Crossing the Line is the 2nd book in Karen Traviss’ Wess’har Wars series, starting with City of Pearl, and running to 6 books at the end (there were 4 when this review was written - don't get confused with some of the references to future work). I can strongly recommend the entire series – classic SF with multiple story-threads, interesting philosophical questions, engaging characters, and humans (or, rather, humanity…) as (one of) the baddies, for once.
Shan Frankland, infected (joined?) with the c’naatat symbiont and showing Wess’har and Bezeri genetic influences, is spending her time with Aran in Constantine, the religious settlement on the 2nd planet circling Cavanagh’s Star (CS2 in military lingo, Bezer’ej to the local alien residents). She is summoned (by a detachment of Wess’har soldiers looking ‘like paramilitary seahorses’ – what an image!) to the city of F’nar on Weser’ej – away from her fellow (to a degree) humans, to live her life and destiny with the powers that be, and that have granted her protection from the humans in the spaceship Actaeon circling the planet. She now learns about the Wess’har society, and she has to work on what she will become, where she will fit in, and what this means to her and to Aran, her fellow Wess’har c’naatat soldier: Normality. She was twenty-five light-years from home, playing house with an invulnerable alien war criminal and carrying a bizarre parasite that tinkered with her genome when the fancy took it. Just over a year ago she’d packed a bag and set off for a few days’ duty at Mars Orbital, expecting to be home by the end of the week, her biggest worry being that the supermarkets would deliver early and forget to reset her security alarm. And now she would never go home again. Normality.
The Kingdom Beyond the Waves is the 2nd instalment (4th one - Secrets of the Fire Sea - recently came out, the 5th - Jack Cloudie - is coming next year) in Stephen Hunt's Jackals/Jackelian series. The book picks up a few years after the end of its precursor, The Court of the Air. And whilst it should be able to stand on its own I would recommend you read the first book in the series before you tackle this one, it will give you a much better understanding of the environment the events in the story unfold it; and background on at least some of the characters. Oh, and it's a quite enjoyable tale, too.
The main thread (there are many others) in the book follows Amelia Harsh, Professor of Archaeology who has just lost her job at the last University willing to take her on. The reason? Her unwavering belief in (and active research into) Camlantis (the reference is transparent enough not to require explanation - ?), a historical if considered mythical country with a high (some people claim perfect) civilization, without hunger, crime, violence, inequality etc. Camlantis vanished when it was overrun by the Black Oil Horde, and nobody knows where the remains are (a floating island in the sky, as mythology claims?), or how they created their society; and official doctrine has it that they never existed anyway...
New York Magazine has a series of six alternate history shorts called 'Memories of the Gore Administration', looking back at the ten-year history of Presidents Al Gore and Mitt Romney.
George W. Bush, meanwhile, is in rehab.
Six episodes with five writers - what I've read of it so far was fun.
City of Pearl, the first book in Karen Traviss' Wess’har Wars series, spins a splendid new yarn on Ecology, Peaceful Co-existence (or not), and Social Structures - well written and highly entertaining:”If Karen can hold that level of writing and storytelling then this will be a series to look out for, and look forward to indeed!” (in retrospect, as I re-post this 4 years down the line, I can confirm that this indeed is/was the case!)
Shan Frankland, a former Superintendent in the Environmental Hazards Enforcement Police force, is in charge of a Relieve/Rescue/Recon force landing on the 2nd planet orbiting Cavanagh’s Star (short CS2 in Navy slang). She brings with her a group of Royal Marines, Extreme Environment Warfare Cadre, a group of scientists working for the various Bio-Corporations that bankroll the mission (affectionatly referred to as ‘Payload’), and Eddie Michallat, a BBChan (sic) journalist. Their mission is to find out what happened to a colony ship which intended to land on CS2 long ago, and which was, until recently, presumed lost. But there’s more – Shan is under a ‘Suppressed Briefing’, instructions she can only remember when triggered by the right circumstances, and thus doesn’t know her real mission. The colony of religious fundamentalists is not lost, though – it’s right there on Bezer’ej (the local’s name for CS2), and it’s thriving, in a special zone set up for that purpose by Aran, the planet’s guardian. Yes, there are aliens, intelligent aliens, developed far further than humanity – and the first intelligent alien species that humanity meets. And, like buses, you never get just one - there’s another species, the Bezeri, living in the oceans on Bezer’ej, and being the main raison-d’etre or their Guardian (the humans are some kind of pet project of his). And, to round things off, there is another (another!) species of aliens, the Isenj, laying claim to the planet, as expansion territory. They settled there once before, and millions of them were wiped off the face of Bezer’ej by Aras, leaving (nearly) no trace.
Brass Man is the 3rd book in Neal Asher's Agent Cormac series, the previous ones being Gridlinked and and Line of Polity. This is very much a series in the old fashioned vein – whilst we don't know to how many books it will run to eventually (Neal might have an inkling about the overarching story arc?) it very much needs to be read in sequence, these books don't stand well on their own. So, if you haven't done so yet, cease reading and go read the first two books, then come back. It's worth doing so, they're fun. Spoilers for the first two books to follow – you have been warned.
The story of Brass Man is, as the title implies, the story of Mr Crane. Yes, he was taken to pieces earlier in the series, yes he has been resurrected, by popular demand, Neal informs us in his notes. The book has a number of intersecting and interacting threads on the go, but the two main ones show some interesting similarities indeed: on the one hand we have Ian Cormac, Earth Central Security (ECS) agent with Carte Blanche, on board of the war ship 'Jack Ketch' (look it up if you don't know), once again chasing Skellor, who has survived the end of the Occam Razor, and is on the lose again due to some greed and general stupidity (how very human). Skellor himself is chasing Dragon, or, rather, one of the two surviving Dragon Spheres, in hope of help with the Jain technology he barely controls in himself.
Here's a review of another classic – this time it’s The Player of Gamesby Iain M Banks, a book from the Culture series, centred around a game which defines a galactic empire, or, rather, which IS said galactic empire. Nearly 20 years old but not really dated at all, an excellent book, and a ‘must read’ for all SF fans and especially serious gamers! Highly recommended.
Jernau Morat Gurgeh (I will stay off the full size Culture nomenclature for this review, ok? If you know Banks you know what I mean…) is a professional player of games. He lives on the Chiark Orbital, a backwater in terms of the Culture, where the cutting edge lives on huge ships, and where everything you want in terms of possessions or amusements is yours for the taking. Paradise? Elysium? Or an elaborate disguise of Hell? You decide. But Gurgeh, master of all games requiring strategy, knowledge, cunning (as long as it doesn’t involve physical prowess) feels an emptiness. Despite having all he wants, and doing what he loves best (playing games, winning games, writing papers on games, being renowned as one of the best players of games in the Culture) is becoming more and more restless, and thus less and less happy with his increasingly stale and repetitive life.
Crossing the Line
The Kingdom Beyond the Waves
City of Pear
Brass Man
