Reading in April 2011

[beniowa]

nquixote, I'll forward to your thoughts on that one when you're finihsed.

 

[algernoninc]

I finished Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt - my first book by the author. It's a good story about a roadtrip through a postapocalyptic North American landscape, but the style of the author left me lukewarm rather than pleased. I didn't find anything really original or inspiring about the setting, the characters or the plot. Not a bad book, but maybe McDevitt isn't for me.

Now I've started The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - the first in the Thursday Next series, and I already like the voice of the first person narrator. I'm even tempted to re-read some of the Bronte books referenced here. The book has time travel and an alternate reality contemporary England, but I guess it belongs more on the supernatural investigations, paranormal activities shelf than in science-fiction. Anyway, genre labels are not important, the principal is to enjoy the ride.

 

[bearcatmark]

After finishing The Wise Man's Fear I have started A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller. I was tired last night and only read a chapter.

 

[kcmay]

Reading Hyperion at the moment. I've had it on my physical shelf for years, but only just started it since I got the Kindle edition.

 

[suciul]

I finished Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt - my first book by the author. It's a good story about a roadtrip through a postapocalyptic North American landscape, but the style of the author left me lukewarm rather than pleased. I didn't find anything really original or inspiring about the setting, the characters or the plot. Not a bad book, but maybe McDevitt isn't for me.

The one McDevitt book that I would recommend as "make or break" is Engines of God; it's still among my favorites and all the Academy books that follow are excellent except maybe Omega which is only good; the Alex Benedict novels are generally interesting *if* you can suspend disbelief for their setting (middle class America in Year 10000 with a little extra goodies but nothing that was not in sf in the 50's ); for most part I could and enjoyed them except for the last one where the dated-ness of the series caught up with me

I read all 15-20 McDevitt's novels so far and Eternity Road is good but not really reflective of the author, the 6 Academy books and the 5-6 Alex Benedict ones are...

The recent Time Travelers Never Die, a standalone is a fun romp that's among the better time travel books around

Back on topic almost done with Clockwork Rocket by G. Egan and it's been everything I expected and more; so far this year there are 3 sf books that stand out and I will have a hard time choosing which is #1 and this one may do it though I am still inclining towards Leviathan Wakes as both epic and complete. Embassytown is superbly written - maybe the best novel of the year so far as literary qualities go - and with great characters but sfnally it is the most predictable of the 3 and that takes away a little; I cannot help but compare Egan's aliens with Mieville's and despite that the latter ones seem more mysterious and all, it is actually Egan's society that is stranger by far

 

[nquixote]

Finished When Gravity Fails. Excellent stuff! For a guy who hasn't read very many noir detective novels in his life, it was all very new to me!

On to the sequel:

 

[Westy]

Finished Simak's Way Station last night. It was a good read; I thought the ideas behind the story were interesting, but noticed it was fairly lacking in any science behind the technology mentioned, and it was a bit slow in places. Don't really see how it one a Hugo award for best novel.

 

[spaziocain]

I just finished The Dervish House by Ian McDonald. Wow wow wow wow. Best thing I've read this year. It took me about a month to read it, which would indicate that I wasn't invested in it. This isn't the case -- I probably haven't found the time to read lately and this is a book you need time to absorb. The book is very dense and written in a lovely literary style. It's not something you can read quickly or when you're tired before bed. But the hard work is worth it.

...and better treatment of a "non-Western" culture than Paolo Bacigalupi or Ian McDonald could ever dream of pulling off (in part because it has evolved away from, rather than back towards, pre-1900s culture)...

Keh? Care to elaborate? I'm not being cute, but I honestly have no idea what you mean. How do Bacigalupi or McDonald depict non-Western cultures evolving backwards to pre-1900s culture (if that's what you are in fact saying)? How can something evolve backwards (isn't that an oxymoron)? I can't see what you mean and I can't see this in the books I've read.

Anyhoo, I'm moving onto The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi.

 

[nquixote]

Keh? Care to elaborate? I'm not being cute, but I honestly have no idea what you mean. How do Bacigalupi or McDonald depict non-Western cultures evolving backwards to pre-1900s culture (if that's what you are in fact saying)? How can something evolve backwards (isn't that an oxymoron)? I can't see what you mean and I can't see this in the books I've read.

Sure. In River of Gods, many social elements that were already fading in 2005 are back with a vengeance, almost as if they had never left. The importance of caste, for instance. Hindu-on-Muslim pogroms. The Indian admiration for all things British. In this ultra-high-tech future, India has gone back toward being what it was like when the British ruled it. Even the "modern" elements are more 2005 than 2047 - for instance, call centers staffed with chai-wallahs. Even at its most "modern," River of Gods often feels like Slumdog Millionaire.

In The Windup Girl, this "cultural retrogression" is both A) less pronounced, and B) more justifiable, since technology itself has regressed. But some elements are still there. The characters constantly make references to Thai history, invoking historical metaphors to explain nearly everything. I have a bunch of Thai friends, and they don't even know that history, for the most part. They kind of laughed when I showed them the parts of the book that I'm talking about.

In When Gravity Fails, Arab and Muslim history is occasionally referenced, but it's in the background, not constantly trotted out. The main character and others make fun of Islam and of traditional Arab culture, even as it continues to exert a background influence on their society. The Arab characters are aware of foreign icons like James Bond (though ignorant of others). The progress of technology has forced the integration of new cultural elements (transsexuals, for instance) into the mainstream.

All in all, River of Gods feels like it was written by a guy drawing mostly on internet research and British Imperial cultural memory for his conception of India; The Windup Girl feels like it was written buy a guy who lived in Thailand for a while and then read some history on his own; and When Gravity Fails feels like it was written by an Arab living in Europe whose parents moved from the Middle East.

The thing is, the first two are probably accurate, while the third is not the case at all; George Alec Effinger was a white dude from New Orleans. Which makes his achievement all the more impressive.

Also, Effinger has more literary skills, and is better at character creation. Those don't hurt either.

 

[suciul]

All in all, River of Gods feels like it was written by a guy drawing mostly on internet research and British Imperial cultural memory for his conception of India; The Windup Girl feels like it was written buy a guy who lived in Thailand for a while and then read some history on his own; and When Gravity Fails feels like it was written by an Arab living in Europe whose parents moved from the Middle East.

The thing is, the first two are probably accurate, while the third is not the case at all; George Alec Effinger was a white dude from New Orleans. Which makes his achievement all the more impressive.

Also, Effinger has more literary skills, and is better at character creation. Those don't hurt either.

You nailed it perfectly about McDonald - he writes postcard cultures, you know like Thomas Friedman of the NYT who visits a region and feels he is an expert; I liked River of Gods because what i know about India is the same postcard thingy from Western books, but for example my FBC co-editor who is from India felt the author had no idea what he was talking about; ditto about Brasyl, I liked the book as above and my other (former) co-editor at FBC who is from Brazil felt it totally misguided; and now coming to Dervish House I saw the above clearly since while I am not from Turkey, i am from the region and i grew up with elements of Turkish culture and I felt the author has no clue about Turkey...

To be honest though I am used with Westerners writing about Eastern countries without a clue - yes they do research but from there to capture the "soul" of a people is a loong way - and usually I just mark books like Dervish house as fail and move on, and i celebrate when they actually get it right like for example the recent (not really sff but with some magical elements) The Oracle of Stamboul which got the Balkans pitch perfect imho...

back on topic - I finished The Clockwork rocket by G. Egan and I almost cried at the end as well as needing to reread it immediately and write a bit about it until i could leave its milieu and move to something else; just mind blowing sf with a great alien culture in an universe with different laws of nature than hours

 

[spaziocain]

Hmm, interesting. I haven't read River of Gods (I would like to now after enjoying The Dervish House), so I can't comment specifically on that book. But my take on it is this -- I'm a Westerner reading a book written in English by another Westerner. If that book succeeds at evoking that sense of alienation I have when I travel overseas (while remaining respectful to the culture being portrayed) I think the writer has done a fine job. I couldn't give a rat's fat one how the book seems to somebody native to that country (again, assuming it's not derogatory, racist, etc.). I'm not reading a science fiction book for an authentic depiction of what those countries are like today -- I'm reading a science fiction book because I'm interested in how the author's extrapolation about the possible futures of those countries reflects important social, political and moral themes that are relevant to me today. From what I've read of them, Bacigalupi and McDonald both succeed at this brilliantly.

Having said that, I have travelled in both Thailand and Turkey, and both these books evoked my experiences of those countries quite accurately.

Lastly, while I haven't read the Marîd Audran series I have read some of George Alec Effinger's short stories. From what I've read, he seems a fine writer. "One" is a great story.

 

[nquixote]

Spaz - I'm not complaining about the authenticity of McDonald's books, so you get to keep your rat's fat one right where it is on the shelf. I'm complaining that the India he created felt like a fake plastic India. Suciul is right - it's postcard fiction.

 

[spaziocain]

And I haven't read it, so I'm not in a position to dispute that. All I can say is that neither The Dervish House or The Windup Girl felt like "postcard fiction" to me.

 

[nquixote]

The Windup Girl did not feel like "postcard fiction" to me either. I thought it was very good. I just think When Gravity Fails was a bit better in terms of its ability to depict a non-Western culture.

 

[suciul]

The Windup Girl did not feel like "postcard fiction" to me either. I thought it was very good. I just think When Gravity Fails was a bit better in terms of its ability to depict a non-Western culture.

While I did not like The Windup Girl, the world building seemed "right" but as mentioned I cannot really judge it; I also liked a lot The River of Gods as mentioned and mostly liked a lot Brasyl (except the last part where the sfnal elements are brought together in a very contrived manner imho, but that has nothing to do with Brazil the country or culture) but my point was that several people from the respective countries just felt the respective books "wrong", the way i felt The Dervish House to be, so the anecdotal evidence seems to be that if you like McDonald's fiction, you will like those novels unless you are from there...

And "postcard" worldbuilding means precisely that, the impression a (cultural) outsider will make of a country or culture by visiting or even living there for a while without going "native"; and it occasionally happens from outsiders from the same culture - for some egregious examples, the USA portrayed by R. Morgan in Thirteen is silly - another acclaimed book that failed for me partly on that account, partly on repetitiveness with the Kovacs novels, the one portrayed by J. Robson in Mappa Mundi is riddled with errors and I am pretty sure that UK people would be happy to point reverse examples...

Going back to The Dervish House, I do not dispute that the author can write well or that his ideas are interesting, but I just could not suspend disbelief the way i could in River of Gods or Brasyl and that made the book fail for me.

 

[spaziocain]

Thanks, nquixote and suciul, for elaborating. I think I can now see and appreciate where you're coming from, even if I'm not sure I agree 100 per cent.

 

[nquixote]

Note that I thought the sci-fi in River of Gods was very cool, and the writing quality was high (higher, IMHO, than The Windup Girl, in terms of style, description, and dialogue). So I am not saying River of Gods sucked. I enjoyed it. It just felt like it could have been better.

 

[nquixote]

Even as I read A Fire in the Sun, I'm listening to Footfall on audiobook!

So far it's good, though not as good as Niven & Pournelle's other end-of-the-world novel, the incomparable Lucifer's Hammer...

 

[Loerwyn]

I tried to start Black and White by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge, and I put it down after about 50 pages.

Firstly, the chapters are ridiculously short. I think only James Patterson, in my experience, has had frequently shorter chapters.
Secondly, the cover is terrible. Low quality photograph, and on further inspection, one of the women seems to be wearing a bra without anything over it. What an amazing costume, right? Mind you, with the darkness and quality of the picture, I'm wondering if the artist thought they could get away with it.
Thirdly, it's a flipping romance novel. Gah.

It started off OK, and it wasn't bad to read, but it didn't hold back with introducing one of the love interests. The first mention of him involves him being pushed onto the main character (As in the "Oh, you'll love him! You really will!" kind of pushing, not the literal one), and then the second mention involves the character getting a feeling in her... Ladybumps. Yeah. She falls for him and somehow magically becomes sexually aroused after two flipping seconds. This was also at about page 40, so the authors clearly wasted no time with it.

 

[Zappster]

I wouldn't agree it's a romance novel at all. Sure it has some romance interests in it, but they're not the main focus of the story. IIRC if you look at the portion of pages dedicated to that aspect throughout the book, it's a very small portion. And I believe there's some explanation for why she gets turned on so quickly later on in the book. Although it has been a while since I read it.