Don't Forget to Read a Book!

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Kim Stanley Robinson's  Red Mars. The Short of It Plot:  The ongoing evolution of Mars following its colonization.  Page Count:  Green Mars: 650 Blue Mars: 780 Award:  Green Mars:  1994 Hugo, 1994 Locus SF Blue Mars:  1997 Hugo, 1997 Locus SF Worth a read : Nope (Directed by Jordan Peele) Primary Driver:  (Plot,  World , or Character) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Make it stop. Review:  Written in response to somebody who said, "Mr. Robinson, I enjoyed Red Mars,  but it was just too exciting." This might be the dullest trilogy known to humankind. A massive spread of different topics and world building come into play, once again immaculately detailed. It is just impossible to care because it is impossible to be engaged in any part of this book. A lot of important plot and character moments are built upon an assumed connection between the reader and the First Hundred, which is simp...

Hello, Stranger. Did you miss me? Let's talk about Neal Stephenson's  The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. The Short of It Plot: Perhaps an interactive children's textbook is the only tool powerful enough to break the constraints of a feudal cyberpunk dystopia. Page Count: 499 Award:  1996 Hugo, 1996 Locus SF Worth a read : Yes. Primary Driver:  (Plot,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Hot damn. Review:  Feudal. Fantasy. Cyberpunk. Dystopia. Cool! Compelling characters with convincing drives successfully ground some pretty outlandish SF concepts. Book spends extended swathes in its own fiction as depicted by the Primer - but does so in a way that illuminates real-world issues. Pacing leans a bit too rushed, particularly in the third act. Classic Stephenson: excellent writing, often opaque, totally gripping. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! From start to finish there was no point at which, had I been asked what...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Lois McMaster Bujold's  Mirror Dance. The Short of It Plot:  Hiding out on Earth seems like a good way to avoid the Cetagandans, but Miles ends up embroiled in more politics. Page Count:  392 Award: 1995 Hugo, 1995 Locus SF Worth a read : Yup Primary Driver:  ( Plot , World, or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate Review:  The first Vorkosigan book that has multiple POV characters. A significant improvement from its predecessor regarding plotting and pacing: things move fast. Character work is good and favorites from early books help make new characters more palatable. De-emphasized world-building gives this a very different flavor from other Vorkosigan books. The Medium of It Spoiler Free!  It feels silly to keep reviewing this series - at this point, either you're invested or you're not. This is the ninth Vorkosigan review. Who will I convince now? But when you fail at a task you se...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Dan Simmons's The Fall of Hyperion. The Short of It Plot:  The Shrike is not the only threat facing the pilgrims of Hyperion, and much needs to be resolved before the Time Tomb opens. Page Count:  517 Award:  1991 Locus SF Worth a read : Yes. Primary Driver:  ( Plot ,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Fail(?) Technobabble:  Yeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh Review:  A decent sequel, though a huge change in both tone and format from Hyperion.  Characters are solid, though heavily dependent upon their development in the first book. Plot is interesting enough to keep raising questions - but not every answer is satisfying. Pacing is all over the place - intermittent monologues pause everything for the sake of exposition. Read it because you've read the first book. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! Spoilers for Hyperion  though! This is a short review, because it boils down to this: You should read Hyperion , becaus...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Lois McMaster Bujold's  Barrayar. The Short of It Plot:  Cordelia and Aral end up entangled in a power struggle, fighting enemies to protect their own family as well as the young emperor. Page Count:  389 Award: 1992 Hugo, 1992 Locus SF Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  ( Plot ,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate. Review:  A more engaging plot marks this as a significant step up from Shards of Honor. Excellent characters once again ground the story. While Cordelia and Aral are the most nuanced there are a few good side characters and a solid villain. Starts slow, but the second half - with the exception of some odd subplots - has breakneck pacing. Nice twists on "fish out of water" stories by making society adjust to Cordelia as much as she adjusts to it.  The Medium of It Spoiler Free! This is going to be a relatively brief review, methinks. Read this one after Shards...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Connie Willis's  Doomsday Book. The Short of It Plot: A historian's time travel to the Middle Ages grows more and more complicated - and a crisis in the present adds new dangers. Page Count:  592 Award:  1992 Hugo, 1992 Locus SF, 1992 Nebula Worth a read : Yes. Primary Driver:  ( Plot ,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Past Technobabble:  Some babble, but often relevant. Review:  An array of excellent characters and compelling relationships ground two parallel stories. World building is excellent and remarkably prescient. Brilliant use of small setting details work wonders. Willis uses tropes well - leaning into some and spinning others in unexpected ways. A few unnecessary subplots stretch the length of this novel and slow pacing, but that is the only real issue.  The Medium of It Spoiler Free! Wait a second! Aren't you jumping a few years in your reviews? Are you just trying to avoid writing up the V...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Dan Simmons's Hyperion. The Short of It Plot:  Seven pilgrims journey to the one place that connects them: the planet Hyperion. Page Count: 492 Award:  1990 Hugo, 1990 Locus SF Worth a read : Yes. Right now. Primary Driver:  ( Plot, World, or Character ) Bechdel Test : Possible Pass? Technobabble:  Moderate. Review:  Hot diggity dog. What a book. It's a masterpiece. The world is great. The characters are distinct and fantastic. A sense of mystery permeates everything, as well as urgency. Every plot beat is woven brilliantly - each character telling their story informs another, fills in blanks. But doesn't overfill! Keeps things mysterious! World building both answers and raises questions - but so, so, so well. Writing is crisp, pacing is great. I cannot recommend this one enough. Go! Get thee to a bookery! The Medium of It Spoiler Free What're you doing, reading this blog post? Go out and buy the book! Or get it from t...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about David Brin's  The Postman. The Short of It Plot: Society has already collapsed. But someone needs to deliver the mail...  Page Count:  339 Award:  1986 Locus SF  Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  (Plot, World, or  Character )  Bechdel Test : Fail (Slim chance that there's a technical pass, but... I don't think so.) Technobabble:  Minimal to moderate. Review:  I am a sucker for a good grifter, and Gordon Krantz is one of the best. He's one of the few "full" characters here - but I was rooting for him the whole time. The natural evolution of his role is believable; it keeps the story moving. His interpersonal interactions are also good - and the few other characters who are more developed are nicely done. The Postman  stumbles when it tries to expand this small-scale story of a survivor to a broader world - pacing, plot, and character all suffer in the home stretch. Can be preachy about Am...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about David Brin's  The Uplift War. The Short of It Plot:  It's all-out war pitting the Earthlings (both human and chimp) and their allies against the Gubru, a race of birdlike aliens... with no sense of humor. Page Count:  638 Award:  1988 Hugo, 1988 Locus SF  Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  ( Plot, World, or Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate. Review:  Everything that makes the concept of Uplift delightful is still here. This is a good follow up to Startide Rising  - but not a necessary one. Quality of writing is better, but pacing fluctuates, an overwhelming cast of characters can be hard to track, and deuses jump out of machinas frequently. This does add more depth to the mechanics of Uplift, but not to the broader ideas that made Startide Rising so cool. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! Sorta! Spoilers for Startide Rising  might be included. I liked this book. I'm not...

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about David Brin's  Startide Rising. The Short of It Plot:  Things quickly get out of hand when a ship crewed by humans, dolphins, and a chimp stumble upon a massive armada of abandoned spaceships, escalating to galactic-level drama. Page Count:  498 Award: 1984 Hugo, 1984 Nebula, 1984 Locus SF  Worth a read : All aboard the hype train! Toot toot! Primary Driver:  ( Plot, World, or Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate. Review:  Sweet kittens and milk is this thing excellent. It's not a perfect book - characters can be hard to keep track of, relationships can be forced, some parts drag, and the machina has a whole bunch of deus. But there are so many good ideas in here. Uplift is brought to the fore: that a species needs another to bring it to the galactic scene. But what does that mean? How do we recreate other species in our own image? What debts do we owe each other? What if attempts to he...