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September 28
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James
gave  to:
Sleeper Awakes (Hidden Lands of Nod)
by
Robert Stikmanz
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my rating:
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read in June, 2009
James said:
"He is the surfer who surfed over the end of the world. He is the seer who saw it all. He is the target of a relentless, superhumanly fast contract killer called Edger. He is the traveler, a friend to the Dvarish, and to Sprites, Scums and the odd str...more
He is the surfer who surfed over the end of the world. He is the seer who saw it all. He is the target of a relentless, superhumanly fast contract killer called Edger. He is the traveler, a friend to the Dvarish, and to Sprites, Scums and the odd stray dog. Above all, Boyd is the sleeper, awakening to his own heritage and power in the psychedelic new world of shifting realities that he so abruptly joined. Post-apocalyptic psychedelia without the munchies. Highly recommended.
If this sounds like a blurb, it was written as one. The very first I've ever been asked for.
And what a treat the novel turned out to be. While I normally shy away from fantasy and sci-fi/fantasy hybrids, Stikmanz's world and his characters sucked me in. His world made /sense/ despite being rather satirical in nature. The civilizations that arise after the cataclysm make sense, in a perverse, amusing sort of way.
Most of all, though, I liked his characters, from Boyd to the gone-to-seed hippies around him, to the Sprite, to the Dvarish. Granted, I felt one of his villains needed a bit more killing than he got, but even that says something about the strength of the characters in this piece.
It's not perfect. There are rough spots with one of the villains as I mentioned. Indeed, I thought the whole sequence with Buck Toof needed some trimming, as well as Buck himself needing to get dead and failing to do so. And the apocalypse itself seemed a trifle fuzzy, and at times the arrivals and departures of the Dvarish were mighty convenient for the story, if not for Boyd, but these are small gripes, and I'm only docking one star for them.
So to Mr. Stikmanz, I say thank you for asking me to blurb this. It was an honor. To the rest of all y'all, if you like a little fantasy brewed into your sci fi, if you enjoy a bit of satire, you will dig this book.
-JRS(less)
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June 15
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James
installed the Goodreads Myspace Application 
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October 29, 2008
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James
voted on the book list Best Book Cover Art
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October 14, 2008
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September 10, 2008
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James
gave  to:
The Steel Remains (A Land Fit for Heroes, #1)
by
Richard K. Morgan
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my rating:
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recommended for: Richard K. Morgan completists, fantasy haters
James said:
"Before you ask, I got my copy of this book through Amazon.co.uk, where the book is in print today. This is my habit with Morgan's books, rather than waiting another year for them in the United States.
Traditionally, in Noir, it's customary...more
Before you ask, I got my copy of this book through Amazon.co.uk, where the book is in print today. This is my habit with Morgan's books, rather than waiting another year for them in the United States.
Traditionally, in Noir, it's customary to have a protagonist who is morally compromised, but who at least tries to better himself/herself, the world, etc. Morgan seems to have missed that point with the utterly unlikable Ringel, protagonist of The Steel Remains. Ringel is an empty husk of a human being, a war hero, a killing machine, in search of a reason to kill again. Unsurprisingly, he finds it.
Morgan's fantasy world is replete with brutally nasty ways to die, and not much worth fighting for, no causes, and no resolution to speak of. The only thing I carried away from this book was nausea, and a strong disinclination to re-read the book to try and track down all the loose threads of plot I was seeing. Morgan is a pro. It seems unlikely the corrupt priest he creates with such lavish care is not subsequently used. Likewise the corpsemites which are in the introductory scene, I'm sure somewhere they're used.
I like Morgan's work, generally. I had great expectations for The Steel Remains/Land Fit for Heroes, but all this book amounts to is a nasty sendup of the genre. If you're sick of the whole swords and sorcery meme, and you'd love to see it told the way it probably would have looked to anyone not romanticizing it, then you'll enjoy The Steel Remains. Hopefully you have a strong stomach.(less)
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September 08, 2008
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September 06, 2008
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James
gave  to:
Souls in Silicon (TPB)
by
Jeff Duntemann
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my rating:
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recommended to James by:
Jeff Duntemann
recommended for: General Science Fiction readers
read in September, 2008
James said:
"What if AIs turn out to be decent people?
I admit it. I'm a cyberpunk writer by trade (at the moment), so most of the AIs you encounter in my work tend to be malignant sociopaths, at best. Duntemann's collection of short stories, though pr...more
What if AIs turn out to be decent people?
I admit it. I'm a cyberpunk writer by trade (at the moment), so most of the AIs you encounter in my work tend to be malignant sociopaths, at best. Duntemann's collection of short stories, though present a different view. What if the AIs like us? What if they take on recognizably human values, and value us, their creators, and what we made them to do? What if, in short, they had souls which, to use Duntemann's own words, "[...:]that defining nature that makes us identifiably what we are and not someone—or something—else." What if they care?
Duntemann's AIs are like that. Many, though not all, of them feel, and sometimes behave emotionally and erratically, rather than the hyper-rational manufactured minds of, say, Asimov and Clarke. "Guardian" "Silicon Psalm" and "Borovsky's Hollow Woman" all present machines forced into logical conundrums, where two or more of their primary directives are at odds, and the feeling machine is torn in the middle. Each resolves the matter in their own way. Some embrace eccentricity. Some are self-sacrificing, One embraces what, in humans, would be called dissociative disorder, and splits into two personalities.
Other times, as in "STORMY vs the Tornadoes" and "Sympathy on the Loss of One of Your Legs", Duntemann's AIs are playful, scheming with each other to help their humans out, sometimes doing apparently irrational things, only because their rationale doesn't make sense to the bio-brains around them.
Not all of Duntemann's AIs are created equal. Some are the merely rational, logical machines we've come to expect from science fiction about AIs. When paired with AIs capable of feeling—AIs with souls—the contrast is crystalline sharp, as in "The Steel Sonnets". This matter is revisited later in "Marlowe", save that one of the participants, the unfeeling one, at that, is human, and the two are linked together cybernetically.
Duntemann takes the idea of an AI's soul to its full logical extension in "Bathtub Mary" and uses an AI to explore the origins of religious visions and their impact. Rover, the protagonist of the story, like many of Duntemann's AIs, is a charming creature. Rather dog-like in his devotion to humans, and yet there's this thing that he saw, or thinks he saw, or perhaps imagined, none of which should have been possible.
It bears mentioning that there's a reverence for our own creation in many of these stories. A slightly religious flavoring, more overt in some stories than others, that a lot of science fiction writers would shy away from. And yet, it's entirely appropriate in the context of this collection of stories, in the contemplation of these machines' souls, that those ancient ideas might re-manifest, might find new expression, that these machines' struggles with these issues might mirror our own. Duntemann handles this thread in his fiction with a deft touch. In other hands it might overwhelm the stories, preach, or deny. In these stories it just is, one of a set of ways these machines cope with the self knowledge that has been thrust upon them.
If Souls in Silicon sounds like a collection of fairly light science fiction, it's not. The tone is generally optimistic, but there are serious issues to contemplate in many of these stories, and the biggest of all is this: we stand on the threshold (for some function of threshold) of creating artificial intelligence. Whether that is something destructive, as I tend to envision it, or something deeply humane and positive, as Duntemann sees it, is up to us. And to them.
Highly recommended.(less)
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July 31, 2008
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James
gave to:
Time Enough for Love (Paperback)
by
Robert A. Heinlein
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my rating:
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July 30, 2008
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James
gave to:
Implied Spaces (Hardcover)
by
Walter Jon Williams
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my rating:
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recommended to James by:
I follow Mr. Williams' blog.
recommended for: Science fiction and fantasy fans.
read in July, 2008
James said:
"Important safety tip. If you're picking up Implied Spaces with the idea of reading a bit before you sleep, don't. Don't even pick it up. Because when the dawn's early light starts peeking through your window, you'll still be reading it.
Ba...more
Important safety tip. If you're picking up Implied Spaces with the idea of reading a bit before you sleep, don't. Don't even pick it up. Because when the dawn's early light starts peeking through your window, you'll still be reading it.
Background: In physics, string and 'brane theories in their current states seem to suggest that more universes are possible, even likely, and that indeed, it might be possible to create one's own universes in the lab. Since each universe's laws of physics are established early in the universe's existence, if one is creating them, one can, if one understands the mechanisms well enough, set the laws of physics therein.
Williams took this idea and ran with it.
In the deep future, it IS not only possible, but fairly routine to create universes for one's own purposes. The result? Mini-universes abound, with single stars and gobs of real estate, each one bound by a wormhole tunnel to the Universe we know today. Result: People move into these little universes. Set up civilizations as they see fit. And since people can easily be nano-disassembled, backed up, copied, and reassembled, everyone is functionally immortal too. In the Williams' deep future, humanity wields the powers of gods.
What do we do with them? Very much the same things we do in virtual realities today. Create role playing environments, island resorts, and all the other usual decadence. And why not? Humanity's endured more and uglier wars as this technology has evolved We deserve a little fun.
Except that it's hard to think of what to do with your life, with your existence, when you can have almost anything you want, live as long as you want, create anything. Existential problems are very real for the people of the future.
Except that the technology involved is so incredibly complex that it's really wielded by planet-sized AIs under the control of humans, and all the pocket universes are utterly dependent on this arrangement.
Except that someone, something, is swiping people from the pocket universes, for purposes unknown.
Except that at least some of the AIs seem to be involved, their Asimovian limitations notwithstanding.
Except that some of those people come back, with their priorities somewhat rearranged.
Except that someone, something, somewhere is deliberately trying to upset the whole house of cards humanity has wrought in exchange for something else.
When creating a universe, it's easy to say, "I want mountains here, and a sea there, and this universe shall respect continental evolution rules normally." Which results in Implied Spaces, from which the title is taken. Spaces in the new universes which were implicitly defined instead of explicitly specified. What happens in these spaces? What lives there? Are creatures accidentally specified there? That's what Aristide, our hero, sets out to find out. And in the spaces between what was intended, he stumbles across this growing conspiracy. Maybe he was looking for it all along. Maybe it was the implied space in his own character.
Some authors blink when staring down the muzzle of Kurzwell’s Technological Singularity. I certainly do. We find ways to assert, “Not very likely. Didn’t happen. Can’t happen.” All of which may be true. Williams, by contrast, has embraced it, asserted that our limbic systems, the seats of emotion, behavior, and long term memory, define us and even post-singularity will continue to define us as human. Having done so, he proceeds to tell a fascinating tale of criminality, conspiracy, war, and “higher” purpose, with side dishes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Night of the Living Dead.
As is endemic to stories that explore the deep, rational ramifications of What If, the characterizations are at times a little thin, in no small part because the humans in the story are so terribly jaded by what they themselves can do, but it’s a flaw you can overlook when faced with lines like, “Do you mean to say […] that our civilization has reached the point where we’re hurling hostile universes at each other?” But this is science fiction when it’s fun. The book is remarkably light hearted overall, gleefully extrapolating the possibilities, and how a mostly-rational society handles this new crisis. Bitsy the cat, physical avatar for the supercomputer Endora, is at once computer-like and catlike, and like a cat, creeps through the plot in ways that make you suspicious of her, without actually catching her being naughty. Watch for this, particularly at the very end of the book.
Williams is also being very sneaky in implying certain parts of the story rather than telling them. All the sex scenes are implied. Bitsy/Endora’s involvement is implied. The spaces in Aristide imply several characters. It’s very subtle, and I may have to revise this part of the review once I’ve had the chance to sleep more and reread the book during the day.
The only disappointment was the motivation of the overarching villian. His actual plan seemed to fall a little short, once revealed. There was also a certain amount of “Before I kill you, Mr. Bond” exposition that wasn’t entirely convincing, so I’m docking the book one star from a perfect score.
All told, though, a fine book by Williams. Highly recommended high science fiction.(less)
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July 29, 2008
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Rowena Cherry answers....
— 117 members
— last activity 10 days ago, 03:08PM
newest »
James, your books look awesome. Can't wait to read them, but you know how high that TBR stack can get. Thanks for adding me. Karen
Hello, James,
