Peter Hodges

Weber fans, rejoice! The continuation of Off Armageddon Reef is available in stores now.

There are definitely some good things about the novel (that I’ll get to in a moment) that should keep Weber fans satisfied. However, there are some flaws as well, and I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention them due to the frustration that I experienced with the text at several moments.

Weber has plotted this series exquisitely so far. He shows a great eye for intrigue and political machinations. His world works the way its drawn. His characters are also incredibly detailed given how little time he spends with each of them. This is more a credit to Weber’s skill as a writer than anything, that he can fill in the small idiosyncrasies of even minor characters to a degree that they are memorable. Setting is likewise well-done; everything from the economics of each “player’s” position to the wildlife and the weather is handled adroitly.

If all this is so good, then what complaints do I have?

Simply put, the novel is unwieldy because of its attention to detail. There are too many characters, too many subplots, and too much of a “God’s eye view” to really do anything more than be a series of episodic narratives. Weber ties them together with (arguably) more skill than Tom Clancy ever did, but readers are left with a feeling of dissatisfaction. It’s like eating a tasty meal that doesn’t quite fill you up.

I have a real issue with the way in which Weber is choosing to spell his character names. They are common names, but John, for example, is spelled “Zhan.” Most of the “i” sounds are replaced with a “y.” There are other irregularities, but it is somewhat jarring to be cruising along in the narrative only to be faced with the odd spellings. One odd spelling is charming, two or three might give a flair for nationality. An entire cast of characters with odd spellings makes for a difficult read. 

Weber should be commended for not making cookie-cutter villains. Very few of his “bad” characters are ever stupid, but in this series, they are showing remarkable capability. Weber perhaps makes them a bit too sympathetic for the purposes of his narrative, diluting the true purpose of his anointed heroes and heroines with perspectives inside the enemy’s head.

I suppose the thing that bugs me the most is that the first book in this series showed so much promise that the second book failed to deliver in the expected fashion. I’m not sure quite what I expected, but after reading Off Armageddon Reef, I was prepared for another series as epic as Dune (Herbert), Foundation (Asimov), or Hyperion (Simmons). Weber may have had to write a “bridge” novel to get us through the to the third book in the series; if so, I’ll reserve judgment until the end.

You may have noticed that I’m reading the follow-up to David Weber’s Off Armageddon Reef, but that’s hardly the extent of the sheer number of great science fiction novels that are hitting the bookshelves right now.

John Scalzi’s new novel, Zoe’s Tale, is a continuation of the story in the Old Man’s War universe. It is available as of yesterday in most bookstores. As the title implies, the novel features the precocious daughter of the main characters, telling the events of the The Last Colony through her eyes. I wasn’t a terrific fan of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Shadow (which covered the events in Ender’s Game as told by Bean), so I’m hoping that this one showcases Scalzi channeling Heinlein’s writing karma. I’m expecting a story similar to Podkayne of Mars here.

S. M. Stirling’s Scourge of God is also in stores now. This is a continuation of his Emberverse series. The Sunrise Lands, the previous novel in the series, was one of my personal favorite novels of last year. I have every reason to expect that this one will live up to Stirling’s high standards. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Stirling is likely one of the most underrated science fiction authors of the modern age.

John Ringo’s new novel, The Last Centurion, is a post-apocalyptic novel written blog style. From my perusal in the local bookstore, I saw that Ringo has pulled no punches in his indictment of liberal progressivism, but the writing seemed a bit scattered and heavy-handed at first glance. Still, it’s John Ringo. How can you really go wrong?

Sly Mongoose, Tobias Buckell’s latest novel, fills me with some excitement. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was initially reluctant to read his fiction, but his great sense of adventure and plotting make his novels some of the best diversionary reading I’ve had in a long time. Toby is talking about the world he created for Sly Mongoose over on the Whatever right now. Click through and give it a look.

What are you guys looking forward to?

Tor.com has the complete list of nominees and awards.

I’ve not read Michael Chabon’s Yiddish Policeman’s Union, but I’m a bit frustrated at his win here. I have read three of the other nominees, and each of the three would have been a good choice for a Hugo nod for various reasons. I can’t help but feel that whatever talent Chabon brings to the table, he is essentially a science fiction outsider who has now swept the Nebula and the Hugo awards. I suppose now I’ll have to read the book to avoid second guessing the other voters.

If his book isn’t fantastic, I’m going to be pissed.

I’ve been a little late to jump on the Tobias Buckell bandwagon. I’ve known that he falls into the same category of “new comprehensible” that Scalzi does, but his premise of a Caribbean-rooted culture in the far future never really resonated with me. Call it cultural bias, but I only reluctantly gave Crystal Rain a chance due to the fact that I didn’t find it that interesting. Oppose this culture with a reborn Aztec abomination, complete with blood sacrifice and flower wars, and my interest just dropped another notch or two.

The rave reviews kept coming in. I finally decided that I would snag the book and give it a fair shake. I’m glad I did.

At its core, Crystal Rain is an adventure novel. It has elements of Steampunk, a definite science fiction element, and almost an alternate history/fantasy vibe. The action is fairly fast and furious, and the plot holes are glossed over quickly with an action scene, a bit of intrigue, or a revelation of a previously (un)suspected plot thread. It is entertaining without being pretentious. It doesn’t aspire to epic status, instead relying on mostly well-crafted writing and brutal descriptions to carry the reader to the inevitable climax. It has its share of science fiction tropes, including the “amnesiac hero,” but these are handled with enough skill that the reader hardly notices.

The dialogue takes some getting used to. Buckell writes as though he is channeling the language of his childhood home. To my untrained ear, it seems mostly authentic, although I found the dialogue to be slightly jarring at first. Reading the way his characters spoke would occasionally harm the immersion that Buckell was trying diligently to create. Since a couple of characters spoke “proper” English, this would further damage my ability to slip into the book. I ultimately got used to it, but the first fifty to a hundred pages were a little difficult.

I shan’t discuss the plot much. It basically boils down to a man who has forgotten his past. He lives in a world that is barely at the eighteenth century level of technology, recovered at great expense after a planet wide EMP destroyed every electronic device in ages past. In the early days of a war between an Aztec culture and the Caribbean culture, he loses his family and manages to make his way over land and air to the capital city, evading capture and sacrifice to do so. Once there, he is given an important mission to secure a piece of alien technology that could turn the tide of battle. The rest, as they say, is history.

If you’re looking for a good plane or beach read, I would recommend his one. For a debut novel, it is outstanding. If you’re looking for something more epic, you could probably skip this one.

The jacket on Taylor Anderson’s new book, Destroyermen: Into the Storm might fool you into thinking that it’s just another castaways in time story. There’s nothing wrong with writing in this sub-genre of science fiction, but to dismiss the first of what promises to be an epic series as “merely” anything would be a terrible mistake. Anderson writes under influences as diverse as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, David Drake, Bernard Cornwell, and Patrick O’Brian, weaving them into a story that is as engrossing as it is fun to read.

The novel opens with an old destroyer in the Asiastic fleet running from a superior Japanese force. The destroyer, USS Walker, is poorly suited for the realities of naval combat in WWII. It is steam driven, undergunned, and outmanned. Nevertheless her captain and crew made a valiant effort to stem the tide of Japanese aggression in Indonesia, buying time for the Pacific fleet to arm and reconfigure after Pearl Harbor. In a battle that seems lost, Walker steams into a squall to hide from her enemies and ends up…somewhere else.

That somewhere else is a world where nature is more savage than our own. Two intelligent races are locked in a battle–one for supremacy and one for survival. Walker, fresh from one war, finds itself immediately in another one that is no less terrifying than the one they left. This time, though, they aren’t the undergunned ship that they were in 1942. There, they are the pinnacle of technology with the ability to tip the scales in favor of one people.

The characters draw heavily from military archetypes. The ship’s captain is conscientious, dutiful, and weary from the position of ultimate responsibility. His true battle isn’t with the enemy. He fights it everyday within himself as he struggles to come to grips with not only his position, but the future of his ship and his crew. Anderson avoids cliché in his characterization by humanizing Lt. Commander Reddy through several interactions with his officers and crew.  The crew also make colorful appearances, including a gunner’s mate, the bosun, and two engineering hands who have a background in wildcatting. The suspense of disbelief needed for having that expertise in the engineering department of a steamer isn’t that difficult. Anderson also treats the conflict between the humans themselves realistically, providing a nice subtext to the overall plot.

Anderson’s work defies easy categorization. It is marketed and sold as science fiction, but it has elements of fantasy and military fiction as well. His novel is anchored by a strong ensemble cast of characters, a diverse world that is beautifully sketched, and a firm grasp of the function and use of a WWI-era four stacker destroyer. You can get a glimpse of Anderson’s passion for the subject in every detailed description that he writes.

This is one of the must-read books of the year. Filled with technical details that will make most grognards swoon, it will also  appeal to the  obsessive compulsive nature in the pickiest science fiction reader. Destroyermen: Into the Storm does not fail to satisfy.

For some reason, I’ve missed most of McDevitt’s fiction during my tenure as a science fiction reader. I first read some of his short stories in the anthology Breach the Hull, which Mike McPhail of MilSciFi.com provided for my review. I enjoyed his prose immensely, so I decided to see what he had recently written.

I settled on Polaris as my first choice. The book cover is splashed with a blurb that indicates that McDevitt is the “heir to Asimov and Clarke.” Given how much of my formative youth was spent with my nose in their books, I thought this was an auspicious beginning.

Polaris is the story of Alex Benedict and his “assistant” Chase Kolpath, antiquities dealers. In a far future star-spanning civilization, they find and sell cultural relics from the past (past meaning way after our own time) to rich clients. They fill a niche with rich clients that like to have artifacts to show off to their friends or families. They become interested in the sixty year old disappearance of six celebrities from a ship called the Polaris, which was present to watch the collision of a neutron star with a G-type star that supported planets. Shortly after watching the collision, the crew on this ship mysteriously disappears.

When the government opens up an auction of the personal effects from those on the Polaris, Alex and Chase manage to buy several artifacts for their clients. In the process of touring the facility where the items are stored, a bomb, attributed to a local terrorist group destroys the building. It is no stretch of the imagination to note that the bomb was aimed not at the people attending the tour, but rather at keeping the secret of the Polaris disappearances intact.

What follows is a fairly typical whodunit in the Asimov style. I won’t lie and say that I was surprised at the ending. McDevitt is perhaps a little too obvious in the way he provides clues to the reader, but the characters are genuninely likable and the story moves along at a brisk enough pace that I was mostly satisfied at the conclusion. I would say that this novel would qualify as a good beach read.

 Jack Campbell continues with his aggressive publishing schedule by releasing the fourth book in the Lost Fleet series just eight months after the last one.

The saga of Black Jack Geary, commanding a battered fleet in enemy territory, continues. The novel opens with a large battle that is rendered in exquisite detail. Ship manuevers, timing, formations, and a seemingly complex battle plan are described from Captain Geary’s point of view as his fleet engages a numerically similar force in an effort to secure some breathing space for repairs and replinishment.

This book, like the others, is told primarily from Geary’s perspective. Black Jack Geary was lost in an engagement that history recognizes as the opening shots of a one hundred year war. He drifted alone in an escape pod, until the fleet he ended up commanding found him drifting in space and rescued him. In the time since he disappeared, Geary has been venerated as a hero, granted almost god-like status by the men and women under his command. Also during this time, the men and women in the navy have lost their sense of honor. They fire on civilian targets with impunity, kill survivors of enemy fleets, and conduct battles with all of the complexity of a bull charging. When the existing fleet leadership is betrayed during a parley, Geary assumes leadership of the fleet (as the senior captain) and tries to teach them about the way war should be fought. His adherence to honor and an older tradition that would be loosely recognized as a modern day “law of war” is foreign to the men and women under his command.

Geary is trying desperately to get the people under his command back to Alliance space. His ship holds the key to the Alliance winning the war against the Syndic Worlds–literally an access key to the enemy’s network of faster than light travel. Unfortunately, a non-human intelligence has entered the picture, and Geary’s crew makes some startling discoveries about its history and motivations.

To make matters complicated, Geary faces mutiny within his own fleet. Some of the captains under his command resent the “mercy” that Geary shows to the Syndic forces and endeavor to sabotage him. Moving carefully, Geary consolidates his hold as a leader of the fleet while still remaining in charge of the fleet’s destination and tactics.

Campbell has done it again in this volume. The pacing is superb, the writing is taut and somewhat suspenseful, and the characterizations are top notch. The author avoids the temptation of making his character god-like, instead forcing him to wrestle with the mythology around his absence, and the growing hero-worship associated with his return and his unquestioned success. Geary is really just a man, trying to do the best that he can for the men and women who serve under him. That others think this attitude makes him a candidate for receiving divine intervention bothers him to no end.

Campbell apparently has two more volumes in this series, and I have to say that I wish I had them in my hands right now. If you haven’t started this series, do so.