Pieces on Speculative Fiction

2 stars out of 5. Acacia offers complex fantasy world where the line between heroes and villains is blurred. Sadly there are way too many point-of-view characters and the characterization just isn’t very good. Despite the verbose prose there was lack of feeling between me and the book, at no point did I care about what happend to the various people.

The story is about the children of the Acacian King Leodan. Acacia rules the known world and has done so for more than 20 generations. The times are troubled, Meinish assassin is closing in and Acacian troops in Mein are facing a dire new threat. From there on the story slowly unravels.

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4 stars out of 5. The Blade Itself is the first book of a trilogy The First Law. The story is told character drivenly from the points of views of barbarian, fencer and inquisitor, who are fleshed out very well. Everything of the medieval-style world of the Union is shown through a film noir lens. The grander plot takes the backseat when the characters converge to the heart of the Union against the backdrop of impending war with the North. Very entertaining read despite some length issues.

The book starts with Logen Ninefingers, the former champion of the King of the North, fighting for his life. From there on we are given a host of new characters where each chapter is told through one character. This gives great insight to different characters and despite none of the them being really likeable you come to care about what happens to them, which is something that is often lacking(Acacia anyone).

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Three stars. Passion Play is science fiction murder mystery in Christian fundamentalist America. A great actor is found dead and detective Diane Fletcher is called to investigate, who is the protagonist. She is a shaper, she can read people’s emotions and emotional patterns after some interaction. Sadly her ability is explored only perfunctorily. The interesting parts of the book discuss people’s lives in fundamentalist society.

What I liked the most in the book was describing fundamentalists as quite normal and real people, not cardboard cutouts, their motivations are realistic, even if not to my liking. In this respect the books ending leaves something to be desired. I liked the descriptions of Diane’s professional problems in a phallocentric world, where she was doing what was considered a man’s job. The clashes between her job and social life is quite good.

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The final spurt through the rest of the book didn’t do much change my earlier stance, World’s End was a book that didn’t thrill me. Nevertheless I have hard time of giving it less than three stars, because there weren’t any obvious flaws. Besides the fact that I never managed to get engaged by the story. The plot wasn’t predictable to any meaningful degree, characters weren’t cardboard cutouts and writing was good enough. Rainy afternoon romp, nothing more, nothing less.

My first impressions post said most that I have to say about World’s End. While I do like Chadbourn’s use of different myths, I prefer it when the use is less epic. Secret history/behind the scenes/invisible world is the aproach for me. Hopefully the two latter parts of Age of Misrule are more engaging, but I fear that it will be quite a while before I read those.

Mark Chadbourn’s World’s End might be one of those books that I could just leave lying around for ages after reading about 300 pages. The lack of immersion just keeps me from diving into the story. Funnily enough I bought an British omnibus edition that has the whole Age of Misrule trilogy.

Idea of World’s End is that dark sort of fairie is coming back to the modern world and with it technology is slowly breaking down. Magic is coming back and science is on back pedal. Nothing wrong with that except that it’s really irking me that for example computers quit working, cars break down and yet gravity seems to be in working order. Somehow I don’t consider internal combustion engine to be scientific mumbo jumbo invention that would have hick ups when science goes. It seems to me that the idea hasn’t been quite thought through.
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This books is a classic, it won five awards(including Hugo and Nebula) when it was published 1973. In my opinion it is very good example of Clarkes hard science fiction before he tried to write about things he didn’t really understand, like relationships or characters. This book is about exploration and wonder. I give it four stars out of five.

The novel starts by describing decentralized solar system in 22nd century, where Mars, Mercury and several moons are inhabited. Systems designed to detect asteroids detect one moving at huge speeds towards our solar system. Closer inspection shows that it isn’t what it seems.

The premise of the book is typical to science fiction: first encounter. This is explored through a panel of scientists who debate related issues and through the protagonist space captain Norton who leads the expedition to find out more about Rama, the mystical object that has arrived to the solar system. (more…)