Category: Reviewed

Pushing Ice — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Pushing Ice -- Alastair ReynoldsAnother one of those super long 10000+ Loc point novels that Alastair seems to enjoy writing.

The story starts with an ice pusher, named Rockhopper. Rockhopper is a big space ship that finds valuable comets, etc., around the solar system, attaches big mass drivers to them and pushes them wherever they’re needed in the solar system for their materials: ergo “Pushing Ice”. It just so happens that Rockhopper ends up as the only space ship owned by the big corporations that is capable of catching up with one of Saturn’s moons that has just decided to fly away from Saturn and the rest of the solar system.

And thus begins the big chase, with mutinies, murders, aliens, and all kinds of other mayhem thrown in for good measure: did i mention there’s 10000+ Loc points of this?

It does begin fairly slow going but as you go along it all picks up speed as the stakes become higher and higher and by the last third of the book i was in couldn’t-put-it-down mode, turning pages at any brief opportunity life presented.

Super good, and it’s also left very well open for another episode should Alastair ever wish to let us have some more: please can we have some more, Alastair?

And next book on the Alastair time line will be Feeling Rejected, from 2005.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

The Frost on Jade Buds — Aliette de Bodard

By 5t4n5

The Frost on Jade Buds -- Aliette de BodardWhen i first read all the Xuya stories i didn’t have a copy of this one because i refused to be ridiculed by some luddite (whoever dictates the pricing for the Solaris Rising anthologies) with their ridiculous pricing tactics, so, sadly, i just had to skip over it in the timeline.   But i never stopped hoping that one day Aliette would take back control and release this in a more reasonably priced, ebook, alternative, and she did: thank you Aliette!

You can find this in the collection The Dragon that Flew Out of the Sun and Other Stories, and hopefully like me you’ll just stop whatever it is that you’re doing and dive straight back into the Xuya-verse and get some reading done.   This has been a long time coming.

My other thought was that i really needed to reacquaint myself with the series before beginning this story, so i jumped back one story to A Slow Unfurling of Truth and re-read that to settle back in.   And i have to say, i’m really glad i did.

While the Xuya stories jump around the galaxy quite a lot, you do occasionally get two or three books that run in a sort of mini-series, and The Frost on Jade Buds certainly follows on wonderfully from A Slow Unfurling of Truth.

What struck me this time with A Slow Unfurling of Truth that i didn’t pick up on last time is how much of these stories are influenced by Aliette’s heritage.   One can see so many similarities between Earth’s Western countries and the Galactics lining up against Earth’s Eastern countries being represented by the Scattered Pearls Belt: a daughter with one parent from each caught between.   Both books are brilliantly written and a must read as a pair.

All i can hope for now is some more Xuya books to fill the later years of my life: such a great universe.   Meanwhile, i’m definitely planning to begin reading the rest of Aliette’s other stories once i’ve finished reading all of P. Djèlí Clark’s books (only three of those to go).

Aliette’s Page

#scifi #aliettedebodard

Lily, the Immortal — Kylie Lee Baker

By 5t4n5

Lily, the Immortal -- Kylie Lee BakerA rather good, thought provoking story concerning internet celebrities and what may happen to them after they die.

Imagine if some big corporation somehow obtained the rights to the social media channel, used all those hundreds of hours of footage to produce a deep fake, and then continued to use that celebrity for their own marketing purposes in whatever way they chose.   And what about the loved ones left behind?

Best of all, you can read it for free over at Uncanny Magazine.   There’s a podcast version but it doesn’t really work as the lesbian narrator of the story is being read by a man.   It’s like getting a white cis-gender heterosexual to play a black transgender lesbian in a film.

Kylie’s Page

#kylieleebaker

Everlasting — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Everlasting -- Alastair ReynoldsYou’ll find this in the collection, Zima Blue and Other Stories.

This is one of those “many-worlds interpretation” stories.   To be honest, i place this sort of nonsense firmly in the same box as flat earth twaddle and god grovelling.

I take from this story that Alastair also thinks “many-worlds interpretation” is a load of nonsense as well and if you truly believe in it then get a gun and keep playing Russian roulette, because obviously one of you keeps surviving so you can’t really die.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

The Paladin of Golota — P. Djèlí Clark

By 5t4n5

The Paladin of Golota -- P. Djèlí ClarkOnce again, Djèlí writes the perfect short story, this one about zealots going to the battle fields of Golota to kill and die for their respective gods.

On the floor dying, is Zahrea, one of the zealots, and waiting to pick her body clean of valuables is Teffe, a picker, one of the local orphans who survive by combing the fields after each battle for anything worth selling.   Teffe doesn’t believe in gods but while he waits for Zahrea to die he has no choice but to listen to everything she has to say about that.

Super good.

This is available in the periodical, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly — Issue 37.

Next up on Djèlí’s timeline, from 2019, is The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington

P. Djèlí Clark’s Page

#fantasy #pdjeliclark

The Real Story — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

The Real Story -- Alastair ReynoldsIt’s the real story about the first person to land on Mars.

A reporter gets a message from Mars that she believes can only have come from the person that were first to land there, the person who has been missing ever since.   So off she goes to meet them to get the story of the decade.

Super good writing with a really well done take on Dissociative Identity Disorder, and a wonderful base jumping experience that’s not to be missed out on.

After Fresco, which i felt was well below par for Alastair, this was definitely back to his usual high standards of sci-fi.

If ya wanna read you’ll find this in the collection, Zima Blue and Other Stories.

Next up in Alastair’s bibliography is Century Rain from 2004: his very first super length novel.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

The Angel of Khan el-Khalili — P. Djèlí Clark

By 5t4n5

The Angel of Khan el-Khalili -- P. Djèlí ClarkThe second story from the Dead Djinn Universe, which i only just got hold of with it having been quite some time since i finished the other three books (silly me thought it was a trilogy).   But not to worry, while it would have been better to have read it before The Haunting of Tram Car 015, it was very much worth reading still and doesn’t detract from anything i’ve already read in this series.

Once again, all the super good writing we’ve come to enjoy from Djèlí, my only question would be is will there be any more Cairo books?   I do so hope so, this is a fantastic world Djèlí has created that begs to be explored a lot more.   And i totally recommend this whole series for everyone, even if you’re not already into steampunk flavoured fantasy with a North African twist you soon will be.

This is available in the anthologies, Clockwork Cairo and Swift the Chase, and also can be read for free over at Tor.com.

P. Djèlí Clark’s Page

#steampunk #fantasy #pdjeliclark

Fresco — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Fresco -- Alastair ReynoldsYou’ll find this in the collection, Deep Navigation.

A rather brief short story about an observatory near Jupiter that listens to broadcasts from other galaxies.

I get the idea that this should be a prequel to something: not sure what the point is being on its own.   Ho hum.

Next in the timeline from Alastair, it’s The Real Story from 2002.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World — K. J. Parker

By 5t4n5

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World -- K. J. ParkerThe third instalment in The Siege.   The first two thirds of the trilogy were excellent, this book has a lot to live up to.

As soon as i got a copy of this book i dropped everything else i was reading and jumped straight in: that’s how much i enjoyed the first two books of the trilogy.

Once more, great writing with great characters being forced into corners and having to do whatever it takes just to survive another hour or so, because you only need another hour or so to figure out how you can find a way to survive the next hour or so.   Fortunately for us avid readers our protagonists in these stories always find a way to keep surviving all those next hours or sos and thus the story keeps on rolling along with calamities and shenanigans abounding.

To be honest, i was sold on K. J. Parker’s writing after the first book, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, the second book, How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It, just confirmed that i wasn’t mistaken in my assessment, and this book now makes me realise that i’ve been missing out on some great writing for over 20 years, but hey, now i can go back and read the complete K. J. Parker back catalogue and really enjoy myself.

So yeah, if you’re looking for a good fun read then do give The Siege trilogy a go, i’m sure most people with even just a tiniest smattering of a sense of humour will enjoy these books.

K. J. Parker’s Page Tom Holt’s Page

#fantasy #kjparker