Obsolete Your Idols

Remember when I read Revelation Space and wrote a brief review? Between then and now, probably while in Denver at a reading with Vylar, I picked up Redemption Ark, the sequel. Seems to be the middle book in a trilogy. It does a solid job of being the middle child, not wasting too many pages recapitulating the plot of the first book, sheds a new light on what’s gone before and foreshadows, hopefully, a resolution to The Big Problem forthcoming in the third book. Well, forthcoming to me. It’s been in print for some time now, I suppose.

It’s more space opera, with some striking relativistic scale combats, some tough people solving thorny problems, some unlucky people failing, compromises made with the best of intentions and blowing up in everyone’s faces.

Who might like this

• Fans of space opera
• People who read the first book and wonder what happens next
• Fans of tough women and wily old men

Who might not like this

• Fans of dragons, unicorns, wizards, magicians, chicken pablum for the soul
• Readers who find middle books in trilogies disappointing in general
• People looking for a fast breezy read

I guess in terms of fiction I’ve been on a space opera kick because I also read Revelation Space recently.  That’s a nicely layered book with multiple reveals that twist the earlier understanding of how things are and send the story shooting off in a new direction.

The starting impetus is that an archeologist excavating ruins of a non-human society finds something unexpected.  Then the layers of the onion start coming off, putting the archeologist’s history in new light, the find in new light, the fundamental backdrop they operate against in new light.  This book does an excellent job of making plausible each of these successive expansions of the reader’s understanding of the situation.

Things I liked about this book

• The construction of the story
• The structure of the setting, all the players and vectors of motive in play
• The assassin character
• Knowing that there are other books in this setting which I can look forward to reading, now

Things I didn’t like about this book

• There were a few red herrings which I got invested in and which didn’t pan out
• Some of the characters who weren’t of consequence got an odd degree of screen time, while others who were significant sometimes came out of nowhere

Who might like it

• Space Opera fans, unite!
• People who enjoy the kind of detective story where the author keeps expanding the scope of concern until it’s enormous
• Fans of protagonists who are utter bastards

Who might not like it

• Those who need every last thing explained in a story
• Those who prefer character driven over concept driven narratives
• People who feel like they’ve had a glut of space opera in their diet lately

Continuing my long and successful plan of being the last person to read things, I recently read another Culture novel by Iain Banks, The Player of Games.  This might be my favorite book of his I’ve read and it’s largely because I could understand the central character’s motive, being a game player myself, though on a much smaller scale.

In brief, a champion game player is recruited by a faction within his society to go play a very difficult game with very high stakes and with lots of shenanigans to keep it from getting dull.  The narrative does a good job of raising the stakes and having a rewarding payoff.  Pacing is brisk, the characters are convincingly detailed, and it’s a solid, though somewhat predictable, story.

Things I liked about it

• Central focus on games and the kind of thinking which goes into playing them
• Larger than life sweep of events, with a rich futuristic flavor to the setting
• Devious gambits and duplicity revealed

Things I didn’t like about it

• The final reveal felt too pat to me
• Some of the most dramatic events happened outside the scope of narrative

Who might like this book

• Fans of space opera
• Fans of the experience of playing games

Who might not like this book

• No idea.  I suppose such people much exist but I didn’t notice anything offensive here.

People had been telling me about but not exactly recommending M. John Harrison’s novel Light to me for a couple of years.  Having now read it, I think I can see why.  The story of this novel is very convenient, a sort of happy ending where everything fits a nice orderly pattern, but the construction of it aspires to concealing that pattern for as long as possible.  The setting is the near-past and the far future, and the central three human characters are depicted through a common lens of them making non-rational decisions which they then don’t attempt to rationalize to themselves or anyone else.  It revolves around a very large maguffin, indeed.  A strange place in space where every technology you try, works.

I found it a frustrating book.  Other people told me it was frustrating to read but they were talking about the prose style which is somewhat experimental. The language and constructs were much more accessible than those of some writers I’ve enjoyed (Robert Anton Wilson, William S. Burroughs, Samuel Delaney, Michael Moorcock, Jack Kerouac, James Joyce) and not really an impedance.   The thing which frustrated me about this story is how obliquely the author tries to tell it.  It’s a story I could express to you in thirty words.

The one thing I would like to champion about this book is the future setting.  I do like the idea of a place and time where radical physical form changes are trivial, computation is no longer a scarce commodity for anyone, intersystem travel is rapid and virtual reality addiction commonplace.  All of that is a fun setting to read about for me.

But to have half of the characters consolidated, the grand design revealed to be a trick all along, and the implausible actions of the characters not given some kind of an explanation, left me looking for the rest of this story.  There are fun bits and funny bits and there are sad bits and moving bits in this book.  But on the whole I can’t say I liked it.

Who might like this book

• fans of space opera
• fans of experimental writing, more poem in places than prose
• fans of Brin’s Uplift stories who want something in that vein

Who might not like this book

• people who hate omnipotent alien tampering ala Q of Star Trek: The Next Generation
• people who hate unreliable narrators who won’t even justify their actions to themselves

Approximately fifteen years ago, several friends of mine told me I absolutely needed to read a book by John Steakley named Vampire$.  Then they told me I needed to read Armor, by the same author.

Maybe you’ve noticed, I’m kind of slow.  I’m a slow adopter of technology,  philosophies, mindsets and habits.  So I just now read Armor.  I’m not exactly sorry I waited, but I probably would have been just as happy to have read it 15 years ago.  Sorry, Aaron.  Sorry, Jim.  Sorry, Uriah.  You guys were right, I should have leapt at the chance.

Be that as it may, maybe you haven’t read Steakley, yet, either.  I’m here to tell you that you probably should, if you are looking for a certain kind of experience.  Do you like James Bond movies?  Die Hard movies?  Did you like Forever War at least as much if not more than Glory Road?  Then this book is for you.   It is one man’s story, launched into without any past, any sense of what drives him, in the brutal face of endless war.  It’s got bureaucratic SNAFUs, it’s got dark humor, it’s got graphic fight scenes.  Then in the second part, we get to see the rest of the world from another point of view, more fun, less brutal.  Then it all knots back together at the end.

It’s probably technically space opera, it’s combat fetishizing, and it moves at a high speed pace.

Who might like this book

• Fans of:
  • Harrison’s Bill the Galactic Hero
  • Resnick’s Santiago
  • The first Zelazny Amber book
  • The aforementioned movies and books I compared it to
• People looking for something fast to stuff in their pocket and take on a short plane flight
• Players of FPS games

Who might not like this book

• People who can’t read past typographical errors, the copy editor seemed to be asleep on this printing
• People who want a richly detailed background  and snort at testosterone blurred scenes
• Pacifists, romantics, deconstructionists, and faith-based intellects

I still haven’t read Vampire$, by the way.  But it’s on my shelves, now.