Ghost in the Shell — James Swallow

Ghost in the Shell -- James SwallowBasically, it’s just the film in writing.   Which, if you’re just wanting to read what happens in the film, then great, but personally i feel that this is just totally lazy on the part of the writer: or maybe this is all they were told to do by the rights holder???

The great thing about books, as opposed to film, is that you don’t have to pay for the sets, the extra cameras, the costumes, etc..   In a book the writer is simply limited by their own imagination and language skills, whereas in a film the director/writers are totally and absolutely constrained by finite resources such as finances, but also logistics, cgi limitations, the human elements of everyone involved (remember the pandemic and the disruption that caused to films and tv shows?) and many other things besides.   So to sit down and write a novel based upon a film, one would think a really good writer would have a fucking field day with it, but, with Ghost in the Shell, they didn’t.

Like is say, maybe this was the brief, and when someone throws a bag of money in the direction of writers and tells them what they want writing i would imagine they’ll get plenty of writers clamouring to take on such an easy task as this “novelisation” must have been.

At less than 2300 Kindle Loc points you’re pushing it to label this as a novel anyway.   At this length you’re seriously riding the boundaries between novella and novel.

I suppose they didn’t want to upset the film fans who only have attention spans of two hours.

So yeah, sadly, a total let down.   There could have been so much more background and detail that could have really added to the story.   A seriously wasted opportunity.

James’ Page

#scifi #cyberpunk #jamesswallow

The Slow Sad Suicide of Rohan Wijeratne — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

The Slow Sad Suicide of Rohan Wijeratne -- Yudhanjaya WijeratneI came across Yudhanjaya’s writing in the anthology 2054, where i found his very enjoyable Deep Ocean Blues.   So having really enjoyed that novella i thought i’d go and have a hunt around and see what else Yudhanjaya has written.

The Slow Sad Suicide of Rohan Wijeratne is, i believe, Yudhanjaya’s first book, albeit just a short story.   It tells the tale of a poor little rich kid who has never had to work for anything and has essentially squandered his life.   He’s now so fed up with his pointless rich existence he just spends his time trying to kill himself.   But he’s so rich his parents had him filled with nanites that heal his every wound and illness, preventing him from ending his own life, no matter how hard he tries.

Then, one day, while driving a tuk tuk, Rohan hears about a space program wanting volunteers to be shot straight into a black hole: even the nanites won’t save him this time.

All in all, this is a really good short story, well written, but it does get lost here and there in the terminology and theories of black holes.   But Rohan is also completely lost with all the science of it, his nanites stopped working after 30 years in cryo-sleep to get to the black hole and he’s lost a lot of his intelligence.   Essentially, being baffled by all the science nonsense puts you right in the mind of Rohan as he plummets into the abyss.   Have fun!

Yudhanjaya’s next book is Numbercaste, which i shall get around to reading at some point in the future.

Yudhanjaya’s Page

#scifi #yudhanjayawijeratne

Fugitive Telemetry — Martha Wells

Fugitive Telemetry -- Martha WellsAlthough Fugitive Telemetry is tagged as book 6 and Network Effect is tagged as book 5, it seems to me that Fugitive Telemetry is in the time line before Network Effect.   If i read this series again, i would read Fugitive Telemetry before Network Effect.

As to the story:

Murderbot finds himself still on Preservation Station with Dr. Mensah, waiting for the inevitable visit from GrayCris agents when he ends up getting involved in a murder investigation.   Dr. Mensah thinks it would do him some good to work with station security and port authority agents, and so Murderbot decides to help.

This is one of those, no-one-trusts-the-AI-murder-machine, stories, with murderbot having to become a more public person now that it is going to be hanging around with Dr. Mensah doing her security.   But how can Murderbot help in the investigation if it’s not allowed access to any non-public systems and no one else on the investigation trusts it?

All in all, it’s really good but, like i mention, the timeline is a bit screwy and the flow between books could be better managed as it was in the earlier books where it was clear that where we started one book where we left off the previous book.

Martha’s Page

#scifi #marthawells

Tales from High Hallack Volume Three — Andre Norton

Tales from High Hallack Volume Three -- Andre Norton

Auôur the Deepminded
No Folded Hands
Bard’s Crown
Frog Magic
Herne’s Lady
The Outling
Stonish Men
Churchyard Yew
Root and Branch Shall Change
White Violets
Needle and Dream
Procession to Var
Set in Stone
Ravenmere
Three-Inch Trouble
The End is the Beginning
The Familiar
Red Cross, White Cross
Sow’s Ear–Silk Purse
The Cobwebbed Princess
Faire Likeness

Andre’s Page

#andrenorton

Tales from High Hallack Volume Two — Andre Norton

Tales from High Hallack Volume Two -- Andre Norton

Freedom
Cats
Song of the Barbarian Swordsman
The Last Cohort
Swamp Dweller
Get Out of My Dream!
Of the Shaping of Ulm’s Heir
Rider on a Mountain
The Silent One
The Nabob’s Gift
Nine Threads of Gold
A Very Dickensy Christmas
Noble Warrior
Hob’s Pot
Noble Warrior Meets with a Ghost
Noble Warrior, Teller of Fortunes
Noble Warrior and the “Gentleman”

Andre’s Page

#andrenorton

Tales from High Hallack Volume One — Andre Norton

Tales from High Hallack Volume One -- Andre Norton

The Last Spell
Sword of Unbelief
Earthborn: A Witch World Story
That Which Overfloweth
By a Hair
The Gifts of Asti
Falcon Blood
The Dowry of the Rag Picker’s Daughter
All Cats Are Gray
The Way Wind
Black Irish
The Boy and the Ogre
Through the Needle’s Eye
The Toymaker’s Snuffbox
Ully the Piper
Dream Smith
One Spell Wizard
London Bridge

Andre’s Page

#andrenorton

Network Effect — Martha Wells

Network Effect -- Martha WellsThe next Murderbot installment after Home.

After all the previous books that have all been novellas and two short stories, this book is like The Big Book of Murderbot.   At over 5000 Loc points this is a book to really settle down with and enjoy for a while.

So yeah, lots and lots more of Murderbot shenanigans, with Murderbot finding himself kidnapped, kidnapped again, and then held hostage and lots of other enjoyable escapades besides.   And Murderbot even seems to make a few friends along the way.

Only two books to go after this, i do hope there’s more because Murderbot is one brilliant protagonist.

Next up, Fugitive Telemetry.

Martha’s Page

#scifi #marthawells