Challenge: 50 Books discussion

1.
Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer
Tor Books, 2002, 448 pp.

Review: In the interest of writing a fair review, I try to point out everything I can think of about a novel, both good and bad. I try not to gush too much about the things that I like, and similarly, I would like not to completely tear apart everything I don't like. The unfortunate thing about reviewing Robert J. Sawyer's Hugo award winning novel Hominids is that no matter how hard I try, I cannot come up with a single part of it I don't like.

The story is simple and brilliant: in a parallel universe in which Neanderthals have become the dominant and surviving human species, two Neanderthal physicists do an experiment in quantum mechanics that results in one of them, Ponter, being sucked into our universe, and the other, Adikor, being falsely accused of his murder.

Meanwhile, in our Earth, the scientists involved in a series of experiments involving neutrinos and a chamber of heavy water are perplexed by the sudden appearance of a man in the air-tight chamber that holds the aforementioned water of experiment. They break him out, resuscitate him. Upon bringing him to a hospital for observation and tests, they discover they have a Neanderthal on their hands.

There are a lot of threads to this novel. On one hand, it is a story about people from two backgrounds coming together despite immense differences, in the friendship that blossoms between Neanderthal physicist Ponter, and Homo sapien geneticist Mary. There are much bigger questions asked; Sawyer uses the comparison of this fictional Neanderthal semi-utopia to criticize the major downfalls of our human society. He does it tastefully, although perhaps hamfistedly, but I am one who believes that sometimes we really need to be beaten over the head with our moral conundrums.

There are basically six main characters of the novel. Among the humans, there is the aforementioned Mary, the Jamaican-Canadian Reuben Montego in charge of the heavy water experimentation site, and French-Canadian scientist and apparently super-attractive Louise Benoit. Aside from the two Neanderthals previously mentioned there is Jasmel, daughter of Ponter, who works with her father's best friend Adkior in trying to clear his name. Each of these characters is unique, memorable, and very strong. It is usually a bonus when reading a novel to find that you really like one of the characters, but it is a rare treat to find a book in which each character is at least likable, if not speaking to you in a powerful way.

There are apparently some people who don't care for this novel. I have trouble wrapping my mind around that. It is a little over 400 pages, and I read it in about a day and a half. Often people refer to themselves as being unable to put down a book, but this is one of the few times where I literally felt compelled to skip meals so I could finish it. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone.

2.
Post-Human by David Simpson
Self-Published (IUniverse), 2009, 180 pp.

Review: In David Simpson's novel Post-Human, I was struck by how quickly he was able to get me interested in the characters and the situation. It wasn't so much that the individuals that made up the core cast were of particularly outstanding, but the pacing and plot early on were just right to build up the world and intrigue me profusely.

My first impression was that the novel is kind of a cross between Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, with technology similar to the Green Lanterns of DC Comics. Everyone is equipped with special suits that fix injuries, access the internet, maintain their bodies (causing agelessness), and serve as weapons when need be. Essentially, everyone has a power ring.

I loved the way the plot went early on. The twist about a quarter of the way through was set up beautifully, and it really made me want to continue reading. It was certainly a novel that I found myself easily able to get lost in. Simpson's prose is strong throughout, and it is overall a very well-constructed novel.

If I had to point out a flaw, I would suggest the dialog could have been better. It was sometimes serviceable, but there were times when I thought I might have stumbled upon a script by the fine folks that brought you Plan 9 From Outer Space. It is something I can relate to, as I struggle more with dialog than anything else, but it could still be a lot better. It is really the weak point of the novel.

Some will criticize the fact that it is super-soft sci-fi, as the technology is pretty much entirely implausible, but this doesn't bother me. I am not the type of person to read science fiction for perfect science, as I don't believe it's really about the science at all. It is a creative canvass for telling a story, and hopefully, to have something to say beyond what is obviously on the surface of the words. A good science fiction has something to say about society, about the real world, outside of just being a romp with lasers, monsters, and explosions.

All said, I think this is a solid book, with heart and potential. The dialogue is really something that hampers it's awesomeness, but I have high hopes for the sequel. Writers are bound to get better as they write more, and I certainly like the world Simpson built for Post-Human.

3.
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
Hodder Australia, 1997, 192 pp.

Review: The strange thing about this book is that if it wasn't a true story, I would think it was absolute crap. Hallmark channel drivel, really. But being that it is a true story, and the author and his subject are both heavily invested in this book, I was able to quite like it. I don't think it's life changing, but it is good. The moral of the story is that people die, it sucks, but build a bridge and get over it. Words to live by.

4.
Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories about People Who Know How They Will Die by Ryan North, et al.
Bearstache Books, 2010, 464 pp.

Review: The basic premise of Machine of Death is simple enough: there are machines, and they will tell you how you die. There's a pin prick, it analyzes blood, and coughs out a piece of paper with an ambiguous word (or a few) telling you how to die. There are lame answers like CANCER, and there are much cooler ones like TORN APART BY A PACK OF LIONS.

What irritates me most about the collection, more than anything else, is the blatant lack of continuity. For example, in the first story, it is established that people are not allowed to use the Machine of Death until their sixteenth birthday. The entire first story is based on the premise that a high school girl is going to get to go to the machine of death after school and figure out how she's going to die. In another story later on, a private pre-school is interviewing a parent who wants her kid to be admitted to the school, but one of the important parts of the interview is revealing the child's future death. There are continuity problems like this throughout the book. What's the point in a shared universe collection if there aren't any agreed upon rules?

Aside from me being annoyed by that, the stories just aren't really any good. I think there are about four stories I really liked, and the others ranged from mediocre to not even vaguely interesting. I think that is probably what happens when you use nobody but amateur writers. I mean, the most famous person associated with the book is Cory Doctorow, and he just wrote a one-line blurb about the book on the cover. The few gems in the book are really great, but you have to read through a lot of garbage to get to them.

5.
Draconia: Forging Trust by F.J. Hansen
Self-Published (Eloquent Books), 2010, 232 pp.

Review: I didn't go into Draconia: Forging Trust with overly high expectations; I'm not much of a fantasy guy, and dragons never really interested me. I ended up being very pleasantly surprised.

A writer that wears his or her influences on their sleeve can sometimes come across as amateurish, but there is something endearing about the way F.J. Hansen writes in this book. There are a lot of times I feel like the prose could have been better, but any grammatical or general writing mishaps in the novel are made up for by tons of heart. Hansen writes with warmth, and love for his subject matter, and that really comes through in the book. It is refreshing to read something by someone who is doing the writing purely out of affection for what he's writing about. It's not trying to be high art, and it really isn't, but it is a lot of fun.

The story of Draconia: Forging Trust is essentially that the military of Earth is traveling through space looking for a new human colony when they stumble upon Draconia, a planet inhabited by sentient creatures resembling dragons of folklore. The novel is basically the story of their developing friendship, in spite of people on both sides doing all they can to stop the alliance. Hansen clearly has a bit of a problem with militarism, and writes a story about getting past differences and making friends. It could be argued that it is a little naive, but I found it refreshing.

It reads like a young adult's novel and really should be marketed as such. I think there a lot of kids out there who would love this book. It could use an edit job, as there are a few scenes that seemed to be there only for the purpose of rehashing what we have already learned, but it's really solid. There are some fun characters, and a great story of friendship in the relationship between human Ensign Audwin McClance and draconian Varthikes. I would recommend this story to anyone who likes fantasy and dragons; I would especially recommend this to younger readers. It is written with love, and that's really what makes it what it is. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Matt wrote: "4.
[book:Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories about People Who Know How They Will Die|95480..."

Wow, that does sound like some major continuity problems! I like your reviews in the postings. Cheers.

6.
Orion's Hounds by Christopher L. Bennett
Pocket Books, 2005, 400 pp.

Review: Although I still enjoyed it, this is the weakest entry in the series so far. I just couldn't get into the plot the way I had in the previous two entries. If you're a lore nerd, particularly TNG, you'll probably get something out of it though. The characters are great, and I like to see characters like Jaza Najem, Aili Lavena, and Dr. Ree getting more importance. Heck, Ree is even on the cover!

I would recommend watching TNG episode 'Encounter at Farpoint' again before reading this. You will appreciate the story more if that episode is fresh in your mind.

7.
Forbidden The Stars by Valmore Daniels
Self-Published (Mummer Media), 2010, 278 pp.

Review: With all of the garbage in the world of science fiction that manages to get published and give the entire genre a bad name, it astounds me that a novel as excellent as Valmore Daniels' Forbidden The Stars would have to be self-published. It is a wonderfully constructed novel, full of ambition and great ideas.

The plot in its basic element is reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. A group of astronauts set to be the first to visit the dwarf planet Pluto stumble upon an ancient artifact of alien origin, and a stir washes over everyone in the know on Earth.

Meanwhile, a terrible disaster leaves the ten year old son of a pair of astronauts dead on Macklin's Rock, an asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. Alex Manez somehow survives the disaster, but there is something strange about him in the aftermath.

Forbidden The Stars is a perfect example of when multiple threads in a story can be woven together for excellent effect. It is not a straight space travel romp; it has a much bigger scope than that. There is some political intrigue, some subtle commentary, strong characterization, and an abundance of fun.

What I found most impressive about the book is the way Daniels perfectly shifts between different modes of story telling. It is not straight third-person prose throughout; it includes a section that is the captain of the Pluto mission's journal, several other interludes told via computer logs, and scientific information that gives the novel a unique style that is entirely Daniels' own.

Although this is hard sci-fi, I myself would be useless at trying to assess if the science is good. Frankly, I'm not one to care. This is a brilliantly entertaining novel, and written wonderfully. I plan to buy myself a physical copy soon, and will recommend it to everyone I know who shows even the vaguest interest in science fiction. If you are a Hugo voter, take heed: Valmore Daniels is the real deal. I can't wait for his next novel.

8.
Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke
Gnome Press, 1948, 208 pp.

Review: It's times like this I wish Goodreads had half stars. I was torn on whether or not to give this novel 3 or 4. I love the feeling of this book. The message and overall theme are wonderful; it is the story of a young man and his desire to see the world beyond what he's told of it, and to bring people together in spite of major differences. The characters are interesting, and the world building is very good, but it's weak point is its plot. At about the halfway point, it starts to really lose steam. I don't know if that's just because the first half was so good or not, but it didn't 'feel' as strong later on. I ended up giving it 4 stars rather than 3 on the basis of the character Rorden, the Keeper of the Records in Diaspar, the primary setting of the novel. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as first exposure to Clarke, but it's certainly solid.

9.
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Tor Books, 2007, 314 pp.

Review: Some people will argue that ambiguity in a novel's message is a good thing; it should be left up to the reader to decide what he or she thinks. I think the inherent flaw in that argument is that we don't need a novel to tell us to believe what we already thought about the situation already. Where is the point in an author having a message, if that message is "Make up your own mind?" I feel like John Scalzi's Old Man's War is trying to say something, but I don't know he even knows what it is. Is it pro-military or anti? Does it argue for diplomacy and peace, or is it really a social darwinist story? Hard to say, but luckily, its just a great novel on its strength of story.

In the acknowledgments at the end of the novel, Scalzi thanks Heinlein. It's pretty preposterous, because Heinlein was, in this reviewers opinion, awful. Starship Troopers is seen by many to be the most important work in military science fiction, but I think it is the worst science fiction novel ever. It's generic as hell: military in space kill aliens. It is ham-fisted in its militaristic propagandizing way. Scalzi doesn't suffer from these issues.

The first half of the novel are especially awesome. When it comes to military sci-fi, you kind of go into it realizing pretty much all of the supporting characters are going to bite it by the end, but Scalzi still manages to make you give a shit about the characters anyway, in spite of your better judgment. When people start dropping like flies, it hits hard. It sucks. I spent much of the novel going "Man, I wish so-and-so was still around, he was awesome." That's a sign that the characterization is really solid.

Aside from, arguably, the ambiguity of the message, I think the unfortunate thing about the novel is that it's not quite as good once the main character gets out of boot camp. Once you get past the basic premise of the novel being that you have to be 75 years old to join the military, at which point you are transferred into a new boy, it becomes pretty standard military sci-fi fare, just with more interesting characters. It was a great novel, but I couldn't give it five stars, because I just don't think it gave enough in terms of originality once the bullets started flying. Still a shit load better than Starship Troopers, and I think a bit better than The Forever War, too.

10.
Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer
Tor Books, 1999, 320 pp.

Review: Flashforward is the kind of novel that gradually gets better as it goes on. Despite the cool concept, I felt like early on I couldn't get into it, until I all of a sudden realized that it had suddenly become interesting on me. It isn't as outstanding as his Hugo Award winning novel Hominids but it is a strong story, a cool premise, and is made very good by particular awesome moments.

The concept is that for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, the whole world fell unconscious and had a vision of what their lives would be like in 2030 (the book is set in 2009). It follows a handful of story lines as the scientists linked to the experiment that they believe caused the event try to figure out if the future is concrete. The most interesting story of the bunch is that of Theo, a Greek-born physicist who didn't have a vision of 2030, because he would be dead by then. He goes on a quest to figure out who it is that is going to kill him, and starts to gradually put together the pieces based on visions other people had about him at the time.

I haven't seen the television show that was adapted from this, but I will hazard a guess based on this simple fact: In the long cast list I am looking at, only one single character is present in the television show that is from the book. Leads me to believe they took the basic concept and made something else entirely. Last time I watched a visual adaptation of a novel I liked that pretty much ignored the source material, I was gravely disappointed (Bladerunner. Yuck) so I will not be watching the show any time soon.

The prose is solid, but not awe-inspiring. His dialog is good, but not exemplary. Sawyer is not a writer you read for perfect prose (if you want that, see the work of Ursula K. Le Guin), but has great ideas. His characters are good and believable, and he does a great job of getting me interested in what he's talking about. I still much prefer Hominids but this was definitely a good read.

11.
The Best of Swift by Jonathan Swift
Mercier Press, 1967, 128 pp.

Review: Aside from the brilliant satirical short story "A Modest Proposal," and a series of poems written to Swift's friend Stella, I found this collection overly trite. I think Swift's best work is worth while, but I don't think his "best" is really plentiful enough to fill a whole volume.

12.
Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon
Penguin Books, 1990?, 256 pp.

Review: Although it is clear that Conlon isn't much of a writer Proved Innocent is an important story to be told. His personal experience is terrible, and absolutely enraging. The number of cases like this in the history of many countries is really astounding, and everyone who takes a history class ought to know about the Guildford Four. Conlon, based on his own accounts of his life as a younger man, was an idiot scum bag thief of a kid, but nobody deserves this kind of severe miscarriage of justice.

13.
For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Scribners, 1940, 471 pp.

Review: Hemingway's prose is as good as all of the literary critics would tell you, but I still don't really like him. First of all, I hate bull-fighting and hunting. That right there pretty much disqualifies me from liking two-thirds of his work. Second, I am a feminist, and therefore find his sexism appalling. There goes the other third. Essentially, the only time I can really stand Hemingway is when he is writing about war, because it irritates me the least. I couldn't stand The Sun Also Rises, and I found The Old Man and the Sea awfully boring. The only novel I would say Hemingway ever wrote that is really great is A Farewell to Arms, and it has been so long since I read that that I wonder if there were bad things about it I missed.

For Whom the Bell Tolls certainly has its merits, although it took me three tries to read all the way through. There are a few outstanding, immensely memorable scenes that make the whole book worth while. Unfortunately, Hemingway's editor was asleep at the wheel when he wrote it. For every awe-inspiring chapter, there are two that add nothing to the plot, and severely disrupt the flow of the narrative. If this book was trimmed down from the near 500 pages down to between 300 and 350, this is a five star literary classic. As it is, it's a good novel, but somewhat disappointing in that it could be great. I don't like abridged versions of books, but I imagine an abridged For Whom the Bell Tolls would be outstanding.

Matt wrote: "12.
Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon
Penguin Books, 1990?, 256 pp.

Review: Although it is clear that Conlon isn't much of a writer ..."


I know the book is obviously bound to be more true to life than the movie, but having never read the book, do you know how much truth there is to the movie version (In the Name of the Father)? I was wondering if they compare at all or if the movie adds a lot of fiction elements (if you've seen the movie).

Kate wrote: "Matt wrote: "12.
Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon
Penguin Books, 1990?, 256 pp.

Review: Although it is clear that Conlon isn't ..."

It's pretty faithful. There's a bit of editing and whatnot, and some minor differences (such as, in the film, it seems like Gerry spent a lot more time in the same prison as his father, while in reality they weren't in the same prison very often during his sentence.) Also, the person played by Emma Thompson is only in the last 30 pages or so of the book, they went kind of heavy on the end of the book in the film.

14.
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Doubleday, 1951, 256 pp.

Review: For the general reading population, Ray Bradbury is just "that guy who wrote Fahrenheit 451." To people who have an investment or strong interest in science fiction, he is known as one of the Grand Masters. I've been into sci-fi pretty heavily for the last couple years, but had generally stayed away from Bradbury due to rather lukewarm feelings towards the aforementioned dystopian classic. I remember being fifteen, and loving every minute of that book, until the last 20 pages or so. The ending angered me, and left me really disappointed; I wanted more. Luckily, I decided to give Bradbury another try when I came across The Illustrated Man in a clearance bin at Borders for two bucks.

It wasn't really what I expected. At first, I thought the general premise of it was weird, but I was broke. As it turned out, it isn't even a novel, but a short story collection with a framing narrative. The Illustrated Man is a character with living tattoos all over his body, each of which tell a story. Whether you see that as unique and cool, or cheesy and retarded, the stories really speak for themselves.

Generally, I think I'm a bit rough on short story collections. I have never given a short story collection a perfect score, aside from Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected which is technically a best-of (and not science fiction). Luckily, The Illustrated Man ends up being really close. Aside from maybe two or three weak stories out eighteen, it's all really good, and some of it is excellent.

Bradbury's short stories in the collection are often poignant and very memorable. Among the best of these is "Kaleidoscope," a story of a handful of astronauts floating in space to their doom following the hull breach of their rocket. They have a final conversation of their intercom systems as they all float in opposite directions to their doom. It is the second story in the collection, and easily now one of my favorite short stories period.

Also notable in the bunch are "The Long Rain," about a group of astronauts on the surface of Venus trying to make their way to the safety of a dome while the acid rain pelts them endlessly and drives them insane one by one. Another more humorous story is "Marionettes, Inc." in which a man plots to escape from his wife for a time by purchasing a robot clone of himself to keep his spouse occupied while he goes on a trip to Brazil.

These are only three of the stories, and there are many more that are very worthwhile in the collection. Although I should probably reread Fahrenheit 451 as it sits right now I greatly prefer this collection to that novel, despite it's status as a classic.

15.
Star Wars: Outcast by Aaron Allston
Del Ray, 2009, 400 pp.

Review: Despite a few cool moments and an interesting beginning, Outcast ends up pretty lackluster. The storyline involving Han & Leia is mind-boggling in its ability to induce boredom, and the storyline involving the Horn family feels incomplete. Luke and Ben have the only decent plot line in the bunch, and even that is pretty average. The Star Wars brand is becoming awfully stale and formulaic; I don't think I'll be reading another Star Wars book for a while.

16.
Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway
Self-Published (Virtualbookworm), 2010, 290 pp.

Review: There have been a handful of cases in which I read the first chapter or two of a novel, decided it wasn't for me, and abandoned the book. In the case of reading material for the sake of review, this is a practice I have abolished; when I start reading a book, I finish it. It is lucky for me that I have taken to this practice, as Mark Whiteway's Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms is the perfect example of a novel that rewards perseverance.

Although the blurb on the back led me to believe that it was more of a science fiction romp than a fantasy adventure, and there is real science in the created technology of lodestones (which I would do no justice by trying to explain to you here), it is definitely a fantasy story at heart. The basic plot has been done many times before: a group of adventurers from various backgrounds band together and go on a really long hike across the world to stop something big and evil from happening that would probably destroy the world. Along the way there is in-fighting, big beasties, monsters, unfamiliar species, lava pits, and the titular stormy seas. It starts a bit slow, but once you get into the meat of the book (right around the 50 page mark), it takes off and becomes a lot of fun. Whiteway's prose is strong, and his dialogue is believable, which are two qualities that ought to be more common but are unfortunately at something of a premium in the fantasy genre.

The books biggest strength is its characters. Essentially, there are five main characters for the book, and each of them is unique, distinct, and likable in at least some way. They, in many ways, fit common fantasy tropes, but Whiteway writes them in such a way that it is easy to become invested in them and want them to succeed. They are all flawed characters, but that is really what makes them real. Perfect heroes are not interesting, because they are infallible. Pure villains are the same; there should always be gray area in whether a character is really "good" or "bad." I really have no use for characters who get everything right.

Aside from a somewhat slow start, the only other point I would criticize the novel on is that it is sometimes a bit lacking in description of the books creations. It is an old and often cited adage in fantasy and science fiction that a book's lack of quality is essentially magnified by each made up word. I don't think this really true, but I would like to know more about the original parts of the book. For example, there is a species called a "graylesh" referenced in the book several times that a handful of characters use as mounts, but I couldn't really tell you if they are horses, or wolves, or ostriches. I feel like I would have been more comfortable with the world as a whole early on if more description would be given about the created bits.

All things considered, however, I really enjoyed this. I didn't really expect to like it after I realized that it was more fantasy than sci-fi, as I can quite literally count on one hand the number of fantasy novels I have read that I enjoy. It is just not something that often strikes me, but Lodestone has really proven to be an exception to that rule. Fantasy fans will be pleased, and likewise will be people who just like reading about characters who feel real. The sequel is already out, and you better believe I'm going to read it sooner rather than later.

17.
Doctor Who: The Glamour Chase by Gary Russell
BBC Books, 2010, 256 pp.

Review: A space ship crash lands in England, and after laying dormant for thousands of years, is discovered by some archeologists in the 1930s. Trouble is to be had when the people chasing this ship show up looking for them. Pretty standard story overall, but I still quite liked it because of excellent characterization of Rory as a companion. Gary Russell actually seems to write Rory better than the TV writers do, which makes this something of a breath of fresh air in the world of Doctor Who companion c...moreA space ship crash lands in England, and after laying dormant for thousands of years, is discovered by some archeologists in the 1930s. Trouble is to be had when the people chasing this ship show up looking for them. Pretty standard story overall, but I still quite liked it because of excellent characterization of Rory as a companion. Gary Russell actually seems to write Rory better than the TV writers do, which makes this something of a breath of fresh air in the world of Doctor Who companion characterization

18.
Scourge by David H. Burton
Self-Published (Stonehenge Press), 2010, 232 pp.

Review available at my sci-fi blog, Android Dreamer.

19.
Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ace Books, 1966, 140 pp.

Review available at my sci-fi blog, Android Dreamer.