Slow Learner is a collection of early short stories by Thomas Pynchon; consisting of a mix of fascinating & highly readable stories, interspersed with less developed/mature parts. Incidentally this very much matches Pynchon’s own assessment of his early work, although with some disagreements on which part is what…
Firstly – this is an excellent book, a showcase for the early work of the author of such classics as Gravity's Rainbow, V (nothing to do with the TV series of the same name!), or Against The Day. It consists of two parts: firstly (and it’s this that sets the Book apart!) there is a review - by the famously secretive author of his early work himself - of his learning curve, his influences, outlining his opinions on his early efforts. Personally I think he’s too hard on himself (this is excellent material, despite the odd weak points), but it’s worth the book’s price alone.
Neal Asher is a UK writer, and one of the stars of large scale, semi-military Space Opera. He's got 15 Novels plus some collections to his name as this is written – his latest (The Departure) is due out in September 2011. Hilldiggers is the 2nd book in his loosely connected Polity sequence, which itself is loosely connected to all the other books he's written in the Polity universe. It can happily be read on its own – whilst the 1st book in the series (Prador Moon) has loads of drive and oomph (and not too much depth, it has to be said) it is by no means necessary to have read it to understand Hilldiggers. Having read some of the early Agent Cormac stuff might actually provide more background, but again this is not essential.
Hilldiggers plays in a system with two habitable planets (Sudoria and Brumal), settled by humans, and which has seen continuous war ever since – hot war when the orbits of the planets coincide, with recovery/preparations in-between. So when an alien artefact (termed 'The Worm') is discovered, attacked, broken into 4 pieces, imprisoned, and studied by the Sudorians they gain access to Gravtech weapons, and the huge Hilldigger ships they build based on this discovery end the war, at the cost of near-genocide on part of the Brumallians. The book itself follows the fortunes of quadruplets which were conceived on the Corisanthe Main station (where the worm is being held and studied) and their unnaturally-fast raise through Sudorian society into positions of power; and the events following the initial contact of this society with the Polity and its Consul Assessor.
Aliette de Bodard has her Hugo and Nebula nominated short story - The Jaguar House, in Shadow - up at her website:
The mind wanders, when one takes teonanacatl.
If she allowed herself to think, she’d smell bleach, mingling with the faint, rank smell of blood; she’d see the grooves of the cell, smeared with what might be blood or faeces.
She’d remember–the pain insinuating itself into the marrow of her bones, until it, too, becomes a dull thing, a matter of habit–she’d remember dragging herself upwards when dawn filters through the slit-windows: too tired and wan to offer her blood to Tonatiuh the sun, whispering a prayer that ends up sounding more and more like an apology.
The god, of course, will insist that she live until the end, for life and blood are too precious to be wasted–no matter how broken or useless she’s become, wasting away in the darkness.
Here’s the thing: she’s not sure how long she can last.
It was Jaguar Captain Palli who gave her the teonanacatl–opening his hand to reveal the two black, crushed mushrooms, the food of the gods, the drugs of the lost, of the doomed–she couldn’t tell if it was because he pitied her, or if it’s yet another trap, another ambush they hope she’ll fall into.
But still… She took them. She held them, wrapped tight in the palm of her hands, as the guards walked her back. And when she was alone once more, she stared at them for a long while, feeling the tremor start in her fingers–the hunger, the craving for normality–for oblivion.
The mind wanders–backwards, into the only time worth remembering.
A Deepness in the Sky is the (only loosely connected) prequel to ‘A Fire Upon the Deep’ byVernor Vinge; it's a complex, emotionally intense, and well executed Large-Scale Space Opera, which deservedly received the Hugo and John W Campbell Memorial Awards. I presume that most of our readers have read this book long ago; so I shall keep this brief… but if you haven’t read this book yet then I would strongly recommend you give it a try!
The story follows a Queng Ho expedition to the On-Off Star. Queng Ho are a family based group of traders between all the worlds within the human sphere (but not an Empire, to the chagrin of their founder/spiritual father, Pham Nuwen), and the On-Off star is exactly that – an oscillating star that is lit 50 years at a time, with 200-year gaps of inactivity in-between. Trigger for the expedition is the fact that radio emissions have been detected during from its only planet during the last On period, and the Queng Ho figure that, by the time the sun re-ignites, the inhabitants (whoever they are) will have developed into a technological society the Queng Ho can trade with – for mutual gain. Too bad that they are not alone in their endeavour. Another group of humans, newly arisen from a fallen civilization (no rarity, it’s part of the lifecycle of planet bound civilaizations) calling themselves the ‘Emergents’ also has sent a fleet.
Jon Courtenay-Grimwood is a British journalist and writer, with, to date, 12 fiction novels to his name (the latest - The Fallen Blade, is the 1st instalment in his Vampire Assassin Trilogy and came out in February 2011). He has won the BSFA award twice now, although neither of these was for redRobe, the standalone novel at hand (his 4th, incidentally).
The story kicks off in Day Effe, Mexico, with Axl O'Higgins Borja going back to his old job as hit-man, as he's got bills to pay. He messes up, and gets caught by the police – not good, as the default penalty for assassination in Mexico is death. But Axl has a history – he once saved the life of the man who is now known as Cardinal Santo Duce, top man in the Catholic Church in Mexico, and a power factor on par with the new Empress. The Cardinal grants Axl a stay of execution (it's the second time he's had to call in this favour...) so he can do a job for him. No, not to kill someone, but to find Pope Joan, or, rather (as Pope Joan is dead, and so far hasn't been re-incarneted by the Catholic Church) her sister, Kate. You see, Pope Joan, instead of nicely playing along with what people wanted her to say and do, gutted the Vatican Bank and spent the money as it always should have been spent. On food for the poor, on medicine, but mostly in airlifting the destitute and starving out of war zones and into transit camps where they could be shipped to Samsara.
Halo is the debut (and, so far, only) novel byTom Maddox, writing partner of William Gibson and friend of Bruce Sterling (the book bears endorsements by both, which is what made me pick it up in the first place!). The book is a Cyberpunk classic, with a story revolving around AI and machine self-awareness, artificial life, immersive spaces, and Zen.
Mikhail Gonzales (‘Gonzales’ to his friends) works as an auditor for SenTrax, a fully global company. He is answerable to Frederick Lewis Traynor, ruthless, ambitious, and a candidate for the SenTrax board, whose members seem to be above the law (and about everything else). Traynor sends Gonzales to Halo, an artificial habitat in space, shaped like a wheel with six spokes. Halo has rotational gravity, and a computer, Aleph, running every function. Aleph is a distributed AI – he’s not just running Halo, he IS Halo, and Halo is him, intertwined, one the expression of the other. Gonzales is sent there to witness an attempt by Dr Diana Haywood to assist the transformation of Jerry Chapman, her former lover, into an artificial being by Aleph.
Slow Learner
Halo
