MINING THE GENRE ASTEROID: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
“What is right for the community is right even unto death for the individual. There is no individual, there is only the community.” In the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, in isolated Appalachia, a powerful extended family is determined to survive. Crop failure. Climate change. Ecological and environmental collapse. Pandemic, social upheaval and worse. All of this threatens the end of humanity, and indeed of most animal species in the bargain.This community builds itself a safehold to survive the turbulence and save a remnant of humanity in the bargain. When it turns out the pandemics have left everyone in the extended family infertile, the only solution that presents itself to save humanity is to clone the members of the extended family (and their local livestock as well). The clones can carry humanity ahead a generation or three, and then the ordinary course of marriage and mating can resume the community’s usual social structures. However, once born, the clones have their own
MINING THE GENRE ASTEROID: Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson
Holger Carlsen is an Allied covert operative in the Low Countries, fighting the Nazis in World War II. After an accident, he finds himself in a fantasy version of Europe. The West is held by Humanity, the East is held by Faerie, and the two are locked in a cold war that is looking to run hot. Not his fight, though, right? Holger needs to get home and fight the Nazis. But why did he wind up being transported to a spot where a horse suited for him, and battle armor customized to fit him just happened to be? Who is Holger Carlsen, really, and what is the meaning of his coat of arms? And can he survive in a world where a world war like the one he left may be in the wings, but with dragons and giants instead of bombers and tanks? Three Hearts and Three Lions is one of many of the classic novels of Poul Anderson. Lighter than some of his more Scandinavian fantasy (e.g. the excellent The Broken Sword), Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961) introduced a lot of ideas into fantasy and gave them form. The division of the fantasy world into Law and Chaos. Trolls and Giants, creatures not often seen in fantasy in this point, take the stage. And Anderson’s trolls are far more indicative of what most people think of trolls than the Cockney rhyming trolls of Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Oh and did I mention there is a shapeshifting druid (complete with animal companion), a magical sword of ancient power (Cortana!), and the fact that you probably could stat up Holger in this fantasy realm as a Paladin and be not far from the mark?
MINING THE GENRE ASTEROID: Way Station by Clifford Simak
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Way Station and the works of Clifford Simak Enoch Wallace has a secret. Okay, he actually has two. Almost a century after the Civil War, this veteran of that divisive conflict has been quietly living in the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin. He has some strange neighbors (including a family whose deaf-mute daughter has some rather strange abilities) and only uses his gun in a virtual reality simulator. His second secret, though is even bigger than the first. Enoch Wallace hides an interstellar transfer point for aliens to travel through the galaxy. It is his charge to keep this important facility safe, and secret. But now the U.S. government is very interested in Enoch, enough to go snooping around. Furthermore, the Galactic Council that set up the transfer point is fracturing and falling apart. Oh, and Enoch’s use of alien mathematics is leading him to conclude that nuclear war is coming, soon. All this means an uncertain future for both Enoch and his Way Station.
Mining the Genre Asteroid–Brave New World
“Oh, Brave New World, that has such people in it”–Miranda, The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1 Published in 1932, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a seminal dystopian novel. The time is the 26th century, although the A.D. calendar is no longer used. Instead, the year is 632 After Ford, for Henry Ford is the model, the hero, the prophet for this seeming paradise of infantile games and recreation, uncomplicated work, and of course, drug-inspired holidays from reality. Happiness is the greatest good. Into this ‘Eden’, inadvertently, comes a serpent in the form of John, a ‘savage’ from a reservation isolated from modern society, whose fateful encounter with the society of this Brave New World provides much of the dramatic tension of the novel.
Book Review: The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
The Lives of Tao centers on an alien named Tao and his new host. Tao, like all those of his race, lives as a symbiote with humans. Living from human life to human life, a bad situation kills the body of his longtime human teammate. In order to survive, Tao must find another host and bond with him, or her. Quickly. With his enemies closing in, he cannot chose a pre-ordained host, someone who knows of Tao’s race and what it means to bond with him. Instead, an out of shape and overweight slacker of an IT professional, Roen Tan, is his improbable and desperate choice. The action sequences in The Lives of Tao, from start to finish, sing. The beats feel authentic and well scripted, especially when Roen is in no shape to deal with trained opponents. The author’s personal knowledge of martial arts (especially Tai Chi) comes in handy, but it is presented as anything but infodumping. The culminating conflict is well put together and is an excellent capstone to a series of lesser and smaller sequences scattered throughout the book. The novel is infused with a geeky sense of humor that flows from its protagonist and enriches the book. It ranges from the banter between Tao and Roen, to much more physical comedy, especially in the fumbling attempts Roen makes at first at change and getting in shape. I laughed out loud at many points, and the overall light tone of the novel makes the reading flow quickly. That light tone humor, though, is not a one trick pony. An opening sequence shows that the author is capable of writing scenes, action scenes, that are straight up the middle and are much more serious in tone and execution than many of the later ones. Also, the backstory that Tao relates to Roen in chunks at chapter breaks is thoughtful and reflective. Overall, the writing, for the most part, is extremely polished for a debut novel, a credit to author and editor. The text has been lavished with love and attention and it has a wonderful tone and voice. The story that The Lives of Tao seemed to remind me of and invoke is the TV series Chuck, and I can’t believe that to be a coincidence. Slacker IT guy underperforming to his abilities and capabilities. He’s given a gift that he can’t get rid, and can’t help but heed the call to adventure, whether he likes it or not . Add in a friend to whom he can’t tell his secret, a hot agent of the opposite sex who trains and babysits him, add in montages of training and baby missions, and an overarching secret organization to fight. Sound familiar? In the end both Charles Bartowski and Roen Tan rise to the occasion. But its never easy for either of them to become a hero. Angry Robot has had excellent success in picking debut novelists lately, and The Lives of Tao sits firmly on the positive side of that scorecard. It’s funny, entertaining, thought provoking, and reads quickly and well. The author, like his protagonist, clearly has talent and skills that are only now coming to our attention. I look forward to more stories of Roen and Tao, and what else the author has up his sleeve.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Time Out of Joint by Philip K Dick
Mining the Genre Asteroid is Paul Weimer’s look at the history of the science fiction and fantasy field, bringing to light important, interesting and entertaining books from science fiction and fantasy’s past to you. A seemingly ordinary 1950’s slice of Suburbia. Ragle Gumm spends his days working on the “Where will the Little Man be Next” puzzle for the local paper. As the reigning champion of solving the daily puzzle, it is practically a full time job for him. But, then, when a soft drink stand disappears before Ragle’s eyes, to have a piece of paper with the words “soft drink stand” fall to the ground, things are clearly not what they appear. Especially since, judging from the drawerful of paper slips, it becomes clear that this has happened to Gumm before…
