Reading in August 2006

[FicusFan]

Sundiver is not that great, but it is short, and gives you background about the earth of the time period, how the dolphins and chimps have become 'uplifted', the contact with the aliens and trying to join the empire as an elder species without a patron, and the idea of 'Uplift'. Its all scattered through the book so you pick it up as you go along. My favorite of the first 3 was The Uplift War.

The first book in the series I read was Brightness Reef which is the first of the 2nd trilogy. I liked it better than the first, it seemed more mature in terms of Brin's writing, and I loved the concept of 'devolution'. Unfortunately it was too long between books and I have to re-read it before going on to Infinity's Shore.

I find Bear to be horribly boring, with a stodgy writing style. I have read Darwin's Radio and Moving Mars and won't buy anymore, though I probably have some of his earlier stuff hanging around here (still to read).

Benford is not bad as a writer, though he tends to get carried away with the science. I read his book Artifact, which I enjoyed. It is about ancient history and an artifact as well as modern science. I probably won't rush out and buy any more of his books though.

I am not a real big fan of hard SF because they usually can't write well and they get carried away with the science and drop the story. of the 3 I would say that Brin doesn't do that, though he does go on long rants and info dumps. But of the 3 he is the best writer.

 

[FicusFan]

I have finished Hellburner the 2nd book in the Alliance-Union series by CJ Cherryh. It is tied to Heavy Time as a direct sequel and again it is focused on the asteroid belt miners.

The same main 4 characters from Heavy Time continue in this book. While the first book was a bit of a chore to get through, this one is fabulous. It just flows, the story is gripping and intense. Because of the carry-over from the first book the setting and the characters become very real, and very absorbing.

What I really like is that things that take place in this book explain events further down the line in the series. There is also a new character introduced in this book and he ends up with Signy Mallory on Norway in later books. Warms my heart cause he is a good character and he deserves the best .

I also did a re-read of Rimrunners, which is back in the Spacer-Stationer part of the series. I remember really liking this when I first read it. Unfortunately it didn't hold up as well this time. Part of it is that CJC seems to have this obsession with young, thin, waifish, soulful, men who are in trouble. They are either the POV or the object of obsession of the POV. After 5 books it wears a little thin.

In Rimrunners the POV is a woman who is so proud and has such standards that she is willing to starve rather than take charity or work on a station. She is a beached Marine who missed her carrier. She has been working as hired crew from port to port, hiding her identity, and trying to find her ship. She ends up stuck on Thule and almost dies because there is no traffic that will take her, as the station is again out of the space lanes and shutting down.

Bet finally gets a berth on a shady ship that is probably a spy. Selling info about the movements of other ships to their enemies, which gets those ships killed. It turns out that Bet is from the other, losing side and so she has to keep her origins secret from her new ship and crew.

One of the several problems with this book is she would starve at one point for her ideals, yet once on the new ship she throws out her loyalty for one of the waifs. The book also seems to descend into the romancey with the Bet spending a bit of time worrying about if the waif likes her, will spend time with her, thinks about her, will have sex with her. And let me tell you the Bet jumps into bed with anything in pants, even while mooning over the waif, and then wonders why the women on the crew seem to hate her.

The internal conflict is from an evil officer who plays sadistic games and gets people killed. He is trying to gain power and discredit other officers at his level and is willing to use the crew as pawns to help or hurt those on his lists. Bet has to join forces with him because of an outside attack, and afterwards everything is just fine. His behavior and motivation is never dealt with, explained or wrapped up.

I am now onto Tripoint the next book in the series. So far it has been a good re-read with only 2 books (Heavy Time and Rimrunners) being sub-par.