Once again I've not been finding time to properly write up the books I've been reading so just a few words on each of my last couple of month's books.
March
Jack Four by Neal Asher
A good if, by Asher’s standards, a slightly simple book. It is single threaded with the entire book being from the perspective of Jack Four rather than the multiple POVs usually favoured by Asher. Otherwise, it is standard, reliable Asher with excellent action and pacing and lots of weird alien lifeforms vividly brought to life. There is a sequel that I’m looking forward to though it’s only due out in hardback this month so it will be a while before it’s at a price I will pay! 4/5 stars
Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago
I didn’t really get on with this, my first Saramago. I was immediately put off by the abandoning of all dialogue grammar; no quotes and no paragraph breaks for each voice and few periods. The only hint being a capital letter at the start of each different voice (not much use if it begins with a capital letter anyway). As far as I can see all it achieves is to make the book harder to read. The story doesn’t really get going until at least halfway through with the first half being a long drawn-out intro to the concept of death going on strike and how that’s not quite as good a thing as people might initially think. All very surreal and weird with lots of very clever writing but it all felt a bit smug, a bit see-what-I-did-there-aren’t-I-clever sort of thing. 3/5 stars
The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
Another good volume in this series of alternate history hard SF. My only complaint is still much the same, the two main female protagonists presented so far both have major issues that would surely have prevented them becoming astronauts and yet there they are in the first half dozen female astronauts in this alternate history. All very empowering, maybe, for people that suffer from anxiety or anorexia but at the levels these two suffer it does rather stretch my credulity. But, for me, the books survive this by virtue of their excellent hard science and engineering detail and good well told stories. 4/5 stars
Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
I thoroughly enjoyed Wilson’s Spin books and this is my first book outside that series which I have also enjoyed though maybe not quite as much. He does a good line in hard SF pushed to the extreme limits. In this respect he is similar to Jeffrey A Carver’s Chaos Chronicles; both play with the possibilities of concepts at the leading edge of current science, like dark matter, quantum physics, multiple dimensions etc., pushing them in extreme but just about plausible directions. So, interesting, weird science and a good story but I do feel that Wilson tries too hard with his characterisation sometimes (not his strongest point anyway). On a couple of occasions in this book he introduces new characters with several pages of back story just to kill them off a couple of pages later. All to put a POV in a particular place to witness and event that didn’t really need a witness. Still all in all not a bad book. 3/5 stars
Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
This is a bit of a completionist book. I have read two Murakami books now 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore and loved them both sufficiently to go back and work my way through all his works in order. This, his first book, is nowhere near his later brilliance but it is very interesting in that the reader can see elements of the more mature Murakami already there. In particular, his style of writing about the mundane and prosaic in such an engaging and poetic manner that it somehow rises above the mundane. I did enjoy it, but any reader should be aware that it is all very stream of consciousness with really very little happening and no discernible plot. This is also consistent with later Murakami which so often seems to be more about the journey than the arrival, only mature Murakami does it so much better! Of interest is that in a forward to this book, written by Murakami much later, he says “It is with love mingled with a bit of embarrassment that I call these two works [this one and Pinball] my kitchen-table novels.” and goes on to say that he only submitted it to one publisher (a magazine) who never return the original manuscripts of rejections and it was his only copy! He states that if it had been rejected he probably would not have continued his nascent writing career! 3/5 stars
Clarissa Oakes (aka The Truelove) by Patrick O’Brian
Another excellent volume in O’Brian’s Maturin and Aubrey books. Lots of interesting action with rather more emphasis on the internal social goings on within the crew of the ship. 4/5 stars
The Reefs of Time by Jeffrey A Carver
I do love these Chaos Chronicles of Carver’s he pushes his science just as far as he can whilst still staying grounded in known hard science. Sometimes a tenuous fine line to walk but he mostly does it with aplomb and all wrapped up in engaging stories with engaging characters. I felt the ending left the reader hanging rather but, in fairness, Carver did originally intend the last two books in this series to be a single volume but they grew rather too big for that! 4/5 stars
Wool (omnibus) by Hugh Howey
I have seen very mixed reviews of this one (originally several short stories/novellas I believe) and whilst I will admit that it does at times get a bit crushingly oppressive and claustrophobic, I found the plot and characters engaging enough to carry me through. I am sufficiently intrigued to continue with the series. 4/5 stars
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Another rather strange Japanese book and one that is a little reminiscent of Murakami in that they both have a similar ability at writing the prosaic in utterly captivating and beguiling ways. I think this book also presents an important message about people who live quite happily outside the norms of society but are constantly pressured to conform with those norms, which inevitably is going to end in tears. I wonder if this is even more relevant to Japanese culture which always seems to me to be slightly obsessed with conformity. A very good, haunting and strangely beautiful short book. 4/5 stars
Desolation Road by Ian McDonald
The forward by Adam Roberts talks about the influence of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude which, having had the hint, is really pretty obvious. However, sadly, McDonald is not the writer that Marquez was; where Marquez’s magical elements were subtle, his prose immaculate and the construction of one hundred years superb, McDonald’s magical elements are clumsy and really didn’t fit with the science fiction story, his prose rather less than immaculate and the way the whole book is constructed from dozens of short vignettes simply does not flow, giving an uneven staccato reading experience. In fairness this was, I think, McDonalds first book so maybe trying to emulate Marquez might have been a little ambitious. 3/5 stars
Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Another excellent novella length story from Tchaikovsky; he really does do this size of book very well! He introduces an intriguing set up and back story and then adds an even more intriguing mystery and the ending is remarkably satisfying considering how much he leaves (deliberately) unrevealed and still a mystery. Yet the essential elements of the story are all neatly tied up. It’s hard to say much more without giving the story away. A great little science fiction story neatly mashed up with elements of fantasy. 4/5 stars