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The story involves all the main characters converging on Han's home system of Corellia to try to negotiate some kind of new trade agreement to essentially bring the system into the New Republic fold unofficially (it being Han's home, of course, we run into a relative). There are some pit stops along the way (Luke and Lando's trip seemed rather unnecessary, given the foreshadowing build-up it was given in the first part of the first book, though I can appreciate the results and liked the subplot), but they aren't too distracting. The main plot remains as unpredictable as a story written with Star Wars limitations can be, but there are a few rough spots.
Once again, Han and Leia's Jedi children are more or less to perform feats well above and beyond the call of duty, which is not awful for me but a little absurd. Surely the series could've been set 5-6 years later just as easily, so the older children showing such skills would be credible. Of course, the fact that they are Jedi explains everything, I suppose, so this is a minor quibble.
Han and Leia are both well-done here, though I have to admit that it is becoming increasingly difficult to accept the two of them continuing to be on the front lines in combat. Perhaps the SW authors need to agree to "Kirk" them like in the Star Trek movies...get them in some kind of trouble so that they are forced to accept positions of much less power and influence so they are free to stir up trouble like the good old days.
Anyway, all of this baggage comes with the SW genre, and with that in mind, you won't go wrong with this series.
Anthony really strikes a chord with some readers, make no mistake. This is one reason he dominates the shelves at a lot of bookstores. You should probably read at least one of his books at some point just to see what all the fuss is about. You may like him better than I did.
This novel follows the exploits of Cheradenine Zakalwe, but it does so in a very confusing way. The book is set up as two parallel stories, alternating from one to the other with each chapter. The confusing part is that the alternate story (in the even chapters) is told _backwards_, and this is not revealed to the reader directly, though it can certainly be inferred from the chapter "numbers" and the story. Given the overwhelming number of difficult names and places and events introduced at the beginning of the novel, some readers might find that Banks has bitten off a little more complexity than the reader can successfully chew. I found this to be an interesting approach, but I'm not sure it added anything to the book for me.
Anyway, both stories are certainly interesting, and I found myself treating Zakalwe's biographical interludes as short stories rather than as a continuous plot. They do have a tendency to stand alone. The "current" plot was interesting and at times humorous. Now that I'm familiar enough with Banks' Universe, I will certainly go back for more. I just wish series like this didn't have such a high "overhead" of jargon and such. It discourages new readers from branching out in the field and trying new authors, which may be one reason so many authors write bloated series these days.
The real world maps very strangely onto Frank's tortured mental landscape. He perceives perfectly normal behaviors and events as earth-shattering threats, insults or dangers, and he responds murderously. Frank learns that his older brother (whose favorite activity is burning dogs alive) is returning for a visit, which sets off a crisis with his very unusual and secretive father. All in all, this is a bizarre, disturbing and absolutely interesting piece of work, and it has received its share of critical acclaim. If the sorts of behaviors I've described are not too big of a barrier for you to enjoy a novel, this one is worth a look. It will stick around in your mind for a long time afterwards.
An archeologist with a bad reputation for not respecting the integrity of sites finds an early Neanderthal skeleton, preserved for centuries in an isolated mountain cave, which shows the same symptoms as the modern virus. He joins up with a geneticist and a few other specialists to try to track down the truth while the nation is on the verge of chaos. As usual with Bear's novels, his characters are very strong, and the plot involves interesting moral and ethical dilemmas. The biology in this one is virtually impossible for a layperson like me to follow, unfortunately, and I had to write off a lot of the same kind of speculative science that interested me (as a Physicist and Astronomer) in the Eon/Eternity series.
Fascinating stuff. Unfortunately, while these ideas would be enough to make a magnificent 80-page short story, they have been stretched out to the limit in this behemoth of a novel, diluted by countless pages of pure boredom. For every page where you get to see how the politics of controversial results work in the world of science or how Benford speculates that these messages might be sent, received and interpreted, you must read 5 pages about a dinner party that has no bearing on the plot or 8 pages about a physicist's relationship with his live-in girlfriend that just doesn't lead anywhere interesting (given the number of pages devoted to it).
I read this book quickly, more out of frustration than anything else. I kept waiting to get back to the meaty parts, which were great, but then I'd get frustrated again waiting for another development. The ending was also somewhat unsatisfying for me, but that's just a matter of taste. It was hardly implausible, if I dare to use that word when describing speculative fiction.
Truly, the strength of this book lies in the methodical process of discovery, as facts are slowly revealed about the artifact. The politics of academia and research ring true (no surprise, given Benford's academic background), and I really enjoyed the very slow "unraveling" of the strange artifact. Near the end, the plausibility factor got in the way just a bit (very similar to Brin's problems with "Earth", actually), but that's only a quibble. If you can find this little gem in a used bookstore, snag it for an enjoyable weekend read.
This can be found as a single book containing four novelettes outlining a future history of the Galaxy. This is a future written from the standpoint of 1958, so it does seem dated in places. In fact, much of the Astronomy in the books is just plain wrong, but I guess if I can read over the bogus Physics in the "Brackett/Dirac equations", others can read over Blish's problems with Astronomical distances and theories. The first story, about the development of the technology, is excellent. The other stories describe the future of mankind, which is pictured as a collection of self-contained cities abandoning an economically depressed Earth to become migrant workers on a Galactic scale, in the tradition of Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath". The first of these three is extremely good, and the others are definitely worthwhile reading. Books like this are one of the chief reasons I refuse to buy hardbacks...with so many great old books sitting around neglected on the shelves of used bookstores, it's not hard to pass the time waiting for a particular author to finish a series and have it all out in paperback, especially when older science fiction is so rich. Be sure to check out the titles in the books. There is partial to complete overlap in many older book collections that have had multiple reprints. For "Cities", you will find the "Volume 2" (sold as a separate book) contains only the last two stories that appear in "Cities in Flight" (this is true for the copies I have at least).
Unfortunately, he doesn't really do much with it that was compelling. It wasn't a *bad* story, but it didn't really grab me either. A few too many cliches (if you don't actually "witness" the death scene of a major character, odds are the character isn't dead) made me a little cynical and gave this a potboiler feel.
The story is told from the point of view of Maia, a female of lower status trying to make her way in the world. She gets caught (many times) in the wrong place at the wrong time and eventually winds up a major player in a fight between many important factions. Exactly *what* these factions are all hoping to accomplish remains a bit nebulous, and I think a little more background on personalities in the capital city would've helped here. In fact, even though I didn't like this book all that much, I think a prequel written from another point of view (say, the alien visitor or one of the major government figures) would've made this a stronger book. Unfortunately, what we'll probably get (if anything) is a *sequel*, which I think has less potential.
Perhaps the most space in the book is given to further revelations about the relationship between Obi-Won and Qui-Gon, which is portrayed as far more antagonistic in the book than in the movie. I can't decide if I like this or not, but I suppose it helps to give the Jedi a little more than "boy scout" depth. On the other hand, does Lucas really intend that Obi-Won thinks Qui-Gon is occasionally a buffoon, more or less? I find that hard to fathom, but such is life as an author shackled with the Star Wars rules in order to get a healthy payday. The only other interesting revelation in this book not explicitly mentioned in the movie is that the population of Jedi at the time of this story is in the neighborhood of 10,000 (!), far more than I expected. I'm sure this well be explored more at length during later movies dealing with the clone wars, though. I can't wait!
Since I wrote the first paragraph of this review upon starting up my reviews page, I've gotten my share of unhappy mail from Brooks fans, so allow me a little time to clarify my opinion on this series: First, I *DID* enjoy Sword and Elfstones to some extent, but I can't deny that I was distracted to a large extent by the similarities between Sword and elements of LotR. I normally review books based upon my enjoyment alone, without giving pause to consider more abstract properties like "literary merit", but when the other qualities of a book infringe upon my enjoyment of the book, the review suffers. That happened here.
With that said, I would recommend Sword and Elfstones to younger readers who haven't had much exposure to the genre, but I would definitely *not* recommend it to serious Tolkien fans (i.e. if you've read anything by Tolkien more than once) of any age. If you enjoy Sword/Elfstones, then you'll also like Wishsong, though not as much as the first two.
The only weakness I could possibly see would be for a new reader to Brust. If this is the first book someone were to read in this series, I can imagine the confusion would be nearly overwhelming, what with all of the references to previous tales and inside jokes with characters. If you're going to invest the time in this series, it is best to read it from the beginning. Dragon could fit in at any point after Yendi, I think, and would be best read shortly after Taltos.
At first, this intrigued me. I enjoyed reading about certain events from a variety of points of view, and the authors were good about writing realistic character "monologue" from a point of view of limited knowledge. After about a third of the book, though, the usual "fluff" in the letters back and forth began to grow a little tiresome. I found myself wanting less and less to see two or more descriptions or interpretations of the same event, and I wanted a faster paced plot.
This book is set in England during the 19th century, and it is essentially pure fiction, with none of the magic/fantastic elements so common in the other works of these authors. It involves a plot of political intrigue in England as a group of revolutionaries makes plans to try to overthrow the government in favor of socialism/communism. It felt authentic, and it was unpredictable and interesting. On the other hand, it made me impatient, so I have to give it a relatively low score (for Brust) simply because I didn't enjoy reading it as much as I had hoped I would.
This book centers around a human named "Finder" who has an innate ability (almost magical) to have his body act as a compass if he knows what he's looking for. He gets recruited by a cop and eventually, caught up in the case. The plot is strictly standard fare for detective-novel readers, but the world and the characters are definitely a cut above. If you like the characterizations and dry humor of Brust, you'll like Emma Bull.
On one of these worlds, Harmony, in the city of Basilica, the series begins as the oversoul of the world, after millions of years, begins to break down to such an extent that people are starting to overcome its desires, thus making war on a large scale and taking the first steps along the path to weapons of mass destruction. The series follows a group of humans selected by the oversoul to help it overcome its problems, perhaps by establishing communications with the master computer, the "Keeper of Earth".
As usual, Card has come up with a variety of very interesting ethical dilemmas, rather than your simple, everyday good vs evil story. While there is a focus on a central "good" character, Nafai, who brings back strong memories of Ender Wiggin, there are several good subplots and lots of space given to the development of other characters. The books are fairly fast-paced, and I found myself flying through the middle books of the series (whereas I've found with other long series, I tend to bog down near the middle).
The only weakness from my perspective is in the establishment of motivation for some characters. For example, a very important character in the first four books acts in an increasingly brutal and immoral fashion. This fact in and of itself doesn't bother me. Every series needs a good villain or two, but I had two problems. First, I didn't find the motivation for this character (essentially, jealousy and immaturity) to be very convincing over time. Second, I couldn't believe how much of his behavior was tolerated. I couldn't believe it was that important to everyone that this character remain as part of the group, given his potential to ruin everything.
Another minor problem with the series was the sheer number of characters. This wasn't a problem at the beginning, even though there were a lot of names to digest from the very first page. But as the series went on and new generations of characters were introduced, I found them melting together. Very few of the second-and-beyond generation characters were established well enough for their names to be memorable. This was especially a problem for all but 2-3 characters in the final book, which takes place long after the continuous events of the first four books. I would almost recommend reading only the first four books of this series, which make a great self-contained set and leave few plot threads hanging.
In any case, I liked this series too much to end a review with two paragraphs of criticism, so I'd like to reiterate the strengths that I've come to expect from Card. First were the excellent ethical dilemmas presented (even though I may not agree with how they were dealt with). Second was the fast-paced plot. There is an interesting religious subtext throughout the series as well, which wasn't surprising for Card. This added a lot to the richness of the characters, but to say more would be to bias the reader to watch for certain things. I think that's best left to be discovered.
This Hugo award-winning book is truly a chore to read. From the very beginning, the reader is battered with about twice as many names and subplots as are necessary for this novel. It takes good concentration and reading this book over a very short period of time (so you can remember all the subplots, which you need to know in detail) to really appreciate it. And don't get me wrong, I APPRECIATE what this book is trying to do. I just didn't ENJOY it. It is a book of politics and betrayal aboard a space station (reminiscent of Babylon 5, which is inspired largely by this sort of book) trying to exist in a galxy of warring factions and rapid change. Compared to other books with very intricate plots (Brust comes to mind), Cherryh suffers from trying to do too much, losing the reader in the process and diluting the few good subplots that are in progress. Characterization is pretty strong, but the most interesting characters in the book, Jon Lukas and Josh Talley, actually get LESS interesting as the book goes on.
The strongest element of the plot comes in the second book when the young Ariane Emory is "introduced" to an archive of computer programs and tapes created by her predecessor. I find it fascinating to think about the concept of actually "visiting yourself in the past" and giving yourself advice about growing up and so forth. If the entire series had been boiled down to one book, throwing out the purely political subplots and concentrating more on the relationship between Ariane and her predecessor, it would've been a "9" or a "10". As written, though, the series seems to drag and I had trouble slogging through a lot of it. The ending was extremely disappointing and left too many loose ends (perhaps this was on purpose, I'm not sure). I can't say I would recommend this to everyone, but it wasn't bad. The good ideas were just diluted by too much unnecessary extraneous activity (and too many characters) outside Ariane's immediate circle.
Instead, this book is cut from the same cloth as any of your standard fantasy/political intrigue works. For the first 100 or so pages, as the book follows the main character, Tristan, the writing is certainly a different style than I'm used to. I was initially intrigued, then ready to move on, then bored, then physically turning the pages to see if there would EVER be dialogue at any point. After that, the book got marginally better (by about halfway through, when the political machinations finally got into full swing), but it certainly didn't grab me and hold me. It took some effort to finally get through this book, and it was more to get it over with than any real interest (it took me the better part of a month to read this, both because it was rather boring and because my wife and I were house-hunting and house-buying, with all that entails, at the time).
If you want to read something similar in this genre but much better, try Brust, Glen Cook (Bragi Ragnarson books), Feist, Bujold (more sci-fi, though) or countless others.
Since writing this review, I've been told that an author named Jeff Rovin is responsible for this travesty. Since Clancy's name is on the cover, though, I thought it appropriate to keep the review here under his name.
Anyway, as usual with Clancy books, the rising action is much more interesting than the resolution of the plotlines, and the section from about page 800-1200 (of a 1400-page paperback), detailing everything going on just before the big "pop", is just the best. You can't put the book down for a solid three hours. My only big drawback of this book is the politics. Maybe I just haven't noticed it before, or maybe it's just the way it's done here, but it was damned annoying. I understand Clancy's view on military policy and so on, and I can sympathize if not entirely agree with his arguments. Clancy does a good job of addressing both sides of the debate in reasonable terms. But when Clancy starts writing about economics, the books comes to a screeching halt.
It's not so much the policy he proposes that I find distasteful as the way it is presented. Basically, all the "good guys" in the novel spout Clancy's pet economic/tax policies (like favoring a regressive tax system) while the opposing arguments are placed in the mouths of total slimeballs. It was such a bald attempt at manipulation, I was insulted. Surely Clancy doesn't think so little of his readers. You don't have to be a liberal to hate that kind of garbage. In the end, though, I was able to read around the 10-20 pages of his and focus on the plot. It wasn't Clancy's best, but it was genuine Clancy and it was good.
Anyway, as you might have guessed, this is a fictional diary of a man who grew up a geek, worked at Microsoft for a while, then left with friends to help start up a company in Silicon Valley. So many aspects of his life are frighteningly familiar to me (and anyone else who has worked much in the hard sciences, either in industry or graduate school) that I had a hard time putting this book down. Lots of truly funny observations, touching moments (the meeting with BarCode near the end is a must read for anyone who's ever MUD-ed) and fascinating characters (albeit a few were too one-dimensional for me). This is a great book, and I've noticed lately (Summer 1997) that it is showing up in hardback on a lot of bargain shelves.
The main plot involves a female Vice President of a large airplane manufacturer in the U. S. (similar to Boeing or perhaps Lockheed) and how she handles damage control and investigations for the company after one of their planes suffers an incident in the air leaving a few passengers dead and several wounded. Ok, I'll admit several of the characters were entirely too one-dimensional, but as I've said before, literary merit is not that big of a deal to me if I enjoy the book, and I liked this one enough to zip through it in a day (thanks to a long wait at an airport).
As in all time-travel novels, there are the paradoxes to deal with, and Crichton has an interesting twist on this problem that is similar in many respects to Simon Hawke's excellent "Time Wars" series. Unlike the plodding and disjointed "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis, Crichton makes the Middle Ages a lot of fun (not surprisingly), throwing in a lot of action, surprise and intrigue. The characters are familiar from Crichton's other novels (the troubled scientist, the overeager fighter-type, the kid-in-over-his-head, etc), and that's starting to wear a little thin. If you liked "Jurassic Park", this is a good half-price book store pickup.
On a smaller scale, Janey's long-lost love returns from his travels, hoping to rebuild their relationship, and Janey's friends and companions also have trouble with the town witch (who doesn't wear kid-gloves when it comes to black magic). Even with all of these various subplots in motion at once, the book has a relaxed and almost rustic feel thanks to deLint's smooth writing style and entertaining characters. Thinking back, it is hard to believe that I actually felt things were moving slowly, but I did. I can't say that I was really drawn into the book's world. It just didn't feel relevant, for lack of a better word. I didn't get a sense of urgency or excitement here, even when lives were threatened. Maybe that's a good thing for some readers, but there were long stretches in this book where I had trouble turning the pages, and it is difficult for me to put my finger on exactly why.
Reading this book is like watching an existentialist play in which what the characters are saying and doing isn't so significant as all the changes in the scenery that happen around them and (occasionally) how they react to that. Anyway, it is certainly different than your typical hackwork fiction/fantasy, but it wasn't just *great*. A solid 7. I look forward to reading some of Dick's other works to see what happens when he manages to put a compelling plot and a compelling setting in the same novel.
As with most Dick novels, I gather, the plot and characters are mainly vehicles to explore an interesting worldview, rather than the worldview being window-dressing to a conventional plot, as in most speculative fiction. This can work wonders when the worldview is compelling (like, say, Simmons' Hyperion novels, Asimov's robot novels or Halperin's novels about the impact of cryogenics or a truth machine on society). I wasn't really swept away (I'm a victim of having my expectations built up too much, I think).
I shouldn't really dismiss the characters as mere vehicles, though. They do change, react and evolve in the book, and I got to know Taverner well enough that I appreciated this and was interested in what happened to him. The other major characters (such as police general Buckman) weren't fleshed out enough for me to be shocked, surprised or otherwise really affected by their choices and behavior. I can understand why this book is groundbreaking and a classic for its time, but it doesn't hold up over time with the kind of greatness I expected based on recommendations (as opposed to Tolkien's timeless stuff, which is probably an unfair comparison for almost any author).
The opening is very strong, drawing the reader in like a good detective novel (such as Donaldson used to write long ago, I'm told). Quickly, though, we are introduced to Angus Thermopyle and Morn Hyland, and the misdeeds of Thomas Covenant are simply dwarfed by the foulness the reader is asked to digest here. And it isn't just Angus and Morn. Virtually everyone in the novel commits one form of atrocity or another, but as with Covenant, the reader is invited to view reality from each character's point of view so that such behavior can be at least understood (but rarely justified).
The setting is in the distant future. Earth has expanded to an empire encompassing several stellar systems, and they have met their first true enemy, the Amnion, a race light years ahead of us in terms of genetics. The Amnion are essentially portrayed as a ruthless, canny race, patiently waiting for everything to fall into place so that they can overwhelm humanity. In between the two are the pirates, who make deals with anyone to get money or new technology. Angus is among the worst, and his story begins with a conflict with another pirate, Nick Succorso, but the stakes soon grow so that powers at the highest levels of both races are chasing after one or both of them.
Like any other series, there are characters all over the map, and it takes some effort to keep them all straight, particularly the ones in the Earth-based government. That may be because the plotline that didn't directly involve Nick, Morn and Angus wasn't that compelling. It was indeed fitting that, at the end, all of the political machinations (carried out while the primary characters were in deep space) were only made relevant by the fact that they served as a crucial diversion during the climax.
As for the main plot, I suppose the reason that I was disappointed is that this really didn't feel like an EPIC. Not once did I feel a deep appreciation for the magnitude of the circumstances, no twinges like I felt reading about events in Revelstone, Kiril Threndor, Coercri, etc. from the Covenant series. This was simply an interesting (if somewhat depraved) story about several ordinary characters, many of whom take on the role of anti-heroes. It was certainly original, but it was not deeply satisfying.
In any case, the answers to the ship's mysteries slowly unfold while the survivor's journal reveals stories of his past. During the first third of the book, when the ship is still largely a puzzle to figure out and Roberto (the survivor) is reminiscing about his childhood exploits as part of a petty battle in northern Italy, the book is very entertaining and readable. I'll not soon forget Roberto's hilarious father, whose wartime rationalizations are the stuff of legend. I also enjoyed Roberto's discussions of philosophy and science with Father Caspar. In all, though, the pace of events was a bit on the slow side, and these discussions and other stories of politics and intrigue didn't really grab me enough to make me want to tear through this book.
Note added in Sept 1997:
In retrospect, now that this page has been up for a while, I can look back on these two reviews that I wrote over three years ago, based upon memories more than five years old, and perhaps add a little more insight. For instance, you may wonder why, given the astonishing similarity between the two series, why I rate the first so high and the second so low. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I read the Belgariad when I was about 14. I think for a young reader without too much experience in the genre, this is a fine series and will be fun.
I read the Malloreon when I was about 17. At that point, I was much wiser (read: more experienced, not necessarily smarter) in the ways of the world of fantasy, and so not only did the plot devices seem rather stale and unimaginative (compared to, say, Donaldson, Brust, Tolkien to name a few), but the whole series just seemed so damned *similar* to the Belgariad that I was basically offended that it was sold to me as something new. Still, it might be appropriate for someone younger or less widely read. Then again, even at 14, I probably would've noticed (and been annoyed by) all the parallels.
Really a fascinating concept. The only drawback is that, as a Copy, you have no influence of real events, and you "live" with the knowledge that someone can pull the plug at any moment. Several plot threads are covered in this book, including a man trying to do an experiment with his Copy and a woman trying to create a new form of life from a self-contained Universe of simplified physical rules (in virtual reality). The main part of the book comes into focus when the experimenter, Paul Durham, discovers a way to create virtually limitless computing power that will last for eternity. He offers the chance to live forever...as a simulation guaranteed never to die. Ultimately, it is interesting to see the ramifications of such eternal life and how the characters respond to it. The book wasn't a real thrilling page-turner, but it was solid and very interesting.
The first half of this novel, setting up the plot, introducing the characters and showing a few initial encounters with the shadow creatures (the shetani) is the best. Encounters with the shetani set in the "normal" everyday world are much more frightening than anything set in Africa. For me, the key to a good scare starts with making an ordinary occasion horrifying, like looking at passing debris on the highway (the best scene of the novel). Sadly, the novel spends a lot of time trying to develop a relationship between the male and female leads (the book tries to be a bit coy, but it is obvious from the beginning where they'll end up) with very stiff dialogue (and corny inner thoughts). The last half of the novel was rather plodding and slow, but not awfully so. Given the typical low quality of horror novels out there, this is certainly well above average. I can think of 5-6 King books I'd recommend before this one, though.
The main characters are a warrior-priest named Damien and an evil sorceror named Gerald Tarrant (or "The Hunter"). Other characters come and go (some stay much longer than others), but the body of the story centers on these two. As a priest, Damien is dedicated to the forces of good, but he finds himself forced to work with the evil Tarrant. The interplay between these two, while not a sparkling new kind of story-telling for the fantasy genre, is convincing and well-written, at least in the first book. After that, it starts to become old hat. Even the characters realize it is old hat, to the author's credit.
Because of this, I found the first book to be the most enjoyable read, and it would've worked just fine as a stand-alone novel albeit with a few loose ends left hanging. The second novel, which introduces a new world and lots of interesting places, still seems to drag a bit. Maybe it's just me, but the thought of a tiny little band of people pitted against the might of an empire is starting to wear on me after many years of this genre. Just once, I'd like to see a book where the tiny band makes a wrong turn and is engulfed and killed mercilessly by the powerful enemy forces.
The third novel is, again, remarkably different (yet remarkably the same in character interactions) from the first two. The Deus Ex Machina climax was a bit of a disappointment, but it fit well with the rest of the series, so it wasn't necessarily the easy way out for the author. All in all, this is a great series to explore because the first book is a good stand-alone. If you like the first book, go ahead and read the rest and you won't be disappointed. I wasn't, but I didn't exactly devour the series either.