Ancillary Justice (Science Fiction Novel)

“Why is this novel such a big deal?” I wondered as I saw Worlds Without End’s listing of award nominees. As of this posting, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie has been nominated for the 2013 Nebula, 2013 PKD, 2014 Clarke, and 2014 Hugo awards and is the winner of the 2013 BSFA. I was more than a little curious. What I found is a novel with a fresh spin on the Space Opera genre. It is masterfully written and does an expert job of world building.

Ancillary Justice is written in the “first person.” Trying to explain that “first person” is not so easy and helps clarify why this novel is so refreshing. The narrator is an “ancillary.” In the world of Ancillary Justice, space ships are artificial intelligences. The physical part of an AI is composed not only of the ship, but also of the ancillaries virtually connected to it. Think of a traffic monitoring system with all the various cameras and monitors connected to it. But in this case the AI is connected to the bodies of what used to be living people, often those conquered by the Radch. The AI can not only receive information through each ancillary, but it can also act through each one; they are an extension of it. In some ways the relationship is also holographic, because each ancillary contains the memories and information of the whole AI. The narrator is both an ancillary known as “One Esk” and what remains of Justice of Toren, a ship that was destroyed. The narrator also calls itself “Breq.”

In some ways Ancillary Justice is a traditional space opera because of the scope the storyline. It covers over a thousand years. It describes an empire, the Radch, whose chief concern is expansion, “annexing” civilizations. The ruler herself has lived thousands of years and at one time can have over a thousand different bodies. Yet unlike most space operas, Ancillary Justice has a very personal story, partially because of the narrator. Breq is not some cold AI, but an individual who likes to sing and repeatedly demonstrates compassion. In the beginning of the novel, we learn that Breq’s goal is to seek revenge for the death of her favorite human, Lieutenant Awn. Much of the early part of the novel involves revealing the circumstances around Awn’s death. To complication matters, Breq discovers and takes care of Seivarden, who as a young lieutenant served on Justice of Toren. She is described as “not one of one of my favorites.” The once arrogant officer from a respected family was in suspended animation in an escape pod for almost a thousand years and is now an addict. Seivarden is both a hindrance and a sidekick as Breq goes about fulfilling her revenge.

Ancillary Justice is touching at moments, interesting most of the time, and even horrifying in a few spots. It takes some of the best qualities of a space opera and combines them with the character development that I associate with a novel that has a less grandiose setting. It works; I loved the book. The biggest flaw that I noticed in the novel is that Seivarden at times, especially near the end of the story, seems a bit of a caricature. All in all, I definitely think that Ancillary Justice is award worthy.

The Adjacent (Science Fiction Novel)

For me The Adjacent by Christopher Priest is part novel and part musical composition. Themes and plotlines repeat throughout. Characters reoccur. There are moments of beauty and harmony. There are moments of chaos, especially near the end. At the conclusion everything ties together, and the novel gives the reader a sense of release. I was also left with a mild sense of ambiguity: “What really happened?”

The central theme is the idea of being adjacent. Magicians use adjacency to misdirect the audience during magic tricks. The main character in the novel uses a camera that relies on adjacency technology. The adjacency defense falls into the wrong hands and soon becomes a horrible weapon. Adjacent is also the name of a mysterious shanty town.

The Adjacent has various other themes. Through photography and biography characters attempt to capture “what really happened.” War – WWI, WII, and a possible last war – also take center stage. Characters look for and attempt to give comfort. Characters attempt to find defenses for the weapons of war. Characters respond to the horrors of war. This is a novel that focuses on the human side of life.

One of the sections, while playing a part in the larger storyline, could be a standalone short story. It focuses on the relationship between a plane technician and one of the women who transports planes. She is portrayed as a romantic, heroic character, though in the end we wonder how much of her story is true.

Part of the story has haunted me since I finished the novel. The plotline takes place in the near future, where climate change has left parts of the world uninhabitable. The UK is also being devastated by powerful storms. I was left to wonder “Are the effects of climate change as devastating as the theoretical weapon?”

The Adjacent is only the second novel that I have read by Christopher Priest. I also read and thoroughly enjoyed The Islanders, which has a relatively similar style. Based on these two novels, I am definitely a fan. I am looking forward to reading some of his earlier novels and short stories.

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.

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.

Perdido Street Station (Book)

Wings. Choices. Punishment. Betrayal. Outcasts. Sentience. Crisis. Nightmares.

Amazed. I was amazed by China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station, which won the 2001 Clarke and British Fantasy Society awards and was nominated for five other major Science Fiction/Fantasy awards. The novel can be categorized as a dark fantasy with some science fiction and horror elements. Mieville creates an unusual setting, with strange races—many of them animal/human hybrids—and makes it all seem perfectly plausible. What I found most astonishing is how Mieville describes the thoughts of the characters, how he gets into their psyches. This is a long book, which continues to reveal something new about the setting and characters until the end.

Briefly, Isaac is a scientist who is a bit of an academic outsider and is interested in many types of science. Lin, his girlfriend, a human/insect hybrid called a "khepri", is an artist. Near the beginning of the story she begins a project for a mysterious patron. One day Yagharek, a human/bird hybrid called a “garuda”, asks for Isaac's help. Yagharek’s wings have been cut off, and he wants Isaac to help him fly again. Isaac soon becomes obsessed with wings, collecting huge numbers of specimens. One of these specimens, a grub, is stolen from a research lab, unbeknownst to Isaac. After it comes out of its cocoon, it escapes to find its siblings. The five of them go on to terrorize the people of New Crobuzon. Isaac and his allies attempt to stop the creatures.

I put down Perdido Street Station after 150 pages, read a Jasper Fforde book, and then went on to finish Perdido Street Station. The novel is unsettling. I was not sure where it was going, and some of the images were disturbing. This actually might be considered a good thing, because it speaks to the originality of the story. Perdido Street Station is the first novel in the New Crobuzon Trilogy. Part of me is drawn to Mieville’s skillful writing, and part of me just doesn’t like dark fantasy. We will see if and when I read the other books.

Nova Swing (Book)

Rickshaws Driven By Annies. Prostitutes Called Monas. Tailors Who Alter Bodies. Nanotechnology. Illegal Artifacts. Accordions. Travel Diaries. Being New. Black and White Cats.

Once I started reading M. John Harrison’s Nova Swing, winner of the 2007 Clarke and Philip K. Dick Awards, I was convinced that I wouldn’t like it, yet I was motivated to continue reading out of curiosity. After finishing the book, I feel quizzical—Can a person feel a question mark in their mind like they feel a tiny gas bubble in their gut?— The book is definitely surreal. I know that there are parts of the book that I will think about for a long time (see quotes at the end of the blog). On the other hand, I am not sure how to neatly describe the book and I am certainly not sure that I would recommend it. The book is what I sometimes describe as experiential, in that it requires the reader to vividly imagine the setting and what is taking place. This experience is perhaps more important than the plot.

Briefly, Vic Serotonin describes himself as a travel guide to the Saudade event site, which is never neatly defined in the book. It is like a dangerous, living dreamscape. At the beginning of the story, Vic takes a woman into the site and loses her. Later on, she desperately wants Vic to take her back into the site. Vic also illegally sells an artifact from the site. The artifact physically bonds with the courier and begins to turn his body into something strange. Later, it does something similar to the crime boss who procured the artifact from Vic. Another major character is Len Aschemann, a detective who is obsessed with his dead wife. At first he is wants to catch Vic doing something grossly illegal. Later he wants Vic to take him into the site. Len is accompanied by an assistant, who is never given a name despite her importance in parts of the plot. There are assorted other side plots.

Nova Swing is the Sequel to Light, which I did not read. Based on what I have read on the internet, I am not sure it mattered. I think books like Nova Swing are an acquired taste. Part of me wants to bury my head in traditional books and never come out again. Part of me is glad that I had this experience.

I found two beautiful quotes amongst all the surrealism:

Not many people get two chances to be new.

That was how life went. A single moment seemed to extend forever, then suddenly you were snapped out of it. The forward motion of time stretched whatever rubbery glue-like substance had fixed you there until it failed catastrophically. You weren’t the person you were before you were trapped; you weren’t the person you were while you were trapped: the merciless thing about it, Liv discovered, was that you weren’t someone entirely different either.

Zoo City (Book)

A Sloth. Addicts. Sympathy Scams. Magic. Muti. Murder. A Mongoose. A Missing Person.

In Zoo City, Lauren Beukes puts a fresh spin on a familiar plot: the down on his/her luck character that becomes caught up in a mystery. This supernatural mystery—technically fantasy—won the 2011 Clarke Award and was nominated for the 2010 British Science Fiction Association Award. Although some of the content is dark, even disturbing, the novel is strangely enjoyable. Zinzi December, the main character and narrator, is a recovering drug addict with moxie. She is accompanied by a sloth, who is more like a faithful dog than a cute critter. As a reader, I cared about her, and I was quickly drawn into the plot.

Briefly, the story takes place in a fictionalized version of South Africa. Zinzi lives in Zoo City, a ghetto-like area primarily occupied by “the zooed,” people who have committed crimes and are now accompanied by an animal. Zinzi tries to make a more or less honest living using her magical ability to help people find lost objects. She also is involved with Internet scams in order to pay back her drug debt. Her boyfriend, whose zoo is a mongoose, purportedly lost his wife and children in the Congo genocide. After the murder of one of Zinzi’s lost object clients, Zinzi is approached by two strangers who want her to help them with a mysterious job, which turns out to be finding a missing teenage pop star. Since finding lost people is not one of Zinzi’s talents, she ends up drawing on some of the connections from her past. As the story draws to its conclusion, Zinzi and her sloth find something even darker than even they are used to.

What can I say other than that Zoo City is a “good read”? My guess is that readers who enjoy books like those in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Series or appreciate good, gritty mysteries will also enjoy Zoo City. I now want to read more by Beukes.

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 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.