A Song of Ice and Fire, George R R Martin

Technically this is a reread, but an interesting one given the HBO series which I have been watching.  I already rate Mr Martin highly, but I had a perspective on the series that I wanted to communicate.

There might be some element of a spoiler here so if you are not a fan, or have already read these damned entertaining reads stop now.OK, as follows.....

Rereading I noticed that the story really begins when all of the following conditions are true: Westeros is thrown into political turmoil after Robert gets done in, murdered by a pig; There is in addition a vague ill defined threat from the North;  On the warmer continent the heir of the previous king to Robert gathers in strength and influence; and of course Winter is Coming particularly poignant to a Canadian.

I then read the next four books in the series and lo and behold, these conditions do not change.  At the end of a dance with Dragons we have political turmoil in Westeros; an ill defined threat from the North; A Targaryean gathering influence and strength where it is a lot warmer; and Winter, well it's coming.  People have died.  Plot lines have been started, followed, resolved (normally by decapitation) and new ones started.  There has been an enormous amount of action.  Great and important events have unfolded and the reality is that nothing has changed.  Nothing.

I actually think this is brilliant though, because at the same time as reading them, and thinking along these lines I noticed that unlike most fantasy literature, in which things tend to get resolved, tied up, answered, this work is more like the world in which we live.  In our world we have earth shattering events, we have people dying, we have disease, war, death and love and often, when you look at the world now it does not look so different to the world of last century.  We have most of the same problems, and oh yes, Climate Change is Coming.

Among Others, Jo Walton

Most books written as a diary leave me cold.  This diary is engaging, enchanting and pretty much enthralling.  There is in fact a distinct, and purposeful lack of action in the prose that makes you engage slowly with the main character, Morwenna, who has lost a twin, been moved away from her childhood home and is just trying to connect as she figures herself and others out.  The action that comes later, while still almost diffuse is more powerful for the build up.

Now this is a fantasy, and it has magic in it.  Unlike pretty much every book that has magic in a modern setting (almost modern setting, late seventies in the UK) the magic is believable.  So believable that you start wondering if there might not be something to the idea of it.  I personally would love it if magic were real, if I could connect to the universe that way it would be mind blowing and I have always wanted it to be real, so much so that the lack of magic, real magic, is a crushing disappointment to me on a daily basis.

If you haven't guessed yet I loved this book.  Loved it.  Another thing she did that just made it for me was have the main character, Mor, be totally into SF and fantasy, reading constantly, which is what I would do it I did not have to work for a living and look after a family.  The book is in essence filled with book reviews and recommendations I aim to follow up on. Thank you Jo Walton. This book is beautiful.

Michael Cobley "Seeds of Earth"

One of the interesting things about reading a new writer is where the recommendation comes from.  In this case, saddened by thinking of the passing of Iain M Banks (also known as Iain Banks for non sci fi works) I followed his praise of Michael Cobley, and the Seeds of Earth that you can see on the front cover.  I am sorry to say I did not finish it.  I managed about three quarters and cannot be bothered to g o the rest of the way.  The basic premise of the book is OK, mankind spread to the stars and struggling to survive, but it is on the details that this book dies.  Galaxy spanning ideas of technology, human progress, alien politics etc etc need to hang together, and Cobley sadly veers from the banal to the nonsensical.  Ideas about massively advanced technologies tat are subsequently lost  as someone fires a rifle to perform an assassination in a culture and future wher such things should not be possible with a rifle, they just shouldn't.

If you do not want it to be a serious thesis, then you need to dress it as a comedy, or a space opera.  If you dress it in the serious clothes that hard sf fans like to see an author wearing, you better not forget the pants.  This is sadly one to avoid.

China Mieville "The City and the City"

What just happened.  That was what I thought after reading the first chapter.  That was what I was thinking when I finished the book.  I finished it a few days ago and still do not know the answer, which might be the point, or it might not, if you see what I mean.

It is essentially a detective story.  No.  It is essentially a science fiction story about parallel co-existing universes that overlap. No. It is a social commentary that uses a story telling tool like a bludgeon. No.  Obviously I do not really know what it is.  It does however, follow the path of a police officer, Borlu,  investigating a murder that took place in his city, or  the other city?  His city overlaps and mingles with another city, though you have to try hard not to look, or at least look like you are looking, because that is a really serious crime, even when compared to Murder.  The police officer, Borlu,  investigates and you almost learn about the city he lives in, and the city he does not live in but sees and ignores the whole time.

This book is completely mad.  I am still not sure if the author wants us to think that the two coexisting cities are  the result of people simply behaving as if they do, behavior after all on some things can define reality.  Or is there a cosmic event shaped twisted reality warp that makes it possible.  You never know and he probably has no intention to let you know. There was a funny moment when there was a reference to Harry Potter that threw me for a loop.  The book could easily up to that point have been written in the sixties/seventies by a Kafka obsessed hippy with too ready access to mind altering chemicals, but no, it was written in the age of ipads, mp3 players and other technokookery.

Here is the deal.  This is a book that many people would hate.  It is vastly confusing and murky.  It lacks that clear tone of story telling so common to science fiction.  It did draw me in though.  I quite enjoyed it.  It was a ride.  A friend told me though that this might be one of the sanest and most straightforward of the books written by the man, so here goes for the next one which involves I believe dream bugs that are dead, but still actually alive and infesting a parallel dimension.

"Oryx and Crake", Margaret Atwood

I read this after a recommendation from a friend. I have read Margaret Atwood before, The Handmaids Tale to be exact, but it was many years ago and much water has flowed under the bridge.

Lets start off with a controversial claim.  I think that Margaret Atwood has an awful lot in common with Ayn Rand.  Yes, Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged. If you believed in the political spectrum, you would likely position Rand to the right and Atwood to the left.  Lets be hones,t they would both be so far off the edges of the spectrum you would need special glasses with UV filters to see Ayn Rand, and Margaret Atwood would resemble the emissions of a red giant star.  What I mean is, you might focus on the differences between them and dismiss my claim outright, but they both have a very important feature in common when it comes to speculative fiction.  They are extremely negative.  To Ayn Rand the vast majority of the human race is capable of naught and are mere leechs that suck the blood of the talented. In the world of Oryx and Crake the world has been completely screwed up by man and the picture painted of mans final days is one filled with horrific images of society, it is in fact a society or place that bears very little resemblance to our own. There is no happiness for man in this book.  There is no understanding.  There is just a wanton destruction and callous disregard for the world that is not believable.

Now, there is a  place for negativity in fiction, especially science fiction, what better vehicle to explore the negative outcomes of things we are indeed doing.  But the fact is that given all the terrible things that do happen there are good things too.  Even with all the terrible people out there, there are more good caring people.

I am going to throw out another comparison.  There is a movie called Sideways, a comedy about two men on a wine holiday who get up to high jinks in the Napa  valley.  I hated that film for one important reason, there was not one single character in it who I liked, so I didn't connect, and hated the movie which won many awards.

I am the same here with this book.  The writing is often excellent, especially in the second half when the naval gazing finishes and it begins to move forward at a fair clip.  Some of the ideas are important and needed to be explored.  But like the movie mentioned there was nobody in it to like, nothing to conect to, it was negative and I hated it.

I can see that this author is beloved, if not revered, but all I could think was what a fabulous job a writer like Heinlein could have done with the theme, without painting the whole human race with the same brush.  Do not take my opinion on this author with anything beyond a pinch of salt, she is much loved.  But she does not get my vote.

Alastair Reynolds -'Revelation Space'

Alastair Reynolds was recommended by a new friend at work, based upon my liking for history, archaeology and hard science fiction.  It definitely delivers on all three of these fronts.  For those of you familiar with your film history this book is a bit of a Sergio Leone.  It is a good read, but it is has elements of the good, the bad and the ugly.  Like the movie of that name, it was worth my time though.

The ugly part could have been fixed by a decent editor or publisher.  The book changes the perspective the action occurs from in a clumsy and crude manner.  You have jumps in perspective and time that are not separated cleanly to give you a chance to mop your forehead and wipe off the sweat.  A new line can be a switch that throws you for six.  This is a visual editing thing and has nothing to do with the writing, but when you do write about something complicated in its temporal and geographical structure you really want it to work.

The bad part is something I would lay at the writers feet.  The characters are a bit flat.  They do not drag you into the their view, you do not feel their pain, you do not wince when their hands are separated from their bodies (sorry, giving some of the action away).  Character development is lacking as well, even though the events cover a considerable time.

But the good.  This book has some brilliant ideas in it.  I am not saying they are all the authors, but he has blended together some great sci-fi concepts that really are on a galaxy shaping level in a believable and smart way.  There is what is essentially high end nano technology, explorations of consciousness and identity,  interstellar space craft limited to light speed with the crew held in suspended animation, aliens and space based archaeology abound.  There is a computer like no computer like I have seen before.

Now, if this writer could create characters like the one portrayed by Mr Eastwood, he would be the hottest thing since a gamma ray burst,  as it is he is more in planetary nebula territory.  Sorry about the horrible metaphor if you are not an astronomer, if you are, suffer.  Read this if you like weird new ideas on a vast scope that explore the limits what we might be able to know or do.  If your reading needs people you can identify with, give it a miss. As a reference the David Brin Uplift trilogy did the same kind of thing, but he did a superb job with his cast.  I loved that trilogy.

The Darkness That Comes Before

R Scott Bakker is a local boy.  London, Ontario that is.  I picked up this book, the first in a trilogy an age ago and became one of those books that languishes on the to read shelf for far too long.  I am glad I picked it up and read it, it is a good book, but it leaves a slightly bad taste in my mouth.

In short the book is heroic fantasy, world creation, an evil force threatens creation which means you need the forces of good right?  To step in and save it all.  But that is where I think the strength, and in a personal way, the weakness of this book lies. The cast of good has very leaden feet, so mush so that by the end of this first book you are left scratching your head as to who the villains are and who the hero's are.  That is the books strength, it keeps you wondering and the characters, strengths flaws and virtues draw you in.  Some aspects of the evil side of things are were it is too much for me.  He has truly horrendous horribly horrifying demons.  The stuff they do, the thoughts they think are just so evil and nasty that it made me feel like I needed a bath.

That part though is just me.  There are many things in life I do not need to have described, or to see on a news clip, to know they are there, and to understand their gravity.  I personally do not like to see it directly because my imagination is a powerful thing.  So maybe with this book it is my fault?  Who knows.

I can say though that the book is well written, it comes alive and some of the scenes described are fantastic. The characters are complex and fill out nicely though might be lacking in sympathy.

I am not sure about him yet.  I will read a few more and decide if the author is depraved or not.  If  I bump into him at the local convenience store I will hope he takes this criticism with a light heart.  

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N, K, Jemisin

Fantasy writing often seems to get down and wrestle with some of the big questions, life, reality, why we are here.  Things normally left to priests, physicists and philosophers with their often radically different approaches.  I am always left wondering if it works.  A good example would be a writer I absolutely could not get enough of as a teenager, David Eddings.  Eddings wrote about the gods.  He wrote about the creation of the universe. He wrote about the reason for it all.  And quite frankly, to me now, it was a bit crap.

You see I think I am in some ways a bit jaded.  On a personal level, wrestling with life and beliefs I find it so incredibly hard to get away from the simple fact that we, the human race, are less than a pimple on the face of reality.  We are in fact so unimportant, negligible and unnoticeable that we would not make the rank of pimple, on a pimple on a pimple, on the face of reality; and I for one am OK with that.  So when fantasy frames gods and realities in historical superstitious terms I am ok with that.  I buy it.  When fantasy tries to talk about a reality like ours, when it posits the birth of stars, galaxies, quasars and super giant black holes with the same mass as ten million suns and then has that reality depend upon the actions of some sex obsessed human being, I kind of have a problem with it.

That is what Jemisin does quite well in this work.  It's about the gods.  It's about the creation of a whole universe much like ours.  The scope of our reality.  She then has it all depend upon political intrigue of people.  The nature of reality depends upon people.  Her writing was good.  It was a bit sexy at times.  The plot moved forward and characters developed.  Me?  I could not get beyond the fact that the main character was screwing the origin of the universe.  Should you read it?  Its fun.  Will I try other stuff by her?  yes, but from the library when inspiration fails.  Another beef, that is probably not her fault but the editors.  Probably one of the worst titles ever, no real connection to anything remotely important in the novel.

In music they have the term easy listening.  Music that is easy to listen to.  In fantasy I think they should have something called easy reading.  There are so many fantasy writers out there who manage to write escapist stuff that is like brain chocolate.  At least for people like me.  E. E. Knight is another writer that falls into this category.

Dragon champion is more than just brain candy though.  The basic idea of the book is that it is a fantasy from the perspective of a dragon.  A dragon who has to survive being hunted by cruel elves, reckless humans and uncaring dwarfs.  Knight manages to capture this very well, the character development of the dragon, and its perspectives on events and people is really quite wonderful.  You find yourself rooting for the dragon one minute and then stopping a few seconds later asking yourself, "Did the protagonist I care for really just bite off a child's head and chew it.....with gusto?"

The writing is absorbing, E E Knight writes really well.  The plot is fairly straightforward, but in many ways more compelling because of that.  The ending is of course, like any great work in fantasy, a beginning and I expect ( I  have not looked yet ) to find at least a trilogy.  What kinds of readers will like this?  If you like your fantasy simple, and in many ways traditional, you will enjoy this book.  I will read more by this man, who I think is great after one book.  I will add him to my list.

Patrick Rothfuss "A Wise Man's Fear"

This is the second book in a series.  This book, and the book that came before, "The Name of the Wind" is complete and utter genius. I will repeat that if you did not hear it the first time, complete and utter genius  I should have reviewed "The Name of the Wind', but had read it before I started reviewing such trivial things as works of great fantasy.  The thing is, it took an age for him to write this second book, which I first read away from a computer, and we are still waiting on further instalments.

What makes it genius? I hear you cry.  For me it is the character development.  You keep thinking you know the lead character, Kvothe, but then he does something, and even though you did not expect it, it fits, both the character and the story.  The scope is epic, huge.  Kvothe is telling his own tale and is clearly much changed from the young man he describes, knowing that he is going to get to where he is now puts a limit on the story but also tells us that the author has a ways to go and books to write before he puts this one to bed.

Rothfuss breaks a rule, which is really a guideline, when it comes to explaining his magic system.  He spends a great deal of time on the details of how the magic works, but he does it well, never pedantic, always as part of the plot, and he still leaves much unexplained.

This tale has magic, music and mayhem.  It has love.  It has mystery.  Adventure leaps from the pages and your heart is bound to both leap for joy and cry in sadness.  It is a hard one to put down, and both tomes are just that, tomes.  If you love a long book rich in detail, deep as a calm lake at midnight this is for you.

I just wish that he wrote a wee bit faster!  Come on man, you have a duty to create.

Freakangels

Asa young man I loved comics, but I would never, ever spend my money on them.  I read too fast and there was never enough meat to make it worth it.  So I read other peoples, when I got the chance, but mainly stuck to books.  Web-comics though gave me a chance to get into the medium again, and this comic is a fine example of why you should be reading web based comics.

The story is a Science Fiction classic, a modern take on John Wyndham's Midwich Cuckoos.  Twelve young people have incredible mental powers and have basically destroyed England.  What follows is an in depth look at what they are and how they got there.  I absolutely do not want to go into any details because this piece is so good that you should read it for yourself, but I can give you a few reasons why.

First the artwork is stunning, and stands together wonderfully as a whole thing.  Second, they do not try to explain it.  At no point is there any explanation of why they have the powers they have.  None.  Instead the authors just deal with the events.  The history, without trying to explain it to the reader.  The reader just takes it in and moves on.  Third, the story is basically a human story, even though it is about super-humans, and so the we fall into it in the same way as we might fall into the story of Batman, or Spiderman.  It is the human side to the story that makes the superhuman interesting.

Like all good web-comics this one comes in print, and I am eager to get hold of it.  Unlike the other books I have reviewed I have yet to support the authors with a purchase.  So if my recommendation means anything, check it out yourself online, and buy your own copy.

I have actually read many books by Card over the years, and enjoyed a lot of them.  not all, but a lot.  The classic Card story, the one that really pushed him over the edge into sci-fi/fantasy stardom was Ender's Game, a must read science fiction, though the sequels start to pale very quickly.

Lost Gate was a new universe to me and was one of those books that you just inhale.  The basic premise was genius.  A beautiful idea.  And then Card wove a story within it.  Unfortunately it was not a story without flaws.

So what is this glorious idea that sucked me in?  he tried to do something that many writers have tried to do in the past, and often succeeded.  he tried to explain it all.  By all I mean History, religion, where we came from.  This is what Greg Bear does brilliantly in the Infinity Concerto and Serpent Mage, two of the best books ever written. Cards explanation idea is almost as good.  This is it. Gods were real.  All our stories of Gods getting involved, fathering children on poor innocent girls and leaving them with a little demi-god, all real.  But something happened that made them less than they were, and so no longer Gods the families have spent the last 1400 years spinning their wheels and dreaming of lost power.

What made them gods in the past was moving through something Card called a great gate from their home world to Earth, basically the Bifrost Bridge.  But no-one has travelled a great gate since Loki, the last gate wizard and member of the North family of Gods closed them all.  This story is the story of Daniel, the latest gate wizard to be born and his fight to survive, and to open a great gate.

Where does the story fall down?  Over explanation.  Card has done this before, he likes the quasi science of something so much he goes into too many details and really tries to explain it because maybe, it is real to him.  The problem is it just doesn't work.  In fantasy it is a god idea to know how stuff works in the world you envisage, but leave it mysterious and let the story hinge on the characters, and their oh so very human tales, rather than the intricacies of a magic system.

Card is still worth reading, hell I own most of his books, but in most of the stuff he does he moves from dazzling brilliance to humdrum.  But the magic is still there.

Douglas Adams "The Salmon of Doubt"

Its been ages since I posted anything, I have been far too busy, and indeed not reading anywhere near enough,but that is sadly no excuse.......  I actually first came across Douglas Adams when very young, listening to the radio series, the now famous "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy".  I really do not need to say how shockingly good it is do I?  Anyway, as you may know he died tragically young, when he still had a lot to contribute to society. So, for me he is not a new voice, but up until reading the Salmon of Doubt I had never really heard him with his philosophers hat on.  I had only ever experienced the comic novelist.  So in many ways it was a new experience.
The Salmon of Doubt has a lot of content, comments on Adams from illustrious friends, pithy remarks, throw away one liners, funny stories and anecdotes, and some very deep, very illuminating discussions on, well life the universe and everything really.  I have not yet got to the section which contains the unfinished Dirk Gently novel, so I haven't even read it yet, but I am raving about it already.
If you like science, if you like wit, it you like or at least like being baffled by technology, you will like Douglas Adams.  Sadly reading, actually listening as I got the audiobook for the car, to him his htoughts made me feel profoundly unlucky because I never actually had the chance to sit down with him and steal one of his biscuits(In Joke).

Joel Rosenberg "Paladins"`

I had never heard of Joel and picked this up on the off chance at a second hand book store.  I just looked him up, to find he passed away a month ago after writing approximately twenty novels.

The basic premise is actually quite cool.  Imagine a parallel universe where the divergent point is Arthurian England. Imagine an England several centuries later still where Morgana La Fey is still at large and in charge with the heir of Mordred on the throne.

The story uses this magnificent idea as a a backdrop as it follows the adventures of a group of knights in the Mediterranean who have stumbled upon a powerful weapon, in the shape of a ensouled sword, discovered by a fisherman who died for his efforts upon touching the cursed blade.

The story in the beginning and the middle is excellent.  Some interesting characters are introduced as the story unfolds and the craftsmanship of the writing is also very good.  I think however it falls down a little at the end, perhaps for want of a bit more time and editing.  Overall though it was an intriguing and engaging read and I will search out more of this fellows work.  Enjoy it if you get a chance.

"The Blade Itself" Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie is another UK fantasy writer.  Pure chance.  A quick search revealed that he has about 5 books published in the world of this novel, but this is the first book of a trilogy, while the other two stand alone.

What's important to know about this work?  Well, this is another fantasy writer who does not pull punches when it comes to writing about nasty stuff, there is mayhem, gore, torture, abuse, more torture and the odd bit of idiocy all contained inside the pages of this novel, and its great.  The characters are interesting, they are different, and the threads that they weave are very engaging as the story emerges.  It comes to a nice climax at the same time of making you say, what happens next. This is not one of those completely original works in terms of content and story arc,  it is in fact high fantasy, but it is extremely well written, engaging and coherent. Like I said in the last review on J V Jones, Joe Abercrombie gives bits and pieces, that all somehow hang together, that hint at the whole and the full picture, without saying too much.  You can see that the full story will keep you turning pages, but first you need to buy the next in the series.  Thinking about this, this was why I liked the Belgariad by David Eddings when I was young.  The problem, to my mind, that he had with everything else he ever did afterwards was that you knew exactly where it was going.  Joe Abercrombie does not make that mistake.

I am pleased with this find and will read anything else by Joe I can get my hands on.  I love the genre and I love the style.  Bring it on Joe.

 

'A Cavern Of Black Ice'- J. V. Jones

Now they do say that you should never judge a book by its cover, and in this case it is certainly true.  J. V Jones has begun a very readable, yet dark, series here, but it is not one that involves half naked women riding around on horses.  There is a lot of horse riding and fighting (it is epic fantasy after all), but where it is set it is cold.  There is frostbite to worry about. The wind could kill you.  The protagonist that is the subject of the cover is pretty well covered up and not riding around in leather.

The art work aside I really enjoyed this book, once I got past the gruesomeness of some of the writing, it is by the way not for the faint hearted.  From the very beginning there are some stomach turning moments that do not even make sense until much later on and may appear to be gratuitous.  This novel though is about courage, courage to go with your own morals rather than those of the people around you.  Courage to keep going, to keep hanging on.  In particular I like the young clan warrior Raif, who in leaving his clan behind expresses more what it means to be clan.

She does an absolutely super job of hinting at a big picture behind it all, drops some enigmatic details, develops some background characters, without really giving any of it away.  This first book does not end on a cliff hanger per se, but it does leave you wondering where it is going.  I will definitely keep reading the series anxious to find out what happens.

A last important point is that the author, a rather attractive lady, is my age and comes from Liverpool in the UK, where I had the great misfortune to mispend a lot of my youth.  Which makes it entirely likely that I totally failed to chat her up at some point in the past in some seedy and disreputable bar.  It is not true to say that good things do not come out of Liverpool, but it is true to say that once they get out, they stay out.  I think I will add her to my list.

Eve Forward, "Animist"

Eve Forward was born in 1972, which makes her 38, probably.  So to my mind she is a young writer, at the start of her career.  Animist reads like the first book in a series, but from what I read online I think she wrote a trilogy, with but one book so far in print.  The tale told is actually a fairly simple one, a young man goes out into the world to make his fortune at the conclusion of his training at the animist college, he has some adventures.  Animists are it seems people with a natural inclination for magic, whatever that is, who instead of developing earth shattering powers develop a bond with an animal that then allows them to see magic being performed, and communicate empathically with their familiar.  This means that the training mainly consists of animal husbandry and meditation with a shovel.

This book does not follow any standard tracks as it wends its way forward, pardon the pun.  Alex, the youthful Animist, does not develop earth shattering powers and instead only manages to form a bond with a rat, which will cause him lots of problems if he does not learn how to 'separate', as rats are not long lived. He has adventures, but they are mostly of the bumbling kind rater than cast in the heroic mould.  He is however a moral person, who strives to help those people around him.  It is this youthful morality and innocence, and the filter that this provides to the world as viewed in the narrative, that makes the book a fairly enjoyable read.   The book is often funny, but only in a light way, the book is not dark or complex and is instead written in a similar style to the works L E Modesitt Jr.  I will definitely read Villains by Necessity, her other fantasy novel, when I get a chance.

Simon R Green "The Man with the Golden Torc"

As a young man I went through a period were I read all the Bond novels.  I saw all the Bond movies.  I even had a James Bond themed fancy dress party at which there was an express rule that none of the guests could come as James Bond in a tuxedo (I alleged that this was to make for imaginative costumes, but really I looked good in a tux and wanted all the attention).  It was this love of Flemings flawed genius that made me spend good money on this book by Simon R Green, which seems to be something a series.

This book is part of a new sub genre in fantasy that I have been reading recently, in which the fantastical elements are embedded in the modern world.  It has been tremendously successful for the likes of Rowlings with the Harry Potter books and there is a lot of diverse writing in this area.

Unfortunately, I think that this book is part of a plot by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to bring fantasy literature into disrepute.  I did not manage to get even a quarter of the way through it before giving up and turning it into a door stop.  It is filled with bad cliches.  It has no sense of timing.  The writing is sometimes OK but the errors in plot and continuity infuriate.  The plot is ridiculous without being funny (as far as I got in it).  In short I was a wee bit disappointed.  Whatever you do, avoid this writer like the plague.

Margeret Atwood "The Handmaid's Tale"

Not the title I was recommended, but one I found nevertheless. This work of science fiction is a really classic example of the genre. Along the lines of create a different world, in this case the USA of the future ruled by some kind of male dominated theocracy similar to, but worse, than present day Iran, and explore what it means.  In a society like ours, where the last hundred years have seen a massive step forward in terms of rights for women, racial minorities, homosexuals and just about everyone except for perhaps body odor challenged polygamists, it takes an extreme example to get your attention, and that is what Atwood manages to do with this novel.

The book postulates an extreme society in which the presence of disease and infertility has led to the worse kinds of behavior by the men of the ruling classes.  Fertile women are enslaved and forced to provide children for the elite childless males.  The justification for the seizure of power, the denial of rights and the oppression of pretty much everyone is religion.

What makes the book interesting is the depth of the character development.  You learn a lot about the unnamed woman who is the handmaid of the title, and a lot about the depths that people will go to when it comes to justifying the hunger for power.  In some ways it was maybe a bit wordy when compared to other writers in the genre.  Atwood has essentially taken a common approach of literature that is rarely used in science fiction and applied it to a science fiction theme, so it is a bit different.  You could compare it directly to another novel along similar lines by Heinlein, "Revolt in 2100".  Heinlein has a similar theocracy ruled America, but packs in a lot more action. The difference in styles is remarkable, but both are well worth a read.

I enjoyed my first foray into this talented Canadians work and look forward to reading more of her works.

I look forward to reading more by Margaret Atwood!

"The Hunger Games" Suzanne Collins

J.K.Rowling's recent success has seen an absolute torrent of material in the fantasy genre for teens or young adults, but not so much in the way of science fiction.  Suzanne Collins is filling that void very nicely with the first in a trilogy that came a as a recommendation to me recently, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Suzanne Collins has imagined a future that seems much smaller than our, a sparsely populated post apocalypse north america where the majority of people are downtrodden and controlled.  One of the vehicles for that control involves a yearly draw which all the citizens in the districts, the areas that supply the capitol with goods and the stuff of life, must enter from the age of 12 for 7 years.  The draw decides who fights in the hunger games, a many day filmed combat to the death with a boy and  a girl picked from each of the 12 districts. The story follows a young girl, who steps forward to take the place of her 12 year old sister (yes they do make 12 year olds fight to the death) and becomes a tribute.

This first part of the trilogy is a story of good versus evil, but never falls into the trap of becoming trite.  It seems to me that it is the beginning of some kind of revolt against the Capitol, though it is nicely understated.  It also explores themes of love and growth. It manages to achieve what Heinlein achieved with his teen fiction, a strong empathy for the emerging adults as they shoulder an adults burden.  I particularly like the distance that is kept from the real villains of the piece, the rulers of Capitol that push children together to fight to the death.  This is an excellent book and I look forward to reading the following parts of the trilogy.