Strong tea and good books

Invincible, book 8 in the Lost Fleet series, and book 2 of the Beyond the Frontier story continues with the Alliance Fleet exploring unknown space with unknown alien species.

It has been several months since I'd finished a book, I'd attempted to read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but couldn't get into it, perhaps not being in the right frame of mind. Then this arrives in the post, from Amazon, having pre-ordered it months ago.

So I started reading it, I couldn't resist catching up on what happens next to Geary and the Alliance Fleet, and knowing it will be a while until the next one, I took more time in reading this. It has got me back in the mood for reading once again.

Now not only does it the story go to places that I didn't expect it to go, with there being (SPOILER) not one but two new alien races encountered, the Bear-Cows and the Spider-Wolves (whom's names change during the book), it also sees the Fleet coming back towards human space a lot sooner than I was expecting, and that's actually something that excites me.

It is the political machinations and motivations back in Alliance Space, and the reasons for what they did in trying to hinder the fleet and what is actually happening back in the Alliance that is now intriguing me in this series. I am left pondering what will eventually happen when Geary and the fleet get back (if they do) to Alliance space and how the story continues from there.

In the meantime I'll just to wait for the Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight to hit the shelves in October. Birthday present for myself? While also waiting for the next Beyond the Frontier book.

Not sure about this one, can't see how this would work in the UK in terms of motivating staff. The idea of forcing yourself to be happy at work seems... silly.

Some ideas here, presented in a somewhat simple and contrived form, that may work in real life. Only way to find out is to try them.

Perhaps my mood for reading this wasn't right, or perhaps I just could not get into it. Page 236 is where I am up to and I've left it for almost two months without having the will nor inclination to continue.

I think there is a good story here, but perhaps one that needs extracting from a novel that I found difficult to maintain an interest in. I may return to this later and amend my review but for the moment, couldn't finish equals one star!

‘THERE IS DEATH HERE’

One of the best lines from this novel, stated matter of factly, by the Dra’azon to the protagonist and his crew as they approach the Land of the Dead planet.

Although you don't know this at the time, later you realise that this is information as to what awaits them when they land. Depending on your intepretation, that could be the bodies of changers and Idirans, or fate of the protagonist and his crew.

Consider Phlebas is a very visual book and I can see why Banks would like to see this one filmed, it would be interesting to see a director's take on the number of action set-pieces which remain vividly in the memory: fight under the hovercraft; the megaship crashing into the iceberg; the game of Damage being played at the massive space orbital; the ship Clear Air Turbulence escaping from inside the somewhat larger ship, The Ends of Invention; and the final train wreck.

Banks' novel is very different to that written by a lot of American authors, it is not 'gung-ho', there is no clear good or evil side as the lines are blurred, and the backdrops and environments are a mere aid to the telling of the story.

It is also quite dark, not as dark as the Revelation Space series by Alistair Reynolds, but darker than say the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton. Both series I would highly recommend, for different reasons.

It is the first book in the Culture series, and the first book in that series and by Banks that I have read. I am sure I will continue with the series but I am not sure how it will all link up at present (if at all) and I did not find it gripping enough to want to read the next one straight away.

Alone in Berlin is set during the Second World War and is based on a true story, of a couple who opposed the Nazi regime after the loss of a family member. Written by Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen under his pseudonym 'Hans Fallada' (taken from the Grimm Fairy Tales) in 1946 and published posthumously in 1947.

Ditzen himself was an opponent of the Nazi regime who remained in Germany throughout the time the Nazis were in power and who was a famous author in Germany before the war. Although he opposed the regime, he was not vocal about it and had to be mindful of what he chose to write about in novels, for fear of being persecuted.

This story, was written shortly after the end of the Second World War from source documents handed to him by a friend. He wrote the novel in nine weeks but never lived to see it published, dying in December 1946. The novel was a commercial success in Germany, it took however until 2009 for it to be translated into English for the first time, in the US, under the title 'Every Man Dies Alone', and in the UK, as 'Alone in Berlin'.

A novel about resistance to the Nazi regime in Germany, it is both powerful and challenging, and explore many complicated themes. A recommended read for those interested in the period or the genre.

One thousand nine hundred and seventy four pages of plot development and world building. All the plot devices, all the ideas, and all the characters you introduced and developed, and you give me that for an ending. How could you.

I've had books conclude unsatisfactorily before, at least to me, I've been disappointed at endings before, but never have I felt so empty after concluding a series that I have put so much time and energy into reading as I did at the end of this book.

An antagonist, a mysterious group of machines that eradicate starfaring intelligent life in the galaxy were slowly revealed over the course of the trilogy, and humanity's discovery and subsequent struggle with these inhibitors became the driving force and main focus point of the series. These eradictors of life's purpose and reasoning was only revealed periodically, and skillfully.

They are again the focus of this third novel, and all the other plot developments and stories that intertwine in this novel are building towards an epic conclusion, to a stage where all the strands are to be tied up and a definitive ending is given to the opposing forces of humanity's right to exist and the inhibitors attempts to wipe out starfaring life. But what is the ending? It's a damp squib, it is so vague, so ill-defined and so not an ending that there should be a fourth book in the series, and yet the epilogue, all four ambiguous pages of it, prevents that.

Consequently I had to come on here and read what others felt about the novel and the series and there are a couple of paragraphs of this review that capture my feelings upon finishing the novel.

"the novel sets up all of the counter-plotting admirably, it does so very slowly to build ambiance. Very Slowly. Glacially, even. And frustratingly, there's almost no payoff for it. ... The conclusion is also a staggering cop-out. All of the preparation our characters perform, all of their investigations, new technologies, and even the Shadows and Wolves themselves, are effectively hurled into the nearest landfill, and an ending completely out of right field is bolted on as an afterthought.

I find myself in complete agreement. The Wolves/Inhibitors that have been built up over 3 books of almost 2000 pages in length are just thrown out at the end and made to appear inconsequential. The Shadows that are slowly developed in the latter half of the third novel, and which appear to be key, are also just thrown out at the end as some sort of test, that there is in fact some invisible and secret third force at play that is judging humanity. This is ill-defined by Reynolds, it is ill-conceived as well, but it just makes all of the rest of the characters and development meaningless.

It appears to me that Reynolds just did not know how to end this series, he'd set it all up for a thrilling conclusion and then just couldn't end it satisfactorily.

So Shaun is right when he states "This is probably the worst betrayal I've felt after finishing a space opera of any length. The characters' efforts are unimportant; the antagonists ultimately moot; the conclusion is only tangentially related to the rest of the novel. Reynolds invoked deus ex machina here, but did so by alluding to a circular time loop which is supposed to tie everything up in a neat, depressing little bow. Instead, it cheapens the struggles of every character introduced in the novel, reduces their travails to drab, pointless endeavors full of eloquent prose that accomplishes approximately nothing."

I feel robbed.

And yet I still liked the novel, I still liked the series, and so despite my disappointment, I can only knock off one star, although I may come back at a later point and make it two.

The second book in the Revelation Space series I found this to be a significant improvement and far more enthralling than the first, which was slow to develop.

Events from the first book are taken forward a level here. Some that were merely hinted at become central to this book, while there are traces of the effects of events in the first, throughout the second book.

The main storyline, of a machine intelligence bent on wiping out all starfaring sentient species continues, however unlike the previous book there is a more clearly defined story arc to Redemption Ark and a focus on developing the story to such an extent that you are completely enthralled in finding out more and more.

The characters in this book are also further developed than the first, and we are introduced to Clavain, an interesting character and one with many conflicts in his head.

The third book has already been ordered, about a hundred pages before I finished this one. This is a worthy read and I recommend the series to all science fiction fans.

Being both informative and amusing, this is a worthy investment for any expectant dad in need of some knowledge and advice. A book that goes through the different stages of pregnancy and post-natal periods, with advice and information each time, imparted with a sense of humour and accessibility. Highly recommended.

A fascinating concept, one where humanity discovers an asteroid, hollowed out and developed into a space station by a seemingly extinct species. A space station that has thousands of spaceships that carry either 1, 3, or 5 persons and go to destinations that are unknown.

The protagonist, Robinette, develops throughout the story in an interesting way, and this mainly occurs through the use of an artificially intelligent psychiatrist, Sigfrid, who is counselling Robinette after Robinette has become wealthy and returned to earth.

The reasons behind all this, and the facts behind Gateway, are gradually revealed until at the end it all comes together and the story, to me, suddenly becomes so much better than it had looked like being up to that point.

A classic in the science fiction genre, clearly Frederik Pohl's masterpiece. Strongly recommended.

A good post-apocalytical story about how society is rediscovering the science that has been secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of Saint Isaac Leibowitz. It goes through many years of what these Monks do, how they preserve the knowledge and how society re-emerges. I found it to be a good book, but not a great one.

Epic.

Part mystery, part science fiction, part detective story, and part adventure story, the only word to describe Pandora's Star is epic. Perhaps not in quality as it is in scale, time, and characters. At over a 1,000 pages this is a long book, and one with a whole cast of characters, two pages in fact, at the beginning of the book.

The first 100 pages or so see you switch between different characters without ever revisiting one, and it is not like there aren't frequent changes in perspective.

Spanning hundreds of years of human history this first book in the Commonwealth Saga is merely the first half of a long and epic story of human existence.

Opening with the first human landing on Mars, the significance of the prologue was completely lost on me to such an extent that the last few paragraphs were something I don't remember reading. The weight of what happened, which carries on throughout the book, doesn't hit you upon first reading.

That being said there are numerous plot twists, developing storylines, and sub-plots that build and build towards the end, and it is often not until you reach nearer the end that you understand the relevance of them to the overall story.

None of the sub-plots is more important to the overall story than the development of the Guardians of Selfhood from fringe radicals to a cause that may have been right all along, and the reader takes the journey with the other characters.

Moving away from the story, and onto that character list, some of them are not important and probably do not need to be on there, and some of the character's importance is not realised until nearer the and, such as Mellanie Rescorai. The existence of Tara Jennifer Shaheef and Morton is purely to provide a way of introducing her to the storyline.

Whereas the importance or lack thereof of Mark Vernon and others is yet to be discovered.

One of the more fascinating facets of the book is how society has adapted to eternal life and faster than light travel, and how the culture and common threads of modern life adapted and changed as a result, such as many marriages, a more long-term view on life and the universe, and the treatment of crime and murder.

It is only really late in the book that the mystery surrounding the Dyson Stars is part revealed and we are introduced to the Primes, and the main antagonist of the series is revealed. The development and culture of this race was interesting and well developed by the author.

Pandora's Star is definitely an epic book, and definitely the first half of what is correctly called a Saga, and I am looking forward to reading the next, despite the size.

It was the size of the book that did let it down, at almost 1150 pages, the pacing and plot development was a little on the slow side and getting the book under a thousand or maybe to 900 would have made it a whole lot faster and more enjoyable.

Rendezvous with Rama is a science fiction mystery as the solar system encounters a spacecraft that has come from the far reaches of space and is immense in scale. Clarke’s style and storytelling is unlike any other science fiction author that I have read, there is no dumping of science upon you, there is no false suspense created, there is only a gradual unravelling of the plot and the detail that keeps you reading on and on.

This book is one of his classics in terms of its popularity and is one of his books that are a first introduction for them to Clarke’s work. As is often the case for science fiction from the golden period, there is an assumption that the human race would develop a lot faster than it did and would colonise other worlds. Mercury is colonised in the novel, as is the Moon and Mars, which I find a little far fetched, especially Mercury.

The novel is interesting however, the concept is amazing, and the story carries you along.

This is not a novel, at not even 200 pages, and with large writing and generous spacing, not to mention frequent changes in character perspective that takes up half a page each time, it might just about be a novella in length. So short that I finished it in 3 hours.

There is some trepidation in slating this, it was bought for me by a very close friend, and I know he loves it, and slating something bought for you is not very polite, so I apologise in advance for giving this my honest opinion.

"You'll bite your pillow laughing" says Arena Magazine (A lad's mag I'd never heard of until I looked it up.)

I didn't laugh once while reading it, not one snigger, chuckle, or moment of amusement occurred during the reading of this.

Palahniuk has merely taken a subject area not often written about, the world of hardcore porn, and tried to make some sort of social commentary on it, maybe. That's the thing though, what is it about, what is it looking to achieve, what point is Palahniuk trying to make.

For he must be attempting to make some sort of point as the story itself is almost non-existent. You can sum it up in less than a paragraph.

Ageing pornstar attempts to make a ton of money for child given up for adoption 20 years ago by having sex with 600 men in one session, filming it, and hopefully dying at the end. Told from the perspective of Sheila, her wrangler, and three of the men, one who started her in porn, a scandal hit TV actor, and someone who might be her son and thinks he is.

The whole story, summarised above, seems to exist merely as a vehicle for anecdotes and stories about how actors and actresses kept themselves beautiful and/or launched themselves (screaming with strep throat for a manly voice; cutting a heel on one shoe shorter to make the ass grind together sexily; Hitler inventing the first sex doll; Marie Provost being partially eaten by her starving dog when she died in her apartment).

If not anecdotes, then descriptions of the ageing pornstars former films which in themselves merely exist to state the name of the film, which will be a pun. The Italian Hand Job, Chitty Chitty Gang Bang, World Whore One, The Importance of Balling Ernest, and Bang the Bum slowly. These may be inventive, or just taken from actual films, either way, they're not amusing.

Pick a random page in the book and on one of those two pages opened will be an anecdote, story, like the above, or a description of one of the porn films together with the name of it. Quite remarkable considering how spaced out the text is.

There is little to differentiate the characters, there is no real plot, and the ending has no redeeming quality. My expectation of some sort of twist or incredible ending that changes your whole perception of the story, such as at the end of Fight Club, does not happen and it just fizzles out.

Merely writing about the making of a porn flick does not make a novel.

It has been hard to rate this book, there are elements which are deserving of 3 stars, and then those that are worthy of 4 stars. Either way it remains an interesting and engaging start to a series, introducing slowly, the world which Weber has constructed to the reader.

There are some strange decisions on the authors part in this book, none more so than when the climatic battle scene is interrupted to give a long detailed history on faster than light travel and how the technology was developed.

On the other hand, the effects of moving into a new workplace environment, the challenges that brings, especially when coming in as the boss, and the way Honor has to win respect and acceptance after some setbacks is intelligently handled and written well.

One of the main interests for me was the political element, often glossed over by other authors, that lies behind the Republic of Haven, and the Royal Kingdom of Manticore. This developed and explained culture is both interesting and well developed, and as the series continues, hopefully this will continue to develop and expand.

The political staging is good, and it is immediately obvious to me that Manticore's political system and style of Government is based on Great Britain, mixing elements of 19th century Britain with that of the current day.

The politics, military battles, and developing characters (that hopefully don't all get killed off), combined with a good plot, means I will be reading the next in the series.

This novel surprised me in two ways, two good ways. I expected it to be heavily focused on the First World War, and it is, to a point. I also expected to know how it was going to end, but I was wrong.

The changing time-frames that are inter-woven, together with the scene setting opening were a joy to read as the story moved along to gradually and ever so sweetly bring it all together into a wholesome end.

I did not race through this book, I am not sure one should, it is something to be enjoyed and taken in as you experience the First World War and all its brutality, as you experience the story of a man with no home trying to survive the war.

The most surprising part for me was that Stephen, the main protagonist, had an ending I did not expect, but my expectation of that ending changed many times towards the conclusion of the novel as new information was introduced until I was on my fourth thought for how it would end, only to be surprised again. For me, a novel that achieves that is remarkable.

I was so enthralled as I came near the end that I just had to finish it in one stint, despite that, it falls short of being an amazing novel for me, though I may revise that in the future. Do check out the BBC miniseries that captured the novel so well.