Tor has been continuing their free release of books in electronic form, and I have been totally enjoying these free glimpses into new works, formatted to display well on my Sony Reader. First, though, is a book still hammered into the beating heart of dead trees.
Matter by Iain M. Banks — Banks’ returns to his much-anticipated stories of people at the fringes of his Utopian spacefaring civilization, The Culture. In the Culture, all boring work is down by non-sentient machines, the intelligent machines and human-kinda people basically do what they want and live in gigantic spaceships or massive orbital stations, and are really kind of boring. Since it’s no fun being part of the Culture if you can’t fiddle with other less advanced civilizations, the Culture stories almost entirely focus on the Special Circumstances crew; those who have a taste for harsh living and interference.
It’s a good thing they do, because what’s happening in the local Shellworld could mean bad juju for the entire galaxy. Shellworlds are gigantic artificial planets built as a series of nested spheres by an ancient civilization that had surrounded the galaxy with them back in the day. Their original purpose was unknowable, but since they all left, and the civilizations of the galaxies beat back the other aliens who were systematically destroying the Shellworlds, colonists have arrived now and again to start new lives amidst massive alien tech.
Matter starts us out in the middle of a war between two feudal societies both pulled into the Industrial Revolution by covert alien influence. Level 8 of the Shellworld attacks Level 9. Betrayals, intrigue, flights, a trip into the vastnesses of many alien civilizations (including eventually the Culture), the invasion of Level 8 by Level 9 in retribution, a massive waterfall slowly wearing away the cliff that covers an ancient alien city, a princess sold to (assumed) slavery in the Culture, a prince deposed… Matter splatters bits of color all over the canvas to begin, and by the time its filled in the rest of the painting, you’ve read galaxy-spanning space opera at its finest. I would recommend Matter as a good introduction to Iain M. Banks’ science fiction.
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson — Here’s when I fell in love with this book.
The Milky Way was a band of white fluorescence (now brighter, now darker) lit by flaring, dying stars. Stars were created and stars were demolished with every breath of summer air.
And it all moved.
Moved in vast shimmerings and intricate dances suggesting ever-greater, still-invisible cycles. The sky beat like a heart above us. “So alive,” Diane said.
One night, the stars quietly went dark. Every satellite in the sky came crashing to Earth. People panicked. The Earth was veiled by an opaque field they came to call The Spin, and it wasn’t just making astronomy impossible, it was pulling the Earth into the future; a million years outside the Spin were a single year on Earth. Hardly anyone believed this until an ill-considered nuke strike against one of the orbiting structures thought to be responsible for the Spin dropped the veil slightly for awhile, and the effects of accelerated time were all around.
The rapidly aging Sun making life on Earth unprotected by the Spin increasingly impossible. The people of Earth plot a desperate plan to use the passage of time itself to save them from an inevitable death in the corona of the expanding Sun and to find out just how and why they were abducted by the Spin at all.
SF is full of stories about unknowably advanced aliens who put a shield around the planet to protect us from the galaxy, the galaxy from us, punishment, judgement, as an incubator — whatever. It’s a common trope. What sets The Spin apart is Wilson’s incredibly apt portrayal of how life can continue on a world where something incredible has taken place… and yet people still have to work and eat, taxes must be paid. The story of life under the Spin is interwoven with a tale of life after it; both tales give clues about the other in an indirect way that doesn’t spoil many surprises. The eventual reveal of the Spin’s purpose is telegraphed far enough in advance that we needn’t wonder too much how the book will turn out; what’s important about the Spin is not its end, but the journey there.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi — I loved Heinlein’s Starship Troopers as much as anyone when I was a kid. Remove the libertarian politics and add more sex, and you have Old Man’s War.
In the future, Earth has colonized the stars. But it’s a busy place out there, and nothing is given for free. We have to fight for places to live, fight to keep them, and fight in revenge when they are taken from us. Life in the Colonial Defense Force (CDF) is brutal, and usually short. They need lots of willing recruits who are glad of whatever extra time they get to defend the colonies. And they get them in the senior centers of good old Earth. For a promise of renewed youth, the elderly of Earth are sent out to fight and die for the colonies. A writer and his wife sign up for the CDF when they are 65; if they make it to 75, they are allowed to ship out. He makes it, she doesn’t. From there we follow Rico’s career is a space marine, dropping onto strange planets to kill what they need to kill, trying not to be killed, and watching the idiots who don’t follow order die, and good friends who did, also die. Can an old man in the body of a twenty year old find love among the stars and also stay alive long enough to enjoy it? It could happen. If you loved Starship Troopers for its tales of brave soldiers fighting every description of homicidal alien, you’ll enjoy this acknowledged homage to that classic of SF.
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Tor keeps sending books to me and I have to keep putting them on my Reader. I found a site that publishes classic SF works that have fallen out of copyright in electronic form, and I’ll be writing about that soon. Cory Doctorow just posted his latest work, Little Brother, about a group of teens who use brilliance and technology to throw off the creeping Big Brother-ism that is engulfing the US and Britain, and I’ll be giving that a glance as well.
Currently finishing up Julian May’s The Golden Torc just for fun.
It’s funny you should mention John Scalzi as I just discovered his website, Whatever, yesterday. I found it through a link that led to an article he wrote about how YA scifi/fantasy is currently outselling Adult scifi/fantasy two to one. Its a wonderful piece that points out that the current generation of teenagers are falling in love with scifi/fantasy just like we did oh so many years ago (“The Hobbit” for me, a Christmas gift from an uncle.)
John recommends “Uglies” as a great example of the best of YA scifi on the market. I picked it up this morning at Barnes and Nobles and will be giving it a read next week while on vacation (where, sadly, most of my reading gets done these days.)
-DanO’
Yeah, he and Cory Doctorow over in boingboing are both pointing that out. Best fantasy I read last year was His Dark Materials and guess where THAT lives? It’s definitely a good time for SF… if you know where to look. Who was it that said the Golden Age of science fiction is twelve?
I’m enjoying the fantasy of Jim Butcher though his Harry Dresden series is more urban fantasy then classic high fantasy. I’ve found all the John Scalzi books are pretty good though the first book Old Man’s War was the best. He’s writes a lot like John Ringo except his characters are better developed and he doesn’t depend on military stereotypes. His next best book was probably The Android’s Dream but its based in another universe.
If you like high fantasy then “Summoner” and “The Blood King” by Gail Z Martin are proving to be decent reads though no where near as good as some of the early Robert Jordan/Terry Goodkind novels.
You have whetted my appetite for Banks’ “Matter” Tipa but I am putting off buying it until it comes out in regular paperback. I don’t know how it works in the US but over here novels first come out in hardback, then in a kind of oversize paperback and finally in a regular paperback. “Matter” is currently at the oversize paperback stage and I try to avoid these when possible. They have all the disadvantages of hardback (big, heavy and pricey) and none of the advantages. I like a book that will fit in an overcoat pocket.
Sounds like I may have to invest in one of those electronic readers!
I have 33 books on my Reader 🙂
I’m currently working my way through Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series now and enjoying it immensely. I used to enjoy High Fantasy, but have been drawn to Urban Fantasy the last few years. Didn’t like Simon Green’s Nightside series at all and have to be careful to avoid the Laurell K. Hamilton supernatural romance clones. Not sure what I’m going to read after I’m done with the Dresden books, but it will probably be from the YA section of the bookstore.