"The bomb lives only as it's falling" (Slias Engin)
Use of Weapons is the 4th instalment in the loosely connected series of books in the Culture universe by Iain M Banks. This is a story, as the title indicates, about weapons. About how weapons can be used, and about what can be used as a weapon (Zakalwe, the main protagonist, uses weapons, but is also used as a weapon). And it asks, between the lines, what is the use of weapons? And what does using weapons do to you as the user? But before I become overly philosophical here let's get back to the story for a bit.
Rasd-Coduresa Diziet Embless Sma da'Marenhide (known as Dizzy or Sma to her friends) is pulled out of an assignment at short, or rather, no notice. She is to find a former Special Circumstances mercenary called Cheradine Zakalwe, and convince him to come along on a mission to extract Tsoldrin Beyache, a pensioned-off ex-politician, and convince him to come out of retirement and use his name and influence to save the cluster he lives in from developmental regression into all-out war and accompanying barbary. Simple enough as a story arc, you say? It is indeed, even with a few side threads and extra adventures thrown in. The main storyline in this book is actually brief, and quite simple, and rather straight-forward. What provides the meat here are numerous flashbacks, stretches of introspection and trips down memory lane, all focusing on Zakalwe, which provide most of the tension and depth in the main story. Not a technique I've encountered frequently in SF I have to say – it works well, although it makes the book feel slow, despite a good amount of action.
Lauren Beukes is a South African writer, journalist, and scriptwriter. Moxylandis her first fiction novel, her second one (Zoo City) is due out this month, which would explain why Moxyland was given away a promo copies at this year's Eastercon (UK national SF Convention). She also has a non-fiction book (Maverick) to her name.
Moxyland is told in 4 threads, each of them following a protagonist as they move through a (dystopian?) near-future South Africa. We have Kendra, a photographer and rising Artist. She works on old, decaying analogue stock, which leads to a further layer in her art from the sometimes damaged film stock. She has just been selected as a 'Ghost Baby', a (corporate-marketing) representative for the introduction of a new soft drink; all Ghost Babies are up-and-coming, hip bright stars. Toby is a Punk, in attitude if not in attire. He's a drop-out, a wanna-be streamcaster, wearing a BabyStrange (a coat covered in recording equipment, and playing video). He's a menace, the kind of person you want to punch into next week once in a while (and Ten does so, at one point). And a serial seducer, which gives him access to areas and resources which would normally be closed to him.
Here's a trick question: as a male (and, presumably, female, too, but I can't speak for that side) SF fan, would you walk past a book called 'Alien Sex' without picking up for a look? Thought so.
The original title for this collection of stories was 'Off limits: Sex and the Alien', which would have been much more fitting than the pulpy title the publisher replaced it with. Especially, as the book points out, 'Any sex beyond masturbation is an excursion into Alien territory', anyway.
This is a selection of stories around sex, eroticism, desire, procreation and some things which are rather hard to pigeonhole. These were collected by Ellen during her time as editor for OMNI – a good number of the stories included in this volume she turned down for the magazine for being too raunchy. Besides the Larry Niven classic 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex', discussing the sexuality (or, rather, sexual impossibilities and frustrations) of Clark Ken/Superman, there is very little here in terms of 'well known' authors (or am I just not well-read enough?). Most of the stories appear to have been selected on topic and merit; and well chosen they were indeed!
Pashazade (or, rather, the Arabesk Trilogy) is the book where (or would that be when?), as some of my friends put it, Jon Courtenay-Grimwood'came good', and proved that indeed he was able to write enjoyable and complex SF with a unique voice. The right place to start for me, then, no?
The book itself starts with a quote by Richard Dawkins: " However many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead…". A questionable statement, some people would say…
I was rather excited when I stumbled across The House of Doctor Deeby Peter Ackroydwhilst sheltering from a downpour in a Charity Shop in Bury St Edmunds. Peter Ackroyd is a writer (of biographies, fiction, children's books, and a play) that I greatly appreciate, and Doctor Dee a historical figure that I'm interested in. What could possibly go wrong with the combination of these two? Much, I have to report, to my disappointment; and not just that this is fiction, and not the biography I hoped it would be when I saw it on the shelf (but, at least this, is not really Peter's fault).
The book nominally tells the story of Matthew Park, a researcher into historical papers, who inherits a house in Clerkenwell from his father. When he moves in to the place to escape his mother he finds that the house affects his moods, his perceptions, and his grip on reality unduly. He sets out to discover more, and learns that the house used to be belong to Dr Dee, the 16th Century mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, and Queen Elizabeth's (in)famous astrologer and consultant.
In reality this is a fictionalised account of the final years of Dr Dee, which digresses greatly from the historical records. The book follows the two strands (modern times, and 16th century) as they slowly coalesce (I kid you not), with much more weight and focus on the pseudo-historical strand. Both are told in the 1st person, but only Dr Dee really comes to life, which mainly serves to outline how repulsive, selfish, and less than human (despite his reported human foibles) the learned man was (or, at least, is displayed here). Matthew's character is sketchy, and mainly comes across as weak, confused, embarrassing, and not in any semblance of control.
Pashazade
