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Recent reading.
Picked up several books at Anticipation, and have been working my way through them.
The New Space Opera 2: All-new stories of science fiction adventure
I love the resurgence of space opera in science fiction. Give my galactic empires and high adventure! This is an excellent follow-on to the first New Space opera, and the stories are well-selected, with a variety of themes and moods. One of my favorites was Cory Doctorow's To Boldly Go which absolutely destroys Star Trek. Jay Lake's To Raise A Mutiny Betwixt Yourselves was brilliant, and Chameleons by Elizabeth Moon made a decent thriller. The winner for sheer scale and scope is Utriusque Cosmi by Robert Charles Wilson. That one starts with a runaway girl and the destruction of the Earth.
If you like your science fiction epic and star-spanning, this book belongs on your reading list. 4 penguins out of 5. Warning! The last story is by John C. "Misogynist religious homophobic bigot" Wright. But it's not that good, so you can safely skip it.
The Unbroken Chain by Guenter Wendt
Guenter Wendt was the last friendly face seen by astronauts before launch from Al Sheppard's sub-orbital flight to the Skylab missions. His career stretched out to the Challenger investigation. This well written, fascinating book, co-written with Russel Still, tells the story of our advance into space from the point of view of a guy who was there from the beginning. The book is written in an easy, conversational style and veers easily from a technical discussion of the engineering nightmares of putting a human on top of a giant bomb and lighting the fuze to amusing anecdotes about the.. interesting personalities and bureaucratic tangles that surrounded Merritt Island.
Perhaps my favorite story concerns the slide to life escape system. Guenter was the first man to test it, and found the ride exhilarating. Several days later several astronauts came up to the tower, milled around, then hooked up and rode the wire down. An outraged Safety Officer screamed that the system hadn't been approved yet, and he was going to nail those astronauts. Guenter simply said "OK, I'll tell them. Then hooks himself up and goes down the wire too!
If you are at all interested in the history of American spaceflight, read this book. 5 penguins.
Genesis (Ark series) by Paul Chafe
Rarely do I say this. This book should have been a trilogy. Genesis is the first book in a series about a generation ship carrying mankind to the stars. And damn, the entire thing feels rushed. The book is divided into three novellas. The first concerns the political battle to set up the infrastructure to build the Ark. Our main character here is the Secretary-General of the UN (now a world government) who sees the only solution to radical overpopulation and energy shortages as being to send a few thousand people on a ten-thousand year journey.
OK. . . the logic escapes me here. But it's not my story, so onwards.
The problem in this first section is that the story can't decide if it wants to be a political novel, an engineering novel, or a novel of conflict between science and religion. It tries to do all three and fails. We keep getting told about the machinations in the General Assembly, but never see them. The Believers (sort of a cross between Plain Sect Amish, Mormon fundamentalists, which a huge dollop of Charismatic fundamentalism thrown in) exist only as sort a comic-opera opposition. Beyond the Prophet, we never see any depth to them. There's another issue. Depth. The characters are cardboard cutouts. They are almost without exception monomaniacal. "I will build the Ark!" "I will return the nation to my view of God!" "I am a dedicated engineer!" The few times characters show any emotion towards each other it is treated as an confusing and awkward moment. The first section ends with the true plan for the Ark being revealed. This supposedly destroys the religious movement's influence. I'm serious, revealing an expensive government project that won't be finished for decades and can only possibly benefit a scant few is supposed to destroy a populist movement with wide-spread support. This is dismissed in a single sentence. Bad, bad writing. show us the fall of the Believers! There should have been more struggle, the revelation of the Ark should have ended Act II of a full length novel!
The second part is no better. Set several decades after the first section, it is the story of an attempt to end the Ark program. Again, everything is compressed and characters have no more complexity than needed. No real reason is ever given for the shutdown, nor are we ever allowed to see the workings of the government. A true missed opportunity is the chance to see how the media works in the next century. Right now, we have viral movements through social networking and Twitter. When the current Chief Engineer is trapped on Earth, she makes an unlikely alliance with the Prophet from the firstnovel section, and he pulls strings to set up a worldwide campaign to save the Ark. Which we never see. At all. Seriously. It all happens off stage. In the meantime, we get some confused action scenes from the Ark itself. I really had no idea at all what was happening most of the time, or what the characters were trying to accomplish. A muddled mess.
The final section, set some two hundred years into the flight, almost prompted me to throw the book across the room. At the end of the second section it was agreed that the Believers would be brought inboard as colonists and farmers for the trip. Now I've long advocated that sects like the Amish would be perfect for colonizing an Earth-like world. Used to doing without modern technology and possessing a strong work ethic, they are who you want tilling the soil of Tau Ceti II. But the Believers of this book go beyond simple farmers. They are Luddite technophobes who quickly establish rules about never mingling with "Crew." The Crew, for their part, have evidently managed to forget how to do anything in 200 years. They can't use the fabs, can't repair anything, and pass out useless degrees at a University that is more like a religious monastery.
The bulk of the third section involves a really pointless religious uprising by the Believers who slaughter the Crew, vandalize the ship's library, and throw wooden shoes into the mills.. sorry, smash and burn anything more complex than a water wheel. More confused actions here. The story is mostly about a young Believer boy who falls in love with a Crew girl. They escape the chaos, and in the end seem to have set up a new settlement on the shores of the fresh water ocean. The End.
One thing about this book that really disturbed me was the extreme anti-religious tone. Mind you, I'm as militant an atheist as they come, but even I don't think that all religious expression necessarily leads to the kind of xenophobic Dark Ages thinking this book shows. Also, one would think that someone would have realized that having two utterly polarized communities on board a trip lasting longer than recorded human history was going to be trouble. I'd have spent the decades preceding launch making sure that everyone living on the Ark was indoctrinated into thinking only about the Mission. Also, what's up with a crew that can't repair anything? There is a sequel and it appears that we've reached the For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky stage of things. I might check it out if I'm feeling bored. 2 penguins.
Next up: The book of French SF that was a freebie at the con.
The New Space Opera 2: All-new stories of science fiction adventure
I love the resurgence of space opera in science fiction. Give my galactic empires and high adventure! This is an excellent follow-on to the first New Space opera, and the stories are well-selected, with a variety of themes and moods. One of my favorites was Cory Doctorow's To Boldly Go which absolutely destroys Star Trek. Jay Lake's To Raise A Mutiny Betwixt Yourselves was brilliant, and Chameleons by Elizabeth Moon made a decent thriller. The winner for sheer scale and scope is Utriusque Cosmi by Robert Charles Wilson. That one starts with a runaway girl and the destruction of the Earth.
If you like your science fiction epic and star-spanning, this book belongs on your reading list. 4 penguins out of 5. Warning! The last story is by John C. "Misogynist religious homophobic bigot" Wright. But it's not that good, so you can safely skip it.
The Unbroken Chain by Guenter Wendt
Guenter Wendt was the last friendly face seen by astronauts before launch from Al Sheppard's sub-orbital flight to the Skylab missions. His career stretched out to the Challenger investigation. This well written, fascinating book, co-written with Russel Still, tells the story of our advance into space from the point of view of a guy who was there from the beginning. The book is written in an easy, conversational style and veers easily from a technical discussion of the engineering nightmares of putting a human on top of a giant bomb and lighting the fuze to amusing anecdotes about the.. interesting personalities and bureaucratic tangles that surrounded Merritt Island.
Perhaps my favorite story concerns the slide to life escape system. Guenter was the first man to test it, and found the ride exhilarating. Several days later several astronauts came up to the tower, milled around, then hooked up and rode the wire down. An outraged Safety Officer screamed that the system hadn't been approved yet, and he was going to nail those astronauts. Guenter simply said "OK, I'll tell them. Then hooks himself up and goes down the wire too!
If you are at all interested in the history of American spaceflight, read this book. 5 penguins.
Genesis (Ark series) by Paul Chafe
Rarely do I say this. This book should have been a trilogy. Genesis is the first book in a series about a generation ship carrying mankind to the stars. And damn, the entire thing feels rushed. The book is divided into three novellas. The first concerns the political battle to set up the infrastructure to build the Ark. Our main character here is the Secretary-General of the UN (now a world government) who sees the only solution to radical overpopulation and energy shortages as being to send a few thousand people on a ten-thousand year journey.
OK. . . the logic escapes me here. But it's not my story, so onwards.
The problem in this first section is that the story can't decide if it wants to be a political novel, an engineering novel, or a novel of conflict between science and religion. It tries to do all three and fails. We keep getting told about the machinations in the General Assembly, but never see them. The Believers (sort of a cross between Plain Sect Amish, Mormon fundamentalists, which a huge dollop of Charismatic fundamentalism thrown in) exist only as sort a comic-opera opposition. Beyond the Prophet, we never see any depth to them. There's another issue. Depth. The characters are cardboard cutouts. They are almost without exception monomaniacal. "I will build the Ark!" "I will return the nation to my view of God!" "I am a dedicated engineer!" The few times characters show any emotion towards each other it is treated as an confusing and awkward moment. The first section ends with the true plan for the Ark being revealed. This supposedly destroys the religious movement's influence. I'm serious, revealing an expensive government project that won't be finished for decades and can only possibly benefit a scant few is supposed to destroy a populist movement with wide-spread support. This is dismissed in a single sentence. Bad, bad writing. show us the fall of the Believers! There should have been more struggle, the revelation of the Ark should have ended Act II of a full length novel!
The second part is no better. Set several decades after the first section, it is the story of an attempt to end the Ark program. Again, everything is compressed and characters have no more complexity than needed. No real reason is ever given for the shutdown, nor are we ever allowed to see the workings of the government. A true missed opportunity is the chance to see how the media works in the next century. Right now, we have viral movements through social networking and Twitter. When the current Chief Engineer is trapped on Earth, she makes an unlikely alliance with the Prophet from the first
The final section, set some two hundred years into the flight, almost prompted me to throw the book across the room. At the end of the second section it was agreed that the Believers would be brought inboard as colonists and farmers for the trip. Now I've long advocated that sects like the Amish would be perfect for colonizing an Earth-like world. Used to doing without modern technology and possessing a strong work ethic, they are who you want tilling the soil of Tau Ceti II. But the Believers of this book go beyond simple farmers. They are Luddite technophobes who quickly establish rules about never mingling with "Crew." The Crew, for their part, have evidently managed to forget how to do anything in 200 years. They can't use the fabs, can't repair anything, and pass out useless degrees at a University that is more like a religious monastery.
The bulk of the third section involves a really pointless religious uprising by the Believers who slaughter the Crew, vandalize the ship's library, and throw wooden shoes into the mills.. sorry, smash and burn anything more complex than a water wheel. More confused actions here. The story is mostly about a young Believer boy who falls in love with a Crew girl. They escape the chaos, and in the end seem to have set up a new settlement on the shores of the fresh water ocean. The End.
One thing about this book that really disturbed me was the extreme anti-religious tone. Mind you, I'm as militant an atheist as they come, but even I don't think that all religious expression necessarily leads to the kind of xenophobic Dark Ages thinking this book shows. Also, one would think that someone would have realized that having two utterly polarized communities on board a trip lasting longer than recorded human history was going to be trouble. I'd have spent the decades preceding launch making sure that everyone living on the Ark was indoctrinated into thinking only about the Mission. Also, what's up with a crew that can't repair anything? There is a sequel and it appears that we've reached the For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky stage of things. I might check it out if I'm feeling bored. 2 penguins.
Next up: The book of French SF that was a freebie at the con.
no subject
Ah. So he was writing the prequel to Orphans of the Sky. I'm not sure we needed one...
no subject
Alternatively - sounds like someone tried to novelize Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, without realizing (or ignoring) that it was already done by the creators.