Tag: Sci-Fi

Review: Borne

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passport_Borne-A-Novel-1519296-9fdd0708c6a0d663eb92Title: Borne (2017)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Pages: 325

Rachel is a young woman scavenging the ruins of a dilapidated city. She comes across Borne, a sea anemone-like creature affixed to the side of monstrous bear that patrols her territory. Rachel must contend with Borne’s growing sentience (and size) as her world crumbles around her.

Borne shares a lot of stylistic DNA with Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, one of my favorite books of all time. This novel did not jibe with me in the same way, unfortunately. While Annihilation dealt with the slow creep of the unfamiliar into our known world, Borne shows a world already gone — a world filled with biotechnological monstrosities and a destroyed civilization. It’s a full embrace of the New Weird genre that VanderMeer has helped popularize, but it ultimately lost me along the way.

There are nuggets of really interesting ideas found within the pages of this novel, but I found the writing style to be ultimately inaccessible. Borne lacked a cohesive narrative and a compelling mystery, which made it difficult to stay invested. In the end, all the discordant sequences coalesced into something coherent, but it wasn’t enough to rectify the disinterest and confusion that came before it.

★★¼ out of 5

Review: Avengers of the Moon

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9780765382184Title: Avengers of the Moon (2017)
Author: Allen Steele
Pages: 304

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Allen Steele’s Arkwright popped up on many “Best of” lists in 2016 and I gave it shot, but it was not to my liking. Steele’s writing style was tough to engage with. Luckily, I found Avengers of the Moon to be much more palatable. I was coming in blind to Steele’s previous work as well as the source material for which this novel is based — Captain Future, a 1940s pulp sci-fi hero made famous by Edmond Hamilton.

Captain Future is an orphaned renegade who seeks revenge for the death of his parents along with his trusty android sidekick, a disembodied brain, and a hulking robot. It is a fun group, but there’s not a great deal of nuance to these characters. I understand that Steele was operating within the confines of a previously established cast, so I do think he does well with what he’s given.

I very much enjoyed the classic sci-fi vibe of this world — plasma guns, rocket ships, and robot companions abound. In many ways it feels like a B-movie in book form, and as such, the story doesn’t take many creative risks. Throw in an over-the-top mustache-twirling villain and you have the makings of fun, but otherwise ephemeral story.  

★★½ out of 5

Review: Waking Gods

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30134847Title: Waking Gods (2017)
Author: Sylvain Neuvel
Pages: 320
Series: The Themis Files #2 (Series Tracker)

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Last year, Sleeping Giants made my Best of 2016 list and I’m fairly confident Waking Gods has secured a spot on the 2017 list. While Sleeping Giants dealt with the discovery, assembly, and control of Themis, the buried robot relic of unknown origin — book #2 shows how a newly emboldened Earth deals with a threat far beyond what they are prepared to handle. Author Sylvain Neuvel takes the overall story in a bold direction that sees our returning protagonists confronted with a dozen new giant alien robots with unclear aims. Waking Gods is larger in scale, yet more personal in nature.

I love the continued use of interviews with shadowy characters who know much more than they are letting on. By slowly feeding crumbs of intel to the protagonists (and to us, by extension), they’re able to guide them into finding solutions for seemingly unsolvable problems; this serves to drive the narrative forward in a compelling way.

The epistolary format combines with Neuvel’s sharp writing to make for an infinitely readable sci-fi adventure that twists and turns its way to a big cliffhanger ending. I’m excited to see where the series goes from here.

★★★★¼ out of 5

Review: After Atlas

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28361265Title: After Atlas (2016)
Author: Emma Newman
Pages: 384

Planetfall (2015) has stuck in my mind since reading it last year. It had a haunting quality that I could not shake. After Atlas is a pseudo-sequel that takes place after the events of that novel, but exists adjacent to the original story. It certainly can function as a standalone novel, but knowing the backstory and outcome of Planetfall adds another layer to the reading experience that ended up being quite satisfying.

In the near future, technology has advanced to a point where everyone has their own virtual assistant, food comes out of printers, virtual reality is ubiquitous, and corporations (overtly) control governments. Some long for a simpler time, including those in the Circle, an anti-tech cult. When their messiah-like leader is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Carl Moreno, a detective and former Circle member, must solve the case while multiple nefarious factions attempt to stop him.

In this police procedural, let’s call it CSI: VR, author Emma Newman deftly lays out the clues and mysteries in a straightforward way, but the way the puzzle and solution come together is unexpected, yet makes perfect sense. The pieces fit together snugly and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Another strength of After Atlas lies in Detective Moreno, the chief protagonist. He has so many forces acting and pulling on his psyche, from his own internal demons, to his tragic past, to his unending indentured servitude to his employer, and to unseen external forces that are conspiring against him. He is a complex hero who has a gratifying character arc.

The ending of After Atlas was final in a certain sense, but opened the possibility for a follow-up that would explore the continuation of the same story, but would switch up the genre yet again. I, for one, hope that comes to fruition. Emma Newman has emerged as an impressive voice in science fiction who writes interesting stories with depth and nuance. I look forward to seeing whatever else she cooks up in the future.

★★★★ out of 5
✪ SPECULATIVE SHELF STARRED BOOK

Review: Too Like the Lightning

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81hifvbq-4lTitle: Too Like the Lightning (2016)
Author: Ada Palmer
Pages: 432
Series: Terra Ignota #1

Review:  Too Like the Lightning chronicles several days on Earth in the distant future, where flying cars zip through the sky, country borders have been dissolved, and war is non-existent.

This is a unique and challenging book that left me feeling quite conflicted. I will never complain about straightforward novels that spoon-feed information and exposition, but this was so far towards the opposite end of that spectrum that it made my head spin. Careful reading, backtracking, and re-reading were necessary to understand what exactly was going on. Author Ada Palmer makes you work for each revelation and concept contained in her deeply fleshed-out future world. And while the ideas presented and communicated feel prescient and thought-provoking, the work I put in far exceeded the enjoyment I took away.

There are shimmers of brilliance throughout, but it frequently crumbles under the weight of its own inaccessibility. The thoroughness required in reading actually left me so enmeshed within the world that, upon coming to the final page, I was disappointed that there was no definitive resolution. The story will continue in a sequel coming this February, but I may not be along for the ride.

★★¾ out of 5

Review: All Our Wrong Todays

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51wbhjrkalTitle: All Our Wrong Todays (2017)
Author: Elan Mastai
Pages: 384
Read via: Kindle
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mashup: The Martian + Dark Matter + Back to the Future

It was truly a delight to read a novel with such a perfect blend of wit, adventure, and poignancy. Mastai writes with a smart, self-assured edge that makes his wonderfully absurd plot feel plausible and all the complexities of time travel seem straightforward. I fully expect (and hope) that All Our Wrong Todays will be a hit when it is released next year and I look forward to the movie adaptation that is already in the works.

★★★★½ out of 5
✪ SPECULATIVE SHELF STARRED BOOK