Firebirds Rising

A while ago I did a ramble on a short story collection called Firebirds that I totally fell in love with.  Imagine my happiness when I found out that there was a...I guess you could call it a sequal?...collection called Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Sharyn November.  I loved this collection of YA targeted stories at least as much as the previous collection and am seriously having a hard time picking my favorites.  I will do my best and give you a bit of a taste of the amazing flavor that is this varied and phenomenal collection.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Huntress by Tamora Pierce - We start of the collection with one of my favorite authors who smacks us right in the face with a eerie and empowering story.  We have our loner girl who falls in with the popular crowd...who turn out to be very different from what we first think.  What starts out as an elite group of high school runners turns out to actually be a vigilante group that uses their speed and prowess to "cleanse" the area of undesirables...always an ethical conundrum.  The addition of an ancient goddess, murder, and Central Park all combine to make this a thrilling start to the collection.

Unwrapping by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - This is one of the stories in this collection that always sticks in my head long after I have read it.  This is a story of friendship between two unlikely friends, Brenna, who is shy and quiet and Nadia who is the life of the party.  This particular day happens to be Halloween and Nadia has a very special costume in mind.  Turns out Nadia is actually an alien with a bizarre flame like appearance and has befriended Brenna 'cause of her accepting nature.  After her initial shock Brenna helps her friend be herself.  I'm not sure what it is about this story, but I love it.

The Real Thing by Alison Goodman - Stories like this are one of the reasons I love a great short story collection.  In just a few pages the author has introduced me to a world and a writing style that makes me want to read more!  In this case, the story is set in a world the author has full length novels in and deals with the future and an alien race that can "link" with certain humans.  We follow our human partner as she tries to cope with some sort of social life all while contending with a partner who always wants to be in her head.  I am now scouring my book stores for books from this author.

In the House of the Seven Librarians by Ellen Klages - This is what short stories are meant to be.  In this tale we have a full story, beginning to end that creates a world, characters and story in complete perfection.  Of course that fact that this story is about a girl who grows up in an abandon library with seven librarians for guardians may also be part of its appeal.  To me this story is pure magic and one of the reasons I started reading in the first place.  I love how complete and coherent this story is, I love how magical this story feels and I love how much I love this story.

Jack o' Lantern by Patricia McKillip - Another story of pure magic.  I love this author in paticular when I want to totally escape from life and enter a world of utter fantasy.  This short story did not disappoint and had the added advantage of being a quick in between life's chaotic moments read.  The author includes art, myth, youth and imagination all combined to create a story that is also a work of art.  Sigh...so happy.

These are just a tiny sample of the awesome and amazing variety of stories in this collection.  I really enjoyed that it was a mix of Sci Fi and Fantasy.  I liked that each story was original and complete to themselves.  I liked...well I really pretty much just liked everything about it.  Usually in collections like this it is hit or miss.  I tend to like about half the stories and love just a few, but in this case I seriously enjoyed every story and fell in love with several of them.  AND the best part?!?!  There is a third collection!!!!!  Yep this is overall a trilogy of short story collections.  It is now sitting on my shelf and I am so excited to read it!  I give this collection 9 out of 10 phoenix feathers and recommend it to pretty much everybody!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Glitter And Weirdness

Hi hi hi, busy busy busy, but what else is new right?  Finished a short story collection that I have been working on for a while now.  Glitter and Mayhem edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas was initially put on my list for a very specific story and was read because of the insanely open ended yet very interesting premise.  Essentially this is a vastly varied and extensive collection of stories that span the genre's from sci fi to fantasy to disco romance.  Every gender, race (alien, fantasy and human), and potential setting is represented here in some way shape or form.  This makes for a collection that has something for everyone even if every one isn't into every something.  Ok on to my favorite stories.

Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster by Christopher Barzak - We start the collection with a twisted version of one my favorite fairy tales, The Twelve Dancing Princesses.  In this version, the girls go with their mysterious princes through a portal that leads to all kinds of famous clubs through out various era's (think Studio 54).  Our girls lose themselves in the sex, drugs, alcohol and music of the various era's.  Definitely hits the ground running for a first story in this collection.

Subterraneans by William Shunn and Laura Chavoen - This is a bit of a twisted and uncomfortable story about a pair of girls who get mixed up in a crowd that allows a person to "ride" another.  Special pills enable the taker to essentially ride along in another person's head even to the point of being able to influence them to some degree.  It all falls apart when the being that is supplying the pill gets upset and has to be dealt with by using her own pill against her.  This story is both intriguing and unsettling in it's conveyance of free will, possession, addiction and power.  All kinds of crazy cool in this story.

The Minotaur Girls by Tansly Rayner Roberts - Our story is a take on the Minotaur myth with a roller skating twist.  The Minotaur is a skate club that only is available by invitation.  Our heroine's friends are selected to become a part of the elite and eventually Tess (our heroine) is too.  Once in the club she discovers that all the boys and girls who have gained enterance to the club are actually prisoners in this bizzare glittery skate disco.  Tess follows various clues and hints through a labyrinth that eventually leads her to the Minotaur, a "woman" who controls the club and informs Tess that she is just a body for the Minotaur to inhabit.  Tess rebels and eventually frees everybody to try and live a different and better life YAY!

Such and Such and So and So by Maria Dahvana Headley - This story is just plain weird...but some of the visuals are so cool that it is still worth the read...even if I still have no idea what it's about.  The best part of the story is how the various drinks come to life and interact with the various patrons based on their contents.  So...yeah I like this story for the alcohol...

Bad Dream Girl by Seanan McGuire - This is the story I originally got this collection for in the first place and it did not disappoint.  It is a short story set in the authors InCryptid world and features one of my favorite characters Antimony.  I have been dying for a full book with this character as the lead, but I'll settle for this roller derby short story instead.  In this tale, the youngest Price girl combines her love of roller derby with her job as an InCryptid hunter/protecter to help the beings that she has spent her life on.  The story contains all of the authors plus's and makes me really really want another full length book!

A Hollow Play by Amal El-Mohtar - A recently out as gay Emily is adjusting to her new life in a new city.  She is invited out to the Spangled Cabaret by Anna, a girl who Emily admires from work.  They are mostly there to see Lynette one of the three in the triad that Anna is part of along with a guy named Kel.  Lynette turns out to be an amazing singer and Emily ends up at home with all three of them.  Emily discovers that Lynette and Kel are actually beings from another dimension that need a great sacrifice to get home.  Emily volunteers to give the sacrifice in return for finding someone she lost.  The results are bittersweet, but end on a hopeful note.  This is a cool mix of humanity at its best and a wonderful fantasy element.

Just Another Future Song by Daryl Gregory - I have two words for you...David Bowie...This entry is another weird one, but this one contains a bit of a mystery for us to figure out.  I'm kind of proud of myself 'cause I figured out the "twist" if you can call it that from almost the first line of the story.  Ok I'm not really explaining this story 'cause really you just need to read it.

Of the twenty one stories in this collection I really only like about half of them and really only had the few I mentioned stick with me.  I felt that a lot of the stories in the collection were overly weird just for the sake of being weird...but that is just my opinion.  I think the sheer number of stories may have contributed to the muddled feeling of the overall collection with no real pointed direction.  That being said, I really enjoyed the stories I liked and it is nice to see such a broad range of life so well represented in the pages.  The plus side to so many and so varied stories is that a broad range of people if they are patient enough to sample all the stories will probably find something to love.  I give it 6 out of 10 disco balls and recommend it to anybody who likes something out of the box.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Complications of Blended Families

Hi all, sorry for the insanely spotty posting...but life...so it will probably continue for at least another couple of weeks.  Anyways how about a quick rambling?  The nicer weather has made me pull out some of my graphic novels and Saga Volume II by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Fiona Staples was up to bat.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

When we last left our Romeo and Juliettesque little family they were hurtling through space on a wooden rocket ship (I want of of these SOOOOOO bad!) and had been visited/invaded by Marko's parents.  We learn a little bit about Marko's childhood on the moon Wreath and she his parents devotion to him and each other.  Upon arriving Marko's mother Klara banishes the ghost baby sitter Izabel to a local planetoid and Marko goes after her.  Marko's mother also decides to go after her son.  Alana and her newborn daughter are left with Barr, Marko's father.  After some hesitation on both sides, the two of them bond...mostly over little Hazel...but still start to warm to each other.  After some much needed sleep Alana discovers that Barr has used his considerable skills to make special cloths for the family.  He also reveals to Alana that he has only a very short amount of time to live and that he has told nobody else.  Back on the planetoid Marko and his mamma run into all kinds of fun trouble, but eventually recover Izabel...of course they also discover that the planetoid is actually a huge space egg with a deadly creature inside about to hatch.  Elsewhere in the universe many a folk are trying to hunt down our little family and especially their mixed daughter.  The Will (our intrepid freelancer) is still brooding over the death of his girlfriend The Stalk and his inability to rescue Slave Girl from her owners.  After several day dreams and refusal to continue his mission, Gwendolyn, a kick ass Wreath native...and Marko's infamous ex-fiancee...appears to motivate The Will.  She helps him find a way to rescue Slave Girl and convinces him to go after Marko and Alana.  This culminates in the wooden rocket ship being discovered and almost destroyed.  The ship is saved by Barr using the last of his strength to hold everything together, dying in the process of protecting his family. The Will and company are sent on their merry way...for the moment.  Also hot on the trail of our little mixed up family is the Prince Robot IV.  He is not allowed to go home until he has completed his mission of slaying Marko and Alana and bringing back the baby.  He has used his knowledge of the progression of the duo's relationship from prisoner and keeper to husband and wife and mother and father.  We as the lucky readers also get to watch this happen.  Essentially it is a book (so awesome) of disguised rhetoric of peace that brings them together.  Prince Robot IV discovers that the author of the book lives on the planet Quietus and surmises that the couple may end up there.  He go's and visits the author who though injured by the robot, covers the fact that the little family is already there.  This is where we end our story...for now.

Since the format of this is different from a "normal" book, I'm gonna use my original rambling format.  A lot of what I loved in the first volume of this story remains in this second volume.  I love watching the pair, and especially Alana deal with the realities of new parenthood while also trying to travel, survive and still have a "meet the parents" moment.  Learning more of the pairs history, especially Marko's really starts to give the family feel of this story some good strong roots.  Finding out some more of the details of Marko and Alana's relationship was also a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed the character of Gwendolyn and how she wasn't some bitch pining away for her man, but instead just wanted her stuff back so she could move on with life.   The Will continued to show both his brutal side and his soft side, sometimes in conflict with each other to make him our freelancer with a heart of gold.  The other thing I really liked about this installment of the series was how they showed the toll that this never ending war was taking on the rest of the galaxy.   Various species on multiple worlds are drafted into either side of the war through no choice of their own, but the whims of whatever army got there first.  Some species thrive and have become an interagal part to the Wreath and Landfall people.  Others are pressed into service or killed wholesale in the name of a people that they have never seen and have no real right to push this war and it's horrors on them.  We see a universe of wonder and variety and amazement that is becoming tired and weary and just about done.  I think this is great because a) this is a reality even now in our real lives and b) sets up so many options for future volumes.  I continue to enjoy this series and it's mix of fantasy, sci fi and domestic bliss...or what passes for it when you haven't slept in 96 hours.  I can't wait to continue this series and give it 7 out of 10 bad romance novels.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Earth VS Mars VS The Belt

Hola Readers, sorry for the lack of posting, but 110 hours in 8 days on an ambulance makes this little bookworm a wee bit exhausted.  I have however gotten some sleep and finished an awesome book so lets ramble for a bit shall we?  The book is Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey...which is actually the pen name of two authors by the names of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.  It is the first book in the Expanse series which is a pretty epic story in space.  My Mamma recommended it and as always she knows what I like.  Let's dive right into it shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is pretty much divided between the perspectives of Detective Miller and Captain Holden.  Each chapter switches between the two characters and is labeled as such and makes the reading experience very clear and concise.  Before all that though we start with a proloug in which we meet Julie.  Julie appears to be a prisoner and we watch her escape onto an empty ship where she makes a horrifying discovery of her entire crew and her captors turned into a weird pile of sludge and still living body parts...pretty blechy if you ask me.  She makes her escape and our story starts.  On Ceres station, in an area of space called The Belt, Detective Miller is tasked with finding Julie Mao, the daughter of a wealthy business family who has run away to join the OPA (Outer Planet Alliance) a loosely formed group that runs the gamet between an advocacy group and out and out terrorists.  Essentially people who live outside the inner planet area (mostly Mars and Earth) feel that they are discriminated against by the inner planet folk.  I could really write pages about the politics, but I think this is enough for the current story.  Detective Miller starts his research and he and the reader start to get to know Julie through various means as he searches for any sign of her.  Meanwhile on a ship called the Canterbury XO Holden takes a group of people to check out a ship called the Scopuli which is giving off a distress signal.  While exploring a mysterious force destroys the Canterbury leaving Holden and his crew (Naomi, Alex, Amos and Shed) as the remaining survivors.  Holden makes a discovery that the equipment used to send the fake distress signal was of Martian origin and he sends out a broadcast to the universe to that affect.  This essentially sets of a war between the OPA and Mars.  Holden and his crew then begin a series of moves and discoveries that eventually coincide with Detective Miller and his search for Julie.  Holden and his crew end up on a station that specializes in construction and is run by Fred Johnson, a former military hero turned OPA leader in a "commandeered" ship that the crew now call their own.  They ally with Fred as he is willing to be reasonable and utilize his resources to get to the bottom of the whole mystery.  Eventually the crew meets up with Detective Miller on Eros station where they finally find the body of Julie Mao...after a pretty bloody fire fight.  The body is growing weird growths of various shapes, sizes and textures.  After this discovery, the station goes into lock down and the inhabitants are herded into various "safe" zones.  Miller and Holden get separated and discover that the lock down is just a ploy to get the people gathered so that this mysterious group can experiment on them...without their knowledge of course.  After much stuff and things we finally discover that an Earth cooperation had discovered a block of ice embedded with an alien virus that was meant to rewrite DNA long before humans came along.  The cooperation wants to find a way to modify the virus to rewrite human DNA for various means.  The cooperation is ended, but they are still left with the problem of Eros.  Video and audio feeds from Eros reveal a horror show of growths, human remains acting in unnatural ways, and the station itself reacting to all attempts to destroy it.  Eventually Miller realizes that Julie is still alive in some form and that the virus is using her experiences and mind to do its dreadful work.  Miller boards the station and makes his way through the haunting and terrifying situation to find what is left of Julie and convinces her to crash the station on Venus, a planet that is still inhabitable by humans.  There the virus starts to rework the planet.  The rest of the human inhabited universe learns what is going on and goes back to some semblance of normalcy and Holden and his crew fly off to further adventures.  Obviously a very abbreviated version of a fairly complex book, but it's the gist of the story if nothing else.

World Building - This book is set apx 200 years in the future, in a combination of space, ships, stations and planets.  The authors did a fantastic job in setting up a complex and sweeping universe without boring the crap out of anybody.  The "science" of things felt plausible, which for me is always a plus as when things get tossed in with no sense it takes me out of the world.  It was not overly explained, nor was information withheld just to try and up the tension.  I felt like I had a good grasp of the asthetics, politics, and society of this books worlds. While reading it was easy to get immersed in the world as it unfolded in a natural and complete way.  World building gets an A+++++ from me :-)

Story - I loved the story put forth in this book.  With all of the complex politics and world building it would be very easy to loose the story in all of the details that the author could have piled on us.  Instead we get a clear, engaging mystery that has a beginning, middle and end while still leaving tons of room for future stories.  I am always impressed, especially in hard core sci fi and an author(s) can produce a readable story that is as fresh and original as this one.  I think the fact that the authors pulled in elements of noir, horror, mystery and a the perfect amount of humor really brought this story into the realm of a great read.  In the end we are left with an intriguing mystery that has just the right amount of twists and reveals that also lets us learn about the characters and the universe.  Good show guys good show.

Characters - The characters of this book were spot on.  Each main character was full developed with their own stories, belief's, moral code and attitude.  I felt like I could walk up to any of them and know exactly who they were.  The interactions between the characters was superb, with each interaction adding to the story and the picture of each character.  Miller and Holden's interactions were my favorite as the authors used them to show both sides of almost every situation.  They would have discussions and arguments and by the time they were done, you could at a minimum agree that they both had valid points.  I love this because it made the book feel balanced and fair and that the authors were not trying to shove any sort of agenda down your throats.  I also liked how every character stayed in character...what I mean is nobody did anything wildly out of character just to further the story.  Character rocked it.

Editing - The way the book was set up, with each chapter focusing on a specific character that we got to know very well was the perfect format for this book.  It was easy to follow, engaging and we got all the information we needed to understand exactly what was going on.  Sometimes in these epic sagas I have to flip back a couple pages to make sure I understand what I am reading, but this book flowed so smoothly.  Considering that two separate authors worked on this book, makes this feat even more amazing.  Go editors!

Language - The use of language in this book added a lot to the clarification and understanding of the various places in the universe.  For instance the Belters have their own lingo, stringing together words and phrases in a way that would only make sense to a native.  The closer to the inner planets you get the more refined the language becomes.  The characters also have a habit of giving names to things they have never seen before.  My personal favorite is vomit zombies, which is what they call the inhabitants of Eros station that have been infected by the alien virus.  It has got to be one of the most descriptive yet simple labels I have ever heard and I now use it in my everyday vernacular.  Each character also has a distinct voice that the authors wrote to reflect each particular individuals background and life.  Overall the language of this book was used to enhance the world building to a very effective degree.

Julie Mao - I'm gonna give this character her own space 'cause for all that she is only physically present in the book for a couple of pages, her existence is pretty much the whole basis for this book.  I found it brave and interesting that the actions of this girl, who made choices and decisions that any of us would have made are pretty much the catalyst for so many things in this book.  I also like how well we got to know her as a person and how the characters also got to know her in their own ways.  This is all very crucial near the end, when this feeling of knowing...and in Detective Millers case, loving Julie, leads to the understanding of how the virus is controlling the station.  Julie is very much a present character through out the entire story despite her pretty much being dead from the beginning. She is important to us not only in the beginning, but through out the book as she becomes part of each step of the mystery and in particular what she becomes to Detective Miller.  It is a great way to add a bit of an unusual twist to the story.

TV Show - The Syfy channel has attempted to make this into a tv show called The Expanse and in all honesty it's not bad.  My biggest issue with it is that after the clear and directness of the book, the tv show actually feels overly complicated...which is weird 'cause usually I'm upset because they over simplify things.  That being said the show really tried hard, and in most cases succeeded in showing us the various places in the universe and their disparate societies.  It is visually stunning and the casting is pretty well done.  I know they are trying to get the politic and such across...I just wish they had stuck to the cleaner format.  I will however be watching the next season so there is that.

Overall Impression - In case you hadn't figured it out, I really enjoyed this book.  It is everything I want a science fiction book...well any book really to be.  It avoided many of the pitfalls that these sweeping epics tend to fall into and left me with a very readable, very enjoyable, very good book.  I am desperately hoping this quality keeps up through out the series and will without a doubt be picking up the next book. I give this book 8 out of 10 textured fungus skewers and recommend it to any fan of science fiction, epics, or just a great combination of story, world building and character.
Happy Reading Everybody!

Alternate Exploration

If you go through my rambling list I am sure you will notice that my favorite genres are science fiction and fantasy.  I think one of the best thing about these genre's is their ability to explore real world issues without "offending the masses".  Ok reading that it sounded a little bit pretentious and snotty...let me see if I can try this again.  Sometimes when an author tries to to write about a legitimate issue, too much political correctness tends to overshadow the message they are trying to get across.  In science fiction and fantasy we can create whole worlds, governments, races, societies and situations just to address a specific (or in really good books several) issues that may be a bit

sticky to tackle in a real world.  In fantasy we see old school epic kingdoms play out human history with people and countries that don't exist.  In science fiction our fears and questions of the future are played across worlds.  The addition of magical and/or alien races give us a group of people that we can apply stereotypes to...then hopefully destroy them without the message getting lost in cultural appropriation, whitewashing, and other problems that plague certain mainstream novels.  In these imaginary spaces we as humans feel more comfortable exploring the things that make us uncomfortable in the real world.  We can explore why these issues and problems exist, ask the questions that maybe don't have answers, and offer possible solutions that we can work out in the sandbox of imagination.  I have read many older science fiction and fantasy books that set forth idea's that during their publication time were weird or out there and are now taken for granted as normal.  I hope I am getting my point across here.  I'm not trying to do anything other then point out that along with all the other wonderful genre's science fiction and fantasy allow us to truly explore our real world in a way that may not be possible in real time.  Ok enough philosophizing and back to reading.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Flinging Across Space

Hi Readers!  How was your weekend?  Mine was insanely busy...but what else is new :-)  I did however manage to blaze through a book, which I will now ramble about.  The book The Rowan by my favorite Anne McCaffrey is an old school sci fi book that is always a perfect go to book.  We have been watching The X-Files here at my house and it made me nostalgic for some of my old school reading so The Rowan was grabbed and read.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Rowan is about an orphan colonial child who is found to have great telekinetic and telepathic abilities.  In this future universe, people with any sort of mental abilities are called Talents and the people who posses the high level and rare combination of telekinesis and telepathy are called Primes and are invaluable to keeping the now space fairing human race going.    These Primes have the ability to fling any object, large or small across an set amount of space.  This includes ships, drones, packages and any other thing a new planetary colony may need.  The Rowan is the child rescued from a devastating mudslide on the colonial planet Altair.  She is deemed to be Prime material and is so trained.  We follow the Rowen as she grows from a child to a teenager, encountering many hardships, growing moments along the way.  She also develops her talents, showing a promise to become one of the most talented Primes alive.  The next part of the book shows the Rowan taking over her own Prime station.  She is adept at her job and continues to grow but she if very lonely.  Although she tries, any person under her high level of talent just is not comfortable spending too much time around her.  This is loneliness is made worse by her inability to leave the moon on which her station is built due to dealing with a traumatizing illness anytime she tries to leave.  One day while working, the Rowan is contacted by mind from the far away colonial planet Deneb.  The contact states that the planet is under attack and requests help.  After lobbing a few missiles Earth's way to demonstrate the sever danger the planet is under.  To save the planet the Rowen merges with the other Prime talents to give the Deneb mind a chance to defeat the aliens.  After the crisis is over, the mind of Deneb in the form of Jeff Raven appears, and thanks to the intense merger discovers that he and the Rowan are in love.  The two of them spend time together, but the Rowans inability to travel makes their new love difficult.  Jeff Raven heads back to Deneb and the Rowan resumes work.  the Rowan is devastated when she loses contact with Jeff and learning he has been gravely injured transports herself to Deneb to nurse him back to health.  Jeff eventually heals and he and the Rowan are officially a pair.  Jeff signs on the the FT&T which is the impartial and neutral company that employs the Primes and pretty much controls all the instantaneous transport within the scope of humanity.  The last part of the book follows the Rowan and Jeff as they start their family and cope with the new responsibilities given to them by FT&T.  This culminates in a son with a second child on the way for the happy couple.  the Rowan and her female talents start to feel a malevolent presence that turns out to be the same aliens that had attacked before, but with infinantly more power. The Rowan merges with all the other female talents and Jeff merges with all the male kinetics and hopefully ends the alien threat for once and for all.  The book ends with Jeff and the Rowan  continuing to build their family and the FT&T finally carving a life for themselves.

World Building - I feel one of the authors strengths is world building.  The universe in which this story is set is detailed and complete.  It is set in a future Earth era where humans have expanded into space.  The FT&T and Talent set up is pretty well explained and very consistent through out the whole book.  This is one of those worlds that stays with you long after you have finished the book.  It is also one you feel infinite stories can be told in.    I found it interesting that for the purposes of this series, it was a private company and in some ways economics that was the focus of this universe.  That being said, the author was good at keeping the setting aligned with the other parts of the book.

Story - The story was fairly cohesive, following the main character through several stages of her life.  While the Rowan, Jeff and the aliens provided a thread to follow, the story was more episodic then flowing, more a series of short glimpses to make a whole then a beginning to end story. This worked for this book, setting up a universe and characters more then any over all story.  It kept me engaged from beginning to end and lived up to it's premise.

Characters - I found in this book, that along with the world building, characters were a very strong point in this book.  The characters where varied. well written and well fleshed out.  They interacted with each other in meaningful ways and every character introduced had a purpose.  My favorites were Jeff's mother Isthia of the ear, Elizara the insanely talented medic and both Ackerman and Gerolaman the stationmasters all of whom had great senses of humor.  I did feel that the Rowan had a bit of the special snowflake syndrome, being the bestest ever at being a Prime, but felt it was tempered by the hardships and personal issues she had to endure.

Editing - The book was divided into four parts, and at times it felt like four separate stories strung together.  There was a bit of choppiness and disparities between the parts as well that sometimes took me out of the world to say to myself "um that is not what was said/happened in the last part".  Part of this is the fact that the middle part of the book started as a completed short story and that the rest of the book was built around that.  Overall though the pacing and flow of the book was very good.

Talents - I love love love the concept and execution of the talents in this future universe.  The author introduced the concept and followed through with it in a very scientific, yet understandable way.  She then continued to be consistant and varied with the various types, strengths and combinations a person could have.  She also made sure to have a structured environment where a talent can and would thrive, be useful and be accepted as a valuable member of society.  It would be very easy for the author to make a book about the "normal" people vs. the "talented" people, but instead she integrated them into a economic society.  I just really love the concept and execution of the concept.
The Love Story - Sooo... not really a fan of how Jeff just happened to appear and be a perfect match for the Rowan right when she was feeling the most lonely.  I guess I understand that if you merged your whole mind with somebody you would know pretty quickly if you loved them or not...but it still seemed pretty convenient.  I also was not a fan of the proprietary bossing around of the Rowan, especially when she was pregnant by Jeff, and also a few other's, but mostly Jeff.  It felt like since he loved her, he felt he could control her when he felt it was in her best interest.  On the plus side, the Rowan usually fought back against the imposed restrictions and overall Jeff loved and appreciated the Rowan for exactly who she was.

Personal Interactions - One of my favorite parts about this book, and the author in general is how the characters interact with each other.  The book has many characters and they all play a role with their own personalities, likes and dislikes.  Not one character is perfect, they all have their positives and negatives and they all deal with each other on different levels.  Watching these interactions gives an authenticity to the book that is phenomenal and really elevates it above a lot of other books.  It is nice to see an author have a grasp on true human interactions and work them so well into the book.

Complete Randomness - I just want to say I love the original cover of this book (the first pic on the post) the colors themselves just make me happy.  Also I have an old school paperback version of the book and it smells incredible!!!  So yeah...

Overall Impression - I love this book.  It definitely has it's flaws, but I go back to this story over and over again.  It is one of those that get's in my brain and stays there.  I feel this is mostly due to the amazing universe the author has created.  This is a great start to a great series and I will continually go back to it as both a nostalgia piece and just a good book.  I recommend it to anybody who wants to read incredible world building, sci fi with a more domestic bent or just really loves Anne McCaffrey.

Score - I give this book 8 out of 10 pukah's

That is today's rambling...not to bad considering I've taken care of and transported close to a ton of human flesh this week.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!!

Philosophical Clones

Sorry for the black out yesterday, but my internets was being dumb...silly internets.  We are up and running now and will now do a quick ramble on a weird/cool/thinky/undefinable book I just finished.  The book is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  I really don't remember where I heard about this book, or why I picked it up, but it was worth the read.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'll try and keep this briefer then my more current ramblings and try and focus on my thoughts and feelings of the book rather then every detail of the plot.  The book is in the form of a diary/confessional style narrative.  Kathy is our guide to this familiar, yet odd world.  We start with Kathy reflecting as her years as a Carer for people called Donors and how she will soon make the switch from one to the other.  We learn pretty quickly that Donors are clones that are required to donate their organs as they become needed, and Carers are clones who care for them until it is their time to donate.  Oddly enough, this is not really what the "story" is about.  I put "story" in quotes because it does not have a solid plot line like we are used to, instead getting flashbacks into Kathy, and her best friends Ruth and Tommy's life as she is reminded by various things of her past.  The first part of the book is mostly devoted to the the trio's life at Hailsham, a school where some of the clones are raised.  As they grow up, they are encouraged to create art in various forms to share with each other, with the best pieces going into a mysterious gallery.  As Kathy, Ruth and Tommy grow older, more and more is revealed to them about their role in society and what is expected of them.  Most of the narrative is spent in various scenes and vignettes of the trio and their evolving relationship.  The second part of the book follows our characters as they leave Hailsham for a place called The Cottages.  Here Ruth and Tommy continue to pursue a relationship and Kathy tries to figure out where she fits in. Ruth learns of a rumor that if a couple can prove that they are truly in love that they will get a defferal for their donations, getting to spend a couple of years together before the surgeries begin.  As time goes on Ruth gets more and more brash, Tommy starts to withdraw, and Kathy becomes a Carer. The last part of the book is where Kathy tells us what happened after the trio goes their separate ways.  After several years of becoming a top Carer, Kathy runs into Ruth after a particularly hard donation.  Kathy becomes Ruth's Carer and they seek out Tommy who has also started his donations.  Ruth admits that she kept Tommy and Kathy apart and want them to spend what little time they have left together, trying to get a deferment.  Ruth only makes it through one more donation before she "completes", which is what they call dying.  Ruth becomes Tommny's Carer and they hook up.  They find their old teacher and a woman they only know as Madame (Hailsham has been closed for years) to try and learn about the deferral.  Instead of this minor miracle they learn that Hailsham and the art were a group of humanitarian's way of trying to prove that clones had souls and should be raised and treated well until their donation time.  Unfortunately circumstances turned public opinion and the clones were once again raised in basic conditions.  Tommy and Ruth are disappointed, but understand.  Tommy asks Ruth to leave before he dies so she doesn't have to watch.  The book ends with Kathy ready to retire as a Carer and start her donations.

As I said earlier, this is less a beginning middle end story and more of a personal reflection, which worked well for this odd book.  This book is very hard to define, with the clones and donations you have a scifi/dystopia style theme, but it reads more like a classic fiction novel...strange, but original and kind of neat.  What struck me the most about this book was the sheer acceptance of the clones of their role in society.  Their was no talk of a revolution, or protest, or even people complaining of unfairness.  These kids are raised from birth to accept what they are with no questions asked. In fact at certain times, certain clones even seemed to look forward to starting donations.  I really liked how the author had the clones be in society, living, playing, and being among the normal people, but still apart in their own dwellings and their lack of meaningful interaction with non clones.  As far as I can tell, there is no visual way to distinguish a clone from a normal, so one would never be 100% sure if you were dealing with a clone or not.  The way the characters viewed life was understandably skewed with their exceptions of their future being so vastly different from our own, little things are more important to them, and they are able to face death in a calm and accepting manner.  At times the book got a little slow, with Kathy's narrative meandering here and their as her memories cropped up at random.  For somebody like me who likes to know things, the minimum of background information was a wee bit frustrating, but since that wasn't what the book was really about I was able to get over it.  Overall it is really hard to describe what was good, or bad, or eh about this book.  I love it for its undefinability and it's unique take on a scifi staple.  I do know that reading this has made me want to look at this authors other books, so that is good.  I give this book 7 out of 10 cassette tapes and recommend it to anybody who is looking for a unique book, a book that makes you think, or a book with a nice slow pace. Happy Reading Everybody!
Do you think society will accept anything give enough time?  How much does conditioning play into a persons acceptance of the horrible things in life?  Do I sound like a pretentious snot booger in this post?

Song Of The Really Expensive Crystal

Grabbed this book literally on my way out the door for my trip last week.  I had a bunch of new books I was very excited about reading, but grabbed this one just because.  I'm glad I did 'cause as I was chilling at the airport awaiting my flight, eating a big girl lunch I had the urge to read this exact book!  Thanks to the literary fates, I had it with me YAY!  The book is Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey the first of the Crystal series.  Was this the perfect book for the moment?  Find out, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Killashandra Ree has just found out that she will never realize her dream of becoming a star concert singer on her home world of Fuerte.  She has spent the last ten years training, only to be told that she has an unbearable burr in a specific range that pretty much will never be fixed.  Understandably upset Killashandra takes off to find adventure when she runs into a man who takes her on a whirlwind tour of her own planet, flashing credit (this books version of money) and status where ever he goes.  Turns out that he is a Crystal Singer, a rare individual with perfect pitch and total recall.  After an accident render's her companion essentially a vegetable, Killashandra decides to become a Crystal Singer herself.  Despite (or maybe because of) numerous warnings against it, Killashandra travels to Ballybran, the headquarters of the Heptite Guild, for which the Crystal Singers are trained and work.  During her research Killashandra finds the planet is under an isolation edict, with no one being allowed to set foot on the planet until full disclosure has happened.  Still undeterred Killa and several others start the process.  We follow the potential recruits as we learn about the Crystal industry.  We learn that as humans expand into the universe, communication has become an issue, as the distances create a time lag.  The discovery of the unique crystal of Ballybran has solved that problem and provided many other uses as well.  This has led the Heptite Guild and it's members to be able to become quite well off and also amass prestige.  Of course with all good things there is a downside and that is why the planet is isolated.  It is revealed that any human who lands on the planet is instantly exposed to a spore.  If a person fully adjusts to the spore, they are rewarded with sharper senses and a long life...sounds great right?  Well there are two HUGE downsides, the first is even if you make a full adaption, a person has to constantly return to Ballybran to recharge the spore, apx every 400 days at a maximum, this means you can never go more then 200 days away from the planet.  If a person fails to return, the ageing process proceeds very rapidly and you can age hundreds of years in seconds.  The other danger is that you will not make a full adaption and will never be able to leave the planet again.  There is no real way to determine 100% who will  make the adaption and who will only partially adapt so there is a real risk.   After this has all been revealed, Killa and her fellow hopefuls go ahead and land on the planet.  While they wait for the spore to adapt they learn all about Crystal, the cutting, the tools, the value, the types, all kinds of stuff.  They also learn about the devastating storms called mach storms that can seriously hurt or kill a Singer.  Killa makes a full transition and turns out to have an affinity for the super rare, super valuable black crystal.  She also catches the eye of Lanzecki, the Guild Master in both a professional and personal capacity.  Killa finishes her training and gets out on the ranges, finding and Singing black crystal on her first trip out.  To get her off planet during the devastating Passover storms, she is sent to install her crystals, finding herself desperate to get back to Ballybran, Killa completes her full cycle as a Crystal Singer.

This book was perfect for when I was reading it, it had a lot of travel, a lot of discovery and a lot of awesome, and reading it at O'Hare Airport with it's big open windows and gray skies was the perfect setting for it.  I have to say, I am sometimes hard pressed to explain why I reread this book so often as it really does not have a plot.  It has a beginning, middle and end, but it is much more about a world and industry then it is anything else.  Ms. McCaffrey in case you have forgotten is one of my absolute favorite authors and this book highlights one of her strengths and that is world building.  This book has top notch world building and gives you a glimpse of an almost unlimited universe, all while detailing what amounts to mining and industry.  This book should not be as interesting as it is, as it is full of technical details and procedures...but I don't know...I still find it fascinating.  As much as this book is about world building, there are some very strong characters in here as well.  This author is great at giving everybody, even minor characters a believable and distinct personality, and she does it by showing, not telling so that you don't feel bogged down by descriptions of people.  Killashandra is of course the most fully developed and I identify with her very closely.  She comes from a theatre arts background and see's things in those terms, which with my background works perfectly.  She also likes to know things, and be the best at what she does.  She get's frustrated when people keep things from her, and she gets fed up with theory very quickly...yet she is a personal research fiend, all things I relate to.  Killa herself acknowledges her tendency to get conceited and tries to make a conscious effort to reign it in, but quickly gets frustrated with petty people.  I love a lot of the support characters who teach Killa and her fellow recruits their jobs, they all are long lived and have their own little quirks and talents.  I did find the relationship between Lanzecki and Killa a bit forced and convenient, since Killa is so good at everything she does, this relationship just made her journey a tad to easy for my taste.  Near the end when Killa heads out to install the black crystal there is a bunch of political type references made that kind of come out of no where and to me just muddy it a bit, but I think she was trying to set up the whole universe so eh, I know that Ms. McCaffrey use some of her own experiences as a singer and theatre person to inspire this book, and I feel that really comes through.  Killashandra and her story feel very personal and I really enjoyed that.  Overall I would recommend this book for any McCaffrey fans, science fiction fan, or world building fan.  I give it 7 out of 10 dodecahedrons.

What aspect of a book is most important to you?  What industry can you read a lot about?  How into random stuff do I get?

The End Is Here...Kind Of

For Christmas I got my sweet Hubbin the book Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton.  It is a combination sci-fi/adventure/puzzle/mass media game book that was...well...hmmm...yeah.  This is not going to be a typical rambling as the authors have asked people not to spoil it, and also it is so disjointed it doesn't really lend itself to a typical synopsis, but I'll do my best to give you at least the flavor of what is going on.

The basic premise of the book is this.  Back in the beginning of humanity, aliens came and picked 12 lines of humans to keep a line of what is called Players going.  The Players have to be between a certain age and physically fit.  They train in physical prowess, code breaking, puzzle solving languages and such all in anticipation of the day that Endgame will begin.  Endgame is the day when the aliens who first picked the 12 decide that humanity is no longer worthy of living and will pretty much destroy everybody.  The only people who will ultimately survive are the people who belong to the line of the winner.  In the book we eventually meet all 12 Players from all over the globe, who all have different backgrounds and training.  Near the beginning 12 meteors come crashing down around the world, killing off a ton of people, all to deliver a rock to the Players to let them know that Endgame has started.  The Players all gather in China and the alien Keplar-22 does his spiel and gives them all a clue in their heads.  The players all scatter to solve the clues, deal with family history, and just cause mayhem in general.  The book ends with one of the players getting the first key and moving on to somewhere in anticipation of the next book.  Through out the book are clues and websites that the reader is supposed to solve.  This extends far past the book into various media sites and research and various codes and such to solve.  The reader who solves the whole puzzle first wins a pretty big cash prize, so that is pretty cool.

I read this book in a different way then I normally do...in fact I didn't read it at all, Hubbin read it to me.  This was fun for two reasons.  One Hubbin has a very soothing voice and it is very very relaxing to listen to him read.  Two, this book was horribly written, so to spice it up, I would "interpret" what the book should have really said...with the occasional "I'm Batman" thrown in for fun.  The book really was written in a very simplistic, broken up, stilted manner that made it almost painful to read.  Every sentence.  Was three or four.  Words long.  And periods were.  The only.  Punctuation. Hubbin thought this might be part of the code, but the WHOLE book was written this way and it was very very very annoying.  I also felt a bit gyped on some of the characters.  There were 12 Players and while we got glimpses of all of them, only about 5 were really focused on and of those 1, the incredibly annoying Sarah Alopay was given at least half the book.  Of all 12 Players, she was the least interesting, most annoying, typical perfect All-American girl that absolutely no originality to her what so ever.  Some of the other characters seemed to have some cool stuff going for them, but I'm not sure because they would get a page for ever 5 of Sarah's.  The puzzles themselves are WAAAAAY over my head, they seem overly complicated and at times completely random.  That is what I have Hubbin for, he is very good at this kind of stuff and has the patience of a saint (which is proven by the fact he has been married to me for so long).  He has gotten into the big puzzle fairly well and is totally ok with my random interjections of pointless trivia so that is working for us.  Maybe we will get lucky and win the prize...if not at least we had this book to bond over and that itself was worth it.  I give this book 4 out of 10 gold digging aliens and will still pick up the next book, just to hear Hubbin read it out loud.
How do you rate a book that is more then a book?  Do you like it when people read out loud to you?  Are you Batman?

Where The Whales Go To Die

Growing up, one of my favorite movies was (and still is) The Island at the Top of the World.  It's a weird, strange movie, but it triggered my sense of adventure (and scared the bejeebus out of me) so a favorite it became.  I have recently discovered the book The Lost Ones by Ian Cameron, on which the movie was based, and fell in love with it as well. Since it is set in the frozen tundra I held on to it until winter set in.   Before we get into that though, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is written in first person/journal form and follows the strange adventures of Keith Rogers, a whaler; Professor Somerville, a teacher of flora and Captain Anthony McIver, a man looking for his son.  The Professor and McIver convince Rogers to come with them to find McIver's lost son Donald Ross.  Donald it seems has found some information on the mythical legend of a place where the whales go to die.  He was last seen hijacking a helicopter and heading out over the frozen tundra.  The threesome put together an expedition and head out in the undiscovered snow and ice to see if they can find out what happened to him.  As they travel, they uncover some unsettelling information about the mysterious island they are heading towards.  The island is Prince Patrick Island and there is no official record of anybody ever actually setting foot on the island and all maps, such as they are were made by aerial recon and even the aerial footage is iffy because of a perpetual mist that obscures parts of the island.  They are warned against the yellow-haired men that supposedly inhabit the island, confusing the trio as only Eskimos are known to inhabit any of the area.  Many cold

adventures follow, culminating with the men stranded on the mystical island, under siege by the mysterious yellow haired men.  They are captured and taken to an impossible city, that has survived and flourished due to thermal vents warming the area to comfortably habital temps.  The natives, who all sport blond hair, seem to live under a very medieval code of suspicion, taboo's, and rituals.  The men are found guilty of trespassing and are sentenced to death.  They meet Freyja, a girl who knew Donald, and was his lover.  She helps the men escape and promises to guide them to where she thinks Donald may be.  The place Freyja takes them is a sacred spot that only the Shaman's may go and look upon, keeping the natives in their grip.  After some more harrowing events the trio plus Freyja end up trapped on a sort of beach, along with numerous whale carcasses where they find Donald, alive.  They have finally found where the whales go to die.  Freyja tells them the story of how whales used to eat the young of other animals, and as punishment they were barred from heaven and must circle the waters of hell.  To this end, when a whale gets old it goes to a special grave yard to be tipped into the waters of hell.  This strange beach is littered with the bodies of all kinds of whales, and they are eventually carried by a river to an underground whirlpool, fulfilling the story.  The other part of this myth is the Guardians that Freyja is terrified of, which turn out to be very aggressive Orca's.  In desperation the five of them build a boat out of various whale parts and try and get past the Orca's.  Freyja, out of guilt and fear feeling that she is the reason the Guardians won't leave them alone is because of her, she jumps into the water, dying as she gives the men a way to escape.  They all finally head home and go about their various lives, always having this surreal adventure to think back on.

To be 100% honest, I was not prepared to like this book as much as I did.  I wanted to see the source material for my favorite movie, and found a decently written adventure.  It is hard for me to talk about the book without talking about the movie which are intertwined in my head, even though they are both very different.  I think what struck me most about both is the sense of adventure, the idea that there is something still unknown out there.  As a kid...ok even now, I always wanted to discover something, always looking over the next ridge, or opening the old doors, or squeezing through the holes, hoping to find something new.  I also love the idea of hidden things, lost things rediscovered, mystical myths and this book had it all.  The pacing of the book was surprisingly brisk considering 90% of it was spent trying to survive on the frozen tundra.  I loved the mix of science, exploration,

anthropology and myth.  This is one of those books that reminds you how many facets of life come together to form a culture ore society.  The actual physical book itself was also pretty neat.  The story was published in 1970 and the book I have was printed not much later, making the physical tome itself about 45 years old, which doesn't seem that old, until you realize that it is in paper back, still in one piece and older then me :-)  It felt like holding a discovery, which added to the enjoyment reading it.  Of course now I am terrified it's gonna fall apart.  I also loved the words that the author used.  One of my favorite things about older books is that people use grown up words in every day conversation, I miss that, none of this shortening or acronyming of words, just full, meaningful, beautiful words.    This book rekindled my love of adventure and exploring and now I want to go find more books like this.  I give this book 7 out of 10 sacred lockets and recommend it to anybody who likes adventure, myths, or snow.
When is it ok for the movie and the book to differ?  How awesome is the combo of myth and science?  Is this the reason people say "Hey this is a weird book/movie...I think you'll love it"?

Cloned Blogger

Just so everybody knows, I was originally going to call this book incestuous necrophiliac, but decided I would probably get the wrong kind of audience :-)  What the heck am I talking about you ask?  This is the post where I ramble about Blackout, the third book in the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant.  It has taken me a while to finally finish this series, but here we go.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

We left our group being chased by zombie virus infested mosquito's.  Florida has essentially fallen to the zombies and the country is once again in chaos.  Shaun has been bitten by a zombie, and has recovered, make him immune to the Kellis-Amberly virus.  He and his team decide to go and find out just what the heck happened with the mosquito's, as they suspect that they were released on purpose as a distraction from the news story the crew was going to break about the intentional killing of the reservoir condition people, and the attempt to infect people with a stable strain of the Kellis-Amberly virus.  If this is all a bit technical and confusing...well that's how I felt too :-).  Meanwhile Georgia wakes up in a secure CDC facility and learns that she is the most recent in a line of clones that the CDC has produced to try and control Shaun and his crew.  The plan is to make a stable version of Georgia and then mess with her brain enough to control her.  Part of this plan involves surgeries to make the clone Georgia more like the original as they cannot make a clone with the retinal reservoir condition the original Georgia had.  Eventually Georgia II as she calls herself is rescued and finally gets to meet up with Shaun.  Understandably the team, Shaun and even Georgia herself have some reservations about just how much of Georgia is left in the clone.  According to the scientists who created her Georgia II is a 97% match for the original.  After some questions and such they all end up at the White House where President Ryman and his vice-president, the former Newsie Rick attempt to use Georgia against Shaun and his team to repress the news that there will never be a cure for the zombie disease, just a treatment.  The CDC, apart from wanting to keep all the power, believe that the general public will freak if they know there is no cure.  They want Shaun and his team to essentially be the mouth pieces of the government, to only put out what the CDC wants them to, and they are willing to threaten everybody including the president to do it.  Luckily for our team, vice-president Rick has other plans and helps take down the CDC guy and with the help of some friends restores the truth.  The story breaks and everybody who didn't die goes back home to try and live the rest of their lives.  Georgia and Shaun reveal that they are lovers as well as brother and sister (hence the incestuous necrophiliac joke...it makes sense in the book, I promise) and disappear, presumably to Canada.  Life continues and our trilogy ends.

Where to start, where to start.  In the first book we had Georgia as our narrator, in the second book Shaun took over, in this book they switch back and forth.  I have always liked Georgia's voice better, I'm not sure if it is because Shaun is a bit more emotional and broody, or I prefer Georgia's more factual take, but in this book I liked her chapters best.   I also liked Georgia's chapters because they seemed to go somewhere, where Shaun and his team seemed to be going around in circles alot.   You definitely need to read the first two books to understand this book, and for a couple of things relating to why the CDC was after Shaun and his team I had to go back and look up.  For Shaun, I liked that the Georgia in his head did not go away when Georgia II showed up, showing us just how far gone he had been.  I do wonder however why when he saw the Georgia in his head manifest, he saw her without the retinal Kellis-Amberly when he had never seen her without it.  I liked following Georgia II as she learned she was one of several clones, was experimented on, and eventually came to grips with what she was.  I was not a huge fan of the whole lover thing between Georgia and Shaun, even though I saw it coming in the first book.  I know they are not technically related, but...I don't know I still found it a bit icky.  I liked the questions raised with both the scientific and emotional

ramifications of cloning.  I liked how they acknowledged that Georgia II was NOT Georgia, but for some purposes, especially for Shaun, she was good enough.  Overall I liked this book better then the second one, but not as much as the first.  Now that I have finished it, I would like to talk over the series as a whole.  I love the world the author has created, I like that it is not your typical survivalist, living in the woods, shooting zombies to survive type of world, but more of a continuing life with zombies, but I still want my Starbucks type of world.  It is still a unique take, and I really like it.  I also still appreciate the "science" (I put that in quotes, because it is fictional) that the author used to make the virus plausible to those of us who are super nit-picky.  I did find that the three books had a bit of lack of consistency as far as the story line went.  The first book was so focused on the campaign, that when it was barely acknowledged in the second book, and only really brought in at the end of the third book, it felt a bit disjointed.  I know the real story was about the virus conspiracy with the CDC, but that felt scattered to me as well. To me it felt as if each book was telling a different story without it being successfully tied together, but that may be just me.  I also felt that when dealing with Shaun and his crew, it took a really long time for them to get anywhere, it felt like they did a lot of hurry up and wait while the rest of the story caught up or progressed.  I did like the series as a whole, and think that the author is a superb writer.  I enjoyed all three books to varying degrees. I give this book a 7 out of 10 zombie clones and give the series as a whole 7 out of 10 virus tests.
What do you think about unrelated siblings getting it on?  What series have you read that is better when looked at as a whole?  Should I have tempted fate and used incestuous necrophiliac as a post title?

SciFi Awesomeness!

Hey guess what?  Two ramblings in a row!!!  How did you get so lucky you ask?  Mostly I have a ton of books to ramble about and I am low on ideas for other blog posts...so ramblings it is.  Today is a ramble about one of my favoritist short story collections.  My baby sis read it, called me and said get it, get it right now, and through the magic of ebooks The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows edited by Jonathan Strahan was purchased, read and loved.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

Ass-Hat Magic Spider by Scott Westerfeld - Besides being by one of my favorite authors, this story is also about the love of a hard copy book.  In the future colonists have a severely limited weight they are allowed to carry on the colony ship.  The main character goes through some extreme measures to make sure he can take at least one intact book with him.  This just goes to show you I am not the only one with a physical attachment to ones books.

Orange by Neil Gaiman - Another one of my favorite authors contributes this quirky, strange awesome story told entirely through answers.  This is the story that made my baby sis call me and I am glad she did.  The story...if you can call it that is some sort of transcript where all you get is the protagonists answers to unknown questions.  It is surprisingly readable and has a great sense of humor.  I love love love it.

Repair Kit by Stephen Baxter - This whole story is a bit of a deus ex machina in a tongue in cheek way.  The whole story hinges on a box that can repair things by pulling them from the past.  The best part is whenever the mechanic is asked to explain the way the box works, he is tells them that it is unexplainable alien technology.

Anda's Game by Cory Doctorow - Our plucky and pudgy heroine of this story shows us that anybody can choose to do the right thing.  Taking MMORPG's to a whole new level this story gives us a whole lot of social commentary (without to much preaching) in the package of an ordinary girl and her ordinary family. This story has heart and that makes this story awesome.

The Dust Assassin by Ian McDonald - The biggest appeal of this one is that it is set in India.  The author does a great job integrating the future with the culture, customs and religions of this fascinating country.  The combination of this perfect setting and a heart wrenching, yet brilliant story make this a unique and wonderful addition to this collection.

Infestation by Garth Nix - Vampires, aliens, supersoldiers, everything a fast paced story needs.  This story takes an old school baddie, vampires and turns them into supersoldiers from another planet.  In the future these supersoldiers have gotten to Earth and the government allows civilians the chance to take them out...or die trying.  A fun twist on the vampire hunter story.

Pinocchio by Walter Jon Williams - The last entry in this collection deals with a society where children are limited because of over crowding and the ability to switch bodies at will.  The story examines what happens when you are young and basically immortal.  It is also a social commentary on our celebrities, child stars, and the flash in the pan fame the Internet can bring.

This collection is varied and wonderful and re readable (which is a huge plus).  It is technically geared towards the YA crowd and I think it fits the bill perfectly.  Many of the stories are a great jumping off point for discussions of various issues that affect people now and potentially in the future.  I recommend this collection to just about everybody and give it 9 out of 10 real books!

What is your favorite short story genre?  Is social commentary in a story good or obnoxious?  What is your vision of the future? How does one write a story in only answers?

The Back End Of Erehwon

I have stacks and stacks of books I have never read before.  I have a massive lists of books I have never read that I want to read.  There are thousands of unread books out there for me to discover...but sometimes a girl just has to go back and reread a book.  To this end I just finished rereading Nimisha's Ship by my beloved Anne McCaffery. With this authors death, no new books from her are forth coming so I have to get my fix by rereads and this one fit the bill this time around.  Let's get to it shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

This story is set in the world we were introduced to in the novelette The Coelura, though one does not have to read it to understand what is going on as the stories are completley seperate.  The world is set in the future after Earthlings have colonized a good chunk of their quadrent of space.  This future world is a highly stratified world in which the First Families are at the top of the totem pole and secure their place with what are called body-heir's, a child born by contract to inherit the name, line, and most of the assests of the great families.  Lady Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense is one of these body-heir's, scion of one of the top families in the known galaxy.  She also shows a disturbing, non-aristocratic pentient for designing space ships.  Her biological father, who is not only First Family, but owns a most succesful shipyard leaves it to her upon his death.  This inheratance allows Nimisha to design the ultimate ship.  Unfortunalty while testing the ship on her own she is caught by a wormhole and flung across the universe, away from here mother, daughter, friends and civiliazation in general.  She lands on a liviable, if inhospitable planet she names Erehwon, because a) it is in the back of nowhere and b) after a book by the same name by Samuel Butler (the bookworm in me loves this!).  She meets up with survivors from a previous wreck and with the significant resources her ship brings, makes the planet habitable.  The survivors also find a group of aliens called the S'him whom have also survived the wormwhole and work with the humans to found a new society.  Meanwhile back on the other side of the wormhole, Nimisha's daughter, mother, and her former co-workers have built another advanced ship and take it to find Nimisha.  Eventually the survivors are found, but decide to stay, along with some new recruits to colonize the new world.

This book, as with all Anne McCaffery books, has so many layers it is hard to put into words.  It is a science fiction book set in the future with space travel and advanced technology.  It is a social commentary on class, government, military, and survival systems.  It is a romance, a survival tale, an inventors story.  It is all of these and more.  I am always amazed at the coherancy in which the author writes.  What do I mean by this?  I mean she writes her worlds to make sense, she studies and puts in enough scientific detail to make the story seem plausible, all the while making us fall in love or hate or exasperation with the various characters.  This book hits all the sweet spots, world building, character and story. The contrast between the civilized galaxy and the wild primative Erehwon shows both sides in their best and worst lights, highlighting why we need some structure and resources, while at the same time showing the pointlessness of certain types of formality.  I will say, this is one of the few romances in the Anne McCaffery books I am not totaly into, it seemed rushed and progressed from perfect strangers to total love without a whole lot of in between, which is not how she usually writes them, but to be honest it felt a bit shoehorned into the overall story.  I loved seeing the various ways the survivors and the S'him learned to communicate and work together.  I loved the contrast of the two worlds, I loved the various characters, who all had their own personalities, talants and specialties.  I even liked how the overall book was set over about 40+ years, the author making the time skip foward to the important parts.  Ms. McCaffery even put in a plausible longevity treatment to make the extended time line plausible.  Ok this rambling is pretty rambly and incoherant so I'm gonna give it a rest and hope that you all read the book and understand what all this gibberish means.  I recommend this book to anybody who likes a good story, a lighter scifi book, or Anne McCaffery in general.  I give it 7 out of 10 AI Helms.

How technical do you like your scifi?  Do you get sick of me saying the same happy things about Anne McCaffery?  Should I get more then 2 hours of sleep before I start ramblings?