Brian Aldiss: Non Stop

Timeless Vintage Sci Fi.

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Warhammer 40k: Tales of Heresy

Pulp fiction at its finest. Place holder post

Suzanne Collin's: "The Hunger Games", "Catching Fire", "Mockingjay"

My thirteen year old daughter recommended that I read Collin's blockbuster young adult trilogy about a despotic future world where children are forced to fight to the death in an arena. This shocking premise has already been explored in Koushin Takami's Japanese novel "Battle Royale" but the "Hugner Games" has an enthralling story  all of its own.

First book: "The HungerGames": Much more enjoyable than I expected and very well written. This sucked me in and kept me reading.

Second book: "Catching Fire": A worthy successor that broadens out knowledge of the society that spawned the games. Probably my favourite book of the trilogy.

Third book: "Mockingjay": The final volume was a bit of a dissapointment to me. In a nutshell there was too much emotional angst and not enough shooting bad guys. Nevertheless the story is resolved reasonably and Collin's characters develop in a credible way.

All in all the series is very good even though I was a bit dissapointed by the ending. Collin's has becpome the best selling author on Kindle so obviously a lot of other readers like this series too.

George R. R. Martin "A Dance with Dragons"

The paperback edition of the latest installment of Martin's Ice and Fire sage is split into two volumes but each has more than 700 pages so I didn't feel too cheated at having to shell out for both.

Ice and Fire continues to enthrall me, even though Martin shares the late Robert Jordan's view that you should never tell a tale in 10 words when you could use 10,000. Martin's characterisation remains strong as always. The main protagonists of Dragons are Daenerys Targaryen, John Snow and Tyrion Lannister. Daenerys's fledgling empire in the East seems to be coming apart due to her unwillingness to act despotically. John Snow is desperately trying to strengthen the Night's Watch and enlist any allies he can get for the forthcoming battle against the terifying ceatures (the "Others") who live beyond he wall. Tyrion contiues to be my favourite character in the series even though his fortunes are much diminished.  Now he is heading for a meeting with Daenerys in the East and his cunning would be the perfect foil for her compassion but knowing Martin he will kill off one or other of them before they even get to meet. 

Sadly I have yet to see any episodes of the Game of Thrones televisd series because Sky have an exclusive license and I use a different cable provider.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

An alien race send thousands of short lived probes to take a peek at earth. Now something is approaching the outer edges of our solar system so mankind sends a mission out to meet them.

In his Starfish sequence Watts postulated that living in the extreme environment of the ocean floor would require a very unusual mix of people and he continues that theme here. The ship is crewed by a bunch of genetically engineered oddities. None more so than the Vampire Captain, a member of the once extinct race that preyed on humans now resurrected through genetic technology.

This isn't necessarily an easy read. The action is often interrupted by meandering thoughts on the meaning and value of human consciousness. It is high quality hard sci fi but don't expect to come away cheered up.

Side note: the main protagonist suffered serious brain malfunction in his youth which has left him without empathy but with a remarkable algorithmic ability to explain things to people even when he doesn't actually understand them himself. His name is Siri. I think someone on Apple might have read this book.

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.