Tag: science fiction

The Naked Truth

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews

The Naked Truth is the second book in Lilly Cain’s Confederacy Treaty series from Carina Press. The opening book in this series is Alien Revealed.

Captain Susan Branscombe of the Starforce Marines is cussing like a Marine in the opening of this book, and no wonder, she’s been tortured and she hopes she doesn’t survive, even though her captors’ ship is now being invaded by her very own Marines. But survive she does, only to be accused of selling out to her captors and committing treason.

But Earth has recently been contacted by an alien race, the Inarrii (read the first book in the series, Alien Revealed, for that story) and a treaty is being negotiated. The terrorists who tortured Branscombe were against alien contact. The Inarrii demand a full investigation under their control. And that’s where the story really begins.

The Inarrii communicate through mental telepathy in a way that involves intimate touch. But once the mental bonds are established, it is not possible for someone to lie through those bonds, either mentally or emotionally.

In order to preserve the treaty negotiations, the Inarrii need to know everything Captain Branscombe learned during her imprisonment. Not just whether she is a traitor, but also whether their enemies, the Raider alien races that they wish to thwart, may be involved with the terrorists. In order to be certain, the Inarrii Examiner, Asler Kiis, must examine the memories and the emotions of Captain Branscombe. What he discovers makes him yearn to heal her, body and soul.

Although I enjoyed the story, I kept wanting to know a little more about what made these two characters fall for each other. I liked them both, I just wasn’t quite sure why they’d been waiting for each other.

The Confederacy Treaty series is science fiction romance, and, in spite of the opening scenes of this entry, lighter on the plot, heavier on the romance side of that particular equation.  If you’re interested in other science fiction romance titles, take a look at Romance with a touch of Rocket Fuel.

Romance with a touch of rocket fuel

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | books

Sometimes I like my romances with just that little bit of rocket fuel to flavor the plot. I’m referring to science fiction romance, or SFR. After all, if love makes the world go round, there’s nothing to say it can’t power a starship, too!

One of the best writers in the genre right now is Linnea Sinclair. She’s the first author I read who made me recognize that this was really a separate category, and not just an offshoot of romance or space opera. Sinclair’s Dock Five Universe series can be read as pure space opera, if you want. Sixth-Fleet Captain Chasidah Bergren is court-martialed for a crime she didn’t commit. After being railroaded through Fleet justice, she is committed to a prison planet from which there is no escape. Except…after Chaz kills a guard in self-defense, a man she thought dead steps out of the shadows to take her out of prison, and into the rebellion against the Empire. Gabriel’s Ghost is the introduction to Dock Five, followed by Games of Command, Shades of Dark, Hope’s Folly and Rebels and Lovers. The Dock Five universe is a complex one, a world of political machinations, power, money, and evil on a galaxy wide scale. At the same time, love, honor and courage still motivate and compel humans to rise above themselves, to save their homes and their loved ones. Love still conquers all, even if it occasionally needs some help from engineering.

One of the longest running and most honored science fiction series had its origins as a science fiction romance. In 1986, Lois McMaster Bujold published the novel Shards of Honor. This is the first book in her multi-multi award winning Vorkosigan series, and it is absolutely science fiction romance. Cordelia Naismith, captain of a Beta Colony survey ship, meets Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan when they are marooned together after a raid on a newly discovered planet. When they are “rescued” his crew mutinies and she assists him in defeating the mutineers. He proposes marriage. She is captured by Aral’s enemies, tortured, and then rescued again. Eventually, she is returned to her home, Beta Colony. There’s this one little problem. Aral Vorkosigan is known as the “Butcher of Komarr”, and her people believe that he tortured her, not his enemies. They think she’s been brainwashed. She finally runs away to his home planet Barrayar, to elope with Vorkosigan. If that’s not science fiction romance, then what is?

The Vorkosigan series is ongoing. The most recent book, Cryoburn, was nominated for the Hugo Award in 2011.

Last year, the Galaxy Express posted a list of the 100 best science fiction romances. I’ve read over a third of the list and I’m working my way through the rest. Linnea Sinclair and Lois McMaster Bujold are definitely there. But some are a surprise. I would never have thought of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War as SFR. I loved the book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who reads SF. But it’s more like one of Robert A. Heinlein’s juveniles written for adults and updated 50 years. On the other hand, there is a love story involved, but it is understated and very low-key, especially in the first book. Read it and see.

Howsomever, if you really want to get hooked on something, find your way into the Liaden Universe by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It’s an addiction.  Either start with Local Custom or Agent of Change.  Liaden is set in a future some unspecified number of centuries, or more likely millennia from now, after a space diaspora from some original planet, that may or may not be Terra, and a Terra which may or may not be Earth. Liaden is a universe of mercantile empires more than space armadas, but wars can be fought with weapons other than guns. So, Liaden is mercantile space opera. It is also about family, and family obligations, and duty and honor. And yes, each book does have a central love story. But mostly, they’re just plain good. The end of Crystal Dragon, I knew what was coming, and it still gave me the sniffles. What happened at the end was necessary, but it hurt.

But it was a good kind of hurt. The kind that makes you want to dive back in and read some more.

 

Visions of Futures Past

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | libraries

The British Library has just opened an exhibition on the history of science fiction. I had to read the article twice just to prove to myself it was real. The exhibition is called “Out of this World: Science Fiction but not as you know it” The exhibit will be running through 25 September 2011, for anyone who has a chance to visit London.

Besides the images from the early science fiction pulp magazines, which are incredibly awesome, there is a lot on the blog and in the exhibit about science fiction as literature. science fiction is a literature of ideas, after all. As a concept, it’s been around for a couple of centuries, depending on how one defines it. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were writing science fiction, among other things. So was Lewis Carroll. And Mary Shelley–what is Frankenstein if it isn’t science fiction? The exhibit traces SF back to writings in the 17th century!

Science fiction has always looked at other worlds. Either worlds in the future, alien worlds, virtual worlds, parallel worlds, perfect worlds, or apocalyptic worlds. Those are the themes described in the exhibit, with covers from the pulps or illustrations from classic novels to match. But the fact is that modern SF subgenres derive from those original themes; future world stories are now hard sf,  alien worlds are space opera, virtual worlds are cyberpunk, parallel worlds are alternate history, perfect worlds equal utopian, and apocalyptic worlds are post-holocaust novels. Someone else’s mileage may vary on definitions, but the principle holds.

The history of SF is all around me in this room, too. We re-shelved through the letter H over the weekend. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy is here. One of the surviving space operas. It’s a story that transcended its original time to become a cornerstone of the genre. Also, Asimov’s Complete Stories is here, which includes his 3 laws of robotics somewhere in there. Every robot story since has dealt with those laws in some way, either to use them or to flout them.

Ray Bradbury is shelved in the next section, so there’s Fahrenheit 451 along with a thick volume of his stories. Can anyone who loves books ever forget the power of that story?

On the very first shelf, Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy rests along with the other books in the series. True humor in science fiction is really hard to do well. The Hitchhiker’s Guide was a incredible accomplishment.  Every once in a while, someone can catch that lightning in that bottle.

Way, way, way, too many years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois. I only say too many because each volume is positively huge. They take up two shelves, all by themselves.

Harlan Ellison is here, with so many Dangerous Visions. Some Robert A. Heinlein, but I kept only the good stuff. There’s a lot of Frank Herbert, and I still have a copy of Dune from when it was published by Chilton. Yes, Chilton was the original hardcover publisher back when no one else would touch it.

At the same time, there are newer books in here as well.  A lot of Eric Flint’s 1632 series. Alternative history is still considered science fiction, mostly because it isn’t anything else. Kage Baker’s Company series, which is a combination of time travel and alternate history.

But I can’t get over the idea that the British Library is doing a major exhibition on the history of Science Fiction. The BL is a place I associate more with the Magna Carta than Orson Scott Card!

Will ebooks kill print books?

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | ebooks

What a question!

This is the title of a very provocative essay by John Dvorak recently posted on PCmag.com.  His premise is that ebooks will serve as a sampling device for print books, and that publishers, in spite of their current “chickens crying that the sky is falling” behavior, will not just survive, but actually become more profitable in the long run.

Why?  Because as been noted in multiple sources already, including Amazon, ebook purchasers buy more ebooks.  It’s less expensive than a hardback for the consumer, and it’s way easier.  Then there’s that instant gratification factor.  People who want to read something NOW, get the ebook. 

But Dvorak’s contention is that collectors and book lovers will pick up a print version for the books they really, really want to own.  In other words, that people will use the ebook as a sampling service.  That some categories, like beach reading, may switch to mostly electronic, but types where a person will collect or want to refer back, book lovers will actually purchase a print copy of something they truly love after they have read it in electronic.

This is an extension of the library borrowing phenomenon, where library users sample an author by borrowing the book from the library, then if they like the book, start buying.  Bookstores locate themselves near libraries by this logic. One of my FPOWs had two major bookstores plunk themselves down within two blocks of its main library for this very reason.

Also, very few old technologies really get killed by new ones.  The old ones just morph and find a new niche.  CDs did not kill LPs, actually LPs are on the rise again.  Now 8-track is pretty dead, and cassette looks like it’s going the way of the dinosaur.  But radio found a niche of its own.  TV didn’t kill movies, although the economy may be another thing.  But that’s not one technology wiping out another, that’s something different entirely.  The Great Recession is wrecking havoc all over the place.

But speaking of old technologies that never die–I was directed to the Dvorak piece by a link from rec.arts.sf.written.  This is the linear descendant of a Usenet news group devoted to the discussion of written science fiction.  It is now a Google group, but it has been active since practically the dawn of Internet time.  And it’s still going strong.  And still acting on it’s original purpose, the discussion of written science fiction.  Yes, it digresses.  But no more than any other discussion by any other group of somewhat like-minded individuals. And the link to Dvorak’s essay isn’t much of a digression.  Whether written SF will be available in ebook only or print or both is pretty much on topic, and, the whole concept was presaged in Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, which is very much SF.

But widespread email and RSS feeds and Facebook haven’t killed Usenet.  The new technologies did not wipe out all trace of the old.  The useful and relevant parts adapted and carried on.  In fact, the amount of Usenet traffic has steadily increased in the past 15 years.  Ebooks most likely won’t wipe out print books either.  As one of the rec.arts.sf folks pointed out, endpaper maps on a Kindle are sheer torture.  They are better on an iPad, but then, it’s easy to be better than absolutely putrid.  The technology for ebook readers and iPads will get better, but my big illustrated Lord of the Rings and complete annotated Sherlock Holmes canon are still better in print form.  And probably will be for quite a while.

Voting for the Hugos

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Hugo Awards

The Hugo nominations were officially posted on Sunday by Renovation, the 69th Annual World Science Fiction Convention.  Worldcon will be be held this coming August in Reno, Nevada, and the winners will be announced in a rather posh and occasionally hilarious ceremony on August 20.

I get to vote on the Hugos.  It’s easy.  All you have to do is buy an attending or supporting membership in that year’s Worldcon.  I usually just support, but this year, we’re planning to go.  And next year, since it will again be in one of our previous and much beloved homes, Chicago.

But back to the nominees.  They reflect the popularity and tastes of the folks who read, write, watch and publish science fiction and fantasy.  There are categories for everything.  Best novel, best short story, best film, best dramatic presentation (short form) which basically means a TV episode, best graphic novel, etc., etc., etc.  You get the idea.  But to be an informed voter, it’s important to read, or watch the thing nominated.  In other words, my TBR pile just got bigger, along with my to be viewed (TBV, I guess) list.

hundred thousand kingdoms coverI have only read one, yikes, one, of the nominated novels.  The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin.  It was one of those absolutely fabulous first novels, where you can’t believe it’s someone’s first novel.  It is also a coming-of-age story, and about the power of belief.  It may share some common points with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods when it comes to whether or not a deity that anyone has once believed in can ever truly be extinguished.

I have Connie Willis’ Blackout/All Clear on my iPad, but haven’t gotten around to it/them yet.  It/them have now risen several dozen rungs on the TBR ladder.  Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold is one that I had been thinking about.  I read the earlier books in her Miles Vorkosigan space opera series.  I loved the first two books, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, but there, Cordelia was the main character rather than Miles.  Now that Miles has grown into himself, he may be more sympathetic for me.  I’ll have to see.

There are also a lot of categories for shorter works.  Novellas, novellettes and short stories in particular.  One of the great things about this process is that if you are eligible to vote, all the  shorter stuff is made available to you online.  Sort of like the Academy voters getting free DVDs of all the movies.

In addition to the books, there are five movies, and five TV episodes.  Three of the TV episodes are from Doctor Who.  I’ve seen all three, and I don’t mind the excuse to watch them again.  But the title I’m most interested in is nominated in the Related Works category.  It’s titled Chicks Dig Time Lords, A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It. I think only something like the Hugos would be so willing to nominate such a lighthearted look at the genre for a major award.  Besides, chicks really do dig Time Lords.  And I have the DVD collection to prove it.

Double deja vu

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | books

In the middle of the first chapter of Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane, I kept thinking “I’ve played this book”.  Not “I’ve read this book”, but “I’ve played this book”, as in there’s a game just like this.  And there is.  The beginning of the book is from the perspective of a player in an extremely immersive massively multiplayer online world that is so detailed that at first the reader doesn’t realize that the perspective is inside a game.  Then, he steps back into “real” life, and you realize he was playing his character, and this book is about the game.

Several years ago, I played a series of video games that mimicked both a massively multiplayer online world and the player’s online chat experience during the game as it invaded reality.  I really thought I was reading dot Hack, which was the game in question.  It would have made a pretty good novel.  But Omnitopia only started out the same as the game.

Omnitopia Dawn, dot Hack, and also, surprisingly, Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb, all have an element in common, that of using video gaming worlds to affect the so-called “real” world.  But J.D. Robb uses the next step in virtual reality as a murder weapon.  In dot Hack, the theme is mind control.  But Omnitopia Dawn is much more deeply layered.  The company behind the game is intended as a jab at high tech companies with their own internal geek culture, like Apple, Google, and even Microsoft back in the day.

But in Omnitopia Dawn, the real world is going to be affected in real ways, not virtual ones.  Real competitors of the corporation behind Omnitopia plan to use the launch of the next upgrade to launch a very real attack on Omnitopia’s servers using very real viruses, denial of service attacks and other tools that read like natural progressions from today’s headlines.  And the intent behind these attacks is to steal very real money from the company, and if possible to drive Omnitopia out of business, so that its competitors win.

Under the fantasy layer, and the business layer, there is a science fiction layer.  Omnitopia’s server network is vast and its founder has programmed it with its own individual persona and artificial intelligence.  The new upgrade to the system has caused something unexpected to happen to that artificial intelligence.  It has, like so many systems before it, become self-aware.  And in the attack launched by Omnitopia’s enemies, it starts to defend itself.

The first self-aware machine I remember reading about was Mike in Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  Not all of Heinlein’s adult works wear well because some of his attitudes about women (among other things) were very definitely of his time and not ours.  But I still remember the character of Mike very fondly.  Mike named himself for Mycroft Holmes.  But Mike was the computer that ran all the systems on the moon, and eventually accreted enough memory, inputs, data, whatever to become sentient.  Two things about Mike stuck with me.  His friend, Manny, teaching him about humor and jokes, the difference between funny once and funny always, and that Mike doesn’t live to see the revolution he brings about.

There was a long moment at the end of Omnitopia Dawn where I was afraid I was reading about Mike again.