It's a busy few months, hence my recent absence. Apologies to all. At least we've finally gone live at Somerset's Information Superhighway Central, and (shock horror) doubled in size (if you count the summer students). That and helping Mary fight recalcitrant laser printers as we struggled to finish Evolution's special Intersection book have managed to eat time. It's at the printers now, and looks really nice. [start plug] 40 or so pages about our various guests (hi Maureen and Paul!) from Neil Gaiman, Geoff Ryman, Michael Moorcock, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Marvin Minsky, Jim Burns, and Chris Priest and Dave Langford. Illustrations are by SMS, Jim Porter and Jim Burns - so collect your copy from the Evolution desk! This book will only be available at Intersection...[end plug]
Pottering round by the lake at work today I saw something wonderful. No fairies at the bottom of the waterfall here, UK Online's ammonite strewn world remains distinctly antediluvian. In the warm waters of a shallow pool primeval monsters lurk: crustacean masters of all they survey. I'd never seen crayfish before - and these were big! At least 10 inches long, with powerful claws to match. It's nice to know that at least in the Mendips the water is clear and clean again enough to allow these beautiful (and they are - wonderful salmon pinks) creatures to recolonise their old homes.
So, on with the show...
I've been a bit too busy recently to sit down and produce a long piece, so I'm going to try and pack in as many capsule reviews as possible. Hopefully I'll have time to work on the extended Mike Scott Rohan piece before the next mailing.
Seasons Of Plenty: Colin Greenland.
Another Acnestoid offering for SFX, and as they pay for your soul,
all I can say is that this is a really really good book, and if
you haven't read it by now you should read it as soon as possible.
Cold Allies: Patricia Anthony
This was a Confabulation "looks interesting" purchase
that has finally made its way to the top of the to-be-read
bookcase. This is a strange, distant, tale of alien intervention
in a post Global-warming war. Anthony's sparse prose gives the
strange blue lights a sense of mystery and threat that I found
enthralling. She writes as well as Robert Charles Wilson or Robert
Reed. Highly recommended.
Vanishing Point: Michaela Roessner
I was ten when I read George Stewart's Earth Abides, and
his image of a deserted world, where nature is beginning to reclaim
its own has never left me. Michaela Roessner's House has the same
feel. 90 percent of the human race disappeared one night, and
the children of the survivors are something very different. This
is an unusual melange of speculative quantum physics and survivor
novel. It's a pity that a book like this is almost unlikely to
ever be published in Britain...
The Texas-Israeli War: 1999: Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop is the master of High Weirdness (and Kim Newman
is his only prophet), and I'm an addict. I'll often be found in
second hand bookshops scouring the magazine racks, hunting for
elusive copies of Shayol, just to find first appearances
of his short stories. For a long time this, his first novel, was
near the top of my most-wanted list. The anticipation, the delight
on finding it, the crushing disappointment when I finally read
it. Thank goodness for Them Bones and A Dozen Tough
Jobs: with novels like them I can forgive him this pot boiler...
Flies From The Amber: Wil McCarthy
The Net liked his first book, so I took a look at his second.
Not bad, not bad at all. This is nineties rethink space opera.
In a precarious colony system a mining ship finds a strange mineral
on a shattered asteroid. An STL research ship is sent from Earth,
only to find every specimen of the mineral used as jewelry. Meanwhile,
in the nearby black hole a forever war is about to peek its head
above the event horizon, and it's going to be a miracle if anyone
survives. McCarthy has written a novel full of that ole sensawunda
stuff. A welcome dose of good old fashioned Sf with a 90s kick.
Nimbus: Alexander Jablokov
This is Jablokov's third novel, and it's a worthy successor to
A Deeper Ocean. A group of hot-housed scientists is brought
back into contact by the death of one of it's members. Jablokov's
sympathetic treatment of people who in any sane world would be
war criminals is thought provoking. The world of Nimbus
certainly isn't sane, still reeling from the chaos of a thousand
Bosnias. It's a place where it's as easy to change your mind as
it is your face. There's a theme in Jablokov's works, an exploration
of what it is in war that drives people to extremes. I look forward
to more of his books.
Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder, The Nano Flower: Peter Hamilton
Rutland Weekend Science Fiction. Sci-fi techno thrillers with
a psychic private eye in post-Warming Peterborough. It seems rather
trite, but Hamilton works very hard at his storytelling, and you
can't help but want to read more of Greg Mandel's adventures.
This loose trilogy would probably make a good set of holiday books...
In The Cube: David Alexander Smith
Future Boston isn't the home of Cheers. It's a shared world that's
produced one anthology and this novel. I first came across the
project in the Dozois Best Sf Of The Year collections,
and have enjoyed watching it achieve critical acclaim. Smith's
novel is a Chandleresque pot-boiler that explores the links between
guilt, remorse, hate and love. A remarkable book that transcends
the shared world concept.
The Unwound Way: Bill Adams and Cecil Brooks
Masonic rituals and drama are the heart of this rather fun little
space opera. A playwright returns from a hundred year journey
to find that his old university club now rules the known stars,
and he's the only man who remembers the one true way. I'm still
not sure how to judge this book, but apparently there's a sequel,
so I'll give it a try... I'd like to see what happens next...
Lion's Heart, Lion's Soul: Karen Wehrstein
Two more volumes of the Fifth Millennium shared world, a rather
entertaining little Canadian project, which brought us the Flecker-quoting
closet liberal S. M. Stirling. (I'm always amazed at the way that
right wing Pournelle clones take his anti-fascist alternate history
Draka novels as a paean for their "one true way". Takes
all sorts I suppose...) But I digress. Wehrstein's diptych is
an interesting study of the effects of power (in all its manifestations)
on a doomed young ruler. Not as fun as their swashbuckling companion
volumes, these were still an interesting read.
Resurrection: Katherine Kerr
This novella is an alternate world tale of brain damage, love
and redemption. Slim, well written. It's worth an evening of anyone's
time.
Groundties, Uplink, Harmonies Of The Net: Jane S. Fancher
Oh dear. It's never a good idea to pick up all three volumes of
a series in one go. It's also probably not a good idea to plow
through all three in the hope that there might be something there.
Unfortunately there wasn't. I can't really get to grips with a
bunch of unsympathetic cardboard characters bouncing around in
a pseudo-Cherryh cyberpunkish world. Avoid.
What Entropy Means To Me: George Alec Effinger
Effinger's first novel is a Laffertyesque tale of religion and
politics far removed from the tales of Muffy Birnbaum (Barbarian
Jewish Princess) and the hard-boiled Marid Audran. I can't praise
it too highly - Effinger's brave mix of narrative and story-telling
points at what he sees as the flaws at the heart of Western society.
Stylistically, it's Tove Jansson meets William Burroughs, all
mixed up with the unreality of classic Dick. This is one to scour
the second-hand bookshops for.
His Kisses are Dreamy...But The Hairballs Down My Cleavage...
Berkley Breathed
Bill the Cat and Opus march across the landscape of politics in
the latest collection of Outland cartoons. Doonesbury
taken to Herriman's extremes, this is a surreal exploration of
the contradictions at the heart of 90's America. The Bill the
Gates sequence is also rather fun - a strange melding of the Fly
and Microsoft...
Diamond Age: Neal Stephenson
Another SFX review! This is a more mature novel than Snowcrash,
a Victorian sprawl of a book that follows lives through a post-nanotech
world. But is that Y.T. I see? Can this be (gasp) a Sequel?
And on the to-be-read-shelf this week are:
Legacy, Greg Bear; Gun With Occasional Music, Jonathan Lethem; Pasquale's Angel, Paul McAuley; Demon Night, J.M. Straczynski (yes - a novel from the creator of the lucious Babylon 5); Silverlock, John Myers Myers - and sundry others... Not forgetting this weekend's planned trip to Hay On Wye...
This was another Acnestis contribution from:
Simon Bisson
18 High St
Twerton
Bath
BA2 1BZ
simon@ukonline.co.uk / sbisson@cix.compulink.co.uk
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