More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Review: The Human Division by John Scalzi, Vignettes in the Old Man’s War Series

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The Human Division is listed as the fifth book in the Old Man’s War series, but you can enjoy it even without having read the other books in the series.  John Scalzi does a good job filling you in on the background and who’s who while telling the story.  I’m speaking from personal experience here as I read only one of the other books and that was several years ago.  I didn’t recall the story except that it was good, and of course Scalzi is the same guy who wrote the wonderful Agent to the Stars. Those were good enough to make this book a must-read.

Scalzi is so talented a writer he was able to take 13 semi-related vignettes that seemed written for a television series, and turn them into a novel that flowed well.  That is not easy.  Each episode was loosely connected with most of the characters repeating and there was a loose time sequence.  (The introduction mentions the publisher released these as individual episodes electronically.

I enjoyed this book.  Each vignette was interesting and had characters with a few quirks and habits that added a bite of humor.  The plot was deadly serious.  The Colonial Union got found out for its bad habit of keeping Earth in the dark and using the home planet as a source of people for colonists and army.  At the same time several hundred other races banded together in a Conclave that detests the Colonial Union.  (Since I didn’t read the prior books I’m not sure what the CU did to these other races to warrant this ill will.  It’s clear the CU had a penchant for aggressive, in-your-face behavior and managed to come out on top in prior conflicts.)

The book focuses on the B diplomat team led by Abumwe and helped greatly by Harry Wilson, Colonial Defense Force (the CU military) liason and his good friend Hart Schmidt.  The CU leaders view Abumwe as a second tier diplomat but after her team performs heroically and brilliantly to save the Utche agreement the leadership decides to upgrade her – but doesn’t tell Ubumwe or anyone else.  Instead they will use her team for those miserable situations that need initiative and off-the-cuff solutions.

In the first episode one of the A teams is destroyed by an unknown force when it arrives early to meet with the Utche.  Ubumwe’s team is tossed in as back ups with virtually no notice.  Wilson discovers five missiles primed to attack the Utche upon their arrival.  Wilson manages to decoy four of them to attack his shuttle and the ship captain gets the last one to attack the ship.  This of course makes the Utche feel pretty good and the diplomacy succeeds.

Each episode was like the first.  Present a problem, let the characters deal with it the way they would, and pull victory from defeat.  By the end of the book it is still far from certain that the CU will survive and even more uncertain whether Earth and the CU will become buddies again.  But there is hope.

Scalzi left the stage wide open for future books, whether conventional novels or this type of episodic story.  No one is able to identify who the mystery attackers are that destroyed the first Utche mission team and that mystery enemy pops up in several later episodes.

If Scalzi decides to write more in this series I’d like to see the stories done in this vignette style.  It was a very successful way to show the situations and characters and most enjoyable.

 

Review: House of the Last Man on Earth, Science Fiction with Time Travel

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I wasn’t sure what to expect with House of the Last Man On Earth. Science fiction? End of the world?  (Please no , we’ve had a lot of these lately.)   The blurb was intriguing when I read it the first time, less promising on the second read.   “Convinced that his bizarre neighbor might be a part of a hostile alien agenda, college student Richard Johnson, along with his mathematics teacher and her brother, embark upon a soaring and treacherous journey…”  Oh my.

House of the Last Man On Earth turned out to be excellent, a combination of science fiction with the requisite aliens, time travel, escapes, species annihilation (us that is, humans get killed off.) The characters were easy to keep straight and the plot was internally consistent and the setting was part in beautiful Colorado and part in outer space.

Characters

Our hero, Richard Johnson, is a normal guy, a little bit of a loser.  He joined the marines right out of high school, discovered he had no knack or desire for war and shooting people but was able to get into the Marine Corp band which he enjoyed.  When he left the marines he went to the University of Colorado but wasn’t sure what to major in.  He liked lots of things but no one enough to concentrate.  Forced by his need for cash and parental approval he declared aeronautical engineering and was taking several hard math classes (and not doing well in them) when the story opens.

I could relate to Richard.  He wanted to do the right thing, wasn’t sure exactly what that was, was inordinately curious, broke, and had a crush on his set theory teacher, Summer Jacklyn, Mrs. Jacklyn.  Richard walked his land lady’s dog, Genghis Khan daily in exchange for reduced rent and he and the dog had an agreement.  They didn’t like each other but they were willing to go for short walks.  And both were wary of the Ghoul, true name Dr. Thaddeus Rumpkin.
One day Khan got away from Richard and ducked into the Ghoul’s bathroom, through a shimmer in the shower and into another world.  Richard followed and quickly realized he was in the far future.  There was no one around but there was a house, reachable by climbing over 700 steps in a driving rain.  That kicks off the action.

Richard is kind, funny, thoughtful, smart and very well drawn.  His character was one of the highlights of the book.  In the course of investigating the time curtain Richard runs into Sam Robinson, who is a genetics post doc and had his own reasons to be curious about the Ghoul.  Sam happens to be Summer’s brother, and the three end up on a great adventure.

The other two main characters, the Ghoul and Tao Benrobi were both biologically human but created by warring groups.  The Ghoul was placed on earth to insert genes into humanity that would make everyone sterile, eliminating humans within a few hundred years.  Benrobi was placed by the opposite side because they determined that Richard and our time was a flux point.

All five main characters and the many minor ones are set up as real people, with good and bad traits, quirks and attitudes.  Richard hooked me in the first chapter and then the action and other people kept me reading.

Plot

The story line is convoluted, happening in three different times, several locations and with unclear enemies.  At one point the Ghoul tells Richard that HIS side is the good guys!  This is by the way, the group that caused humanity to go extinct.
We have time travel, murderous biologic constructs (think flying mouths), marching armies of 10 foot tall warriors, space battles, narrow escapes, an opportunity to commit genocide (that is refused), red Porsche cars, highway chases, deluges, house fires, irate ex-girlfriends.  What’s not to like?

The ending was among the best parts of the book.  It wrapped up the story nicely without completely answering every single question.  The good guys win and we have hope that perhaps Earth and humanity can escape the coming centuries of misery and the oncoming Enemy.

Summary

House of the Last Man On Earth is not a super fast read, it took me about 4 hours, but it was a lot of fun.  I wanted to know what was next and what happens to these neat people that are just like friends, and will look for more by authors Robert B Marcus, Jr and Ryan B Marcus.

I was given House of the Last Man On Earth from Net Galley with the request for an honest review.

The Sedona Files Christine Pope, Books 1-3, Bad Vibrations, Desert Hearts, Angel Fire

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I found Christine Pope in the omnibus Gods and Mortals.  (Don’t ask.  Most of the stories were atrocious, muddled teen things.)  Her novel was fun despite the ridiculous premise and worse theology, and I looked for more. The Sedona Files: Books 1-3 collects the first three books in her science fiction / fantasy / suspense / romance novels set in the Arizona town of Sedona, about 10 miles from an alien outpost meant to conquer the Earth.

The premise of the books is a bit silly, but if you overlook the basic plot framework and enjoy the characters, setting and the story, these are fun, fast reads.

In Bad Vibrations (The Sedona Files Book 1) psychic Persephone O’Brien gets into a real mess when a new client asks about his wife, whom he is convinced has been taken over by aliens.  One thing leads to another and pretty soon Persephone and her new friend Paul Oliver have escaped from LA to Sedona Arizona to get help from a bunch of UFO nuts.

Unfortunately the nuts (and her would-be client) are right.  Aliens have a base near Sedona and are trying to take over the world by embedding obedience messages into new films and television shows.    Persephone manages to kick over the alien’s sand castle but not before we readers get entranced with the UFO nuts and the growing bond between Persephone and Paul.

I found this wacky novel with a goofy plot a lot of fun.  It was fast paced, well written and the descriptions of Sedona made me want to hop in the car and go visit.

Desert Hearts (The Sedona Files Book 2) was the weakest of the three.  Christine Pope did a good job on her heroines except this particular one, Kara, had a problem knowing which guy she loved.  She fell for Greyson, the stranger who collapsed in her living room, but dumped him cold when she found long-loved-but-despaired-of Lance was in love with her.  She treated Greyson horribly, it’s plain rude to throw up just because you find out your boyfriend is half alien, and even ruder to have a fling then dump the guy the minute your real heartthrob shows interest.

It is more than rude, it is just plain wrong to treat people the way Kara treated Greyson. In the end it is Greyson, not the intrepid band of UFO nuts who blow up the alien’s rebuilt fusion reactor and base. Pope made Greyson likeable and real, and having Kara just dump him made me dislike her.

Angel Fire (The Sedona Files Book 3) is a good ending for the series.  Kirsten, Kara’s younger sister, is the star of this book along with her “Man in Black”, Martin Jones.  This was tightly written with fast action and more suspense than the others.  We aren’t sure whether Kirstsen will be able to do what she needs to, nor are we really sure what Agent Jones is about.

The aliens attack Kirsten physically and mentally and she must develop strengths she never realized.  One thing I liked was her down-to-earth view of the UFO nuts and New Agers.  She knew the UFOs were real and she knew the tourists would be horrified if they realized how dangerous and threatening the aliens were.

I liked the way the other characters got a chance to shine in Angel Fire, including geeky Jeff, and the fact some of the characters have to sacrifice something to win.  Perhaps that’s what bothered me so much about Kara and Lance in Desert Hearts, they sacrificed nothing but Greyson gave up his life.  The other character who got a free pass was Otto, although he threw the book at Martin Jones.

Summary

In all the books the central character is a woman, a different one each time although all three are present in all three novels.  All three books are fast paced, where the characters don’t know where they are going until they arrive, nor do they have time to stop and whine.  I like reading books with strong female leads and by the time the books ended I felt like we were friends.  I’m sure I’d recognize Kirsten if I met her on the street!

I didn’t like how the ladies in each book fell so quickly in love and into bed but the good dialogue, neat plot, tight characterization and great setting more than made up for the immoral behavior.  Another point that made the books believable was the day-to-day events, things like cooking supper, minding the store, arranging for a helicopter ride.  Lots of books breeze right by these but the humdrum day in and day out stuff makes the stories more believable and the characters more like people.

Definitely I will look for more by Christine Pope.

One-Eyed Man: A Fugue with Winds and Accompaniment L E Modesitt Science Fiction

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I stayed up till midnight to finish The One-Eyed Man: A Fugue, With Winds and Accompaniment, the latest novel by my favorite author L. E. Modesitt. The book had some problems but I enjoyed it overall. In fact I will re-read it, as I do most of his books, to catch the nuances.

The hero, Paulo Verano an ecologist from the world Bachman, is sent to evaluate the ecological impact and risks that humans may have to the world Stittara. The book mentions several times that Stittara would be abandoned were it not for it being the source of anagathics, drugs that enable people to maintain their looks and health nearly to the end of their lives.

Paulo knows he is getting into a risky area. The anagathics are enormously profitable and no one would want to abandon the planet. Yet there are some strange phenomena, including sky tubes, never fully defined but apparently long structures that float in the sky. No one has ever been able to sample a sky tube and there has been speculation they may be alive, similar to jelly fish. Paulo is well aware that the government that hired him hopes he comes back with a nice, safe, sanitized study that shows no ill effects to the environment from humans.

It’s clear that the Unity government cares deeply about the environment and forbids damage to alien life. There are (of course) opposition parties and it is due to pressure from one of these parties, the Deniers, that Paulo is hired to conduct his study. It’s not at all clear what the issue is that the study is supposed to appease, but it isn’t germane to the story.

There are subplots but they are sketched. There is tension between the outlanders and the city folks; between the corporations doing research on the Stittaran natural anagathics and the Service, between the planetary council and the Unity Survey Service, and more. For some reason Modesitt sketches these but does not explore them. We see characters from each of these groups but their motivations are unclear and the reasons behind the tensions are not revealed.

Modesitt showed the political wrangling by letting us eavesdrop on bits of conversations between plotting members of the groups. These conversations were never complete, never enough to tell you what the characters wanted or feared. I felt like the subplots were dangled in front of us, then whisked behind a curtain just as we got close enough to see the rationale.

There were some annoyances. Modesitt again made spelling changes, duhlars for dollars, that were silly. We got a little economic diatribe about taxation. Interesting, yes, I always find Modesitt’s ideas worth consideration, but it did nothing for the story.

Several of the characters made no sense at all. They were not cardboard cutouts, but their motivation and exactly who they were and why they mattered wasn’t at all clear. The Syntex succession shenanigans added a plot twist and motivation, but hardly deserved the pages Modesitt spent.

I felt as if I were Paulo, muddling through the tensions and people, all with different objectives that none ever wanted to state and with ecological impacts that he could almost see but never measure. Those parts were frustrating.

The actual environmental sampling and trips were dull. Paulo found nothing, yet he knew there was something. We could tell there was something with the sky tubes and the ever-present purple and gray grass that had not changed in millions of years. One of the corporations planned a deep drilling test that would touch the planet’s core. Paulo found that horrifying. Yes, it seems like a very bad idea to drill a hole down to the molten planetary core, but this was somehow connected with organisms like the sky tubes and space. I re-read this part and still didn’t quite get it.

The ending was solid in that Paulo shares his thinking with us as the sky tubes, drilling, alien predecessors from 150 million years ago. But it felt so rushed. And it was incomplete. We didn’t get real answers about the sky tubes, or any more insight into Stittara.

As usual Modesitt built in a love story with a strong female character. This part reminded me of the The Ecologic Envoy, where the two are afraid to love, haven’t spent much time together, yet feel a sense of connection. The other parallel is that the characters must leave and go elsehwere.

The Unity government didn’t make sense. It’s mentioned that Stittara is over 73 light-years from Bachman and it takes about 75 years to reach, although far less for the traveler due to relativity. The fastest way to send a message is by physically taking it. If one can only communicate at the speed of light, then star systems must be close together. Characters mentioned the time delay several times, noting that after 150 years no one at Bachman will care about Paulo’s study. Given the delays, how does one have a central government with Unity-wide elections.

I always enjoy Modesitt’s novels with their strong sense of morality, multiple layers, challenging plots and characters. I didn’t like this as well as some others but it was still worth reading. Did I mention staying up till midnight to finish?

Short Stories from Intergalactic Crime to Cat Rescues Novellas Kira Bacal

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I love trying new authors and one of the best ways is to browse the free or cheap books for my Nook.  Kira Bacal is a doctor who worked at NASA and the Senate before moving to New Zealand.  She published seven free Nook novellas, all enjoyable, easy reads.   I’ll cover three in this post.

All I Need to Know about the Earth, I Learned in Kindergarten

What do you do when you’re an intergalactic criminal and need a safe, quiet hideaway?  Why come to Earth and teach kindergarten of course.  “Miss Buttercup” is leading her classroom out to catch their buses home when one of the kids steps into the road, right in front of a car.  Miss Buttercup can move much faster than humans and rescues the child, however there is a witness:  Mrs. Weinbaum, an 80 year old crossing guard.

Mrs. Weinbaum asks Miss Buttercup to come to her home where they agree to a mutually advantageous outcome.

This story is not deep but it is well-written and entertaining.  I enjoyed Miss Buttercup and her penchant for helping her human students and would love to read a longer story with her as a main character.

Look What the Cat Dragged In

Would you answer the door during a howling blizzard if you live alone in a remote cabin?  Our main character does and lets in a young kitten she names Amber.  Amber has deformed front legs that don’t let her walk normally and our heroine is mildly curious how she managed to make it to her doorstep before freezing in the snow.

A few weeks later she learns the answer when Amber’s real people show up…

I liked the characters in this one too, but especially enjoyed the ambiguity around the pronouns “She is protecting it”.  Who is the “she” and who is the “it”?  This was a fun fast read, possibly the weakest of the stories yet well worth the time.

The Ananaki

This one was different from the others.  Still had a science fiction background, but the main character is a fishing captain on a backward planet.  Some unscrupulous folks convinced the locals they were “gods”, “Ananaki” and provided an amulet and altar for communication and punishment.

Luckily for our hero his latest passenger, a rescued young man, does not believe in the Ananaki and damages the altar.  That damages causes the amulet to instead contact a military or police vessel (we never learn who) that manages to disabuse the natives of the Ananaki’s perfection and removes the Ananaki from the planet.

I enjoyed the dialogue and the style of this one very much.  The story was good and we learned just enough of the people to see there was trouble afoot.  The “gods” were mean and greedy, not the sort anyone wants around.  The middle of the novella dragged just a bit when the captain and his rescued atheist argue but the rest was very good.

All told I’d give these 4 to 5 stars.  Excellent, fun reads, perfect to spend a few minutes enjoyably.

Note to readers:  For some reason the spell checker in Word Press isn’t working very well – or else I”m not making any typos or misspellings.  Ha, not too likely!

Unusual Blend Science Fiction & Fantasy – The Galactic Mage by John Daulton

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This was an unusual read!  John Daulton combines science fiction, fantasy with a love story and comes out with an enjoyable, fast read.  The Galactic Mage alternates the story from the viewpoints of mage Altin and Ensign Orli of the Earth expedition to learn what happened to the people of Andalia.

Altin is a “Six” meaning a mage with six of the possible eight talents.  All previous Sixes have over-reached their magical potential and died, some spectacularly.  Altin is determined to avoid this and sets himself the goal to reach his planet’s moon Luria by teleporting rocks and enchanted Seeing Stones.  Once he reaches Luria he decides to explore the rest of his solar system, then goes toward the closest star.  This is where he encounters hostile Coconuts, which hurl rocky spears at his tower.

He fights the Coconuts off, then sees curious flashes of light.  Of course the flashes of light are from the Earth expedition’s fight with the same Coconuts, which Altin joins.  Some of the plot is a little predictable after this, yet still fun.

The Hostiles (or “Coconuts” as Altin calls them) seem determined to kill anyone they find in space. It’s never clear whether the Hostiles are alive or why they attack humanity, leaving unanswered questions for future books.

Overall this was fun, different from the usual science fiction or fantasy, meant for adults and squeaky clean.  The magic Altin uses is well thought-out, requiring hard work to master.

On the downside, when I was done reading I still had no idea who or what the Hostiles are, why Orli and Altin are so drawn to each other, whether any Earth humans also have magic, or the significance of the small weed Orli finds during the fleet’s time on Andalia.  The character of Altin is more developed than Orli.  We know little of Orli beyond that she is miserable on ship and in the military.   These are small weaknesses and didn’t bother my enjoyment of The Galactic Mage.

I read this as a Nook book. I could not find it in my library nor any of the libraries in the state of Michigan (which has a great statewide sharing system) so you may need to purchase The Galactic Mage.

4 Stars

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