Category: speculative fiction

Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty (SciFi)

An entertaining sequel to Station Eternity which was one of my favorite reads last year.

In truth, while I enjoyed this book, and appreciated the twists and the personal development of some favorite characters, it was a little disappointing when compared with book number one (or Lafferty’s other offering Six Wakes). No new alien cultures to explore, new characters (all human) whom I already can’t remember, and a basic mystery that kept me reading, but didn’t have any shocking twists. It was fine and I’ll probably read the next one when (if) it comes out, but I hope Lafferty will get back to the (IMHO) really good stuff in her next release.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Speculative Fiction)

Writing: 4.5 / 5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 4/5

A surprisingly fun ride about the use of time travel to bring historical figures forward in time as part of a (very) complicated plot to ward off a severely climate damaged future. Our narrator (who I now realize is never given a name) is a civil servant who is offered an exciting new job as a “bridge” to one of these “expats from history.” A bridge’s function is to help the refugees from time accommodate to the present.

Our narrator is paired with Graham Gore — a Royal Navy officer and polar explorer from the early 19th century who is brought to the present just before his death as part of the ill fated 1845 Franklin expedition to discover the Northwest Passage. (This is a real historical person and his character and experiences are faithfully drawn from historical records — look him up!). Four other “expats” include the unpleasant Lieutenant Thomas Cardingham from 1645; the lesbian Margaret Kemble from 1665 rescued from the Plague; a woman from Robespierre era Paris (1793); and the closeted homosexual Captain Arthur Reginald-Smythe extracted from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (he wasn’t going to make it).

The plot is crazy, the characters are well-drawn and time-appropriate. I loved the interactions among all the possible permutations of expats and bridges with what felt like very real reactions and learning curves — most taking to technological advances more easily than the great shifts in social mores and expectations. I found the depth and believability of these interactions and the personal reflections fascinating. Plenty of insight (which I always love) and a great new phrase for me: “ethically sparse” to explain how our narrator felt about certain policies and decisions made by her corporate overlords in the Ministry.

Bradley is an excellent writer — her phrasing and comic overlays are top notch. I found the plot confusing at times — but it feels like this was somewhat intentional as the events were certainly confusing to the people living through them, and we are sharing their experience. Our narrator is part Cambodian, and another bridge is Black. Add to this our historical lesbian and homosexual characters, and there is plenty of opportunity for some pithy and insightful identity issues as well. She even managed to work a theremin (weird musical instrument — look it up) into the plot as well. Impressive!

Some fun Quotes (sorry there are so many but I couldn’t pick):

“I finally had a savings account that looked like it might withstand a life emergency rather than crumple at a dentistry bill.”

“All the emotions I normally watched her puree into professionalism were churning on her face.”

“This was one of my first lessons in how you make the future: moment by moment, you seal the doors of possibility behind you.”

“When Graham got online, as he did not call it, and learned to peck at the keyboard with the elegance and speed of a badly burned amphibian …”

“But my mother never described herself as a refugee. It was a narrative imposition, along with ‘stateless’ and ‘survivor’.”

‘Stop hand-wringing,’ said Simellia, still smiling, though increasingly looking as if the smile was being operated by winches inside her skill. ‘God, Ministry bias training has a lot to answer for,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to drop a piano on your head but believe it or not, I already know I’m Black. You don’t have to roll over and show me your belly about it.’

“It was another dank toothache of a day, barely qualifying in its chromatic dullness for ‘grey‘.”

“Quentin treated me with an impatient familiarity, as if we were both were leaving streaks on one another.”

“We settled back, if ‘settle’ is the right word for the stiff, wary way we offset one another’s weight on the cushions.”

“That night, I slept with unpleasant lightness, my brain balanced on unconsciousness like an insect’s foot on the meniscus of a pond. I didn’t so much wake up as give up on sleep.”

“We separated and spent the fading day bobbing shyly around one another like clots in a lava lamp.”

“I launched into a preplanned speech about class mobility and domestic labor, touching on the minimum wage, the size of an average household, and women in the workforce. I took a full five minutes of talking and by the end I’d moved into the same tremulous liquid register I used to use for pleading with my parents for a curfew extension.”

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 7th, 2024.

System Collapse by Martha Wells (Science Fiction)

This is the seventh book in the MurderBot series and the first that I have read, rather than listened to. While the book is every bit as good as the others, I do recommend the audio versions. Kevin R. Free (the reader) does such a perfect job as the “voice” of MurderBot — it really adds to the experience. Luckily, after listening to him for the first six, I can hear his voice as I read anyway.

MurderBot is not quite itself as a result of his memory splintering and his frequent reboots after the disastrous events (alien contamination writ large and gooey) of the last book — Network Effect. Nevertheless, he has a big part to play when a separatist group is found on the planet (having removed themselves before the contamination took hold of some of the settlers) and the Barish-Estranza corporation has come to “offer” all settlers an employment contract (read opportunity for slave labor) off planet. What could go wrong?

I love the bot-humor — ART (the supremely intelligent and capable bot pilot with a fierce attachment to his “humans” and MurderBot’s “friend”) is deliciously sarcastic. I love MurderBot’s continually evolving understanding of himself — the weird part organic / mostly inorganic construct designed to kill. Funny, good action, well-paced, and full of constantly applicable ethical dilemmas such as arise when naivete meets evil. I love the new (to me and I think to the world) portmanteau term “argucussion” from argument + discussion. I think we all have a few of those.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on November 14th, 2023.

Real Americans by Rachel Khong (Literary Fiction)

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 4.5/5 Plot: 3.5/5

An exploration of how we become who we are (nature vs nurture and all the permutations) through the stories of three generations of a single family: Lily — raised American (down to the bologna sandwiches she took to school) by her immigrant Chinese parents; her son Nick who looks almost completely like the rich, white father he never met, and not Chinese at all; and Lily’s mother May, who escaped from China during the Cultural Revolution with broken teeth and broken English — and a sharp mind trained in genetic research. Into this mix roam themes of wealth and poverty, racial inequalities, and the ethics of gene editing.

The book held my interest throughout — it’s a plot that thoroughly covers all sorts of interesting times and places from Mao’s cultural revolution to a pharmaceutical empire and across the different stages of an individual’s lifespan. Lily and Nick’s stories felt more real to me. May’s story felt more like a recap of documented history — all true but it didn’t feel like someone’s personal experience to me in the same way the others did (this could be my problem). I liked the depiction of the science, and I thought the descriptions of relationships — with the true intentions, unrealistic expectations, and the heaviness of eventual disappointments — felt genuine. I was sad that these genuine seeming relationships included several people not speaking to others for decades, rather than trying to work through the problems — a sad waste of love. I’m honestly not sure what the overall message of the book was — I get the ethical dilemmas the book (adeptly) portrayed, but I had a hard time understanding what led to individuals literally breaking off all contact with the most important people in their lives. I’m open to someone explaining this to me!

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 30th, 2024.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (SciFi — Audio Book)

Book two in Martha Well’s MurderBot series following the adventures of a rogue “Sec Unit” (part organic / part inorganic bot uber-designed for security). Just as good as the first one! Our hero is a perfect symbol of what I have recently heard called “Heroic Masculinity” as opposed to “Toxic Masculinity.” Strong, caring, and bent on protection. (In truth, our Sec Bot is an it — I think of it as “male” because the audio book reader was male and the story is told in the first person, but SecBots have no genitals so … “it” it is even though it makes the next paragraph read poorly IMHO.)

I like its funny and acerbic “voice” and its constant search for how to pretend to be human to evade capture but also to understand interactions well — kind of reads like the story of someone with autism struggling both to fit in and to understand what it is it wants to fit into. In this story it (we never get a name!) makes a “friend” and finds that it surprisingly “misses” its team from book one. Its new friend is called ART for Asshole Research Transport — they weren’t friends when the name was coined. ART is a supremely intelligent and advanced bot pilot who helps our hero purely out boredom and excitement at the challenge. Plenty of action but without the dull and pointless extended chase scenes. Lots of exploration of evolving cultural norms as new types of beings are brought into play.

Moving on to book three — there are many and they are short!

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Science Fiction – Audio Book)

Really enjoyed this sci fi book about part organic / part inorganic genderless security bot who has managed to disable his governor module (the one that forces him to obey orders) and becomes a far better being without it. He has no name but calls himself “Murder Bot” to himself for reasons that become known much later. There is a lot of action as the group of humans he has been hired to protect are under attack from some mysterious enemy, but what I really like about the book is the bots wry self assessment and growth in ways he neither expected nor, in all honesty, necessarily wanted. Loved it and will go on to read the series (which has apparently been optioned as TV series!). Great reader — I enjoyed listening…

The Other Merlin by Robyn Schneider

I admit that I couldn’t stop reading this somewhat snarky and completely non-conformist (for the fictional time) rewrite of The Sword in the Stone. Emry Merlin is the female half of Merlin the Wizard’s twin offspring. Far more gifted than her lazy, womanizing brother, Merlin the elder only begrudgingly trained her in the magical arts. Years later, brother Emmet is called to be Court Wizard for a bookish Crown Prince (Arthur). Emry must take his place (disguised as her twin) as Emmet is indisposed, having tried a difficult spell which backfired spectacularly.

It’s a YA book in that all the characters — Emry, Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain, Guinevere — are in their teens. Fun writing, great backstories, and a plot that manages to stick to all the classic events but with completely different (and sensible) explanations. A very clever combination of modern sensibilities and ethics with classic environments and plots. I’m not a big fan of rewrites but I had a great deal of fun with this one — probably because no character was harmed in the writing (meaning that no character was suddenly a bad guy if they weren’t before) and there were no (IMHO) stupid plot points required to make it work. In keeping with the modern sensibilities, some fun romance and matter-of-fact variable sexual preferences that were not treated as any big deal. FYI this is book one! No cliff hanger but there is a lot of the King Arthur tale left …

Perfect for my recently returned from beach vacation.

Thank you to Viking Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book was published on February 21st, 202

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (Sci Fi)

Plot: 5/5 Writing: 4.5/5 Characters: 4/5

Loved this action filled science fiction story whose premise is the exploration of the ethical dilemmas present in a world that has the tech (and the desire) to clone people for (greatly) extended life. The book opens with a description of the International Law Regarding the Codicils to Govern the Existence of Clones which include a whole array of rules that don’t seem to make anybody particularly happy.

A crew of six has embarked on a journey to a new planet that will take hundreds of years. They carry with them thousands of cryogenically frozen humans and clones who will be wakened once they arrive. However, something must have gone drastically wrong because the opening scene sees all six awakening suddenly in gooey clone vats with no memory of the last 25 years and no understanding of why they are all dead. They are all “criminals” who have been promised full pardons and an erasure of all sins for completing the mission, but none of them have shared with each other what those sins were. Thus ensues a completely engrossing space opera of sorts as they work to try to figure out which of them attacked (and brutally killed) the others, who to trust, and exactly why they had been brought together in this way.

Includes some pretty rich cogitation on clones and AIs and how relationships, vengeance, jealousy, and general morality is impacted at both the individual and societal level. Clean writing and good characters (except for the super rich, super powerful, egoist who is the “bad guy” — those types never seem to have depth in fiction — probably because no author actually knows anybody like that to study, or because we don’t want our bad guys to have depth!)

Really enjoyed this. Now if I can only get the publisher to give me early access to her upcoming book, I will be one happy puppy!

Upgrade by Blake Crouch (Science Fiction)

Fascinating premise — that a human species-wide Upgrade through gene editing might be the only hope we have to prevent our extinction. Logan Ramsay — an agent for the Gene Protection Agency whose purpose is to stop all gene modification work after a disastrous effort led to the Great Starvation — finds himself slowly changing with vast improvements to his memory, physical strength and stamina, and compute power. His genome has been hacked and this may be a part of a bigger plan to be applied to all of humanity. But is this a good thing or a bad? And if bad, how can he stop it?

Very easy to read with the kind of clean prose that propels you forward with little awareness of actually reading the words. Plenty of action, but never (OK, not too much) of the endless fight scenes that bore me. A very good exploration of the philosophical questions about what is important for humanity, what cost would be worth it, and what kind of improvements really would “upgrade” the species for the better. I loved the experience of getting to inhabit (through the character) a brain that is so fast, so able to multitask, and has such perfect recall. It is a testament to the writer that I was not alway convinced that our protagonist had it right — I was drawn to the dark side! And the ending — which I obviously won’t give away — made me think. I’m not absolutely convinced by the conclusion but I’m still mulling it over.

I like this kind of science fiction which reminds me of the oldies — exploring where technology can take us, not irreparable doom and gloom, thinking the big thoughts. I’m embarrassed that I haven’t read any other Crouch novels and grateful to the friend who loaned it to me (where it sat in my TBR pile for six months before I gave it a shot).

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty (Science Fiction)

Writing: 4/5 Plot: 5/5 Characters: 4.5/5
Mallory Viridian appears to be cursed. Murders tend to occur whenever she is around. She solves them — quickly and well (much to the irritation of the local police) — but it would be much better if they didn’t happen in the first place! After the latest murder, wanting to be as far from perishable humans as she can get, she makes her way onto Eternity — a sentient space station — where bizarre coincidences tend to happen even more often.

The story is a great mix of action, cultural exploration, and personal growth with an impressive cast of characters (human and not, multi colored, of various sexual proclivities — checks all the right boxes but does not beat the point to death). One step further in the diversity collection — experiments with symbiotic pairings between beings becomes somewhat central to the plot(s). These include sentient hardware, hive minds, giant vegetarian rock people and the “moist races” like humans. Honestly the disgust felt by some of the aliens at the thought of all the “liquid” in humans just cracked me up. The plot often veers at crazy angles with multiple surprises, inducing a pleasurable ADD experience in me (I’m normally more of a linear planner type). Lots of banter and a very cool ending where countless loose end were tied up in highly satisfying ways.

I absolutely loved this book and can’t imagine how I missed it when it first came out. It’s my kind of science fiction — full of aliens, but with fully fleshed out (and imaginative) cultures and individual personalities (alienalities?). No all-hands-on-deck to kill the bug-eyed monsters thread!

Perfect for fans of Ann Leckie or early Becky Chambers (the Monk & Robot series do nothing for me). The best news — book two is coming out shortly (November 7th), and if I’m lucky I’ll get an early copy!