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Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb

It’s that time of year! Elves, Klingons, slave women, gamers, computer geeks, aspiring writers, and superfans are converging on Rubicon, the annual science fiction convention. Mild mannered citizens beware!

Newest among the motley crew is Jay Omega, a young, local computer professor and first-time author on a mission: make sure that nobody he knows in real life finds out that he is the author of Bimbos of the Death Sun. Fortunately, his friend and secret lover (but only a secret to him), Marion, is there to promote his book and keep him from getting hopelessly lost.

But then, Appin Dungannon, famous author of the prolific adventure series of Tratyn Runewind, is found dead in his hotel suite.  Who could possibly want him dead?  Turns out, just about everyone: Appin is also famous for hating the series more than any other person on the planet, and for treating his fans like slime.

As the convention threatens to fall apart, Jay takes on the case and tries to answer: who killed Dungannon, and why? In a world where fantasy has more power than fact, however, the answer is stranger than anyone in theiTr right mind would expect.

This book was hilarious. Sharyn McCrumb explores science fiction and fantasy fandom the way a drunk anthropologist would explore an aboriginal jungle tribe. Even though her characters are all shallow caricatures of the real thing, their clumsy interactions turn the story into a wonderful farce that is as entertaining as it is educational.

There were only a couple of parts that bothered me. At one point, McCrumb gets into the head of an overweight, hopelessly ugly fangirl cosplayer and shows her thought process as she pursues a romantic relationship with an equally ugly and socially incompetent fanboy. I didn’t feel that McCrumb authentically portrayed the character’s own thoughts–it sounded more like a person from the outside giving their take on the experience. Then again, McCrumb was going for humor, not true character depth.

Besides that, this book is definitely dated. The computer technology in the novel is ridiculously primitive, on par with the Commodore 64, the Tandy 400, and the trusty old 386. In other ways, too, this book is solidly 80s–any science fiction convention nowadays would probably have less Trekkies and more Anime cosplayers. However, the dated aspects only make the novel more endearing, in my opinion. Who wouldn’t be nostalgic for the good old days of the 386?

This book isn’t high literature, and Sharyn McCrumb would probably be the first to admit it. It was, however, wonderfully entertaining, one of those rare and beautiful books that made me laugh out loud, heartily. For someone like me who is just starting to become involved in science fiction and fantasy fandom, it was a hilarios and helpful primer to this fascinating subculture. As McCrumb states in her foreward:

Science fiction writers build castles in the air; the fans move into them; and the publishers collect the rent. It’s a nice place to visit, but please don’t try to live there.

That said, I find it telling that it was people in fandom who recommended this book to me. Good to know that at least a few of us don’t take ourselves too seriously.

Jemma 7729 by Phoebe Wray

The following is a book review I wrote for The Leading Edge. It will be coming out in the November issue, along with my short story Decision LZ150207.  The editors gave me permission to post the review here.  Be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine when it comes out!

Jemma is a rebel, fighting against a system that teaches women to be obedient and submissive and “alters” those who refuse to assimilate.  After escaping the giant dome cities of a post-apocalyptic California, Jemma joins with a band of rebels known as the Movers in the free, uncultivated country.  But as her reputation grows and the people in the domes begin to take up arms, the government stops at nothing to hunt Jemma down and silence her for good.

With images reminiscent of Brave New World, 1984, and A Handmaid’s Tale, Jemma7729 is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel with a YA feel.  The first half of the book details Jemma’s childhood and her transformation from daughter of two mid-level government workers to a rebel fighting to overthrow the system.  I enjoyed the first part of this novel, with its intimate human drama and its resourceful, sympathetic viewpoint character.  The story was paced well and kept my interest.

The second half of the book, however, was somewhat disappointing.  Once Jemma escapes the domes and begins her campaign as a rebel terrorist, the story loses a lot of tension.  Even though she is barely a twelve year old girl, she still, without any outside assistance, manages to blow up almost a dozen government facilities without getting caught or killed.  The villains’ reasons for creating such an oppressive, anti-feminist regime are never adequately explained, and when Jemma starts to fight back, the government is too weak to put up a believable resistance.  The middle of the novel lags considerably, with very little real action or suspense.

When the pace finally does pick up again, about forty pages from the end, the action is so confusing and happens so quickly that I felt completely lost.  The main character’s voice gets lost in a blow-by-blow account of impossibly rapid events, as if the author was trying to compress two hundred pages of story into less than a quarter of that space.  I fount it disappointing and inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the book.  However, the twist at the end caught me by surprise and gave me some degree of satisfaction as I finished the book, though I would have been more satisfied if the last half of the book had been as good as the first half.

Review of JEMMA7729
Joe Vasicek
Jemma is a rebel, fighting against a system that teaches women to be obedient and submissive and “alters” those who refuse to assimilate.  After escaping the giant dome cities of a post-apocalyptic California, Jemma joins with a band of rebels known as the Movers in the free, uncultivated country.  But as her reputation grows and the people in the domes begin to take up arms, the government stops at nothing to hunt Jemma down and silence her for good.
With images reminiscent of Brave New World, 1984, and A Handmaid’s Tale, Jemma7729 is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel with a YA feel.  The first half of the book details Jemma’s childhood and her transformation from daughter of two mid-level government workers to a rebel fighting to overthrow the system.  I enjoyed the first part of this novel, with its intimate human drama and its resourceful, sympathetic viewpoint character.  The story was paced well and kept my interest.
The second half of the book, however, was somewhat disappointing.  Once Jemma escapes the domes and begins her campaign as a rebel terrorist, the story loses a lot of tension.  Even though she is barely a twelve year old girl, she still, without any outside assistance, manages to blow up almost a dozen government facilities without getting caught or killed.  The villains’ reasons for creating such an oppressive, anti-feminist regime are never adequately explained, and when Jemma starts to fight back, the government is too weak to put up a believable resistance.  The middle of the novel lags considerably, with very little real action or suspense.
When the pace finally does pick up again, about forty pages from the end, the action is so confusing and happens so quickly that I felt completely lost.  The main character’s voice gets lost in a blow-by-blow account of impossibly rapid events, as if the author was trying to compress two hundred pages of story into less than a quarter of that space.  I fount it disappointing and inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the book.  However, the twist at the end caught me by surprise and gave me some degree of satisfaction as I finished the book, though I would have been more satisfied if the last half of the book had been as good as the first half.

I want to see this movie

It looks really good. Dark, depressing, and very, very graphic, but good.

I mean, check out the animation:

Awesome.

I think my Middle East studies major has desensitized me to a lot of the violence in that part of the world. Probably not as much as if I were caught up in the conflict on the ground, but still, quite a bit.

Lots of material for stories, though. Lots of material.

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, an ancient race of sentient aliens known as the Amarantin went extinct just as their civilization experienced a golden age.  No one knows why, but archeologist Dan Sylveste is determined to find out.  Unlike the other colonists on the remote planet of Resurgam, he believes that the answer may be important.

He has no idea how right he is.

Just as he’s on the verge of a major breakthrough, a team of rebels takes over the administration of the colony.  Sylveste becomes a prisoner of war, and his research comes to a frustrating halt.

Meanwhile, on Yellowstone (the nearest human-inhabited planet to Resurgam), a mysterious entity known as The Mademoiselle hires assassin Ana Khouri for a special mission: kill Dan Sylveste.

The only ship headed in that direction, however, is an ancient warship commanded by a rouge crew of Ultras, genetically modified transhumans.  They seek Sylveste in order to heal their captain, who suffers from a plague that melds human biology with advanced technology.  The de facto leader, Illia Volyova,  hires Khouri to replace the ship’s gunner, who went mad and mysteriously died.

But neither Khouri nor Volyova realize that the thing that drove the gunner mad still resides deep in the ship’s systems.  It is neither human nor AI–and it knows what killed off the Amarantin nine hundred thousand years ago.

Revelation Space is a space opera unlike any other that I’ve read, with the possible exception of Dune. The far-future universe Alastair Reynolds created for this book is incredibly complex and expansive, almost completely unrecognizable from our own, with technology bordering on godlike, posthuman and transhuman races that are all but commonplace, and nothing but a blurry, indistinct line dividing the human and the machine.  On every page, I felt as if I had left the real world behind for something completely (and often disturbingly) alien.

Setting, by far, is the strongest point of this book.  In fact, as an aspiring writer, I found it  somewhat intimidating.  Reynold’s Revelation Space universe was completely alien, but in ways that made perfect sense for the far future in which it was set.  From this, I’ve learned that to make a far future setting believable, you have to make it…well, as alien and complex as Reynolds makes it.  It shouldn’t be an exact copy of Reynold’s mold, of course, but if it’s 500 years in the future and everyday life still feels exactly like our own–well, there had better be a reason for that.

As for character and plot, I did not feel that those were particular strong points of this book.  It’s not that they were done poorly,  it’s just that they weren’t done well enough, in my opinion.

The characters in Revelation Space did not particular engage me at first; I found that I had to force myself to keep reading, rather than read because I had to find out what happened to them.  Later on, as the story progressed, they grew on me, but I never felt that I intimately knew them.

As for plot, I felt that every fifty or one hundred pages, Reynolds would pause the story and throw something in from left field, simply because he had to foreshadow something coming up.  In this way, the book seemed a little choppy–like a debut novel (and, in Reynold’s defense, this is his debut novel).

Even with these issues, however, this was an incredible book, and it’s stuck with me even months after finishing it.  Reynolds pulled off an amazing ending–very satisfying, with a twist that I had not foreseen but that made good sense.  The final scene, and the last two sentences of the final scene in particular, were just awesome.  They made me want to clap my hands and say “bravo.”

If I could describe Revelation Space in terms of other works, I would say that it’s a cross between Neuromancer and Stargate the movie. While it’s solid space opera, it has a dark and gritty feel that borders on Cyberpunk / post-Cyberpunk.  It’s not exactly the kind of stuff I want to write, it comes pretty darn close.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I think the first line of this novel sums it up better than I ever could:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

I’ve been familiar with the story of Pride and Prejudice for a long time, but this was the first time I’d read the original.  Even though I don’t usually go for Regency romances, I have to say that I enjoyed this book very much!

Jane Austen has a genius for character.  She knows exactly what little mannerism to show or what description to give to make her characters come alive.  At several points in the book, I paused and said “holy cow, that’s just like so and so,” or “haha, I know exactly what this person is like.” At no point did I feel hit over the head or dragged through a long info dump explaining this or that character’s background.  Of all the possible details she could share, Austen always chooses the exact ones you need to get a clear, distinct picture–no more, no less.

Austen drives her story with some snappy, entertaining dialogue.  Far from being sappy or sentimental, her main character, Elizabeth, is snarky and spirited, and she clashes with a lot of people in ways that are much more interesting (and mature) than typical girl drama.  Be that as it may, I found it entertaining to compare Elizabeth’s dating/relationship experiences with my own.  As different as things were back then, in some very interesting ways they are still the same.

I did feel that the novel slowed down a bit in the middle, probably because that was when Elizabeth went on the tour of Derbyshire with her relatives and left behind most of the other characters that interested me.  Also (since I am a straight guy), Mr. Darcy didn’t really turn me on much, so Elizabeth’s gradual change of mind as she toured his house wasn’t as engaging to me.

One thing that confuses me, having read this book, is why women all over the place set up Mr. Darcy as the ideal male.  What exactly is his appeal?  He’s a little rough around the edges, has an independent streak, speaks his mind even when doing so would be rude, and is constantly aloof from everyone else.  Is this what women find so appealing about him?  I can see how the “Beauty and the Beast” syndrome can also be a turn-on–Elizabeth essentially wins him over by taming him–but that has less to do with who he is than how Elizabeth changes him.  Do women go for a guy who they have the power to change?  Is that what it is?  I’m still a bit confused.

One thing made me a little mad, and it had nothing to do with the book at all; it had to do with the blurb on the back.  It reads:

One of the most universally loved and admired English novels, Pride and Prejudice, was penned as a popular entertainment.  But the consummate artistry of Jane Austen (1775-1817) transformed this effervescent tale of rural romance into a witty, shrewdly observed satire of English country life that is now regarded as one of the principal treasures of English literature.

Austen’s “consummate artistry” transformed this novel from “popular entertainment” to “one of the principal treasures of English literature”?  Come on.  That statement is as pompous as it is illogical.  Once her book came out in print, Austen “transformed” nothing–the only thing that changed was the way people looked at it.  It started out as a popular genre novel, like anything by Rowling or Steele or Grisham or King, and when the literati decided to claim it, they rebranded it as something else.

What irks me is this idea that “popular entertainment” is somehow inherently devoid of literary worth.  Come on, people–virtually all the “great authors” before 1920 were well-read and well-loved in their day, among the masses as much as the literary elite.  It’s not a sin to make money writing books.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much.  Just as Lord of the Rings is the quintessential fantasy novel, Pride and Prejudice is probably the lodestar of the romance genre.  I was pleased to find that it’s not a book that only women can enjoy!

Some quick updates

It’s been a while since I’ve written for this blog…and it’s probably going to be a while before I write again.  I’m going home to Massachusetts in less than a week, and I just learned today that I need to find a place to live for the fall.

So…I’m packing, scrambling, trying to find a place to move, get everything figured out.  Right now, I think I have a place (rooming with a friend, no less), but I haven’t contacted the  manager yet, so I’m not sure.  What kind of an office closes at 2:30 in the afternoon?  Gosh.

Fortunately, I never really unpacked, so moving shouldn’t be too difficult.  It’s just stressful. It doesn’t help that I’ve fallen behind a bit  from where I need to be with Bringing Stella Home. Bah.

As far as books go, I need to review The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, and I’m almost finished with Pride and Prejudice.  Two very interesting books.  I’ve enjoyed Pride and Prejudice a lot more than I thought I would, though it does get a little slow in the middle.

I’ve got to go now, but that’s what’s going on right now.  Next post will probably be from Massachusetts.

Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing is back!

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but about a month ago, I noticed something awesome in my podcast catcher: a new episode of Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing!

AISFP is an awesome podcast about the sf&f publishing world–one of the best podcasts on writing and publishing that I’ve found.  It’s hosted by Shaun Farrell, a playright and aspiring writer, and Sam Wynns, who runs the independent bookstore Mysterious Galaxies.  Each show runs about an hour, where they discuss news from the publishing world and typically interview a published author (ocassionally some big names, like Terry Goodkind and Tracy Hickman).

I can’t tell you how helpful I’ve found these interviews: Shaun Farrell knows all the right questions to ask, whether it’s about the writing process, the publication process, where the writers get their ideas, their personal experiences with writing, etc.  Awesome stuff–very useful for an aspiring writer like myself.

A while ago, the podcast went on hiatus (oh no!  not another awesome cast podfading into oblivion!), but now they’re back!  If you haven’t done so, you really should check them out: here is the podcast feed.

In one of the latest episodes, they interviewed author Greg Van Eekhout, who’s debut novel Norse Code is out in stores.  In order to spread publicity about the podcast (and the book), they decided to throw a blogging contest where they give away five copies of the novel.  To be honest, that’s why I’m writing this post–but it’s not the only reason.  Let me tell you about this novel, and I think you’ll see why.

Normally, I don’t usually get interested in a book because of a blurb or a description–especially if the author himself (or herself) gives it.  But Mr. Eekhout’s description of his novel on the show grabbed my attention.  Basically, Norse Code is a story about the Norse legends of the end of the world–Ragnarok–except that they’re all  coming true in our day and age, in Los Angeles.  All the Norse Gods are characters in the novel, including several minor gods, and some mortals as well, including a college student who dies and becomes a valkyrie.  All the major gods know that they’re going to die, but several of the minor gods are destined to survive and rebuild the world after the apocalypse.  Also, the novel has talking, scheming crows–how cool is that?

So yeah, you should check it out.  Also, if you’re an aspiring writer like me, you really should  check out Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing, and I’m not just saying that because of this contest.  I’ve been listening to this podcast since freshman year of college, and it is one of the best writing podcasts I’ve heard.  I’d definitely put it up there with Writing Excuses as one of the essential podcasts I subscribe to.  So check it out!

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

John is a weird kid. When he isn’t helping out his mother at their small-town mortuary, taking intense, morbid pleasure from opening up the dead bodies and exploring their insides, he’s researching serial killers, devouring every book he can find on the subject. If he had his way, he would open bodies all day–dead and living bodies, exploring them, savoring the addiction. That’s why he must constantly work hard to stop himself.

But when a demon comes into town, killing off members of the small community one by one and hiding in plain sight by posing as a normal human being, John is the only one who can stop the monster from killing again. To do this, he unleashes his own demon–the one urging him to kill. As the monster inside of him starts to take over his life, he starts to lose control and sink deeper and deeper toward his destiny.

Will he return from the dark side, having fought fire with fire? Or will he give in to fate and become a serial killer?

This book was a surprisingly fast read. I borrowed it from a friend and finished it only a couple of days after I started it. Part of this was because it’s a short book, but part of it was because the story and characters were so interesting.

The character development in this book is awesome. Dan Wells does a wonderful job making a morbid sociopath into a genuinely likable character. I felt like I knew him–and liked him–after only a couple chapters. Even though he’s got a disturbing, dark side, he’s constantly trying to fight it and keep himself in check. From almost the very beginning, I found myself rooting for this character.

The book had some sick, disturbing stuff in it, but it wasn’t nearly as violent or fundamentally disturbing as some of the other books I’ve read (Neuromancer, On My Way to Paradise). It was more of an “eww…cool!” kind of thing for me than a heart stopping, I-can’t-believe-what-I-just-read kind of thing. Still, the book definitely made me squirm. I’m glad none of my family works in a mortuary, I’ll say that much.

For a story so engaging, the writing was surprisingly simple. Unlike a lot of the fantasy and science fiction that I read, Dan Wells includes very few concrete details–just enough to keep you in scene–and tends to be a little adverb heavy. None of this was an obstruction to reading–on the contrary, the sparseness and simplicity is part of what makes this book a quick, enjoyable read. As an aspiring writer, it helped me to see that story trumps the minor, sentence level stuff, like using excessive adverbs with said bookisms (not that that’s a problem with this book–the writer part of my brain noticed it, but the reader part didn’t care).

The book reads very much like a thriller (…probably because it is one) and reminded me of a lot of the Michael Crichton stuff I used to read when I was in high school. While it isn’t as gripping as Sphere or Jurassic Park, it has about ten times the character development of any of Crichton’s works. Although the plot is definitely engaging, I read as much for the character as for the plot, if not more.

If you’re looking for a good, squeamish read with interesting, believable characters, this is a good one to pick up. It doesn’t come out in the US until 2010, but if you check out Dan’s website, you can probably find a way to get it. Check it out!

Ocremix does a Final Fantasy IV album!

ff4ocremixHey, check this out! Ocremix has just come out with a new album, this time for one of my favorite SNES games of all time, Final Fantasy IV!

For those of you unfamiliar with ocremix, it’s basically a web community with more than a thousand free mp3s of video game music arrangements and remixes. All the music from the classic games you grew up playing…it’s all there, reinterpreted in some awesome ways. The best part is that it’s all fan-made and free! I love it.

I was wondering when ocremix would come out with a Final Fantasy IV album. Nobuo Uematsu is one of the best video game composers, and Final Fantasy IV represents some of his best work. I still listen to the official soundtrack of the game fairly often. It’s good stuff.

When I downloaded the album, I was especially psyched to see that it features not one, not two, but three arrangements from my favorite remixer, bLiNd (aka Jordan Aguirre). Nice! He makes some awesome trance music, and his work on other video game titles is some of my favorite music on the ocremix site.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled about this new album. Awesome stuff! Now, all we need is a Final Fantasy VI album from ocremix–I wonder when that’s coming out?