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

Let’s Give a Big Welcome Back to L. E. Modesitt! Solar Express Review

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Finally, after his last 3 books that were glacially paced, with wooden dialogue and peopled by stock crews of greedy (and stupid) businessmen, corrupt (and stupid) political leaders, weak-kneed (and obtuse) co-workers,  plus one resourceful hero, Modesitt delivers a good story with interesting people, genuinely worrisome situations, awe-inspiring settings and a plot.  Welcome back!

Modesitt set Solar Express 100 years from now where not much has changed in terms of politics or people.  The US and Canada (and maybe Mexico) are now Noram; China plus unknown other countries are now the Sinese; India is a world power and Europe is one big agglomeration with strong Russian leadership.  African, Middle East, Australia and South America are smaller powers with the African/Middle East/Australian grouped into a union nominally allied with India.

Modesitt writes excellent hard science fiction, which this is, and good to excellent fantasy like the Imager series.  He has three major habits that you either need to love or be able to ignore in order to enjoy any of his books.

  • Politics with head-shaking cultural observations and wooden dialogue
  • Slow pacing
  • Rinse and repeat characters.

As usual Modesitt can’t resist declaring his political beliefs in Solar Express.  He imagines a news outlet, Hot News! that combines accurate reporting, innuendo, celebrity watching and political acumen. Hot News! stories cover global warming results, environmental havoc in polar regions, flooded cities and ravaged coasts and speculation about the Sinese intentions and the apparent inability for the Noram leaders to do anything.

The more interesting snippets are news articles and memos from the Noram government leaders that present facts that align to some Hot News! speculation with just enough to tease us readers.  I wanted to know a lot more than Modesitt gave us!

The pace varies between really slow and slow with a touch of zip-bang.  The pace fits the subject – neither pilot Chris Tavoian nor astrophysicist Alayna Wong-Grant can exactly hurry their work along – and is countered by the fast-moving Solar Express and geopolitical events.   I got a little antsy about a third through, but the Hot News! punctuated the crawling science.

One pleasant change was the characters.  Yes, we still had evil, greedy people who lust after power, but none appeared in person.  “Colonel Anson”, Chris Tavoian’s superior officer is well-meaning and effective (many Modesitt superior officers are either venal or incompentent) and the minor characters Kit and Emma are warm and interesting.  Chris and Alayna are interesting people, a bit reserved, but with feelings and interests.

Modesitt is one of the few authors who successfully write fantasy and science fiction (Bujold and Dave Weber are two others) and some of his science fiction has fantasy-seeming elements (Empress of Eternity and Hammer of Darkness).  Solar Express is unusual in being set so close to today, with technology and politics we can easily extrapolate to.  It made it easy to follow.  Even if you don’t agree with his extrapolated climate, political and cultural changes you can visual them happening.

In Solar Express Modesitt slipped in a fourth annoying habit, dumping complex geographic and political backgrounds early, explaining some later and some not at all.  For example, page 15 in one sentence he introduces:  FuxEx burners (apparently the standard shuttle/small freighter), DOEA (Department of Off Earth Affairs, a government agency charged to oversee space), Policia Espacial (never re-introduced, likely the South American security force), Sudam (South American government), magline (OK, that’s pretty easy, basically a train on the moon), ONeill Station (believe the main transship point orbiting the moon, run by Noram), the elevator (moon to space elevator), standard climber (likely a car that runs on the elevator), main station (terminus for the elevator).

The next page gives us fusionjet (similar to the FusEx?), vasimr slowboats (never explained, likely just what they sound, a s-l-o-w way to move cargo) and Hel3, otherwise known as a helium isotope.  I wouldn’t mind the dump if he gave just a bit of background first or omitted altogether if never revisited.  It is not wise to make your readers feel stupid, especially when the author’s entire body of work holds up thinking as a great virtue.

The Amazon reader reviews for Solar Express are split, about 2/3 positive and 1/3 negative and almost no 3 stars.  Modesitt in his blog attributes this to too many fantasy readers who were turned off by the science fiction aspects.  Several readers complained about the characters communicating by delayed message vs. real time in person (as they would in fantasy series).  However other readers noted the slow pace and abundant political commentary as turn offs so I think the criticism was more than reaction from disgruntled fantasy fans.

Overall, Solar Express is an excellent addition to Modesitt’s novels.  4 Stars.

The Galaxy Chronicles – Contemporary Science Fiction Short Stories

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The Galaxy Chronicles (The Future Chronicles) is a collection of science fiction short stories by several newer authors. The stories have a contemporary feeling to them, with characters that behave much as Americans do today, and with themes that we can extrapolate.

As with any anthology there were stories I like better than others.

Enjoyable Winners

Keep Off The Grass by Felix R. Savage has a young Catholic man of Japanese ancestry mining (aka poaching) on a water-bearing comet.  His primary, exterior missiion is to bring the Gospel to the solar system, but desperate to bring water to his home on a Venus Trojan where the water recycling unit has broken, he lands on a comet and begins to gather water.  The other group on the comet is an apocalyptic bunch who expects to reach the Oort cloud eventually.

The story moves along and the characters are interesting and well done.

Earth Fall by Raymond L. Weill is the only story in the bunch where I had previous experience with the author.  I enjoy just about all Mr. Weill’s books as he tells a great story, moves it along, has fun and interesting characters and settings.  My quibble is that dialogue sequences with aliens tend to be wooden and good guy/bad guy straightforward.

I hope he develops this into a full novel or series.

Ser Pan Comido by Matthew Alan Thyer is very different from the usual sci-fi adventure.  The main characters are a trio of poor street kids on a planet ruled by despotic oligarchs, the secret police captain and the pilot attached to/time locked into star ship.

Pretty Good

The Stars that Bind by Nick Webb is set in the far, far future where man has spread to thousands of galaxies that are united and whole.  It’s so far in the future that the universe expansion is causing pieces to fall off, too far to reach.  The idea is intriguing.

Multiply by Nicolas Wilson also has an intriguing story line.  Comet and Walter are AIs charged with preparing a base for their humans.  Sent off from the main ship they crash land on an asteroid and must build from scratch.  I liked the characters.

The Imortals:  Kronis Valley by David Adams has a terribly wounded military man nearly disintegrate upon return home.  The author did a fine job with characters.

The Rest

All the stories were readable with interesting characters or ideas.  They didn’t catch my imagination as did the ones mentioned.  I am not fond of stories that turn assassins into heroes, which is why a couple of them dropped down here.

Summary

If you enjoy science fiction and like to discover new(er) authors then I highly recommend The Galaxy Chronicles (The Future Chronicles).  Right now it’s available only as an E book ($1.99 Kindle).

Lightless – Artificial Intelligence, Spaceships and Terrorism

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I received a copy of Lightless in exchange for an honest review. I wanted to like the book but overall it left me cold.

In theory Lightless should have been good.  An advanced ship, interplanetary rebellion, suspense, good guys and bad guys, totalitarian government.  I found the story interesting and the main character, Althea, likeable at first.  About midway through the book turns plodding, unbelievable and the character loses my interest and sympathy.

The ending was particularly bad.  First it was a set up for more books (another trilogy??) which is annoying, but the plot had so many holes in it that I couldn’t take it seriously.

The System is repressive, willing to kill everyone who lives in a terraformed dome on one of the solar system moons or planets if enough of the folks in the habitat rebel or disobey.  That seems a bit much, even a ruthless government ought to be able to find a less destructive, less indiscriminate solution.

Of course the System spawns a revolutionary, the Mallt-y-Nos.  Her solution to free the outer solar system’s population from the System’s tyrrany?  Destroy the Earth.  Yes, that’s right, not only destroy government centers, but make the planet uninhabitable.  That’ll teach them all right.

Really.  Think a minute.  You have a bunch of moons, asteroids, planets that have artificial environments set up to house a few million people.  Do you really think these fragile habitats are self sufficient and will never, not in 2000 years, need something that only Earth has?  Putting aside moral questions, this “solution” makes no sense whatsoever.  It’s like the kid with the football who doesn’t take his ball home when he can’t win but instead blows up the field, the other team and his ball.

The other plot hole is even sillier.  Ananke is an advanced ship that converts chaos to usable energy (thus upturning the second law of thermodynamics) with an advanced computer.  Matthew manages to infect the ship’s computer with a virus that somehow makes it into a sentient artificial intelligence.  And he did this in just a few minutes!  The result is of course an AI that never heard of Asimov’s three laws, never learned about morality and ethics, and acts like a two year old that just happens to be all-powerful.

The characters, Althea, her ship-turned-sentient Ananke, captain Domitian, scientist Gagnon, nasty System intelligence agent and psychopath Ida Stays, plus criminals Ivan and Matthew, plus Ivan’s mom and Constance Harper (who turns out to be the Mallt-y-Nos herself), are uninteresting.  Domitian is driven by duty, Gagnon is a nonentity red shirt type.

The writing wasn’t bad, not great but better than some.  The ideas, people, setting and plot were either ridiculous or boring and the last third of the book was a chore to get through.  I won’t look for the sequel.

Surveillance – Ghost Targets Futuristic Suspense and Crankiness

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Let’s get the crankiness over first.  Have you noticed the trend towards eliminating irregular verbs?  “Dived” instead of “dove”, “lighted” instead of “lit”, “shined” instead of “shone” and more?  I like irregular verbs.  They link our English back to its Anglo Saxon roots and it annoys me when authors don’t use them.

I’m also annoyed when authors uses the name of the Lord as a throwaway exclamation or curse.  This is wrong.

On to the book review…

Surveillance (Ghost Targets Book 1)

Surveillance is a near future suspense novel set in a world where everything is recorded and tracked.  Walk into a building?  It’s on the video record.  Speak in a public place?  Recorded, voice print identified to you and logged.  The basic system, called Hathor, handles everything and connects seamlessly to services like Hearth (housing) and Midas (finance).

The novel occurs about 20 years after the first systems were challenged on privacy grounds and after the benefits and relatively benign uses have made almost everyone accept them.  For example Katie was able to find, lease and decorate an apartment while walking out of work using the Hearth system. Most criminal trials now happen before a judge who uses the evidence collected by Jurisprudence and assembled by law enforcement into a coherent story virtually guaranteed to be accurate.

Katie Pratt is brand new to the FBI Ghost Targets group, assigned to a murder investigation on her first day.  The Ghost Targets group exists because some people have been able to ghost themselves right out of the records.  Since Jurisprudence cannot see the ghosts, the FBI team develops other methods.

Surveillance is interesting and somewhat thought provoking.  Would people really give up their privacy in exchange for great convenience and benign, almost invisible oversight?  And of course we have the perennial question.  If the watchers watch everything, who watches the watchers?

I enjoyed the idea and the plot but found the characters were a bit flat.  We never learn the connection between the murderer and his victim, why they were together.  Katie doesn’t show much personality and Martin Door, one of the original Hathor developers, is two-dimensional.

Overall this was an OK book, worth reading but not worth keeping.  I don’t plan to look for the sequels.

Review: The Scorpion Rule by Erin Bow Excellent Science Fiction

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Visualize a world of thirsty people, a world where wars and climate have caused billions of deaths, yet there are still viable countries, technology, civilization.  In this world Canada, augmented by the Great Lakes area of the US and parts of northern Europe, is a world super power called the Pan Polar Confederacy ruled by a queen.  The United States is now several smaller countries, including the newest, Cumberland, which is roughly the Ohio River watershed, parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, also with its leaders.

The countries that have water, including the Pan Polar Confederacy, are strong but constantly under threat by those who do not, like Cumberland.

Setting and Back Story

400 Years before the story begins the United Nations turned to its first and best Artificial Intelligence, Talis, created by uploading a human mind, to solve the problem of bringing peace to countries warring over water.  Talis solved the problem in a unique manner:  He used the orbital platforms to destroy several cities, then gave each country an ultimatum.  Behave or else.  To reinforce the “or else” he required that the leaders of each country sent their heir or heiress to be hostages.  If the parents’ countries went to war the children died.  If the countries tried to attack him or the hostages or refused then he’d lop off another city.

This is “making it personal” and it worked.  There were still ongoing small wars but poor countries tended to demand less and the rich (i.e., had water) countries tended to agree to reasonable requests.  The title comes from Talis’ view that the only way to keep peace was to ensure that no one could go to war without loss, just like two scorpions in a bottle.

The story opens 400 years after this with Greta, Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, living as  Child of Peace in the 4th Precepture somewhere in the Canadian Great Plains.  Greta with the other Children of Peace in the 4th Precepture is responsible to grow and harvest the food they eat, clean their own rooms.  A former human AI runs the Precepture and there are AI spies and teachers and controllers all throughout the facility.  There is no privacy or luxury.

Greta’s country is on the brink of war over access to Lake Ontario for drinking water.  Lake Erie is already dry, leaving a slightly mucky damp spot, and Greta’s mother cannot agree to give that much water from Lake Ontario since the requested amount was above the lake’s carrying capacity.

(Some facts to put the thirst in context. Lake Ontario today discharges 262,000 cubic feet per second into the St. Lawrence River, which works out to 189,800,000 acre feet per year.  The Cumberland requested 7800 acre feet per year was over the carrying capacity of the lake.  That is a big drop in water volume.)

The plot then involves Greta, Talis, Elian the hostage from the newly formed Cumberland, and the other hostage children of Greta’s age.  The plot is interesting with a few small twists, but the novel isn’t about the plot, it about the people and about the challenge that Talis faces.  Just what do you do, or what should you do, when there are more people than water?  When people with their normal human scheming and thirst for power want more and more?   How do you keep the peace and keep individuals and countries operating decently and sustainably?

Characters

Greta is a bit of a non entity in the beginning.  She expects to die as she is nearly certain her country eill be forced into war, and she is most concerned with doing it well, acting as a Crown Princess should when it came time to walk to her death, and in the meantime studies the classics.  Elian’s arrival changes things and she begins to seek an alternative to death.

Elian is a born rebel, raised far from power but the favored grandson of the new Cumberland’s leader.  He resists the entire notion of being a hostage and is most definitely not interested in dying well.  He doesn’t want to die at all.  The other hostage children play lesser roles and are more background than primary actors.

The most interesting character is Talis, the former human turned into AI.  What will Talis do with the Cumberland’s revolt?  How will he handle the death of his oldest friend the AI called the Abbot who runs Precepture #4?  How will he deal with Greta and with Elian?

Summary

The book is riveting but when I analyze each piece, plot, characters, back story, setting, the only parts that are remarkable are the back story with Talis and the eternal question of how to maintain peace in a world full of conflict.  Somehow Erin Bow manages to make these small elements into a big story, one that will stay with me for a very long time.

I hadn’t realized until writing this review that Erin Bow also wrote Plain Kate. The stories are completely different but both dig into your heart and stay there.

I was given an advanced copy by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

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.

Classic Fantasy in Alternate History – The High Crusade by Poul Anderson

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I read The High Crusade about 50 years ago and again recently. Nothing changed. I still love it!

It’s a testimony to the enduring fun and seriously interesting The High Crusade is that it is still available on Amazon, and is one of the better selling science fiction/fantasy novels.

Synopsis

The basic story is fun:  Alien Wersgorix come to earth in 1345 intending to set up a base to exploit the planet and run into Englishmen led by Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville.  Sir Roger is on his way to the French wars under Edward III, so more than ready to fight.  Luckily he has his wife and family and the families of many others with him.  The Wersgorix never knew what hit them.

Of course Sir Roger then leads his merry band of knights and fighting men to take over the rest of the Wersgorix, starting by liberating unhappy vassal planets and making allies with the other servant races.

Sir Roger’s once loyal knight, Sir Owain, sees a great chance to take the Wergorix advanced weapons back to conquer the Earth (or at least Europe) himself.  During the fracas Sir Roger’s wife Catherine shoots Owain and the records he holds of how to go back home.  Sir Roger and Catherine win through but at the cost of not knowing how to get back to Earth.

The very last chapter jumps forward 800 years or so.  The English spread over many systems, establishing Christianity and modernized feudalism and English customs and ceremonies and attracting other peoples -even Wersgor – to their banners.  Finally Earth expedition travels far enough to find the thriving, English-speaking empire.

Similar Stories

I don’t know whether The High Crusade inspired other writers but other novels used similar plot devices.  In The Excalibur Alternative by David Weber, aliens kidnap a band of English knights and their families to use as slave soldiers to subdue restive natives and fight off competing companies.  The English manage to escape and build a powerful empire that later saves Earth.  (Weber’s novel grew out of a novella he wrote for the Ranks of Bronze series.)

Characters and Back Story

Poul Anderson wrote fun, fast-reading novels that all had interesting premises and characters lurking behind the sparkling plots. Sir Roger and his side kick Brother Parvus are shrewd and smart, first defeating the Wersgorix then the traitorous Sir Owain all while retaining their honor and Christian principles.  Wersgor Branithar is a worthy villain, plotting to give the English their comeuppance

The people are set up so well that the story is believable.

The back story is sketched in as a basic fact and we don’t have our noses rubbed in any political diatribes.  However the premises are that the Wersgorix are weakened by their extreme dispersal and lack of any unifying factors.  The other vassal people are perfectly happy getting the Wersgorix off their backs and (at first) don’t care what the English do.  The final chapter alludes to some of the other ex-vassals realizing too late that Sir Roger outwitted them.  They weren’t required to become vassals of the English, but they found their power and influence and ability to thrive and grow severely curtailed by Sir Roger’s vibrant civilization.

All in all I recommend The High Crusade to adults and teens. It’s a fun book that you’ll likely want to read again.

Real? Or Imitation Human?

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Too often to review a book I have to get it back open, just to look up the title. Not so with The Socket Greeny Saga by author Tony Bertauski. Mr. Bertauski told me Socket Greeny was his first fiction work, and it is excellent. I have him noted as an author to follow.

The main character is seventeen but this is not YA fiction.  Bertauski grabs your heart and does not let go.  You care about Socket Greeny.  Socket finds everything and loses it:  his family, his place in the world, his friends, his identity.  At the end you still wonder what happened and what will happen next.  The book ends but the story does not, yet there is no cliff hanger, no obvious sequel.  Instead the ending brings the loose threads together and leaves us Socket.

The Socket Greeny Saga is a trilogy that flows seamlessly from one book to the next. In fact my Nook version had no separation between the books, other than a periodic “Discovery” or “Training” or “Legend” interspersed in the text there was no way to know which book was which.

The plot is interesting, especially the first book of the trilogy, Discovery. Socket Greeny and his two friends Chute and Streeter go into Virtualmode during study hall and get into trouble. Socket inadvertently triggered a time slip that causes his Mom to pick him up from school and take him to the secret training facility for the Paladins. Paladins are humans with improved abilities, especially mental abilities, who are sworn to protect humanity.

In Books one and two Socket has to come to terms with his new abilities, learn and grow and develop mental powers.  Socket’s recurring enemies, duplicated humans that look and act just like real people, attack.  Socket is able to stop the duplicates, first with his friends and then by himself.

Book three starts with Socket, now a full Paladin, taking a wormhole trip to a remote outpost. Somehow he is kidnapped on the return trip and attacked by the real, ravenous enemy that the Paladins know nothing about.
Now Socket realizes that not only must he save the Earth and all his friends and family, he must save the universe.

The book could have gotten a bit ridiculous at this point. A seventeen year old universe saver? A ravenous enemy that kills all worlds? That can come to live with one cell? Instead the book turns inward, where we see Socket’s emotional depth when he realizes he has been betrayed and nothing is what he believed.

I loved the characters, especially Socket and the grimmets. Tony Bertauski did what too-few authors do when writing YA science fiction, and explored the inner depths of people and how they reacted to the events and threats. The story was well written, interesting and fast moving. It seems authors tend to skimp on plot or character or setting or good dialogue and writing style, but The Socket Greeny Saga had all four.

Just a few minor complaints.
The ending was ambiguous. What happens next? Socket is awake now, does he stay awake? Does he drift off again?
What about the grimmets? Did they die at the end? Or did they, and their world, survive?
Why did Socket stay sane and human when others just like him did not?
The hallucinogenic sequences during the testing and training were a bit much.

But overall, this was excellent. Tony has a generous offer in the end of the Nook version to request any free E book from him. After reading The Socket Greeny Saga you can bet I quickly took him up on his offer!