Reading in Science Fiction, February 2022

[Hobbit]

And so to February!

(Last month's discussion of Science Fiction is HERE. )

Despite this being the shortest month of the year, it is the usual message - even though things are beginning to return to some sort of normality, it is in these strange and uncertain times that perhaps you telling us about what you've been reading in Science Fiction is important. Communication on such matters means that you may feel less alone.

Remember, good or bad, we still want to know what you think.




Hobbit/Mark

 

[dannymcg]

I've just started a re-read of The Big Time by Fritz Lieber.

I tried his other Change War stories but couldn't get into them, however I first read this one as a pimply adolescent and it impressed itself on my growing SF awareness.

 

[Sfinx]

I've just started a re-read of The Big Time by Fritz Lieber.

I tried his other Change War stories but couldn't get into them, however I first read this one as a pimply adolescent and it impressed itself on my growing SF awareness.

I do like Leiber's other Change War stories, but this is definitely his best imo. See what adult Danny makes of it

 

[Hobbit]

It is odd and quite different to a lot of other Lieber. Long time ago now, but if you haven't seen it already, Danny, my SFFWorld review is here: https://www.sffworld.com/2013/05/big-time-the-by-fritz-leiber/ (From 2003!)

"In summary, I’m pleased I went back to this one. It’s not perfect, and definitely not for everyone, but it’s not bad at all. In summary, The Big Time is an underrated attention-grabber of a story, which left me thinking on it long after I’d finished it. And I guess, despite its flaws and despite the strong opposition, that’s why it won a Hugo."

 

[suciul]

Finished Fearless by A Stroud, a (hard sf/solar system spaceships and colonies) debut from 2020 (series called Fractal) with the second installment Resilient tbp this spring (have an e-arc copy and already started it); will include the blurb and then my Goodreads review; in short, interesting and very good with some teething issues as the novel structure went

Blurb:

AD 2118. Humanity has colonized the Moon, Mars, Ceres and Europa. Captain Ellisa Shann commands Khidr, a search and rescue ship with a crew of twenty-five, tasked to assist the vast commercial freighters that supply the different solar system colonies.
Shann has no legs and has taken to life in zero-g partly as a result. She is a talented tactician who has a tendency to take too much on her own shoulders. Now, while on a regular six-month patrol through the solar system, Khidr picks up a distress call from the freighter Hercules…

My Goodreads review:

A mostly hard-sf mixture of adventure and mystery set on a patrol spaceship that receives a rescue signal from a freighter transporting goods from Earth to the solar system colonies; while quite interesting and promising more in the next installments, the novel has one main issue that keeps it from being as good as the storyline/universe/characters would allow, namely the pov rotation lacks balance and on occasion even continuity, leading to narrative momentum loss; this is especially noticeable in the first part where the Captain (with a fascinating backstory of a girl born without legs and finding her vocation in space and zero g) dominates the narrative, which if continued would have been fine (though of course the novel would have had to go somewhat differently), but then a few of her crew get more and more pov time so to speak and while by the end a good balance is achieved, the road there is rough and kept me a few times across the several months or so since I got a copy, from continuing with the novel despite its other qualities.

When I finally passed the slow and confusing part, the pages really turned by themselves and the last half or so it's been a one-sitting read

Overall quite good and definitely worth perseverating through the slower and more confusing part from about a third to a half of the book

 

[Sfinx]

Finished Bujold's Winterfair Gifts, a novella in the Vorkosigan saga. Engaging little read, but before you spend your hard-earned cash on it, beware: it is very short, more of a chapter than a novella. Now started the proper length next instalment: Diplomatic Immunity.

 

[AtramentousFlux]

Finished The Alexander Inheritance by Flint, et al. It will be familiar territory to anyone who has read from the 1632 series (but we're in 321 BCE here, so it's not part of that series). I quite enjoyed it and will start the next one, The Macedonian Hazard, soon.

 

[chitman13]

Finished the second book in Peter F Hamilton's YA audio trilogy, The Captain's Daughter (due out later this month), sequel to A Hole in the Sky. I enjoyed it, and doing a re-listen of the first really helped as events pick up pretty much exactly where they left off. It advances the plot, gives a little more information on the revelations of book 1, and throws in some nice bits and pieces. Interested to see where it goes from here, though likely another year to wait for the finale.

Now on to Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey. Been a while since I read the last one so had to look up a plot outline to get me up to speed!

 

[dannymcg]

I do like Leiber's other Change War stories, but this is definitely his best imo. See what adult Danny makes of it

Again I was awestruck at his imagination, it's still a gripping yarn

 

[krisbslick]

Now on to Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey. Been a while since I read the last one so had to look up a plot outline to get me up to speed!

I also have the last three in my TBR pile, so I could tackle them all together. Did you find any good plot summaries for the books? (I have to refresh my memory too - it's been a few years :/)

Edit: I did find these:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/comments/5fqk03

 

[suciul]

I finished Resilient, the second novel in the Fractal series by Allen Stroud and sequel to Fearless about which I talked earlier this month; I am not going to put up the blurb to avoid spoilers for whoever wants to start with Fearless and my Goodreads review which I will add here is vague enough about the events in Fearless, so in one word Resilient really rocks and jumped to the top of my sff list for 2022 (true it's just the beginning with lots of highly anticipated novels to come, but I see it as a top 10 for sure)

Review:

Resilient sort of picks up where Fearless ended, though it first introduces two new important character pov's that bring wider world perspectives, in addition to the two remaining pov's from the first book. Starting quite explosively (literally so within a few pages), Resilient doesn't really stop until the (reasonably good stopping points for the pov's) tbc end some few hundred pages later and it is really hard to put down; this time the author gets the pov balance right and even creates quite a lot of suspense occasionally leaving a pov chapter on a cliffhanger, so one is tempted to skip the pages until the next chapter with the same pov and then return to the storyline, while the geographical balance of the pov's also works well and meshes better with the back story, both internal (flashbacks, dreams etc) and external (documents, press releases etc).

The novel keeps one guessing until the end and there are twists, turns, double-crosses, desperate situations, combat, intrigue, and a lot of fascinating new perspectives added to the hints glimpsed in Fearless.

The universe expands, the stakes grow higher and we still have only clues about what all means, or who are really the main parties involved as we see everything through the lenses of our 4 pov's; I also quite liked their character arcs, especially of the two on the Mars orbit station, but also of Captain Shann and while in this book ensign Johansson plays a somewhat more secondary role than in Fearless, she is the same manic problem solver with a less than full regard for authority and chain of command and who saves the day on occasion because of that; in addition, this book has awesome villains who are more fully fleshed out than in Fearless

Overall Resilient fully realizes the potential Fearless presented and even more, as a gripping sf Solar System adventure full of everything one wants in such and the next novel in the series is a huge asap. Highly recommended and a top 10 of the year for me

 

[chitman13]

I also have the last three in my TBR pile, so I could tackle them all together. Did you find any good plot summaries for the books? (I have to refresh my memory too - it's been a few years :/)

Edit: I did find these:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/comments/5fqk03

I found one for Tiamat's Wrath on The Expanse Wiki: https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/The_Expanse_Wiki I haven't checked the other books, but expect they'd have a similar plot synopsis for each. Definitely helped me!

 

[Agent Cormac]

Field of Dishonor

Following her return to Manticore after the battle in the Hancock system, Honor Harrington gives evidence at the court martial of Pavel Young, but despite overwhelming proof of cowardice, political rivalries conspire to save him from the firing squad. Intent on revenge for the humiliation he blames Harrington for, he engages a deadly duellist to first punish then kill her.

This book was a change of pace compared to the previous novels in the series as very little of it took place off station/off planet and there were no space battles. Nevertheless, it was still an enjoyable and ultimately rewarding read, so much so that I found myself rooting for Honor in her quest for vengeance. In fact, had the story ended without the comeuppance I wanted it to have, I would have been deeply disappointed. Moreover (a favourite adverb of Weber's), it would have diminished any respect I had for the author as a storyteller. Anyway, suffice to say that matters concluded satisfactorily. At the moment I am still getting a lot of pleasure from the series so I will keep ploughing onwards.

Finally, I'd like to point out that my copy of the book was thankfully the first of the above covers, and not the one with Michael Jackson on it.

 

[suciul]

Finished one the highly anticipated early 2022 releases, How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu and it was very disappointing; the first chapter is excellent but then it kind of devolves into an exploitative novel of disaster that has none of the literary qualities (prose is ok but characters are flat and the short vignette-style doesn't help) of similar recent others ; just avoid

From the blurb (sounds very interesting but sadly its realization page is sub mediocre imho)

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resiliency of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.

 

[Hobbit]

Finally, I'd like to point out that my copy of the book was thankfully the first of the above covers, and not the one with Michael Jackson on it.

I hadn't noticed that, but now you mention it....

 

[dannymcg]

I hadn't noticed that, but now you mention it....

I hadn't either but I'll never unsee it now

 

[pogopossum]

Finished Wireless, nine stories by Charles Stross. Shows he is a master. Oddly, I liked the non-prize winners better than the two that won the Hugo or Locus. One story has a character talk with the speech of Stross' adopted Scotland home.
Currently half way through his Quantum of Nightmares, the second of his "New Management" series set in The Laundry Files universe.
Elsewhere I commented that I generally did not like works that jumped around among first person narrators, but that Stross handled that with skill in his Invisible Sun, from last year. Well here he goes again. Multiple POVs from multiple narrators handled with skill.
If you liked the Laundry Files, this spinoff series is even creepier, with almost as much humour.

 

[chitman13]

Currently half way through his Quantum of Nightmares, the second of his "New Management" series set in The Laundry Files universe.

I've very much enjoyed the Laundry Files and you reminded me that I missed Dead Lies Dreaming so need to catch up and get up-to-date.

 

[Westy]

I started reading Nophek Gloss, the debut space opera by Essa Hansen but put it down after about 35%. It was OK, but just too familiar - newby joining a ragtag crew on a ship, gradually becomes special and essential to the crew in some way, special technology left over from an extinct alien race, etc etc.

I'm starting to feel that way with a number of space opera type novels these days - give me something different and refreshing!

 

[Agent Cormac]

We Are Legion [We Are Bob]

Mentions and reviews by many of you here at SFFW brought this one to my attention and for that I thank you, because I really enjoyed this first book of the Bobiverse. Apart from being an enjoyable read, I liked the expanding storyline as the number of Bobs multiplied. There was always something fresh with each page turn. The state of affairs on Earth was an all too possible one for me and made me wonder if the human race was worth saving with its petty squabbles; divergent systems of government such as theocracies; partisan self-interest and general stupidity but, fortunately for the last survivors of the human race, Bob's easy-going nature and equanimity rises above all of that. Which kind of raises the question if AI leadership is the way forward like in Neal Asher's Polity books, or to some extent in Banks's Culture novels. Or should humankind learn to place its faith in easy-going people, like Bob, rather than trusting people who are attracted to leadership because of the power it brings them (given the history of the human race and the nature of humankind, that's unlikely, I know). One can only wonder, and wish.

Bob’s references to past and present SF franchises kept things anchored and padded out his humanity, despite him existing as data and electronic routines. I'm no Trekky, but even I got most of the references. The concept of the Bobiverse means there is massive scope for where it goes next. Having avoided any reviews of the next in the series, reading the next one is a no-brainer.