Cujo
Stephen King
Viking
Fiction, Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Trenton family - Vic, Donna, and young Tad - moved to Castle Rock, Maine from the big city to raise their boy in a better place, but it may be the undoing of their family. Vic's small advertising firm may be losing its biggest client, Donna's frustrations over small town life and being a stay-at-home mother lead to a brief affair with an unstable man, and Tad is convinced that there's a monster in the closet of his new room. When Vic has to head out of town on short notice to try saving his business, he leaves Donna with the boy and the family Pinto, which has been acting up lately. The local repair "shop" is crusty Joe Camber's converted barn at the end of a long, dead-end country lane... a shop space he shares with a gentle giant Saint Bernard named Cujo. The dog has been a solid animal, good and loyal, as well as a best friend to Joe's son Brett - until a fateful encounter with a rabid bat. Now Cujo, in growing pain and confusion and sourceless rage, is a monster on four legs... and Donna and Tad are about to become the targets of an unstoppable madness.
REVIEW: This 1981 horror novel still delivers suspense and chills, though some of the story arcs range a bit far afield and don't always quite pay off for their ranging. From the start, there's a supernatural sheen to the otherwise earthbound terror that's about to be visited upon the Trentons and other residents of Castle Rock, demons that cannot be escaped from once they've chosen their victims. After the opening, the setting and characters are established and set in position for the terrors to come, most of them having complicated inner lives and relationships. As in other King novels, there are other themes that tie them together, in this instance matters of time and age and how every year, every month, every moment narrows choices and all too often moves one further away from the life one wants, further away from the people they used to be and still think of themselves as being even though that version of them slipped away while they were busy with the day-to-day business of living. Yet even when the past is gone, it still shapes and colors the future, a seemingly inescapable pattern. Different characters deal with their frustrations and disappointments over lost times and repeating patterns in their lives in different ways that drive the plot; some look backward and keep trying to recapture a lost era, others try to numb or drown the pain of lost years, still others feed resentments or other distractions. Even Cujo struggles to stay a good and loyal dog even as an alien madness - one, again, with some tinges of the unnatural behind it - drives the animal to murderous rampages.
From a somewhat meandering opening, the story builds toward its violent, tragic climax. At numerous spots along the way are places where things could go differently, where someone else other than Donna and Tad could move into the line of catastrophe (or said catastrophe might have been averted altogether), yet those moments are passed by as tragedy becomes more and more inevitable. As a monster, Cujo becomes downright terrifying, all the moreso because the reader first met him was, indeed, a very good dog. Rabies is a horrific enough disease on its own, but the strain in Castle Rock - of course - is more than a mere virus. Cujo does not just mindlessly hunt and maul; this is a stalking, cunning creature, the tool of an older and darker and more patient evil than any mere canine (or human) mind can understand. (There's also quite a bit of damage done to the troublesome Pinto whose engine malfunction kicks off so many bad things; having driven cars with "issues" myself, I rather suspect there was some personal catharsis involved as King mercilessly and relentlessly ravaged that car.) Toward the end the tale wanders a bit again, though the conclusion is reasonably strong.
On its own, Cujo remains a decent horror story. Compared to some other masterworks by the author, such as It or Pet Sematary, it falls short, but average Stephen King is still fairly good.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Who Goes There? (John W, Campbell Jr) - My Review
The Girl in Red (Christina Henry) - My Review
Pet Sematary (Stephen King) - My Review
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Monday, February 12, 2024
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 1 (Andy Diggle)
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 1
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth series, Issues 1 - 4
Andy Diggle and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Rubine
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: One year ago, the solar system was rocked by cataclysmic events. Already destabilized by the opening of the alien ring gates and the colony worlds beyond, the rise of Belter rebel Marco Inaros led to the bombardment of Earth, while the betrayal and desertion of Martian General Duarte left one of the major system powers half-gutted. Now, with Marco dead and Duarte vanished behind the now-closed Laconia gate, Earth, Mars, and the newly-created Transport Union of Belters try to pick up the pieces and move forward in a changed reality... but with Earth in shambles, food growing scarce, and pirates preying on colonists and freighters alike, the system is still half a click away from disaster.
Captain James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been hunting pirates, but one - Sohiro - proves both exceptionally brutal and exceptionally elusive, leaving nothing but carved-up wreckage in his wake. Camina Drummer, president of the Transport Union, struggles to coordinate traffic through the ring gates from Medina Station while keeping supplies of food and live soil moving... nearly impossible with the pirate problem, and with Earth - the only source of microbial-active soil needed to grow human-edible food - in such a state of disarray. Chrisjen Avasalara tries to keep the peace on a broken world, but suspects the rot revealed by Marco and by Duarte's defection is by no means cleansed; not only is the rage that led to Marco's rebellion still rampant through the Belt, but Duarte's ability to coordinate such a staggering betrayal suggests a vast network of spies and traitors, not all of whom may have passed beyond the Laconia gate with him. She is about to be proven right - and it may spell the end of the fragile peace.
REVIEW: In the interest of full disclosure, I contributed to the Kickstarter campaign that helped fund this graphic novel series, billed as "Season Seven" of the televised version of The Expanse.
Though following the show's version of events (and featuring likenesses of the actors), Dragon Tooth also fills in some of the time that was jumped over between Books 6 and 7 of the source material. It had a fairly high standard of storytelling and continuity to live up to. Happily, it cleared that bar handily.
Starting one year after the sixth season finale - the end of Marco's rebellion, the disappearance of Duarte beyond the Laconia gate, and Drummer becoming head of the fledgling Transport Union to keep supplies and people flowing between the new colony worlds - it drops the reader into a familiar situation: the Rocinante on a desperate rescue mission, hunting enemies in the Belt. From the first frame, it feels just like the show, from the fantastic artwork to the pitch-perfect dialog to the character interactions. Even though it's been a little while since my last rewatch of the show, I was back up to speed in no time, in part because it just felt so familiar. Even the new characters slot neatly into the established world. With action, intrigue, emotion, and the odd touch of humor, this first volume establishes a strong story arc for the next installment. I'm looking forward to Volume 2 already...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Leviathan Wakes (James S. A. Corey) - My Review
The Expanse: Origins, Volume 1 (James S. A. Corey, Hallie Lambert, and Georgia Lee) - My Review
Ocean/Orbiter Deluxe Edition (Warren Ellis) - My Review
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth series, Issues 1 - 4
Andy Diggle and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Rubine
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: One year ago, the solar system was rocked by cataclysmic events. Already destabilized by the opening of the alien ring gates and the colony worlds beyond, the rise of Belter rebel Marco Inaros led to the bombardment of Earth, while the betrayal and desertion of Martian General Duarte left one of the major system powers half-gutted. Now, with Marco dead and Duarte vanished behind the now-closed Laconia gate, Earth, Mars, and the newly-created Transport Union of Belters try to pick up the pieces and move forward in a changed reality... but with Earth in shambles, food growing scarce, and pirates preying on colonists and freighters alike, the system is still half a click away from disaster.
Captain James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been hunting pirates, but one - Sohiro - proves both exceptionally brutal and exceptionally elusive, leaving nothing but carved-up wreckage in his wake. Camina Drummer, president of the Transport Union, struggles to coordinate traffic through the ring gates from Medina Station while keeping supplies of food and live soil moving... nearly impossible with the pirate problem, and with Earth - the only source of microbial-active soil needed to grow human-edible food - in such a state of disarray. Chrisjen Avasalara tries to keep the peace on a broken world, but suspects the rot revealed by Marco and by Duarte's defection is by no means cleansed; not only is the rage that led to Marco's rebellion still rampant through the Belt, but Duarte's ability to coordinate such a staggering betrayal suggests a vast network of spies and traitors, not all of whom may have passed beyond the Laconia gate with him. She is about to be proven right - and it may spell the end of the fragile peace.
REVIEW: In the interest of full disclosure, I contributed to the Kickstarter campaign that helped fund this graphic novel series, billed as "Season Seven" of the televised version of The Expanse.
Though following the show's version of events (and featuring likenesses of the actors), Dragon Tooth also fills in some of the time that was jumped over between Books 6 and 7 of the source material. It had a fairly high standard of storytelling and continuity to live up to. Happily, it cleared that bar handily.
Starting one year after the sixth season finale - the end of Marco's rebellion, the disappearance of Duarte beyond the Laconia gate, and Drummer becoming head of the fledgling Transport Union to keep supplies and people flowing between the new colony worlds - it drops the reader into a familiar situation: the Rocinante on a desperate rescue mission, hunting enemies in the Belt. From the first frame, it feels just like the show, from the fantastic artwork to the pitch-perfect dialog to the character interactions. Even though it's been a little while since my last rewatch of the show, I was back up to speed in no time, in part because it just felt so familiar. Even the new characters slot neatly into the established world. With action, intrigue, emotion, and the odd touch of humor, this first volume establishes a strong story arc for the next installment. I'm looking forward to Volume 2 already...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Leviathan Wakes (James S. A. Corey) - My Review
The Expanse: Origins, Volume 1 (James S. A. Corey, Hallie Lambert, and Georgia Lee) - My Review
Ocean/Orbiter Deluxe Edition (Warren Ellis) - My Review
Friday, February 9, 2024
The Fall of Babel (Josiah Bancroft)
The Fall of Babel
The Books of Babel series, Book 4
Josiah Bancroft
Orbit
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: The great Tower of Babel has stood for centuries, and though the people come and go and ringdoms rise and fall within its walls, it has been as enduring as a mountain... but even mountains may fall. Now, as the monstrous machine known as the Hod King - constructed by renegade Luc Marat and crewed by zealot followers culled from the enslaved hods - begins its destructive ascent, and as the enigmatic Sphinx goes silent in their high lair, the unthinkable might be possible. As the ringdoms fall into squabbling and war, the Sphinx's agent, Captain Edith of the advanced airship State of the Art, has her hands more than full, even if there weren't a war engine gnawing its way to the heart of the Tower like a great metal termite. She managed to rescue Thomas Senlin's wife Marya and their infant daughter from the evil Duke of Pelphia, but Senlin himself is now lost, last seen on the deadly Black Roads as a hod. Young daredevil Voleta has finally woken from near-death, but has returned changed in ways none of the crew understand or trust. And Voleta's brother Adam is still somewhere at the top of the tower, last seen in the company of the lightning-bearing guards of the highest and most aloof of the ringdoms. Edith races to collect the paintings that will reveal the key to the locked "bridge", and with it the purpose of Babel's construction (and, hopefully, the means for its salvation), but Marat's agents always seem to be one step ahead of her. And if he succeeds in taking over the tower, all hope will be lost.
Senlin thought he could infiltrate Marat's hod rebellion and sabotage the madman from within, but now he's trapped by his own deceit inside the Hod King, helpless to stop the horrors to come. His ruse worked too well, as he finds himself drawn into Marat's secret inner council of former Wakemen: those who were saved by the Sphinx's unusual devices in exchange for becoming agents, but who turned on their distant master in favor of Marat. As the shape of Marat's ambitions become more and more clear, Senlin's resolve to stop him - even at the cost of his own life - only grows more certain.
Meanwhile, at the top of the tower, young Adam is mystified to be heralded as a celebrity among people whom he's never met. The city of Nebos is every inch the paradise he'd imagined: beautiful gardens, golden houses, all dominated by a great pyramid of awesome size, peopled by artists and scholars and more, living a life of unimaginable luxury. It is also, as he soon learns, hiding dark secrets beneath its immaculate streets, and a betrayal that dates back to the final days of the enigmatic Brick Layer who designed the great tower itself. As much as Nebos considers itself above the troubles plaguing the rest of the tower (literally and figuratively), it, too, is threatened by the crumbling beneath... and it may hold the key to saving the Tower of Babel, or destroying it utterly.
REVIEW: As the rating reflects, I had mixed feelings on this final volume in the epic Books of Babel series. It almost feels like it wanted to be two books, and again like it should've been only half as long. That sounds contradictory, but it's what I'm left with as I consider how some plot points and character arcs come to conclusions (if sometimes prolonged conclusions) and others feel like they've just been introduced or are only half-finished by the time the tale finally, eventually, almost exhaustedly comes to a halt.
Things start more or less where the previous volume ended, at least storywise. The Sphinx has gone silent and their lair sealed off, the crew of the State of the Art deal with onboard tensions (such as Captain Edith's mixed feelings over having Marya aboard, after her brief affair with Senlin) and external threats, and Luc Marat's great siege engine the Hod King begins its slow-motion assault on the tower, on its way to lay siege to the Sphinx and thence to claim power of the whole of Babel, while Adam at the top of the tower finally learns just why everyone in Nebos knows so many details of his life. As the story moves between the now-scattered characters, it sometimes feels unevenly paced, shifting from meandering and sight-seeing to high tension and action almost at random. The Tower of Babel itself remains massive and enigmatic and full of wonders and horrors beyond imagination, while also serving as a condensation of humans being human in all the best and worst (especially the worst) ways possible. More is revealed about the Brick Layer and the Sphinx, as the true purpose of the tower - so long a matter of debate - eventually is revealed... and here is one of the stumbles that wound up costing it in the ratings, as I felt myself fighting to not roll my eyes at some revelations and other incidents that sometimes felt less like clever solutions and more like out-of-the-blue twists made up on the fly to shock and awe the reader.
On the character side, nobody is who they were when the reader first met them, and their development continues through the tale as they're all put to the test in various ways. Senlin and Marya have been through so much in their separate, harrowing journeys that reconciliation may not even be possible at this point, not even with an infant daughter binding them; long gone are the happy, naive small town man and wife who stepped off the train in the first book, replaced by weathered, more worldly people who both have seen their own weaknesses and dark sides. Edith, having had leadership thrust upon her unexpectedly by the Sphinx, must learn to fill the shoes last filled by the absent Senlin. Former bodyguard Iren still struggles to deal with her own changing life and her first real brush with romance, while Voleta's changes make her do some growing up (but not a ton of it, as she's still a bit prone to recklessness, if in different ways than before). The former Red Hand, the only one who can relate to her new experiences, becomes a sort of ally and mentor as she deals with the mind- and time-bending effects of a bloodstream full of red "medium", the miraculous glowing fluid that powers the Sphinx's contraptions. This also allows Voleta to become a bit of a plot device, as part of the medium's properties involve a sort of astral time travel... but I can't elaborate without spoilers.
The whole has a lot of moving parts and a lot of balls in the air to juggle, and it doesn't always feel like those balls get caught; one or two seem to have disappeared by the end of the story, while others went through a lot of frantic actions yet didn't necessarily go anywhere far at all. The ending almost feels like it wants to segue into another book or series, though I'm not sure if there's enough steam in the world or plot. (There are also at least a few worldbuilding points that felt handwaved or inadequately addressed.) Even with that, though, there are plenty of solid moments and memorable writing throughout. I liked it more than I didn't, but I still can't quite shake the sense of something out of kilter, something either not quite finished or carried a step or two too far past the natural end point.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Senlin Ascends (Josiah Bancroft) - My Review
The Invisible Library (Genevieve Cogman) - My Review
The Keys to the Kingdom: Mister Monday (Garth Nix) - My Review
The Books of Babel series, Book 4
Josiah Bancroft
Orbit
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: The great Tower of Babel has stood for centuries, and though the people come and go and ringdoms rise and fall within its walls, it has been as enduring as a mountain... but even mountains may fall. Now, as the monstrous machine known as the Hod King - constructed by renegade Luc Marat and crewed by zealot followers culled from the enslaved hods - begins its destructive ascent, and as the enigmatic Sphinx goes silent in their high lair, the unthinkable might be possible. As the ringdoms fall into squabbling and war, the Sphinx's agent, Captain Edith of the advanced airship State of the Art, has her hands more than full, even if there weren't a war engine gnawing its way to the heart of the Tower like a great metal termite. She managed to rescue Thomas Senlin's wife Marya and their infant daughter from the evil Duke of Pelphia, but Senlin himself is now lost, last seen on the deadly Black Roads as a hod. Young daredevil Voleta has finally woken from near-death, but has returned changed in ways none of the crew understand or trust. And Voleta's brother Adam is still somewhere at the top of the tower, last seen in the company of the lightning-bearing guards of the highest and most aloof of the ringdoms. Edith races to collect the paintings that will reveal the key to the locked "bridge", and with it the purpose of Babel's construction (and, hopefully, the means for its salvation), but Marat's agents always seem to be one step ahead of her. And if he succeeds in taking over the tower, all hope will be lost.
Senlin thought he could infiltrate Marat's hod rebellion and sabotage the madman from within, but now he's trapped by his own deceit inside the Hod King, helpless to stop the horrors to come. His ruse worked too well, as he finds himself drawn into Marat's secret inner council of former Wakemen: those who were saved by the Sphinx's unusual devices in exchange for becoming agents, but who turned on their distant master in favor of Marat. As the shape of Marat's ambitions become more and more clear, Senlin's resolve to stop him - even at the cost of his own life - only grows more certain.
Meanwhile, at the top of the tower, young Adam is mystified to be heralded as a celebrity among people whom he's never met. The city of Nebos is every inch the paradise he'd imagined: beautiful gardens, golden houses, all dominated by a great pyramid of awesome size, peopled by artists and scholars and more, living a life of unimaginable luxury. It is also, as he soon learns, hiding dark secrets beneath its immaculate streets, and a betrayal that dates back to the final days of the enigmatic Brick Layer who designed the great tower itself. As much as Nebos considers itself above the troubles plaguing the rest of the tower (literally and figuratively), it, too, is threatened by the crumbling beneath... and it may hold the key to saving the Tower of Babel, or destroying it utterly.
REVIEW: As the rating reflects, I had mixed feelings on this final volume in the epic Books of Babel series. It almost feels like it wanted to be two books, and again like it should've been only half as long. That sounds contradictory, but it's what I'm left with as I consider how some plot points and character arcs come to conclusions (if sometimes prolonged conclusions) and others feel like they've just been introduced or are only half-finished by the time the tale finally, eventually, almost exhaustedly comes to a halt.
Things start more or less where the previous volume ended, at least storywise. The Sphinx has gone silent and their lair sealed off, the crew of the State of the Art deal with onboard tensions (such as Captain Edith's mixed feelings over having Marya aboard, after her brief affair with Senlin) and external threats, and Luc Marat's great siege engine the Hod King begins its slow-motion assault on the tower, on its way to lay siege to the Sphinx and thence to claim power of the whole of Babel, while Adam at the top of the tower finally learns just why everyone in Nebos knows so many details of his life. As the story moves between the now-scattered characters, it sometimes feels unevenly paced, shifting from meandering and sight-seeing to high tension and action almost at random. The Tower of Babel itself remains massive and enigmatic and full of wonders and horrors beyond imagination, while also serving as a condensation of humans being human in all the best and worst (especially the worst) ways possible. More is revealed about the Brick Layer and the Sphinx, as the true purpose of the tower - so long a matter of debate - eventually is revealed... and here is one of the stumbles that wound up costing it in the ratings, as I felt myself fighting to not roll my eyes at some revelations and other incidents that sometimes felt less like clever solutions and more like out-of-the-blue twists made up on the fly to shock and awe the reader.
On the character side, nobody is who they were when the reader first met them, and their development continues through the tale as they're all put to the test in various ways. Senlin and Marya have been through so much in their separate, harrowing journeys that reconciliation may not even be possible at this point, not even with an infant daughter binding them; long gone are the happy, naive small town man and wife who stepped off the train in the first book, replaced by weathered, more worldly people who both have seen their own weaknesses and dark sides. Edith, having had leadership thrust upon her unexpectedly by the Sphinx, must learn to fill the shoes last filled by the absent Senlin. Former bodyguard Iren still struggles to deal with her own changing life and her first real brush with romance, while Voleta's changes make her do some growing up (but not a ton of it, as she's still a bit prone to recklessness, if in different ways than before). The former Red Hand, the only one who can relate to her new experiences, becomes a sort of ally and mentor as she deals with the mind- and time-bending effects of a bloodstream full of red "medium", the miraculous glowing fluid that powers the Sphinx's contraptions. This also allows Voleta to become a bit of a plot device, as part of the medium's properties involve a sort of astral time travel... but I can't elaborate without spoilers.
The whole has a lot of moving parts and a lot of balls in the air to juggle, and it doesn't always feel like those balls get caught; one or two seem to have disappeared by the end of the story, while others went through a lot of frantic actions yet didn't necessarily go anywhere far at all. The ending almost feels like it wants to segue into another book or series, though I'm not sure if there's enough steam in the world or plot. (There are also at least a few worldbuilding points that felt handwaved or inadequately addressed.) Even with that, though, there are plenty of solid moments and memorable writing throughout. I liked it more than I didn't, but I still can't quite shake the sense of something out of kilter, something either not quite finished or carried a step or two too far past the natural end point.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Senlin Ascends (Josiah Bancroft) - My Review
The Invisible Library (Genevieve Cogman) - My Review
The Keys to the Kingdom: Mister Monday (Garth Nix) - My Review
Friday, February 2, 2024
Winds of Marque (Bennett R. Coles)
Winds of Marque
The Blackwood and Virtue series, Book 1
Bennett R. Coles
Harper Voyager
Fiction, Adventure/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Second son of a minor lord, Liam Blackwood sought his fortune as many of his rank do, in the star-sailing navy of the interstellar human empire. He's a solid officer, rising to the rank of Subcommander, but all too often he finds himself second in command beneath higher-born men who consider fleet ships their personal toys - as happened when his captain, Lord Silverhawk, pushed the vessel Renaissance almost past its limits through a solar storm just for bragging rights at a party. Only the valor and hard work of the crew, and the quick thinking of one common-born underling in particular, Amelia Virtue, saved them all from disaster... but, of course, men like Silverhawk never bear the blame for near-disasters, unlike those of Liam's minimal family status. He needs a new commission while the Renaissance is in dry dock for extensive repairs, something preferably far away from Silverhawk and his kind - and finds salvation quite unexpectedly handed to him.
War with the inscrutable Sectoids is on the horizon, but pirates - always a problem in the spaceways - are becoming bolder in their attacks. If the outlaws and the threat they pose to supply lines aren't dealt with soon, then the imperial war effort is effectively dead in space, but any open efforts to round up the pirates may tip off the Sectoids that the Empire is preparing for war. To this end, the Empire has offered a letter of marque to the retrofitted frigate HMSS Daring, authorizing them to go undercover as common merchants and use any means necessary to track down the pirates to their lair and eliminate them - though if they mess up and are caught, the Empire will disavow any knowledge of their actions. It will mean working under yet another highborn captain, along with a new crew (of which he only is familiar with a handful, those he personally recruited from the Renaissance's idle sailors - including, of course, clever Virtue), but, as second in command on the Daring, this secret mission could make the fortune of Blackwood and everyone else on board... or ruin them forever if they fail.
REVIEW: A strong hero and solid heroine out to prove themselves to a world that underestimates them, a nefarious band of pirates, a fantastical space setting amid a dense star cluster where ships ply the complex solar winds under sail... Winds of Marque had many ingredients that should've made for a rollicking swashbuckler. Once in a while it actually reached that, but more often it seemed to fall short.
The tale starts with a handful of stock characters in a decently tense scene, as the captain obliviously pushes his vessel to the brink of ruin just so a rival won't beat him to a fancy ball on their destination world; Blackwood, his chief engineer equivalent Smith, and plucky Virtue manage to stay half a step ahead of disaster to pull the Renaissance through, even knowing that the damages will probably come out of their hides and careers while Silverhawk walks away without a blemish on his record. Though familiar tropes, they work fairly well in the scene, establishing the star-sailing world and social dynamics that drive much of the novel. But once the action dies down and the ship makes it to port, that world starts to feel a little thin and hollow. Though the reader sees some of the nobles and also some commoners, the latter don't seem particularly oppressed or abused among the crew; minor lordling Blackwood being demeaned and wronged by those of higher birth comes through loud and clear, and there's prejudice against other species (the insectlike Sectoids are universally feared, while the saurian Theropods - commonly termed "Brutes" - are often looked down on even as they're tolerated in menial positions), but until Virtue calls him out on his blindness to the plight of the everyman in a world where noble blood means immunity from laws and basic decency, the novel doesn't even bother getting into how commoners are generally treated by the empire. This discontent may or may not form the root of the growing piracy plight, but mostly the pirates are cardboard cutouts for the main characters to chase across the spaceways, cold-blooded killers, and some minor hints that there's something else going on behind them (other than greed or possibly cultish fanaticism) are completely forgotten by the end. Among the crew, the sense of everyone being a stock character going through stock character motions only grows stronger as the tale goes on.
That's not to say there's nothing enjoyable here. Those stock characters and tropes exist for a reason, in that they generally work to tell a story. The action sequences are exciting, melding the pitched battles of ship-to-ship combat with the added dangers of space travel. There's some intrigue with the possibilities of traitors on board and the obligatory threat of mutiny, as well as the expected romance between newly-promoted quartermaster Amelia Virtue and Subcommander Liam Blackwood. Underneath all that, unfortunately, I just never shook that sense of hollowness or flatness or a lack of that indefinable spark that takes a story from a collection of expected tropes and ideas into something stronger.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Crownchasers (Rebecca Coffindaffer) - My Review
The Last Watch (J. S. Dewes) - My Review
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
The Blackwood and Virtue series, Book 1
Bennett R. Coles
Harper Voyager
Fiction, Adventure/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Second son of a minor lord, Liam Blackwood sought his fortune as many of his rank do, in the star-sailing navy of the interstellar human empire. He's a solid officer, rising to the rank of Subcommander, but all too often he finds himself second in command beneath higher-born men who consider fleet ships their personal toys - as happened when his captain, Lord Silverhawk, pushed the vessel Renaissance almost past its limits through a solar storm just for bragging rights at a party. Only the valor and hard work of the crew, and the quick thinking of one common-born underling in particular, Amelia Virtue, saved them all from disaster... but, of course, men like Silverhawk never bear the blame for near-disasters, unlike those of Liam's minimal family status. He needs a new commission while the Renaissance is in dry dock for extensive repairs, something preferably far away from Silverhawk and his kind - and finds salvation quite unexpectedly handed to him.
War with the inscrutable Sectoids is on the horizon, but pirates - always a problem in the spaceways - are becoming bolder in their attacks. If the outlaws and the threat they pose to supply lines aren't dealt with soon, then the imperial war effort is effectively dead in space, but any open efforts to round up the pirates may tip off the Sectoids that the Empire is preparing for war. To this end, the Empire has offered a letter of marque to the retrofitted frigate HMSS Daring, authorizing them to go undercover as common merchants and use any means necessary to track down the pirates to their lair and eliminate them - though if they mess up and are caught, the Empire will disavow any knowledge of their actions. It will mean working under yet another highborn captain, along with a new crew (of which he only is familiar with a handful, those he personally recruited from the Renaissance's idle sailors - including, of course, clever Virtue), but, as second in command on the Daring, this secret mission could make the fortune of Blackwood and everyone else on board... or ruin them forever if they fail.
REVIEW: A strong hero and solid heroine out to prove themselves to a world that underestimates them, a nefarious band of pirates, a fantastical space setting amid a dense star cluster where ships ply the complex solar winds under sail... Winds of Marque had many ingredients that should've made for a rollicking swashbuckler. Once in a while it actually reached that, but more often it seemed to fall short.
The tale starts with a handful of stock characters in a decently tense scene, as the captain obliviously pushes his vessel to the brink of ruin just so a rival won't beat him to a fancy ball on their destination world; Blackwood, his chief engineer equivalent Smith, and plucky Virtue manage to stay half a step ahead of disaster to pull the Renaissance through, even knowing that the damages will probably come out of their hides and careers while Silverhawk walks away without a blemish on his record. Though familiar tropes, they work fairly well in the scene, establishing the star-sailing world and social dynamics that drive much of the novel. But once the action dies down and the ship makes it to port, that world starts to feel a little thin and hollow. Though the reader sees some of the nobles and also some commoners, the latter don't seem particularly oppressed or abused among the crew; minor lordling Blackwood being demeaned and wronged by those of higher birth comes through loud and clear, and there's prejudice against other species (the insectlike Sectoids are universally feared, while the saurian Theropods - commonly termed "Brutes" - are often looked down on even as they're tolerated in menial positions), but until Virtue calls him out on his blindness to the plight of the everyman in a world where noble blood means immunity from laws and basic decency, the novel doesn't even bother getting into how commoners are generally treated by the empire. This discontent may or may not form the root of the growing piracy plight, but mostly the pirates are cardboard cutouts for the main characters to chase across the spaceways, cold-blooded killers, and some minor hints that there's something else going on behind them (other than greed or possibly cultish fanaticism) are completely forgotten by the end. Among the crew, the sense of everyone being a stock character going through stock character motions only grows stronger as the tale goes on.
That's not to say there's nothing enjoyable here. Those stock characters and tropes exist for a reason, in that they generally work to tell a story. The action sequences are exciting, melding the pitched battles of ship-to-ship combat with the added dangers of space travel. There's some intrigue with the possibilities of traitors on board and the obligatory threat of mutiny, as well as the expected romance between newly-promoted quartermaster Amelia Virtue and Subcommander Liam Blackwood. Underneath all that, unfortunately, I just never shook that sense of hollowness or flatness or a lack of that indefinable spark that takes a story from a collection of expected tropes and ideas into something stronger.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Crownchasers (Rebecca Coffindaffer) - My Review
The Last Watch (J. S. Dewes) - My Review
Arabella of Mars (David D. Levine) - My Review
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Midnight at the Well of Souls (Jack L. Chalker)
Midnight at the Well of Souls
The Well of Souls series, Book 1
Jack L. Chalker
Del Rey
Fiction, Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: One of the greatest mysteries encountered by humanity as they spread across the stars was the Markovian ruins, great cities atop planet-encompassing technology that bear not a single lingering artifact - not so much as a potsherd - nor any hint as to what happened to a species that had advanced to near-divinity. But a chance discovery puts one archaeologist, Elkinos Skander, on the path to waking a Markovian computer... with which he believes he can become like a god over the known universe and beyond. When his breakthrough is witnessed by ambitious young student Varnett, Skander resorts to desperate measures. The two are locked in life-and-death combat when they suddenly vanish.
Freighter captain Nathan Brazil has spent hundreds of years plying the spaceways. Rejuvenation procedures often extend human life spans to centuries, but Brazil is older than that... old enough he's even forgotten his own age and origins. On his latest run, he carries three passengers from various worlds. But when a distress beacon reaches the ship from a Markovian planet, Brazil diverts to explore, which is how all four of them end up disappearing. Finding themselves in a strange new place, they're met by an old friend of Brazil's, former space pirate Serge Ortega - only the man is not the human he used to be, but a half-snake, half-walrus alien known as an Urik. He explains that they have fallen into a planet known as Well World: a Markovian artifact, which holds over one thousand distinct habitats in hexagonal fields, each with its own biomes and tech (or magic) levels. As for why the man is no longer human, this is what the Well World does to everyone: it transforms all arrivals into new species and sends them to one of the habitats, there to live out their days as best they can. Escape, Ortega informs them, is impossible. But even as they resign themselves to their fate, Ortega holds Brazil back, with a special assignment. Skander and Varnett are on Well World, too... and both believe they've discovered the keys that will let them control Markovian tech, if they can make their ways from their new habitats to the central control room inside the planet. This, of course, would be a disaster in the making, not just for the inhabitants of Well World but for the rest of the universe. Nathan Brazil was always a resourceful one, and Ortega wants him and his companions to do everything in their power to stop the two meddlers.
REVIEW: This story, first published in 1977, is something of a genre classic, and has a wild imagination and ambitious scope that hold up today... better, unfortunately, than some other aspects of the story.
The characters aren't especially deep, but then the primary focus is the exploration of the Well World concept and the legacy of the Markovians, which is much more than the simple ruins that dot the galaxy - and the primary purpose of the Markovians and other aliens is to examine the metaphysical purpose of life itself (especially human life). There's a fair bit of handwaving/"sufficiently advanced technology" that's basically magic to explain how the world and much of what it contains and enables exist, with echoes that resonate in old Earth myths and legends and religions (because of course Earth and humans are the center of the known universe, for all that the species has lost its way terribly on the way to the stars; many are becoming hivelike nests of cloned genderless servants under a small ruling class, while others are greedy and lawless monsters). At its heart, the story is more of an epic quest, with a small band of travelers crossing many strange lands and encountering many strange cultures on their way to the metaphoric citadel to stop the villains from destroying the world/universe and end the evils that have darkened the land - in this case, the way humanity has parted ways with its own heart and conscience in pursuit of illusory perfection and/or material luxuries. Brazil's companions each enter new bodies and new mini-worlds across the Well World, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and quirks... but Nathan Brazil himself, strangely enough, is untouched by Well World's transformations, yet another hint that he is other than he appears to be.
Things move reasonably well, save when things bog down a bit as new habitats and species are introduced and explained... with an odd emphasis on genitalia. Chalker seemed a bit ahead of his time in exploring notions of gender fluidity and how identity was not determined by what one had between the legs, but he also got a bit obsessed with sex and mating elsewhere; he went out of his way to find a way for two of his characters to get it on when they're not even the same species at the time, in ways that constitute potential spoilers. And this was after one of the pair declared that love was not about sex at all but about caring about one another on a deeper level, so it didn't matter to her that they were physically incompatible at the time because they could still love each other. (Sure seemed to be about sex the moment it was remotely feasible... or maybe the author just had some very peculiar fetishes goin' on, because that scene definitely had more than a touch of bestiality - even more so when one learns about the true nature of one of the participants. But I digress...) In any event, the whole story starts bowing under the weight of increasing metaphysical Messages about life, the universe, and God (because this is yet another science fiction classic that not only considers humans to be the obvious pinnacle of any creation, but considers that godhood is the inevitable "goal" of evolution). The climactic final confrontation between Skander, Varnett, and Brazil and company feels flattened by that weight, and the conclusion starts feeling stretched.
There are more novels in the Well World series, but I consider my curiosity about the concept sufficiently satisfied to stop here. As I mentioned at the start, Midnight at the Well of Souls is an imaginative concept, at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Rocannon's World (Ursula K. Le Guin) - My Review
Lord Valentine's Castle (Robert Silverberg) - My Review
A Fire Upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge) - My Review
The Well of Souls series, Book 1
Jack L. Chalker
Del Rey
Fiction, Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: One of the greatest mysteries encountered by humanity as they spread across the stars was the Markovian ruins, great cities atop planet-encompassing technology that bear not a single lingering artifact - not so much as a potsherd - nor any hint as to what happened to a species that had advanced to near-divinity. But a chance discovery puts one archaeologist, Elkinos Skander, on the path to waking a Markovian computer... with which he believes he can become like a god over the known universe and beyond. When his breakthrough is witnessed by ambitious young student Varnett, Skander resorts to desperate measures. The two are locked in life-and-death combat when they suddenly vanish.
Freighter captain Nathan Brazil has spent hundreds of years plying the spaceways. Rejuvenation procedures often extend human life spans to centuries, but Brazil is older than that... old enough he's even forgotten his own age and origins. On his latest run, he carries three passengers from various worlds. But when a distress beacon reaches the ship from a Markovian planet, Brazil diverts to explore, which is how all four of them end up disappearing. Finding themselves in a strange new place, they're met by an old friend of Brazil's, former space pirate Serge Ortega - only the man is not the human he used to be, but a half-snake, half-walrus alien known as an Urik. He explains that they have fallen into a planet known as Well World: a Markovian artifact, which holds over one thousand distinct habitats in hexagonal fields, each with its own biomes and tech (or magic) levels. As for why the man is no longer human, this is what the Well World does to everyone: it transforms all arrivals into new species and sends them to one of the habitats, there to live out their days as best they can. Escape, Ortega informs them, is impossible. But even as they resign themselves to their fate, Ortega holds Brazil back, with a special assignment. Skander and Varnett are on Well World, too... and both believe they've discovered the keys that will let them control Markovian tech, if they can make their ways from their new habitats to the central control room inside the planet. This, of course, would be a disaster in the making, not just for the inhabitants of Well World but for the rest of the universe. Nathan Brazil was always a resourceful one, and Ortega wants him and his companions to do everything in their power to stop the two meddlers.
REVIEW: This story, first published in 1977, is something of a genre classic, and has a wild imagination and ambitious scope that hold up today... better, unfortunately, than some other aspects of the story.
The characters aren't especially deep, but then the primary focus is the exploration of the Well World concept and the legacy of the Markovians, which is much more than the simple ruins that dot the galaxy - and the primary purpose of the Markovians and other aliens is to examine the metaphysical purpose of life itself (especially human life). There's a fair bit of handwaving/"sufficiently advanced technology" that's basically magic to explain how the world and much of what it contains and enables exist, with echoes that resonate in old Earth myths and legends and religions (because of course Earth and humans are the center of the known universe, for all that the species has lost its way terribly on the way to the stars; many are becoming hivelike nests of cloned genderless servants under a small ruling class, while others are greedy and lawless monsters). At its heart, the story is more of an epic quest, with a small band of travelers crossing many strange lands and encountering many strange cultures on their way to the metaphoric citadel to stop the villains from destroying the world/universe and end the evils that have darkened the land - in this case, the way humanity has parted ways with its own heart and conscience in pursuit of illusory perfection and/or material luxuries. Brazil's companions each enter new bodies and new mini-worlds across the Well World, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and quirks... but Nathan Brazil himself, strangely enough, is untouched by Well World's transformations, yet another hint that he is other than he appears to be.
Things move reasonably well, save when things bog down a bit as new habitats and species are introduced and explained... with an odd emphasis on genitalia. Chalker seemed a bit ahead of his time in exploring notions of gender fluidity and how identity was not determined by what one had between the legs, but he also got a bit obsessed with sex and mating elsewhere; he went out of his way to find a way for two of his characters to get it on when they're not even the same species at the time, in ways that constitute potential spoilers. And this was after one of the pair declared that love was not about sex at all but about caring about one another on a deeper level, so it didn't matter to her that they were physically incompatible at the time because they could still love each other. (Sure seemed to be about sex the moment it was remotely feasible... or maybe the author just had some very peculiar fetishes goin' on, because that scene definitely had more than a touch of bestiality - even more so when one learns about the true nature of one of the participants. But I digress...) In any event, the whole story starts bowing under the weight of increasing metaphysical Messages about life, the universe, and God (because this is yet another science fiction classic that not only considers humans to be the obvious pinnacle of any creation, but considers that godhood is the inevitable "goal" of evolution). The climactic final confrontation between Skander, Varnett, and Brazil and company feels flattened by that weight, and the conclusion starts feeling stretched.
There are more novels in the Well World series, but I consider my curiosity about the concept sufficiently satisfied to stop here. As I mentioned at the start, Midnight at the Well of Souls is an imaginative concept, at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Rocannon's World (Ursula K. Le Guin) - My Review
Lord Valentine's Castle (Robert Silverberg) - My Review
A Fire Upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge) - My Review
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