Science Fictionary

Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) plus Terry Jones (Monty Python’s Flying Circus) equals “Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic.”

And it’s good, too.

If anybody’s seen the latest installation of Doctor Who — the Christmas episode where the Doctor ends up waltzing around aboard a starship Titanic — then you’ve got the idea. Well…that’s not quite accurate. Actually, what you have is a completely different idea with a few vague similarities.

Actually, you have the best idea just from these six key terms: Douglas Adams, Terry Jones, Starship Titanic. If you know anything about either of the key parties involved in creating this book and the history of the real Titanic, then you should be able to assemble the general ideas in your head: they are weird, bizarre, and confusing.

It’s a short book, based on the ideas Douglas Adams came up with while working on the computer game of the same name. Terry Adams ended up writing it because…well, that’s all in the introduction.

Really, there’s nothing at all I can say about this book in the way of a review. If you look the zany humor the Douglas Adams and Monty Python put out, you’re likely to enjoy it. If not, you won’t. Suck it up.

How can you have any reviews of science fiction without covering William Gibson? (No, I mean it. I don’t think it’s possible.)

Regardless, Mona Lisa Overdrive gets right up there in my list of favorite novels in the cyberpunk genre. Gritty and dirty; ultra-slick and modern, Gibson covers the world of the “it-could-still-happen.” One of the fantastic things about Gibson is the pure believability of the world he portrays.

This particular novel revolves around organized crime, multi-national corporations, and wandering high-tech gypsies.

It’s almost impossible to effectively describe the inner-workings of a Gibson novel, and Mona Lisa Overdrive is no different. The first time through I’ll freely confess that I spent most of the time confused — it took a couple passes before the story really made sense.

You have to have a taste for pure environment to really enjoy Mona Lisa Overdrive. Once you follow it, the story is gripping; but when you’re confused, you’ll thrive on the tarnished technology of what could be our future.

Is this really science fiction? Unclear. Bit of sci fi, bit of fantasy…but that’s often the case with the works of Diana Wynne Jones! Regardless, this book is awesome.

Arguably, it’s also written for the junior-high to high school age crowd, but that’s what I was when I first read it, so I’ve got a strong streak of nostalgia preying on me in this review.

Ah yes, the books I loved to read while ignoring the people who wanted to beat me up…

The protagonist is a 13-year-old boy (consistent with other books written for this age group), who comes home one afternoon to find “the Goon” sitting in his living room demanding several pages of nonsense written by his father. This, of course, makes little sense, but it gradually becomes apparent that there is a whole society of arrogant and somewhat childish wizards* who are desperately interested in acquiring this nonsense.

So it becomes more than a little necessary to discover why — since it appears that jobs, eating and staying warm seem to be part of what is on the line.

This may sound a little silly. And perhaps it is. But isn’t that an important part of what makes a story unique and interesting?

Tad Williams’ “Otherland” series is a brilliant four-volume set which takes place primarily in a realm of virtual reality. It’s practically like a role-playing game which takes place in virtual reality: except that the events and challenges (and risks!) are real.

The series is about a disparate group of individuals who, by means best left undescribed, end up trapped in this virtual reality universe in which they need to accomplish a variety of goals (also best left undescribed.)

In many ways, it reminds me of Dungeons and Dragons, the tv cartoon from the 80’s, in that respect. The actual content is, of course, significantly different, but does contain definite homage to the world of video games and role-playing.

Tad Williams, in general, is one of my favorite authors in the whole realm of modern genre fiction. You can’t really go too far wrong with anything he’s written — although I have to confess I’ve never read his first book, Tailchaser’s Song.

“Sundiver” is, fundamentally, a mystery novel stuck in the science fiction genre. It’s also a voyage of discovery — not so much in the Star Trek sense as in the sense of “search for self.”

The events of the book revolve around something which you should be fully able to ascertain from the title of the book. A voyage to the center of the sun. (I guess you could say that’s a spin off from Jules Verne? Unlikely, but an interesting thing to note in passing.

Like many novels dealing with extraterrestrial species, the fear of “otherness” is a recurring theme in the novel. Unlike many other novels, this book specifically relates “otherness” to issues in our own history including the massive relocations the United States government imposed on Native American tribes in the 19th century.

If you like a novel which makes political statements relevant to our own historic decisions, this may be the book for you!

Man, this is a fun story. Now, this blog is likely to have a bit of a tendency toward praising the books I’m reviewing, but this isn’t that surprising…given that I’m primarily reviewing books I already own, and haven’t gotten rid of.

Anyhow, with that minor disclaimer out of the way, let’s get down to business!

Jinx on a Terran Inheritance (and it’s sequels) make up a really fun trilogy. The plot is this: Hobart Floyt, a minor bureaucrat on an Earth devastated by interstellar combat and an amateur genealogist, suddenly finds himself and inheritor (actually, an Inheritor) of an unknown inheritance from a man I’ll describe as an interstellar tyrant. The Earth bureaucracy, rather shy of interstellar travel (more than a little bit xenophobic) allow him to travel largely out of pure greed, wanting to have access to his inheritance.

The politics surrounding the nature of his inheritance and the reasons for the inheritance are highly significant…but also provide rather a lot of information about the overall plot for the trilogy which is probably left absent in these comments.

At any rate, the story is well worth reading, and I recommend it!

The whole series of science fictional novels concerning Miles Vorkosigan are very well worth reading. Fun, exciting, etc. This particular volume is the first one I read, and, in my opinion, among the best. This is where the adventure starts.

Thankfully, these volumes don’t waste too much time trying to explain their physics. I feel that this can be one of the worst mistakes for science fiction to make, since (practically speaking) most authors a) don’t have enough experience with astrophysics, propulsion, etc., for their logic to be altogether convincing and b) since no means of “faster than light” travel actually exists, they always need to make something up. Making something up, while brilliant in the abstract, sometimes falls apart a bit when explained in too much detail.

Anyhow, the key elements of the story: Miles Vorkosigan is from a planet with a ruling society made up of a military caste, in which he is a cadet member. The planet, isolated from interplanetary trade and travel for many centuries, has a historical problem with mutation. Miles, while not a mutant, is significant…ah…stunted in growth due to an assassination attempt prior to his birth.

This particular story revolves around his failure to be accepted into the military, and his subsequent adventures while trying to prove his worth to his society.

A sadly deficient description, but it doesn’t give anything significant away, either.