Review Re-post (original publication on the now-defunct Diversebooks review site):
Canal Dreams by Iain Banks (no middle initial here, we're dealing with the mainstream writer) is a book which had me intrigued, during the first half, at least.
The story itself plays on 3 ships, marooned in the middle of the Panama canal during a new Panama crisis, when they are boarded and taken over by local ‘freedom fighters’ – but neither the focal passenger (world renowned cellist Hisako Onoda), nor the freedom fighters are all they appear to be, and so the stakes, both political and personal, keep rising…
Now here's a book with an interesting/messed up history – Behemoth is the final, (in)famous instalment in Peter Watts' highly rated Rifters series (Starfish, Maelstrom, Behemoth). It was, against its author's wishes, initially released as a two-volume edition (Behemoth–BMax & Behemoth-Seppuku) by Tor Books, and was then later released as a free e-book on the author's website, in the single-volume format he had intended for it. This review is based on a home printed/bound copy of the pdf format available on the site.
If you haven't read the first two books in the series yet (Starfish & Maelstrom) then go away, do so, and then come back here. Whilst Starfish could indeed stand on its own this does not apply to Behemoth (or to Maelstrom), these need to be read in sequence to really make sense of what's happening. Too much history...
The book picks up a few years after the end of Maelstrom, where the Rifters (humans, adapted for deep-sea life and work. Adaptations are biological, technical, and mental. Crooked tools for special jobs...) have caught up with the hideout of the Corporate citizens ('corpses', despective but in general usage), who have opted to get away from the collapse of civilisation caused by ?ehemoth, the ancient microbe outperforming anything DNA based. The following conflict was brief, and won by the Rifters, who now dominate their former masters. The peace/ceasefire is brittle, though, and distrust is rife. The only people who seem to trust each other are Ken Lubin and Lenie Clarke, and, even more surprisingly, Lenie Clarke (as de-facto leader of the Rifters) and Patricia Rowan (who heads up the corpses.)
Here's a previously published review of Quantico, a near-future SF thriller on Bioterror, and the FBI special agents chasing the terrorists, by Greg Bear, which I found to be a captivating read – part thriller, part military/police procedural, part hard/biological sf; all parts well executed.
Quantico is cop Valhalla. They say good cops go there when they die. Every day you solve crimes, make arrests, study hard, work out, do target practice, and at the end of the day you get together with your fellow agents in the boardroom, swig back some beers, and laugh. Hardly anybody gets hurt, nobody locks their doors, everyone knows the rules, and the bad guys always lose. Just like real live, then…
William Griffin is at Quantico, the FBI training centre that gives the novel its name. He is about to graduate, and he is struggling with areas (killing people?) that his father, a former Navy Seal and now FBI Special Agent (SA) also does/did struggle with. But after his father shoots Robert ‘Bob’ Chambers, a bank robber, abortion clinic bomber, expert in IED (improvised explosive devices, ie booby traps and such), member of the Aryan Church of Christ Militant, and long-term fugitive from about any agency under the sun he has to watch, on FBI internal ‘bombnet’ video network, how his father is blown up by one of Chambers bombs while he tries to secure the former Patriarch’s farm. A turning point in young William’s live. He is rushed from the Academy, and teamed up with Rebecca Rose, SA, a driven loner who has spent years on the track of the ‘Ameritrax’ terrorist(s) – remember the Anthrax scares in the US Postal system etc after 9/11? Same ones.
Meanwhile, one of his class mates named Fouad Al-Husam, a muslim, is taken into service by the mysterious and secretive BuDark agency, and put to work on clandestine undercover work in the near east. Anthrax has been encountered in several places, and has been found to be of the same strain as the Ameritrax one, but genetically enhanced since. A hot lead, and a scary one. But things get hotter, and scarier, from there…
World take note - there is a new magazine, publishing (preferentially) Indian Speculative Fiction (SF and Fantasy). It is published by Geetanjali Dighe, and available for free (for the time being) in pdf, mobi, and epub formats.
The first issue contains stories by Kat Otis, Ken Liu, Ram V, and Lavanya Karthik; plus interviews, book reviews, and digital art - what's not to like!
I'm not done reading yet, but am rather impressed with what I have seen so far; I can already recommend the story by Ken Liu, which tells a rather harrowing tale set in a post-singularity world.
The magazine can be found here - I would suggest you also have a look at the book shop; much of interest but less frequently seen here in Europe is on there!
Stephen L Antczak is an American novelist, God Drug was his first published novel. He had published a collection of stories (Daydreams Undertaken) before, and has since written another collection of stories, plus another novel (The Oracle Paradox). God Drug is considered a 'cult' novel by some, and was turned into a Manga/Graphic Novel in 2009. The main reason I picked it up, though, were Andy Lee's illustrations of the main characters and key scenes throughout the book; executed in a pseudo-japanese, minimalistic ink style (see the cover for an example).
The story follows some of the key protagonists in the Alternative/Drop-out scenes in Gainsville (most of these are apparently modeled on Antczak and his friends) as they gear up for another night of mayhem, partying, and loud live music. The difference this time is, though, that Tom, the editor and key contributor of the underground newspaper “Random Times”, has obtained some LSD, to write a drug column under the influence. And the real difference is that, instead of 'normal' LSD, he is provided (by his Vietnam Vet dealer) with a CIA version thereof, which was developed in the hope of providing groups of soldiers with a 'shared consciousness' experience and make them much more efficient through that.
Just a quick Holiday Season update, in case anyone is running short on reading material:
There is a new Lila Black (the main protagonist from the Quantum Gravity Series by Justina Robson) short story available in the 4th issue of Andromeda's Offspring, Theresa Derwin's free eFanzine.
It's rather entertaining, even if I'm not entirely sure if it's canon, and if, where it would fit in... but yes, I'd pay for more Lila Black, so here's to hope!
