Wolfe, Sterling, Dedman, Wells: Mini-reviews
Kennedy, David (EXCHANGE:IRE07:GC42)
break; here are some random and very short comments:
(1) Gene Wolfe, "The Fifth Head of Cerebus"
Part of Orion's SF Masterworks series (which seems to be a
very impressive list of titles indeed). I really like Wolfe's
books, but confess to understanding little of some of them.
With this one, I knew of the link to the Long Sun books, but
have to admit to being a bit baffled by this otherwise.
Anyone care to give me an idiots version of what it was about
and then I'll see if I was close? That said I quite liked it,
although the three story structure didn't quite work for me, mainly
due to the central one being quite obscure. I was frustrated
rather than intrigued. Less enjoyable than most of his novels
that I've read, although I haven't been brave enough for
something like "There are Doors" yet.
(I also read 1/2 of it in bed, maybe being half asleep
made it harder to grasp? Nah... :-) )
(2) Bruce Sterling, "Distraction"
A hard one to summarise. It's about a political spin doctor and
his media 'krewe' who slip off after getting a US senator installed.
While on their 'holiday' they end up leading a revolution at
a secure scientific installation, getting embroiled in high
level politics and changing the fabric of US society...
This does a very poor job of explaining the book actually!
The best thing about it is the wonderful anarchic future US
society that he protrays, though it relies on magic biotech
a little too much for background sometimes.
It's, IMO, his best book since "The Hacker Crackdown" (which
was non-fiction). I very much enjoyed it. It had a few
plot holes, a few unresolved threads and is LOADED with
implausabilities - but those are the very reason that I loved
it. One of the least likely reifications of net.culture I've
ever some across in fiction - and yet one of the few that
I could actually see working! Fast paced, stuffed with
interesting ideas, and well written - recommended.
(3) Stephen Dedman, "The Art of Arrow Cutting"
Okay. Change of style here. Handsome drifter meets beautiful
girl in need at bus station in modern US. Boy loans girl money.
Girl gives boy her room key and moves on. Boy uses key.
Boy discovers key opens anything... Boy then looks for girl.
Boy ends up being chased by ninja, yajuza and Japanese
demons. Picks up a ninja sidekick and has a grand adventure,
learning to use magic before the showdown with the baddie's
boss. Oh, and the odd appearance of Japanese gods.
You know, the usual.
A weird blend of urban fantasy, action-adventure and
mythical fantasy. Competent writing, extremely good
story-telling, fast paced and fun. A bit shallow but who cares
when it's this good?
(4) Martha Wells, "The Death of the Necromancer"
An original fantasy. Oh my.
This is set in a world which reminded me of Sherlock Holmes'
London, actually a nicely realised fantasy city named Vienne,
with our hero (actually a villain) trying to outwit his
nemesis, a police inspector, in a world of society balls,
sewers, spooky magic, coach chases and mysterious gadgets.
Our hero is a bit of a dark horse, a rather distant protagonist,
he's of noble birth but has an alter ego as a master criminal.
His motely crew of friends and accomplices are wonderful,
with his girlfriend (an actress and thief), her grandmother
(to say more would spoil an excellent scene) and his pet wizard
(a marvellously debauched opium addict) being particularly
well characterised.
The plot kicks off with a standard heist during a ball going
wrong - with zombies in the cellar revealing that someone else
came for something else at the same time as our heroes go for
the gold. From here the plot thickens quickly, with numerous
strands well balanced. I particularly liked the amount of
backstory slipped in, often I thought that this must be a
sequel although I see no signs of this. I've noted from
web searches that "The Element of Fire" is set in the same
world, but is supposedly wholly separate.
An excellent novel.
(Aside:
I've trying to get hold of TEoF, but although I only need $17
to get a HB from the author the bank here (UK) wants to charge
7 pounds for the needed draft... which doesn't seem worthwhile
somehow when $17 ~ 10 pounds. I settled for a pb of "City
of Bones", her second novel, instead.)
--
David Kennedy, | kenn...@nortelnetworks.com
Northern Ireland Telecommunications | ESN: 6 751 2678
Engineering Centre (NITEC), | Phone: 01232 362678
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James Moar
(EXCHANGE:IRE07:GC42)" <kenn...@europem01.nt.com> wrote:
Spoilers for 'Fifth Head of Cerberus follow:
S
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>I managed to make a dent in my To Read pile over the Easter
>break; here are some random and very short comments:
>
>(1) Gene Wolfe, "The Fifth Head of Cerebus"
>
>Part of Orion's SF Masterworks series (which seems to be a
>very impressive list of titles indeed).
I'm glad to see this series, though I've already read all the ones they've
issued so far...
>I really like Wolfe's
>books, but confess to understanding little of some of them.
>With this one, I knew of the link to the Long Sun books, but
>have to admit to being a bit baffled by this otherwise.
Actually, I think Wolfe has said there is no link, despite the similarities.
>Anyone care to give me an idiots version of what it was about
>and then I'll see if I was close?
The first story is fairly straightforward, for Wolfe. The main character's
name, incidentally, is also Gene Wolfe (the aunt, another of the clone
family, is called Jeannine, and the narrator looks under W for his father's
books). The exact family arrangement has been much discussed at the URTH
mailing list, archived at http://www.moonmilk.com/urth
The second story is the most difficult, as you say. The confusion between
which of the races is human, and which is aboriginal, is intentional. They
may, in fact, both be different breeds of the same thing.
The third story basically deals with the replacement of the anthropologist
John V. Marsch by the boy (either an abo or half-abo). The Marsch and the
boy go on a field trip, and are attacked by what may well be a shapeshifter
in the form of an animal. Marsch is killed at this point, or not long after.
It could be that the boy kills him, then assumes his identity, covering it
with a faked account of his own death. When Marsch says it's difficult to
write, this is the boy. The boy then meets No. 5, is imprisoned, and left to
rot. He writes 'A Story', the second section of the book, which is both
based on what he knows about abos, and a secret confession to assuming
Marsch's identity (note the confusion in 'A Story' between Sandwalker and
Eastwind, and between human and abo).
>That said I quite liked it,
>although the three story structure didn't quite work for me, mainly
>due to the central one being quite obscure. I was frustrated
>rather than intrigued. Less enjoyable than most of his novels
>that I've read, although I haven't been brave enough for
>something like "There are Doors" yet.
I may be missing a lot (it's Wolfe. Of course I am), but that one seemed
rather more straightforward. t5HoC is the most difficult Wolfe novel I've
read, at least at surface level.
>(I also read 1/2 of it in bed, maybe being half asleep
>made it harder to grasp? Nah... :-) )
James Moar
"I am Homer of Borg. Lower your shields. Surrender your vessel. Resistance
is - ooh, donut!"
Samuel Paik
> (3) Stephen Dedman, "The Art of Arrow Cutting"
> story-telling, fast paced and fun. A bit shallow but who cares
> when it's this good?
Agreed.
> (4) Martha Wells, "The Death of the Necromancer"
> I particularly liked the amount of
> backstory slipped in, often I thought that this must be a
> sequel although I see no signs of this. I've noted from
> web searches that "The Element of Fire" is set in the same
> world, but is supposedly wholly separate.
_The Death of the Necromancer_ is in the same world as
_The Element of Fire_, but takes place many years afterwards
and shares no characters.
> I settled for a pb of "City of Bones", her second novel, instead.)
A very different novel from her other two. Very bleak, far-future,
post-apocalyptic SF. I found it tough slogging but I think it is
better written than _Fire_, which, like _Death_ is a fantasy action
novel with lots of nice touches.
Sam
--
Samuel S. Paik | http://www.webnexus.com/users/paik/
3D and multimedia, architecture and implementation
Solyent Green is kitniyot!
Marcel
get a copy (luckily), but she now mentions on her website that she no longer
has any copies available. Sorry........
Marcel
>(4) Martha Wells, "The Death of the Necromancer"
>(Aside:
>I've trying to get hold of TEoF, but although I only need $17
>to get a HB from the author the bank here (UK) wants to charge
>7 pounds for the needed draft... which doesn't seem worthwhile
>somehow when $17 ~ 10 pounds. I settled for a pb of "City
>of Bones", her second novel, instead.)
>
Kennedy, David (EXCHANGE:IRE07:GC42)
> > I settled for a pb of "City of Bones", her second novel, instead.)
>
Really? I'm almost finished it (the bus home from work should
be long enough to let me complete it) and I'm loving it; I think
it's very good indeed. Not tough going at all. I'm very glad
that I've 'discovered' Martha Wells, I hadn't read a decent
original fantasy in ages.
Kennedy, David (EXCHANGE:IRE07:GC42)
>
> In article <3712ED04...@europem01.nt.com>, "Kennedy, David
> (EXCHANGE:IRE07:GC42)" <kenn...@europem01.nt.com> wrote:
>
> Spoilers for 'Fifth Head of Cerberus follow:
>
> S
> P
> O
> I
> L
> E
> R
> S
> name, incidentally, is also Gene Wolfe (the aunt, another of the clone
> family, is called Jeannine, and the narrator looks under W for his father's
> books). The exact family arrangement has been much discussed at the URTH
> mailing list, archived at http://www.moonmilk.com/urth
I've been reading the material at http://www.coredcs.com/~rborski/
which is very useful.
> The second story is the most difficult, as you say. The confusion between
> which of the races is human, and which is aboriginal, is intentional. They
> may, in fact, both be different breeds of the same thing.
I realised that, but that isn't enough to build a novel around, not
for someone like Wolfe. It was the details of what happened next which
lost me...
> The third story basically deals with the replacement of the anthropologist
> John V. Marsch by the boy (either an abo or half-abo). The Marsch and the
> boy go on a field trip, and are attacked by what may well be a shapeshifter
> in the form of an animal. Marsch is killed at this point, or not long after.
> It could be that the boy kills him, then assumes his identity, covering it
> with a faked account of his own death. When Marsch says it's difficult to
> write, this is the boy. The boy then meets No. 5, is imprisoned, and left to
> rot. He writes 'A Story', the second section of the book, which is both
> based on what he knows about abos, and a secret confession to assuming
> Marsch's identity (note the confusion in 'A Story' between Sandwalker and
> Eastwind, and between human and abo).
I think my main problem lay with the Sandwalker/Eastwind switch, it
was sudden in the story and quite jarring - and then came back in
the last story. Thanks for this summary - it's clarified things for me,
I *suspected* that the boy and marsch had swapped places but wasn't too
sure what was going on. Keeping track of this was more difficult as
this section deliberately trickled the info in from the diaries, which
was fun to work with but frustrating when I was looking for a clear
cut answer. Basically, I need to reread it!
I was trying to work out if the boy was an abo - I don't think so now,
but...
> I may be missing a lot (it's Wolfe. Of course I am), but that one seemed
> rather more straightforward. t5HoC is the most difficult Wolfe novel I've
> read, at least at surface level.
Just to point out that I'm not utterly dumb - I did figure out that
No 5's real name could be Jean Wolf (Gene Wolfe), which I thought was
nice. I expect to miss a lot of the other mind games, particularly
in lit references for example. I don't mind - this *is* a Wolfe novel,
but it annoys me when I don't feel that I 'got' the main story.