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A Fury of Aces #2
Crystal Venom
What will you do when the hand that nourishes you starts choking you?
The crew of Basalt, the interstellar frigate, are major media heroes, famous beyond their wildest dreams. The various factions of the Administration, the Games Board, the Haulers and the corporate Gjomviks all want a piece of their action, and will go to any lengths to manipulate the famous ship and crew to make more money and gain more influence, even if it means savaging Basalt beyond recognition.
This is the second book in the Fury of Aces series and follows on from the action-packed BURNT ICE.
The crew of Basalt, the interstellar frigate, are major media heroes, famous beyond their wildest dreams. The various factions of the Administration, the Games Board, the Haulers and the corporate Gjomviks all want a piece of their action, and will go to any lengths to manipulate the famous ship and crew to make more money and gain more influence, even if it means savaging Basalt beyond recognition.
This is the second book in the Fury of Aces series and follows on from the action-packed BURNT ICE.
465 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 22, 2014
Rebecca Muir reviewed this book; for more reviews by Bec, see Rebecca Muir on Dark Matter Zine. To see all reviews on Dark Matter Zine, go to Dark Matter Zine's reviews.
Crystal Venom is the second book in Steve Wheeler’s A Fury of Aces series. It picks up the story of Marko and his friends as their adventures continue across the galaxy.
The Games Board fund, market and regulate conflicts for the entertainment of the masses; they’ve made a lot of money from the adventures of Marko and the rest of the crew of the Basalt. However, the lengths they seem willing to go to in order to keep on bringing the money in is annoying Basalt’s crew, and starting to worry them. In addition, the Administration, who employ them, seem to have an agenda of their own, which does not necessarily line up with their best interests.
This series is set in a distant future where humanity has spread out across the galaxy. Technology has increased dramatically and become interwoven with life itself. Human bodies can be augmented and changed, even to the level of not really being human any more.
Artificial intelligences can be created and given a body built with artificially created DNA so the line between life and technology has become blurred until non-existent. There are some interesting ideas about what life actually is and how humanity should be defined. At what point would an augmented human cease being human? What about a biological avatar for an AI? If it is an artificial mind in an artificial but genetically human body, is it human? These ideas are presented but not really explored in this book.
Those of you who read my review of the first book, Burnt Ice, will know that I thought it had a few flaws which let it down. One of these was the deliberate vagueness and intrigue surrounding the true nature or identity of most of the Basalt’s crew. This book does reveal a lot more about some of the characters, Veg and Stephine in particular. However, there are more secrets added in as well.
Everyone seems to think Marko is really special but there is not really any explanation given as to why. Granted, he seems like a nice enough man but he did not come across to me as being extraordinary enough to warrant the special treatment he is given. I also found it a bit frustrating that the way most of the female characters respond to this apparent specialness is to want to jump into bed with him – even if it means all doing it together. A very male perspective on how a woman might respond!
The first half of the book continued in a similar vein to Burnt Ice, where Steve Wheeler seemed intent on showering the Basalt’s crew with goodies. However, in the second half, he seems to be seeing how many of their resources he can wipe out. The feel of the book definitely changes halfway through. Crystal Venom is written in a very episodic way and the transitions feel a bit jumpy. The pace keeps changing, too. The book slows down and gives lots of detail about a particular scene and how Marko feels about it. Then it suddenly speeds up and glosses over the details as though Steve Wheeler got sick of that bit and wanted to move onto something new.
There are some interesting ideas in Crystal Venom and some of the framework Steve Wheeler has come up with for his imagined universe has a lot of potential. However, it just doesn’t fulfil that potential – at least not in this book. Some elements of the story are not handled very elegantly – like the unexplained favour surrounding Marko or the way sex is so gratuitously portrayed (particularly Marko’s attitude – his casualness towards it just didn’t gel with the rest of his character for me) or the way transitions in the plot are handled.
Crystal Venom filled out some of the gaps from the previous book but I still found it a bit confusing. It has some merits but missed the mark for me.
Crystal Venom is the second book in Steve Wheeler’s A Fury of Aces series. It picks up the story of Marko and his friends as their adventures continue across the galaxy.
The Games Board fund, market and regulate conflicts for the entertainment of the masses; they’ve made a lot of money from the adventures of Marko and the rest of the crew of the Basalt. However, the lengths they seem willing to go to in order to keep on bringing the money in is annoying Basalt’s crew, and starting to worry them. In addition, the Administration, who employ them, seem to have an agenda of their own, which does not necessarily line up with their best interests.
This series is set in a distant future where humanity has spread out across the galaxy. Technology has increased dramatically and become interwoven with life itself. Human bodies can be augmented and changed, even to the level of not really being human any more.
Artificial intelligences can be created and given a body built with artificially created DNA so the line between life and technology has become blurred until non-existent. There are some interesting ideas about what life actually is and how humanity should be defined. At what point would an augmented human cease being human? What about a biological avatar for an AI? If it is an artificial mind in an artificial but genetically human body, is it human? These ideas are presented but not really explored in this book.
Those of you who read my review of the first book, Burnt Ice, will know that I thought it had a few flaws which let it down. One of these was the deliberate vagueness and intrigue surrounding the true nature or identity of most of the Basalt’s crew. This book does reveal a lot more about some of the characters, Veg and Stephine in particular. However, there are more secrets added in as well.
Everyone seems to think Marko is really special but there is not really any explanation given as to why. Granted, he seems like a nice enough man but he did not come across to me as being extraordinary enough to warrant the special treatment he is given. I also found it a bit frustrating that the way most of the female characters respond to this apparent specialness is to want to jump into bed with him – even if it means all doing it together. A very male perspective on how a woman might respond!
The first half of the book continued in a similar vein to Burnt Ice, where Steve Wheeler seemed intent on showering the Basalt’s crew with goodies. However, in the second half, he seems to be seeing how many of their resources he can wipe out. The feel of the book definitely changes halfway through. Crystal Venom is written in a very episodic way and the transitions feel a bit jumpy. The pace keeps changing, too. The book slows down and gives lots of detail about a particular scene and how Marko feels about it. Then it suddenly speeds up and glosses over the details as though Steve Wheeler got sick of that bit and wanted to move onto something new.
There are some interesting ideas in Crystal Venom and some of the framework Steve Wheeler has come up with for his imagined universe has a lot of potential. However, it just doesn’t fulfil that potential – at least not in this book. Some elements of the story are not handled very elegantly – like the unexplained favour surrounding Marko or the way sex is so gratuitously portrayed (particularly Marko’s attitude – his casualness towards it just didn’t gel with the rest of his character for me) or the way transitions in the plot are handled.
Crystal Venom filled out some of the gaps from the previous book but I still found it a bit confusing. It has some merits but missed the mark for me.
September 30, 2013
In Burnt Ice, the veteran crew of the Basalt were sent to investigate a far-away planet where they uncover a few different strange, new and rather dangerous life forms. They are effectively abandoned there by the Games Board but become instant celebrities once they limp their way back into the Sphere. Now, after a recuperation period the crew head out on a new salvage mission, along with their new crewmates, Stephine and Veg.
At the start of this book we are thrown back into the action with the crew of the Basalt without any real re-introductions. If, like me, it’s been a while since you read Burnt Ice, here’s a short summary.
The Human Sphere of influence in space is controlled by the Administration. The Basalt is an Administration ship, tasked with carrying out security missions around the the Sphere. The Games Board is a group under the Administration providing reality audiovisual entertainment to the general population. They sanction conflicts and send in their monitors and producers to record everything, edit it and broadcast it to the hungry public.
As with Burnt Ice, Crystal Venom consists of a series of episodes – adventures where the Basalt is sent on various missions and runs into different kinds of baddies at the behest of the Games Board. I did wonder at several points why on earth they keep signing up for these missions as it’s become rather obvious that the Games Board is pretty much out to kill them, but they continue to jump in head-first. They are being well-paid for the footage they provide, but surely the cost to their sanity and general health is starting to get a bit overwhelming?
In general, the dialogue and character interactions were better written in this one than in Burnt Ice, although still rather cold and a little awkward at times. I enjoyed reading about Marko’s development and his new abilities, as well as the rest of the crew and their technical wizardry.
There also seems to be a fair bit of gratuitous sex in this one – there’s very little romance in this universe. Marko’s sheets are barely cold before he’s jumping into bed with someone else, and despite this being the future where there may well be different etiquette for this sort of thing, it jarred a little bit.
Once again, the ACEs (Artificially Created Entities) steal the show and get up to lots of mischief – it’s like having a bunch of highly intelligent children in charge of some high-tech weaponry. What could possibly go wrong?
These books are designed as a series of episodes, threaded together by plenty of amazing technical creations and strange alien life forms. The writing may not be the most brilliant I’ve seen but the imagination and world building is just amazing. I’ll be interested to see how things develop next.
Originally posted on The Oaken Bookcase in September 2013.
At the start of this book we are thrown back into the action with the crew of the Basalt without any real re-introductions. If, like me, it’s been a while since you read Burnt Ice, here’s a short summary.
The Human Sphere of influence in space is controlled by the Administration. The Basalt is an Administration ship, tasked with carrying out security missions around the the Sphere. The Games Board is a group under the Administration providing reality audiovisual entertainment to the general population. They sanction conflicts and send in their monitors and producers to record everything, edit it and broadcast it to the hungry public.
As with Burnt Ice, Crystal Venom consists of a series of episodes – adventures where the Basalt is sent on various missions and runs into different kinds of baddies at the behest of the Games Board. I did wonder at several points why on earth they keep signing up for these missions as it’s become rather obvious that the Games Board is pretty much out to kill them, but they continue to jump in head-first. They are being well-paid for the footage they provide, but surely the cost to their sanity and general health is starting to get a bit overwhelming?
In general, the dialogue and character interactions were better written in this one than in Burnt Ice, although still rather cold and a little awkward at times. I enjoyed reading about Marko’s development and his new abilities, as well as the rest of the crew and their technical wizardry.
There also seems to be a fair bit of gratuitous sex in this one – there’s very little romance in this universe. Marko’s sheets are barely cold before he’s jumping into bed with someone else, and despite this being the future where there may well be different etiquette for this sort of thing, it jarred a little bit.
Once again, the ACEs (Artificially Created Entities) steal the show and get up to lots of mischief – it’s like having a bunch of highly intelligent children in charge of some high-tech weaponry. What could possibly go wrong?
These books are designed as a series of episodes, threaded together by plenty of amazing technical creations and strange alien life forms. The writing may not be the most brilliant I’ve seen but the imagination and world building is just amazing. I’ll be interested to see how things develop next.
Originally posted on The Oaken Bookcase in September 2013.
May 12, 2017
I finished it, but felt like throwing it away often. It was fascinatingly shameful & bad. Crazed Magical Reasoning abounded. Why is this bad? Well, let me explain this discontent a little further. For one, the magical solutions that materials around the protagonist were very interesting but I found that the architecture of the mind that made them to be one that greatly frustrated me. For example, I appreciate that being wanted by beautiful powerful women is enticing, but they should not be so frequently be part of a book, and super smart, super fast sophont ships surely do not want to occupy a servitor's body within their ship and then participate in sexual activity within 'a very large bed' amongst the crew. Very male ego orientated, clearly depicts a specific fantasy and an implausible one at that.
For another, that science discoveries are made with accidental ease by a genius who plays music loved by sophonts and AI's is frustrating, and generally, that a currency of disaster averted in combat by a ship full of brigands who behave badly is the currency that keeps everyone alive and well funded for the next round of being absurdly heroic at events, had me swearing at the book several times. Why does viewing figures give this income to these brigands? What is this currency backed by? How do all these magical bank figures and accounts just operate throughout the known galaxy so easily without any impacts of time and space throughout the galaxy. Just wave some magical science at it. So frustrating.
Some great, simply great ideas, but some incredibly poorly justified delivery. For the ideas, the book is worth pursuing. For a plot that rolls from event to occasion with a sense of justified inevitability , oh my god, please do not go there. Look instead for Romance, there is more available within these pages. Maybe three or perhaps four of them. Places are just arrived at and events are thrown at the characters just idiotically. And the fawning from the other characters encountered to the main group's existence - again, it almost had me throwing the book at the wall.
Recommended, just.
For another, that science discoveries are made with accidental ease by a genius who plays music loved by sophonts and AI's is frustrating, and generally, that a currency of disaster averted in combat by a ship full of brigands who behave badly is the currency that keeps everyone alive and well funded for the next round of being absurdly heroic at events, had me swearing at the book several times. Why does viewing figures give this income to these brigands? What is this currency backed by? How do all these magical bank figures and accounts just operate throughout the known galaxy so easily without any impacts of time and space throughout the galaxy. Just wave some magical science at it. So frustrating.
Some great, simply great ideas, but some incredibly poorly justified delivery. For the ideas, the book is worth pursuing. For a plot that rolls from event to occasion with a sense of justified inevitability , oh my god, please do not go there. Look instead for Romance, there is more available within these pages. Maybe three or perhaps four of them. Places are just arrived at and events are thrown at the characters just idiotically. And the fawning from the other characters encountered to the main group's existence - again, it almost had me throwing the book at the wall.
Recommended, just.
February 2, 2021
The author writes in a very flat style. It might well be the best way to describe a bunch of folk made up of hardware of various sorts held together by a soul (that can be backed up via the Soul Saver).
These men and women are tidying up in the wake of a war with various species, some of which are highly dangerous. However, people (sui generis) continue to be the most dangerous species around, being subtle and treacherous and likely to kill one in their sleep (perhaps I'm getting carried away).
The emphasis is on various mechanical and electronic goodies that advance the state of war and make it easier to kill other people either singly or in groups (up and including entire planets). Fortunately, there is a superior antique species that intervenes occasionally to level up the playing field.
I sort of enjoyed it. One should read at least one of the books from this series to enjoy its distinct petrolly flavour.
These men and women are tidying up in the wake of a war with various species, some of which are highly dangerous. However, people (sui generis) continue to be the most dangerous species around, being subtle and treacherous and likely to kill one in their sleep (perhaps I'm getting carried away).
The emphasis is on various mechanical and electronic goodies that advance the state of war and make it easier to kill other people either singly or in groups (up and including entire planets). Fortunately, there is a superior antique species that intervenes occasionally to level up the playing field.
I sort of enjoyed it. One should read at least one of the books from this series to enjoy its distinct petrolly flavour.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews