Identity Theft and other stories by Robert J Sawyer - Book Report #261

I enjoyed this book very much.  Not every story worked for me but that's okay.

The real joy of this anthology was the opportunity to read stories that would be very difficult to find today given the publication history.

Below is a list of links of the stories I reviewed from this book.

Enjoy!

I highly recommend the book, it was one of my reading highlights of 2018.

~~~

Identity Theft - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/identity-theft-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Come All Ye Faithful - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/come-all-ye-faithful-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Immortality - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/immortality-by-robert-j-sawer.html

Shed Skin - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/shed-skin-by-robert-j-sawer.html

The Stanley Cup Caper - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-stanley-cup-caper-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

On The Surface - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/on-surface-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

The Eagle Has Landed - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-eagle-has-landed-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Mikeys - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/mikeys-by-robert-j-sawer.html

The Good Doctor - I didn't review this flash fiction, well, because I just didn't get it.  I read it twice and tried to get the joke but it escaped me completely.

Ineluctable - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/ineluctable-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

The Right's Tough - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-rights-tough-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Kata Bindu - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/kata-bindu-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Driving a Bargain - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/driving-bargain-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Flashes - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/flashes-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Relativity - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/relativity-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Biding Time - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/biding-time-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Postscript: E-Mails from the Future - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/biding-time-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Dark Run by Mike Brooks - Book Review #259

Finally!

This is my kind of SF.  I grew up watching Star Trek and Star Wars but it was the smuggler's life of Han Solo, Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon that caught my imagination.  I find the gritty life of trying to make a buck in a far-flung future captivating.

Firefly is another good example of this.  This type of SF, without alien encounters or super-powers, is often described as a Space Western.  I guess that's an apt description because it's just people with their own human motivations - on spaceships.

Anyway, this book felt like a love letter to Firefly and I was desperate to dive into this new take on that kind of structure.  It was all that and a bit more.  Brooks' writing is confident and he was unafraid to make time-skips to move the plot along.  The dialogue was crisp and punched through with humour.

I love that he handled exposition through the narrative.  He only revealed background when it was needed and through dialogue; the reader learned things at the same time as members of the crew did.  This is how character growth is handled in TV and movies because the medium does not lend itself well to exposition.  Adopting this kind of narrative makes this book move quickly.

I felt instantly at home in this book and I am thrilled to know there are at least two more in this world.

The plot?  The rag-tag crew of the Keiko accept a smuggling, no-questions-asked, job to deliver a package to Earth.  Things don't go as planned.  That's enough to get you going.  Trust me, you'll have fun.

Highly recommended.

Mike Brooks' website - http://www.mikebrooks.co.uk/

Mike Brooks

The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown - Book Report #257

I was happy to return to the warm world of The Wild Robot.

At the end of the last book, Roz was taken away to the factory where she was built to be studied and hopefully repaired.

But things do not go well for Roz and she escapes to try to return to her far-away island and her animal friends.  Because she has learned the language of animals she makes an interesting journey with the help of the new friends she meets along the way.

I was swept up, once again, by Peter Brown’s delightful prose and by his lovely artwork.  This is what books were like when I grew up and I do miss the blending of art and story in my readings as an adult.

Sure it’s a kid’s book but it is very intelligent and never talks down to the reader.  I was impressed by the author’s ability to challenge without intimidating a young reader.

This is the kind of book that you’ll want to purchase in paper-form.  It must be held to be enjoyed - and it must be shared.

Highly recommended.

Peter Brown's website - http://www.peterbrownstudio.com/

Peter Brown

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow by Cory Doctorow - Book Review #251

This is an interesting series of small, digest books from the PM Press Outspoken Authors series.

In them, there is a short fiction and then an interview or two.

At 134 pages I loved the overall look, feel and format of the book.  I certainly enjoyed learning about what is important to the author.  It's always enjoyable to get a glimpse inside the mind of an author whose fiction I enjoy.

The fiction took up most of the book at 106 pages.  In it, we follow Jimmy an adolescent who has been genetically engineered to live centuries.  I guess you could call it a post-apocalypse story but the apocalypse is still in progress where giant machines pass over the land destroying anything man-made and returning it to a natural state, concrete is turned back into dirt.

The thing I like about Doctorow's work is that his stories are about people trying to understand, cope and fit into the world.  All the SF stuff is part of the scenery.  Jimmy struggles with his immortality because he is stuck in the body of an 11-year-old, even though he has been around for over 30 years.

Early in the story the great machines come and destroy his home and kill his father.  We follow him as he tries to find a place in the world for himself.  Years later he finds a "cure" to his longevity and he bumps into a part of his past.

Recommended.

Cory Doctorow - https://craphound.com/

Cory Doctorow

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor - Book Report #248

Lovely.  Different. Scary. Inspiring.

Binti is a young woman who decides to leave everything behind; her family, her home, her life and her planet, to attend Oomza University in a far off solar system.

Along the way she makes friends and discovers the hatred and violence of the Meduse, an alien race in conflict with her very university.

This is the kind of SF I generally don't go for, with aliens and magical super-powers.  I like to read Mundane, Hard SF.

But there is something special about the fish out of water story; I always find myself hoping the best for our character.

Binti is a terrific character too.  She is so strong and determined and yet she suffers the self-doubt we all do.

It is through this character that I was willing to put my biases aside and read on.  I am glad that I did.  It was a rewarding story and I have ordered the next installment in the series.  I am looking forward to spending more time in Nnedi Okorafor's capable hands.

Recommended.

Nnedi Olorafor's website - http://nnedi.com/

Nnedi Okorafor

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown - Book Report #247

Oh, what a warm and lovely story.

I stumbled across this title from a suggestion algorithm, I spotted the book cover at the bottom of my screen and clicked on it.

I've often mentioned how I wish novels came with some illustrations and I got my wish with this one.

Sure it's a kids book, aimed at the middle school years (grades 6 through 8) but don't let that deter you from reading it.  Honestly, it is well written and charming.  It is such a breath of fresh air.

The chapters are super small so I could dip in and out with ease but I kept finding myself reading "just one more chapter" often enough that I was swept up in it.

Roz the robot washes ashore having survived a stormy shipwreck.  A pack of otters inadvertently activate her and what comes next is a delightful story of a "monster" coming to terms with existence and deciding what her place in the world should be.

Because the book is aimed at pre and early teens the sentence structure is pretty basic but the story is complex and there is some real peril that younger kids would find upsetting.

Reading this as an adult, the plot is predictable.  But that's not where the joy lies; it's in the details and the charm of the writing.  I loved the illustrations, which were also done by Brown.  This book brought back the joy of reading to me.  More adult novels should be like this.

Highly recommended.

Peter Brown's website - http://www.peterbrownstudio.com/

Runtime by S B Divya - Book Review #246

Mary Margaret Guinto, better known as Marmeg is a poor girl, living in the ghettos of Los Angeles and trying to make a better life for herself.

She is an augmented woman who uses an exoskeleton to get around and do her job as a bouncer.  But the gear and chip implants are expensive.  She has managed to cobble together her gear from cast-offs, used goods and some creative dumpster diving.

In order to fast track her desire to make a better life for herself, go to university, get a decent job and help her family, she enters the Minerva Sierra Challenge.  This is an annual cross-country endurance race for augments.  The prize money would get her out of her situation.

One of the joys of this book was the contrast of hightech against the rugged backwoods mountainscape.

The only quibble I have was the gender neutral pronouns - I still find words like Zir and Zie awkward and they tend to take me out of the story.  But that is exactly what is good about science fiction; it attempts to normalize the things we are just coming to terms with today and show us a possible future and nomenclature that may be a new normal.

Other than that I was very happy with the story and enjoyed how believable and natural the characters were written.  The author has a perfect touch at depicting the human impact of the situations.

I also have to give credit to Tor for publishing short novels like this one, it came it at 116 pages.  It's a nice throwback to the paperback days when novels seldom passed the 200 page mark.  It makes the storytelling crisp and keeps the plot moving along.  This is a very enjoyable length.

S B Divya's website - http://www.eff-words.com/

S B Divya

Escape Plus, A Short Story Collection by Ben Bova - Book Review #245

I've always had trouble dealing with collections.  I review each story individually thinking that if a reader of this blog wants to know more about the anthology itself he or she would find the label of the title, click on it and - voila! the entire book reviewed on one page.

But that seems like a lot of trouble and not always very intuitive.  So I've decided that with this book and going forward, once I've reviewed every story, I will publish a collection of links.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All in all this was a very enjoyable read.  Most of the stories worked for me and I am glad I spent time with it.

I am always thankful for collections like this, as it is often difficult to follow an author's work in the short story field.

Escape! -

http://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.ca/2018/03/escape-by-ben-bova.html

A Slight Miscalculation -

http://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.ca/2018/03/a-slight-miscalculation-by-ben-bova.html

Vince's Dragon -

http://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.ca/2018/04/vinces-dragon-by-ben-bova.html

The Last Decision -

http://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.ca/2018/04/the-last-decision-by-ben-bova.html

Men of Goodwill -

http://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.ca/2018/04/men-of-good-will-by-ben-bova.html

Blood of Tyrants -

http://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.ca/2018/04/blood-of-tyrants-by-ben-bova.html

The Next Logical Step -

https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-next-logical-step-by-ben-bova.html

The Shining Ones -

https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-shining-ones-by-ben-bova.html

Sword Play -

https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/05/sword-play-by-ben-bova.html

A Long Way Back -

https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-long-way-back-by-ben-bova.html

Stars, Won't You Hide Me?

https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/05/stars-wont-you-hide-me-by-ben-bova.html

Ben Bova's website - http://benbova.com/

Ben Bova

All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - Book Review #244

Remember Peter Weller in Robocop?  Part man, part machine?

Murderbot is a bit like that; the central core of the "product" is biological, a cloned human being, but with only rudimentary free will - he can make decisions within a task but cannot decide between tasks.  Unless he has managed to hack into and subvert his governor module.

This is the big secret, he may be a security unit, known as a SecUnit, assigned to a small team of planetary explorers but he is not under their complete control.

The drama gets rolling when it is discovered that another nearby base has lost communications.  The team goes to investigate.

The story is narrated by Murderbot himself.  I’ve got to admit “Murderbot” is a pretty compelling name and I wanted to know why he called himself that. Only glimpses of his past are revealed.

Martha Wells has done a nice job of delivering a tense thriller and gave the protagonist unexpected depth.  The story is layered and I was happy to be introduced to the larger universe this one story occupies.  This is a perfect way to dive into a Space Opera; start with a small group of characters in a small place, in this case a far off planet, and then return them to their homes and you get a natural way to introduce the reader to a larger world.

I am certainly looking forward to reading the second instalment. 

Martha Wells' website - http://www.marthawells.com/

Martha Wells

The Leap by Chris Turner - Book Report #242

The book’s subtitle - “How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy” makes, what the author calls The Great Leap Sideways, a bit scary.

To the contrary, Turner shows us that the leap to a sustainable economy is well underway, we just can’t really see it.  Part of the reason is that things are still very much in the grass-roots phase, but those roots have spread everywhere.

Our entire way of life, and when I say "our" I mean the entire planet, is based on the gift of stored energy that are fossils fuels.  These fuels power, transport, light and heat our entire lives.  Without it we would be in caves.

But we’ve reached the limits of what fossil fluels can do for us.  Yes, climate change.  Yes peak oil.  Yes pollution.  Believe them or don’t - it really does not matter.  Things will change because they must.  

If you find all of the news stories about the end of life as we know it keeps you up at night, Turner will help to ease your fears.  He gives many examples, primarily Denmark and Germany, of how our way of life can not only continue but expand in harmony with nature.

And if you think about it, the opportunities to make money and change the world are nearly limitless. All we have to do is reinvent everything.  The internet did that to communications and knowledge, changing the energy structure will be profoundly more lucrative and it will guarantee humanity’s survival.

So, if you are a climate change denier, believe that alternative forms of energy will wreck our economy or that there is no way it can take over from fossil fuels, don’t bother reading this.

My belief is that it will happen regardless.  The pure economics of maintaining the status quo will become too expensive anyway. 

This book is brilliant and inspirational.

Chris Turner

The Rise of the Graphic Novel by Stephen Weiner - Book Review #241

Like my previous post about short stories and novellas this book, about the history of the graphic novel, has given me permission to dig into the collection I have in my basement.

I grew up collecting comics in the 1980’s and witnessed the birth of the form myself.  It was a nostalgic ride through my days browsing the comic shops.

While reading the book I added many titles to my wish list on the Edmonton Public Library’s website.

This was a very approachable exploration of the form.  The chapters were short and the book was well seeded with panels from the graphic novels discussed.

An informative read that reignited my joy of sequential art.

Gate Crashers by Patrick S. Tomlinson - Boork Review #240

I want to thank Tor Books for continuing to expand my library to new and unusual authors.

This is billed as SF comedy, which got me interested right away.  To do good comedy you have to be confident in your knowledge of the genre.  I thought Tomlinson did an excellent job of it. The book was at times absurd but he never allowed himself to go over the top in the way that Douglas Adams got lost in his own creativity.  No.  The story was well thought out and planned.

Where the humour worked best was in the relationships between the crews of the Magellan and the Bucephalus.  It was people being people in a strange situation that gave rise to most of the humour.

I must say I was captivated by Tomlinson’s take on the First Contact trope.  Humanity has pushed into interstellar space but FTL has not been achieved.  Even with this limitation the exploration crew of the Magellan discover the actual limits of space, at least to humans.

An artifact is found drifting in space and, after it is brought on board to be examined, well, everything changes.

Honestly this was a lovely book, filled with warmth to humanity but absolutely cognizant of how ridiculous we can be.

I was very happy that the heart and soul of the book was the out-of-his-depth scientist Felix Fletcher and the level-headed captain of the Magellan, Alison Ridgeway.

To give you some idea of the comedy I’d say the antagonists are similar to the ones found in the movie The Fifth Element and that is as out-there as the characters get.  The rest of it has the feel of The Orville.  It’s an interesting blend of the competently humours meeting an overconfident race that has been its apex for centuries.

The book works perfectly as a stand alone novel but it has certainly been set up for sequels.  According to the author’s website there will be at least two more instalments.

I look forward reading more from this author.  Lucky for me this is not his first novel.

NOTE -  I loved the inclusion of the sketches of the ships.  Publishers need to do that kind of thing more often.  A little illustration here and there adds much to the visuals of a story.

Check Patrick S Tomlinson’s web page at:  http://www.patrickstomlinson.com/

Patrick S Tomlinson

Willful Child: Wrath of Betty by Steven Erikson - Book Review #165

16/15/2016

Oh, what fun!

Every once in a while it's good to take a step back and to have a bit of fun with a pillar of the science fiction genre.

I'm talking about Star Trek.  In this book we have a "Federation" and a rogue young captain who has no trouble breaking the rules to accomplish missions to his own satisfaction.

It took me a couple of chapters before I understood the author's voice in this story.  It was a crazy cacophony of geek-speak and twisted references.  Once the plot revealed itself I could sit back and enjoy what Erikson was doing.

Each chapter read like an episode from the series with an over-arching plot line to give it good continuity.

My favourite part of the book was when the crew went back in time old Earth circa 2015, to a comic convention.  This being a complete lift of the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where that crew went back in time to 1986.

I loved the banter and the observations of life as we know it today.

There is no way to talk about this book without referencing Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Yes.  It's a lot like that.  I really admire how Erikson was able to twist the Star Trek structures, add ridiculous characters and circumstances and have it make sense.

Like Adams he was also able to make a serious statement about how we live our lives and to deliver that while making me laugh.  We are dealing with a very smart author here.

This is the second book in a series.  I believe my struggles with the first couple of chapters had more to do with the author expecting the reader to have been there for the first book.  I respect that; when I am reading a series I find the effort writers make to help the first-time reader to be tedious.

I found myself stealing moments to read a page or two and bringing the book along just in case I had a few minutes to dive back in.  Most books I read do not captivate me like this one did.  I had the book with me as if it was my cell phone.

I want to thank Tor for giving me the opportunity to enjoy something so fresh and fun.

Steven Erikson -  http://www.steven-erikson.com/

Steven Erikson

Orbital Decay by Allen Steele - Book Review #159

11/15/2016

Published in 1989 it is impressive how believable the story was. It was especially fun to look at '89's version of 2014 as I read in in 2016.  In Steele's universe there is far more commercial activity in orbit than there is presently but it is described just as things are being imagined today.

One plot point is the orbit insertion of a satellite known as Big Ear; designed to listen in on domestic telephone conversations, to combat terrorism, and run by the NSA.  Pretty spot on except, in reality,  they figured out how to do that without the orbiting hardware.

The station is populated by all kinds of misfits who are running away from parts of their lives on Earth.  They are also suffering from some form of cabin fever being essentially trapped in their work camp.

I was hoping for a bit more of the construction of the power satellite that is in background of the story.  Not that a whole novel could be hung on that element but I still would have loved to read about the nuts and bolts of the building of such a difficult and large project.

In any case I was very impressed and just how close Steele came to reality and I did enjoy how gritty and funny it could be.  It doesn't matter where you put folks; people will be people no matter what.  They may be in space but they are still dealing with the same old problems and just trying to get by.

Recommended.

The inner cover

Allen Steele

Sin City - The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller - Volume One

Oh, my.

This was fantastic.  Such a dark story with a likable bad guy.  This is the story of how Marv uncovers the mystery of the murder of a hooker with a heart of gold.  Oh yea, and her name is Goldie.

Sure it's a cliche, but that is the point.  Get over it and enjoy the heightened emotion and a leading man who is unique and interesting.  It is a very violent comic, but isn't that what noir fiction is supposed to be like?  

The art was striking; black and white with no grey and razor-sharp lines. I don't know how much black ink it took to print but it must have set a record.  

Everything about this book is unique and I was sold by the third page.

I am looking forward to reading volume two.

Frank Miller

Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - Book Report #158

10/15/2016

Oh my god.  What a terrible book.  This has got to be the worst thing I have slogged through in years.

Robinson continues his exploration of a plot-less, meandering, point-less, navel-gazing, landscape-describing, list making and thesaurus using non-story of what should have been a compelling tale of humans moving beyond Earth.

The amount of time he spent re-exploring places he had described previously was stunning.  As a matter of fact, after his endless descriptions of the place, I don't want to go.  He bored me to death with his endless descriptions of sand, the colour of the sky and the kinds of snow on the surface.  This would go on for ever without once MOVING THE PLOT FORWARD.

Why is this trilogy so highly regarded?

Sure Robinson is an incredibly smart guy.  He has incredible depth of knowledge of humanities, science, engineering, geology, biology, chemistry and orbital mechanics but he can't tell a story in an interesting way.

He has managed to write over 1,500 pages of "story" that could have easily filled 400 and been far more interesting.

Each book simply gets worse in the telling and I cannot recommend the series.

Sorry, Mr. Robinson.

Star Wars: Smuggler's Run by Greg Rucka - Book Report #157

09/15/2016

As you might have noticed by what I've been posting lately, I am in a bit of a reading slump. I can't concentrate on things for very long and I am finding it difficult to discover something that can keep my attention.

I am not usually a fan of YA stories, but I have read Rucka's work in the past and know that he is also a novelist.  If anybody can make a story hum and move the plot forward, he can.

This book is part of a publishing push to fill in voids in the space of time between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.  Strangely, this one takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.  So we will see how this ties in.

Taking everybody's favourite characters, Chewie and Han, and sending them off to the Outer Rim on a rescue mission we are also introduced to a formidable villain.  Commander Alecia Beck is at once a typical baddie with a big scar on the face and an artificial eye but is updated for today by being female.  This actually makes the character more menacing as she is also very smart and calculating.  I liked her very much.

The story moved along very well, giving the reader a glimpse into events right after the first Death Star was destroyed.  Han and Chewie are packing up their bags and cash, ready to settle their debts with Jabba the Hut.  But Princess Leia has a problem that only they can help with.

I liked the story very much; the interplay between Han and Chewie was spot on and the Milennium Falcon was lovingly written as a third character.  It was interesting to get an insight on how the ship was flown and how much knowledge they had about her.

The only thing I felt didn't work, and this is a very minor thing, was how often Han called Chewie "pal." From the movies I got the impression this was a term he would use on strangers not on somebody he knows or trusts.  Somehow, it just wasn't in character.  That said, Rucka got their voices perfectly and it was a treat to get an insight into Cewbacca's thoughts.

It was a good book and stands on it's own perfectly well. If it informed something about The Force Awakens, I missed it completely.

Greg Rucka -  http://www.gregrucka.com/wp/

Greg Rucka

Halfway to Hollywood by Michael Palin - A Partial Book Review

I've been a fan of Michael Palin's for many years, not for Monty Python but his world-spanning travels.

Around the World in 80 Days captured my imagination and I was completely taken by this charming man.  I have followed all his journeys, purchased every book and was gifted a beautiful collection of all his BBC trips.

I've known of his diaries for a while now, these have inspired me to write my own journal as a blog.  

I downloaded a sample of his third volume, The Traveling Years, only to discover we are two weeks into the first journey on page one.  I requested his second volume from my public library, Halfway to Hollywood, and began reading the final two years of it.  I wanted to read about how the whole thing came about.

The life of an actor is a chaotic thing.  It is filled with meetings, rehearsals, charity events, script writing, telephone calls and always there is the feeling that he had at least five projects on the go.  It was fascinating and I was convinced I could never cope with that kind of life.

What I discovered about the 80 Days journey is that it came about just like everything else; a phone call followed by weeks of nothing, then a meeting followed again by weeks of nothing.  All the while he continued to work on his various projects. 

The diaries went to show how his life is just like anybody else's in that living is not a linear thing.

He had to deal with tragedy, confusion, frustration, worry, humour and professionalism.

This kind of raw presentation takes some getting used to. It's not a guided tour of one's life but more like being given a box of accumulated memories sorted in chronological order.  It's up to the reader to connect the dots.

I may not have read most of the book but I can say that it was a wonderful experience to be allowed a glimpse into an interesting man's life.

It is not the kind of book you need to read all at once.  You can put it down and come back to it when you want.  It's okay, Michael understands and he'll wait for you.  I kept it in sight and within easy reach because I found myself wanting to turn a few more pages pretty consistently.

Michael Palin

Firestar by Michael Flynn - Book Report #156

Audio book cover

08/15/2016

I read this book a long time ago, see book report #52

It has been over three years since I read the first installment in the Firestar series.  I thought it would be a good idea to relive that book in audio form with the intention of listening to the entire series.

After reading my original thoughts on the book I am looking forward to my enjoyment of it now.  In the intervening years Elon Musk and SpaceX have made great strides in the expansion of commercial access to space so it will be interesting to compare how close his path has come to the this particular story.

It was a 30+ hour investment in listening to the book.  My goodness was it good.  I would call it literary science fiction.  It really was grounded in the here and now.  It had all the frustrations of naysayers, political influence, financial realities, personal and professional rivalries.

It really is a massive subject if you want to try to capture almost every aspect of pushing humanity off the face of the earth.  It is made more challenging by making it a private effort which adds the governmental challenges that can be encountered.

I found the characters believable and well rounded.  Some were frustratingly stubborn, just like real people.

What struck me was how the endeavor becomes exponentially more complex as you move forward.

This feels like an important book to read if you are interested in today's space program.  Much like the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson it deals with the known realities of the day.  In this book Flynn does not push the technological speculation very far beyond what was know and proven.  He took results from NASA's X-plane program and pushed them into production instead of the reality of cancelled programs.  Which is much like the environment of today's commercial space efforts who are mining the past efforts of NASA and turning them into private companies.

It's all very exciting.

Paperback cover

Michael Flynn

Consequences by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Book Report #155

07/15/2016

I keep saying Rush is one of my favourite SF authors but I just keep reading other people's work.

I dug this book out of my To Be Read pile and decided to just jump in, even though it is the third installment in the series.  The story stood on it's own but, as I feared, I felt that I was missing quite a bit by not having read the previous two novels.

There are two main characters; Miles Flint, a Retrieval Artist and Noelle DeRicci, a cop.  Both of whom used to be partners back when Flint was also a cop.  So there is the back story there that informs much of their current relationship.  

In this book Flint is contracted to reunite a daughter with her family. Things go badly when the family is then quickly murdered.  Now Flint and DeRicci are working the case but from opposite sides.  The plot is thickened by the introduction of a sub plot about an alien race that is seeking membership in the Earth Alliance.

All of this is, of course, tied to the primary plot.  I found myself getting impatient with the structure because, it was obvious these plot lines were going to converge but it was taking a long time to do so and I wasn't very interested in it in the first place.  I wanted more of Miles and Noelle.

It was a good story and Rusch has proved, once again, that I should be reading more of her work.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch -  http://www.kristinekathrynrusch.com/