F&SF that I Read in 2007: C
James Nicoll
Title Author Publication Date
EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD Castro, Adam Troy 3/1/2008
A human investigator with a troubled past is assigned to
come with an acceptable solution to a murder on a habitat whose
owners humans really, really don't want to piss off.
FIRSTBORN Clarke, Arthur C. 1/1/2008
Baxter, Stephen
Humans struggle to survive the malevolent attention of
innumerate conservationist aliens.
I probably should have filed this under Baxter: there's no
hint of Clarke in this series at all.
ECHELON Conviser, Josh
Cyperpunk spy stuff in which an agent for an uberspy organization
that effectively controls all information and through that the world is
resurrected from the dead and sent out to foil a villainous plot.
Really not to my taste.
EMPYRE Conviser, Josh
The protagonist from the above is forced to deal with the
consequences of the outcome that he acheived.
Also "meh."
A FORTRESS IN SHADOW Cook, Glen 6/1/2007
I believe that this collects THE FIRE IN HIS HANDS and WITH
MERCY TOWARDS NONE, both of which detail the life of El Murid, the
Muhammad figure in the Dread Empire setting.
I prefer the other Dread Empire books but this is still worth
a look for Cook completists.
ENDLESS THINGS Crowley, John 5/1/2007
I suck: no only do I not remember reading this but even after
reading an online description I cannot recall what it was about.
--
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Howard
>
> A FORTRESS IN SHADOW Cook, Glen 6/1/2007
>
> I believe that this collects THE FIRE IN HIS HANDS and WITH
> MERCY TOWARDS NONE, both of which detail the life of El Murid, the
> Muhammad figure in the Dread Empire setting.
>
> I prefer the other Dread Empire books but this is still worth
> a look for Cook completists.
>
I've always enjoyed the Dread Empire books more than his Dark Company
stuff....really wish he would return to that setting.
William December Starr
Howard <rayc...@hotmail.com> said:
[ re Glen Cook ]
> I've always enjoyed the Dread Empire books more than his Dark
> Company stuff....really wish he would return to that setting.
Nit: Black Company. And I understand that he'd have liked to have
written more Dread Empire, but the sales just weren't there.
--
William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>
Howard
> > I've always enjoyed the Dread Empire books more than his Dark
> > Company stuff....really wish he would return to that setting.
>
> Nit: Black Company. And I understand that he'd have liked to have
> written more Dread Empire, but the sales just weren't there.
>
Man, my typos aren't getting any better...
Yah, I sort of assumed that the sales weren't there. I guess I caught
that series at the right time in my reading. By the time he started
the Black Company books, I was already moving away from reading any
significant amount of fantasy.
sigi...@yahoo.com
> I believe that this collects THE FIRE IN HIS HANDS and WITH
> MERCY TOWARDS NONE, both of which detail the life of El Murid, the
> Muhammad figure in the Dread Empire setting.
>
> I prefer the other Dread Empire books but this is still worth
> a look for Cook completists.
IMS they were prequels and suffered from the usual prequel problems.
Also, the books are very explicit that the Mohammed figure is the
victim of fraud; his divine revelation is an elaborate scam being
pulled by wossname, the nasty old man with the horn. This makes the
books even more darkly cynical than most Cook. Which is saying
something.
That said, they don't suck. If you like the other Dread Empire books,
this is a chance to hang with (some of) those characters some more.
Doug M.
Ian Galbraith
> In article <884658a9-c9d1-4319...@q10g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
> Howard <rayc...@hotmail.com> said:
>
> [ re Glen Cook ]
>
>> I've always enjoyed the Dread Empire books more than his Dark
>> Company stuff....really wish he would return to that setting.
>
> Nit: Black Company. And I understand that he'd have liked to have
> written more Dread Empire, but the sales just weren't there.
In fact weren't the plots of the later Black Company books plots that he
had intended to use for a continuation of the Dread Empire series?
--
"Artists and their surrogates who fall into the trap of seeking
recompense for every possible second use end up attacking their own best
audience members for the crime of exalting and enshrining their work." -
Jonathan Lethem
Andrew Plotkin
>
> EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD Castro, Adam Troy 3/1/2008
>
> A human investigator with a troubled past is assigned to
> come with an acceptable solution to a murder on a habitat whose
> owners humans really, really don't want to piss off.
I just finished this and I was really, really pleased.
I write off a fair number of books every year with "I don't like any
of these people". Castro has put together a compelling story about
unlikeable people, which is not the same thing. The investigator,
Andrea Cort, is an avowed misanthrope, bitter, prickly, vindictive;
but the narration comes from right in the middle of that, making it
clear that she saves the worst for herself. And the "troubled past"
(explained in the first few pages) gives excellent justification for
her outlook (and inlook). I found this completely believable. Cort is
hard to like but easy to respect.
But the book isn't a wallow in angst. Cort deals with the ongoing
suckiness of her life by throwing herself at her job. Which means we
dive straight into the mystery plot, which is full of enough riddles
to keep me going full blast. Mysterious AIs (the owners of the
habitat), mysterious aliens (engineered by the AIs for absolutely no
known reason, except perhaps to flout human laws on slavery?),
mysterious diplomatic repercussions (the humans *really* want to not
piss off the AIs, and the AIs might want anything at all), plus the
odd murder or two. Among a human population who are, largely, a bunch
of jerks.
I'm probably making this book sound deeply unpleasant. And it is
indeed a story about crimes, including petty corruption, malice,
anger, manipulation, and people being treated like crap. Somehow
Cort's viewpoint makes this tolerable. She expects the worst, even
sympathizes with them; and then she's (just occasionally) dumbfounded
by the best in people.
Plus, the mysteries get resolved in a satisfactory way (I figured out
about a third of what was going on), with many bang-up action scenes
along the way, and a measure of optimism at the end. Good all-round SF
mystery. I look forward to more.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
If the Bush administration hasn't thrown you in military prison
without trial, it's for one reason: they don't feel like it. Not
because of the Fifth Amendment.
David DeLaney
>Here, James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>> EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD Castro, Adam Troy 3/1/2008
>>
>> A human investigator with a troubled past is assigned to
>> come with an acceptable solution to a murder on a habitat whose
>> owners humans really, really don't want to piss off.
>
>I just finished this and I was really, really pleased.
>
>I write off a fair number of books every year with "I don't like any
>of these people". Castro has put together a compelling story about
>unlikeable people, which is not the same thing.
And I have just started it (because I'm about to go from putting B books in
boxes to putting C books in boxes), and it's drawing me in;
>The investigator,
>Andrea Cort, is an avowed misanthrope, bitter, prickly, vindictive;
and very _good_ at it too. A Bastard Investigator From Hell, to use the
Usenet jargon.
>Among a human population who are, largely, a bunch of jerks.
realism for the win!
>I'm probably making this book sound deeply unpleasant. And it is
>indeed a story about crimes, including petty corruption, malice,
>anger, manipulation, and people being treated like crap. Somehow
>Cort's viewpoint makes this tolerable. She expects the worst, even
>sympathizes with them; and then she's (just occasionally) dumbfounded
>by the best in people.
She hooked me by having reprogrammed the computer who helps wake her up from
coldsleep to have a nasty, snarky, cynical personality because she couldn't
stand the syrupy-sweet one they usually had. Banter ensues.
Dave
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