Cyberabad Days (spot the word play) is a collection of short stories by Ian McDonald; most of the stories were previously published in the 2005-2008 time frame, and follow on from/play in the same setting as his award-winning River of Gods novel. The book displays a cleverly executed structure, inasmuch as that the stories can all be read on their own, but gain additional depth and structure by being read together and in sequence; concepts introduced in one story are usually expanded upon and further explored in the next. The Indian setting is equally impressive – the entire world, places, names, concepts, and culture has been extrapolated into the mid-21st century. No, I cannot judge on the authenticity and correctness of usage of the concepts and words, but it very much adds up, and works very well in creating a fascinating, coherent, indelible setting for the stories to unfold in.
So, without further ado, the stories contained in the collection are:
Sanjeev and the Robotwallah The story follows Sanjeev as he gets involved with a group of robot soldiers (they’re cool!) fighting in one of the many secessionist wars that India has plunged into. And so we’re getting a Mecha story, India style, with child soldiers (they like shoot-em-up games, and have the best reflexes!) controlling robot armies; but who are now facing the challenge of peace. I found this to be the weakest story of the lot, lacking sufficient local colorit to really engage. It’s an interesting cross-over, but didn’t capture me.
Kyle meets the River "Kyle was the first to see the exploding cat.” Best story opening. Ever. The war is over. Foreign contractors are helping to rebuild the country, if the locasl want this or not. So they do it from behind heavily fortified compounds, with suicide attacks, bombings, and general hostility rife. Depressingly realistic, and all offset against one boy’s friendship with a local, and his one experience of the local culture/life/experience.
I found this to be entertaining and interestingly written story around the development of species, uplifting, co-development and more; all the more enjoyable due to the inventive and poetic use of language (yes, she does that on purpose when it looks like 'not proper English').
Milena has a website on SFF.net, where you can find some more of her writing!
The picture on the right is by Iamikan, and only related in my mind (and by this post, of course)
I don't think I need to introduce William Gibson here, no? The man who shot to fame with Neuromancer (book & trilogy), and has had many a great book (never mind award) to his name since then? Good. Spook Country is the 2nd Bigend novel, although it's a stand-alone effort, and not really connected to Pattern Recognition except for also having Hubertus Bigend moving pieces around in the background.
We join Hollis Henry, formerly of the Curfew (short-lived cult band) in LA, where she is on assignment to write a piece on locative virtual art for a new magazine called Node (some kind of European Wired, but don't say so... - at the time this book was published there was a fake website for the magazine on the go; this looks a bit different now). Alberto Corrales, one of the artists she works with, puts her in contact with the reclusive facilitator/techie Bobbie Chombo, who apparently is the one who makes all these GPS linked VR Overlays work for the artists. But Bobby is also involved in something else, something he's even less keen for Hollis to see than the rest of the pieces he's working on (never mind himself!).
Tito, meanwhile, is a secret-service trained (don't ask which secret service. It's rather less than clear...) member of a Cuban-Chinese organized crime family (with Russian links) in New York. They don't commit crimes themselves, all they do is facilitate the activities of others. Tito is mainly a courier, and recently he's been involved in picking up several iPods and handing them to a contact on Times Square
Lune and the Red Empress is a Novellette byLiz Williams and Alastair Reynolds, written exclusively for the Souvenir Book from Odyssey 2010, the 61st British National Science Fiction convention, where they both were Guests of Honour. No idea if this will become available anywhere outside the 1500 or so copies printed by the Odyssey 2010 Committee.
Lune is an orphan girl (ok, young woman) in the employ (indenture...) of Madame Bezile. The location is Paris, in Free France. A France which is dying a slow, painful freezing death. Humanity went to the stars, and Paris was the centre of a galaxy-spanning empire, for 5000 years. But all of this is over, the last of the great void crossing ships has crashed long ago, and all that's left are some badly understood remains of 'Old World' technologies, and myths told to children in rhymes, about how man flew through the air, and through space in great ships. It's a sad, cold, and rather feral and anarchistic world. Lune is being sent to steal an Egg from a cathedral. These Eggs are old, ancient, too; they were filled with fire to keep the cold at bay and power machines, a gift from the humans of old. Or are they?
Here's my review for Going Postal - which was just out in PB when this was written - from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Universe: Now here’s a book that somehow missed my desk in the Hardback form, so here’s a review of the Paperback instead. It’s the same book, honest. Just a little later (not like the Ankh Morpok Post, which sometimes delivers before the letter is posted). But a shame, really, as this is a very enjoyable book!
Albert Spangler, professional con man, is dead. He’s just been hanged. Now Lord Vetinari is sitting in front of him, claiming to be his Angel, and offering him the job of running the Ankh Morpok Post Office. Under his original name – Moist Von Lipwig (don’t smirk, he’s heard it all before). This, or death, for real this time. It’s a tough choice… He’s given a parole officer – a Golem (named Pump 19, after what he did for centuries), who doesn’t sleep, always knows where he is… no escape. On the other hand, a Golem as bodyguard isn’t bad, either. And some people _do_ want to kill Moist.
The Post Office itself is dead. Stuffed to the hilt with drifts of undelivered letters, decades old. Under mounds of Pigeon Guano. And anything of value nicked long ago (hey, this is Ankh Morpok!). All he has are two employees – Groat (old, but born in the Post Office. Knows everything about it. Never knew anything else), and Stanley, the PO boy, brought up by Peas (don’t ask), a Pinhead (he collects and trades Pins, especially pressing errors and rarities). Both a few letters short of a full mail bag, if you catch my drift. Excellent characters, though.
Saturn's Children is a stand-alone novel by the Scottish writer Charles Stross. Charlie has, to date, 13 Novels, 2 Collections, and a substantial number of short stories and Novellas to his name. He's a Locus, Hugo, and Prometheus Awards winner, and has been nominated/shortlisted for numerous others.
Saturn's Children follows the adventures of Freya Nakamichi-47, a sex robot (sorry, Courtesan), who was instantiated 61 years after humanity died out. Talk about a sad and depressing outlook without any real meaning in life: “designed as companion for my One True Love (deceased)” she sighs at one point. But, whilst humanity has died out, its creatures and servants continue to explore the solar system and nearer extrasolar worlds, building places to live in, and prepare the ground for their masters. A new, stratified society has established itself – robotic PAs and similar instruments bought their own freedom, and are now Aristos, holding other robots (a very offensive word in this society) as slaves. And the things they get up to... it kinda reminded me of the old chestnut of “do you know what your pets get up to when you're not home”, except here it's rather “do you know what your robot servants get up to when you've gone extinct”, but I'm sure you get the idea.
It's mainly power games, attempts at re-creating a biosphere and humans (charmingly referred to as 'pink goo' due to the way our cells hold their own genome and can replicate). And sex, lots of sex. If you wanted to know about robot sex then you've come to the right place. To me, it became tiring at some point...
Saturn's Children
