Tag: science fiction

What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand? 11-27-11

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Virtual Nightstand

What’s on my iPad for this week? Pretty much everything that was on it for last week. Plus next week. We did go to my mom’s for Thanksgiving. And of the two options, read a lot or not very much, it turned out to be the not very much option.

But wait, the recap is supposed to come at the end of the post, isn’t it?

I left December as a deliberately “light” month, in the hopes of catching up with stuff I left behind back in September. Also, there’s a whole gaggle of reviews for December 27 and January 1, and I’d like to get a jump on those before they gang up on me. So I’ll be playing a lot of “catch up” this month.

Is anyone else out there having a problem with the idea that December starts this week? I am. For one thing, living in the South means that I miss all the seasonal markers that I’m used to. In Atlanta, at least the leaves do fall off the trees, but it’s still warm outside. In Chicago, we used to get the first serious snowfall most Thanksgiving weekends. There might not be a White Christmas, but there was usually a White Thanksgiving. I know it’s not traditional, but it was normal. Never mind about Anchorage. They usually have a White Halloween.

The last book in a trilogy I’ve been enjoying and reviewing (Den of Thieves, A Thief in the Night) is due Thurday, December 1. Honor Among Thieves by David Chandler finishes up The Ancient Blades trilogy. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out. I’m wondering about that title, since there usually is no honor among thieves. We’ll see…

I did get an email over Thanksgiving from Library Journal, asking me to review a Carina title for them, so Holiday Kisses, with stories by Jaci Burton, HelenKay Dimon, Shannon Stacy and Alison Kent is on my list for this week. I’d stared at this several times on NetGalley but resisted the impulse, because I’ve read books by all four authors and enjoyed them immensely. I’m glad LJ gave me the excuse to read the book anyway.

I have a second Christmas novella anthology for next week. A Clockwork Christmas, also a Carina Press title from NetGalley. The difference is that this one is all Steampunk Christmas stories, and this is one I just couldn’t resist. I love Steampunk!

The other book I couldn’t resist is Deadly Pursuit by Nina Croft. It’s the second in her Blood Hunter series. I reviewed the first book, Break Out, back in August. This is not just space opera, this is vampires in space. When I read the first book, I said I wanted to see more of the world, well, here’s my “more”. I have to see what comes next.

As far as the recap from last week goes, I didn’t do so well. Actually, I did pretty awful. Family visits are not conducive to maintaining any kind of routine, as probably every person recovering from their own Thanksgiving holiday is groaning about at this very moment!

I was caught up for one brief shining moment on Tuesday, and it felt so good! It just didn’t last very long. Dagnabbit!

I have one of this week’s books read. Her Christmas Pleasure is pleasurably completed. It helped a lot that it was the shortest! Every other book rolls over to this week. This does not help me get to the September backlog. Not at all.

On the other hand, when I couldn’t concentrate on anything else, I picked up Cast in Fury by Michelle Sagara, which does get me more forwarder on the September backlog. One of the books in that list of titles to be reviewed is Sagara’s Cast in Ruin. In order to review Cast in Ruin, I feel the need to read the rest of the series. Whenever I can’t make myself read something due for the week, I pick up the next Elantra book, and get myself back on track. What I’ll do when I run out of those, well, I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.

It’s a 450 mile drive from Atlanta to Cincinnati, each way. Long trip. We listened to Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton. Wow. Just wow. The book was absolutely awesome, and I can’t think of a better choice for narrator than Wheaton. The book was so good that when we realized we weren’t quite going to be finished when we got home, we drove around a little, just so we’d finish. It was that good.

Of course I’m going to review it this week. But I just couldn’t resist giving a sneak preview.

Tomorrow is Ebook Review Central. This week will feature Dreamspinner Press for October.

Return next week for another edition of “The Readings of Marlene”. Sort of like “The Perils of Pauline” except all the cliffhangers are between the pages.

Anne McCaffrey, First Dragonrider of Pern, RIP

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | obituaries

Somewhere a queen dragon has folded up her great golden wings and closed her rainbow eyes in final rest.  All the Dragonriders who have ever dreamed of Pern have lost the one who showed us one of the best and brightest worlds in both science fiction and fantasy.

Anne McCaffrey died November 21, 2011 at her home in Ireland. Locus posted an announcement earlier today.

My copy of The Dragonriders of Pern is well-loved. It’s one of the old book club editions, so it combines Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon into a single volume. I’ve re-read it so many times that the spine is slightly cracked, and the cover is a little torn. It isn’t even my first copy. I had paperbacks. They sort of…dissolved.

And the story still brings chills. F’lar and F’nor’s desperate search for a true Weyrwoman to lead the Dragonriders before the Threadfall that they and only they believe is imminent. Lessa’s thirst for vengeance against the man who murdered her family. The Weyr’s descent into disrepute and F’lar’s grab for power on the back of his dragon. The story of political ambition that turns into a love that governs not just the Weyr, but conquers time itself.

Dragonflight is a masterpiece. Read it again in memory and honor.

Anne McCaffrey, 1926-2011

How many best books?

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | best book lists> books

In time for everyone’s holiday shopping, the best books of 2011 lists are popping up everywhere. This is in spite of the fact that 2011 still has two whole publishing months yet to go!

And maybe it’s me, but I kind of expect best books lists to be organized in lists of “top tens”. You know what I mean, the top ten books of the year, and then the top ten fiction, the top ten mysteries, top ten science fiction, top ten romance, etc., etc., etc.

Amazon’s Top 100 Editor’s Picks went up on the Amazon site on November 8, but they also picked the top 10 books in each genre, grouping, or what-have-you. Admittedly, Amazon’s purpose is to sell books, but somebody still had to sit down and think about which ten books to highlight, even in such esoteric categories as “Quirky & Strange”, which is where they slipped in Go the F**k to Sleep and Pat the Zombie.

As far as I’m concerned, as long as they’re talking about reading, and about giving people books, whether print books or ebooks, for holiday presents, it’s all good.

But, but, but, you’re wondering why I took a look at this? I’m not going to critique the selections. As long as people are reading, it’s all good. Amazon treated every genre and every reading taste equally. If I looked hard enough, I’m sure they forgot someone, but at least they tried.  And if someone wants to debate Amazon’s choices, that person is still talking about reading!

The Publishers Weekly 2011 best books list was released on November 4. The web app to view the list is very cool.  But this time, I am going to debate the contents of the list. It’s not so much what’s on it, but how many. There are only 9 mystery and thriller titles. Just 9.  This is not about whether those 9 are or are not awesome (I know one of them is definitely awesome) but shouldn’t this be a top ten list? Really?

PW lumps Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror into one big basket. One big and relatively empty basket. There are only six books mentioned, and all are from small publishers. While highlighting small publishers is terrific, it does make me wonder that none of the big SF or Fantasy titles were good enough to be on their best books list? Not Magician King or Wise-Man’s Fear or Embassytown? Or Ready Player One, which everyone has raved about. Even more interesting, the science fiction blogger named her four honorable mention titles; The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie, Broken by Susan Jane Bigelow, The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham, Dead Iron by Devon Monk. Why not just give SF/F/Horror a top ten list in the first place?

There are only 5 romance titles listed. This is something I find just plain impossible to believe. There weren’t 10 best romances? Why not? Where does paranormal fit into this mix, because there wasn’t a paranormal title among the five chosen. And Archangel’s Blade, Heart of Steel, and Dragon Bound show up on an awful lot of lists this year.

But it’s not about which particular titles I would personally choose or not choose. It’s about the fact that, even taken as a whole, none of the major fiction genres were considered worth 10 “best books” recommendations on a list with an seemingly elastic number of slots.

For the kids who read the recommended books like A Monster Calls and Legend and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, where are the similar numbers of fantastic genre recommendations for when they grow up?

Ebook Review Central for Samhain Publishing September 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> Ebook Review Central> ebooks

This is the third issue of Ebook Review Central. And it is your guide to the Samhain Publishing titles for September 2011.

If you are interested in how this feature came about, or earlier issues, please check out the posts on Carina Press and Dreamspinner for the gory and not-so-gory details. But this week, the focus is on Samhain.

Samhain published 19 ebook titles in September. One of the surprising things about this list is how many Western titles there are. Three Westerns! Maybe there still is a wild, wild West out there someplace.

I always like to make a special note of which books got the most “buzz”, which ones were talked about the most on the list. The Samhain titles were really fascinating in this regard, because there were some huge review numbers racked up by a couple of titles.

Some of that is because there’s a time lapse, these are the September books, and it’s now early November, some of it is undoubtedly good marketing (more on that in a minute) and some is because there were some really great books in this bunch.

Samhain Publishing has done something that I find intriguing, both as a book reviewer and as a librarian. Samhain is participating in Library Journal’s ebook only review program, along with Carina Press. What is unusual about Samhain’s participation is that Samhain ebooks, unlike Carina’s, are not available to libraries on OverDrive. So why does Samhain participate? I confess to being terribly curious. (Full disclosure, I am one of the reviewers for Library Journal)

They certainly get some great reviews from librarians, published in Library Journal Xpress Reviews, and they get name recognition for both their ebooks and the print books. Why Samhain does not participate in OverDrive, I don’t know but I sure do wonder about. It must be a marketing thing.

But speaking of marketing, the first book with a lot of positive buzz this month is Cipher, by Moira Rogers. Not only did Cipher get 10 reviews, all very positive, but there was a lot more. In September, a Cipher giveaway, release party and chat session was held at Fiction Vixen. This was part of a big Southern Arcana Readalong conducted all summer long and cross promoted at Fiction Vixen, Smexy Books and The Book Pushers. It created a lot of anticipation and positive buzz for what looks like a terrific paranormal romance series.

Shiloh Walker’s Locked in Silence is book 5 in her Grimm’s Circle series. I chose it as my second featured book because Ms. Walker is an author who chooses to publish some of her work through traditional print publishers, and some, like her Grimm’s Circle series, through ebook publishers. The author, and the quality of the work, is the same. The popularity, and Ms. Walker’s work is very, very popular, is exactly the same. If hot paranormal romances with demons and angels are what you’re looking for, this series by Shiloh Walker might be a good place to start.

Last, but absolutely not least according to the review, is The Last Detail by Melissa Schroeder. 12 reviews, and all positive. If you like science fiction romance, that’s probably a buy recommendation right there. I’m also overjoyed to see this much interest in SFR! There was also a movie titled The Last Detail with Jack Nicholson from 1973. It’s also about getting someone back to prison, but I think the resemblances probably end there.

Next week’s Ebook Review Central will be the last one to cover September books. Up until now, I’ve been saying that “week 4” would feature a “player-to-be-named-later”. It’s time to name that featured publisher–except it’s going to be publishers, plural. Next week, Ebook Review Central will feature the September books from Astraea Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, and Amber Quill/Amber Heat/Amber Allure.

Tune in next week for another exciting episode.

Queenie’s Brigade

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

Rooting for the underdog can make for a fantastic story. When it’s the last space ship left to lead the Rebellion, it’s the stuff of great space opera. Throw in a forgotten prison colony and enough sexual tension to power the ship by itself, and you’ve got that best of all possible universes–science fiction romance. Queenie’s Brigade by Heather Massey is just that, a terrific science fiction romance. Something there just isn’t enough of these days.

Michael Drake is the captain of the UFE Relentless. And his ship is that last survivor. Being the captain, he knows in his bones that duty must come first. And his duty is not to go down with his ship. His ship is equipped with technology that was “adopted” from a captured enemy vessel. Drake’s duty is to take his ship and crew out of certain death and equip other ships with the new tech, then come back and kick the Calithian Empire’s ass out of Earth space.

But the hyperspace jump that took Relentless out of the battle did not put her into friendly space. Or even neutral space. That hybrid tech was not precisely reliable. Or totally aimable. Relentless and her crew found themselves at the equivalent of the ass end of nowhere, orbiting the worst penal planet in Earth’s jurisdiction, desperately in need of repairs and out of options.

Only one problem. The penal planet had been taken over. The inmates were running the jail. The most hardened criminals that Earth needed to incarcerate. And those convicts outnumbered the crew of the Relentless. Something Captain Michael Drake was all too aware of–after the new “overseers” of Hades Station had him and his crew firmly in their clutches.

Drake had hoped to use the convicts as military manpower to help drive back Earth’s invaders. After seeing them in action, he was even more impressed with their potential, even though it was turned against him and his crew. But their leader, Queenie, truly captivated him–in every possible way.

Escape Rating A: I read this in one sitting. When I picked it up to write the review, I got sucked into it again. It’s that good.

The beginning of the story is from Drake’s point of view, but after that, it alternates between Drake and Queenie. Queenie is a fascinating character, having been raised to be “tough as nails” in order to become the leader of the prison gangs, but not ever being allowed to lower her guard with anyone. Drake is the first person who treats her as an equal.

There have been a lot of comparisons between Queenie’s Brigade and the book/movie The Dirty Dozen, because of the whole “recruit convicts to become soldiers” aspect. Since the Dirty Dozen already were soldiers, after all, they were in the military stockade when they were recruited for that specific mission, I didn’t see that link so much as a couple of other things.

One that caught my attention was the issue of the hereditary penal colony. Drake assumes Queenie must have been convicted of some crime, and is shocked to discover that she was born on Hades. Earth has successfully buried the secret that a sentence to Hades is forever. It reminded me of Heinlein’s Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Or the warrior women in Kate Douglass’ DemonSlayer (Demonfire, Hellfire, Starfire) series, where the Atlantean society has forgotten that warrior women even existed, let alone that they were imprisoned, and that their daughters are still imprisoned.

Then there’s the relationship between Queenie and Drake that eventually leads to romance. At first, it’s a struggle for the two leaders to find a way for their groups to work together. They need to each maintain leadership of their own crew, and Queenie has to be seen as in control, or she will lose control of the prison gangs that run Hades. But they have to find a way to eventually meld the groups, or they’ll never get off Hades! Queenie and Drake made me think of Janeway and Chakotay on Star Trek Voyager, except that the roles were reversed, and Heather Massey did right by them. Thanks Heather!

Banned Books and the literature of ideas

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Banned Books

September 24 – October 1, 2011 is Banned Books Week.

What is Banned Books Week? Or maybe the question should be, why is Banned Books Week?

Banned Books Week is sponsored or endorsed by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of American Publishers, the National Association of College Stores, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English and the PEN American Center.

These organizations all have something in common. They all want to protect everyone’s freedom to make their own reading choices.

The U.S. Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, protects the freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It says nothing about the listener’s right to hear what is said, or the reader’s right to read what that free press publishes. If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it fall, does it matter whether the tree fell or not? Writers write so that their words are read, so that their voices are heard. If their works are suppressed, then the tree might as well not have fallen.

Every year books are challenged, and sometimes banned, from libraries across the United States. In a case this summer, the Republic Missouri School District banned two books from their high school library. Twenty Boy Summer, by Sarah Ockler, an extremely well-reviewed book targeted at grades 9-11, is still banned. Slaughterhouse-Five, a classic from Kurt Vonnegut, has been placed on such restricted access it might as well be banned. What do I mean by restricted? In order for a high-school student to check out Slaughterhouse, their parent has to come to the high school library to check it out for them.

Slaughterhouse-Five is Vonnegut’s science fictionalized version of his experiences in World War II. It is not the only work of science fiction on the frequently challenged list. Far from it. This week, SF Signal put together an incredible flow chart of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy books from the recent NPR poll. Looking at the chart, it’s amazing, and frightening, how many of those works overlap the banned and challenged list. Not just Brave New World and Animal Farm and 1984, either. But also Flowers for Algernon and The Handmaid’s Tale. Even The Lord of the Rings has been challenged more than once. And there’s always the never-ending irony that Fahrenheit 451 gets challenged frequently.

But it’s not really surprising if you think about it. Science fiction is the literature of ideas. New ideas are always challenging. And challenged.

As part of the observance of Banned Books Week, there is a Virtual Read-Out on YouTube of participants reading from their favorite Banned Books. Check it out.

Debris

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

Debris, by Jo Anderton, is the first book of The Veiled World Trilogy. It is the story of the catastrophic fall, and eventual stumbling rise, of Tanyana Vladha. It is Tanyana’s story, and it is told in her incredibly compelling voice.

Tanyana starts out as a pion-builder in the great city of Movoc-under-Keeper. Pion-builders are a combination of architect, engineer and designer, working with a substance that is part molecule, part light and part magic. It also turns out to be part myth, but that comes later. Most people in Tan’s world can see pions, but few can do what she does, bend them to her will to create masterpieces–not just buildings, but also art and sculpture.

800 feet in the air, erecting a statue unfortunately named “Grandeur”, in the middle of a surprise inspection by the strange government creatures known as the “veche”, Tan’s world falls apart. Literally. Her formerly obedient pions go wild, bringing the statue crashing to the ground, on top of her. Her injuries are extreme. Although pions later heal her physical damage, her great statue also struck her in the head, knocking out her ability to even perceive pions.

Tan falls from the elite of the builders to the lowest of the low. Damaged people become “Collectors”, those who can see the debris that pion factories produce. Collectors are necessary. Pion factories power the lights, the heat, the water supply–everything we use electricity and fossil fuel for in our world. But debris collecting is dangerous as debris is toxic. So Tan, like all collectors, is fitted with a special collecting “suit”, a suit that is bonded to, and extrudes from, her very bones. Her suit provides armor, weapons, and even locator beacons for debris. It also permanently marks her as “other”.

Tan tries to juggle her old life and her new one. She doesn’t want to fall. She saw what happened at Grandeur, and she knows it was deliberate. But every person involved has been exiled or their career has been derailed or they have been hushed up in some way. She has been changed almost beyond recognition. And in her fall, she discovers a different world, one that might be more genuine than the glittering but superficial society she left. But just as Tan begins to adapt, she learns that, just as the pions at Grandeur were deliberately agitating to crush her, now the debris is increasing, searching for her.

Escape rating A: The first time I sat down with this book, I picked myself up about 100 pages later. Tan is a character that just gets hold of you and doesn’t let go. Writing a book in first person perspective is hard, and Anderton made Tan someone I wanted to get to know. I felt for her struggle, even on the occasions when I wanted to slap her to “get real already”.

The Russian names of the characters add to the gritty feel. This is a dark, urban landscape, and it feels like it’s only going to get darker and grimmer from here. There were glimpses of an older mythology that had been lost in the mists of time that were very nicely done. I’m amazed that this is Anderton’s first novel. And I’m truly glad that Suited, the second book in the trilogy, is scheduled for April 2012.

Sparks in Cosmic Dust

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews

Sparks in Cosmic Dust by Robert Appleton is a rollicking, adventurous science fiction romance. The emphasis is on the adventure and the science fiction, not so much on the romance. But that was fine by me.

Sparks is the story of five hard-luck characters in search of their tickets to fortune. None of them are interested in fame. In fact, a couple of them have already been there and done that. What they all want is a one-way ticket out of hardscrabble and into the ranks of the mega-rich, as well as a one-way ticket back to civilization from the intergalactic boondocks.

Grace Peters has the map and the ship. The map leads to a planet chock-full of a hard-to-mine but very desirable mineral used to power rocketship engines. Grace is a crusty old woman who has been there, done that and seen and done everything. She also can’t resist commenting about it.

Clay and Lyssa are both on the run. Neither of them knows what the other is on the run from, and neither of them cares. But Clay’s secrets are a lot bigger and more important than Lyssa’s.

Varina and Solomon are also on the run. Solomon is mostly running from his immaturity and insecurity. But Varina, Varina has lots of secrets she needs to keep track of, and hers catch up to her even before Clay’s catch up to him.

But all those secrets, and all that running, mean that everyone is more than happy to take off with Grace to mine very secret and very expensive rocks for three months, just to get away from being chased.

Five people, all alone on an otherwise deserted planet. Relationships forged out of dire necessity start to unravel. So do people.

Escape rating B: This was a good read.  Grace is an absolute hoot. She’s everyone’s crazy aunt. Very crazy. Everyone in this story had lots of secrets, and they all got revealed when it had maximum value for the story. It did keep me guessing on a couple of things right up to the end. The story is much more about the adventure, and about the power of greed than it is about anything else. The romance is very much secondary but that suited the story.

For an extremely interesting take read Heather Massey’s comments on Sparks in Cosmic Dust over at The Galaxy Express. She saw the story as an homage to John Huston’s classic western, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. While your mileage may vary on the comparison, her commentary on science fiction romance is always fascinating.

Better Days and other stories (Serenity volume 2)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

Bottom line, it would be a better day if the Serenity were still flying. And while I’m wishing, I want Wash to still be her pilot, and the Shepherd to still be in the back, keeping his secrets and reading his book. Not to mention keeping that hair of his under control. If you watched the show, you know exactly what I mean.

In the meantime, we all keep the dream alive as best we can.

The graphic short story collection from Dark Horse Books, Better Days and other stories (Serenity, volume 2), is part of keeping that dream alive. This new, hardcover edition includes the story Better Days, which was originally published in 2008, plus three newer stories, The Other Half, Downtime, and the bittersweet Float Out.

All the stories except Float Out take place before the events of the movie Serenity, which is nostalgic but slightly confusing at this point. It’s great to see Wash and the Shepherd again, but I know they’re gone.

Better Days is one of the two best stories in the book. It’s about a job that both goes very, very well, and very, very badly. Which, come to think about it, seems pretty typical for our heroes. At the outset, they open a cache that contains way more money than they expected, and the crew of the Serenity is temporarily rich beyond their wildest dreams. Part of the story is telling each other what those dreams are, or living them while spending some of that lovely money.

The other part of the story is the bad luck part. They stole a weapon, and the Alliance wants it back. And Mal and Zoe, because somebody believes that Mal was a terrorist at the end of the war. As usual, the Alliance soldier is off the reservation, and he also has the wrong Browncoat in his sights. Also, as usual, Mal is too stubborn to admit that. The relationships between the crew were captured really well, including some laugh out loud bits.

Float Out is a different kind of story. Three of Wash’s old frenemies are sitting around telling stories about him, planning to drink to his memory. The stories are funny, and very typical Wash incidents–his questionable charm, his even more questionable fashion sense, his insane love of plastic dinosaurs, and his willingness to do absolutely anything to save his friends. Zoe saunters in at the last minute and provides the drinks for the toast. “Wash hated champagne.” I’m sure he did. The drink Zoe brings is a “quick drunk, but lots of fun.” Sounds like Wash, doesn’t it?

The two stories in the middle didn’t stick with me, but these two did. Better Days because Mal didn’t have any dreams of what he would do with all that cash–his dream is flying Serenity with his crew, keeping his “family” together, and he knows it. Being rich hurts his dreams, it doesn’t help them. Float Out was a good-bye kiss to Wash, and it was fine one.

Escape Rating A: I escaped back to the Serenity for a little while. Enough said.

Reality 36

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews

Reality 36 by Guy Haley is a really cool mash-up of a sort that doesn’t happen often enough. It’s a science fiction mystery. And not just any kind of mystery, but an old school detective kind of mystery, except that neither of the detectives are from any type of school that Sam Spade would have recognized.

The detective firm in Reality 36 has the name “Richards & Klein” on its doors, which exist in both real and virtual space. The year is 2129, and the world has definitely moved on from 2011. That’s both good and bad.  Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story.

The Mr. Klein, of Richards & Klein, is Otto Klein. He’s ex-military. It’s not even uncommon today for ex-military personnel to go into security work in some way, or at least not uncommon according to TV and the movies. But Otto Klein is an ex-military cyborg. That’s definitely more 2129 than 2011.

And Richards, well, Richards is an AI. Yes, that’s Artificial Intelligence. But in 2129, AIs beyond a certain level are citizens, as are other creatures that don’t currently exist. Richards is a Class 5 AI, one of the most powerfully intelligent AIs remaining that didn’t go insane. There are AIs running lots of things in 2129. There are 3 AI Uncle Sams running the fractured government of North America. They substitute bureaucracy for power. I’m still snickering over that one.

What is Reality 36 itself? Reality 36 is one of the game worlds that has been closed since the AIs that populate the game worlds were determined to be, you guessed it, self-aware and sentient.

How do Richards & Klein get involved? A simple murder that turns out to be not so simple. A man is killed. A human, not an AI. But a very important man to the AIs. The man who argued, lobbied and fought for AIs to be granted citizenship. Professor Zhang Qifang is found dead on a yacht. And in a London alleyway. And in his apartment in Los Angeles. And captured alive but with a faulty memory. When all the living and dead clones turn up (plus the one dead “real” Professor), it turns out that the situation is even messier than they thought.

And that whoever the villain is, he, she or it is targeting Richards & Klein specifically. And anyone who can help, will help them, or might be reasonably predicted to help them is in danger. And only an AI could make those kind of predictions. But which one has gone rogue? Who watches the watchers?

Verdict: Reality 36 is a kind of cybergeek technothriller with its roots back in noir fiction. If any of those types of stories appeal to you (they do to me) you will enjoy this book. Richards loves to adopt the personas of Sam Spade/Raymond Chandler-era detectives whenever possible (I’m certain he would have empathized with Captain Picard’s holodramas of Dixon Hill). Klein is the world-weary side of the equation, older, wanting to retire, but not ready to hang up his guns just yet, still making up for the bad things he witnessed.

Richards is also an anti-hero. He seems to be the only Level 5 who still has a sense of “play” for want of a better world. He definitely does do work, but only on his own terms, which makes him the only one with the power and the ability to stop the rogue. So he and his partner are the targets from the beginning. Watching them run through the “maze” is a fantastic introduction to the new universe that Haley has created.

But for a very new-fangled story (the AIs are even called neukind), this book has an extremely old-fashioned ending. It’s a total cliffhanger! Richards leaps into the virtual eye of the storm and the story continues in the next book, Omega Point. Dammit. I want to know what happens next.

Escape Rating B+: I couldn’t quite manage to stay up to finish it–but I finished over breakfast the next morning!