science fiction Archives - Page 9 of 16

Yzabel / December 5, 2015

Review: Yesterday’s Gone (Season 1)

Yesterday’s Gone: Season One by Sean Platt

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

On October 15 at 2:15 a.m. everyone on Earth vanished.

Well, almost everyone.

A scattered few woke alone in a world where there are no rules other than survival… at any cost.

A journalist wanders the wretched reality of an empty New York, in search for his wife and son.

A serial killer must hunt in a land where prey is now an endangered species.

A mother shields her young daughter from danger, as every breath ﬁlls her with terror.

A bullied teen is thrilled to ﬁnd everyone gone. Until the knock on his door.

A fugitive survives a ﬁery plane crash. Will he be redeemed, or return to what he’s best at: the kill?

An eight year old boy sets out on a journey to ﬁnd his missing family. What he ﬁnds will change him forever.

And there’s a few people who aren’t surprised that this happened at all. In fact, they’ve been dreaming about this day for years.

These survivors aren’t alone…
Someone or something is watching them.
And waiting…

Strangers unite.

Sides are chosen.

Will humanity survive what it never saw coming?

The only certainty is that Yesterday’s Gone.

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

I seldom read serials, and I admit that reading one in the shape of a “novel” of gathered episodes kind of defeats the purpose (all the more since the authors mention their love of cliffhangers at the end), but… nevermind. I was in the mood for post-apocalyptic stuff, anyway.

So far, this first “season” isn’t the most original thing I’ve read when it comes to this theme: most people gone, survivors trying to figure out what happened (with some being really awful chaps), mysterious aliens-or-zombies creatures that may or may not be the reason behind the catastrophe, an infection… It’s part alien sci-fi, part zombie post-ap, and readers who enjoy the typical tropes of such stories are likely to get their share here, although at times it felt like a jumble of subplots more than a structured story, as if the authors were going along with whatever struck their fancy. This may or may not be true; I couldn’t make up my mind about it, as every time some new elements was introduced, I thought “yet another idea…, then “this could still come together in the end, with more seasons to go, depending on what they do, so let’s wait and see.” Truth be told, we don’t get a lot of clues about what’s happening behind the scenes; the hints are more of the gory variety (the worms, people being killed…)

The format itself is very TV-like, an obvious goal, and one I was looking for. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine this serial as episodes, complete with regular shifts from group to group. This worked well enough for me. There’s no shortage of action, and as the focus jumped from one character to another, I often found myself wanting to know more about the one left in a predicament… while also wanting to read about the current focus, that is. There were a few boring parts (I didn’t really like the ones about the kids, the Uno game, etc., as I was of course interested in what the characters would do as survivors), especially in the middle, although the pacing managed to bring me back in again in the last third of the book.

The characters are fairly typical of such stories. Survivalists (both good and bad people), some of whom were united by strange dreams and knew beforehand they had to prepare for the apocalypse. An ex-government agent/spook. A pregnant teenager from a conservative family. A father who now regrets he let his work get in the way of his family. A mother trying to protect her daughter. A young man who finds himself stuck, supreme irony, with his abusive stepfather, instead of the latter being dead/gone like most other people. A guy whose last conversation with his now-gone wife was an argument. A kid who meets an old man, the latter taking him under his wing. Even a serial killer.

I remained torn about these characters for most of the story: some of them are uninteresting and would deserve more spotlight to be allowed to shine, but others are definitely intriguing, even though not always exploited to their best, plot-wise.

Boricio was one of the vilest ones in this story, and yet, in spite of all the revolting stuff about him, especially the way he treated women, he also had a sort of “heroic bastard” side to him, probably because he was written with a humorous, slapstick comedy side; oddly enough, some of his scenes were enjoyable… in a much twisted way–like a train wreck that you can’t help but keep looking at. Edward, too, was fascinating: I still don’t know what’s true about him, what’s make-believe, who’s right about him, and let’s not forget the twist at the end of his arc in this first season.

On the other hand, the female characters were a letdown: mostly here to be the object of violence (Callie, Paola after her dream) and/or to be rescued and protected (Teagan, Mary and Paola) by the guys. The only “active” female character is the one in Boricio’s narrative, and she’s clearly one of the baddies, on top of not being developed anyway (Callie is first shown as badass, same in her flashback, but quickly devolves into frightened-girl-in-need-of-protection). And don’t start me on the rape scene, so nicely wrapped and dropped under the rug as a sort of afterthought; that was seriously infuriating. Definitely not the way to write such a scene and its aftermath, to say the least.

In terms of writing style, something that bothered me was the use of numbers (it feels really weird to read “20 yards” and not “twenty yards” in a novel – though maybe it’s just me). Another issue was a tendency to resort to “descriptive” sentences (he did this, she did that), which ended up in a lot of cases of “telling, not showing.” Finally, the dialogues also felt stilted most of the time, with a lot of flashback-type narratives when characters revealed what had happened to them; not uninteresting in itself, but told in ways that didn’t feel very natural, as if they were, well, scripted.

Conclusion: 2.5 stars. I will likely read book 2, since I also got it through NetGalley anyway, because “Yesterday’s Gone” was interesting in more than one way. But I can only hope that this series will improve in terms of writing style and character development (and that we’ll get actual revelations about the monsters and the shady ops guys).

Yzabel / November 9, 2015

Review: Big Bang Generation

Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell

My rating: [rating=1]

Blurb:

“I’m an archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting.”

Christmas 2015, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Imagine everyone’s surprise when a time portal opens up in Sydney Cove. Imagine their shock as a massive pyramid now sits beside the Harbour Bridge, inconveniently blocking Port Jackson and glowing with energy. Imagine their fear as Cyrrus “the mobster” Globb, Professor Horace Jaanson and an alien assassin called Kik arrive to claim the glowing pyramid. Finally imagine everyone’s dismay when they are followed by a bunch of con artists out to spring their greatest grift yet.

This gang consists of Legs (the sexy comedian), Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower), Shortie (handling logistics), Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) and their leader, Doc (busy making sure the universe isn’t destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib).

And when someone accidentally reawakens The Ancients of the Universe – which, Doc reckons, wasn’t the wisest or best-judged of actions – things get a whole lot more complicated…

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

1.5 stars

I don’t know where to start, because this one was all over the place. Ambitious, with a plotline that could be awesome and tie a lot of things together, yet… didn’t in the end, not really. I mean, the plot got its ending, but I still have no idea where it all fits within the Glamour series, except for the name being thrown in, and the Ancients bit just made me wonder what/who exactly they were, and what was their purpose? (Not much, considering how they were presented.)

I liked the sense of a con, or several cons going on, at the same time, or at different times. I liked the postcards bit, because in general I’m fond of such devices (cliché as they are) to “gather the posse together and prepare for the big heist”. Only it stayed at that level, and I didn’t get later the feeling I got from the book’s blurb, which hinted at something more exciting.

A lot of things made no sense, to be honest, in how the characters behaved, in their plans, in how they interacted with each other. There was banter (good Capaldi-like lines, for sure) but they felt disjointed from the plot. The characters weren’t as far as witty as they were meant to be. Incoherences thrown in now and then didn’t help (I think they have some time of veiling/cloaking technology, yet Peter has to hide his face under a hoodie?).

The random interest Kik showed for Peter was a big WTF series of moments for me. It just came out of nowhere, and made as little sense as the rest. Their interactions were somewhat fun at first (dog fart in her face to make her throw him away—it’s 100% dumb, but hey, whatever works, also I’m positive it’s the kind of stunt I’d pull in a pen & paper RPG session)… but they didn’t tie at all into “prospective love interest territory”. The badass assassin never projected that aura of badassery I expected from her, Jaansen was just a bumbling idiot, Globb never lived up to his reputation as a conman, Ruth… I don’t even know what she was supposed to do here, apart from being that other guy’s fiancée. I probably missed a few things here. I’m fine with lots of characters… only please develop them more, make them look and smell and feel “real”, otherwise I won’t care much.

And that’s another of the issues I have with this novel. I didn’t get a lot of the references (although I enjoyed the ones I got), my knowledge of the series being mostly the 2005+ seasons and a handful of novels. However, I kept wondering if there wasn’t too much information about Bernice and what she shared with the Doctor, in that now I feel I know a lot without never reading anything about her (or listening to anything—if I’m not mistaken, that was all about audio episodes?). It’s as if the novel hints at too many things for someone who doesn’t know much to the Whoverse, while at the same time recapping too many things as well for those who know a lot and don’t care about, well, many recaps. As a result, there was paradoxically a lot of padding in a novel still too short for its (potentially) complex plot.

Definitely a weird and soon-to-be-forgotten read, unfortunately.

Yzabel / October 27, 2015

Review: Royal Blood

Royal Blood by Una McCormack

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

The city-state of Varuz is failing. Duke Aurelian is the last of his line, his capital is crumbling, and the armies of his enemy, Duke Conrad, are poised beyond the mountains to invade. Aurelian is preparing to gamble everything on one last battle. So when a holy man, the Doctor, comes to Varuz from beyond the mountains, Aurelian asks for his blessing in the war.

But all is not what it seems in Varuz. The city-guard have lasers for swords, and the halls are lit by electric candlelight. Aurelian’s beloved wife, Guena, and his most trusted knight, Bernhardt, seem to be plotting to overthrow their Duke, and Clara finds herself drawn into their intrigue…

Will the Doctor stop Aurelian from going to war? Will Clara’s involvement in the plot against the Duke be discovered? Why is Conrad’s ambassador so nervous? And who are the ancient and weary knights who arrive in Varuz claiming to be on a quest for the Holy Grail…?

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

An entertaining, if a little fast and simplistic read.

Although the plot wasn’t extremely complex (in that it was fairly straightforward, without many twists and turns), this novel nonetheless had its own depths. I liked the somber ambiance permeating it, the feeling of longing tinged with regret for days long gone, the despair reigning in Varuz more than the land’s own rulers could ever do. The strange narration (sometimes 3rd person, sometimes 1st person) was, well, strange, indeed; on the other hand, in some way, it fitted the mood. As if the narrator had patched up afterwards the events in which other people were involved, then put everything together to try and tell a story he needed to tell, out of nostalgic feelings in a crumbling world.

I liked the echoes, too, clearly linked to the Arthurian mythos: not only through the Grail’s quest, yet also etched within the relationships uniting some of the characters. Aurelian, the misguided ruler. Guena, his clever wife. Bernhardt, ever Guenas’ faithful servant, who would like to be more. Mikhail, rightful heir but shunned. I’d keep thinking “Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Mordred” here. However, these echoes unfurled a little differently, which was a good thing, as a complete retelling of the legend wouldn’t have been so interesting if it had been done just for that sake.

Where I was less satisfied was in some aspects of the world: I wish there had been more information about the technology in Varuz: its inhabitants used it without understanding it, and there was more to it, only nothing was really explained, and in the end it was left to vague warnings. In some cases, it wouldn’t be a problem, but here, the whole “medieval society” clashed a little with electricity and light sabers, and I think a better integration of these two extremes would have been welcome—at least for me.

Also, the Doctor wasn’t very present, and while Clara’s characterisation was okayish, it wasn’t much more than that. The “secondary characters” felt more present.

It paves the way for more, in any case. This is a trilogy, and more revelations are to come, I hope, about the mysterious, dangerous and elusive Glamour. I definitely want to see more of the beautiful ravage it can inflict on many worlds and people.

3 stars, but barely.

Yzabel / October 22, 2015

Review: Storm Fall

Storm Fall by Tracy Banghart

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Aris Haan gave up everything to join the Atalantan Military: her family, her boyfriend, even her identity. In the end, though, it didn’t matter that she was a war hero. When the all-male Military discovered that she was actually a woman, she was sent home and erased from history.

Now she has a chance to go back to the battlefield—as herself. But as hard as it was to be a soldier in disguise, it’s even more difficult now. The men in her unit undermine her at every turn. The Safaran army has spies everywhere, perhaps even on Aris’s stationpoint. And she’s falling for her mysterious superior officer, Milek. But their relationship is forbidden, just stolen moments between training sessions and missions. There’s no room for love in war.

Then Aris discovers that Safara’s leaders have set their sights on her, Atalanta’s hero. And she must find them before they find her . . .

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Sequel to “Rebel Wing” (which I read back when its title was “Shattered Veil”), this novel sheds light on Aris Haan’s life after she escaped Elom and helped free the Ward of Ruslana: on her fears at first (her love of flying tainted by her harsh experience), on her decision to go back to the Military, on the daily fight to be accepted in a sector where women are just newly accepted—even though quite a few, disguised as men, already proved that girls can do it just as well as boys.

Like its predecessor, “Storm Fall” deals with this issue of acceptance, in a different way since the whole “women in the army” is now in the open, but still as something worth fighting for, and difficult to accept for some. Aris and others are faced with insubordination, snide remarks, sexual harassment, and it’s painfully obvious that even proving their worth as flyers and fighters isn’t enough for some. And it’s not only the men being reluctant: other women outside of the Military aren’t so keen about this new opening. Aris still has to fight, still has to assert herself, and she does it with conviction and with open eyes: she knows she has to fend for herself if she doesn’t want to be seen as a damsel in distress—and yes, it’s something she definitely doesn’t want. She counts on other people’s help in circumstances where anyone would expect and need help, but not because she’s a woman in need of males to save her: because she’s a soldier in trouble, who needs the help of her fellow soldiers, period.

This was definitely a part of the story I enjoyed, because it was portrayed in quite a believable (if depressing) way. However, I wish it had been more a focus: I found it more interesting than the romance—but then, anyone who’s read my reviews must know by now that I’m not a huge fan of romantic subplots for the sake of romantic subplots only. No surprise here.

Calix here turned out to be a pretty decent guy, who did the right thing(s) and showed he had learnt to respect other people’s choices. He genuinely likes Aris, and I think that having him as a friend rather than a potential remaining love interest is a good move here. Also, very loyal guy, to the point of risking demotion or worse in order to help the ones he cares about: not only Aris, but her family as well. While at first, I wondered if this didn’t send the wrong kind of message (“women are men’s downfall”), it still seems to lean much more towards themes of friendship and loyalty, all the more because Calix cares about Aris’s parents and their grief—it’s not just about the girl, so to speak.

In general, there were good plot point and ideas, that would have deserved more spotlight: Elom’s role, the women’s struggles in the military (maybe seeing more of them “in action”, to find out the various range of possible reactions there)… The three romantic arcs were too heavy handed, and detracted from the really interesting parts.

Also, the relationship between Dysis and Daakon wasn’t always handled well. In the first book, the tension was understandable because Daakon thought she was a guy, and he was interested in guys, and Dysis actually being a woman made things complicated. But here, they ran around in odd circles. I’m thinking of one specific turning point here (spoilerish, so I don’t want to explain it too much), where something happened that doesn’t make much sense if Daakon’s not interested in women at all… but reaching that point, seeing it through the end, and then still being torn about loving a woman was kind of… illogical. Whether he was torn about finding himself bi, having to reconsider where it stood (hey, it happens), or torn about liking Dysis in a platonic way but not in a physical one, both were handled poorly.

Ultimately, I still liked this story, and may check the third book in this series, all the more because 1) the last chapter opens up on an even more dangerous situation, and 2) I keep expecting a twist when it comes to Elom, and would like to know whether I’m right or not. But I would welcome less romance, especially the thorny part about Milek and Aris, since it could very well undermine the latter’s efforts as a woman in the military.

2.5 stars (because of the romance), 3.5 or 4 otherwise.

Yzabel / October 3, 2015

Review: Tin Stars (Descender #1)

Descender, Vol. 1: Tin Stars by Jeff Lemire

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Young Robot boy TIM-21 and his companions struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Some time in the far future, the worlds of the United Galactic Council are attacked by unknwon robots soon nicknamed “Harvesters”. Ten years later, after robots were outlawed and culled, a child-companion by the name of Tim-21 wakes up alone in a deserted mining colony, only to find out that the kid he was assigned to is gone. Tim doesn’t know yet that he may be the key to unlocking the secret behind the Harvesters, and potentially to fight them in case they ever return, which is why Captain Telsa and former robotics genius Quon try to find him before others do. Others who would like nothing more than to scrap him.

An enjoyable comics, even though it’s not the most original story I’ve read so far in term of such themes and how they’re being explored: the now fallen scientist, the sexy military officer following in her father’s steps, a cult bent on exterminating robots… Tim’s memories were quite interesting, as they touch upon his relationship with his foster family, and what it meant to him, but I can only hope they will be explored further in a next volume, since it’s definitely worth more. A couple of things didn’t make too much sense, too; for instance, why does Tim—a robot-companion created for *cgildren*—carry an embedded weapon? (Unless it’s related to how robots came to be, but even then, it doesn’t stand to logics to leave them with such weapons when everything else, like their height and AI programs, could be changed.)

I quite liked the artwork (watercolour illustrations); I found it really beautiful for close-ups, though a bit confusing when it came to larger-scope scenes. Some fonts were also hard to read, and didn’t fit too well with the overall mood set by the graphics.

This first volume ends on a cliffhanger that may have lots of potential in the next one, so here, too, I hope the story will find a good way to explore this new twist.

2.5/3 stars

Yzabel / September 28, 2015

Review: The Euthanasia Protocol

The Euthanasia Protocol by Grahame Howard

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

In this vision of the future, set after the apocalyptic religious wars, the State is managed by a series of secular Life Protocols.

Drawn up by a young and idealistic civil servant called Giles, the Protocols soon become grossly misinterpreted as an end in themselves, rather than being an aid to government. Society becomes slavishly adherent to these documents, to the extent that they begin to take on pseudo-religious significance. Among the Protocols is one addressing the problem of an aging population, and this Euthanasia Protocol is implemented throughout the country as an income-generating, yet socially acceptable, method of age control.

Giles rapidly becomes disillusioned by the way in which his concept has been abused. However, when he attempts to rectify the situation, he falls foul of the system, being condemned to a life of ignominy. As an old man who is resigned to euthanasia, can he appeal the order in time?

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A book whose review was long overdue, and since the copy I got wasn’t the fully edited, final product, there may have been some changes brought to it when it was actually published.

The society depicted in this novel, while definitely a caricature in many ways (including through some of its most outrageous characters, especially Doreese), gives food for thought, in that it deals with the issue of aging populations and the potential means to solving it. There’s no denying that euthanasia could very well become such a means, at some point in the future, and the farcical approach here manages to highlight it fairly well.

“The Euthanasia Protocol” is one of those dystopian stories where the world has gone a nonsensical road, with a government so entrenched within its ways and desires to “make things right” again after religious wars that it fell head first into the very same mistakes it was trying to avoid. The Protocol is revered like a messiah, officials make a point of convincing themselves that euthanasia for “criminals” is not capital punishment, and trials and verdicts are left in the digital hands of computers fed information through a system that just cannot ensure common sense to bear any weight. It is comical, it is a farce, and it has the potential to make people both laugh and shudder—because the execution (pun totally intended) may look ridiculous, but the contents are quite frightening. And it’s not all giggles, since quite a few characters throughout the story are killed in the name of the Protocol, to make an example, to cause other people to bend and break, or simply to fuel a wish for personal revenge.

My main criticism, and one that unfortunately mitigated my enjoyment, was the writing style itself. It may just be me, or it may be because I had an ARC and not a final copy (though in my experience, ARCs are so close to their published version that it’s approximately the same—I mean in style, not typos and the likes). I don’t know. I kept finding it too “dry”, describing the characters’ feelings and thoughts rather than letting me see them in action, so to speak. It made thoughts and dialogues rather stilted, all the more when The Boy was concerned: I’m all for stopping dumbing down teenager characters, but nobody thinks or talks like he (and others) did, even as adults. And I’m not sure it was absolutely necessary to enforce the satirical side and the novel’s messages through a narrative of the “tell, don’t show” kind.

Conclusion: 2.5 stars. Enjoyable, but I admit it would’ve worked better for me if the writing had been different.

Yzabel / September 26, 2015

Review: Ghost Fleet

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War by P.W. Singer

My rating: [rating=1]

Blurb:

The United States, China, and Russia eye each other across a twenty-first century version of the Cold War, which suddenly heats up at sea, on land, in the air, in outer space, and in cyberspace. The fighting involves everything from stealthy robotic–drone strikes to old warships from the navy’s “ghost fleet.” Fighter pilots unleash a Pearl Harbor–style attack; American veterans become low-tech insurgents; teenage hackers battle in digital playgrounds; Silicon Valley billionaires mobilize for cyber-war; and a serial killer carries out her own vendetta. Ultimately, victory will depend on blending the lessons of the past with the weapons of the future.

Review:

[I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

DNF at 56%. I tried, I really tried, but it’s been weeks and I just can’t get interested in the story or the characters. I don’t mind when there is more than two or three, I don’t mind short chapters in general; only it’s not working at all for me in this novel, and halfway in, I still don’t care about what’s happening to whom, whether the insurgents will survive, whether Carrie will be found out or not, whether Jamie will mend his relationship with his father… I see, strictly speaking, where it is going. Yet it doesn’t matter, because it’s going in a very dry way that makes everything confusing after a while, all the more as reading a few pages, then leaving the book again for a couple of days doesn’t help (not being interested enough to keep trudging through it, that is).

The other, really important thing not working for me is how little is actually given in terms of geopolitics, even though the characters talk about it; that’s info-dumping without actually giving enough information. There is the Directorate (the new China), allied with the Russians, waging a blitzkrieg on the United States by taking down satellite coverage and basically scrambling communications, GPS on board of planes, etc. Clever and efficient plan, yet why exactly? I would have wanted to learn so, so much about how this state of war came to be, what strings of events led to such a decision, why the NATO countries dropped out of it so fast. So many things just don’t make sense without more background here. I think such a book demands additional information (and handled differently), otherwise it’s not believable.

The technological aspect was somewhat OK. A bit heavy-handed, though (nothing really “new”, some devices were pretty similar to ours only with a more “futuristic” name). I didn’t love nor hate it, which is already something, I guess.

I’m rather sad, because this story had potential, especially regarding the level of creativity the insurgents came to (Walmart going to war as an underground supply chain: both funny and oddly logical), but it didn’t deliver on the human and global relationships factor, at least not when it comes to what I expected from it.

Yzabel / September 3, 2015

Review: Armada

Armada by Ernest Cline

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.

And then he sees the flying saucer.

Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.

No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley and Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

I loved Ready Player One by the same author, and I was rather worried about this one: reviews were extremely mixed, and I kept wondering whether I’d like it or not. In the end, while I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did RPO, I still managed to like it. Which doesn’t mean it’s not without faults. Basically, for me, this was all a constant game of “good!” and “but…!”.

Armada plays with a lot of tropes, from beginning to end. The video games-addicted kid living in the memory of a father he never knew, and who suddenly finds himself an ace in a top-secret military organisation where his gamer skills are of the utmost importance. Games used as training (more about this later). The hot gamer/hacker chick. A handful of mavericks saving the world. Faceless aliens threatening humanity. The same aliens’ strategy resembling so much that of a video game.

The downside is that, in a way, the novel also feels like some kind of wish-fulfilment, and this always tends to ring a bit silly. Unless this is another subverted trope? It’s difficult to tell. Another issue may be the way the novel ties into specific works, namely Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card . Although I didn’t read it, I know enough to see the links, and the same goes with movies mentioned along the way. It’s acknowledged in Armada, but I can’t make up my mind whether it’s homage or “borrowing too much”, so to speak. And then, there are all those “geek culture” references that are OK for a while, yet become burdensome in the end. They were more justified in RPO, because of the nature of the game itself and the hints the players had to decipher; here, they tether between “hey, funny”, “I don’t get it” and “you didn’t need to explain that”. (In other words, the balance is very thin between references readers may miss, references that are understandable and in the right places, and references that are likely to make one roll their eyes.)

The story itself could’ve been more original; on the other hand, it could also have been *less* original. All in all, it was interesting along the pattern it followed, if you like such patterns. Good call on some characters’ part to wonder about the aliens’ real goal. Also, the stakes are real. People do die in this book. The invasion leaves destruction in its wake, and the gamers have to quickly wake up and realise it’s not a joke, it’s not a game anymore. The way they’re quickly thrown into this new reality, brought to this realisation, was a “good” thing, as it made the threat more real. But! At the same time, the twists were fairly predictable. Or was it on purpose, to fit into the mould of tropey alien invasion stories?

Speaking of the characters: likeable enough, but nothing to write home about. Zack was probably too serious for his age, and the others didn’t left much of an impression. Nice and forgettable. I wish I could’ve gotten to know them better, see more of them, as it would have made more of an impact when X or Y got into trouble during a fight against the aliens, and so on. (And yet, again, I have to wonder: isn’t this also part of the private jokes contained in the novel—a bit like red shirts? Tricky, I tell you!)

2.5-3 stars, in the end, to even out things between all these “buts”. I didn’t dislike it, *but* I didn’t love it the way I had expected to. It had good ideas, *but* were they homage, playing on tropes, or just using existing works to build without too much effort? The characters were likeable, *but* very cardboard-like too. And so on. You get my drift…

Yzabel / August 28, 2015

Review: Suspended in Dusk

Suspended In Dusk by Simon Dewar

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

DUSK
A time between times.

A whore hides something monstrous and finds something special.
A homeless man discovers the razor blade inside the apple.
Unlikely love is found in the strangest of places.
Secrets and dreams are kept… forever.

Or was it all just a trick of the light?

Suspended in Dusk brings together 19 stories by some of the finest minds in Dark Fiction:

Ramsey Campbell, John Everson, Rayne Hall, Shane McKenzie, Angela Slatter, Alan Baxter, S.G Larner, Wendy Hammer, Sarah Read, Karen Runge, Toby Bennett, Benjamin Knox, Brett Rex Bruton, Icy Sedgwick, Tom Dullemond, Armand Rosamilia, Chris Limb, Anna Reith, J.C. Michael.

Introduction by Bram Stoker Award Winner and World Horror Convention Grand Master, Jack Ketchum.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Not as horrific a I expected it to be, or maybe I’m just hard to scare, at least when it comes to what tends to spook a lot of people? This said, while none of the works here jumped at me as being absolutely striking, none was abysmal either, and it was still an interesting collection of stories—some closer to “traditional” horror (zombies, vampires…), and some mixing their scary revelations with elements appearing out of tales at first. Only at first.

The ones I liked best:

“Shadows of the Lonely Dead”, in which a hospice nurse can feel the impending death of her patients and take this darkness into herself, looking for a reason to this strange power of hers.

“Burning”: a store burns at night, but the people of the town do not seem eager to do anything about it, nor to worry too much about the people who live there. Not a traditional horror story, but one that plays on different horrors, unfortunately so close to our world that they’re made even more terrible.

“Ministry of Outrage”: a secret government body engineers situations to keep the masses in control. Made scarier by the fact it’s not even so far-fetched, in a conspiracy-theory kind of way.

“Digging Deep”: being buried alive is probably an atavistic terror for most of us. But being rescued may be even more terrible…

“Hope Is Here”: when a group taking care of homeless people also takes matters in hand, making sure that they have all the right candidates for their program.

“Negatives”: creepy abandoned theme park is creepy. Twins go to a derelict place to take pictures, and find out what’s on the other side of the mirror—and that dreams can so easily turn into nightmares.

“A Keeper of Secrets”: when a little girl meets a fae child in the attic, and starts whispering secrets to keep her new friend strong and alive.

“The Way of All Flesh”: this story about a man who comes into a small rural town has two elements that tend to fascinate me—small towns with not so innocent inhabitants, and a flesh-eating killer.

Other stories worth mentioning, even though they may not be the ones I’ll remember in the long term: “Fit Camp”, “Maid of Bones”, “At Dusk They Come”. Overall this anthology is a good pick, especially if you scare more easily than I do. 3.5 stars, rounded to 4.

Yzabel / August 18, 2015

Review: Aurora

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

My rating: [rating=1]

Blurb:

Our voyage from Earth began generations ago.

Now, we approach our destination.

A new home.

Aurora.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I haven’t read anything by Kim Stanley Robinson since 2003 or so, back when I read (and loved!) his Mars trilogy. So I was really excited and hopeful when it came to this one, and… unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. At all.

Excellent concepts, ideas and research. The generation ship. All the details its engineers didn’t foresee, and how the descendants of the original crew had to contend with those shortcomings. Genetic degeneration in spite of their efforts. Arriving to the “Promised Land”, only to find a paradise so hostile it basically kills all its denizens save for one. The choices the survivors had to make, the conflicts they bred. The conundrum—stay and potentially die, go back and potentially die just as well. The underlying despair. And, last but not least, Ship, the quantum computer turned AI, who for several chapters narrated this story as best as “she” could.

But. There are also quite a few buts in here.

I couldn’t find the excitement and—dare I say—magic that suffused the Mars trilogy. Not only due to the lengthy prose, which could easily have been shortened in place: also for the sheer lack of characters to get interested in. I couldn’t help but feel remote from their trials, perhaps because the narrative was rather detached from them: not an omniscient narrator, yet not “in their minds” either, so in the end, I felt unsatisfied on both accounts. The closest to caring I care was in the beginning, with Freya and Euan and what Aurora brought them; that quickly ended, though.

Moreover, the narrative was often bogged down by lengthy musings and descriptions that didn’t add much, and whose very length weakened the power they may have had otherwise. The discovery of Aurora by the first people to set foot on it; the AI caring for her passengers; the ship struggling to remain a home; the travellers trying to keep going an ecosystem that had never be meant to last for that long; then another discovery, the poetry of endless blue skies instead of the domes of biomes inside the ship… All of this could have been more impressive with some editing in places.

The explanations behind the expedition left me cold as well. With the risk of being cliché, the story would easily lead anyone to think that the shop left because of troubles on Earth, because it was one of the last hopes, because humanity needed to get out of here fast (especially when combined with Devi’s lamenting how badly the original engineers had cobbled all this up together). And I guess this would’ve been an interesting story to tell. Instead, what was left on Earth was… flat, also cliché, and not so interesting. Basically, “let’s do that because we can”.

Conclusion: a disappointing read, that I basically finished because I wanted to review it more than out of real interest for it.