Reading in Science Fiction, January 2022

Hobbit

Hobbit

Cat Wrangler and Reader
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2001
Messages
18,616
And welcome to 2022!



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

It is the usual message here - 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.


All the best for a better 2022.


Hobbit/Mark
 
Coldbrook (2012) by Tim Lebbon

A Goodreads blurb:-

"The story revolves around a secret lab deep in the Appalachian Mountains – named after the eponymous and deceased genius Bill Coldbrook – where a small team of scientists have achieved the impossible: breaking through from Earth into a parallel reality.
Aging Jonah Jones and his lab-coated colleagues have barely popped open the bubbly when disaster follows in the form of a virus, plunging Earth into a bloody struggle that threatens to bring civilisation to its knees."
 
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I just started listening to the Power Series of 4 novels by Ben Bova here is the Audible link and the blurb for the series. So far I am really enjoying it as I drive to medical appointments that are roughly an hours drive away… just the consequences of a misspent youth;) they are read bynarrator "Stefan Rudnicki" one of their best with well over 800 titles read by him at Audible.
And all 4 are in the plus catalog this month so free if you are in any of the Audible subscription plans.

did you review this series Mark?

www.audible.com

The Power Series

Listen to The Power Series audiobooks on Audible. Immerse yourself in the series as it was meant to be heard. Free trial available!
www.audible.com www.audible.com



The Power Series
4 books in series

4 out of 5 stars279 ratings
Power Play Publisher's Summary
Dr. Jake Ross, a university astronomer, wants nothing more than to teach a few classes each semester and continue his research. Instead, he finds himself aggressively recruited to be the science advisor to Frank Tomlinson, an ambitious politician with his eye on the US Senate. Tomlinson is in need of an edge that will allow him to defeat his opponent at the polls, and Dr. Ross can contribute just that: MHD.
MHD, or magnetohydrodynamics, is a new innovation that will allow electricity to be generated efficiently and cheaply. The Senate seat is essentially guaranteed if Tomlinson can deliver unlimited energy to voters at less than half the price of nuclear power. But MHD is still in its infancy, and although the outlook is extremely promising there are great - and deadly - risks.
The incumbent senator will not give up his seat without a fight, and as Ross discovers, the world of politics carries its own dangers. Nothing has prepared him for the extreme tactics that desperate and powerful people are willing to use.
Power Play is a timely thrill ride by Ben Bova, one of science fiction’s most respected novelists.
Ben Bova, six-time winner of science fiction’s Hugo Award, is the author of over one hundred works of science fact and fiction. A former editor of Analog and former fiction editor of Omni, he is also a past president of the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. He lives in Naples, Florida.
©2011 Ben Bova (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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I finished Absynthe by by Brendan Bellecourt (fantasy author Bradley P. Beaulieu).

Really liked the world-building - the 20's-era stylings, the steampunk-like technology, zeppelins, automata with human intelligence, etc. But I didn't think there was a lot of depth to most of the characters (main character Liam included), and I felt the pacing a bit slow after an interesting start. There's was a lot going on and it was handled quite well though, with some nice plot twists. So good overall, but not great for me.
 
I'm starting 2022 with some SF. Continuing on from Mythago Wood - not with the sequel to that, but with another of Robert Holdstock's, Where the Time Winds Blow, which is science fiction. I was really impressed with Mythago Wood and particularly enjoyed Holdstock's prose style. The title alone has a classic sound to it.

I'm looking forward to reading more SF this year in general (well, more than last year, which was mainly fantasy / horror.)
 
Westy said:
So good overall, but not great for me.
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For me I loved the setting - automatons, zeppelins. Wasn't really expecting too much depth character-wise. It felt like an old pulp-style novel brought up to date for me, which I liked. Sorry it didn't work for you, Westy.

Since posting this year's "Best of", I've found out that Bradley has had a stroke. From Locus magazine:

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Get well soon, Bradley.
 
Reading Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky. After I DNFed Doors of Eden, I am thinking this is going to be a 5-Star book for me.
 
Just finished the last volume of Charles Stross Merchant Princes series, Invisible Sun.
The book, and by extension the series, already has its own short thread, started by Mostly Harmless,
HERE. And almost certainly other commentary and reviews over the years.
Due to multiple deaths and things that the entire world is experiencing, the publication of both this book and its predecessor was delayed by years. I remember the series well, but the details of what happened in vol. 8, three years back, returned to me slowly as I read this 376 page work. Having been in an odd corner of the book business (librarian for 35 years) I notice things like type size and paper weight a little more than many. They didn't cheat. It's a hefty 376 pager.
Stross took good advantage of his delays, to write in asides and threads about American elections, surveillance technology, and even a comment that Elon Musk offerred to handle a rocketry project for (relatively) cheap.
Stross is a craftsman. In an afterward he says that he learned a lot about writing in the 20 years since he started volume one. He certainly throws in more twists and plot developments, here occurring on two primary world lines and at least four subsidiaries, than I have seen in any one book. Usually I do not like an overabundance of complications outside the main thread of the story, but the glee with which he presents what is going on with major characters, and his skill at interworking them, certainly carried me along.
Some characters come across as good guys n' gals, but they are equalled by the capabilities of their opposition. Who are generally presented first person. You see where they are coming from.
In a previous sentence I said guys n' gals. Not a misstatement, but the bulk of the action is carried by women. A tendency that shows increasingly in all of Stross' various series.
Both here and elsewhere, he not an optimist about where technology and politics are taking us. The ending does tie it up but with a little bit of a deus ex machina feel to it. He does not back off from his general cynicism.
Absolutely read it. The earlier volumes are lighter, sort of an adult portal Narnia. By #9 it outpaces Le Carre in its realpolitic convolutions. The overall word count is greater than War and Peace. It's easy for me to recommend because I did spread it out over more than a decade. But it was worth it.
 
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Got the audiobook of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini on the go at present. The story and world building is interesting, no doubt, but boy does it seem to go on and on. And the number of nods to the Alien franchise was fun to start, then got a little much. TBH, if I wasn't listening to the audiobook with a great narrator (Jennifer Hale) I would have DNF'ed this by now.
 
chitman13 said:
Got the audiobook of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini on the go at present. The story and world building is interesting, no doubt, but boy does it seem to go on and on. And the number of nods to the Alien franchise was fun to start, then got a little much. TBH, if I wasn't listening to the audiobook with a great narrator (Jennifer Hale) I would have DNF'ed this by now.
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Read this just before Xmas and almost gave up on it. Did finish it in the end, though. Audio could be the way to go with this one.
 
Old Man’s War

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Other than some of Neal Asher’s novels (like Prador Moon) and Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, I’m not that familiar with military science-fiction and haven’t really looked in that direction until reading Old Man’s War. I’ve been aware of The Lost Fleet series for some time but have tended to rule it out, thinking it would be a bit too narrow for my space opera tastes. Reading Old Man’s War, however, has made me think again, because there was more to it than just an endless succession of battles. True, it uses Starship Troopers as a template but as a result the story drives forward in a very satisfying manner and was rather enjoyable. I’m not a military SF convert just yet, but I’m happy to try one or two more - maybe the next in this series or one of the Honorverse novels.
 
Agent Cormac said:
Old Man’s War

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Other than some of Neal Asher’s novels (like Prador Moon) and Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, I’m not that familiar with military science-fiction and haven’t really looked in that direction until reading Old Man’s War. I’ve been aware of The Lost Fleet series for some time but have tended to rule it out, thinking it would be a bit too narrow for my space opera tastes. Reading Old Man’s War, however, has made me think again, because there was more to it than just an endless succession of battles. True, it uses Starship Troopers as a template but as a result the story drives forward in a very satisfying manner and was rather enjoyable. I’m not a military SF convert just yet, but I’m happy to try one or two more - maybe the next in this series or one of the Honorverse novels.
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I would certainly recommend the next in this series, The Ghost Brigades, and even the rest of the OMW universe books (though books 3 & 4 - The Last Colony & Zoe's Tale - take place at the same time and only TLC is really necessary) - and the series does move away from mil-SF as it goes on. The Honorverse books are good, but they are... heavy, and get heavier as the series proceeds. I'd definitely go with the initial Lost Fleet books over the Honorverse for something a little easier to read.
 
I really enjoyed Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. The Lost Colony was a step down for me, but I still liked it. I started reading The Human Division but realized I was burnt out on it. Without Perry being front and center, I think the books lose some steam.
 
Thanks for the advice, guys. I have The Ghost Brigades and the first two Honorverse books on the way. I'll see how the Weber books pan out given what you say, chitman. My outlay was only £11 or £12 for all three (used vgc hardbacks) so it's no big thing if any of them don't work out. Cheers! ;)
 
I have read lots of Scalzi but it was the OMW Series that hooked me into him. The Collapsing Empire, (still in development I believe) is also excellent. With the exception of Redshirts (which I thought bit the big one) I have enjoyed all of his work that I have read. Like all good fiction, military or otherwise, they are about the human element in the stories.

Weber? I have read all of the Honorverse, and cannot defend that use of time. Interesting characters who are increasingly stereotypes. High tech jargon about super duper weapon systems that are increasingly boring. Unrealistic hair's breadth escapes of important characters while a million people here or there are wiped out.
While I realize that most books are made from trees that are raised to provide the wood pulp, it is with embarassment that I admit to having done my part in decimating forests for Weber's growing overstuffed opus. Want to read good military fiction? Read the Forester Hornblower series where Weber got his original inspiration.

edit: Honorverse does go from okay to less than that. Still embarassed to have read them all :rolleyes:
 
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pogopossum said:
Want to read good military fiction? Read the Forester Hornblower series where Weber got his original inspiration.
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So Honor Harrington equates to Horatio Hornblower? Duh! I should've spotted that. Now I think about it, apart from the HH initials I can even see an anagram of Horatio among the letters of Honor Harrington. Sheesh! My brain must've been disengaged when I first looked at them. Hornblower was essential reading for me as a teenager so if the Honorverse books come anywhere near I'll be happy. But regardless, if they turn out to be s**t I'll soon drop them.
 
Agent Cormac said:
So Honor Harrington equates to Horatio Hornblower? Duh! I should've spotted that. Now I think about it, apart from the HH initials I can even see an anagram of Horatio among the letters of Honor Harrington. Sheesh! My brain must've been disengaged when I first looked at them. Hornblower was essential reading for me as a teenager so if the Honorverse books come anywhere near I'll be happy. But regardless, if they turn out to be s**t I'll soon drop them.
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I have been reading the Honorverse since the first volumes in 1992 and for many years it's been my favorite ongoing sff series by far (now it's second after Safehold) though recently the books (which grew massively in size from the original 300 page mmpbb to the 7-800 page hardcovers) have been hit or miss to a large extent (or better put, they had lots of cool stuff, especially great villains, interspersed with lots of words about lots of things I cared less) , but it's very hard to write an evolving series with a huge cast, 20+ novels and tons of stories and keep the tightness of the first say 5 novels which were typical shortish 1990's mil-sf fare with the main heroine ascending through the ranks by beating the odds in every novel.

Anyway, it's a bit misleading to think of Honorverse as Horatio Hornblower in space or for that matter as one series, as while maybe the first 5 volumes from 1992-95 could be thought that way, by book 7-8 the series changes course to a large scale mil space opera, then changes course again to an even larger scale such with multiple storylines and a huge cast, while indeed after At All Costs (the single best one volume in the expanded series as it has a beggining and an end so to speak), the battles become one sided because of the super tech the author gave the good guys, but they also become less important to the storyline as now politics, intrigue and more generally the aftermath of battles take center stage
 
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