Book Review: Provenance by Ann Leckie (Four Stars)

Book Review: Provenance by Ann Leckie

(Four Stars)

“A hatchling that thinks only of its our survival makes an untrustworthy adult.”

Leckie hasn’t lost her touch with engaging characters and plot, but she seems to have lost her way in a jungle of obscure personal pronouns (after demonstrating she could navigate that jungle in previous works) and gratuitous, pasted-on romances.

“To know your past is to know who you are.”

Set in the same galaxy as The Ancillary novels, Provenance explores life in minor republics outside the grasp of the Radch. Leckie’s development of vestiges as a cultural artifact is genius. (In another age, it might have

Movie Review: Solo, directed by Ron Howard (Four Stars)

Movie Review: Solo: A Star Wars Movie, directed by Ron Howard

(Four Stars)

“I’ve got a good feeling about this.”

A worthy expansion of the Star Wars movie library. Not bad by itself. All the more amazing as director Ron Howard took the reins eleven months ago, and is reputed to have reshot significantly portions. As a story it works. Oh, yeah, it’s an action-oriented space opera, what do you expect? The Empire looms in the background, the Force is never alluded to (thought there is …), but there’s no doubt it is a Star Wars story.

“I heard a story about you. I was wondering if it’s true.” “Everything you’ve heard about me is true.”

Like Rogue One, Solo plows a new furrow. It connects to the main SW sequence in significant ways, but it’s its own story. Satisfying ending with plenty of hooks to potential follow on movies.

“Let me give you some advice. Assume everyone will betray you. And you will never be disappointed.”

Book Review: Raven Strategem by Yoon Ha Lee (Three Stars)

Book Review: Raven Strategem (The Machineries of Empire #2) by Yoon Ha Lee

(Three Stars)

“I would like to think that it’s possibly to construct a society where our orders don’t involve slaughtering our own people.”

Another masterful space opera set in the universe of the hexarchate featuring the four-hundred-year-old revenant of Shous Jedao. Readers unfamiliar with the hexarchate would profit by reading Ninefox Gambit first, however Strategem fills background as needed as the story develops.

“Immortality didn’t turn you into a monster. It merely showed what kind of monster you already were.” “Would it be such an evil thing to learn?”

Strategem features a Byzantine web of factions and players alternately attacking and defending each other. Corruption and betrayal are

Book Review: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (Four Stars)

Book Review: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

(Four Stars)

“Travel is fatal to bigotry and prejudice and narrow-mindedness.”

In 1867 young Samuel Clemens joined one of the first cruises for an extended voyage from New York City to the Holy Land. He serialized his impressions as they went, then sold the aggregate as a book. It was his best-selling book during his lifetime.

“The impressible memento-seeker was pecking at the venerable sarcophagus [inside Cheop’s Pyramid] with his sacrilegious hammer.”

Regular readers of Twain will enjoy this cynical, but less bitter younger version. Despite distancing himself from the “pilgrims” (conservative New England Christians who were the bulk of the party), Twain betrays many of the prejudices of the day. He was particularly critical of the Americans defacing ruins, taking mementos.

“One must travel to learn. Every day now old Scripture phrases that never possessed any significance for me take to themselves a meaning.” (at Beth-El)

I affirm that many of his impressions of the Mediterranean and Levant are

Book Review: Beyond this Horizon by Robert Heinlein (Four Stars)

Book Review: Beyond this Horizon by Robert Heinlein

(Four Stars)

“Easy times for individuals are bad times for the race.”

Utopias have their downside. A landmark science fiction novel by a dean of the genre. Written before the United States entered World War Two, yet amazing prescient of the next fifty years.

“But man is a working animal. He likes to work. … likely to spend his spare time working out some gadget which will displace labor and increase productivity.” (20^th, not 21^st century man)

Marred by lengthy exposition/preaching. While Heinlein was ahead of society in some ways and clearly foresaw many technology advances only made possible by the invention of the transistor some years later, he mistook then-current fads in economics and para-psychology as indicative of future trends. “The structural nature of finance is too deeply imbedded in our culture for pseudo-capitalism to return.”

“The only thing that could give us some real basis for our living is to know for sure whether or not anything happens after we die.”

The protagonist voice is like P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster. “I’m one long joke on myself.”

“An armed society is a polite society.”

Skip the post-script blather by Tony Daniels. “Which shows how much of the modern negative criticism that Heinlein evokes in the present day is not only completely mistaken and stupid, but pernicious and hatefully intended.” Denounces ad hominem attacks by “critics, most of whom I consider idiots.” Claims it “does not end with a twist” but with “an authentic answer.” Which is wrong on both counts. Dissuades reading any of his works.

“The only choices that matter are those that we responsibly made based on the evidence, not on anyone’s declarations, however well intentioned.”

(Finalist for Hugo retro award for 1943)

Book Review: River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (Two Stars)

Book Review: River of Teeth (River of Teeth #1) by Sarah Gailey

(Two Stars)

Great concept and background development. Interesting ensemble of characters. Love the map and cover art. What could go wrong? A lot.

Gratuitous sex and violence. That is, apparently injected to titillate, not to advance the story. Motives and actions were either heavy-handed or disconnected. Lack of proofreading (or something). For example, “then reached back into his saddle bag” appears twice in the same paragraph.

According to the map, the Harriet stretches 150 miles from the dam on the Mississippi (consider that for a moment) and the Gate near the mouth of the Atchafalaya River. Yet, Gailey writes

Book Review: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (Five Stars)

Book Review: Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells

(Five Stars)

“You need to make better threats.” “I don’t make threats, and I’m just telling you what I’m going to do.”

Love the voice! For having no emotions, he’s so funny.

“Being asked to stay, with a please and an option for refusal, hit me almost as hard as a human asking for my opinion and actually listening to me.”

He’s not a murderous rogue robot; he’s a security unit who has hacked his control module. Self-controlled. An augmented human, human-killing machine construct, a cyborg perhaps. But not a murderbot. Just as comfort units are not

Book Review: “Fandom for Robots” by Vina Jie-Win Prasad (Four Stars)

Book Review: “Fandom for Robots” by Vina Jie-Win Prasad

(Four Stars)

“Have you ever met a human? This reads as if an alien wrote it.”

In the not-too-far-distant future Artificial Intelligences may be able to write science fiction “from a certain point of view” better than humans, and of course humans may not know the difference. In this Hugo year of abounding AI stories, Fandom distinguishes itself with a compact plot and wry humor.

“My lack of emotion circuits means I cannot be ‘happy’ about performing any actions.”

(2018 Hugo Award novelette finalist. Illustration is cover of magazine in which story appeared; has nothing to do with story.)

Book Review: “Children of Thorns, Children of Water” by Aliette de Bodard (Two Stars)

Book Review: “Children of Thorns, Children of Water” (Dominion of the Fallen #1.5) by Aliette de Bodard

(Two Stars)

“Magic pollution affected everyone.”

This short story bridges the gap between two previous novels. Opaque for first-time readers, it reads like an introduction or side-side to a bigger tale. Not much to recommend it either way. Hard to believe it was nominated for a Hugo Award; perhaps spill over popularity from the rest of the series.

“Intrigues are allowed, but nothing that threatens our unity.”

(2018 Hugo Award novellette finalist)

Book Review: “Sun, Moon, Dust” by Ursula Vernon (Four Stars)

Book Review: “Sun, Moon, Dust” by Ursula Vernon

(Four Stars)

“His grandmother had never been very good at being normal.”

A fun twist on the typical heroic fantasy opening. All the tropes one expects of a Star Wars-like farm boy ripped out of his normal by a magic sword and stranger to teach him its use. But … no. Even a touch of humor.

“Goats thought themselves extremely clever and it was always rather a surprise to them when they were wrong.”

Seem disingenuous to accuse an eight-page story of being wordy, but the preceding sentence could have said as much in half the words.

“Good earth knows when it is loved.”

(2018 Hugo Award novella finalist. Illustration is cover of magazine in which story appeared; has nothing to do with story.)