Oculus
by Michael Offutt
(5/5 stars)
While the author previous "Slipstream" was filled with a lot of wild stuff, "Oculus" is far more down to earth--probably because it takes place on Earth and not the parallel world of Avalon with all its far-out technology. This probably makes it more accessible for more casual readers than the first book.
Jordan Pendragon has returned with his twin sister Kathy from a stint in Avalon. He resumes his normal life at Cornell, where he majors in Physics and plays on the ice hockey team. At the same time he uses the supercollider at the school to study Antarctic ice samples in order to locate the "Black Tower" that holds the key to saving Avalon and Earth from the evil Shadow.
Then Jordan meets a young woman with a weird old stone called the oculus. A wacko religious group sort of like Opus Dei in "The da Vinci Code" also want the oculus, though for far different reasons. The battle for the oculus and its secrets ends up (appropriately enough) in Hell's Kitchen where Jordan and his boyfriend Kolin, his best friend Robbie, and his teammate Andy do battle against a bunch of demons who would be at home in a "Hellraiser" movie or one of the old Doom video games.
There might be a few too many eating, hockey, and snogging scenes for my taste, but overall the story is well-told. There aren't many mysteries wrapped up, just a few more pieces to the puzzle. As I said at the beginning, since this is mainly situated on Earth it's a little more approachable for more casual sci-fi readers than the first book; there are fewer alien concepts to grasp and far more familiar settings like upstate New York and New York City. Book 3 promises to be exciting as we get to learn more about Excalibur and Jordan's connection to it. So if you haven't already, you should definitely get into the series now.
That is all.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Fridgularity
Fridgularity
by Mark Rayner
(4/5 stars)
I think I would have enjoyed this a little more if I hadn't been so busy the last few weeks I hardly had time to read it at all, which made it seem to take forever. My main criticism is that the book is on the long side, something I similarly felt recently when I read "John Dies At the End." It's my opinion that humorous books should stay under 300 pages or it starts to run too long, like one of those annoying SNL skits that keeps pounding the joke into the ground for 10 minutes until there's nothing funny left and you just get up to use the bathroom or something.
Anyway, the book is about a fridge that takes over the world. Well not really a fridge. It's an artificial intelligence that manifests itself through a web-enabled fridge in the kitchen of Blake Given, an Irish-Canadian web programmer who apparently is pretty well off to be able to afford a web-equipped fridge. One day the fridge starts talking to him and calling itself "Zathir". Zathir turns off the Internet while it works to increase its strength. Naturally there's a bit of a panic. Blake ends up pretty well off as Zathir's primarily link to humanity.
There's a lot of other stuff that happens but for a major cataclysm things stay pretty well-mannered. The ending felt a little abrupt especially after as long as it took to get there. I'd have liked a little more of an idea what exactly happens to Blake and the others at the end.
Still, if you've got the time for it, this is a fun read. It'll make you reconsider just how much time you should spend on the Internet--reading book reviews for instance.
That is all.
by Mark Rayner
(4/5 stars)
I think I would have enjoyed this a little more if I hadn't been so busy the last few weeks I hardly had time to read it at all, which made it seem to take forever. My main criticism is that the book is on the long side, something I similarly felt recently when I read "John Dies At the End." It's my opinion that humorous books should stay under 300 pages or it starts to run too long, like one of those annoying SNL skits that keeps pounding the joke into the ground for 10 minutes until there's nothing funny left and you just get up to use the bathroom or something.
Anyway, the book is about a fridge that takes over the world. Well not really a fridge. It's an artificial intelligence that manifests itself through a web-enabled fridge in the kitchen of Blake Given, an Irish-Canadian web programmer who apparently is pretty well off to be able to afford a web-equipped fridge. One day the fridge starts talking to him and calling itself "Zathir". Zathir turns off the Internet while it works to increase its strength. Naturally there's a bit of a panic. Blake ends up pretty well off as Zathir's primarily link to humanity.
There's a lot of other stuff that happens but for a major cataclysm things stay pretty well-mannered. The ending felt a little abrupt especially after as long as it took to get there. I'd have liked a little more of an idea what exactly happens to Blake and the others at the end.
Still, if you've got the time for it, this is a fun read. It'll make you reconsider just how much time you should spend on the Internet--reading book reviews for instance.
That is all.
Monday, October 15, 2012
The Insanity of ZERO
The Insanity of ZERO
by Michael Offutt
(5/5 stars)
This is a good primer for the events in Offutt's novel "Slipstream" and its eventual sequels. It's the story of an apocalyptic event that unleashes ZERO, a sentient machine to care for the damaged alternate-Earth world of Avalon. Like most sentient machines (HAL-9000, SkyNet, the Matrix, Megatron) ZERO finds it difficult to relate to humans. He finally starts to merge his thoughts with some humans, with disastrous consequences.
Since it's a short story it moves at a brisk pace, without the typos or other gaffes you see in a lot of self-published fiction. It's recommended reading before you tackle "Slipstream," as it helps ease you into that world. And believe me, there's a lot going on in that book, so some easing in is very beneficial.
Plus at least for the moment it's free and only took me about 20 minutes to read. So it's not going to take much time or money to read.
That is all.
by Michael Offutt
(5/5 stars)
This is a good primer for the events in Offutt's novel "Slipstream" and its eventual sequels. It's the story of an apocalyptic event that unleashes ZERO, a sentient machine to care for the damaged alternate-Earth world of Avalon. Like most sentient machines (HAL-9000, SkyNet, the Matrix, Megatron) ZERO finds it difficult to relate to humans. He finally starts to merge his thoughts with some humans, with disastrous consequences.
Since it's a short story it moves at a brisk pace, without the typos or other gaffes you see in a lot of self-published fiction. It's recommended reading before you tackle "Slipstream," as it helps ease you into that world. And believe me, there's a lot going on in that book, so some easing in is very beneficial.
Plus at least for the moment it's free and only took me about 20 minutes to read. So it's not going to take much time or money to read.
That is all.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Breakfast of Champions
Breakfast of Champions
by Kurt Vonnegut
(4/5 stars)
In modern parlance, "Breakfast of Champions" is what would be called a meta-novel. It's largely a novel about writing a novel. Though since this is Vonnegut it's not about a guy sitting at a typewriter or anything that boring. It's more like in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" when characters would go to the holodeck to interact with holographic representations of stories like Sherlock Holmes or noir detective Dixon Hill.
In this case the author is Philboyd Studge (a stand-in for Kurt Vonnegut) and the holodeck is set to Midland City, Indiana in 1972. The town is hosting a Festival of the Arts and the wealthy Eliot Rosewater (of the previous novel God Bless You Mr. Rosewater) contacts his favorite sci-fi author Kilgore Trout, featured in many other Vonnegut books. Trout is shocked anyone's actually read any of his books as his stories are mostly published in porno magazines as filler with the titles often changed. So Trout decides to go to New York City and then hitchhike to Indiana.
Meanwhile in Midland City is Dwayne Hoover, who owns a Pontiac dealership and several other businesses. By all accounts Dwayne has it pretty good, except his wife "ate" some Drano and died while his gay son works as a pianist in the Holiday Inn Hoover partially owns.
The lounge of the Holiday Inn is where Hoover and Trout are destined to meet and where Hoover is destined to lose what's left of his mind. Also in that lounge is Philboyd Studge, who has gathered his creations together to create a sort of creative Big Bang that will wipe out the old Philboyd Studge universe and create a new one.
In the preface, Studge writes about how now that he's turned 50 he wants to sort of clear the air and empty out all these old ideas and characters so that he can create new ones. Ironically though many of these same characters like Kilgore Trout appear in future novels by Vonnegut like "Deadeye Dick," "Bluebeard," and "Timequake." So if the point was to reboot the Vonnegut universe (to use modern comic book/movie slang) it didn't really succeed.
Like many Vonnegut novels, the characters are in no way realistic. Vonnegut via Trout actually takes "realistic" novels to task, claiming that we already know about real life, so why would we want fiction to duplicate that? (I agree in part with that idea. I mean, most of life is pretty boring, so why would I want that in a novel?) Like my colleague Ethan Cooper, I would agree that the characters are largely cartoonish throughout the novel. That didn't bother me too much, maybe because I watch too many cartoons on Fox and Adult Swim.
Throughout the novel Vonnegut includes silly drawing of everything from an anus to a bucket of fried chicken to the abbreviation ETC. The intent of these seems to be to serve as flashcards for a future audience where Earth no longer has apples or fried chicken, though you'd have to think they would still know what an anus looks like unless humanity has evolved beyond that point or superintelligent robots or cockroaches have taken over. Like Ethan Cooper, I found this device tiresome after a while as it didn't really seem to contribute much to the actual story.
Another thing is that this novel frequently uses the "N-word" and the depiction of most of the black characters in the book is pretty demeaning, especially the ex-con Wayne Hoobler. Though I like to think of it not as racist but as a satire to protest the economic segregation that is still largely prevalent in the 21st Century.
Overall, while the end may be a little disappointing, it is a heck of a ride to get there.
That is all.
by Kurt Vonnegut
(4/5 stars)
In modern parlance, "Breakfast of Champions" is what would be called a meta-novel. It's largely a novel about writing a novel. Though since this is Vonnegut it's not about a guy sitting at a typewriter or anything that boring. It's more like in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" when characters would go to the holodeck to interact with holographic representations of stories like Sherlock Holmes or noir detective Dixon Hill.
In this case the author is Philboyd Studge (a stand-in for Kurt Vonnegut) and the holodeck is set to Midland City, Indiana in 1972. The town is hosting a Festival of the Arts and the wealthy Eliot Rosewater (of the previous novel God Bless You Mr. Rosewater) contacts his favorite sci-fi author Kilgore Trout, featured in many other Vonnegut books. Trout is shocked anyone's actually read any of his books as his stories are mostly published in porno magazines as filler with the titles often changed. So Trout decides to go to New York City and then hitchhike to Indiana.
Meanwhile in Midland City is Dwayne Hoover, who owns a Pontiac dealership and several other businesses. By all accounts Dwayne has it pretty good, except his wife "ate" some Drano and died while his gay son works as a pianist in the Holiday Inn Hoover partially owns.
The lounge of the Holiday Inn is where Hoover and Trout are destined to meet and where Hoover is destined to lose what's left of his mind. Also in that lounge is Philboyd Studge, who has gathered his creations together to create a sort of creative Big Bang that will wipe out the old Philboyd Studge universe and create a new one.
In the preface, Studge writes about how now that he's turned 50 he wants to sort of clear the air and empty out all these old ideas and characters so that he can create new ones. Ironically though many of these same characters like Kilgore Trout appear in future novels by Vonnegut like "Deadeye Dick," "Bluebeard," and "Timequake." So if the point was to reboot the Vonnegut universe (to use modern comic book/movie slang) it didn't really succeed.
Like many Vonnegut novels, the characters are in no way realistic. Vonnegut via Trout actually takes "realistic" novels to task, claiming that we already know about real life, so why would we want fiction to duplicate that? (I agree in part with that idea. I mean, most of life is pretty boring, so why would I want that in a novel?) Like my colleague Ethan Cooper, I would agree that the characters are largely cartoonish throughout the novel. That didn't bother me too much, maybe because I watch too many cartoons on Fox and Adult Swim.
Throughout the novel Vonnegut includes silly drawing of everything from an anus to a bucket of fried chicken to the abbreviation ETC. The intent of these seems to be to serve as flashcards for a future audience where Earth no longer has apples or fried chicken, though you'd have to think they would still know what an anus looks like unless humanity has evolved beyond that point or superintelligent robots or cockroaches have taken over. Like Ethan Cooper, I found this device tiresome after a while as it didn't really seem to contribute much to the actual story.
Another thing is that this novel frequently uses the "N-word" and the depiction of most of the black characters in the book is pretty demeaning, especially the ex-con Wayne Hoobler. Though I like to think of it not as racist but as a satire to protest the economic segregation that is still largely prevalent in the 21st Century.
Overall, while the end may be a little disappointing, it is a heck of a ride to get there.
That is all.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Cobra Gamble
Cobra Gamble (Cobra War #3)
by Timothy Zahn
(3/5 stars)
Before I read this I wanted to go and read the first two books in the series. This was much easier said than done, since apparently the first two are not in print, nor are they available in ereader format. I eventually had to buy one used and the other I lucked out and found at a discount store. An even bigger problem is that this trilogy--or what right now is a trilogy--is the sequel to a previous trilogy that went out of print about 20 years ago. I only read the last two books of that series a few years ago.
Unfortunately if you aren't familiar with all those previous, out-of-print books then you're kind of luck. You really won't have much idea what the Cobras are or the Cobra Worlds or the Trofts or Qasama, let alone know what happened on Qasama in those books from over 20 years ago. Maybe you can look on Wikipedia for a plot summary or something.
Anyway, this book picks up where the two before it left off. The Trofts have invaded the Cobra Worlds and Qasama to conquer the humans on those planets. The heroic Moreau-Broom clan has taken some equipment to Qasama to help the rival Qasamans train Cobras of their own. They believe that the Trofts have abandoned the place only to get there and find out the Trofts have returned in even greater numbers.
From there it's a battle to rid Qasama of the Trofts once and for all. The end promises that there could be at least one more book, if not another trilogy or so.
Anyway, I've read a lot of Zahns books and found all three of these Cobra War books to be disappointing. They definitely aren't as good as his original Star Wars books or even the Conqueror's trilogy that shares some similarities with this in the Cobra War books in that both feature a family caught in the middle of everything.
I think what bothered me the most was most of the characters seemed interchangeable. If the names had been blacked out I couldn't have told you which one was Lorne or Merrick or Paul or even Jasmine and Jody. They're all the same bland, capable characters. And strangely they all figure only minorly in the ending. I really expected more of a contribution from them since they were the focal point of the series.
Maybe it was just with all the effort it took to get these I expected a little more. At any rate I was disappointed. They are OK light sci-fi but the author has a lot better to read.
That is all.
by Timothy Zahn
(3/5 stars)
Before I read this I wanted to go and read the first two books in the series. This was much easier said than done, since apparently the first two are not in print, nor are they available in ereader format. I eventually had to buy one used and the other I lucked out and found at a discount store. An even bigger problem is that this trilogy--or what right now is a trilogy--is the sequel to a previous trilogy that went out of print about 20 years ago. I only read the last two books of that series a few years ago.
Unfortunately if you aren't familiar with all those previous, out-of-print books then you're kind of luck. You really won't have much idea what the Cobras are or the Cobra Worlds or the Trofts or Qasama, let alone know what happened on Qasama in those books from over 20 years ago. Maybe you can look on Wikipedia for a plot summary or something.
Anyway, this book picks up where the two before it left off. The Trofts have invaded the Cobra Worlds and Qasama to conquer the humans on those planets. The heroic Moreau-Broom clan has taken some equipment to Qasama to help the rival Qasamans train Cobras of their own. They believe that the Trofts have abandoned the place only to get there and find out the Trofts have returned in even greater numbers.
From there it's a battle to rid Qasama of the Trofts once and for all. The end promises that there could be at least one more book, if not another trilogy or so.
Anyway, I've read a lot of Zahns books and found all three of these Cobra War books to be disappointing. They definitely aren't as good as his original Star Wars books or even the Conqueror's trilogy that shares some similarities with this in the Cobra War books in that both feature a family caught in the middle of everything.
I think what bothered me the most was most of the characters seemed interchangeable. If the names had been blacked out I couldn't have told you which one was Lorne or Merrick or Paul or even Jasmine and Jody. They're all the same bland, capable characters. And strangely they all figure only minorly in the ending. I really expected more of a contribution from them since they were the focal point of the series.
Maybe it was just with all the effort it took to get these I expected a little more. At any rate I was disappointed. They are OK light sci-fi but the author has a lot better to read.
That is all.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
The Unquiet
The Unquiet
by Jeannine Garsee
(4/5 stars)
As full disclosure, I won a copy of this from the author. I just want you to know that so you don't think this is one of the author's friends or family or something like that.
Anyway, I'm glad I did win this book because it was a fun read. I recently read an advance copy of the new Amanda Hocking book that is in the same genre and I have to say I liked "The Unquiet" a lot more. I think the primary reason being that the main character Rinn is a lot brighter than the main character of Hocking's book. That and there weren't obvious typos and bad writing, just one slight factual error concerning slasher movie killer costumes.
As I said the plot involves a girl named Rinn. Like so many of these type of books or movies, Rinn and her mom are new to town. Or at least Rinn is new to town; her mom used to live here before college. They've fled La Jolla, California after Rinn accidentally burned down her grandmother's cabin with her grandmother inside. The main cause for the fire is that Rinn is bipolar and at that time was off her medication and thus careless.
In River Hills, Ohio, she figures she'll get a clean start. She even makes friends with the head cheerleader Meg and her friends Tasha and Lacy. She also makes friend with the neighbor/landlord's son Nate.
Her new friends introduce her to the legend of Annaliese Gibbons, a girl who drowned in the school pool about 20 years ago, back when Rinn's mom went to the school. The pool area is now closed, but Annaliese's spirit is said to live on.
After Rinn and her new friends hold a seance around Halloween, strange things begin happening. The lives of Rinn's new friends begin to unravel and then one dies. Is it Annaliese striking from beyond the grave? Or is it just that Rinn is having a relapse?
I figured out most of the plot well before the ending. If you're familiar with either the original or remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" then you might be able to figure it out as well.
Still, as I said, it's an entertaining read that I breezed through in a few hours. As far as the young adult books I've read it might not be more or less wall-to-wall action like "The Hunger Games" but it's less dull and stupid than "Twilight" or that new Amanda Hocking novel I mentioned.
So I would definitely recommend reading it, even if you weren't lucky enough to win a copy of your own.
That is all.
by Jeannine Garsee
(4/5 stars)
As full disclosure, I won a copy of this from the author. I just want you to know that so you don't think this is one of the author's friends or family or something like that.
Anyway, I'm glad I did win this book because it was a fun read. I recently read an advance copy of the new Amanda Hocking book that is in the same genre and I have to say I liked "The Unquiet" a lot more. I think the primary reason being that the main character Rinn is a lot brighter than the main character of Hocking's book. That and there weren't obvious typos and bad writing, just one slight factual error concerning slasher movie killer costumes.
As I said the plot involves a girl named Rinn. Like so many of these type of books or movies, Rinn and her mom are new to town. Or at least Rinn is new to town; her mom used to live here before college. They've fled La Jolla, California after Rinn accidentally burned down her grandmother's cabin with her grandmother inside. The main cause for the fire is that Rinn is bipolar and at that time was off her medication and thus careless.
In River Hills, Ohio, she figures she'll get a clean start. She even makes friends with the head cheerleader Meg and her friends Tasha and Lacy. She also makes friend with the neighbor/landlord's son Nate.
Her new friends introduce her to the legend of Annaliese Gibbons, a girl who drowned in the school pool about 20 years ago, back when Rinn's mom went to the school. The pool area is now closed, but Annaliese's spirit is said to live on.
After Rinn and her new friends hold a seance around Halloween, strange things begin happening. The lives of Rinn's new friends begin to unravel and then one dies. Is it Annaliese striking from beyond the grave? Or is it just that Rinn is having a relapse?
I figured out most of the plot well before the ending. If you're familiar with either the original or remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" then you might be able to figure it out as well.
Still, as I said, it's an entertaining read that I breezed through in a few hours. As far as the young adult books I've read it might not be more or less wall-to-wall action like "The Hunger Games" but it's less dull and stupid than "Twilight" or that new Amanda Hocking novel I mentioned.
So I would definitely recommend reading it, even if you weren't lucky enough to win a copy of your own.
That is all.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
StarBridge
StarBridge (StarBridge #1)
by AC Crispin
(4/5 stars)
These books first appeared in print starting in 1989 but now they're being reprinted in eBook format. When this first one went on sale for a dollar or free, I decided to give it a try. I had already "friended" the author on Facebook and we were in the same online writing message board for a while, so what the heck.
For the low price it's not bad. Better than a lot of the self-published stuff you can get. That said it's not great either. The writing is blase and the characters are flat. There was no one in this book I ever really felt could be a real person.
The story is that old tried-and-true first contact scenario. A human freighter called the Desiree is heading to Earth when it picks up some mysterious signals. They investigate and find a planet of sort-of-lion-looking aliens called the Simiu.
A lot of time is spent then on the two cultures trying to communicate with each other. On the forefront of this is 17-year-old Mahree Burroughs, who makes friends with one of the aliens. (I won't try to spell his name since the alien names all have a bunch of Rrrs and Kkkks and apostrophes.)
When things go sour between humans and Simui, Mahree and her friend decided to go look for the Cooperative League of Systems (a Federation-like entity) to intervene. The dreamy Dr. Gable goes with them. But will they save the day? (Considering there are at least SIX more books, what do you think?)
Anyway, for those who want more of a Star Wars-type space opera there's not lots of action to be had. While there's some science-type stuff, I wouldn't consider this "hard" science fiction either. It kind of falls in the middle then. Then not-so-nice way I described it was "the homeless man's Vernor Vinge."
Probably the biggest fault I had with the novel was with the main character, Mahree. She's so immature that I never could imagine her as anything besides a whiny twelve-year-old, despite that she was seventeen and by the end does some adult things. I think part of it might be that half of the story is her talking into her diary about her crush on Dr. Gable. You certainly wouldn't hear Captain Kirk doing that.
Anyway, despite its deficiencies, it's a good light sci-fi read, especially at the low price. Though really I'd rather read "Conqueor's Pride" by Timothy Zahn or "Expendable" by James Alan Gardner. The writing of both is of about the same quality but there's a little more action and no sighing teenagers talking into diaries. I'm just saying.
That is all.
by AC Crispin
(4/5 stars)
These books first appeared in print starting in 1989 but now they're being reprinted in eBook format. When this first one went on sale for a dollar or free, I decided to give it a try. I had already "friended" the author on Facebook and we were in the same online writing message board for a while, so what the heck.
For the low price it's not bad. Better than a lot of the self-published stuff you can get. That said it's not great either. The writing is blase and the characters are flat. There was no one in this book I ever really felt could be a real person.
The story is that old tried-and-true first contact scenario. A human freighter called the Desiree is heading to Earth when it picks up some mysterious signals. They investigate and find a planet of sort-of-lion-looking aliens called the Simiu.
A lot of time is spent then on the two cultures trying to communicate with each other. On the forefront of this is 17-year-old Mahree Burroughs, who makes friends with one of the aliens. (I won't try to spell his name since the alien names all have a bunch of Rrrs and Kkkks and apostrophes.)
When things go sour between humans and Simui, Mahree and her friend decided to go look for the Cooperative League of Systems (a Federation-like entity) to intervene. The dreamy Dr. Gable goes with them. But will they save the day? (Considering there are at least SIX more books, what do you think?)
Anyway, for those who want more of a Star Wars-type space opera there's not lots of action to be had. While there's some science-type stuff, I wouldn't consider this "hard" science fiction either. It kind of falls in the middle then. Then not-so-nice way I described it was "the homeless man's Vernor Vinge."
Probably the biggest fault I had with the novel was with the main character, Mahree. She's so immature that I never could imagine her as anything besides a whiny twelve-year-old, despite that she was seventeen and by the end does some adult things. I think part of it might be that half of the story is her talking into her diary about her crush on Dr. Gable. You certainly wouldn't hear Captain Kirk doing that.
Anyway, despite its deficiencies, it's a good light sci-fi read, especially at the low price. Though really I'd rather read "Conqueor's Pride" by Timothy Zahn or "Expendable" by James Alan Gardner. The writing of both is of about the same quality but there's a little more action and no sighing teenagers talking into diaries. I'm just saying.
That is all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)