August 2003 Archives

Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge.

I liked this one a lot.

Set in the not-too-distant future. The world, or at least the corner of it the book is set in, is run by Japanese-style multinationals, and has been for the last 23 years. The one we deal with most directly is Ko, and like the others, it designated the child born at one minute after midnight on the day that the multinationals took over as a "Hope", who gets special training and serves as a symbol for the company.

Throw some international terrorists and virtual-reality solitary confinement into the mix, and it's a lovely, introspective novel, constructed as a sequence of novellas which lean heavily on each other for context.

Some parts reminded me of Haldeman's and Brin's writing, but it's got a little bit of cyberpunk flavor as well. I had trouble putting this one down.

I was very disappointed to find that this is her only novel so far. I want another one!

Contact Imminent by Kristine Smith.

The ARC for her latest book, due out in November.

Just as good, if not better, than the original books. I loved the point about chapter six where Jani finally gets down to business. And she gets to be happy! Yay!

The Devil and Deep Space by Susan R. Matthews.

This caught my eye while I was browsing the SF section at the library. The blurb on the back cover reminded me of Kristine Smith, an author I enjoy, so I figured I'd give it a try.

It was totally unclear from the cover that this is not a standalone book or the first in the series. In fact, it's book four. I only got a few pages in before bogging down in the mass of details about the world and people without the barest hint of anything interesting happening. But there seems to be some sort of religious underpinning to a multi-world buearocracy, with Judges and an Inquisition, and one of the contenders for First Judge wants to do away with the Inquisition. And this is all very politically fraught, apparently.

But meanwhile, I'm bogged down underneath the unfamiliar names of people, places and institutions, and don't really care whether the Second Judge in question becomes First or not. So I'm giving it a pass.

The Ill-Made Mute: The BitterBynde, Book 1 by Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

One of the later parts of this trilogy caught my eye on the new books shelf at the library, so I decided I'd try starting at the beginning of the series.

But I only made it partway through chapter two before deciding to give up. The book was drilling in to me, over and over and over again, that the main character was shunned and ignored by everyone around him. OK, OK, I get it already.

Also, the framework of the book was showing through too clearly for my taste. Mr. no-name shunned and ignored is a servant and hides behind tapestries, follows other low-class servants around, and hears about important things going on which just so happen to describe the world around to the naive reader. Very convinient. But not interesting enough to keep me reading.

Rider At The Gate by C. J. Cherryh.

Wow. She is a marvelous writer. If you like well-characterized science fiction, this is a book for you. It's about a group of people on a far-off, long-ago colonized and forgotten planet, where all the native animals are telepathic. The predators broadcast "I'm harmless" or "come here" or "I'm not right here, I'm over there" messages, which the human colonists pick up on. The humans have tamed one of the dominant lifeforms, a horse-like creature, which allows them some freedom to make a living, though most people huddle in the center of towns, guarded by the Riders and their nighthorses, and avoiding the telepathy as best they can.

In this story, a senior Rider has lost his partner, and needs to come to terms with that, as well as the people she was working with, and the reason she died, and a young rider gets tangled up in the whole mess, and grows up a little in the process. In the meantime, the partner's nighthorse goes rogue without her to steady her, and winter is coming on...

With so much telepathy, the emotions of the main characters play a prominent role. And it's just a wonderful story.

I've been a little leery of Cherryh after trying her Hugo award-winning Downbelow Station and not being able to get into it.
I may give that book (or perhaps a different novel in that universe) another try, and also look for the sequel to Rider at the Gate, Cloud's Rider.

There are several copies of Cloud's Rider in the local library system.

Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey

Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers.

The Tomorrow Log by Lee & Miller.