Joe Haldeman "The Forever War"

This is yet another attempt by me to plumb the depths of the writing out there by looking for previous award winners I never read.  Joe Haldeman won a Hugo and a Nebula for this masterpiece and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  This writer actually reminds me of Heinlein at his best, which is no faint praise considering I host the Robert Anson Heinlein Memorial Library in my very own house.  The book is classic science fiction that is not at all dated and still totally enjoyable to read, and it has a point.  It is of course about war.  I think judging by the dates of publication it was strongly influenced by thinking on the Vietnam war, but it still makes you think even now.
The novel traces the path of a soldier, Private Mandella, through the course of a war with aliens, which he is fortunate enough to survive.  The war is fought in space and is at the whim of the realities of the faster than light travel and propulsion systems, such that a whole lot of time passes during a decade of subjective living by the protagonist.  It ties together a changing society and a changing war in an interweaving tapestry of prose that is difficult to put down.  I will definitely keep an eye out for more of his works, this was fantastic and gets a recommendation.
Interesting to some perhaps is the way in which our society is different to the imagined one of Haldeman's universe.  I do not think any sci fi writer predicted the effect of easy information exchange on such large things as war.  It may be hard for some to appreciate, but it is actually pretty amazing that government and military institutions find it so hard nowadays to hide the nasty parts of war, like Abu Graib in Iraq.  Back in the day, WWII, governments fought wars with misinformation that would be next to impossible to do today, it's impossible to stop connected people talking, and stupid people always slip up.  (By the way, stupid people are actually everywhere, so it is an axiom that that means they will screw up, just wait.)
I digress shamefully, thank you Joe for a fine read that is equally thought provoking due to what it hit and what it missed.

Connie Willis, "Domesday Book"

This work is on a classic SF theme, time travel.  A theme that has been done and redone so many times, but how does Connie Willis make it work?  The answer is that it is all in the character development and the storytelling.  There is also a tension that runs through the book that keeps you wondering and makes the ending meaningful.  It all hangs together very nicely.

The story is about a history PhD student at Oxford university in the near future.  In this future they have access to time travel when it does not affect the present, so it is only useful for students of history.  That does not make it safe however, as Kivrin discovers when she goes back to 1320 to study a mediaeval village.  Unknown to anyone Kivrin was sick with a new flu bug, think H1N1 with steroids, and the Oxford of the present ends up in quarantine as she falls sick in the past, to be succored by some visiting nobility.

What I really liked about this story, without giving away any details, is the way that the characters are torn with indecision, uncertainty and realism.  In particular I like the way that the decisions of the Kivrin's supervisor change and evolve.  The description of the past, especially the more harrowing parts which you will know when you get to them are particularly well written and I think it is likely that the writer has probably taken advantage of her own time machine to make this book realistic.

It is a bit different, it is already slightly dated, but it is a clear voice. I will definitely read more Connie Willis when I get the chance.

Peter V. Brett "The Warded Man"

I just finished reading this and enjoyed it immensely.  Peter V. Brett has written something which is simple, yet totally riveting. I could not put this book down and read avidly from start to finish.  This book is one of action, from the front cover to the back.  There is not a lot of emphasis on the description of the scenes or on feelings.  The action though unfolds in such a way as to give insight into the main characters and into the land in which the tale unfolds.  The author does not try to do too much and succeeds quite well at what he does attempt, an unfortunately rare trait.

In brief we have a humanity threatened by demons, or what they call demons.  The history is simple.  Long ago man fought against demons until it developed magic.  The magic worked against demons.  When the demons were on the edge of being totally defeated they vanished.  Man then forgot its magic, which after all was only to do with demons, developed science and spread to cover the world.  Unfortunately the demons were not finished.  When the demons rose again, without magic man kind was near crushed until they remembered some few wards to use as protections.  That is the situation now, people huddle in fear behind arcane barricades at night while the demons delight in torment.

The hero, or one of the main heroes, fights his fears of the demons and through the course of the book discovers ways to fight back.

The only problem with the book is one a good editor would have spotted.  There was a perfect ending point to this first book in a series, but he continues and creates another.  He probably felt it necessary to bring the main characters together though, so he can be forgiven.  He could maybe have met them before discovering the spear?  Who knows.

I will read more Brett and would recommend this book to any fantasy readers who like a good heroic adventure romp.  Not surprisingly the author is a fan of D&D.

Alice Borchardt, "The Dragon Queen"

 

I found this novel in a second hand book store.  No recommendation from a friend, no previous knowledge, complete shot in the dark.  Arthurian tales have always been a weakness of mine.  There is so much there in a simple framework to work with for a writer, and so many different tales have been told based on it.  At first glance this work struck me as being a new angle on the story, exploring the legend from Guinevere's point of view, and hopefully with a strong female character.  I was pretty excited to read it actually.

Alice Borchardt has good prose, some excellent descriptions of places and some good characters. Unfortunately I think that Alice Borchardt tried to do to much and a lot of it either does not have enough back story or is over the top, which has the effect of not really tying the individual pieces together.  For example, when she introduces Guinvere's potential father, who turns out to be a fairy who gives her magical armor embedded in her skin it was done abruptly, with no background on the fair folk, no background on who her father might have been.  It did not do this to evoke mystery, it just happens like that. 

Other things happen too abruptly.  A prime example would be when she meets Arthur.  Their meeting is far too devoid of content for the level of commitment that results from it.  It just does not really follow.  I thin that the real problem to me as a reader with this story is that it is far too obvious that the events that take place, and the decisions that are made, are the work of the author.  At no point does it become real.  At no point does it evoke a lost past, or another world that I fall into.  Which is one of my goals in reading fantasy.  Being a lover of fantasy literature is not being a lover necessarily of the cleverest writing or the wittiest dialogue, it is rather the desire for losing yourself, briefly, into something other.

Daniel Suarez, "Daemon"

Daemon hovers on the edge of being science fiction, as it is so contemporary.  This is a problem to the narrative in my opinion because it makes it harder to suspend your disbelief.
First the good parts.  Daemon is a bit of a page turner.  I had not a speck trouble getting through it at all and enjoyed the read.  Suarez writes very well, and the techno geekery of the novel appealed to me.  What is wrong with the book is more difficult to explain, as I think it really comes down to what is wrong with the book in a technical sense, rather than in literary sense.  This is precisely why it being contemporary and not more SF in feel is what stops it from working for me.
Basically he posits the ability to leave programs waiting on machines to carry out instructions when they get triggered.  All to the good.  That is the daemon and it gets its name from processes that run continuously in the background on computers monitoring for events before doing something.  In the case of the Daemon of Suarez's book it is murder, at least initially.  This part is fun, and in fact plausible.  The problem with the idea is that it keeps going on and acting and disobeys one of the laws of the universe.  Which is that if you engineer something to do something, even something simple, it probably will not work.  In reality, you have to test things, tinker with things, change things to get them to work.  It requires intelligence.  Suarez has a computer program without intelligence doing things without being tested.  It just simply defies belief.

In that way this book is a thriller, even though at first glance it looks more like near future sci fi.  Thrillers always it seems have to take a step beyond plausible into the realms of the ridiculous.  And unlike SF they cannot posit something new to explain it and allow the reader to suspend their disbelief.  I would reccomend it to people who love thrillers though!

(Suggested reading by my friend Dale, who I have not seen in years, thanks Dale.)

Maya Kaathyrn Bohnhoff, "The Meri"

The Meri was first off a fun read.  I read it very quickly and found it enjoyable and though provoking.  It follows the path of a young lady who has had her family killed and been raised in a patriarchal religious community by an elderly priest.  Her simple femaleness causes her problems and she ends up going on the same prescribed voyage of religious discovery her mentor followed.  Now there a few themes in the novel that I had issues with, so do not read too much if you want to read the novel......
First, she is setup as wanting revenge for her dead family.  But she never really tries to get revenge and is basically portrayed as too good to follow that route.  I think it would have been more interesting if she were to have a taste of revenge and find it unsavory and then take the saintly path.  In a similar way to real courage is only really shown by those who have a lot to be afraid of.
Another thing that was not quite right is that in the world Maya creates, they have palpable evidence of a God, and good, and what is required of them, there is almost no need for faith, or the character to stand up to atrocities supported by a paper religion.  Which would be a fine thing to have in the real world.  But it seems to have no effect on the world or society she portrays, which is basically like our own as regards faith and respect for the church.  If you took a devout agnostic and put them in such a world,  daily miracles would possibly lead to a conversion, after all evidence is evidence, and agnosticism would likely fall before the overwhelming deluge of religious reality.  Maya's world however seemed to be much like our own, where everything is so much more murky.
Overall though I enjoyed the book, though it was maybe a little to saccharine for my taste, but the theme is such a hard one to succeed at.  I will read some more work by her before I decide to giver her a recommendation, but I will definitely give her a shot.  Another writer who did something similar, and to my mind succeeded better was Elizabeth Moon with the "Deeds of Paksenarrion" trilogy.  That was more routed in traditional fantasy however, unlike Mayas work, which is maybe a little too close to the real world?

Susanna Clarke "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell"

Following a theme of alternative history sci fi (S. M. Stirling), we have here an example of alternative history fantasy writing.  The fabulous case of Jonathan Strange, Mr Norrell, and more mysteriously John Updike, the King of the North.  In this lengthy novel Clarke weaves a rich tapestry of a haunting England, were there was once such a thing as magic, with the North ruled for 300 years by a wizard king.  It is set in the time of the Iron Duke and Napoleon and it paints a picture of England at a time when magic once more comes back into common use.
The style of the book is interesting, like a cross between reading Jane Austen and Edgar Allen Poe with an incredible amount of footnotes, sometimes there are multiple pages of one one footnote and you grow confused as to where the thread is.  The footnotes actually draw you in though, they make the historic backdrop to the story seem quite real due to their detail and wit.
At no point does Clarke attempt to explain magic, or give a reason for there being fey creatures that interfere with human existence, it is an assumption of the narrative that is so seamless that the reader loses all skepticism for the occult and just instead marvels at what is accomplished by its modern practitioners.  The story has many notable characters, not just the title characters, but perhaps the most interesting is the hidden character of the Raven King, whose existence and history is the warp and weft of the story, the real backbone.  He remains at the end wrapped in as much, if not more, mystery than in which he starts the tale.

Susanna Clarke is clearly a talented writer, and I will definitely get hold of more books that flow from her pen.  I hope though that she branches out in terms of her themes and styles, because as much as I enjoyed the novel, I was not left eagerly anticipating its sequel.  I was rather well satisfied with the literary meal and had no room for dessert.  I will though recommend this book as a great read.