Book Reports
I've been back in a book-reading mode and neglecting my bloggish duties. So sue me. But anyway, I've got a few to recommend if you're into current SF.
- Richard Morgan, Woken Furies (****1/2 [out of 5])
Morgan is one of the hot Scottish writers who've burst on the SF scene in the last five years. This is the third and likely last in the Altered Carbon series. Set about 500 years in the future, where human flesh is simply a "sleeve" for the mind (assuming you have the money for your next one) and the "Settled Worlds" are ruled by a corrupt and immortal oligarchy backed by the threat of overwhelming military force. Takeshi Kovacs used to be one of the elite soldiers who kept the "peace"; he got disgusted and quit, taking odd enforcement jobs for anyone who could pay. Think of it as noir with blasters. Now he's back on his homeworld and caught up in a hopeless revolution, where the 400-year-really-dead leader of the last revolution has inexplicably come back to life. Or has she? Whatever happened is making a hash of things though, and no one will let Kovacs sit it out -- especially the other Kovacs that someone illegally double-sleeved. (British edition available now, US version September)
- Charles Stross, The Hidden Family (****1/2)
This is the second book in the Merchant Princes series, by another of the Scottish crowd (another is Ken MacLeod, also recommended). It seems that there are a number of parallel worlds where history has run a bit differently, and a few humans (from one of the other ones) have the hereditary power to walk between them. The Clan, originating in a feudal nightmare where the Dark Ages never ended, uses our world as a source of wealth and power back home. Miriam, whose mother escaped the clan to our world finds about her power and is promptly haulled back "home" by the feudal clan, many of whom think their lives would be easier if Miriam was dead. Since they won't let Miriam leave and she wants things like running water and electricity, her solution is to reform the clan and pull their world out of the 8th century, using modern business methods. A hostile takeover, if you will.
Charles Stross is channelling Roger Zelazny's Amber here, as well as engaging in what he calls "Dark Lord Revisionism" -- the idea that those pastoral kingdoms of Tolkein and such were horrid for the common folk and Sauron might have had a point. (Available July)
Posted by Kevin Murphy at April 24, 2005 12:23 AM
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