of Lars J. Nilsson

Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to date read all of Alistair Reynolds books (at least I think I have, he is after all rather prolific). So. I’m a fan.

I’ve always seen him as slightly uneven though, and although a brilliant story-teller, not always the perfect craftsman, and his characterization leaves at times things to which for.

(Usual self-repeat: I won’t cover the story in this review, plenty of others do).

So let’s start with the major let down: characterization. The main character (Geoffrey) starts out a whining bitch and continues so for half of the book. This is a characteristic he seems to share with his sister, unless their together at which point the sister seems to grow a bit: clearly you can’t have two characters who’s only contribution to the dialogue is “it won’t work”, “we’ll all die”, or “what makes you think I like you”. Really, that’s a fair summary of nearly 85% of all Geoffrey’s dialogue through the first half of the book.

I’m all for anti-heroes, but there’s got to be something interesting in the character you can latch onto. But for Geoffrey there is nothing. His love for the elephants? Meh…

So in order to move the story along there has to be other people than the main characters around to not only explain things but also to take initiatives at all… Let’s just say that there is a certain construct who got a lot of disposition on her plate, poor thing.

Interestingly enough, I think my other major problem with the book stems from the first: When Geoffrey “grows up” and stop whining (which is, by the way, through with a suitably transparent kill-move) the feel of the entire story changes. From an anti-hero travelogue to an ordinary space opera. It felt… A bit abrupt and… sloppy.

That’s my whining out of the way. This is still a terrific read. Everything else is exactly where I want it. Pace, scenery, grandeur and story. It all slot together in a slick machinery that you just want to continue forever.

Although this is, by Alistair Reynolds measuring, fairly near future, and contained around the solar system, the feeling of awe and grandeur that Reynolds can magic up at times is astonishing. Someone said that the hallmark of great SF is the feeling of opening-up, of a sense of wonder, and this book has it in abundance.

A 3/5 rating? Well… It really is a very strong 3. Had the transition from anti-hero to “normal” story been smoother this would have been a 4. And with the whining toned down a bit and Geoffrey fleshed out a bit earlier in the book it would have been a border-line 5.

Good stuff! I can’t wait for the next volume.

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The Gunslinger by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.”

Honestly, if that doesn’t go down as one of the great openings of all time, to be remembered long after we’re gone, even if the the person recognizing it doesn’t even know where it comes from, I’ll be sorely disappointed.

In fact, this reading is a re-read, but I hardly remembered anything but the opening line from the first read-through; which must have been back in the eighties.

I remember being somewhat nonplussed with it though, without being able to articulate exactly why at the time. Perhaps I can now: it is the overall, sweeping, “introduction-type” style to the text that I didn’t really grasp. It is in effect, one long setup of a much longer tale to come. And read in that function, it succeeds admirably: It sketches at the grandeur, the mystery and the size to come.

As usual I’ll not cover the plot, you can find that elsewhere.

It is somewhat crude; if you read later King you’ll realize that he has indeed learned a thing or two about story-telling a the craft of stringing words together since this was written. But regarded as an introductory piece it still works well.

(Here’s a minor issue though: I had no problem with the town of Tull. The Isaac-moment I had forgotten though. And I probably didn’t care about it when I was sixteen, but now this particular version of Abraham’s dilemma doesn’t sit very well. I look forward to see if it’s going to be explained or resolved later.)

So: this time around I love it. What a brilliant setup! The lone gunslinger chasing his destiny across a Sergio Leone inspired waste land entirely owned by Stephen King. Awesome!

Now on to book number two, the plan is to read it all in one go. Wish me luck!

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Prador Moon: A Novel Of The Polity by Neal Asher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up out of curiosity after seen Neal Asher on the local SF book store. What I was after was a straight forward space opera; I thought anything more than that would be a bonus. And yes, that’s what I got.

Several other reviewers has complained that this book might not be as good as Neal Asher is supposed to be. And having read it, I think I can see that: there is capacity here, there’s good pacing, and interesting characters. However, there’s also a shallowness in the story, the world building and the character interactions.

Did I say character interactions? Er.. Well, there’s one point down then: there really isn’t much of interplay at all. The main characters do their thing separately through much of the book, and when they’re finally put together the author quickly separates them again. As a romantic sucker, I do not agree.

There’s graphic violence. I have however read, say, both Richard K Morgan and Steven Erikson, so I wasn’t too bothered by this.

The action pacing is really nice. In fact, the pacing and spacing in the entire book is good, making it a really quick and engaging read.

Here’s another possible reason the book doesn’t really work: The author tries to tell a surprising amount of the story from the POV of the aliens. It’s kind of dangerous to assume a completely alien mindset as you’re running the risk of 1) removing natural tension as the aliens becomes “knowable”; and 2) humanizing the aliens. Contrasted to some of the best aliens I know of, Stephen Donaldson’s Amnioni, the Prador are easier to understand and hence more predictable and not at all as scary.

So, all in all a fast a furious read. And sometimes, that’s what I want. Also, I do believe this author has more to give, so I’m continuing on, hopeful next book will be a bit better, because then it could be really good.

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Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A really enjoyable book although somewhat idiosyncratic and un-even. The author does not apologize though and have even refused to even it out for the later editions. That way it stays personal and interesting. Another word on the style, it is easy to misread it as an attack and only see the snark, whereas the author is failry clear about his goals, he puts them clearly down, but it’s easy to loose them on the way. I didn’t care though, as I found it hilarious at times.

The content is about the randomness in many of our environments and our inability to cope with much of it. Most of the examples comes from Wall Street as the author not only have experience from that particular arena but also sees it as a highly random business. On the way we’re sail past Hume (induction), Popper, Kahneman, Soros, Pinker as well as poets and artists and… Clearly, mr Taleb is a very well read man.

For those interested I highly recommend his (slightly more technical) Edge.org piece “THE FOURTH QUADRANT: A MAP OF THE LIMITS OF STATISTICS”: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/taleb08/…

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The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company by Glen Cook
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very good indeed. I felt some of the originality went away as the story teller becomes, not a spectator, but a leader and “cause” in himself. However, it is still very good and I’m looking forward to the “glittering stone” compilation.

But oh, the pregnancy and “herald child” business was all too predictable and cheesy. I did feel a bit let down by that, let’s hope it turns to something interesting in the last books.

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Chronicles of The Black Company by Glen Cook
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Excellent. It takes you a while to get into the language, which is a bit more terse than your usual fantasy brick. You can see where Steven Erikson is coming from. This is far better than most run of the mill fantasy, even though… a map wouldn’t have hurt. I was completely hooked after 50 pages or so, and just couldn’t stop reading the last 100. Excellent indeed.

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Making Money by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

We’re back with Moist von Lipwig, the crook from Going Postal. But while GP was excellent and refreshing I’m afraid this one felt more like "business as usual". Sure it’s good. Sure it’s funny, but compared to GP, or Night Watch or the Tiffany Aching stories, this one doesn’t hold it’s own. There’s repeated jokes, characters etc. Good, but slightly disapointing as I expected something on par with Going Postal.

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The Terror by Dan Simmons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Slow start. I had to restart it once because he lost my attention. However, after some 180 pages I was well land truly hooked. This is perhaps the best Simmons I’ve read besides The Hyperion Cantos. Very, very good.

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The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As many others here, this was a re-read for me. I read them as a child and loved them, although I seem to remember only bits from them from the last read, which could possibly be explained by them being a bit uneven. For example, the difference in pace and style between book one and two is striking, I loved, and still do, the mystical, snow-ridden cold and dark of book two, while I found book one to be rather plain.

Having said that, the books are still very well written and enjoyable. It’s rather fun to peak into the "well behaved English children"-kind of literature; they’re even more upright than the Potter kids, believe it or not. But the characters are enjoyable, and the some of the older mystical beings encountered in the books nicely obscure.

There’s a strong celtic/welsh mythology influence in the story. It is nice, but I was a bit disappointed in the lack of development, the artifacts and people from, say, the Arthurian legend are there mainly as devices and are rarely developed. For a different take, and an example of would could been done, see G G Kay’s "Fiovanar Tapestry" (which are lovely by the way).

Anyway, read it, and then push it on you early teen kids, they’ll love it. It’s really good.

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Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is I’m afraid the low point of the Malazan series. And had this been book 2 or 3 it is possible I wouldn’t have continued reading the sequels, and would have been very disapointed. Here’s my problems:

1) Occasionally narrated by Kruppe, a character. This is the first time in the series any character gets to narrate, and to introduce it in book 8 feels strange. Also, Kruppe isn’t fit to tell a story straight, I found myself so exasperated by the style that I frequently skipped entire section.

2) Length. I mean, really, where’s the editor? I understand fantasy epics are supposed to long, and that the audience expect it to be long, but this is ridiculous. I can without thinking pick out 4 entire story threads that have *nothing* what so ever to do with the main story and could have been cut immediately.

3) The disjointed start. Call me slow but it took me about 300 pages before I had any idea what the book was about. Also, it switches view point furiously in the beginning, which made me loose my interest, again finding myself skipping entire sections.

4) Repeated dialogs and forced humor. Does every Malazan marine have exactly the same reparté? And also, the humor in the earlier books was a side effect, here it appears as if Erikson was trying to force it.

Other than this, the book still shows why the Malazan sequel is the best fantasy being produced out there.

The ending is awesome.

So yes, I will continue reading, but I really, really hope that this book was the exception of the series.

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