SF Book Review, Part 6

It’s been a while since I followed up on my book queues (and some of the books on here weren’t even on the queue, they just jumped to the top of the queue – which is probably why the queue is so long).

  • Doomsday Book by Connie Willis – This is one of a notable few SF novels to have won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel (technically this book tied with another Kaedrin favorite, Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep, for the Hugo). Indeed, Willis has apparently written a few other novels in the same universe, and they seem to have racked up the awards as well. This particular installment is about time-traveling historians. Young Kivrin is travelling back to the 14th century to observe daily life. Her mentor and father-figure, Dunworthy, is against the trip from the start, as it’s a dangerous era and the further back in time you travel, the less precise the technology becomes. The novel proceeds on two main timelines – One at a futuristic Oxford University, the other at a small 14th century town. This is clearly not a predictive novel – the future Oxford is quite absurd at times (in particular, the lack of communication infrastructure is ridiculous – they don’t even have much in the way of telephones, let alone cell phones or the internets). I don’t know enough about history to say whether or not the 14th century bits are more realistic, but they seem more appropriate. Of course, it doesn’t really matter. The story is effective on its own merits, and it operates according to its own internal logic, which is quite sound. One thing I found refreshing for a time-travel story is that there is no real consideration or recursive examination of paradoxes and the like. There are some off-hand references to the fact that the time travel mechanism won’t let you change the past, but there isn’t much in the way of circular causality events or anything resembling that sort of time-travel pyrotechnics that you see so frequently. Indeed, Kivrin might as well have been traveling to a dangerous alien planet. That being said, the historical section plays out in an interesting fashion. I won’t get into too much detail here, but I will say that diseases are involved (in both timelines) and that Willis is brutally unforgiving. Her style is prosaic, more like classical hard SF, which kinda gave me a false sense of security. But Willis managed to pull the rug out from underneath me – several times. It might not seem like it at the beginning of the novel, but this isn’t a book for the faint of heart. That being said, there is a hint of redemption and hope at the very end of the novel. I enjoyed this and may someday get around to the others in the series, but I’m not exactly in a hurry to do so.
  • The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth – Widely considered to be the best SF novel produced by the Futurians – a group of SF fans who eventually turned into editors and authors themselves, often focusing less on hard science and more on sociology and politics. This book is basically a satirical look at advertising and consumerism, and as such, it’s actually still pretty relevant today (even if the specifics of technology are a bit odd at this point). The story follows an advertising copywriter, Mitch Courtenay, who gets ahold of a big new account (Venus!), and all the inter-office intrigue that he has to deal with. It goes some cliched places, but this book probably helped shape some cliches in itself. Stylistically, there’s nothing special going on here, though the pages seem to turn themselves pretty quickly. It’s a short book and a very easy, fun read.
  • Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold – Bujold is one of the authors that seemed to pick up the pieces after the whole Cyberpunk thing happened, returning SF to its Cambellian origins. This is a pretty straightforward space opera, though a very well executed one that I probably enjoyed more than any of the other books in this post. The story concerns a Betan scientist named Cordelia and her encounter with Lord Vorkosigan, of the Barrayarans. At first, they are enemies, but they quickly develop into more. And of course, they are surrounded by war and conflict between their two peoples, and during the course of the story, we’re treated to all sorts of deceptions and treachery. This probably makes it sound trashy, and maybe it is, but it’s still great fun. This book is apparently part of a large, wide-ranging series of books. Opinions differ as to which way to read them – in order of publication, or in order of internal chronology. Either way, Shards of Honor is the start of the series (i.e. it’s the first published and the first in the chronology). I’ve already purchased the next two internal chronology books though, and am greatly looking forward to reading them.
  • Time’s Eye – A Christmas gift from my brother, and apparently also the first in a series of novels, this particular book starts out with a premise similar to Clarke’s 2001. One day, a bunch of Spherical objects (i.e. objects similar in concept to the Monolith) appear on the planet, and suddenly, the planet is a jumble of times. It seems that each region of the planet (the size of the regions appear to be small, though no definites are given) has been replaced with an earlier version of itself, sometimes stretching back millions of years. As such, most of the planet is now devoid of humanity. This story concerns itself with 5 main groups of people. Two are modern (a 3-person UN Peacekeeping team and a 3-person crew of Astronauts who were orbiting the planet at the time of the event), one relatively contemporary contingent (a British regiment, circa late 19th century, stationed in India), and two ancient powers (Alexander the Great’s Macedonian army, and Ghengis Khan’s Mongolian hoards). If you like the concept of modern folks mixing with historical folks (i.e. what would happen if modern astronauts met up with some Mongolians? And so on…), this would be a lot of fun, and I managed to have a pretty good time with it. Ultimately, there isn’t much in the way of answers here, and I’ve read enough Arthur C. Clarke series to know that it probably won’t be completely satisfying by the end of the series, but it was an enjoyable enough read, and there is an internal struggle between the Macedonians and the Mongols that is pretty compelling. It just doesn’t seem that interested in resolving the various mysteries it set up. Perhaps the future books will delve into that a bit, but I have to admit that I’m unlikely to pursue this any further.
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray – I’ve always known that Oscar Wilde was famous for his wit, but I do believe this is the first thing of his that I’ve read (I suppose he’s more notable as a playwright, and you can see that sort of talent in this novel), and I was surprised at the density of witty remarks within the book. It seems like you can’t go a page without getting some wondrous monologue, usually spoken by Lord Henry (a quasi-villain? The book certainly doesn’t have a traditional conflict). You also get a long series of fantastic one-liners, such as “Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” and “Dorian is far to wise not to do foolish things now and then,” and “There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us.” and “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” Much of this is oxymoronic or nonsensical in nature, but oddly compelling nonetheless. The story is a bit on the thin side, and is really just an excuse for Wilde to run, well, wild, with his witty imagination. I suppose you could say that this isn’t science fiction – it’s pretty firmly in the realm of fantasy – but I’ll make an exception here. It’s not a particularly heartwarming tale, but there’s a lot of thematic depth and as I’ve already mentioned, lots of witty repartee that keeps the pages turning. I wouldn’t call it a favorite, but I’m really glad I read it.

And there you have it! Coming up in the queue are some more Bujold novels, perhaps some Timothy Zahn, and even though it’s probably not SF, some Thomas Pynchon for good measure. I may also need to do a Non-Fiction book review soon, as I’ve been reading a lot of that lately too…