Paul

The Best of a Decade

Revisado: 04-14-22

Martha Wells has pried open the stolid, formulaic world of the SF series by giving us an unvarnished view of humans from the perspective of a construct. While this mechanism might not be new, the author takes it to a very different place on an otherwise barren SF literary landscape, where most authors remain tethered to time travel, Evil Empires and other tropes that should (but doesn't) send publishers fleeing after Book One. It's hard to keep the books coming; but it appears Ms. Wells has accomplished the task.

The author has struck a pitch-perfect blend of humor, tech, profanity and sarcasm to entertain while we "humans" shake our heads and smile at all our foibles.

Do not be put off by the brevity of 5 of 6 (so far) offerings in the series. Here, shorter is better and the pace of the stories and dose of the diaries is just perfect.

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Read This Book...Now!

Revisado: 04-14-22

To paraphrase Abbe Hoffman (and date myself as a geezer), who once advised "Steal This Book", everyone (yes, that means you, too) should read this book.

Then log on and engage two-step authentication over your entire online landscape.

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So Far, So Good

Revisado: 04-14-22

SL Huang introduces us to Cas(sandra) Russel in this first installment of a refreshing, unique and supremely entertaining SF work. The author brandishes her formidable mathematical skills and MIT pedigree through fulsome use of math lingo, but pulls it off without seeming elitist or slowing down the pace of the story when Cas swings into action. A deft touch and no small feat.

(On the other hand, some of Cas's self-discovery rumination seemed a bit too dramatic, drawn out and overdone. Here, less would have been more.)

I'm reading (not listening) to Null Set, the second installment, and have discovered some of the people, places and things of this series have come into a sharper focus. Lauren F did a very good job reading Zero Sum Game; it might just be that reading better integrates the multiple plot lines and distinctive characters that oppose, collide or align with Cas as she dishes out high-impact doses of Street Justice.

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Wrong Airport - Emergency Landing

Revisado: 06-06-19

Not much "science" in this etiolated work of a wannabe romance novel that staged an emergency landing in the science fiction section of Audible. The plot line, initially interesting and attenuated by just the right number of mysterious hints, eventually was suffocated by lengthy, overwrought and clichéd lectures on gender roles, work-life balance and high school-ish groping on a futuristic interstellar spacecraft. Unlike the spaceship, the story never landed and frustration built as it became obvious the hard work of researching technical and scientific data to support the plot was deferred in preference for the less challenging path of juvenile heartbreak, relationship stress and a barrage of tropes and armchair commentary on trendy issues.

Disappointing and not worth the time or trouble. Lot's of other good SF work out there. Try Richard K Morgan if you are in the mood for a good SF experience.

Lisa and George did a fine job reading the work, giving much life to a cast of characters of different ages, temperaments and heritages.

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Too Much of a Good Thing

Revisado: 04-27-19

I am unabashed fan of Richard K. Morgan and have read all of his SF books. Mr. Morgan, in my view, stands out not only for his craft at constructing stories and unusual and engaging characters, but also deserves praise for his accomplished writing skills.

Yet...

I had to put this book down one-third of the way through to order the print version. (The extra cost is worth the ride!). I did so because the blizzard of detail, syntactically challenged place names and bevy of characters who come and go was too difficult to follow by ear. Mr. Morgan's efforts to carve out a new character with an interesting supporting cast is understandable, but was at times so laden with new "who, what, when, where and why's" that it distracted (at least for me) from following the story line. This is disappointing, because it is a very good story indeed.

Reading the book smoothed out the turbulent air around this story and I devoured the rest of the book, accordingly.

Bottom Line: Buy the print edition and have at it.

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Should Have Stopped with Sapiens

Revisado: 10-25-18

The substantive content for this series has inexorably thinned as the books keep on coming. What's left is the author's panoptic speculation thinly tethered to facts or even reality.

Seems like a money grab to capitalize on the popularity of Sapiens, which covered most of the relevant ground quite well.

Other than his pronunciation of "Junta" with a hard "J", Derek Perkins did an admirable job in reading this book and sustaining interest in an otherwise anemic work of scientific, sociological and technological speculation.

Bottom line: Spend your money on something else.

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A High School English Project?

Revisado: 07-16-18

I've read all of Preston and Child's novels. How astonishing it was then when this story limped into the P&C canon of work. The customary and alluring blend of deep archeological, historical, technical and scientific data found in the authors' earlier works was entirely absent. Instead, the reader is subjected to a clumsy mess of paper thin caricatures of characters enmeshed in hastily assembled and implausible plot lines thrown against the wall to see which might stick. The authors' customary tight plots and writing are replaced here with endless and pointless diversions that painfully fail to pad a work that should never have reached the authors' readers.

One can't entirely blame narrator David W. Collins for failing to resuscitate a work that arrived still born at Audible. Still, his whiny and high-pitched intonations heard during the petulant contretemps between the main characters, in the end, just made the book little more than a bad work, read badly.

Eli Glinn, Gideon Crew and Manuel Garza deserved much better than this. One can only hope Pendergast will be spared.

Yuck.

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An Ace In the Hole

Revisado: 09-03-17

First the good news: The narrator MacLeod Andrews was terrific. He effortlessly switched roles between the disparate characters in this book, mimicking accents, attitudes and rhetorical tics. Well done.

The Bad News was everything else. The ending was atrocious, bordering on fraud in my view. It appears the Ace simply pushed back his chair, stood up and walked away before finishing his homework assignment.

The story also veered back and forth between multiple plot lines, a literary technique that, unfortunately, lies far and perhaps permanently beyond the skills of the author. The result is literary seasickness as the reader is whipsawed around improbable corners in this confusing mess.

Save your money; look for something else read by Mr. Andrews.

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Yes!...and No!

Revisado: 03-18-17

The sheer breadth and depth of information presented in this well-organized work was impressive. The arguments, backed at times with a blizzard of statistics, plowed through various scientific and academic circles to present an argument that intuitively seems correct: we evolved outdoors and our increasingly indoor, screen-obsessed culture is wreaking an awful toll on us, and particularly on our children. Fair enough.

But the author, abetted by a way too chirpy, sing-song narrator, struggled to cover her lack of science street cred with cringeworthy puns and swipes clothed in condescending asides at more fringe views of our relation with nature. The result leaves the reader unsure of what to take seriously, what is a joke or what is between the two? The narrator's forced joviality and unnecessary excursions up and down the sonic scale seriously detracted from the substance of the work. I needed to take frequent breaks from listening, during which I wondered if buying the print version of Nature Fix would not have been a better choice.

Bottom line: a good work and well worth the time to read but perhaps not to listen to.

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Fabulous

Revisado: 08-25-16

Mind-bending and hypnotic. Giver yourself 15 minutes after you complete this book to sit quietly and think about what you have heard.

I'm inclined to be hard on authors in my occasional reviews.

Not this time.

I loved it.

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