Ventus by Karl Schroeder

A terraforming experiment gone wrong has left the world "Ventus" controlled by powerful nanotechnology AI who tolerate humans only as long as they avoid technology and other activities which affect the natural balance. After almost a thousand years the inhabitants of the planet have regressed to a medieval existence and regard the winds as godlike magical creatures.  Events in the wider universe have brought Ventus back into the spotlight of outside forces however.

This is superior Sci Fantasy from an author who is new to me. I downloaded this book because it is free under the creative commons license but there is nothing amateurish about it. I will be looking for more from Mr. Schroeder. 

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

First thing to get out of the way is that I have always loved Paul Verhoeven's 1997 movie that is (very) loosely based on this famous book. I never though to read the book however until I stumbled across Christopher Weuve's great defensive analysis of the book and utter dismissal of the film.

Even after reading and enjoying the book I still love the film but I can completely understand Weuve's hatred of it. The book is serious miltary sci fi with a serious political and philosophical message. The film is tongue in cheek cartoonish space opera. It is in fact a complete and utter travesty of the book.

Anyway the story is familiar to most about a young man growing up in a society where only those who complete a term of military service can vote. Against the wishes of his parents he joins the mobile (space) infantry and ends up in a war against a insect like alien race. Heinlein's political message however is  serious one and when the protagonist's teacher uttered the most often repeated quote from the book: “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Heinlein was making a direct rebuttal to those in the late 1950's who believed that the USA should back off its nuclear weapons programme. The military side of Heinlein's book is far more serious too than the comically inept  tactics and weapons we see in the film with serious military tactics and weaponry being employed.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this novel for a 2012 reader is how little it has aged after more than 50 years.  Heinlein' vision of troopers in power armour suits free-falling in disposable capsules out of dropships to fight battles on remote planets is still relevant. These concepts that Heinlein pioneered still crop up in literature, video games and movies.

Spider World: The Delta by Colin Wilson

I enjoyed the opening novel of Colin Wilson's Spider World saga ("The Tower") quite a few years ago  so when I stumbled across this follow up in a second hand book sale I picked it up. Sadly this second installment deviates far from the promise of the first. "The Tower" is an exciting adventure tale of a young human trying to survive in a World dominated by giant spiders. This follow on "The Delta" quickly degenerates into an unappetising  mess of mysticism.

Colin Wilson actually wrote more books in the Spiderworld series but I won't be looking for them. One thing to note is that this is one of those series where the US version was published in different subdivisions to the UK version. This leads to considerable confusion among internet sources as to how many books are in the series and what they are called. Many sources refer to the Spiderworld trilogy but I have also seen references to book 6 of the sequence!

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

This is the first book of a famous Polish series of fantasy novels on which the Witcher video game was based. I started the book (in English translation) while playing the first game and I certainly recommend the book as an adjunct to the gaming experience. It gives a new appreciation of how well the game sticks to its source material.

The book is really a collection of short stories held together by a common thread of a witcher recalling past adventures as he convolesces after a nasty wound. The gritty character of the Witcher and the World he lives in is quite compelling. Witchers are highly trained killers with enhanced fighting abilities who hire themselves out to kill monsters. The hero Geralt is basically good but also cynical. He had learned not to get involved in other peoples problems. The closest parallel I can think of is Clint Eastwood in the famous man with no name Westerns.

The stories themselves are interesting enough but the writing style in translation is quite flat and becomes tedious. I don't know if this is the fault of the translation our whether it reflects Sapkowski's underlying writing.

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

This phenomenal book is the most powerful war story I have ever read. Sajer (real name Mouminoux) born in Alsace of mixed French / German parentage was drafted into the Wermacht at the age of 16 and sent off to fight in the gruelling battles of the Russian front as a member of the elite Gross Deutchsland division. Sajer had the misfortune to be on the wrong side at the wrong time (he joins up shortly before the catastrophic German loss at of Stalingrad). Most of the book recounts the dreadful ordeal of a German army in retreat. There may be difficulty for the modern reader because it is clear that Sajer and his comrades were proud of the efficiency and bravery of the German forces. The book does not dally with politics but it is clear that they looked up to Hitler, believed in the Third Reich and believed in what they were doing. They saw themselves as defending civilisation against the savagery of the Russian hordes and even hoped that the Americans and British would come to support their cause.

At its heart though this is a book about an ordinary foot soldier caught up in the bloodiest battles of the largest conflict in history. It is a story of courage and pride as well as brutality and despair.

Although I had never heard of it before discovering my copy in a second hand bookshop I have since discovered that Sajer's book has proven both highly influential and highly controversial since it's publication in French in 1965. On the one hand armies recommend the book to recruits as an accurate portrayal of a soldiers life in battle. On the other hand some historian's have pointed to historical errors in the text. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that it is entirely a work of fiction. Sajer himself admitted the errors and staunchly defended the book as an description of his wartime experiences as best he could remember them. You can read a brief summary of the controversy on wikipedia and a more detailed list of arguments for and against here: http://members.shaw.ca/grossdeutschland/sajer.htm. Certainly the book is well enough written, even in translation,  that it could stand as a novel. On balance, however particularly given the support of fellow veteran's of the Gross Deutchsland division I think we can accept the book as a true reflection of Sajer's experiences even allowing for some mistakes in the details.

Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

Asimov's foundation trilogy is universally hailed as a classic of science fiction so it is easy to forget that the original stories were written in the 1940's approximately equidistant between the times of Jules Verne and the present day.

The basic setting is a far future period in the wake of the collapse of a pan galactic empire. A farseeing psychologist predicts that humanity will descend into a 30 millennium dark age unless something is done so he establishes a foundation(or two) in a far flung star system in order to ensure that civilisation is restored in just one millennium.

Unsurprisingly the science in this trilogy seems amusingly quaint to a modern reader with space faring societies still relying on coal and oil while the mysterious "atomic power" represents the elusive pinnacle of scientific achievement. The pinnacle of physical science that is because psychology has transformed from the crude understandings we know today into a precise quantitative science capable of precisely predicting the behaviour of large groups of humans thousands of years into the future.

Regardless of the comical science the good news is that the stories are well written and still held my attention to the end. I found myself eagerly following the exploits of Asimov's characters although I will admit that I found the smugness of the psychologists annoying by the end of the sequence.

This trilogy only covers half of the Foundation's millennium and Asimov didn't get to write a follow up until the 1980s. It will be interesting to see how he integrated the discoveries of the intervening 30 years.

Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell

Cornwell has a knack of finding interesting periods of military history as a setting for his novels and Azincourt (Agincourt to you and me) is another winner. Its the middle of the long struggle between the Plantagenets and the Valois for the throne of France that came to be known as the hundred years war. This fascinating period marks the end of the age of chivalry. New tactics and new weapons meant that heavily armoured nobility on horseback were no longer invincible gods of the battlefield. At the time of Agincourt the Plantagenets of England seem to grasp the new realities more quickly than their Valois adversaries and in a number of critical battles the nobility of France were decimated by foolhardy charges against disciplined armies of massed archers.

As well as the battle of Agincourt itself Cornwell also describes the   siege of Harcourt which proceeded it.The tale of how a few hundred determined defenders held off King Henry's thousands is fascinating in itself.

There is a story tying it all together of course involving a young English archer who joins the army to get away from a death sentence at home. Needless to say his trouble follows him and he must contend with mortal enemies form home while trying to fight off the French.