The book I ended up paying the most amount of $$ for. Ah, the irony.
So. I should start with a disclaimer that this is the second book in a trilogy and I didn’t track down the first one to read. (There was a deadline!) I DID however read a detailed synopsis of the first book, so I was at least familiar with the plot – if not the intricacies of the characters and their relationships.
(Fellow Hugo Reading Racer Lizbt didn’t even read a synopsis and she felt that picking up this trilogy, 2nd book in was easy enough.)
The verdict, did I like it? Short answer? No. Long answer? Noooooooooooooooooooo.
I found it easy enough to get through, and the concept of a benevolent emergent A1 is fascinating – but I just couldn’t get past the dialogue. The characters are likeable enough, and seem well rounded. But then this kind of thing happens.
Character 1 – “That reminds me of an experiment I read about once, and my various opinions regarding, religion, society, same sex marriages and God.”
Character 2 – Really? How so?”
Character 1 – “Well, INSERT AUTHOR’S CLUMSILY SANDWICHED IN LECTURE HERE.”
I mean I know authors have opinions on things. I like to hear their opinions, I don’t even mind if a character serves as a convenient mouthpiece for a writer to theorise or explain something that they are passionate and informed about. But really, some of the ‘conversations’ in this book are just groan-inducing. It is unusual for a book to remind me of B-movie dialog but this one did it. I don’t care how intelligent they are – two 16 yr old girls simply don’t converse the way they do in this book. Hell, two PEOPLE of any age or gender don’t converse like they do in this book.
I’ll admit I am ignorant as to the other work of Robert J Sawyer - from what I gleaned reading his official bio he seems to be a well respected and prolific writer – but frankly I was extremely surprised that a pro was writing dialogue this awkwardly information heavy. On one memorable occasion two hormone riddled teenagers, who the author makes quite clear are inexperienced in the ways of romance, manage to have one of these clunky ‘conversations’ about evolution and consciousness and nationhood all the while fumbling towards their first proper make-out session.
It simply did not ring true. I scoffed. I mean I actually made scoffing noises out loud. And now I am using my personal blog to scoff in an ever-more public way. SCOFF SCOFF! I SCOFF AT YOUR DIALOGUE ROBERT J SAWYER!
(I know! Aren’t I insensitive? If he reads this he will be crushed, poor Hugo and Nebula Award-winning dear…)
So we are done! All the books read and soon I will lodge my electronic ballot. With five whole days to spare.
Thank you for reading along with all my reading, Dear Reader.
Now – all the books must be given a preference from 1 through to 5. I throw this question out to the vast readership of my blog, you out there in internet land, HOW WILL I VOTE?
You read the scorecards, now make the call! 1 through to 5.
If you get it right you WIN a VALUABLE* PRIZE!
Simply comment below as to how you think I will vote. All the books, 1-5.
Those books are, in the order I read them…
“The City and the City” by China Meiville
“The Wind-Up Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi
“Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America” by Robert Charles Wilson
“Boneshaker” by Cherie Priest, “Palimpsest” by Catherynne M Valente
“WWW: Wake” by Robert J Sawyer
Get to it, Readers! I know you are out there, I can hear you breathing!
See! Middle initial again. So, what’s it to be? Wild M. Particle, Wild B. Particle III, W. B. Particle Jnr ? A difficult choice…
*value may be sentimental rather than fiscal, immediate Lizbt’s and their immediate families are ineligible. (What, the heck, you can enter if you want M1K3Y…)
I was excited about this book, as I had read several chapter’s of Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (soon to be published and all but the last chapter up to read free here!) and enjoyed them immensely. This book turned out to be quiet different in tone – much more adult – though similarly packed with gorgeous sentences and fanciful creatures and inspired locales. I was absolutely delighted however, to discover that Fairyland is in fact referenced in Palimpsest. (Though from her website I have gleaned that Valente didn’t actually begin writing Fairyland until Palimpsest was already in circulation – and readers were continually asking her about the book within the book, if it existed, or if she had made it up in which case could she hurry up and write it please…)
My excitement as it turns out was entirely justified. This is a fantastic (in every sense of the word) book - much of the prose I found so sensually evocative I felt as though I was transgressing some un-named social convention by reading it on public transport. Picture me, your humble reviewer, coming across a particularly vivid (and frequently carnal) passage and loosening his suddenly uncomfortably tight neck-tie to let out some literary steam – like a bowler-hatted Upstanding English Gentleman reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover on a tube train in the 60’s – and you get the idea.
I will be re-reading Palimpsest – I don’t know that the plot really demands a second reading, as it is relatively uncomplicated, but there are some descriptive passages that I simply must dip my fingers into again – one serving was not enough.
It is getting increasingly difficult to decide who to vote for!
Next up WWW:Wake by Robert J Sawyer.
Middle initial, see? Clearly I need to get one if I want to get published.
So I am falling more than a little behind in the Hugo Reading Race, two books left to go and not a great deal of time to read them. I had also hoped to read all of the short stories and novellas too if possible – though that goal may prove too ambitious at this stage.
Anyway, here is the latest, and boy did I get stuck on this one. It wasn’t that it was a chore to read, I just kept stumbling along all sorts of other material and found myself devouring it instead. Magazines, online content, comics, other books. Anything other than the novel in question. Which leads me to the novel in question -
Trade Secret – I actually do a draft copy of these scorecards. That is right, what you have been seeing are the 2nd, neater versions. (As I may have mentioned previously on this blog I grip writing implements like an ape unfamiliar with the tools of man, and the resulting writing gets pretty illegible I’m afraid…)
I enjoyed this book, I mean what’s not to enjoy – zombies, airships, lots of characters with a legitimite, environmentally-based reason to dress like they are at a Steampunk ball. So yeah, I liked it. I did not love it. I’m not going to buy it, and I couldn’t see me ever picking up a copy that was laying about for a re-read. We had a nice time but it is not coming up for coffee, and I will not be calling it in a day or two.
A few reasons. It did not surprise me. I mean, ever surprise me. The closest there was to a plot revelation was a something that I had already assumed was the case a few chapters in. Not much really happened, I mean there was set pieces galore and plenty of furtive and adventuresome travel through a condemned and forgotten alternate-Seattle but I found it all a bit claustrophobic, the story never really took flight for me. (Also – I found the geography a complete mystery. I admit following such things is not my strong point but as far as I could tell it was all just “Up, we need to go up!” and “The only way out it down, try to head down!” If you say so….)
My next difficulty I can practically copy and paste from my earlier Wind-Up Girl post – I did not care about the characters. The mother and son duo I was supposed to be rooting for? Meh. Ezekiel was a brat, and Briar wasn’t much better. Am I just supposed to like them because they have cool names? I mean there names are cool, I am not arguing – but what were there defining characteristics? Briar was what… feisty? Good with a rifle? Ezekiel was.. 15? Pissed off all the time? As for the rest of the characters -with the notable exception of Lucy – they all seemed to a succession of broad chested men with different shaped helmets. The few villains of the piece were very sketchily drawn. Dr Minnerecht I found uncomfortably cliche, he may as well have steepled his fingers and given an evil laugh or two as he trotted out the obligatory ‘you are my guests, enjoy my plush hospitality but you cannot leave speech’. (His right hand-man-lieutenant-type initially seemed quite interesting, but his role proved to be cameo-sized.)
The last thing that I found underwhelming, (and feel free to argue here) was the lack of any kind of levity. I didn’t crack a smile throughout the whole book. I mean sure – the world of the novel is a pretty grim place, but since when did that stop a chuckle or two? Personally I think if the author was shooting for any kind of ‘adventure-romp’ tone, adding a touch of black humour might not have been amiss. But apparently the people the Blight-gas didn’t turn into “rotters” had their funny-bones boiled away. (Along with their libidos it seems… but don’t get me started on that.)
All right. Only two books left, on to Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valentewe go!
This cover is about as Steampunk as you can get without featuring actual steam. Actually, the right lens of her oh-so-hip-with-the-kids brass goggles looks a little steamed, so there you go…
Like Richard III, except without the tyrant. No wait – there is a tyrant in this book. Two in fact, depending on how you choose to look at it.
If you want to know who Mister Charles Curtis Easton is then read the book!
So, Julian Comstock.
I really liked it. I had more than that to say I think, back when I finished the book and filled out the scorecard about 3 WEEKS AGO. But for some reason no post was forthcoming. Maybe it was because my Co-Hugo-Racer Lizbt has already read all the damn books and soundly thrashed me weeks out from the deadline…
So here we are.
*SPOILER* (Though not a major plot point)
The footnote, the bit that all my asterisk’s were referring to is the fact that there is a book within the book that features an octopus on the cover despite not actually having an octopus in the story. And as you will note, the cover for this book has an octopus on it despite the fact that there is not really an octopus – though of course in one sense there is because there is the book with the octopus on the cover that doesn’t have an octopus in it. RECURSIVE! I love it! (And considering that I had randomly decided to include the IS THERE AN OCTOPUS? question on the scorecard I was rather excited…)
SPOILER OVER
Tangent- I always loved that bit during the conclusion of the “The Goonies” when Data says “The Octopus was very scary!”, it just seemed so wonderfully mad that he was embellishing their adventure and lying about an octopus when the truth of what they had been up to was already so fantastically unbelievable. Then 18 years later I watched the deleted scenes from the DVD release and discovered there WAS AN OCTOPUS, only the creature effect was so woeful that they had removed it from the finished film. True story.
I am on to “Boneshaker” by Cherie Priest now, and enjoying it so far. My progress is not very swift though, so don’t expect another post for a week or so at the very minimum.
N.B I have decided to go back through the previous posts and added scans of the book covers for you. Because I love you. Yes, you.
I do so hope the next author’s name is easier to spell.
Hmmm….
The previous Hugo entry, “The City and the City” by China Mieville took me three days. This volume, Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Windup Girl”, took me thirteen. Admittedly it was a little longer, but not considerably so – hence the Pageturnability of ‘3′ on the scorecard above.
Lets get to it then! Did I like this book? Well, it was certainly filled with some original ideas.
I found the world of the book quite fascinating. Set in a not-too-distant future Bangkok, global warming has raised the levels of the oceans, the US Empire is no more, carbon fuel is depleted and manually wound springs are what people use for energy. Biotechnology and GM foods have wreaked havoc with the worlds animal and plant-life and ‘calories’ are the most precious of commodities. The prose is rich and descriptive and I never felt less than genuinely immersed in a foreign, but tangibly plausible and detailed, time and place.
The setting gets a big tick then. My problem really, lies with the characters and to a lessor extent, the plot.
My primary gripe with the characters is that there were too damn many of them.
Don’t get me wrong- I believe a book this length can have as many people in it as the author needs to tell their story, but almost half-way through I found myself groaning every time a new ‘central player’ was revealed. It just began to seem increasingly unlikely as I went on the that all of these admittedly interesting people were going to have time to contribute to the story or interact with each other in any meaningful way before I got the last page. And for my money, they didn’t.
My second problem with the characters was the deal-breaker, and to be honest probably would have prevented me from even finishing the book if it weren’t part of this Hugo Adventure – I did not care about ANY of them.
I mean they weren’t all despicable or entirely unlikeable but I just didn’t empathise with any the scheming lot enough to care what happened to them. Who was I supposed to be rooting for? Anderson, the Calorie-man? Because he was WASPish and therefore easy identify with? (For this white-boy reader anyway) Hock-Seng the paranoid refugee? Jaidee the idealistic bully? (Don’t even get me started on Kanya… what a void of a character…) Or was I supposed to be interested in Emiko, the Windup Girl of the title? Well I wasn’t. (Sure, some horrible things happen to her and she has some serious abilities but suffering and ninja-speed do not a protagonist make…)
Essentially, it just boiled down to the fact that I didn’t care about anyone in the book, so found it hard to really get excited as the plot (eventually) started to pick up the pace and Shit Went Down.
I don’t think any of the Hugo Adventure will be bad as such, and I’m not suggesting this one is without some serious merit - I mean presumably they were all nominated as the best the year had to offer in sci-fi for a reason. But here is hoping that whichever story I pick up next isn’t quite such a chore to get through…
Ok. Two down, four to go.
Next up – “Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America”
Is it just me, or is putting ‘astute social commentary’ not really setting a potential reader’s mind aflame with a desire to read the book? Maybe it is just me, maybe other people read ‘astute social commentary’ on the cover and are all like “Oh man, this author is totally going to use their imagination and rhetoric to examine some kind of social issue and maybe even try to promote change through a effective allegory. Strap me down, man. Shit is about to get real!”
It did really hurt my hand. I’m not making that up. (I won’t hold it against the author though, I’m magnanimous like that…)
I am worried that I have peaked too early, that is – I really loved this book.
I’ve heard China Mieville’s name invoked with reverence by many who’s opinion I value, (including my literary hero N___ G____ himself…) but up until this point not read a single word of his fiction. I actually have an earlier work, Perdido Street Station sitting on a bookshelf waiting patiently to be read, and based on how excellent this book was I will get to it as soon as I’ve finished with the Hugo Read-a-thon.
The City and the City was not at all what I expected for my first 2010 Hugo nominated read. The present-day, no frills, Post-Soviet urban milieu took me by surprise – where where the dirigibles, the future designer-drug, the gene-spliced animals, the post-humans?
Now, I don’t think I am spoilering anything too much to reveal that the story starts with a murder and an inspector. I should lay my cards on the table here and say I do not read detective fiction. I mean, don’t get me wrong I devoured all the Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown and Poe’s Dupin stories I could get my hands on in my early teens but there it ended, so I was initially very mistrustful when the whole thing was giving off a distinct Sam Spade odour.
My worries were unfounded – the smell of blood and the clomp of police boots were overshadowed by -and then skilfully blended in with- the smell of Ul Qoma coffee, the sound of Bezel citizens walking the streets carefully unseeing things and the all-pervasive feeling of the Breach watching from parts unknown.
I don’t want to say to much more about the plot. Read it. Go on. It is a rare find of a book, and I find myself returning to it in my mind even as I move on to the next title on on my Hugo list. It may not be for everyone – In fact I think what intrigues me so much about it is that judged by the sum of its parts it is not really a book for me. Not my kind of thing. I can’t quite put me finger on why I enjoyed it so much.
I mean it is definitely fantastical, make no mistake. But after you have read it, consider this thought – if you live in a big city, isn’t it unseeing that gets us through the day, one way or another?
Can you identify all the Hugos? 1st person to do so in the comments wins a prize!*
Greetings Dear Readers.
It has been an EXTREMELY long time. What have I been up to I hear you ask? Well. This and that, y’know. Why do you ask? Are you from the tax department? I didn’t get that letter. I changed address, it must have got lost.
Anyway I am back and it is time for HUGO-A-THON.
Lizbt and I are attending Worldcon this year, as it is in our hometown and as such that means we are eligible to vote in the Hugo Awards.
In case you don’t know, the Hugo Awards are like the Oscars for sci-fi/fantasy books – which if you want to continue the analogy makes Lizbt and I members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and as such we take our voting rights very seriously!
Now there are many categories, but for the purposes of this post lets, completely ignore all of them other than Best Novel.
Well, maybe not completely ignore them, Best Dramatic Presentation – Short Form has THREE episodes of Doctor Who in it. Who could ignore that? Also Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form gives me chance to show my support for the awesomeness that was District 9 (breathtakingly original, subversive, action packed, cost $30 million, made me laugh, cry and had me on the edge of my seat…) while simultaneously snubbing the Ferngully-meets-Dances with Wolves (see here) digital hurly-burly that was Avatar (3d visuals, 1D characters, crippled narrative, action packed, cost $280 million, made me snort, yawn, eat too much popcorn and gave me eye-strain…)
But, really there are some categories I have nothing to contribute to - what the hell do I know about Best Editor – Short Form or Best Fanzine?
Anyway, back to the important bit for post purposes.
And the nominees for Best Novel are…
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor) The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK) Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor) Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra) Wake by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog) The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
Now, naturally we have to read them all to cast an informed vote. So after a rushed afternoon of much phoning and talking in person to people in bookstores, most of who looked at me like I was asking if they sold erotic cakes (wow, that was an eye opening google image search…) I finally assembled all of the nominated books. A pretty looking lot they are to. I am shamefaced to admit that the only author I have actually read before is Catherynne M. Valente, whose wonderful (and wonderfully free!) book The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making I ate up (mostly on my smartphone during long tram journeys) over a comically extended period of time.
A quick check confirmed that voting closes on the 31st of July, meaning I have only 105 days to read all the books.
Now that might sound like plenty of time to you, Dear Reader (fiendishly attractive, erudite, book-devouring, soaks-up-fiction-like-blotting-paper-soaks-ink lot that that you are…) but I struggle to get through one book every three months these days. I KNOW. Gone are the heady days of my youth when no library was safe, when paperback spinners in book-stores used to tremble at my approach and the local populace came to marvel, open-mouthed as I strode down main street, jettisoning used volumes over my shoulder like spent shell cartridges.
I just don’t read that much or at any decent speed any more.
Well, that is going to have to change!
Doing the maths, I have 17.5 days per book. Best get to it right away. Why am I even wasting time posting when I should be cracking open one of the shorter looking paperbacks and diving in?
See you on the other side, people.
Oh and I may pop up here from time to time to post a review of one of the books, let you know how I am getting on, or to complain about not having a decent reading lamp and the calluses I’m developing on my thumb.
It is good to be back. Let the reading commence!
*Not sure what the prize is. Doubtful that it will be gold bullion, or anything of considerable value. Also, please don’t enter if you live in a tree-house on a remote island with no postal service. On second thoughts if you are living in a tree-house on a remote island and reading this – please DO enter, I’m so impressed with your net access I’ll email you a gift if you win.
I love “The Graveyard Book”, I’ve posted about it here before, when I spent a few immensely enjoyable days reading it in various graveyards in my vicinity. So when, over at his blog, the esteemed author Mister Neil Gaiman answered a question a reader had about the precise steps for the Danse Macabre, and mentioned that he would try to link to any video footage of readers dancing the Macabray that found its way to the interweb – well, I knew what had to be done.
A few weeks later and here is the video, thanks to the wonderful efforts of Ben, Erin, Lili, Lizbt, M1K3Y, Melodie, Michael, Omega, Rachel, Sam and Warren – who all took time out on Sunday to come down to my local botanic garden and prance around for a spell. Thank you peoples.
Things didn’t go entirely as I’d hoped, as some thoughtless couple decided to choose the exact same time to get married in precisely the bit of the gardens that I had plotted out the shoot in the day before – but the ‘best laid plans of the living and the dead’ as they say…
Not sure how vocabulary building is going to help me increase my earnings, but hey…
On my recent visit to the family homestead I plucked from the shelf an old book of mine, pictured above.
“Word Power Made Easy” by Norman Lewis. (You can see the scan of the back of the book over at Project Life, where I am guest posting this week!)
The book has been in my possesion for years and years (not sure how it came to me) but I’d never really given it more than a cursory flick through until now.
I must say I’ve been enjoying it immensely. As well as being very, American the author proves himself opinionated, fond of digression, and not at all shy in using the book to make sweepingly hilarious statements about any number of subjects in the guise of improving the reader’s lexicon.
To provide you with a taste here is an excerpt from Chapter 6 – “How to Talk About Science and Scientists.” -
“The root astron, star, is also found, combined with our old friend ology, study of, in astrology, the pseudo-science which claims it can foretell the future by the study of the stars. The practitioner of this theory is called an astrologer, a man generally pictured with a pointed dunce cap adorned with stars, planets, and various portions of the moon; a flowing robe that looks like an old fashioned flannel nightgown; and unkept gray; and a wise expression, as if he knows everything there is to know. All he knows is that he’s going to separate you from some of your money if you’re gullible enough to believe his baseless predictions.”
Hey, don’t hold back, Norm, tell us what you really think.
Here’s another gem from a little earlier in the book when he is discussing the latin root gamos -
“…and polygamy is the delightful if somewhat chaotic custom, practiced at one time by the Mormons of Utah and before them by King Solomon, of having as many wives as a man can afford financially and put up with emotionally.”
I love this book. I am going to keep working my way through it – learning a word here and there no doubt - but more importantly soaking up the wisdom of Mister Lewis, and enjoying the absolute conviction and bloody minded certainty with which he sounds forth on any and all subjects he comes across.
I salute you sir! May you never be at a loss for words or opinions at that great dinner party conversation in the sky. (The author, so the internet tells me, died on September the 8th 2006, aged 93.)
P.S. In a related note, my recent gaming hours have been divided between World of Warcraft and the supremely awesome TYPING OF THE DEAD. More needs to be said on this game, and it will, so stay tuned dear reader….
Most bad-ass zombie killers ever. And doing it all with TYPING my friends!
Well, I finished the novel. At the moment it retains the catchy working title of “Untitled Second Novel”. Needless to say the name of the book isn’t the only thing that needs work, but I did reach the 50,000 word goal and I did so before the month was out. So that’s something. Unlike last year though, I only just made it, completing something like 15,000 words over one loooong day that stretched out to become two days right at the end. I found writing non-fantasy fiction a lot harder, or maybe it was just ‘difficult second novel’ syndrome. Either way it was hard work.
So I have celebrated my hard work by doing very little of anything since. Well, I’ve done a few things, here and there. Spent a weekend in Brisbane, cleaned a shelf, and the most impressive of all, I FINALLY HAVE A DEATH KNIGHT. That’s right. It took me long enough – I won the Wrath of the Lich King as part of the Christmas competition frequently mentioned on this blog, but unfortunately did not have the Level 55 or higher character necessary to create one of the new Hero-Class undead melee-masters. Here he is.
His name is Underneath, and I am a proud virtual father to my unhallowed avatar. It is amazing how fast you go up levels during the starting area quests. And you get given a mount within an hour or so of playing, and a speedy one it that, which is fantastic. All the travel time at walking speed pre-mount in WOW I found to be quite tedious. Also – the gear is brilliant. I’ve spent most of my time swearing and ranting about how much hard work it was starting out with my other characters compared to this one. It’s also been a guilty pleasure being so EVIL playing as a Death Knight, watching hapless humans run in terror from the Scourge and even being given quests to kill a certain number of the poor terrified blighters. Hopefully I’m not doing any irreparable damage to my sense of morality – being bad is quite cathartic I’ll admit.
In addition to burning villages and slaughtering innocents for fun and profit in Azeroth I have been exploring the post-apocalyptic wasteland in Fallout 3. I’ll talk about this in more detail after I’ve finished the main quest arc, but I have had some solid fun already, it really is quite an impressive title. (As well as being extremely violent with some black, black humour.) Pictured below is me with Dogmeat.
Wandering overland through Post-Apocalyptia is so much more enjoyable with a canine companion and Cole Porter playing from my Pip-boy…
The book I ended up paying the most amount of $$ for. Ah, the irony.
See! Middle initial again. So, what’s it to be? Wild M. Particle, Wild B. Particle III, W. B. Particle Jnr ? A difficult choice…
A merry crew on a fine spring day.
Not sure how vocabulary building is going to help me increase my earnings, but hey…
Most bad-ass zombie killers ever. And doing it all with TYPING my friends!
image via 
