The Leaning Pile of Books
Jan
23
2011

This week I have a giveaway, and I’m hoping to revise a draft of a post for the week.  Then I’ll move on to reviewing A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and Dust by Elizabeth Bear (which I just read for this month’s Women of Science Fiction Book Club).  I’ll also be writing a review of Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire, but I won’t be posting it until closer to the release date in March.  So for now I’ll just leave it at: I liked it very much and think it is the best book in the series so far.  So much happens!  Awesomeness!  And I’m very glad book 5 will be out later this year and that there is no long wait.

This week I received two review copies.  Someday when we quit having a snowstorm a day (seriously, Maine winter, where do you think we’re going to put all this snow?!) I’m going to go over to the bookstore to look for February’s Women of Science Fiction Book Club selection.

The Skin MapThe Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead

This is the first book in the Bright Empires series, which will be 5 books long according to Lawhead’s website.  At the moment, it is available in hardcover or as an e-book, and it will be coming out in trade paperback format in May.  Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle about Merlin and King Arthur were some of the very first fantasy books I read (the second book, Merlin, was my favorite), and I also liked his novel Hood, the first book in the King Raven trilogy, a Robin Hood retelling (still need to finish the rest of the series).  I had seen a copy of this in the bookstore toward the end of last year and was curious about it, so when I was offered a review copy, I didn’t have to think twice about accepting.  An excerpt from The Skin Map is available on the publisher’s website.

It is the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tattooed on human skin. Across an omniverse of intereing realities. To unravel the future of the future.

Kit Livingston’s great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legend or the weekend hobby of deluded cranks, but pathways to other worlds. To those who know how to use them, they grant the ability to travel the multi-layered universe of which we ordinarily inhabit only a tiny part.

One explorer knew more than most. Braving every danger, he toured both time and space on voyages of heroic discovery. Ever on his guard, and fearful of becoming lost in the cosmos, he developed an intricate code–a roadmap of symbols–that he tattooed onto his own body. This Skin Map has since been lost in time. Now the race is on to recover all the pieces and discover its secrets.

But the Skin Map itself is not the ultimate goal. It is merely the beginning of a vast and marvelous quest for a prize beyond imagining.

The Bright Empires series–from acclaimed author Stephen Lawhead–is a unique blending of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. The result is a page-turning, fantastical adventure like no other.

The InitiateInitiate by Tara Maya

I actually received this e-book as a gift from the author while I was writing this post and had to go back and change it from 1 book received to 2.  It’s the first book in a series called The Unfinished Song.  I can’t find a lot of information on it other than that the second book is in progress.  It looks like it is self-published and I don’t accept self-published books for review anymore, but I’ll at least take a look at it at some point since I already downloaded it before looking it up.

A DETERMINED GIRL…
Dindi can’t do anything right, maybe because she spends more time dancing with pixies than doing her chores. Her clan hopes to marry her off and settle her down, but she dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No-one in Dindi’s clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan.

AN EXILED WARRIOR…
Kavio is the most powerful warrior-dancer in Faearth, but when he is exiled from the tribehold for a crime he didn’t commit, he decides to shed his old life. If roving cannibals and hexers don’t kill him first, this is his chance to escape the shadow of his father’s wars and his mother’s curse. But when he rescues a young Initiate girl, he finds himself drawn into as deadly a plot as any he left behind. He must decide whether to walk away or fight for her… assuming she would even accept the help of an exile.

Review of Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
Jan
20
2011
Memory
by Lois McMaster Bujold
462pp (Mass Market Paperback)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.51/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.38/5
 

A brief note on the Vorkosigan books before I get into Memory:

Memory is the tenth book out of fourteen total in the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold.  That is, it’s tenth in chronological order beginning with the prequels about Miles’s parents and including the books that do not feature Miles.  It may seem odd to include the latter two, but they are still in the series omnibus editions along with the other books so I’ve been reading them as they show up (one is about a member of Miles’s crew and the other takes place 200 years before Miles’s time – the latter shows up at the end of the omnibus editions, though, so I haven’t yet read it).  Other than the newly released Cryoburn, Memory is the only book not available in an omnibus.

Although I think it is possible to start the series with either the prequels (Shards of Honor and Barrayar in Cordelia’s Honor) or The Warrior’s Apprentice (available in the Young Miles omnibus), I would definitely recommend reading all the books including Miles before beginning Memory.  It picks up shortly after Mirror Dance and it is a transitional book for Miles as a character – familiarity with him is necessary to get the full impact of this novel.  If you haven’t read the previous books and do not want to read potential spoilers, here are the reviews for both omnibuses that are good starting points for the series – Cordelia’s Honor and Young Miles.  It is a series I highly recommend to fans of space opera adventure, especially if you like a clever main character with a tendency to get into trouble.

Miles Vorkosigan is once again on a mission in his guise as Admiral Miles Naismith, commander of the Dendarii Fleet.  This time Simon Illyan, chief of Imperial Security, has charged Miles with retrieving a courier taken when hijackers took over a freighter.  Instead of doing the intelligent thing and returning poor Lieutenant Vorberg to his homeland, they decided to put him up for sale.  As can be imagined, the Emperor and the rest of the Barrayaran government didn’t take too kindly to this treatment of one of their men, thus resulting in dispatching a crew to rescue him.

Unfortunately, resurrection is a procedure that has some side effects – and in Miles’s case, they happen to manifest in the middle of the operation to save the lieutenant.  As is typical of Miles’s luck they appear at the worst possible moment, much to the detriment of the poor lieutenant.  To make matters even worse, Miles deliberately hid this issue from his superior officer at Imperial Security, fearing he’d be stuck behind a desk instead of allowed out into the field.  When Miles is called home, he is not looking forward to facing Simon Illyan’s fury, and the end result is even worse than being designated to desk duty.  However, when Simon Illyan’s memory chip begins malfunctioning Miles may be the only one with the ability to help – and the process of investigating this public and private disaster may even help him work through some of his own problems.

Despite some pacing issues, Memory is one of the best books in the series that I’ve read so far (along with Barrayar).  It started off very quickly since the first part was the doomed mission, then it meandered a bit before eventually coming together.  Miles has it rough in this book, dealing with the aftermath of his death from the previous book.  It only gets worse for him, and this does result in some moping that seemed to drag on and on before the rest of the plot picked up.  Sometimes I don’t mind introspection that lends itself to character development, especially in a case like this one where it’s entirely justified and expected, but it did go on for long enough that it began to get dull.  [Ed. – I half expected Miles to start wearing a sad beret, visiting coffee bars where he reads elegies about weepy-eyed puppies every Thursday, and develop a crippling heroin habit; I was only partially right.]  Then the mystery part of the story began to build up, Miles was back in action and it was moving along nicely.  At that point it became very compelling, particularly since events progressed while he continued dealing with (and actually working toward resolving) his crisis.

This is the book in the series where Miles’s internal fight comes to a head.  I certainly don’t want to give away how it ends, but the consequences of this decision mean that the series has forever changed from this point forward.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out throughout the rest of the series and just what it means for Miles.  The resolution has promise, but I’m also a little unsure about how different the next installments will be.

Aside from a slight fear about the next books, I’m fairly confident there’s no need for worry.  After all, my husband [Ed. Hi!], who has read the rest of the books, said he was very annoyed by how Memory ended and the possibility of limiting some aspects of the series.  After reading the rest of the books, he decided his concerns had been unnecessary.  Also, once it picked up, Memory had all the same aspects I loved about the other books.  The mystery concerning the breakdown of Illyan’s memory chip was fun, especially with Miles involved.  He’s a great character – clever and his third person narrative is tinged with an amusing sense of humor.  This novel also involved Barrayaran social structures, and learning more about Simon Illyan was a plus.

For those who have read the previous books about Miles, this novel is a must read although there are some issues with pacing.  It’s certainly worth persevering to wait for the plot to progress, though, and I look forward to seeing how the big changes in this book affect the rest of the series.

My Rating: 8.5/10 (Again, this probably should have been higher on my top 10 of the year list.  Apparently I need to write about books that are potential candidates before deciding on the final list.)

Where I got my reading copy: I bought it.

Reviews of other books in this series:

Review of The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker
Jan
18
2011
The Folding Knife
by K. J. Parker
432pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.2/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.83/5
 

The Folding Knife is a stand alone novel by K. J. Parker, although it is supposed to be set in the same world as some of the author’s other works.  K. J. Parker has also written the Engineer trilogy, the Fencer trilogy, the Scavenger trilogy, The Company, and The Hammer (which just came out earlier this month).  He/she is also known for his/her mysterious identity, as there is very little information about the author and speculation on just who he/she may be runs rampant on the Internet.

The Folding Knife is the story of Basso, the First Citizen of the Vesani Republic.  The prologue shows a brief glimpse into the tragic turn Basso’s life takes before starting with his childhood and proceeding linearly from there.  It shows some of his family life, his fierce devotion to his sister and his eventual betrothal set up for political reasons.  Very little time is actually spent on his younger years, though, and it quickly moves to his adulthood.

After his marriage, Basso’s father gifts him with one million shares in his bank and makes him to go to work there, where Basso is trained by the chief clerk Antigonus. Once the second week of Basso’s career is over, Antigonus tells him he’s not doing as well as he thinks he is and poses the question of whether he really wants to become competent or just wants to coast along.  Basso makes the decision to really learn how to manage the bank, resulting in harder work than he’d ever anticipated as it seems nearly impossible to please Antigonus.  Due to his mentor, Basso learns all areas of banking – from every little detail about the workings of the bank to how keeping attuned to political situations can be advantageous. Eventually, Antigonus tells Basso he’s ready to work without his aid.

With a combination of brilliance and luck, Basso excels at his banking career and is eventually voted into the position of First Citizen like his father before him.  Unlike his father, he tends to do everything right and the Vesani Republic flourishes because of him – but being successful merely most of the time is not enough.

The Folding Knife was my first K. J. Parker novel, but I certainly don’t intend for it to be my last.  It was a wonderful combination of clever and easy to read with some great dialogue.  In some ways, it reminded me of a grimmer version of Megan Whalen Turner’s books, although I’m a little hesitant to say that since the characters are not as likable so it’s not a good comparison in every way.  The reason it did remind me of her books was because of the way it was a made-up historical setting reminiscent of a culture from world history as well as the way it was told – in a straightforward manner with lots of well-written dialogue but without a lot of narrative embellishment on what was happening.  It’s smart and engaging with a main character who stays one step ahead of everyone else, although the fact that not everything goes right for this character is apparent from the first three pages.

Personally, I didn’t find Basso at all unlikable since he was such an interesting personality, although some may find him more difficult to like.  He does do some despicable things, and the worst act he commits in the book is rather horrific.  As First Citizen of the Vesani Republic, he does tend to be pragmatic and his actions benefit himself – it’s just a happy consequence that they also benefit everyone else.  He does seem to truly care about one or two people, but they are few and far between; he’s far more inclined to be logical than emotional. There’s really only the one pivotal moment where he ever lets his feelings rule over his better judgment; any other time I can recall him being upset it’s much more minor.  He’s brilliant, but I also really liked that he had to work to become so competent.  In the beginning, he was an ignorant young man who had to be taught new ways of looking at the world around him and how to use politics to his advantage.  Most of his success seems to be a combination of genius and luck.  Oh, and the fact that he is filthy rich doesn’t hurt either:

 

“The Sclerians are buying nomismata, melting them down and minting them into drachmas.  It’s insane. If you cut the nomisma by three points, it’d be like writing the Sclerians a draft for half the reserves in the Treasury. No, what we ought to be doing is putting more gold in, not taking it out.” Then, when they scowled at him, he went on, “In fact, let’s do that. We’ll purify by one point, up to ninety-eight, and see what happens.”

They gave him a hard time over that, but he had the authority, and wouldn’t let them leave the room until they’d all signed the order, which was sent to the Mint for immediate action.

(“Why?” Sentio demanded later.

“Because they got on my nerves,” Basso replied. “Besides, it’s the right thing to do, especially now. It shows we’ve got confidence in the economy, in spite of our recent spot of bother. It’s all right,” he added, ” the Bank’s got enough cash in hand to cover the immediate shortfall.”

Sentio shook his head. “Must be nice,” he said, ” to be so rich you can personally guarantee something like this out of your own pocket.”

“Yes,” Basso said.  “It is. It means I can indulge myself in little fits of temper without ruining the economy of the Republic.”) [pp. 151]

There are also some excellent secondary characters – Basso’s nephew, who wants to be just like his uncle; Antigonus, the slave and banking genius who taught Basso all about economics and more; and Aelius, the foreign soldier Basso trusts to head his military schemes (who often ends up being honored in humorous ways that he never really wanted).  Those hoping for some strong female characters may be disappointed.  That is not to say there are no women, but they are mostly not as well-developed as the others who were mentioned.  Basso’s sister is mainly defined by her hatred for her brother, and Cilia (Basso’s wife from his arranged marriage) was not at all sympathetic plus she didn’t seem particularly bright.  The exception to the rule for female characters is Melsuntha, Basso’s social secretary who does appear very reliable and intelligent.

On the subject of expectations going in to this novel – it is labeled as fantasy but there is no magic at all.  This book is set in a made-up world and is fantasy in that respect, but if there were no place names or clearly fictional rulers it could almost be historical fiction.

My only real complaint about this book is the ending, which was rushed and not very satisfying after all the buildup.  This “one mistake” that lead to Basso’s downfall was referenced from the very beginning as the scene Basso replays in his mind every time he closes his eyes, but it didn’t seem as closely connected to the conclusion as I would have expected.  I think it would have worked better as the story of Basso’s life and accomplishments instead of starting with knowledge of the end result.  That’s not to say I think the ending should have been any happier since the tragic downfall of a great man who had achieved so much is certainly a fitting place to end up.  What bothered me about it was that it kept going back to this one moment in his life that Basso dwells on, and I’m not convinced it really was the major cause of what happened at the end.  It contributed to how events played out because of where he ended up and the situations he was in, but it seemed to me that ultimately it had more to do with a combination of factors, including Basso’s own mistakes – just not that particular one he keeps dwelling on.  A second reading may help me figure out if this opinion is justified, but after reading it once I think this emphasis on his one moment that changed everything doesn’t quite fit with all that happened.

Aside from that, The Folding Knife is a very compelling story about one man’s rise to power and brilliant accomplishments before disaster strikes.  The political and economic machinations are surprisingly fascinating, particularly with the easygoing dialogue tinged with humor.

My Rating: 8.5/10 (Writing about this made me realize I liked it much more than I initially thought and it probably should have been higher on my top 10 list. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes writing about a book for me to really realize the full extent of how much I liked/disliked it.)

Where I got my reading copy: Review copy from the publisher.

Read an Excerpt

Other Reviews:

Question for K. J. Parker fans: Now that I’ve read and enjoyed The Folding Knife, what do you think is the next book or series by Parker I should read?  There are so many books to get caught up on that I don’t even know where to start!

The Leaning Pile of Books
Jan
16
2011

Sorry for the quiet week.  I have been working on a couple of posts, but I wasn’t satisfied enough with them to post them yet.  However, I am hoping that means I can make up for this week and finish posts on the rest of the books I read in 2010 so I can move on to books read in 2011 (there’s only one so far but it was a lengthy book so I’m hoping books read will increase quickly now).  Also, last week I finished getting together some interview questions and sent those off.

For books received this week, I have 2 ARCS and one finished copy of books all coming out in March and my husband bought an e-book that he has reminded me twice now to mention (I usually remember books he buys in paper but usually forget about e-books).

Late EclipsesLate Eclipses by Seanan McGuire

This is the fourth book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, coming March 1.  It’s an urban fantasy series set in a San Francisco populated by faeries, unknown to the humans (and it’s in my top 3 favorite urban fantasy series along with Kate Daniels and Mercy Thompson).  I’ve been getting ARCs of these since before the first book was in stores, and I’m very glad I have been (seriously, whoever suggested my site to Seanan McGuire when she was looking for people to review her books – THANK YOU!) since they’ve been getting better and better.  It may sound like I don’t entirely like them sometimes since I’ve mentioned some reservations about the main character as a PI, and while it does bug me, I mostly mention it so often so others better know what they are in for when they pick it up (since I can understand how some people may not be able to get past something like that).  Personally, it’s not a deal breaker for me because there is so much to love about the rest of it – Tybalt, Toby’s sense of humor, the different faerie creatures, the different characters, the fast-paced adventures, the eeriness in the last book… and did I mention Tybalt? The fact that I started shrieking and jumping up and down when I got this book in the mail and started reading it almost immediately says a lot about how much I really do enjoy the series.  Right now I’m almost halfway through it and it is definitely living up to my expectations of awesomeness.  I won’t review it until closer to its release date, though.  The fifth book, One Salt Sea, will also be coming out later this year (September).

Two years ago, October “Toby” Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It’s a delicate balance—one that’s shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.

Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander’s back, what’s her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby’s mother, Amandine, have to play?

Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most—because if she can’t find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she thought she’d never have to face again…

The Lens and the LookerThe Lens and the Looker by Lory S. Kaufman

This debut novel (available March 16) is the first book in the Verona trilogy.  The description, particularly the idea of recreating history through the history camps, sounded intriguing so I figured I’d give it a try when I was offered a review copy.

THERE’S HOPE FOR THE FUTURE,
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PAST?

It’s the 24th century and humans, with the help of artificial intelligences (A.I.s) have finally created the perfect post-dystopian society. To make equally perfect citizens for this world, the elders have created History Camps, full sized recreations of cities from Earth’s distant pasts. Here teens live the way their ancestors did, doing the same dirty jobs and experiencing the same degradations. History Camps teach youths not to repeat the mistakes that almost caused the planet to die. But not everything goes to plan.

In this first of a trilogy, we meet three spoiled teens in the year 2347. Hansum almost 17, is good looking and athletic. Shamira, 15, is sassy, independent and an artistic genius. Lincoln, 14, is the smart-aleck. But you don’t have to scratch too far beneath the surface to find his insecurities.

These three “hard cases” refuse the valuable lessons History Camps teach. But when they are kidnapped and taken back in time to 1347 Verona, Italy, they only have two choices; adapt to the harsh medieval ways or die. The dangers are many, their enemies are powerful, and safety is a long way away. It’s hardly the ideal environment to fall in love – but that’s exactly what happens. In an attempt to survive, the trio risks introducing technology from the future. It could save them – or it could change history.

One of Our Thursdays Is MissingOne of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde

This is the sixth book in the Thursday Next series by New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde, coming March 8.  I have not read the first five books, but I have been curious about the series so when I was offered a review copy I asked whether or not it could work as a stand alone.  Since I was told this particular book could be read as a stand alone, I figured why not?  I’m also curious about the author’s work after seeing Thea from The Book Smugglers named Shades of Grey one of her favorite books from 2010.

The newest tour de force from The New York Times bestselling author of Thursday Next and Shades of Grey.

Jasper Fforde’s exuberant return to the fantastical BookWorld opens during a time of great unrest. All-out Genre war is rumbling, and the BookWorld desperately needs a heroine like Thursday Next. But with the real Thursday apparently retired to the Realworld, the Council of Genres turns to the written Thursday.

The Council wants her to pretend to be the real Thursday and travel as a peacekeeping emissary to the warring factions. A trip up the mighty Metaphoric River beckons-a trip that will reveal a fiendish plot that threatens the very fabric of the BookWorld itself.

Once again New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde has a field day gleefully blending satire, romance, and thriller with literary allusions galore in a fantastic adventure through the landscape of a frisky and fertile imagination. Fans will rejoice that their favorite character in the Fforde universe is back.

Agatha H. and the Airship CityAgatha H. and the Airship City by Phil and Kaja Foglio

This is a novelization of the first three volumes of the Hugo award-winning Girl Genius graphic novel (available online).  I haven’t read them although they do sound good, but my husband is a big fan so when he was looking for a new book to read on the Kindle, he bought this one.  It was just released on January 1.

The Industrial Revolution has escalated into all-out warfare. It has been sixteen years since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over – and terrorizing – the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Hetrodynes’ return. At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck. Incapable of building anything that actually works, but dedicated to her studies, Agatha seems destined for a lackluster career as a minor lab assistant. But when the University is overthrown by the ruthless tyrant Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Agatha finds herself a prisoner aboard his massive airship Castle Wulfenbach – and it begins to look like she might carry a spark of Mad Science after all.

The Leaning Pile of Books
Jan
09
2011

This week brought two books – one ARC and one bargain I found.  (Who can pass up a $5 trade paperback of a book they heard was good? Not me!)

The Dragon's PathThe Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham

This is the first book in a new series by Daniel Abraham called The Dagger and the Coin.  It will be available in trade paperback on April 7.  On the same day I received the book, I also got a Spring/Summer 2011 catalog from Orbit (the publisher) and the catalog says that the other books in the series will be coming out a year apart.  It doesn’t say how many books there will be, but Abraham’s website lists two more titles in the series coming out after this one – The King’s Blood and The Spider’s War.  I liked the one other book I’ve read by the author as well as his stories in the Wild Cards books I’ve read so I’m looking forward to this one, which is “classic epic fantasy – world-building on an epic scale, and a great cast of characters” according to its entry in the catalog.  The description also sounds interesting:

Summer is the season of war in the Free Cities.

Marcus wants to get out before the fighting starts. His hero days are behind him and simple caravan duty is better than getting pressed into service by the local gentry. Even a small war can get you killed. But a captain needs men to lead — and his have been summarily arrested and recruited for their swords.

Cithrin has a job to do — move the wealth of a nation across a war zone. An orphan raised by the bank, she is their last hope of keeping the bank’s wealth out of the hands of the invaders. But she’s just a girl and knows little of caravans, war, and danger. She knows money and she knows secrets, but will that be enough to save her in the coming months?

Geder, the only son of a noble house is more interested in philosophy than swordplay. He is a poor excuse for a soldier and little more than a pawn in these games of war. But not even he knows what he will become of the fires of battle. Hero or villain? Small men have achieved greater things and Geder is no small man.

Falling pebbles can start a landslide. What should have been a small summer spat between gentlemen is spiraling out of control. Dark forces are at work, fanning the flames that will sweep the entire region onto The Dragon’s Path — the path of war.

ReplayReplay by Ken Grimwood

I had actually never heard of this novel until recently even though it won the World Fantasy Award in 1988.  I first heard about it on Calico Reaction where it is the January Dare Book.  It sounded fascinating – apparently, it is about a man who dies and gets to relive his life with the memory of all his past mistakes.  After hearing about it, I looked it up to add to my wish list and saw it just happened to be a bargain book available for only $5 so I snatched it up.  I probably won’t be reading it for the January challenge since there are too many books I already want to read this month and A Fire Upon the Deep is proving to take a long time to get through, but I will read it at some point.  Has anyone else read this?  If so, what did you think of it?


Guest Review of Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Jan
04
2011
Spin
by Robert Charles Wilson
368 (printed) pp (Kindle)
My Rating: 7/10
Amazon Rating: 4.2/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.06/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.98/5
 

Spin, the first book in an eponymous trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson, was published in 2005 and won the Hugo award for best novel shortly thereafter.  The second book in the series, Axis, came out in 2007 and the final book, Vortex, is scheduled to be released in May of this year.  My understanding is that this is a very good thing as I’ve read that Axis suffers from a strong case of middle book syndrome and Spin, despite some flaws, is strong enough that I am anxious to see where Wilson plans to take us with the rest of his story.

Much like Axis, Tyler Dupree suffers from middle child syndrome.  In Tyler’s case this is a bit odd since he is an only child; he and his widowed mother live in what is effectively the servants’ quarters across the lawn from the Big House owned by E.D. Lawton, aerospace magnate and anthropomorphic personification of the military-industrial complex.  Lawton’s two children Jason and Diane are the ones that have boxed Tyler in throughout his life, always encouraged to show the genius and drive that Tyler lacks.  They and the rest of this extended family–Tyler’s staid mother and Lawton’s occasionally-sober wife–are simply living out their lives with the other seven billion people on the planet when something truly odd happens: the stars disappear.

Despite some initial panic, life goes on and humanity tries desperately to understand what has happened to block off the Earth from everything beyond low orbit, an effect that is eventually named the Spin.  It is clear that there are some fairly benevolent rules to this new order: the sun, or at least a something that kind of looks like it, still rises every morning to keep the biosphere running, and something is preventing rogue asteroids from causing another K-T event.  Other effects are not so nice: time inside the field passes at a hugely accelerated rate, moving so quickly that cosmological events outside the Spin take place over the course of a single human lifespan.  The timescales involved transform the Sun from a source of heat and life to a ticking timebomb that puts a definite expiration date on how long humanity can stay on Earth.  From the perspective of those inside the field, Earth will be out of the solar system’s habitable zone within a generation, and humanity will be wiped from the universe.

Lawton’s aerospace business puts him and his family in a unique position to watch all of this unfold.  His son Jason, whom E.D. has been grooming to be his heir more or less since birth, applies himself to noble causes like saving the world.  Diane, on the other hand, gets too close a view of the looming disaster and, well, reacts badly.  Tyler is left somewhere in between, charged by E.D. with supporting Jason as he fulfills his potential but hamstrung as he watches his not-entirely-secret love Diane self-destruct, powerless to help.  Through it all, the big questions remain: can such a bizarre phenomenon be natural, and if it isn’t natural, who is controlling it?

I have to start out by saying that I think Spin is a very good book.  The reason I have to start that way is that there are several things about it that bothered me quite a bit, and I don’t want that point to get lost amongst my complaints.  I believe it may be a case of a story that is just on the edge of excellence, but has enough of what I consider to be technical flaws that those flaws become obvious and disproportionally distract from what is potentially an interesting tale. Even though I think it is very good, I probably see it as a bit worse than it actually is because I feel like there was a lot of missed potential. Obviously others may see it a bit differently; it did win the Hugo, after all.

Even though I know it is a common technique, and I do in fact like it in some other stories, I don’t feel like the structure of Spin‘s storytelling works well for the story being told.  Most of the book is told in flashbacks, with occasional stops in the present day.  I can understand the motivation for Wilson setting up the book in this way since it covers thirty or forty years and the flashback structure makes it easy to pull out scenes and skip large chunks of time, but it would work better if the story being told in the present was more pertinent.  As is it feels extraneous, told in far more detail than the far more important events that took place in the past, and takes away from the overall impact of the book.

Similarly, parts of the relationship between the three main characters also feel like they have been bolted on to the main plot.  At the risk of sounding like Mr. Spearhead, quite a bit of the personal drama in Spin simply wasn’t necessary.  Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with these sorts of character studies when they are done well and are supportive of the main plot, but that just isn’t the case here.  It feels like Diane was created just to give a counterweight to Jason, and Tyler’s relationship with both of them is strained just to provide Wilson a mechanism to pull out whichever of those two opposing viewpoints is most useful at any given moment.  Between that and the flashback structure there is little feeling of gravity or true jeopardy in any of the characters’ relationships.  Additionally, there is a sort of ongoing mystery surrounding the three parents in the story which Wilson drops hints about throughout the book; without giving it away, I’ll just say that the ultimate reveal is clearly intended to be a big “a-ha!” moment but instead falls flat in both content and delivery.

My other big issue is that there are many places where it feels like Wilson is trying too hard.  For example, many chapters end with an obvious hook sentence that hints at some ominous event that’s going to be taking place soon.  I don’t know if Wilson is afraid I’m going to put the book down and forget about it between chapters or what, but these lines are delivered with all the subtlety and annoyance factor of a season-ending cliffhanger on a television show.  In other places the dialog or prose seems forced, like it was a line that sounded good in his head and even seems fun on its own but is just distracting in the middle of a novel:

 
Police helicopters peppered the crowd with tanglefoot gel until much of Gamla Stan looked like something a tubercular Godzilla might have coughed up.

Interesting phrasing, but, um, really?

When I wasn’t being annoyed by these sorts of technical issues though, I did find Spin to be a compelling mystery with an exploration of interesting and non-obvious solutions to the problems of life inside the Spin.  I was left with the impression of a realistic, human response to events that were firmly in the “indistinguishable from magic” category.  The scientific handwaving was mostly kept to the Spin itself though, as Jason’s efforts to defeat it were logical and creative extensions to existing technologies and theories.  The mystery and slow reveal are the strength of the book; I can only imagine how great it would be if the personal aspects explored how each development changed the individuals involved.  It may not be fair, but I can’t help but compare it to Beggars in Spain–one of my favorite books and an excellent example of that kind of integrated storytelling.  The attempt and ultimate failure to bring those elements together is probably worse than not even making the attempt would have been, but the result is still interesting enough to be worth not only reading this book but also picking up the rest of the trilogy.  Even though I think Spin stands well enough on its own that I don’t feel its necessary to get the rest of the trilogy to complete the story, Spin‘s flaws are not so great that they overcome its potential and I am eager to find out where the story goes next.

My Rating: 7/10

Where I got my reading copy: Bought it as the first eBook to try out the new Kindle I got for Christmas (thanks, Kristen!).

Read the first chapter.