I dislike Military (Science) Fiction, but make exceptions for the classics of the genre like "Starship Troopers" and Haldeman's 1974 masterpiece. Unlike "Starship Troopers" there's less emphasis here on the virtues of camaraderie, building a cohesive fighting unit, or even 'winning' for that matter. Haldeman is more interested in depicting the alienation soldiers feel when coming back from the front, the inability to fit in, the feeling of not belonging, all of which forces the soldiers back to the front, to the military, as it is the only constant in their lives they can rely on. Haldeman's Vietnam War experience and the subsequent adaptation (or lack thereof) to civilian life served as the main inspiration for this book.
The Forever War Haldeman speaks of, although just a metaphor for the Vietnam War, or all wars, is fought between the Earthlings and the Taurans, a humanoid race which seems to be at about the same technological level. The greatest scientific breakthrough is the Collapsar Jump, which allows space ships to cover enormous distances in no time at all. However, because of relativistic laws, this incurs what other sci-fi writers have called "Time Debt" where although subjective time of mission might be 10 months, relativistically back on Earth, decades and centuries have passed. Such "time debt" is a great allegory for the alienation Vietnam Vets felt when they came back from the front.
The first come back to Earth finds it in poverty and violence, with most of the population homosexual, encouraged by UNEF, the world government, in order to control population growth. William Mandela, the protagonist of the novel, does not feel he fits well in this new society, although his mother is still alive (now in a homosexual relationship with another woman), and has to walk around with armed bodyguards because of the omnipresent violent robberies.
He leaves for the front for a second time, the military tricking him by offering him a training job in Earth's orbit, and then substituting the orders for a front posting within the hour. When he comes back a second time, this time to a R-and-R planet called "Heaven" - he learns that now limbs are artificially grown nowadays and there are no prosthetics, although the process is quite painful. He also finds out that sex between humans is being deprecated and all new humans are grown in a lab, from genetic materials selected and combined by UNEF, which causes most of the human population to be of the same skin color and racial characteristics.
Mandella calculates his odds of surviving his 10 year posting and it comes to about 1.2 in 60,000, which is a commentary on the casualties in the Vietnam War and other wars. Eventually his team, he's an officer now since he is one of the oldest surviving soldiers in UNEF, gets sent to the edge of the Galaxy, and by the time they all come back several centuries have passed, the human population is all a single clone nowadays and they communicate telepathically, turns out that the Taurans are also a million-year old civilization of telepathic clones and once the two clone-entities get together - they realize that the entire 7-8 century war was a mistake based in misunderstanding and overzealous-military-crackpots in UNEF who see the whole universe as a nail because all they've ever got was a hammer.
A fine meditation on the futility and utter stupidity of a war, any war, for whatsoever reason.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Thursday, March 2, 2017
"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood
This is a heavy book. And disturbing. And deceptively easy to read. And full of multi-layered messaging that needs to be discovered by the readers using their own brains. But one would expect nothing less from Mrs. Atwood, one of the greatest literary writers alive today. This book is not meant for entertainment, although simple souls could take it as such - it is definitely written in an easily-readable style, despite the occasional "big word" showing Mrs. Atwood's utter command of the English language.
Snowman used to be known as Jimmy, when growing up in the Corporate Compounds where the privileged lived, employed by mega corporations, well-fed, well-protected, watching extreme violence, rape, mutilation, executions, child porn and other appropriate stuff allowed on the future internet. His best friend was Glenn, or Crake, as the nickname came from one of the many MMORPG games they were playing together. Outside of the compounds were the "pleeblands" - for the ordinaries, the rabble, the consumers who were squeezed out of their last dollar by the products and advertising campaigns coming out of the Compounds.
There are different compounds: some produce new animals, like the pigoons, genetically modified pigs to grow human tissue so that they can be used as farms for human transplants, the rakunks, a playful combination of raccoon and skunk that doesn't have the bestiality of the raccoon, nor the stench of the skunk, and is the new popular pet animal for the privileged, or the wolfogs, acting playful as a dog from a distance, but tearing apart anyone that comes at a biting proximity; other compounds produce human enhancement, like better skin, more hair, youth potions of a motley variety, all intended to be gobbled by the indiscriminate masses of the pleebs.
Crake goes onto an elite school, and then gets employed by a top genetic modification company, while Jimmy becomes a lowly ad-copy writer, but he's good at it. They both love Oryx, the little girl from that peculiar child porn movie they watched together, with eyes that pierce through the screen into their souls. Crake locates Oryx when he grows up, and has more and more resources available to him, because of the perceived monetization of his intelligence. Oryx's job, besides being a sexual relief for Crake, and later Jimmy as well, is to strip naked and educate the "Crakers", a new, benevolent, vegan race of humans that Crake has created in the lab.
But there's more, much, much more. Although far less graphic than "The Windup Girl" - "Crake and Oryx" manages to be more disturbing, on a far deeper, believable level that would make any non-braindead, non-tvhypnotized human thinking for a long time to come.
Snowman used to be known as Jimmy, when growing up in the Corporate Compounds where the privileged lived, employed by mega corporations, well-fed, well-protected, watching extreme violence, rape, mutilation, executions, child porn and other appropriate stuff allowed on the future internet. His best friend was Glenn, or Crake, as the nickname came from one of the many MMORPG games they were playing together. Outside of the compounds were the "pleeblands" - for the ordinaries, the rabble, the consumers who were squeezed out of their last dollar by the products and advertising campaigns coming out of the Compounds.
There are different compounds: some produce new animals, like the pigoons, genetically modified pigs to grow human tissue so that they can be used as farms for human transplants, the rakunks, a playful combination of raccoon and skunk that doesn't have the bestiality of the raccoon, nor the stench of the skunk, and is the new popular pet animal for the privileged, or the wolfogs, acting playful as a dog from a distance, but tearing apart anyone that comes at a biting proximity; other compounds produce human enhancement, like better skin, more hair, youth potions of a motley variety, all intended to be gobbled by the indiscriminate masses of the pleebs.
Crake goes onto an elite school, and then gets employed by a top genetic modification company, while Jimmy becomes a lowly ad-copy writer, but he's good at it. They both love Oryx, the little girl from that peculiar child porn movie they watched together, with eyes that pierce through the screen into their souls. Crake locates Oryx when he grows up, and has more and more resources available to him, because of the perceived monetization of his intelligence. Oryx's job, besides being a sexual relief for Crake, and later Jimmy as well, is to strip naked and educate the "Crakers", a new, benevolent, vegan race of humans that Crake has created in the lab.
But there's more, much, much more. Although far less graphic than "The Windup Girl" - "Crake and Oryx" manages to be more disturbing, on a far deeper, believable level that would make any non-braindead, non-tvhypnotized human thinking for a long time to come.
Friday, February 24, 2017
"The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi
"The Windup Girl" is the first novel by Paolo Bacigalupi, and at first it reminded me of the Murakami mind-blowing, world literature classic "The Windup Bird Chronicle", but the resemblance is only in the title. Luckily. This is an explicit, dark, unrepentant novel. There are no good characters. Every single character kills, tortures, rapes, cheats, lies or otherwise acts like a piece of shit. Nobody is likable. Not even the titular Windup Girl, Emiko, even after she's repeatedly and brutally raped on stage as a spectacle for leering human-animals. She is used as a rental sex toy for johns who, as she says, "fuck me then spit on me." The novel is set in 25th century Thailand, which is one of the few surviving countries after global warming/flooding, GMO plagues that destroy most of the world's plant life, famines, mass deaths and destruction of pretty much the entire developed world. What remains is controlled by a handful of GMO Conglomerates with their own private armies to monitor the usage of their "intellectual property" and destroy anyone and anything that stands in their path. They are also called "Calorie Companies."Anderson Lake is a "Calorie Man" working for AgriGen and despite posing as a "kink spring" factory propriator - is actually hunting for the last remaining seed bank in Thailind, that he wants to appropriate and destroy so that AgriGen gets market advantage over the other calorie companies. Hok San is the "Yellow Card" Malay Chinese refugee who manages the factory for Lake, and also tries to steal the plans for the latest advanced kink spring, to sell it to the Dung Lord in order to restore his shipping empire destroyed in Malaysia by the muslim nationalist "Green Bands" who gang raped his daughters and tortured and killed his sons. Only 1% of the Malaysian Chinese population survives the genocide. Another story line is of the rivalry between the two strongest Thai ministries, Trade and Environment, with their own private armies, black shirts and white shirts, while their top leaders vie for supremacy at the Thai Royal court and the Thai Child Queen. Jaidhee is a captain of the White Shirts, Environment Ministry's army and is betrayed by his lieutenant Kanya, and brutally killed by Trade (they push him of a roof of a building, then cut his head off and put his penis in his mouth). This unleashed a civil war which Trade eventually wins, but the destruction of Bangkok follows, so nobody really wins. At the end, Gibson (Gi Bu Sen), former Agrigen scientist, meets Emiko and promises to help her have genetic clone children. They stay together at the flooded Bankgok with Emiko and Gibson's lover, the lady-boy Kip.This book won all the Sci-Fi awards, but is definitely hard to swallow. Expect no mercy.
Friday, February 10, 2017
"Woken Furies" by Richard Morgan
The third part of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy, definitely better than the second one (not a great achievement), but not as good as the first one. No wonder Netflix is basing its series only on the first volume, "Altered Carbon".
Kovacs is old here, both physically and definitely mentally, starting the question what has he done with his life and could have he made better choices. It happens on his home planet, Harlan's World, the only planet orbiting the Glimmer star system, and, of course, located by the human kind based on the "Martian" astrogation charts. The "Martians" being the ancient alien sapient race that populated large swaths of the Perseus Arm, home to the human race, and disappeared somewhere about 500,000 years ago.
The book also gives us the Morgan's most interesting creation, Quellcrist Falconer, or Nadia Makita, the revolutionary leader who overthrew the Harlan's world first families 320 years ago, for a short while, and got killed by "Angelfire' from the "Martian" probes orbiting the planet. The big reveal in the end has to do with what "Angelfire" does besides vaporizing. Also Tak seems to have been copied during his early UN Protectorate Envoy years and now this younger Tak, who hasn't been to Sanction 4, is working for the Harlans and tries to kill the old Tak, whom he despises, but only manages to kill, pretty much, all of his friends and collaborators.
The book is slow at parts, but overall works well. Not at the level of the first volume, Altered Carbon, but well nevertheless. Seems like Morgan tried to experiment with too many different genres in the three volumes, probably would'be been better to stick to the first volume formula, cyberpunk, hard-boiled detective story.
Kovacs is old here, both physically and definitely mentally, starting the question what has he done with his life and could have he made better choices. It happens on his home planet, Harlan's World, the only planet orbiting the Glimmer star system, and, of course, located by the human kind based on the "Martian" astrogation charts. The "Martians" being the ancient alien sapient race that populated large swaths of the Perseus Arm, home to the human race, and disappeared somewhere about 500,000 years ago.
The book also gives us the Morgan's most interesting creation, Quellcrist Falconer, or Nadia Makita, the revolutionary leader who overthrew the Harlan's world first families 320 years ago, for a short while, and got killed by "Angelfire' from the "Martian" probes orbiting the planet. The big reveal in the end has to do with what "Angelfire" does besides vaporizing. Also Tak seems to have been copied during his early UN Protectorate Envoy years and now this younger Tak, who hasn't been to Sanction 4, is working for the Harlans and tries to kill the old Tak, whom he despises, but only manages to kill, pretty much, all of his friends and collaborators.
The book is slow at parts, but overall works well. Not at the level of the first volume, Altered Carbon, but well nevertheless. Seems like Morgan tried to experiment with too many different genres in the three volumes, probably would'be been better to stick to the first volume formula, cyberpunk, hard-boiled detective story.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
"Death's End" by Cixin Liu
The third volume of the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" or "The Three-Body Trilogy" is even grander in scale than the previous two volumes. What began as a 'First Contact" novel has turned into a Space Opera of the grandest scale going all the way to the End of the Universe, billions of years in the future.
The book starts with a tidbit about the Fall of Constantinople and implications of 4-dimensional space, but the real action starts around the same time as the second volume. At teh same time as teh "Wallfacer" project the UN starts another, "The Staircase" project, which sends a brain in a capsule that can achieve 1% of the speed of light through being propelled with Nuclear Bombs and Radiation Sail. Qang Xin, is the main protagonis, a young, "classically beautiful" PhD in Rocket Propulsion, who works for the UN Intelligence Agency, created by the World Powers to figure out ways to counter the Tri-Solarians.
When she's awaken in the future, just when Luo Ji is about 100 years old, and needs to transfer the "Sword" to another "Swordholder" - she is elected by the population of the Earth, The Trisolarians, through the one-dimensional Sophon AIs and the "Sophon" android they've created in the image of a perfect human female, have been feeding Humans false knowledge for a while, even though they were in the Deterrence Era, knowing that Luo Ji would activate "The Sword" and expose both planets to a Dark Forest attack and thus destruction. However, as soon as Qang Xin take the sword, the Trisolarians attack the Earth's gravity wave transmission stations, with the droplets that were lying hidden in the Solar system, although humans were told that the droplets have been withdrawn. The lying and deception of the Trisolarians has reached or surpassed human levels, even though they started from zero. Trisolarians built a psychological profile of Qang Xin and knew she would not have the courage (or have too much love and mercy) to use the Sword.
Human fleet is destroyed, Android Sophon becomes a monster and herds all humans onto Australia ( billions of people) and then sarcastically tells them now they have to eat each other for food until only about 50 million are left, which are to be kept alive as zoo specimens when Trisolarians arrive.
However, one space ship, the "Gravity" manages to send the location message from outer space and suddenly Trisolarians turn around and head away from the Solar System, as it is now exposed to Dark Forest attack. However, before the Solar System is destroyed, the Trisolarian planet and Sun is vaporized by a 'mass dot' or photoid attack, killing everyone on the planet except a thousand or so who were in space ships at the time hidden behind the other two suns in the system. This is probably the most satisfying moment of the book, as the Trisolarian garbage gets what they deserve for fucking with the human race.
Nevertheless, the Solar System is destroyed eventually, with another type of attack, a real Dark Forest attack, with all humans in it, except for Qang Xin and A.A. who are the only to escape (not with the blessing of other humans. goes to prove that most humans are animals). There's a gift of a star involved, and a curvature propulsion which reaches light speed, and a max-rational American who builds the greatest business empire known to man - only to be brought down by Qang Xin, and the consewuences of creating a "Dark Domain" where light speed it lowered to 16.7km/sec, and the time-flow implications, and mini-universes, and M-Theory branes, and enemies becoming friends again, at the end of time and existence, and a hope for a new, better universe, a "Garden of Eden" possibly with the original 10 dimensions in macroscopic reality, but that's all to be read and enjoyed again, one day.
I've never been so excited to read a science fiction trilogy since the days I first read teh Great Asimov's original "Foundation Trilogy". Cixin Liu is a master of the art. This is Hard Science Fiction in a form and vision which is as good as it gets.
The book starts with a tidbit about the Fall of Constantinople and implications of 4-dimensional space, but the real action starts around the same time as the second volume. At teh same time as teh "Wallfacer" project the UN starts another, "The Staircase" project, which sends a brain in a capsule that can achieve 1% of the speed of light through being propelled with Nuclear Bombs and Radiation Sail. Qang Xin, is the main protagonis, a young, "classically beautiful" PhD in Rocket Propulsion, who works for the UN Intelligence Agency, created by the World Powers to figure out ways to counter the Tri-Solarians.
When she's awaken in the future, just when Luo Ji is about 100 years old, and needs to transfer the "Sword" to another "Swordholder" - she is elected by the population of the Earth, The Trisolarians, through the one-dimensional Sophon AIs and the "Sophon" android they've created in the image of a perfect human female, have been feeding Humans false knowledge for a while, even though they were in the Deterrence Era, knowing that Luo Ji would activate "The Sword" and expose both planets to a Dark Forest attack and thus destruction. However, as soon as Qang Xin take the sword, the Trisolarians attack the Earth's gravity wave transmission stations, with the droplets that were lying hidden in the Solar system, although humans were told that the droplets have been withdrawn. The lying and deception of the Trisolarians has reached or surpassed human levels, even though they started from zero. Trisolarians built a psychological profile of Qang Xin and knew she would not have the courage (or have too much love and mercy) to use the Sword.
Human fleet is destroyed, Android Sophon becomes a monster and herds all humans onto Australia ( billions of people) and then sarcastically tells them now they have to eat each other for food until only about 50 million are left, which are to be kept alive as zoo specimens when Trisolarians arrive.
However, one space ship, the "Gravity" manages to send the location message from outer space and suddenly Trisolarians turn around and head away from the Solar System, as it is now exposed to Dark Forest attack. However, before the Solar System is destroyed, the Trisolarian planet and Sun is vaporized by a 'mass dot' or photoid attack, killing everyone on the planet except a thousand or so who were in space ships at the time hidden behind the other two suns in the system. This is probably the most satisfying moment of the book, as the Trisolarian garbage gets what they deserve for fucking with the human race.
Nevertheless, the Solar System is destroyed eventually, with another type of attack, a real Dark Forest attack, with all humans in it, except for Qang Xin and A.A. who are the only to escape (not with the blessing of other humans. goes to prove that most humans are animals). There's a gift of a star involved, and a curvature propulsion which reaches light speed, and a max-rational American who builds the greatest business empire known to man - only to be brought down by Qang Xin, and the consewuences of creating a "Dark Domain" where light speed it lowered to 16.7km/sec, and the time-flow implications, and mini-universes, and M-Theory branes, and enemies becoming friends again, at the end of time and existence, and a hope for a new, better universe, a "Garden of Eden" possibly with the original 10 dimensions in macroscopic reality, but that's all to be read and enjoyed again, one day.
I've never been so excited to read a science fiction trilogy since the days I first read teh Great Asimov's original "Foundation Trilogy". Cixin Liu is a master of the art. This is Hard Science Fiction in a form and vision which is as good as it gets.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
This book reads more like a Graphic Novel, just without the graphic part. Gaiman has experience in the genre. The idea of different deities, from different cultures, living today in the US as more or less ordinary people is not new, but Gaiman takes it to new heights. He primarily relies on the Scandinavian and Slavic pantheons, which I am quite familiar with, and quite unimpressed with his portrayals, while other pantheons, like the Native American and Afro-Caribbean are secondary, though those were more interesting to me, as I am less acquainted with them.
The main character, Shadow Moon, is a very likeable character, and towards the end one finds oneself rooting for him. Who doesn't like Baldur, the god of Peace, Light and Forgiveness!? His former dead wife Laura is the opposite - very unlikable, cynical, self-centered, egotistic, even telling Shadow that it is his fault that she was sucking and fucking his best friend Robbie for two years, as he left her to "go to prison." On top of the fact that he willingly went to prison to protect her sorry ass. Her dying with Robbie's cock in her mouth was very appropriate.
Shadow's father, Mr. Wednesday, in actuality, the death-rejoicing, maiden-ravaging god Odin, is not sympathetic either. Almost in line with his lying, conniving partner in crime, Low Key Lyesmith, the god Loki, Baldur's half-brother. Actually, in the entire book it is very difficult to find a sympathetic character other than Shadow himself. The Egyptian gods come close, especially Bast, but not really. Maybe life itself is not sympathetic?
There are plenty of twists in the book, but most feel forced, and are of the kind of witholding information about the caharacter until the reveal. The modern gods seem especially unconvincing, especially Media and The Men in Black, though Technical Boy is well-developed. I never figured out who were "The Children" that were beating Shadow during the first encounter with Technical Boy in the stretch limo.
Overall an enjoyable commute read as an audio book, and a full-length series is coming from Starz, so let's hope it is not another disappointment, although methinks Sir Ian McShane will make a delectable Mr. Wednesday!
The main character, Shadow Moon, is a very likeable character, and towards the end one finds oneself rooting for him. Who doesn't like Baldur, the god of Peace, Light and Forgiveness!? His former dead wife Laura is the opposite - very unlikable, cynical, self-centered, egotistic, even telling Shadow that it is his fault that she was sucking and fucking his best friend Robbie for two years, as he left her to "go to prison." On top of the fact that he willingly went to prison to protect her sorry ass. Her dying with Robbie's cock in her mouth was very appropriate.
Shadow's father, Mr. Wednesday, in actuality, the death-rejoicing, maiden-ravaging god Odin, is not sympathetic either. Almost in line with his lying, conniving partner in crime, Low Key Lyesmith, the god Loki, Baldur's half-brother. Actually, in the entire book it is very difficult to find a sympathetic character other than Shadow himself. The Egyptian gods come close, especially Bast, but not really. Maybe life itself is not sympathetic?
There are plenty of twists in the book, but most feel forced, and are of the kind of witholding information about the caharacter until the reveal. The modern gods seem especially unconvincing, especially Media and The Men in Black, though Technical Boy is well-developed. I never figured out who were "The Children" that were beating Shadow during the first encounter with Technical Boy in the stretch limo.
Overall an enjoyable commute read as an audio book, and a full-length series is coming from Starz, so let's hope it is not another disappointment, although methinks Sir Ian McShane will make a delectable Mr. Wednesday!
Friday, January 13, 2017
"Broken Angels" by Richard Morgan
Disappointing. Nothing like the first book. The first book was Phillip Marlowe in the future being a hard-boiled cyber-punk. Altogether with the sexy wife of the punter who hires the private dick and the hard-assed cops who don't want interference in 'police business' and the whirlwind affair with Ortega.
The second book is a lot of nothing. Pale attempt to do some imaginary 'military science fiction' - never liked the genre, too made-up - some interesting aliens, but not much of them either, and of course, the Morgan signature, a whole lot of torture, dismemberment, murder, genocide, 'inhuman' shrieks under high-tech torture machines, madness, cynicism etc. But it doesn't work.
Kovacs is a pale shadow of himself from the previous book. At least in "Altered Carbon" he helped some people, did some good-guy stuff which made us like him. Nothing like that in this book. Just senseless murder and violence. Sure, that's the reality, but I'd like to read a book that kind of expands that and offers more.
The sex is also horrible in this book. In 'Altered Carbon' the sex scenes, as explicit and hard-core as they were, fit well with the narrative and the character's motivations. Here, it's just random fucking for not much reason. I didn't even get excited about the Wardani's reveal at the end. Nor did Carrera come anywhere near the pure-bad-guy image of Reileen Kawahara. Nor is Mathias Hand anywhere near the sophistication of Laurence Bancroft.
An utterly forgettable novel making you wonder why the hell you spent 12 hours listening to it (well, it eases the commute).
The second book is a lot of nothing. Pale attempt to do some imaginary 'military science fiction' - never liked the genre, too made-up - some interesting aliens, but not much of them either, and of course, the Morgan signature, a whole lot of torture, dismemberment, murder, genocide, 'inhuman' shrieks under high-tech torture machines, madness, cynicism etc. But it doesn't work.
Kovacs is a pale shadow of himself from the previous book. At least in "Altered Carbon" he helped some people, did some good-guy stuff which made us like him. Nothing like that in this book. Just senseless murder and violence. Sure, that's the reality, but I'd like to read a book that kind of expands that and offers more.
The sex is also horrible in this book. In 'Altered Carbon' the sex scenes, as explicit and hard-core as they were, fit well with the narrative and the character's motivations. Here, it's just random fucking for not much reason. I didn't even get excited about the Wardani's reveal at the end. Nor did Carrera come anywhere near the pure-bad-guy image of Reileen Kawahara. Nor is Mathias Hand anywhere near the sophistication of Laurence Bancroft.
An utterly forgettable novel making you wonder why the hell you spent 12 hours listening to it (well, it eases the commute).
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