to write the dialogue) and almost completely devoid of direction. I much prefer to have a proper story where any humour comes naturally because of great characterisation.  Erikson achieved this himself brilliantly in books like Midnight Tides, but here it fell completely flat.  Apart from the doctor who's like a beach ball and deflates every time he says more than a sentence, and the 'Hit it Tammy!' line, to be followed by country music blasting out of the intercom.  But those instances are almost drowned by the incessant inanity that surrounds them.

 

I'm starting to think that Erikson and I are reaching a parting of the ways.  His last couple of books have disappointed me greatly.  Too much of a good thing having read the Malazan books two or three times a piece, maybe.  I was hoping to find this book entertaining but it is woefully self-indulgent.  It's mercifully short and quick to read but, whilst I found it mildly amusing at times, I generally thought it was pointless and a bit crap.  If Hadrian Sawback has any more adventures I won't be going along for the ride.

 

 

4/10

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Great review! It's a shame you didn't really like the book. I hadn't heard of it before but I don't think I would enjoy it much either. I agree with Anna, it would be quite sad if that were the case :(. But you can't help what you think! I hope your next read will be more enjoyable :).

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:( That's sad.

 

Oh I don't know, he's had a pretty good innings, it's just that my tastes seem to be moving away from epic fantasy at the moment, and humorous books have never been my 'thing'   :smile:  

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Oh I don't know, he's had a pretty good innings, it's just that my tastes seem to be moving away from epic fantasy at the moment, and humorous books have never been my 'thing'   :smile:

As long as you can still enjoy some books, I agree, it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. What do you think your tastes are moving towards? You seem to be reading some more historical fiction and certain types of science-fiction, based on which books you read recently that got a positive review.

 

I was really into fantasy when I was an older teenager and in my younger twenties, but then I moved away to other genres, mainly reading realistic books, ie. contemporary fiction. Nowadays I read a mixture of genres, including fantasy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't felt like writing any reviews in the past few days so this is just a quick catch-up on what I've been reading:

 

 

The Curse of the House of Foskett (Gower Street Detective Book 2) by M.R.C. Kasasian

 

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2014 - Head of Zeus ebook - 416 pages

 

 

From Amazon:

 

125 Gower Street, 1882:

Sidney Grice once had a reputation as London's most perspicacious personal detective. But since his last case led an innocent men to the gallows, business has been light. Listless and depressed, Grice has taken to lying in the bath for hours, emerging in the evenings for a little dry toast and a lot of tea. Usually a voracious reader, he will pick up neither book nor newspaper. He has not even gathered the strength to re-insert his glass eye. His ward, March Middleton, has been left to dine alone.

Then an eccentric member of a Final Death Society has the temerity to die on his study floor. Finaly Sidney and March have an investigation to mount - an investigation that will draw them to an eerie house in Kew, and the mysterious Baroness Foskett...

 

 

I found this a perfect antidote to the self-indulgent clap-trap of Willful Child and, for me, a prime example of the kind of humour I like in books, because the laughs come naturally as a result of brilliant dialogue between wonderfully well-realised characters.  It seemed to me to be effortlessly funny in places, with the kind of wit that makes one snort with laughter.  The relationship between Sidney Grice and his ward, March Middleton, continues to grow as they investigate a particularly gruesome series of murders involving a 'last death' club.  Basically, these primarily elderly people have each put a sum of money into safekeeping which the last of them left alive will inherit.  Naturally, when they start to drop like flies, this points the finger of suspicion at, well, practically all of them.

 

The tone of this one is quite a bit darker than the first (The Mangle Street Murders), so the humour is quite important for alleviating the grimness.  There were a couple of things that niggled at me, such as the fact that March is forever being told how plain and useless she is, and there's one particular episode involving a few thousand cats which was pretty unnecessary.  Apart from that, though, I thought this cemented everything I loved about the first book.  Can't wait for the next one.

 

9/10

 

 

After that I spent a couple of days being unable to decide what to read next, and finally settled on:

 

 

 

Revival by Stephen King

 

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2014 - Hodder & Stoughton ebook - 417 pages

 

 

From Amazon:

 

In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Charles Jacobs. Soon they forge a deep bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity.

Decades later, Jamie is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Now an addict, he sees Jacobs again - a showman on stage, creating dazzling 'portraits in lightning' - and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

 

 

So I had trouble deciding what to read, then I nearly gave up on this quite early on.  From the time Pet Sematary was published (the first book of his that I read) through to Misery, Stephen King used to be my favourite author.  I devoured and loved his earlier novels.  After Misery I hung around for a while longer but I kind of fell out of love with his work.  I eventually gave up completely with Bag of Bones (although I did read Black House, the sequel to The Talisman, written with Peter Straub).  I've been tempted back a couple of times, and I did re-read The Stand a couple of years back, but this is the first of his novels new to me that I have read in 15 years or so.

 

Revival is very slow at the start.  Fortunately, I decided to stick with it and ended up enjoying it quite a lot.  It's written in the first person, which is quite different from those earlier novels I loved, but he still has that innate ability for characterisation and getting me inside his characters' heads.  Here he takes the readers through roughly 50 years of Jamie Morton's life, and I really liked the way he did it.  The story occasionally leaps forward by a number of years, but then Jamie will go back and fill in some of the gaps, and King's narrative voice is as easy and fun to read as it ever was. 

 

There's some family drama, a tale of first love, and of a character falling off the rails and ending up in some bad places, all tied together by Jamie's encounters with Charles Jacobs.  It's not a horror story, for the most part, although there are occasional peeks behind the reality of the characters' every day lives, brought about by Jacobs's experiments with electricity.  I'll say no more than that.  I didn't find it particularly creepy or scary and, when King finally throws the doors open I felt it lurched off the rails a bit.  Considering 99.9% of the story had been firmly based in reality, the revelations at the end just seemed a bit lame, to me anyway.

 

On the plus side, Revival is reasonably concise, unlike the overly long, poorly edited bore-fests he churned out in the 90s.  It doesn't overstay its welcome.  So, I enjoyed it, I thought it was very good, but it's still nowhere near his glory days, in my opinion.

 

 

8/10

 

 

Since then I wasted a couple of days trying to read C J Cherryh's Foreigner, but I've been a bit under the weather and, this morning when I realised I was reading the words but not taking them in, I put it back on the shelf.  Too many pages-long info dumps for my brain to handle at the moment :blush2:  :giggle2:

 

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I was wondering why you hadn't posted any reviews lately. I'm so sorry that you're not feeling well. I hope you feel better soon :flowers2:.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed both of these books, and I enjoyed reading your thoughts on them. I hope you can find a next read that's a bit easier on your head.

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I've just finished Revival - I quite enjoyed it on the whole, but was also a bit disappointed. I like King when he's telling someone's story, and I felt connected with Jamie. I wasn't so keen on the development of Jacob, and I thought the ending didn't quite gel with the rest of the book.

 

I had high hopes for this, but I actually preferred Mr Mercedes - you might enjoy that one too. 

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I'm glad to see you back around :006:

It seems as if Revival is getting a lot of mixed reviews!  They all say the same thing- the beginning is slow!  The first person perspective is interesting though, thanks for mentioning that.

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I hope you feel better soon :flowers2:.

 

Thanks :smile:

 

 

I wasn't so keen on the development of Jacob, and I thought the ending didn't quite gel with the rest of the book.

Yes, it was odd.  I know there had been hints at it earlier on, but I felt either there should have been more of it through the rest of the book or it should have been left out completely.  I'm sure there are better ways he could have dealt with it.

 

 

I had high hopes for this, but I actually preferred Mr Mercedes - you might enjoy that one too.

 

I'll keep an eye out for when that one comes down in price, thanks :smile:  I've got the urge to re-read Firestarter at the moment, no idea why :giggle2:

 

 

I'm glad to see you back around :006:

It seems as if Revival is getting a lot of mixed reviews!  They all say the same thing- the beginning is slow!  The first person perspective is interesting though, thanks for mentioning that.

 

Yeah, the first person surprised me a little, as I'm used to him getting inside the heads of several characters, so it was strange being limited to just the one.  But I thought he did it very well.

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My Mum showed me the book that she has started reading, The Knights Of Dark Renown by David Gemmell.  :smile:   It's kinda cool that she has finally, at the age of 79, decided to only read books that grab her fancy rather than those books she feels she ought to read. She liked the look of the cover, so is giving it a go. 

 

"Is he a good story teller?" she asked me. I was able to say that I know one or two people who enjoy his books.  ;) I just thought I'd share. 

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My Mum showed me the book that she has started reading, The Knights Of Dark Renown by David Gemmell.  :smile:   It's kinda cool that she has finally, at the age of 79, decided to only read books that grab her fancy rather than those books she feels she ought to read. She liked the look of the cover, so is giving it a go. 

 

"Is he a good story teller?" she asked me. I was able to say that I know one or two people who enjoy his books.  ;) I just thought I'd share. 

 

Blimey, that's cool!  :D   I wonder what she'll make of it :hide:   :smile:   As it goes, it's not his best, but it is completely stand alone, so not a bad one to choose.  And it's got one of my favourite last lines ever - assuming she makes it that far :lol:  I don't think 79 year-olds were his target audience, though   :D  

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And thanks for yours, too :smile:

 

 

Haven't done much reading since last post.  I did re-read Ben Aaronovitch's The Rivers of London as a refresher with the intention of going on and reading the others but, when I finished it, I didn't have the enthusiasm to read the next one!  Don't feel like writing another review of it, so the original's here if anyone's interested.  I'd probably knock the score down to a 7.  It's good but not great.

 

Since then I've been reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.  It's taking me a while cos I haven't felt much like reading.

 

And, purely because it's 21/12  . . .

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iTEvPzqj_s

 

:D

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Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

 

post-6588-0-22066900-1419342595_thumb.jpg   

 

 

2005 - Gollancz SF Gateway ebook - 458 pages

 

 

 

From Goodreads:

 

One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives.

Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.

 

 

Thoughts:

 

So I don't really feel like writing reviews at the moment, but I have to say something about this book.  It's a story about the end of the world, and begins as Tyler Dupree and his two friends, brother and sister Jason and Diane, are looking up at a regular night sky when the stars suddenly disappear.  As openings go, it's a good 'un.  I don't want to spoil too much by saying why they disappear - I think it's enough to say that it's one of several big ideas that are brilliant in this book.  It's actually told in retrospect, jumping backwards and forwards to tell what happened in the immediate aftermath of the blackout and to Tyler in the present day, where he is on the run in Sumatra from unknown pursuers, where a huge, mysterious archway has appeared, reaching from the Earth's core and up into space.

 

Reading some comments online - most of which are positive - it would seem to be a book that a few hardcore sf fans don't like so much - in fact, I'd say it's science fiction for people who don't normally like science fiction.  See, although Spin is a book with huge ideas, it is primarily a book about characters.  It is told in the first person, by Tyler, as he writes his memoire before injecting a drug that may very well cause severe amnesia.  The chapters set in the past cover many years, from when he was 10 years-old right up to his present day, and are heavily built around his relationships with Jason and Diane.  Personally, I loved this.  In the little author biography at the end, Wilson says Stephen King is the best science fiction author alive today (nonsense!), but the comparison between Wilson's writing and King's is quite apt, I think, because Wilson writes characters much like King does.  A few readers seemed to find their stories boring.  I didn't -  I genuinely cared for these people and wanted to know what happened to them.

 

Also, the world falls apart around them as it hurtles towards its end.  There is civil unrest, reckless behaviour from various governments, and religious cults spring up and become increasingly fanatical.   I found these aspects affecting, but they could perhaps have been done better.  They only really affect Tyler at a couple of points and otherwise stay in the background, by and large, which is a shame.  I guess it's not the kind of book Wilson was trying to write - it's not a disaster novel or something akin to The Stand - and I found everything else worked so well it's really only a minor complaint.

 

There's a nice line in dry humour, too, as Tyler relates the end of the world.  "The Guatemalans," he observes, "indifferent to the end of the world, were still harvesting coffee."  Or, when he's discussing matters with Jason, and how the spin has encouraged immorality and crime, Jason remarks that it's also increased deficit spending and screwed up the actuary tables - "If the world doesn't end in the next thirty or forty years," he said, "we may be facing disaster." :lol:

 

I also found the book quite moving in places.  Don't get me wrong, though - although it sounds like it's depressing as hell, it really isn't.  Ultimately, it's a book about friendship and hope and human curiosity and the will to survive.  I thought it was tremendous.

 

Spin won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2006, and is followed by Axis and Vortex, but stands well enough on its own.

 

 

9/10

Edited by Karsa Orlong
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Read a couple more books in the last few days:

 

 

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury    

 

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1952 - Harper Voyager paperback - 294 pages

 

 

From Amazon:

 

If El Greco had painted miniatures in his prime, no bigger than your hand, infinitely detailed, with his sulphurous colour and exquisite human anatomy, perhaps he might have used this man’s body for his art…

 

Yet the Illustrated Man has tried to burn the illustrations off. He’s tried sandpaper, acid, and a knife. Because, as the sun sets, the pictures glow like charcoals, like scattered gems. They quiver and come to life. Tiny pink hands gesture, tiny mouths flicker as the figures enact their stories – voices rise, small and muted, predicting the future.

 

Here are sixteen tales: sixteen illustrations… the seventeenth is your own future told on the skin of the Illustrated Man.

 

 

Thoughts:

 

I just loved the idea behind this: a wandering man whose body is covered in tattoos which come alive in the mind of whoever looks at them whilst the Illustrated Man sleeps.  Ultimately, this is just a framing prologue and epilogue to pull together sixteen Bradbury short stories, most of which tell of man's downfall due to hubris or other weaknesses.  There are some crackers in here, particularly The Veldt, The Fox and the Forest, Zero Hour, and The Long Rain.  I love Bradbury's writing style to bits.  I didn't enjoy this collection quite as much as The Martian Chronicles, which I felt was more cohesive even though it was another collection of short stories, but it's still a brilliant read.

 

 

9/10

 

 

 

Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge    

 

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1986 - Tor paperback - 271 pages

 

 

From Goodreads:

 

Multiple Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge takes readers on a fifty-million-year trip to a future where humanity's fate will be decided in a dangerous game of high-tech survival.

In this taut thriller, a Hugo finalist for Best Novel, nobody knows why there are only three hundred humans left alive on the Earth fifty million years from now. Opinion is fiercely divided on whether to settle in and plant the seed of mankind anew, or to continue using high-energy stasis fields, or "bobbles," in venturing into the future. When somebody is murdered, it's obvious someone has a secret he or she is willing to kill to preserve. The murder intensifies the rift between the two factions, threatening the survival of the human race. It's up to 21st century detective Wil Brierson, the only cop left in the world, to find the culprit, a diabolical fiend whose lust for power could cause the utter extinction of man.

Filled with excitement and adventure, Vinge's tense SF puzzler will satisfy readers with its sense of wonder and engaging characters, one of whom is a murderer with a unique modus operandi.

 

 

 

Thoughts:

 

This is a sort-of-sequel to Vinge's The Peace War, which I read a while ago and enjoyed, although I didn't think it was anywhere near his best.  This one is brilliant, though: a murder mystery which takes place fifty million years in the future.  It sees the return of the 'bobbles' from the previous book, the stasis fields which people use to suspend themselves in time while the universe carries on around them. 

 

At some point near the end of the 2200's, mankind is nearly wiped out.  The last few remaining people were in stasis when it happened, and emerge to find an empty world.  In an attempt to bring civilisation back to Earth they decide to move into the future, going in and out of stasis at regular intervals until they can gather together the last remnants who have yet to come out of stasis at all.  Once they are all together they will begin to rebuild.  However, when the last 'bobbling' takes place, one person - the brains behind the plans to rebuild - is deliberately left out of the stasis fields and is left completely alone for the next forty years until death.  When the rest come out of stasis and discover what has happened a murder investigation ensues.

 

I really enjoyed this book.  As seems to be the case with Vinge at his best, the characters are good and the ideas are so different from anything else I've read that they're always intriguing and exciting.  Whilst not as good as his Hugo winners A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky (few sf books are!), this one's much more concise and focuses on fewer characters and plotlines whilst still packing in the ideas.  Recommended.

 

 

9/10

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The Illustrated Man could possibly be my 4th favorite book ever.  I just love it.  I will have to get to the Martian Chronicles soon, perhaps 2015.  I think The Long Rain, Kaleidoscope, The Other Foot and The Velt were my favorites, it is so hard to choose!  I have probably read this book 5 times  :smile: And I love the story behind how he got those tattoos.

Edited by Anna Begins
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^^  I read another Bradbury short story a couple of days ago called A Sound of Thunder.  It was talked about on a recent BBC2 documentary series about science fiction, which made me want to read it.  It's a very good story about chaos theory, well worth a read.  It can be found in Volume 1 of his short story collections (£2.48 for a hundred stories!), or read for free here.

 

Now reading The Pagan Lord, book 7 of Bernard Cornwell's 'Warrior Chronicles' series.  Won't finish it before midnight tonight, so it'll be the first book to appear in next year's reading log :smile:

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