My Review of The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers

 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was longing for a good space opera scifi, and this story didn't let me down in that regard. The greatest strength of this book is the immersive way the reader is pulled into the characters and their interactions. This is, more than any other book I've recent in recent years, a fully character-driven novel. Chambers does an amazing job of describing the many different alien species, the interactions between crew members, and the differing ways they see the world through their respective lenses. She does so without being heavy-handed or info-dumping. It is done naturally, and you get to know the crewmembers in a very personal way despite them being very different alien species.

Do not expect a book full of action. In fact, there's almost no competition of any sort between characters, civilizations, or species. It's sort of nice, frankly. There are three or four points in story where there is tension, but it is over quickly. No one is shooting anyone else. No blaster fights or punching or anything. It's just a NICE read, which is refreshing. This is not a book for hard scifi or military scifi enthusiasts.

What the book lacks is a cohesive plot. It's basically a long series of character vignettes, with the loose thread of making a journey to a distant planet to "tunnel" a wormhole for the rest of space to travel there. [Slight spoiler] When they finally reach their destination, though, the end comes quickly and you are left realizing that the destination and the trip there were really just a macguffin. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I wasn't set up for that by anything in the description of the book or the initial "hook" (which had suggested the story was primarily around Rosemary faking her background and going on a long and dangerous journey, which turns out was only a small part of the book).

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My review of Molting of A Queen by Peter J. Foote

 

Molting of a Queen: A sci-fi novella by Peter J. Foote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nina, along with her boss and a helicopter pilot, flies through a portal during a oceanic storm and winds up crash-landed on an alternate world. They have to navigate an alien landscape to find a way back to Earth. Nina also navigates her own internal "landscape" and angst over her dead twin, as well as come to grips with her boss, a man who is standoffish and difficult to interact with. And then they meet the natives....

This was a quick and enjoyable read. A definite "alternate worlds" feel without the usual scifi tropes. Don't expect spaceships, militant violence, or damsels in distress. Foote tells the story while maintaining a strong female protagonist and a satisfying conclusion that, without giving too much away, doesn't resort to violent conquest.

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Cheers and happy reading!

Review of Edge of the Breach by Halo Scot

Edge of the Breach by Halo Scot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Edge of the Breach is a deep and fascinating delve into darkness. Behold the birth of monsters and the redemption of the unredeemable.

Set far into the future in a cross-genre sci-fi/fantasy, after civilization has fallen and humanity has fled to the now-hot Antarctica, people struggle to keep society together by utilizing a brutal underbelly. At some point in the past, an interdimensional breach appeared in the heavens, introducing new gods and granting people magical powers based on the season.

The story is told from the point of view of a boy, Kyder, and a girl, Rune, who each fight their own demons and manage to survive at their wits end, both powerful in their respective magic, and both growing to adulthood and surviving on the streets to command their own groups. This is no story for the fainthearted! It is a "grimdark" story, and Halo Scot doesn't flinch from showing us the details of torture, pain, S&M, and forbidden sex. The gritty details lend a dark and realistic bent until, drawn along the current, you are pulled through the rapids of the streams of their lives until, at last, they join into a raging river.

The story is the beginning of a series that revolves around an interdimensional war. But that war only really comes into play at the end of this volume. That didn't matter to me. I was enthralled with story of the two characters and how the darkness and violence of their lives shaped them into terrifying yet relatable people just trying to climb to the top of the dogpile. Highly recommended.

Cheers and happy reading!

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Review of Edge of the Flame by James Aichinger

Edge of The Flame by James Aichinger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Edge of the Flame is a scifi re-telling of the "chosen one" sort of story. Aichinger has a good writing method and an imaginitive worldbuilding, spanning three worlds. The characters have complex backstories and stand out well from one another. The main villain is fairly unique with a power that is awe-striking and seemingly un-defeatable, and you find yourself wondering how they can manage to overcome him.

A young man who lacks memory of his childhood, Adanis, realizes his home town is in flames and all are destroyed, the result of an attack by powerful creatures (ironically) called "angels" at the behest of a villain named Arek, but he is quickly rescued by two brothers and arms experts, a techie named Rascelot and his powerful "malachi" brother Raphael. A malachi is like a mutant with superpowers. Adanis learns he isn't just a malachi, but a "valkiran" who is the fated chosen one to destroy Arek. But Adanis is naive and must quickly learn all he needs from the brothers in order to fulfill his role. What follows is a chase between worlds as they run from Arek and his minions to Earth, then try to be recognized as the valkiran in the coming battle for Earth. But all is not what it seems, and who can Adanis trust?

Personally, I'm not a fan of "chosen one" stories, and this story follows the (tired) traditional "Hero with a thousand faces" story progression... *but* there is a significant twist at the very end of the book, which has to do with his lack of memory and identity crisis. Unfortunately you have to read nearly all of the 160K words to get to it. Part of the reason for the length is that there are no less than 20 major characters, most of whom have point-of-view sections and side plots of their own, not all of which really seemed to be necessary for the main storyline, such as diplomats and their personal relationships to other diplomats, or an arms dealer and his shady history. I found the story got bogged down in these side plots by around 2/3 the way through the book. Also, despite the length of the book, the ending wraps up very quickly and I found myself a bit confused by the convenient manner in which it ended. Plus, some of those many side plots were not wrapped up at all. But it's not all bad. The side plots ARE interesting on their own, even if they don't lend much to the central storyline.

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Cheers and happy reading!

How Much Bloodshed Is Tolerated in Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels?

It goes without saying that many fiction genres have little or no tolerance for bloodshed and pain: certainly children's and middle grade books, most romance or erotica (there's nothing sexy about being cut open and bleeding... I'm raising an eyebrow at you BDSM lovers!), humor and absurdist literature, and so forth. You might see a bloody nose or brief mention of wounds in literary fiction, cozy mysteries (like Agatha Cristie), legal thrillers (think John Grisham), and social commentary pieces, but almost never anything detailed.

The level of tolerance increases significantly when you consider thrillers of any sort. You can't have gunfights and martial arts duels without at least some pain and bloodshed, reserved mostly for the bad guys, of course. The range of tolerance here is very wide, so as a writer and a reader you have to have an idea of the subgenre and the author beforehand. And then there's horror, which takes a giant, blood-splattering leap upward on the scale. Even with authors like Stephen King you expect some grisly scenery and description, and that's not even the sort of "body horror" or "grimdark" subgenres that I think is increasingly popular. (As an aside, it's strange to me that this kind of severe bloodshed is more popular in horror movies than in books, but then maybe it's because those who find satisfaction or entertainment in such imagery are more visual than imaginative?). The stories in my horror anthology, Around the Corner from Sanity, run the full range from no blood to gore-fest.

But what about science fiction and fantasy? It seems to me that these genres fall into a sort of gray zone. I read and write in these genres, but even I have a hard time putting a finger on the preferences of the reading public. Again, there's a wide scale and as a reader you sort of have to know the author beforehand. I can't remember any reference to blood at all in Tolkien's books, despite all the battle scenes, for instance. Frank Herbert described brutal acts in Dune but only in a few scenes did he go into details. But other, more modern authors I've read, such as Dan Simmons, don't shy away from it (the creature known as the Shrike in his Hyperion novels still elicits a tantalizing shiver for me).

So I put a poll on Twitter to get some feedback on this. I asked, "#fantasy and #scifi #book fans, What level of bloodshed to you tolerate in your novels?" I expected most answers to fall somewhere in the middle, maybe skewing slightly toward the more violent end. 

As you can see, there is, indeed, the sort of distribution that I thought, with only about 5% voting "none", then increasing to 33% and 43% for "some bloodshed's fine" and "there can be heavy scenes," respectively. I was surprised by the number of people who voted for "full-on gore fest!" (19%). I figured it would be down around 10%.

Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. I mean, I personally have a very high tolerance and sometimes prefer the more bloody violence, as long as it fits the tone of the overall book and the plot. 

In the fantasy novels I've written, there are only a few scenes that get bloody, in a PG way, and no real "gore", though I allow myself freer space with some of my fantasy short stories. But in my space opera novel, which is written with a sort of pulp-fiction tone, some action scenes are pretty graphic and would be R-rated if made into a movie (not to mention some X-rated sex scenes!).

As a writer, I'll say that the guiding principles related to the violence to include are: what is the interest of your target audience, and is it necessary for the plot and characterization?

How do you feel about bloodshed in sci-fi and fantasy books? Leave a comment!

Cheers and happy reading!

Review of Mad Max: Fury Road (graphic novel prelude to the movie)

Mad Max: Fury Road by George Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't be more pleased with this graphic novel. The artistry is first-rate. The stories are compelling. and it has all of the post-apocalyptic nihilism and road-roaring rage of the movies, as well as the tough heart of the movie protagonists and heartlessness of the bad guys.

The movie started with some clear gaps that needed answering, and this book answers those. For instance, what was the story behind the "brides" and how Furiosa came to protect them? Or what's the backstory on Immortan Joe? The graphic novel also tells us the background for Nux, a couple novel stories for Max before he came to the movie, and even a chapter on the history of the War Rig!

Not only does it have the movie director, George Miller, at the helm, but veteran Mad Max storyboarder and artist Mark Sexton contributing to the art. Any fan of Mad Max should purchase and read this at once!

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BONUS! Click HERE to go to my YouTube Channel review of this graphic novel!

Cheers and happy reading!

OFFICIAL RELEASE of How Cold the Steel Hand - a robot story

I've just published a science fiction short story, and it's awesome.

Does technology make you feel more connected?
Are you sure?

HOW COLD THE STEEL HAND examines the juxtaposition of technology in how it can bring us together and yet give us a false sense of personal connection.

"Wow! Just...wow! What an incredible heartwarming and heart-wrenching story that is set in the future...! A short, but amazing read!" - Quoth the Writer Book Reviews & More @qtwreviews

Read it HERE.

In the not-so-distant future of this short story, telepresence droids, or "teledroids," are used in homes to interact with others, in battle as surrogate soldiers, or to visit far away locales. Gary Feltman is a young surgical specialist working from his compudesk in Chicago, performing surgeries via teledroid on patients across the globe. His important work and medical studies require constant focus and pull his attention away from family. Yet while he is connecting to others and saving their lives, the very same technology is shunned by his beloved Uncle Wallis, who lies dying from a cancer that Gary could have cured with his techniques. What would drive his uncle to make such a choice?

And in a world where technology is supposed to bring us together, why can't Gary seem to connect?

The cover image is from a local Eugene artist and roboticist, Gray Eldritch. 

Cheers and happy reading!

Do you measure space monsters in meters or feet?

A couple days ago I was happily typing away at my space opera scifi novel in my favorite coffee shop, sipping on my chai latte, when my hero, Dirken Nova, saw a massive alien emerge from a tunnel....

Grimmag Ruby-Eye was the largest Eradini that Dirken had ever seen. He was easily twenty five feet long and perhaps ten feet wide. Like others of his species, he was basically a giant maggot with a wide, tubular body that wobbled as if filled with jelly.

But wait....  I stopped typing and read back over that bit. Something bothered me about it. Well, besides comparing an alien to jelly....

And then I realized. I was measuring this beastly alien using the English (Imperial) system. But isn't this a scifi novel set a thousand years from now?? Shouldn't it be a bit more scientific? Shouldn't it be metric?? Shouldn't that be eight meters long by three meters wide? (I'm rounding the value, here).

I'm a scientist by day. I work in the metric system all day long. It just makes sense. Everything is a base-ten and easy to convert between units. Well, except maybe for cooking.

Yet I'm from the United States and, according to my blog stats, the majority of you reading this blog are from the United States as well. The U.S. hasn't yet fully adopted the metric system for some inane reason. It's in lonely company, along with Liberia and Myanmar. If I say that something is three meters long, most of my fellow Americans would scratch their head and puzzle over what that would look like, maybe getting their cell phones out to look it up.

So I got some other opinions. I ran a poll on Twitter (Twitter's great for that!). And the response was overwhelming....

As you see, "metric" won the lion's shares of votes at 64%.

I think the most compelling argument that people made in the comments is that this is the future and science fiction readers are more likely to be fluent with science measurements, which are almost always metric.

One Twitter follower (ScifiFan) pointed out that a meter is not the same on Earth as on Mars, but it turns out he was using the old definition (originally, a meter was defined as "one ten-millionth of the distance between the equator and the north pole," which would certainly be different on different planets. But later it was redefined as "the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second." (Wikipedia) That's an easy number to remember, right?

So I'll go with metric.

As another Twitter follower (Benjamin W. Bass @TheDarkRabbit) commented:

In space, no one can hear you divide by 12....

Cheers and happy reading!

Review of Ardulum: First Don by J.S. Fields

Ardulum: First Don by J.S. Fields
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book by a female author -- all too rare for space opera scifi!

A young renegade woman, the only of her species (Neek) to be offworld, falls in with a couple humans to take on an authoritative species that polices their part of the galaxy. When a young girl of a species that the Neek worship suddenly falls into their company, they find themselves discovering her mystical powers while trying to protect her from those who wish her harm. Soon, a war between opposing factions breaks out over the little girl and others like her who have been enslaved.

The first book in the series, Fields built a great world (galaxy, really) full of original species and technology. The plot zoomed along, but unlike many such books did not depend upon violent confrontations to move the plot. I can't wait to dig into the next volume.

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Cheers and happy reading!