Issue Number 54
(February 2000)
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Issue Number 54 |
Book notesby Jean Weber |
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Stephen Baxter, Voyage, 1997An alternative history of US space exploration. What if President Kennedy had lived? The US could have sent a human mission to Mars in the 1980s. This book examines that scenario, focussing on several individuals, including Ralph Gershon (a black Vietnam fighter pilot), Natalie York (a female geologist/astronaut), and others. The actions of various NASA and US federal government bureaucrats are examined, making clear to anyone who doesn't already know, that decisions are often made for political reasons, not technical ones. Natalie learns firsthand about that; although she outperforms many of the men in the astronaut testing program, she's not seriously considered for the Mars mission because she's female. (In real life, most of the women who were tested outperformed the men on several tests, but were passed over -- the times were not yet right for accepting women in certain roles.) The characters were so well developed that I got sucked right into the story, not that I needed much encouragement, given my enthusiasm for space projects. But I could certainly get involved with the teeth-grinding frustration of those who were ready to go, but were stymied by politics, funding cuts, and bureaucracy.
Order Voyage from Amazon.com Stephen Baxter, Titan, HarperCollins, 1997A "future history" of US space exploration, focused on the people and politics of a human mission to Titan, after NASA's Cassini probe finds evidence of interesting things (possibly including life) there in 2004. Much of the book takes place on the trip to Titan, or on the moon itself, but the chapters are interspersed with flashbacks to the participants, their families, and various political figures, NASA bureaucrats, Chinese and other cosmonauts as well as Americans. As in Voyage, the mix of political and technical issues is clear. This book points out how much can be done with current technology, reusing bits of leftover equipment, and so on, thus cutting costs dramatically; and how much stress is put on people by the process of bidding for a US government contract, then fulfilling the contract, particularly when a lot of powerful people want the program to fail.
Order Titan from Amazon.com Gregory Benford, Foundation's Fear, HarperPrism, 1997 and Greg Bear, Foundation and Chaos, HarperPrism, 1998Two novels written in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe and more-or-less in Asimov's style. They're quite enjoyable even if you haven't read the originals.
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Order Foundation and Chaos from Amazon.com Ben Bova, Moonrise, Avon, 1996, and Moonwar, Avon, 1998Moonbase is built by a corporation, not by a government; it's the dream of Paul Stavenger and his wife, Joanna Masterson, to establish a viable business in space. Moonbase cannot exist without nanotechnology, but important forces on Earth adamantly oppose any use of nano-tech. As nation after nation signs the treaty banning nanotech, Moonbase is left with a very fragile legal existance. Greg Masterson, Joanna's first son, is a psychotic young man who hates his stepfather, is opposed to Moonbase, and is distressed by the birth of Paul and Joanna's son Doug, whom is sees as a rival. Greg plots for years to destroy his stepfather's dream, while Doug is enthusiastic about frontiers, the Moon, nanotech, and other visionary ideas. By the end of the first book, Moonbase (under Doug's leadership) has declared its independence, thus setting the stage for armed intervention by the United Nations. The second book takes us through the attempted UN takeover, foiled by some quite clever tricks on the part of the mostly unarmed Moonbase colonists -- not all of whom are delighted with being cut off from any possibility of returning to Earth. I enjoyed both of these books immensely, not least because I am an enthusiast for private capital developing moon- and space-based business ventures.
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Order Moonwar from Amazon.com Lois McMaster Bujold, Komarr, Baen, 1998Subtitled "A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure", this book really ought to be called a romance. Bujold fans will be familiar with the life of Miles, and the fact that he's loved several women, all of whom have left him for various good reasons of their own (often connected to their reluctance to be sucked into the Vor system on Miles' home planet Barrayar). In this book, while investigating problems on the planet Komarr (in his role as Imperial Auditor), Miles meets an intelligent, educated Vor woman from Barrayar and further complicates his already complicated life. The usual suspects are trying to kill him, he's trying to unravel the plot (who is doing the bad deeds, and why?), and he's falling in love at the same time. All told in Bujold's usual well-worded and ironic style. Most enjoyable reading!
Order Komarr from Amazon.com Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Warner, 1993I had put off reding this book for years, because I mostly don't read novels set in a dying American social structure. They're usually too preachy or depressing or stereotyped. If the characters improve the situation, it's contrived; if they don't, it's not upbeat enough for my taste. Octavia Butler has managed to write a book that avoids all these pitfalls. It starts out showing the good and bad points of a collapsing social structure, and how various people react to that situation. The main character, a girl named Lauren Ola-mina, develops a vision of survival and becomes a leader of a not-quite-cult, yet she never seems "too good to be true" or overly contrived. I could relate to the characters in this book much more than I could relate to those in Butler's earlier books. I look forward to reading the later books in this series.
Order Parable from Amazon.com Charles de Lint, Trader, Tor, 1997Two men wake up in each other's body. One (Max Trader) is a talented musician and guitar-maker, the other (Johnny Devlin) a charming scoun-drel and loser. Johnny immediately takes advantage of his improved situation, while Max is left to attempt to pick up some pieces of his life. Max's friends and Johnny's ex-girlfriend know something's wrong, even if no one else will believe them. Fortunately for Max, Jilly comes into the story. Jilly is a character from previous de Lint tales, a person with contacts in the otherworld, a person inclined to believe the most outrageous things are possible, because she's seen some unbelievable things herself. Other troubled people move through the story, interacting with Max, Johnny or Jilly; all are people who need to overcome their fears, accept their pasts, and -- most importantly -- move on. Several of them succeed in their efforts; their stories touch the reader, as do most stories told by de Lint.
Order Trader from Amazon.com William Gibson, Idoru, Berkley, 1996Another novel exploring the meeting of reality and virtuality, set in 21st century Tokyo. Rei Toei is the idoru, a beautiful, entirely virtual media star. Rez is a human singer who intends to marry Rei. Chia is a 14-year-old fan of Rez; she's heard he might be in trouble and wants to help. Colin Laney is a talented searcher for obscure patterns of information. They all come together in a somewhat complicated story which I quite enjoyed.
Order Idoru from Amazon.com George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, HarperCollins, 1998George Martin's writing has the rare ability to suck me completely into a story that I otherwise would have no interest in. His characterisations are excellent, and all the details of the settings very interesting, yet the action moves right along and holds my interest thoroughly. The characters are what makes the book for me. So many fantasy novels have stereotyped characters that bore me within a few pages; George's characters are so varied, and so real, that I want to know what happens to them. I also know that the good guys won't necessarily live, or the bad guys die, so I keep turning the pages with total fascination.
Order Clash of Kings from Amazon.com Order Game of Thrones from Amazon.com Anne McCaffrey, Freedom's Challenge, Corgi, 1998The third (and last?) in the Catteni series, after Freedom's Landing and Freedom's Choice, this book is lightweight but enjoyable -- the sort of book I like to read on an otherwise boring plane flight. Just enough action and characterisation to make it interesting, but not a whole lot to think about. (And possibly it's not a good idea to think about it too much, lest you notice the flaws.) You can read this book without having read the others, as the first few pages neatly sum up the situation. A bunch of bad guys had dropped several shiploads of people (both human and several species of extraterrestrials) on a planet, to survive or die by their own actions. The castaways (who call their planet Botany) have done very well for themselves and have also discovered that the planet had been colonised in the long-ago past by some other spacefarers, whom they call the "Farmers". By this book the Botany inhabitants are fighting back against the bad guys, with a little help from the Farmers. Of course, not all the Botanists agree on what to do, or who should do it, so there's a bit of infighting going on as well as the bigger campaign against the bad guys.
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Order Freedom's Choice from Amazon.com Anne McCaffrey, The MasterHarper of Pern, 1998Pern fans will be delighted to read the story of MasterHarper Robinton, an important character in many of the original books in the series. His past and its sorrows were mentioned in passing in other books, just enough for fans to want to know the full story. In keeping with the series, Robinton's story is both sad and uplifting, and the main characters are ones most readers can empathise with. Here's a child with a talent that surpasses his father's, a father who is too busy and preoccupied to pay attention to his son. Others in the Harper Hall take over Robinton's education and musical training, and he progresses unusually swiftly. During his postings at various holds, he meets or becomes aware of a variety of characters that occupied center stage in other books. You don't need to know any of the other stories to enjoy and appreciate this one, but if you've read them all, you'll keep recognising names, places and events.
Order Masterharper from Amazon.com Elizabeth Moon, Phases, Baen, 1997Short story collection from this excellent writer, who handles both science fiction and fantasy with great skill. This collection includes stories originally published from 1986 to 1995. Most of them have quite clever twists in the end of the tale, some are serious, and some are hilarious. Just a minor warning: some of the stories were also included in the previous collection titled Lunar Activity; I commend the publisher for mentioning this on the back cover of the book.
Order Phases from Amazon.com Linda Nagata, The Bohr Maker, Bantam, 1995The Maker is banned technology; it allows users to control and change others' moods and emotions and to reprogram their own genetic structure. Now it's been stolen, by a man with only weeks to live, and has fallen into the hands of a young woman in the slums, who soon becomes known as a miracle worker. The authorities, of course, want to kill them and all their associates. Others want to use the Maker to save and extend lives, improve the world, and live on other planets (some already live in space stations). I found this book full of fascinating ideas, some of them quite distasteful, but the story never quite came together for me. Perhaps it will for you.
Order Bohr Maker from Amazon.com Rebecca Ore, Slow Funeral, Tor, 1994Maude Fuller is a modern hippie dropout in Berkeley, California, living off welfare (she pretends to be insane, rather than facing the fact that she's really a witch), when she gets a mental "call" to return to her home in Virginia, where her grandmother is dying. Back in Virginia, she tries (but fails) to not get caught up in the politics of the area's witches. Her grandmother is one of the matriarchs, and Maude's parents are dead, so it's Maude's destiny to inherit her grandmother's place in the local feuds. She, of course, resists (as well as she can) getting sucked into the feuds, but she feels obligated to take care of her grandmother, rather than allow her enemies to defeat her. Maude's magical powers are strong, but untrained, so she has mixed success. A Berkeley engineer boyfriend later joins her in Virginia. Technology is useful against magic, but he's easily sucked in by the glamour of witchcraft and doesn't believe he's in any danger. Maude feels she must protect him, even when he's being a macho fool and resisting protection. The book's an enjoyable read as well as a serious study of one woman's coming to terms with herself, her abilities, her background, her family, and her responsibilities -- what they are and what they are not -- with a bit of the bigger questions of good versus evil tossed in for seasoning.
Order Slow Funeral from Amazon.com S.M. Stirling, Island in the Sea of Time, Roc, 1998, and Against the Tide of Years, 1999The island of Nantucket (off the coast of Massachusetts) is suddenly transported from 1998 into the past (around 1250 BC). How will the residents survive? The author has chosen a semi-isolated place with a high proportion of well-educated people, many of whom are very knowledgeable about things that turn out to have high survival value (at more than subsistence level). In addition to food, clothing and shelter, the residents must cope with the inhabitants of the rest of the world, who have a decidedly different view of human social relationships from most of us today. Of course there's a certain proportion of people who can't cope with the situation, or think they have an answer to a problem without any knowledge of the real problem, or are entirely too quick to take advantage of a situation rather than helping with the survival of the wider community. The people of 1250 are quite varied, ranging from the civilisations of the Mediterranean, the islands of Ireland and England, and the American continents. Stirling's done a great job with the characters: the reader can get a good idea of the way people lived and interacted, and appreciate that many people could quickly grasp the principles behind technology only a bit advanced from their own; once they realised something could be done, they could learn how to do it. I really enjoyed these books, each of which could stand on its own as a novel. I'm looking forward to more books in this series.
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Order Against Tide from Amazon.com Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance, Avon EOS, 1998, ISBN 0380791986Another of Tepper's books featuring unusual social arrangements related to an imbalance in the numbers of males and females in a society; mysterious environmental happenings (earthquakes, volcanoes awakening, etc), possibly related to the alignment of the six moons around the planet of Newholme; a cyborg Questioner from the Council of Worlds who comes to investigate rumours of improper conduct in the human society and possibly native sentients; some very odd creatures (people?) in the outback; the natives themselves, which most humans don't see; and various other goings-on. I've enjoyed all of Tepper's ecological and sociological tales, despite (and sometimes because of) her habit of making the bad guys (usually men) really awful and engaged in deep, dark conspiracies against other people (usually women), and despite the occasional really sadistic person who enjoys hurting other people. This book is a bit different in terms of who some of the conspirators and the sadists are, and who are victims of whom, but the aliens fill a similar role of "the other" against which humankind needs to compares itself. The book definitely held my interest, but those who haven't liked Tepper's other recent novels probably won't like this one.
Order Six Moon Dance from Amazon.com Joan D. Vinge, Dreamfall, Warner, 1996, ISBN 0446604011Following on from earlier novels Psion and Catspaw, this book finds Cat studying the cloud-whales of the planet Refuge. To complicate his life thoroughly, the "natives" of Refuge are Hydrans, and Cat is half Hydran, half Terran. So he can't stop getting caught up in the planet's politics. Worse, at the end of Catspaw, Cat chose to lose his psi powers, so he's sneered at by both sides. Can he regain his psi ability? Does he want to, or is the fear still too strong? If he can't bring himself to try to help the Hydrans, what about the cloud-whales, which are threatened by human activities on the planet? This book is out of print. Tess Williams, Map of Power, Random House, 1996, ISBN 0091833280This book is set approximately 300 years in the future, after nuclear and environmental catatrophe in the 21st century. It focuses on a tribe in Antarctica, more people in south-western Western Australia, and a group on a space station (wheel) in Moon orbit. The latter tend a gene bank of Earth organisms and are having a lot of suicides and other mental-illness symptoms. Kass's story is hard to follow (she isn't very coherent), but she's been having telempathic experiences. Cheela and Morgan are each different from the other members of their groups. She's better characterised than he is, though the motivations of each seem clear; especially Morgan, who likes gadgets. His ability to get old technology working seems unrealistic to me and his thoughts about women (near the end of the book) had no precursors in the story. Are other groups alive on Earth? There are hints of them and hints of all sorts of things. The Antarctic group are very set in their ways (and believe in a "Spirit" that causes all good and bad events). The Western Australian group are religious Luddites, with other groups (or their leaders) in the area more eager to rediscover (and misuse) technology. The three groups are drawn together in a complex, yet stereotyped, story. Kass's situation reminded me of Trish Sullivan's Lethe. This post-disaster story's only original element is its setting. It wasn't deep, complex or gripping (at least not to me), although it's better than some first novels. Many bits of the story could have been developed into something compelling, but were left too simple and superficial. This is probably the result of trying to tell three stories; one done in more depth would have made a better novel, though of course not telling the story Williams wanted to tell. This book is not listed with Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Bantam, 1998The 1999 Hugo winner, this book demonstrates Willis' usual madcap wit and style. It's a time travel story, intertwining the fools and manipulators in modern academic (and similar) bureaucracies, the competent but confused time travellers, and a collection of people in the 1940's, some of whose activities bear an odd resemblence to Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but I suspect I would have found at least one extra level of action and meaning if I were more familiar with Three Men in a Boat. Even without that, it was a great romp and well written as are all of Willis' works.
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