The Cassini Division is the 3rd book (out of 4) in Ken MacLeod's highly enjoyable Fall Revolution sequence; and just to be clear from the outset - this instalment, despite being a bit simpler in structure and scope, keeps up the high quality level in writing and reader enjoyment which we've come to appreciate from the first 2 books.
Notice to readers who are not readers (yet) of the earlier books in the series – this review will, by necessity, contain spoilers for the earlier books. Desist from reading on if this bothers you.
The story kicks off with a new protagonist: we encounter Ellen May Ngwethu on Earth, trying to convince Jonathan Wilde (the copy that came back from New Mars through the Wormhole) to provide some undisclosed information, to no avail. She then progresses on a backup plan by embarking on a trip through the wilds of 'non-co' London (canals, overgrown roads etc – Ken has loads of fun with old aka current-day place names and references) to seek out Islamabard Kingdom Malley – Sam to his friends - (yes, him of the Malley-Equations that allowed the construction of the wormhole). She manages to convince him to join her in the Cassini Division, the crack force of the Solar Union which keeps watch over the post-human civilization on Jupiter. Her target? To find a way through the wormhole (colloquially known as the 'Malley Mile'), and check that David Reid has not re-started the 'fast folk' on New Mars and caused another Singularity which would endanger Earth.
The Road to Dune is, like all of the Dune books sinceFrank Herbert's untimely death, a book by his sonBrian Herbert and his writing partner Kevin J. Anderson, but based on some of the tons of material Frank left behind, and thus based in the Dune Universe. I leave it to the fans to decide if Brian's and Kevin's writings are canon, and to what degree.
This is a book of three parts – first off the mark is a rendering of the 'original' Dune novelette (or, at least, that's the length it came to here) called 'Spice Planet', that Brian and Kevin partially pieced together from chapters Frank left behind, and partially wrote based on his outline and notes. It is a recognizable setting and story line for everyone who has read Dune, albeit with differences to Character and Place names, with a simpler storyline, and with significantly fewer layers and complications than the book that was finally published. I think that, if it would have been published in this short form, and with this level and quality of content, then Dune would be forgotten by now, and so would, conceivably, be Frank, which would be a great loss to Science Fiction in my opinion.
"The bomb lives only as it's falling" (Slias Engin)
Use of Weapons is the 4th instalment in the loosely connected series of books in the Culture universe by Iain M Banks. This is a story, as the title indicates, about weapons. About how weapons can be used, and about what can be used as a weapon (Zakalwe, the main protagonist, uses weapons, but is also used as a weapon). And it asks, between the lines, what is the use of weapons? And what does using weapons do to you as the user? But before I become overly philosophical here let's get back to the story for a bit.
Rasd-Coduresa Diziet Embless Sma da'Marenhide (known as Dizzy or Sma to her friends) is pulled out of an assignment at short, or rather, no notice. She is to find a former Special Circumstances mercenary called Cheradine Zakalwe, and convince him to come along on a mission to extract Tsoldrin Beyache, a pensioned-off ex-politician, and convince him to come out of retirement and use his name and influence to save the cluster he lives in from developmental regression into all-out war and accompanying barbary. Simple enough as a story arc, you say? It is indeed, even with a few side threads and extra adventures thrown in. The main storyline in this book is actually brief, and quite simple, and rather straight-forward. What provides the meat here are numerous flashbacks, stretches of introspection and trips down memory lane, all focusing on Zakalwe, which provide most of the tension and depth in the main story. Not a technique I've encountered frequently in SF I have to say – it works well, although it makes the book feel slow, despite a good amount of action.
Lauren Beukes is a South African writer, journalist, and scriptwriter. Moxylandis her first fiction novel, her second one (Zoo City) is due out this month, which would explain why Moxyland was given away a promo copies at this year's Eastercon (UK national SF Convention). She also has a non-fiction book (Maverick) to her name.
Moxyland is told in 4 threads, each of them following a protagonist as they move through a (dystopian?) near-future South Africa. We have Kendra, a photographer and rising Artist. She works on old, decaying analogue stock, which leads to a further layer in her art from the sometimes damaged film stock. She has just been selected as a 'Ghost Baby', a (corporate-marketing) representative for the introduction of a new soft drink; all Ghost Babies are up-and-coming, hip bright stars. Toby is a Punk, in attitude if not in attire. He's a drop-out, a wanna-be streamcaster, wearing a BabyStrange (a coat covered in recording equipment, and playing video). He's a menace, the kind of person you want to punch into next week once in a while (and Ten does so, at one point). And a serial seducer, which gives him access to areas and resources which would normally be closed to him.
Here's a trick question: as a male (and, presumably, female, too, but I can't speak for that side) SF fan, would you walk past a book called 'Alien Sex' without picking up for a look? Thought so.
The original title for this collection of stories was 'Off limits: Sex and the Alien', which would have been much more fitting than the pulpy title the publisher replaced it with. Especially, as the book points out, 'Any sex beyond masturbation is an excursion into Alien territory', anyway.
This is a selection of stories around sex, eroticism, desire, procreation and some things which are rather hard to pigeonhole. These were collected by Ellen during her time as editor for OMNI – a good number of the stories included in this volume she turned down for the magazine for being too raunchy. Besides the Larry Niven classic 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex', discussing the sexuality (or, rather, sexual impossibilities and frustrations) of Clark Ken/Superman, there is very little here in terms of 'well known' authors (or am I just not well-read enough?). Most of the stories appear to have been selected on topic and merit; and well chosen they were indeed!
Pashazade (or, rather, the Arabesk Trilogy) is the book where (or would that be when?), as some of my friends put it, Jon Courtenay-Grimwood'came good', and proved that indeed he was able to write enjoyable and complex SF with a unique voice. The right place to start for me, then, no?
The book itself starts with a quote by Richard Dawkins: " However many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead…". A questionable statement, some people would say…
The Cassini Division
The Road to Dune
Pashazade
