Review of This is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams

This near-future thriller has a feel of Charles Stross’s Halting State – apart from the second person viewpoint and constant dry humour. There is the same sense of everything teetering on the edge of precipice, ready to slide into chaos at a few keystrokes from the wrong sort of people…

Dagmar is a game designer trapped in Jakarta in the middle of a revolution. The city is tearing itself apart around her and she needs to get out. Her boss Charles has his own problems – 4.3 billion of them to be precise, hidden in an off-shore account. Austin is the businessman. He’s the one with the plan and the one to keep the geeks in line. BJ was there from the start, but while Charlie’s star rose, BJ sank into the depths of customer service. He pads his hours at the call centre slaying online orcs, stealing your lot and selling it on the internet.

They all knew each other at college. They all promised to keep in touch. But when one of them is caught up in an international emergency, they are all sucked into a series of events that changes everything.

This enjoyable adventure comes with a caveat – stick with it. The start is rather a slow burn, but once you get fully into Dagmar’s point of view, the pace picks up and the narrative voice starts to convince. The bursts of violence are wholly believable because of the horror experienced by the protagonist. All too often in such books, a major character pickforked into a shocking situation seems to take it far too much in her stride – not so here. Williams manages to make me feel the enormity of the events as they unfold and by the end, I was reading late into the wee small hours to discover exactly who was doing what – and had a thorough blast with the denouement and climactic ending.

It is the voice and pacing that slightly slips at times and I get the impression that Williams isn’t entirely happy writing from a feminine point of view. However, the story and scenario are sufficiently compelling that I was prepared to overlook the slight unevenness in the main protagonist. For those of you who don’t know my tastes – this is a big Get-Out-of-Jail card, as I’m a gal who zeroes in on characters all the way, and is a testament to the pulling power of the plot. While I’ve concentrated on the thriller aspect of this book, there are some really enjoyable touches of humour – Williams’ has great fun with his gamers and their responses to the unfolding drama – which both manages to give some welcome relief to the gritted tension elsewhere, yet also highlight the gravity of the underlying situation. It’s a neat trick to pull off.

This is the first in a trilogy and I’m delighted to have managed to track down the other two books in the series, Deep State and The Fourth Wall and shall be shortly tucking into them. Watch this space for more Williams’ adventures.
8/10

Review of EBOOK Principles of Angels – Book 1 of the Hidden Empire series by Jaine Fenn

I met Jaine Fenn at Bristolcon, where she was the sole female science fiction writer speaking on the various panels. I had a chance to chat to her during the evening and made a mental note to get hold of her writing. I’m very glad I did, as her debut novel on my Kindle made a long train journey zip by in a blur of excitement and action.

Khesh City floats above the surface of the uninhabitable planet of Vellern. Topside, it’s extravagant, opulent, luxurious; the Undertow is dark, twisted and dangerous. Khesh City is a place where nothing is forbidden – but it’s also a democracy, of sorts, a democracy by assassination, policed by the Angels, the elite, state-sponsored killers who answer only to the Minister, their enigmatic master. Taro lived with Malia, his Angel aunt, one of the privileged few, until a strange man bought his body for the night, then followed him home and murdered Malia in cold blood. Taro wants to find the killer who ruined his future, but he’s struggling just to survive in the brutal world of the Undertow. Elarn Reen is a famous musician, sent to Khesh City as the unwilling agent of mankind’s oldest enemy, the Sidhe. Though they come from different worlds, Taro and Elarn’s fates are linked, their lives apparently forfeit to other people’s schemes. As their paths converge, it becomes clear that the lives of everyone in Khesh City, from the majestic, deadly Angels to the barely-human denizens of the Undertow, are at risk. And Taro and Elarn, a common prostitute and an uncommon singer, are Khesh City’s only chance.

I know that my rant about blurting blurbs must be getting tedious – but I have heavily edited the above because if I hadn’t, you would have encountered a couple of major Spoilers in the opening action. Once more, I am grateful that I never read the back cover before starting a book.

So… this floating city with the privileged living a vastly better life than the underclass who – literally – struggle for survival under their feet – is it convincing and does it rise above the inevitable clichéd feel of that description? Yes – in my opinion it certainly does. And I’ve been startled to read some really unpleasant, sneering reviews about this book. What places it outside the norm for this genre is that Principles of Angels is completely character-driven. Perhaps the omission of a limited omniscient info-dump is perplexing some of those reviewing the book.  Well, it’s fine with me – I happen to think one of the reasons why Fantasy is currently trampling Science Fiction underfoot, is that the majority of best-selling Fantasy authors write punchy, character-led stories which readers find accessible and engrossing. And a large number of Science Fiction writers don’t…

Fenn drops her readers right into the middle of the action in Taro’s viewpoint as he battles for his life – his character sings off the pages from the start and continues to sparkle right through the book. He survives as a prostitute and while Fenn doesn’t flinch from showing us the seamy underbelly of such a trade, at no time does she slide into gratuitous detail. Overall, I felt the world-building was strong and convincing – we see slices of Khesh City from both above and below and I particularly liked Taro’s disorientation when he reaches Topside. The other detail in this book that I appreciated was the dialogue – complete with appropriate slang. Stupidity or absentmindedness (lethal when negotiating hanging walkways with holes or climbing nets) is known as being gappy; in comparison anything commendable is bolted.

The other main protagonist is off-world visitor, Elarn, who is on an unexpected singing tour. Her character is far more opaque – though it rapidly becomes clear that her tour is a cover for another mission. Khesh City is further fleshed out as we get to experience it through Elarn’s viewpoint as a newcomer with access to all the privilige and luxury the City has to offer. However, her plans quickly go awry when she encounters charismatic politician Salik Vidoran.

The pace sweeps onward from the first page and gets ever faster as we reach the climactic ending, which more or less ties everything up while leaving a couple of major issues dangling for the subsequent books in the series. Which means I’ve more opportunities to visit Fenn’s rich, engrossing world. Yay!
9/10

Review of Capacity – Book 2 of the Recursion trilogy by Tony Ballantyne

This apparently innocuous book comes with something of a health warning – it’s not a light read and if you’re trying to read with one eye on the computer/TV/games console, then this isn’t the book to attempt such multi-task tricks.

Society in the 23rd century runs smoothly and peacefully with the aid of Social Care operatives such as Judy 3. Meanwhile benevolent AIs, under the control of the near-mythical Watcher, seem to have solved all humankind’s problems, and with their aid humans have begun to explore the surrounding universe. But why does every AI that visits the planet Gateway commit suicide within just hours arriving there? Justinian Sibelius has now arrived on the planet to try and find a reason. Yet how can someone with merely human intelligence solve a puzzle that has defeated minds far great than his own – even that of the Watcher himself?

And what if the Watcher should turn out not to be as benevolent as people once believed?

This book bites into some really chewy subjects – the issue of VR versus the ‘atomic’ world, for instance. If a VR construct of a person is imprisoned and repeatedly raped and tortured, does that constitute a crime? Judy 3 of Social Care would argue – yes it does. However, the construct Kevin, who feels no conscience whatsoever, would claim that because he can easily clone yet another construct, then each one is worthless. What does this do to the issue of permanence and immortality? Who decides how humankind will age in this stable environment? And how does the right of the individual stack up against the needs of the many?

Ballantyne also examines the nature of intelligence, both human and non-human. As the complicated plot skips its non-linear path back and forth, he throws out a welter of information about this intriguing society where humankind is now in the hands of robotkind, who make the major decisions for them. But what then happens when for some reason, these apparently invincible AI’s with their ability to manipulate human emotion and behaviour, start malfunctioning? Who will be able to cope?

It is certainly an intriguing, thought provoking book that I’m very glad I picked up and read. But… I do think that Ballantyne has packed at least a couple of book-sized plots in this complex story and while I think he’s covered the concepts very well, I felt that I wanted to know more about all of his characters – with the exception of Judy, who I think is a triumph, given just how Other she is. However, Helen, Kevin and even Justinian could have done with a bit more character complexity and depth for me. It doesn’t help that while most of the time, Ballantyne’s prose is accomplished and effortlessly stylish, there were times when the dialogue became a bit clunky as the characters attempted to explain/expound their views regarding these weighty subjects.

That said, this book honourably fulfils one of the major briefs of science fiction – to look at major philosophical and moral issues that will probably affect our future and unpack them in a fictional backdrop. And for anyone who is at all interested in the possible future of our race against an increasing trend to resort to automate more and more aspects of our lives – this is a must-read.
8/10

Review of Journey Into Space by Toby Litt

This is a generation ship novel – a classic science fiction theme that has also been visited by Robert A. Heinlein in his book Orphans of the Sky, Paradises Lost by Ursula LeGuin and The Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolf to name but a few…
A vast generation ship hurtles away from a violent, troubled Earth to settle on a distant planet orbiting an alien star. Those who set out on this journey are long-since dead. Those who will arrive at their destination have yet to be born. For those who must live and die in the cold emptiness between the stars, there is only the claustrophobic permanence of non-being. Life lived in unending stasis.
Then the unthinkable happens: two souls – Auguste and Celeste – rebel. And from the fruit of their rebellion comes a new and powerful force which will take charge of the ship’s destiny.

Auguste and Celeste pine for the lost Earth they’ve never seen and it is this craving that draws them together. Auguste’s character is vividly depicted as his longing for Celeste merges with his attempts to describe weather events that he has never experienced. Litt’s writing ability fully flowers in the first section of this short novel as the interaction between the young teenagers is poetically described and the characters sing off the page – although I did find myself skimming through a very long Earth-like metaphor… I felt it was too heavy-handed a literary flourish at this crucial stage in the action.

However, Litt’s focus abruptly shifts from the young couple as events move onto the next two generations and we don’t get the same depth and complexity of characterisation with any of the subsequent protagonists. To be honest, I found some of the following events difficult to believe. The notion that someone as spoilt and self-centred as Three would devote whole years of her life to producing a letter – and why wouldn’t there be paper and writing implements on a colonial ship, anyhow?

As the years speed on by and the crew become increasingly alienated from their original Mission and more wrapped up in the capricious demands of their mentally challenged Captain, the novel lifts away from the character-led depiction of the beginning and into an omniscient viewpoint as Litt skims across the next major protagonists in his story, leading to the shocking end which I should have cared about a lot more than I actually did.

I found the notion that humans start behaving oddly when shut away from Earth-based sensory stimuli to be entirely believable. However, I do feel that in order to fully convince his readership that Three’s behaviour or the ending is a convincing outcome, Litt needed to spend more time and energy on the second half of the novel. It seems to be a book of two halves and the latter section simply does not live up to the shining promise of the beginning, which is a real shame. Litt is clearly a talented and extremely capable writer – the fact that this is still a book worth reading despite the rather perfunctory ending demonstrates this. If only he had continued writing with the same fire and conviction shown in the first section, I believe this could have rivalled the likes of LeGuin’s outstanding Paradises Lost. As it is, Journey Into Space is a thought provoking but ultimately flawed attempt to examine this fascinating concept.
7/10

Review of The Quiet War by Paul McAuley

This hard science fiction tale grabbed my attention because being a shallow sort, I loved the cool cover…

On twenty-third-century Earth, ravaged by climate change, political power has been grabbed by a few powerful families and their green saints. Millions of people, most little better than slaves, labour to rebuild ruined ecosystems. Those who fled Earth’s repressive regimes to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn live in a fantastic variety of habitats, some deep underground, others protected from inhospitable atmospheres by vast tents; all scientific utopias crammed with exuberant inventions of the genetic arts.

But the fragile peace between Earth and the colonies is threatened by the Outers’ growing ambitions to spread out through the Solar System, pushing human evolution forward. On Earth argument rages: whether to take pre-emptive action against the Outers, or to exploit their scientific talents. Amidst all the debating and turmoil, war between the two branches of humanity moves ever closer.

This book looks at a familiar conflict point much explored by the likes of Alistair Reynolds, Eric Brown and Iain M. Banks – that of humanity diverging as the diaspora start living in space. McAuley, like a number of other science fiction writers, trained as a scientist and this becomes apparent in the loving detail he lavishes on the extra-terrestrial vegetation that the Outers manage to establish in all sorts of unlikely nooks – like Callisto and Titan, for instance.

So, how ably does he handle this ambitious tale that spans a number of far-flung settings, with six main characters? Is the characterisation sufficiently complex and compelling? Do the passages concentrating on the extra-terrestrial eco-systems silt up the narrative pace and get in the way of the book’s message?

While there are six viewpoint characters, it is Macey Minnot and Professor Doctor Sri Hong-Owen whose stories drive most of the action. McAuley has tweaked this familiar territory in interesting ways – while we are given a ringside seat into the slow, inexorable slide into war, all the main characters including Macey and Sri are all underlings, hemmed in by a strict chain of command. Not one of them are free to follow their own wishes – and when any of them try to do so, the consequences are dramatic and dangerous. This gives the reader a first-hand appreciation of the limits experienced by the Earth-based characters, both good and bad. However, it is interesting that we are not privy to any Outer viewpoint. I’m wondering whether McAuley covers the experiences of that faction in detail in the sequel, Gardens of the Sun. I’m not willing to believe that this was just some random omission – McAuley is too careful a craftsman to make such a basic mistake.

I particularly enjoyed Macey and Sri who are both well rounded, complex creations – neither are innately likeable, yet I was able to empathise with their dilemmas as the stakes become ever higher in the increasingly febrile political situation. It was interesting to compare how both women deal with the unfolding conflict, given that there are some obvious similarities along with their very different backgrounds. There is an implicit suggestion that had Macey enjoyed Sri’s advantages, she could have achieved similar success and status. McAuley does an effective job of providing a sophisticated Earth society with a variety of influences and differing agendas, while the Outer factions are less well defined. Though, I’m betting he’s going to get round to those in due course.

Loc Ifrahim is less successful. He starts off very well, but unfortunately towards the end of the story, he becomes too much of a caricature. There are plotlines that could have coped with that type of shorthand, but this isn’t one of them. McAuley’s initial approach is too nuanced and knowing to allow such a lapse to be anything other than a disappointment. The other fascinating character is Dave #8. Perhaps his journey is the most dramatic of all and I’m going to track down Gardens of the Sun in no small part because I want to discover what happens to him.

McAuley is an accomplished, experienced writer and when I realised that he would be devoting pages of detail to his invented world, I decided to go with the flow. After all, if it got too tediously wordy I could always abandon the book and pick up the next one on the pile teetering by my bedside. As it happened, I fell under the spell of his enthusiasm and rolling prose, growing to really enjoy the flights of imagination that had these fragile bubbles of life seeded in improbable crannies around the solar system.

Overall, I found The Quiet War an enjoyable, satisfying read and will be tracking down Gardens of the Sun to discover what happens next, and if your taste runs to the harder end of science fiction and you haven’t yet come across this little nugget, I recommend you do so.
9/10

Review of Making History by Stephen Fry

This is the first time I’ve picked up a Stephen Fry novel, and it was an enjoyable, if slightly uneven, experience. Thumbing through the opening pages, I noticed that this book was first published in 1996, which begins to make sense when considering some of the faultlines running through this alternate history offering.

Michael Young is convinced his brilliant history thesis will win him a doctorate, a pleasant academic post, a venerable academic publisher and his beloved girlfriend Jane. A historian should know better than to imagine that he can predict the future.

Leo Zuckerman is an ageing physicist obsessed with the darkest period in human history, utterly driven by his fanatical hatred of one man. A lover’s childish revenge and the breaking of a rotten clasp cause the two men to meet in a blizzard of swirling pages. Pages of history. When they come together nothing – past, present or future – will ever be the same again.

And there you have the blurb. The book contains an intriguing premise – two men decide, for very different reasons, to tamper with history by ensuring the one man responsible for the rise of Nazi Germany is never born. However, the result isn’t what they bargained for… As a former history student, I thoroughly enjoyed Fry’s thorough approach to the historical content and had no problem with the leisurely start. And the conclusion that Fry comes to is certainly thought provoking – I’ve been thinking a lot about the book since I put it down.

Fry successfully establishes Michael’s character as a wunderkind bedevilled with increasing insecurities as his peers are rapidly catching up, if not overhauling his precocious giftedness. Inevitably, given the sub-genre, the narrative timeline is speckled with flashbacks which are ably handled. And it goes without saying that the writing is excellent – actually, that shouldn’t go without saying. Excellent writing should always be acknowledged and I’d be selling Fry short if I just gave a nod in that direction because we all know that the man has an intellect the size of Greece’s overdraft.

So far, so good. The protagonist has been well established, with plenty of depth. We have met with Leo and there’s been a couple of interesting plot twists – and then the novel prose comes to abrupt end and I was confronted with a film script. The action immediately speeded up as I witnessed a major emotional confrontation spool through in this script mode – feeling completely unconnected to the characters. Later in the novel, there is another, longer film script interlude, which also had the effect of alienating me from the action – a real shame as I’d really enjoyed the book up to this point.

I am aware that my extreme aversion to this literary device is subjective – probably connected to the fact that books are my first and major love, while films are okay, I suppose…. However, I did find the film script sections really spoilt the book for me. Having said that, up to the point it all went Courier I found the depiction of the alternate world engrossing and chilling in equal measure. Fry is good at writing minor characters memorably and the flashes of humour helped alleviate what could have been a grim read, given the subject matter.

All in all, it’s an interesting book with a fascinating premise and if you enjoy alternate histories, I highly recommend it. Who knows – you may even enjoy the scripted sections…
8/10

Review of Architects of Emortality by Brian Stableford

This is the first time I’ve come across Stableford, though having seen his looong bibliography, I do wonder how I’ve managed to avoid his output thus far.

This particular book is set in his Emortality series, which envisages an earth where global warming has caused our current civilisation to collapse and gives rise to a human race where biological reproduction is no longer necessary – or even regarded as desirable.

Set hundreds of years in the future and peopled with characters who can hope and expect to live for at least two hundred years – and a fortunate few whose lifespans will stretch into thousands of years. So this is a society on the edge of dramatic change and into this mix there are a series of gruesomely imaginative murders. These killings are sufficiently shocking that MegaMall, who controls most official events, puts a temporary embargo on the publicity machine. This means police officers Charlotte Holmes and Hal Watson are under a serious time constraint to solve them and need help, which they get from the plant designer and historian Oscar Wilde.

However, this is far from being a straightforward science fiction whodunit. Stableford uses the classic crime scenario as background to some lengthy expositions about the nature of posthumanity – mostly when in the viewpoint of Oscar Wilde, who is by far the most entertaining and intriguing character in this cast of eccentrics. This is, I feel, the true engine that runs this novel and although I’m not a huge fan of this harder type of science fiction, Stableford is sufficiently skilful to pull it off. He manages to get the correct balance between his musings on the impact of increased longevity and keeping the pace up necessary to keep the reader turning the pages. In fact with was a refreshing change to read something a little more leisurely than the mandatory breakneck speed that science fiction crime novels seem to require, these days.

The flashes of tongue-in-cheek humour also helped to keep me entertained – again, something that isn’t generally a feature of the genre. Stableford has some interesting points to make, while his long-suffering police officer, Charlotte Holmes, struggles to keep some kind of order in this sprawling investigation. The world is well constructed, with some nice touches in there.

All in all, a polished, well crafted book by a very able writer. And if proof were needed that Stableford is all that is the fact that this book comes in the middle of the Emortality series. Yet I wasn’t aware that it was a series. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t read any of the other books, I was still able to immediately access the situation and the characters without needing any prior knowledge. Neither did Stableford assume I was a former fan. Yipee! As it happens, I was so impressed with this enjoyable read, I shall certainly be looking out for more of Stableford’s prolific output.
8/10

Review of ebook Engineman by Eric Brown

This Kindle edition of Eric Brown’s interesting offering caught my eye as I enjoyed Brown’s Bengal Station trilogy. The most professionally produced ebook I’ve read so far, I didn’t notice any typos or mistakes and the formatting was flawless. Once I finished the novel, there was an additional collection of short stories, all set in the same world.

Once the Enginemen pushed bigships through the cobalt glory of the nada-continuum. But faster than light isn’t fast enough anymore. The interfaces of the Keilor-Vincicoff Organisation bring planets light years distant a simple step away. Then a man with half a face offers ex-Engineman Ralph Mirren the chance to escape his ruined life and push a ship to an undisclosed destination. The nada-continuum holds the key to Ralph’s future. What he cannot anticipate is its universal importance – nor the mystery awaiting him on the distant colony world.

And there you have it. This isn’t full-on, action-stuffed adventure that whisks you up on page one and doesn’t let you catch your breath until the closing sentence. This is an adventure, alright and it steadily gains momentum as the book progresses, but this particular world is an intrinsic part of the story and as such, Brown is at pains to set the scene. Paris is vividly described as a fading city, overrun in parts with alien vegetation as the population continues to move away to more thriving places, both on and off Earth. The previously bustling port and centre of the bigship industry is sliding into inexorable decline – I felt there was a strong comparison to the Port of London after cargo containerisation became the norm. And just as parts of Paris are no longer vital, neither are the Enginemen – those once elite corps of men and women whose brainwaves ‘pushed’ the bigships into the nada-continuum while in a trance-like state called the flux, allowing the ships to travel thousands of light-years in a matter of weeks and months. However, once interfaces were invented so that people could actually walk or drive through to colony planets, the Enginemen were obsolete and unwanted…

The book explores the plight which echoes that of generations of men and women through the ages who have found their skills are suddenly redundant.  Many of these highly skilled people, hungering for the neural high they can only achieve when pushing bigships, take refuge in the religion of the Enginemen – while others cannot manage to grasp at the comfort that this spirituality offers.  This is science fiction at its best – looking at contemporary issues through a futuristic lens…

Brown’s world is so engrossing, the story running through it was almost a distraction and I wasn’t wholly convinced by the ending, which I felt was a bit too unconvincingly upbeat, given the gnarly issues that Brown addresses. However as it got going, it drew me in and I particularly became involved in Ellie’s plotline. I think that Brown’s female protagonists work better than his men – a tendency that is emphasised in the short stories. That said, the characters were all suitably complex and interesting and held my interest throughout.

Any grizzles? Well… it might be a picky point – but as the world is so carefully constructed, it did somewhat jar that as all this alien vegetation engulfed chunks of Paris, at no point did anyone mention any attempts to control or monitor what was growing. Even in a rundown area, I still think there would be – at sporadic intervals – fully overalled, masked teams stomping through, spraying various noxious substances around the place, probably with a glorious disregard for human health, this being a Brown novel. Even if it wasn’t effective, humanity’s hang-ups about the ‘other’ would not tolerate such a laissez-faire attitude to rampant creepers punching through buildings…  In the scheme of things, though, this is a relatively minor point and despite my misgivings about the ending, I think Engineman is an excellent read, raising some pertinent questions about how technology is constantly stranding groups of people who strained to train to acquire a skill – only to find themselves on the scrapheap a few years further down the line.

Which brings me onto the short stories. As they were set in the same world, often addressing the same themes and echoing some of the plotpoints in the novel, I got the impression that a number of them were written alongside the book, helping Brown ‘write his way’ into the storyline. As a result, I found a number of them were so similar in tone and plot to aspects of the novel, I don’t think they offered very much in the way of extra insights into the world. This is particularly applicable to The Girl Who Died for Art and Lived and the award-winning The Time-Elapsed Man. Both were excellent stories, but I do question whether they should have been at the end of this particular book. However, a couple did break away from this tendency and I found Big Trouble Upstairs and The Pineal-Zen Equation really enjoyable reads.

Overall, I thoroughly recommend this ambitious book, which will leave me pondering some of the ideas it raises for a long time to come.

8/10

Review of Makers by Cory Doctorow

This interesting, near-future technology-based novel initially came out in 2009 in serial form as an ebook, before being released by Voyager as a printed version. I’ve been interested to read a variety of responses to the book, many of them hostile…

Perry and Lester invent things. All sorts of things. Seashell robots that can make toast, Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that drive cars. They also invent an entirely new economic system. ‘New Work’ is a New Deal for the technological era, and together Perry and Lester transform the country, with journalist Suzanne Church there to document their progress.

For the record, that’s half the blurb published (which I hadn’t read before embarking on the book) on the inside of the cover – and the reason why I’m not continuing any further, is that the next paragraph proceeds to give away at least half the major plot points of the book. Which is the reason, I reckon, that one of the recurring complaints I’ve encountered about this book is that the story is slow and predictable. If those reviewers knew in advance what was coming up, no wonder they felt the book dragged. That’s the only explanation I can come up with – because although it’s a long book, at no time did I find my attention wandering. Doctorow’s gleeful enthusiasm for the new toys he’s envisioned for the near future didn’t stop him paying attention to providing an entertaining storyline and likeable, interesting characters. I was also impressed at the clarity of the writing – at no point was I scratching my head or having to backtrack and reread any sections in order to understand exactly what all these cool, techie gismos did. And while I enjoy browsing through the New Scientist, I’m no science specialist.

I have a suspicion that many of the poor reviews about Makers are aimed at the high profile author who makes no secret of his beliefs, many of which are somewhat controversial. One complaint was grumbling about the fact that Doctorow chose Duracell as a struggling company of the future… while another targeted the fact that Lester and Perry spent a lot of time making kitch dross, rather than worthy, planet-saving inventions. There were several scathing comments along the line that despite Doctorow’s dislike of large profit-hugging corporations, such as Disney, his maverick inventors still ended up working in a system that made money.

Well – duh… I would suggest that while it’s a no-brainer that Capitalism is a toxic system, criminally wasteful of the resources and humanity that get ground up underfoot – so far, thanks to the crash of Communism and the current woes of Socialist governments across the globe it’s the system we’re stuck with. And if Doctorow had managed to come up with a credible alternative system in his novel, he’d probably be Out There, earning himself a Nobel Peace prize and becoming the first President of Earth, rather than critiquing the current sorry mess as a writer.

I think it’s a shame that Makers has drawn down so much unfriendly criticism due to Doctorow’s political stance, because while at times the prose is a little rough around the edges, I’ve read an awful lot of science fiction novels   where the pacing, characterisation and plotting was a great deal worse, yet garnered far more favourable reviews. Doctorow has all sorts of interesting observations to make in this thoughtful look at the near future and how technology may shape the outlook for sections of American society. I also thoroughly enjoyed the story of Lester, Perry and Suzanne and am not sure how anyone could have thought the poignant epilogue was predictable.

If you are genuinely interested in what one person has to say about how new technology might impact the near future – and won’t throw up your hands in horror if said person chooses not to address the issues of resources or climate change – then I strongly recommend this novel.
9/10

Review of Hardwired Humanity by Sarah Wagner

If you enjoy well-written, thought-provoking science fiction short stories, then this anthology is required reading. Six stories are themed around the subject of artificially augmented humans – hence the title. And while there is plenty of adventure and excitement, Wagner isn’t afraid to reflect upon the darker consequences of ‘improving’ upon nature.

As Edward McKeown discusses in his Foreword, this subject continues to have increasing relevance as medical and technological advances challenge our ideas of what is acceptable. In citing the example of the para-Olympian disbarred from racing against able-bodied athletes on the grounds that his prosthetic legs gave him an unfair advantage, McKeown points out that our society should be considering these issues before we get ambushed by the actuality. Enter Sarah Wagner’s string of stories which do just that…

Switch is one of the longer tales, about Spider, a young man perpetually on the run due to his amazing invention. Doomed to be constantly abandoning his life and disappearing, he is innately suspicious of people – until he rescues a beautiful young woman. Wagner’s clean, unfussy style quickly pulls us into the story, told from Spider’s viewpoint, and makes us care about the characters. Which is important when considering one of main issues she raises with this storyline. If an artificial construct commits a crime, who should be punished – the cyborg, or the programmer? Not that you are given much time to ponder these questions while engrossed in the plot. Wagner moves events along at a cracking pace with the action-packed climax making this a satisfying read.

Venus and the Birth of Zephyrus is a major contrast. More of a piece of flash fiction, it is a tale of a spy satellite becoming self aware – and discovering feelings for one of its human charges. In these shorter tales Wagner’s talent shines through. Her knack of creating poignancy in a situation without it tipping into sentimentality takes finesse and control.

When Closed Eyes Open is another longer story, told by Chase, a trainee soldier. This tale raises uncomfortable questions. Though Wagner makes it clear early on that the soldier has been artificially augmented, the ending still left me feeling queasy. And yet had me wondering whether the terrible fate inflicted on Chase and his comrades might – in such dire circumstances – still be regarded as acceptable…

Canned Man is my personal favourite. A helpless cripple, whose consciousness has been uploaded into a spaceship, this story is a stark contrast to McCaffrey’s cosier version of shipminds. Wagner’s ability to create a character wrestling with a desperate situation in two pages, is impressive. Her story Fireworks on the Abandoned Towers website is a gem – and in my opinion, Canned Man is right up alongside it.

The Wreck of the Griffin is a classic swashbuckling story of daring-do, including a wreck and a battle for survival – except the captain’s daughter is also sporting a pair of artificial arms, along with the curvy figure and feisty attitude. And our hero comes complete with a pair of spider-bots, along with the chiselled good looks and infuriating male smugness. The pace carries the reader along with plenty happening and is the least controversial of all the stories in the book – except that you are left reflecting that if the heroine hadn’t been augmented, she wouldn’t have survived their adventures…

Evolution of a Shadow is the most disturbing of all the stories in the anthology. Shade, a highly augmented fighter, is locked in a vicious battle for survival with Jacob, who was similarly upgraded, but intends to use his martial skills to raise an army of ultimate soldiers to dominate the world. So the stakes couldn’t be higher. However, when a scenario leads to a small child being tortured by her mother in order to test her healing powers – there is a sense that things have gotten thoroughly out of hand…

I am aware that in reviewing these stories, I have picked out the themes rather than focus on the fizzing plotlines, but there is certainly plenty action going on. However, one of the reasons why I love this genre, is because along with a cracking good tale, the best writers also offer me interestingly difficult moral issues to consider. And Sarah Wagner is right up there with the best.
9/10