Review: Tau Zero, Poul Anderson, 1970

Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Tau Zero, Poul Anderson, 1970

Tau Zero, heralded as classic hard science fiction by multi-Hugo and Nebula-awarded author Poul Anderson was written in 1970 and shows its age with its attitudes towards women. 

The crew of a colonization space vessel Leonora Christine left Earth for a nearby star system without FTL. The Leonora Christine hits an object, damaging some of its technology and preventing it from performing the planned deceleration during the journey's second half. Without FTL, they are subject to time dilation. And as such, they make certain decisions that are both interesting and absurd.

There are two narratives here. One tells the story of the ship, which is a character itself and its journey through time and space. The text of the narrative is interspersed with scientific explanations along with the other narrative, which is the melodrama among the crew. The interpersonal drama can be cringy and probably can be attributed to the views of the time when the book was written.

I rate this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.

#PoulAnderson #TauZero #hardSciFi

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Review: Dead Astronauts, by Jeff VanderMeer, 2019

Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Dead Astronauts, by Jeff VanderMeer, 2019

Sequel to Borne and The Strange Bird, Dead Astronauts feature existing characters from the same shared universe of Borne. The three main characters, the Dead Astronauts, Grayson, Chen, and Moss, travel through timelines and multiverses to battle against and takedown "The Company."

Dead Astronauts, by Jeff VanderMeer, is one of those books where you have to pay attention and focus. Most of the novel is poetic exposition, and the plotline is obscured behind beautiful prose. VanderMeer's creative chops are showcased from line to line with his lyrical writing. And that, for me, was the problem. Without enough action and direct plotting, my attention drifted away easily. With the multiversal timeline hopping between scenes and sequences, VandenMeer really pushed my understanding of what is going on to the limits of where my interests and attention span intersect.

I'm such a VanderMeer fan, but this book may be my least favorite from all his released work to date. In fact, I gave up on it about 2/3 of the way through. Though, I may return to it someday and give it another chance.

I rate this book 1 out of 5 stars.

#JeffVanderMeer #VanderMeer #DeadAstronauts #Borne #DNF

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Review: The Trees by Percival Everett, 2021

The Trees by Percival Everett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Trees by Percival Everett, 2021

The Trees, shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, is a darkly humorous novel revisiting the 1955 murder of Emmet Till.  It's a page-turner that opens with brutal murders involving testicles ripped from the victims' bodies, satirizes racism relentlessly through the story, and closes open-ended-ly to leave readers to interpret.

It's a bold and provocative "detective" book ladened with gory revenge fantasy.  Some have described the narrative as alternating "between deadpan and slapstick modes of satire," which the author smartly uses to conflate comical with horror and effectively mine collective racial guilt.

I rate this book 3.25 out of 5 stars.

#TheTrees #PercivalEverett #2022BookerPrizeShortlist #BookerPrize

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Review: Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, 2022

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, 2022

The fourth in the Lucy Barton series, Lucy moves in with her ex-husband William during the pandemic lockdown of 2020.  

I wasn't sure I wanted to read another "pandemic novel," so I was happy to discover Covid-19 didn't take center stage in the story. Much of what takes place revolves around Lucy and William, her ex-husband, rekindling their relationship. It was a sweet and lovely story and often funny. However, I don't think it ever reached the same heights as its predecessor, "Oh William!"

Told in her very "Strout" style of writing, which is very character-driven, mostly melancholy, and with almost no plot in sight, the novel is endearing and engaging. Reading its predecessor, "Oh William!" is probably best before starting this, and it's perhaps best to read back-to-back.

I rate this novel 3.75 out of 5 stars.

#ElizabethStrout #LucyByTheSea #Amgash 

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Review: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, by Harlan Ellison, 1967

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, by Harlan Ellison, 1967

First published in 1967 and won a Hugo Award in 1968,  "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a post-apocalyptic science fiction horror story. A mad maniacal supercomputer AI has a hand in being a cruel, relentless, misanthropic god. 

The story follows a group of five people, the last survivors of an apocalypse brought on by a sadistic and god-like AI. The survivors are tortured repeatedly in ever-increasing cruel ways over the years while they struggle and look for ways to escape.

Short, diabolically creative, and hopelessly horrific, I rate this story 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The following is a link if you would like to read this short story:

https://wjccschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/I-Have-No-Mouth-But-I-Must-Scream-by-Harlan-Ellison.pdf

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Review: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, 2015

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, 2015

The Barret family from Massachusetts comes under financial and emotional strain when their fourteen-year-old daughter, Marjorie, exhibits signs of severe mental illness or demonic possession. They decide to allow a production company to film and air the events in their household as a reality tv show.

Roshomon in full effect! Without a doubt, the author intended for us never to know the truth of what happened the night of the central premise the novel is written around. We get three perspectives from the same narrator, all unreliable; when she was eight (8) years old, then as an adult after the trauma had been processed, and from her alter-ego blogger persona. I feel that the blogger persona "breaking the fourth wall" can be distracting, but in this case, it was not only necessary to achieve the Roshomon effect but was done pretty well. It was "Meta" just enough.

It took me a couple of false starts to get going with the book, but once I got about a quarter of the way in, I could not stop. I looked up, and several hours had passed, and it was past midnight when I reached the story's climax. While the book isn't much of a horror, I got goosebumps and frights at the climax and the final twist at the end. 

Typically not the type of book I would read, but I was glued and enjoyed it very much. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

#AHeadFullOfGhosts #PaulTremblay #RoshomonEffect #FourthWall

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Review: The Strange Bird, by Jeff VanderMeer, 2017

The Strange Bird: A Borne Story by Jeff VanderMeer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Strange Bird, by Jeff VanderMeer, 2017

Jeff VanderMeer's new novella, The Strange Bird, is beautiful, captivating, and profoundly moving. The story told through the Strange Bird's increasingly desperate perspective, at parts, was almost too painful to bear reading but too beautiful to abandon.

Set in the same wasteland as Jeff VanderMeer's Borne, The Strange Bird enriches the universe of Borne. The story is short enough to be considered a supplemental story, one which weaves through and about its predecessor's ragbag plot. 

Readers will likely find this fascinating as a side story to Borne and not necessarily a mandatory narrative. The Strange Bird is as hauntingly tragic as is as remarkable as its unforgettable predecessor.

I rate this novella a 5 out of 5 stars.

#TheStrangeBird #VanderMeer #JeffVanderMeer #Borne #DeadAstronauts

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Review: Blindsight (Firefall #1), by Peter Watts, 2006

Blindsight by Peter Watts
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Blindsight (Firefall #1), by Peter Watts, 2006

Talky like Asimov, hints of Heinlein's style, and world-building with the likes of Stephenson-- all of which are my least favorite aspects of those authors I respect. The story is about a crew of transhuman astronauts, and a vampire sent to investigate a possible "first-contact" alien in the Kuiper belt.

While there were some interesting characters, not enough time was spent on them. I suppose it can be viewed that there were too many characters-- not a lot of whom had a profoundly compelling story arc. A missed opportunity, indeed. 

The novel also suffers from too many ideas which did not have a direct and significant contribution to moving the plot along. Please don't misunderstand me, some concepts were brilliant, odd, and depressing, but it was too much world-building for a thin plot for my liking.

I think it's best to start this book with a glossary of characters and commit them to memory before venturing on to read.

I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.

#Blindsight #Firefall #PeterWatts #SpaceVampire #Transhuman

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Review: Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer, 2017

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer, 2017

Wikipedia describes, "The novel takes place in the future, in the ruins of a nameless city dominated by a giant grizzly bear called 'Mord.' The perspective character, Rachel, is a scavenger in the city; she collects various genetically-engineered organisms and experiments that were created by 'the Company,' a biotech firm. One day, while searching in Mord's fur, Rachel discovers a sea anemone-like creature that she names 'Borne.'"

From start to finish of VanderMeer's novel, we are treated to a bizarre and often unsettling atmosphere. The characters are well-constructed and always make decisions aligned with their personalities and prior experiences. The storytelling highlights central themes of identity, nature vs. nurture, and the concepts of being human. With the mysteries weaved into dense post-apocalyptic surroundings, we are left with more questions to ponder on our own after the last page has been turned. 

Immediately after completing the novel, the experience left me with some sadness for Borne, displeasure with Rachel, and annoyance with Wick. Throughout the book, the author kept me unbalanced with constant reminders of Borne's profoundly ambiguous nature. However, letting the story sit and digested wholly, I recognize some parts of the story you have to figure out on your own, while other parts start making sense only when you get further in and ponder it for some time, and a few of them never get any definite answers. Demanding and sometimes difficult to get through with the emotions the author draws out of the reader, VanderMeer's Borne is unquestionably worth the effort.

I rate this book 4.75 out of 5 stars.

#Borne #VanderMeer #JeffVanderMeer

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