Seveneves (Science Fiction Novel)

Amazing. Absolutely amazing and well-written. While Uprooted won my heart, Seveneves by Neal Stephenson gets my vote for the best written of the four Hugo Award nominees that I’ve read so far. The story felt real. [[In a teeny, tiny nutshell, Seveneves is about the sudden end of the world as we know it and the beginning of a new world.]] The other day I had to catch myself when I remembered something about the International Space Station: “Oh, that happened in Seveneves not in real life.” The amount of scientific and technological detail is almost stagger. The social, psychological, and philosophical aspects of the story make it astonishingly multi-dimensional. Stephenson's ability to create one smooth plot arch, despite the beginning and ending of the book being five thousand years apart, is sheer writing mastery. I also appreciated that the novel is written in a way that leaves room for a possible sequel.

Not declaring Seveneves my obvious choice for the Hugo Award has little to do with the merits of the novel itself. My only real criticism of the novel is that it is a bit of a stretch believing that the society would continue to focus on the “seven Eves” five thousand years after they lived. Though, I admit, we still hold some religious figures in prominence thousands of years after they have lived. In addition, two things about the novel irritated me. Politics, damned politics. I’ve had enough dealing with the presidential election. So, when I read the section where politics almost succeed in bringing about the annihilation of the human race, I felt deflated. I thought “as a species we are so screwed.” Second, the amount of technical detail is a bit overwhelming. Seveneves is over 800 pages long. Towards the end I felt like screaming, “Enough of the technological detail. Let’s get on with the story.”

All and all, Seveneves is an amazing book. I am curious to see what the Hugo voters decide.

2312 (Science Fiction Novel)

Now I remember why I hate Kim Stanley Robinson’s novels; I have major problems putting them down. Sleep, food, work, whatever, I just want to read the book. 2312 was another one of those books. As of this posting, the novel won the 2012 Nebula award and was nominated for the 2012 BSFA, 2013 Campbell, 2013 Clark, 2013 Hugo, and 2013 Locus Science Fiction awards. So, I am not alone with enjoying this novel.

Briefly, 2313 is set in the same world or a very similar world to the Mars Trilogy. In the opening of the novel we learn that Alex, a very influential woman in the solar system, has just passed away. Alex left some unfinished business, but she had worked in secrecy, keeping the information from her beloved granddaughter Swan. Despite being over 100 years old, Swan is something of a wild child. She soon meets close associates of Alex, including Wahram, a froggy looking man who is a lover of routines. While Swan and Wahram are coming back from attending a concert away from the Mercury city of Terminator, the city is attacked and destroyed. The two go into an underground tunnel and spend days hiking through it to a place where they can be rescued, thus creating a bond between them. How and why was the well-protected city destroyed? What were Alex’s important projects? Why are strange people showing up and are they a type of quantum computer? If people can terraform planets, can they also revive Earth? 2313 turns out to be a pivotal year for the solar system.

Be aware that 2313 is definitely not appropriate for young adults. If I had a preteen, I don’t think I would want them to read about how bi-gendered individuals have sex.

At times my brain wandered to Asimov’s Foundation Series. I found myself wondering “Did this happen in the Mars Trilogy or the Foundation Series?” Maybe, it is just me.

There are so many things that I liked about 2313. I liked the world building, and there are a lot of worlds. Asteroids are being hollowed out to create terrarium worlds. I liked that hard science, sociology, politics, and philosophy are presented in the descriptions of the solar system. I enjoyed the characters. Wahram is the perfect foil to Swan. I enjoyed the fast moving plot, including the mystery aspect of the story. I enjoyed the structure of the book. Robinson sets long descriptions –such as how to create a terrarium-- in small chapters apart from the main storyline. This novel is definitely worthy of its numerous award nominations.

The Islanders (SF/Fantasy Novel)

Islands. Artists. Winds. Wars. Lovers. A Murder. Social Reformers. Tunnels. Theater. Deadly Insects. Writers. Traces. Glass Panes. Visual and Temporal Distortions. 

The Islanders by Christopher Priest reminds me why I keep bothering to read science fiction. This novel is fresh and imaginative, defying an easy categorization. Is it a fantasy, mystery, science fiction, or regular fiction? It takes place in another world, yet has things like gap years (British) and cell phones. Many of the chapters are part of some overarching plotline, but some are not. A number of the plotlines interweave. Most chapters are written in the third person, but some are written in the first person. Some chapters take place in the past, others in the present or possibly future. It is easy to see why The Islanders won the 2011 British Science Fiction Association and 2012 Campbell Awards.

Briefly, the novel is set up as a gazetteer of the islands that circle the world. The chapters appear alphabetically by island name. Most chapters describe the geography and other things that a tourist might need to know. Most chapters also include some part of a story. The result is that storylines are told geographically rather than chronologically, like most novels.

I am so, so glad that I read The Islanders. It mentally challenged me. It made me laugh. It made me think about life differently. Some of the passages were so beautiful, I sighed. One chapter was so horrifying that I had to get up and distract myself to make the images leave my mind. I am sure that I missed some of things going on, and I hope to reread the novel some time in the future.

Genesis (SF Novel)

Sapient Machines. Freedom. Knowledge. Artificial Intelligence Networks. World Guide. Alternative Histories. Galactic Brain. Post Human Earth.

Genesis by Poul Anderson won the 2001 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. On one hand, I am not sure that I liked the book. I couldn’t connect with the characters, and most of the time the plot felt disjointed. On the other hand, I keep thinking about the book even though I finished reading it two days ago.

Briefly, the book is composed of scenes that don’t seem to fit together until the end. The reader is introduced to Christian Brannock and Laurinda Ashcroft, both of whom eventually have their human consciousness uploaded into machine consciousness. Some of the scenes are about a clan-oriented culture in a time and place that are not clear to the reader. Still other scenes are about the artificial intelligences.

In some ways, I found the book appealing. Some of us science fiction fans dream of going to the stars, knowing that it is highly unlikely in our lifetimes. If I could upload myself into a star-going machine, I would probably go for it. I am also fascinated by the idea of a society where most people had their consciousness uploaded before they died. This has almost a religious feel to it. The book is definitely thought-provoking.

Helliconia Spring (SF Novel)

Cycles. Climate Change. Forgotten Knowledge. Binary Stars. Hunting. Domestication. Slavery. Gender Roles. Ancestors and Descendants.

Helliconia Spring by Brain W. Aldiss won the 1982 BSFA and 1983 Campbell awards. It is the first book in the Helliconia Trilogy. Aldiss creates a memorable world. Not only does he populate it with interesting humans and non-humans, but he adds some twists. The first twist is that Helliconia has a traditional year that lasts over 400 days and a second type of year that lasts centuries. This creates dramatic climate changes on the planet. The second twist is that people from earth are watching the drama on the planet unfold. These twists give the reader a unique sense of time. The novel is mostly science fiction with some fantasy elements.

Briefly, the opening section of the novel describes the experiences of Yuli, who comes to live in Oldorando after his father is captured and enslaved by the phagors. Yuli goes on to become something of a folk hero. The majority of the book describes the experiences of Yuli’s descendant Little Yuli, his grandson Laintal Ay, and their contemporaries. For the most part, they live in a brutal, patriarchal society that looks at knowledge as a luxury. A handful of women try to create and maintain an academy and explore the history of their civilization. The changing climate brings changes to the society.

Helliconia Spring is my first book in the Worlds Without End Grand Master Challenge and the first book that I remember reading by Aldiss. He impressed me with the world that he created, and he made me think about the climate changes that are going on in our own world.

Axis (Book)

A young woman looking for the truth about her father’s disappearance. A man just getting by day-to-day. A boy created as a part of a daring experiment. A newly divorced man trying to protect his ex-wife. A Martian woman trying to prevent a repeat of a tragedy from her childhood. A scientist obsessed with trying to communicate with a higher power. An old nurse still affected by the death of her brother. A woman trying to nurture the son she did not want born. 

Axis is the sequel to the Hugo Award winning novel Spin and is the second book in Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin Sequence. The novel was nominated for the 2008 John W. Campbell Award. For me the characters are what make the novel worth reading. Even the secondary characters have interesting backstories, and many grow or have revelations as the book progresses.

Briefly, Axis takes place on Equatoria, the planet linked to Earth by an arch built by the Hypotheticals. One of the major characters is Isaac, who has known from his birth that he is “special.” The adults he lives with in a remote commune expect something from him. As the story progresses, he learns about his unusual purpose. The second major character is Lise, a woman whose father disappeared when she was a child. Newly divorced, she is obsessed with learning the truth and enlists the aid of Turk, a man without a purpose but with some very interesting friends. Assorted Fourths, people who have been physically and mentally changed by taking a longevity drug, play important roles in the various storylines. Diane, who was a major character in Spin, also appears in Axis. As the novel progresses, everyone is affected by a mysterious ash that falls at the same time as the annual meteor shower.

Like many sequels, Axis was a bit of a letdown for me. I still was immediately drawn into the plot and did not want to put it down. I also found a number or ponderable ideas. One set of ideas centered on ethics: the longevity drug, experimenting on a fetus that would otherwise be aborted, genetic engineering, organizations that make their own rules. The second ponderable idea relates to the Hypotheticals. When I hear scientists talk about alien life, it is almost always some variant of the plant-animal, water-based life we encounter on earth. Why is it always us science fiction folks who have broader expectations?

Lincoln’s Dreams (Book)

Dreams. Robert E. Lee. Abraham Lincoln. Duty. Unknown Soldiers. Horses. The Civil War. 

Lincoln’s Dreams, winner of the 1988 John W. Campbell Memorial Award, is one of Connie Willis’s earliest novels. While usually classified as a fantasy, it seems more like a mixture of fiction and historical fiction to me. Having read Willis’s later novels, one of my biggest challenges was to try to read the novel from a fresh perspective. I saw some plot parallels to Passage. But I was disappointed that I did not feel as sympathetic toward the main characters as I did in Willis’s later books. I understand that part of this is the nature of this particular plot. On the other hand, the novel did a good job of making me feel the horrors of the Civil War.

Briefly, Jeff is the research assistant for Broun, a Civil War novelist. At one of Broun’s parties, Jeff meets a troubled young woman, Annie. She is the patient and girlfriend of Jeff’s college roommate Richard, a psychiatrist. She has been having disturbing dreams related to the Civil War—particularly related to Robert E. Lee—and immediately bonds with Jeff. Being a researcher, he can verify that some of the details in the dreams concern facts that very few people know about. (This reminds me of Passages and the detailed visions about the Titanic.) When Annie discovers that Richard has been slipping her Thorazine, she goes to Jeff for help. He takes her away for a few days—unfortunately near Civil War battlefields—in order to keep her away from Richard and possibly help her with the dreams. But the dreams become more and more intense, and Jeff doesn’t know whether he is helping Annie or making her worse. Intertwined with the main plot is the idea of Lincoln’s Dreams, possibly the topic of Broun’s next book. Broun is researching dreams in California, while Jeff is searching for information about acromegaly, possibly the cause of Lincoln’s troubling dreams.

If I had read Lincoln’s Dreams before any other Connie Willis books, I probably would have enjoyed it more. I had problems getting into the story and relating to the main characters. While Jeff and Broun have some tender, father-son moments, for the most part I was disappointed with the depth of the characters. In September I am planning to read some more short novels by Willis. I will be interested to see whether I have the same reaction. 

WWW: Wake (Book)

Consciousness. Expanding Awareness. An Epidemic. Eyepod. WebSight. Phantom. Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. Cellular Automata.  Zipf's law. Asperger Syndrome. Bicameralism. 

WWW: Wake, nominated for the 2010 Hugo and Campbell Awards, is a story about expanding consciousness. Robert J. Sawyer’s novel describes the cognitive awakening of a fifteen-year-old girl, a chimpanzee-bonobo hybrid, and a cyber-intelligence. This is the type of science fiction I love. Sawyer fills the novel with science and technology. At the same time, he creates characters that I can care about.

Briefly, the main storyline is about Caitlin, a teenager who has been blind since birth because of a disorder involving the way her retinas and brain communicate. After a doctor performs an experimental procedure to attempt to restore her sight, the first thing she sees is the World Wide Web (nodes, routing, etc.)—she has been using the web since she was eighteen-months-old. Eventually, she also gains physical sight. Sawyer shows how she gradually adjusts. One of the unexpected effects is that she realizes her dad, a respected physicist, has Asperger Syndrome. She retains her WebSight and comes to see a phantom in the web. The second plotline is about the expanding awareness of this phantom. To control public reaction, a major country temporarily creates a firewall isolating it from the rest of the world. The phantom becomes aware that part of him is cut off from another part of him. This awakens his consciousness. The third storyline is about Hobo, a research chimp who uses sign language and occasionally paints. After the researchers put him on a web conference with another sign using chimp, something in Hobo’s thinking process changes. He begins to understand the concept of representing the three dimensional world in two dimensions. To add to this idea of awakening consciousness, Sawyer weaves in the story of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller and the ideas in Julian Jaynes’s book Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. 

I was drawn into the story and don’t want to leave, even after I have finished the book. Fortunately WWW: Wake is the first book in the WWW Trilogy.

Passage (Book)

Near Death Experiences. Disasters. The Titanic. Mazes and Mirrors. Metaphors. Messages. Confabulation. Identification.

Passage is another Connie Willis novel that needs to be read by the heart as well as by the head. The winner of the 2002 Locus Science Fiction Award as well as a nominee for four other major awards, Passage is a science fiction novel that deals with near death experiences. It is also a novel about the vulnerability of human beings to the “disasters of life”: disease, accident, old-age, violence, and the loss of a loved one.

Briefly, Dr. Joanne Lander studies near death experiences through interviews. She is approached by Dr. Richard Wright, who has found a way to simulate near death experiences through the use of a drug, to collaborate on a study. When they run into some problems finding appropriate subjects for the study, Joanne offers to go under using the drug. Her simulated NDE convinces her that NDEs have some purpose, and she becomes obsessed finding out what that is. Richard looks at NDEs only in terms of the neurology and biochemistry. Their combined preoccupations lead to tragedy as well as triumph. The story includes interesting secondary characters, including Lander’s best friend who works in a dangerous ER, a precocious girl with a heart condition and a love of disasters, Joanne’s old high school teacher who has Alzheimer’s and his niece/caretaker.

I admit that I sometimes find myself becoming impatient with Willis’s books: “Can we just get to the point?” She seems to be repeating very similar scenes over and over again. In the case of Passage, the characters come very close to finding out an answer and then something thwarts them at the last minute. In some ways this plot style is similar to watercolor painting in which layers of paint are put down in order to achieve an effect. Willis uses repetition to help create emotion. This may help explain why reading her books is so cathartic for me. I had a couple of good sobs while reading Passage. Since finishing the book last night, I have found some of the scenes replaying in my head. Willis is one of my favorite authors.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Book)

A Time Machine Repairman. Present Indefinite. A Computer Program with Low Self-Esteem. Universe 31. A Boy and His Dad. Regret. A Science Fictional World. Grammar. Time Loops. The Chromo-adventurer’s Survival Kit. Boxes Within Boxes. Buddhas. Causal Loops. Chromodiegetic Experiments.

A nominee for the 2011 Campbell award, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu is the type of novel that pushes the boundaries of what we normally think of as a story. We —well, at least I—normally think of novels in terms of threads: woven, intertwined, looping back, loosely gathered, etc. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is more of a collage, with layers. One of those layers consists of a story about a boy and his dad trying to build a time machine. An overlapping layer is the grown boy, now a time machine repairman, shooting his future self and then getting caught in a time loop. Some of the layers are incredibly literal and sensate. Other layers are mostly metaphor. Humor is interspersed with deep psychological insight. At times the novel reminds me of a prose poem.

The novel works for me. The story feels familiar; I have lived some of those moments. The novel has expanded my way of thinking about how to construct a novel. As much as I adore The Dervish House, I wish that How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe had won the Campbell award simply so that more people would be encouraged to read it. I am a firm believer that we need to continue to expand the way we think and the way we express ideas.

Galileo’s Dream (Book)

God is a mathematician…He [Galileo] would bring his hands together as if in prayer, and take a deep breath and expel it tremendously. To read God like a book, to solve him like an equation—it was the best sort of prayer.

Galileo’s Dream reflects the author’s, Kim Stanley Robison’s, admiration and affection for Galileo Galilei, who many people consider the father of modern science. The novel was nominated for the 2010 Locus Science Fiction, Campbell, and Clarke awards. The novel is mostly historical fiction with some time travel and social commentary woven in. The novel is slow moving at time and not one that some types of science fiction reader—particularly those who like a lot of action or plot twists and turns—would enjoy. For those who appreciate good historical fiction like me, this is a fascinating novel to read.

Briefly, most of Galileo’s Dream is a story about Galileo’s life from shortly before he built his first telescope until after his death. Robinson attempts to give an honest portrayal of Galileo, his brilliance and his faults. We learn about his relationships with women and about his moods, particularly his anger. We also learn about his brilliant mind and his religious faith. Galileo’s Dream also has a time travel thread to it. Ganymede—and others from the future—try to manipulate Galileo in order to change the direction of future events. Galileo also travels to the Jovian moons in the 3020’s, during a crisis point in future human history. In some of these sections Robinson describes the nature of time and quantum physics.

Galileo’s Dream is also a book that can make the reader think in new ways. Interwoven in the story is the idea of science and power. Robinson shows this relationship in how Galileo was brought before the Inquisition because of his assertion that the earth revolved around the sun. Later, Robinson describes how the time-travelers are still trying to bring about a world where science is used for good rather than for gaining and keeping power. When I reflected on these ideas, I quickly thought about how current assertions about things like climate change and even what is carcinogenic have less to do with science and more to do with politics. How disillusioning!

For the most part, I enjoyed Galileo’s Dream and admire Robinson’s talent. There were a few times that I was impatient, especially with all the times Galileo was brought before the Office of the Inquisition. This reflects more on me than on the novel; historical novels and biographies have their slow moments. For the most part, the novel gave me a greater appreciation of Galileo and the gratitude we as a society owe him.

The Quantum Thief (Book)

Prisons. Thieves. Exomemory. Watches. Quiets and Nobles. Resurrection Men. Co-memory. Combat Autism. Chocolate.

The Quantum Thief, the first published novel by Hannu Rajaniemi, was recently released in the United States and is nominated for the 2011 Campbell Award. I had a mixed reaction to the book. The quality that made it worth reading for me was the fascinating and original setting. Also, the book contained some scenes that I found beautiful and even touching. On the other hand, at times--especially near the climax of the plot--I was confused. I am not sure whether it was me, the book, or a combination. The story seemed like it had too many layers and tried to do too much in too little time.

Briefly, a thief is broken out of prison so that he can commit another robbery, but first he must find out who he is. Also, he doesn’t know what he is going to steal or who has really hired him. The universe is so unique that the reader doesn’t even know what can be stolen. Rajaniemi starts using unique terms right from the beginning of the book and then explains them later. Normally this would irritate me, but in some ways it added to the mystery of the book. Some of these terms refer to the transfer or blocking of information and memories from one person to another. One term, Quiet, refers to individuals whose conscious has been put into a non-human form for a time, almost as a type of national service.

I will be curious to see other people’s reaction to The Quantum Thief and whether it will be nominated for additional awards in 2012. The book does have some fascinating images in it, so I would not be surprised if it is at least considered for a movie.

The Dervish House (Book)

Nanotechnology. Djinn. Terrorist Attacks. Long QT Syndrome. Gas Scam. Think Tank. Mellified Man. Family. Lampooning. Bit Bot Monkey. Microjustice. Gossiping Old Men. Programmable Nucleic-Bio-Informatics. Unrequited Love. Public Suicides. Corporate Fraud. Leaps of Logic. Religious Belief.

I’m in love with Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House: interesting and complex characters, fascinating technology, and a fast moving plot. I can easily understand why the book won the 2010 British Science Fiction Association and 2011 Campbell awards, and is nominated for the 2011 Hugo, Clarke, and Locus Science Fiction awards. The story is set in the near future in Istanbul. The title refers to an old Dervish house that has been converted into apartments and shops. The main characters are associated with the house in some way. The story takes place over five day and has six main characters. [The book’s dust jacket has a list, and I recommend writing down the actual names of the characters to help you remember.] I am still not sure how McDonald managed to put so much into one book

The story opens with an atypical suicide bombing on a tram not far from the Dervish house. Necdet, a troubled young man who was also riding the tram, begins to see djinn afterwards. Leyla, who has just graduated from college with a degree in marketing, misses her job interview and so is available to take a job with a distant relative involved with a startup nanotechnology company. Can, a nine year-old boy with a heart condition, decides to become a “boy detective” to find out more about the bombing. Georgios, a retired Economics professor, gets pulled into the excitement through Can and later through a think tank. On the same day, Ayse, an art dealer, is approached by a man who wants to find a legendary treasure, and her husband Adnan, a trader, begins to put the final touches on a gas scan. The various plots intertwine.

Every time I think of the book, something new comes to mind. I like the coverage McDonald gives to nanotechnology. He shows examples of the good, the bad, and the revolutionary—Human 2.0. I like the way that the characters grow and change throughout the story. I also enjoyed learning a little about Istanbul and its history.