Line War is the final book in the Agent Cormac series by the English author Neal Asher. Although it leaves the door open, not just for further Polity books, but also for further Cormac ones – and I’m sure that there is much more to be told, never mind a marked to buy them!
The book is a direct continuation of Polity Agent – if it weren’t for the size of the resulting book, this could have been a single story (although I appreciate it being broken into two books instead of creating a Neal Stephenson-style wrist-breaker!). Earth Central Security is massing its forces, to counter the inevitable incursion by Erebus, although to a number of observers it all seems a bit too little too late. And Erebus does attack, although not in a way or place that seems to make much sense. Agent Cormac is sent on a fact-finding mission together with Arach and Scar, but without most of the other combatants usually by his side – some because the Jerusalem ordered them somewhere else, but a lot because they are dead. And Cormac feels the loss of his friends and companions from Polity Agent (include Horace Blegg, aka Agent Prime Cause). Mika, meanwhile, re-joins one of the Dragon Spheres in a new Observation Station – and Dragon promptly takes himself (and her) away on a fact-finding mission of his own.
I won’t spoil the book for you – if Asher’s Polity, and especially the Cormac series are to your taste then this is for you. If you have not read any of the books then the above doesn’t meam much to you I’d suspect, and I would recommend that you start at the beginning, with Gridlinked.
It plays in the Little Brother/Homeland universe, and is, so is the consensus, set after the latter.
I'm currently trying to remember where I've come across some (only parts) of this before - it must be either something Cory read at some event or convention, or I must have read an extract of this before; but either way memory fails me at the moment.
Never mind my failing recollection, though, I'd suggest you go and read this for yourself.
Here's a previously published (on the now-defunct Diversebooks Reviews site) review of Frameshift, a Genetics-based crime thriller by Robert J Sawyer; which at the time I considered 'Science – even hard science – it is for sure. And I hope by God that it is fiction. Not sure if that makes it (hard) SF – but I’m sure it makes it a very impressive book, despite some flaws.'
Robert J Sawyer, double Nebula winner, Hugo nominee (didn’t win it…) and winner of countless other prizes provides us with story from the Human Genome Project:
Dr Philip Tardivel is a Genetic Researcher at the Human Genome Project (which, as the story takes place, is not finished yet. If you can ever finish such a piece of work, give or take the latest tabloid headline of ‘Human Genome decoded!’). He is liaised with Molly Brown, a Doctor and lecturer in Psychology, who has telepathic abilities (she can read ‘literal’ thoughts of people physically close to her – more a curse than a blessing!). His boss is Burian Klimus, an old, unfriendly, Ukrainian emigrant and Nobel Prize Winner for the ‘Klimus Method’.
In another strand we get Avi Meyer, son of a Holocaust survivor who broke out of Treblinka during a prisoner revolt (the episode is part of the book), and now works for the Department of Justice in a special unit which tracks down Nazi War Criminals in hiding.
The story unfolds from there – genetics mixes with murder mixes with neo (and old time) Nazis mixes with health and live insurance (who love genetic testing…) mixes with ethics mixes with some fiction (I hope it is!) to form a fascinating and engrossing read.
This is an awesome book from several perspectives. Firstly, it’s by Connie Willis, multi-award winning Grand Dame (or, should we rather say, Grand Master) of SF, inducted to the SF Hall of Fame; and with more books, collections, and stories to her name than I care to count. Secondly, this is a collection of her short fiction which has won a Hugo or a Nebula award (and in some cases both!), which is not something which many writers can do. What’s more, as far as I can tell it’s actually a selection from those, ie it’s not even all of her short fiction which won one of those awards!
And thirdly, as you would have guessed given the pedigree of those, the stories are great.
The book contains of an Introduction (by Connie), the stories (with a new afterword by Connie to each of them), a short introduction by her Executive Editor, the speech she gave as Guest of Honor at the 2006 SF Worldcon, a speech she wrote but has not given at all, and finally the speech she gave in 2012 at the Nebula Awards when she received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.
The stories in the book were initially written (or, rather, published) between 1982 and 2007.
The collection was published in the US in July 2013 (this is the edition I read), and will be published in the UK by Gollancz under a variant title (Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis) in August 2013 as part of their SF Masterworks series.
Below is a short run-down of the stories, and my impressions upon (re)reading them.
Most of the cosmic code is Dark Energy and Dark Matter. The stuff we foolishly call ‘reality’ is the cute friendly part with the kid-colored don’t-be-evil Google graphics.
This time it's a short story called, imaginatively, Beyond the Coming Age of Networked Matter, and is written by Bruce Sterling, although the density of hype-words, as well as the overall geeky overdrive in the story made me feel like I was reading a Cory Doctorow story (but no, he has his own entry in the anthology), or maybe something by Lavie Tidhar.
“I read the forbidden book,” said Crawferd. “It’s not Steve Wolfram’s fault that the universe is a computationally equivalent Turing Machine that’s ninety-six percent hideous darkness.
Heady stuff, either way, a head-rush of a story. Very much recommended.
The illustration on the right is, yet again, by Daniel Martin Diaz (click through for the gorgeous larger version)
Here's a previously published review of Phule’s Errand, the 6th book in the ‘Phule’ series, by Robert Asprin and Peter J. Heck, which did not fully convice. While the book is enjoyable, it also leaves the impression behind that the series is running out of steam, and is simply being churned out while people still buy the books.
Funny in parts, but overall a mixed pleasure.
This is the 6th book in Robert Asprin’s Phule series, the last few written in conjunction with Peter J Heck – either for more ideas, or to do the footwork… either way, they should re-examine their approach to these books I think.
This time round we find Captain Jester (aka Willard Phule, multi-millionaire extraordinaire) with his Omega Mob of the Space Legion on the Planet Zenobia, as the main contact to the recently discovered native races. When a new member, Nightingale, joins the unit things kick off, as Nightingale is the Legion name for Laverne, the former right-hand woman of the Mob boss on Lorelei, with whom Jester collided in an earlier book. And who has a crush (reciprocal) on Jester’s butler, Beeker. Nightingale and Beeker decide at the drop of a hat to take their vacations, and leave Zenobia, taking Beeker’s Port-a-Brain with them. This has potentially catastrophic consequences, as Jester’s and Beeker’s Port-a-Brain’s are linked in ways Beeker is not aware of, but which endanger Jester if they are separated for a longer amount of time. So Captain Jester, CO, leaves his unit, and takes off in pursuit of the vacationing love-birds.
This, obviously, is the exact moment General Blitzkrieg, in charge of the Space Legion and Jester’s sworn enemy, chooses for a surprise inspection of the Omega Company. So it falls to the cadre, with the help of Jester’s hospitality robot (looking and acting like him, within clearly defined boundaries), to ward off disaster for their Captain and for themselves. They mainly do this by building a golf course on Zenobia (guess what Blitzkrieg really likes to do during his work hours), but also through even more inventive measures.
