Review: Treason

Treason by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An odd and interesting story that delves into gender identity, nature, and superhuman abilities.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Re-release of Orson Scott Card’s 1979 “classic”: a tale of a radical regenerative running amok on an imprisoned planet, collecting super powers along the way and searching for redemption and significance.

Several generations and several hundreds of years ago, a group of the intellectual elite attempted to mutiny and take over the galactic government. Upon the failure of the coup the group were exiled to planet Treason. Now the exiles have grown into cities with with skills refined to the point of superhuman abilities. They trade the refined products of their skills through Ambassadors—teleport machines—for iron (Treason pretty has little to no iron) with which each elite group (now cities) race to build a spaceship to get off-planet.

Lanik Mueller, descendant of the genetic-experts who discovered the secret of regeneration, turns out to be a "rad"—one in whom the regeneration runs wild; thus horribly disfigured, he must seek salvation in the world at large. The tree-dwelling, conquering Nkumai have recently acquired much iron, he learns. How? Well, their ancestor was a physicist, so they've traded the secret of faster-than-light travel. The Schwartzes have learned how to commune with the rocks (geology ancestors) and can perform all kinds of lithopathic miracles. The Ku Kuei (philosophy) have acquired the ability to slow or speed time. But the real enemies of everyone on Treason, Lanik learns after many trials and adventures, are the Andersons (politics), who've perfected a method of projecting illusions so convincing that all are fooled into submission without realizing it. 

The review link below is a good story summary as the book tells it.

https://dreamingaboutotherworlds.blogspot.com/2012/08/review-treason-by-orson-scott-card.html

View all my reviews

Review: The Visit

The Visit by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

short but thought provoking

A speculative fiction short story set in a matriarchal world where men are constantly under surveillance by powerful women. Men can be fined and jailed for up to five (5) years for masturbating. In this world, male masturbation is considered the abortion of a potential child.

The story takes place in Lagos, Or two friends reunite and go out to a nightclub and have an encounter with policewoman.

View all my reviews

Review: You Have Arrived at Your Destination

You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For a short story, it manages to give the fullness of a book by giving you contours that your mind can fill. Though the ending seems inconclusive, it may be the point, being that it parallels the plots. A couple of times, the story seems to shift without a linear, logical transition into how the new scene came to be.

View all my reviews

“Brides of Hanover Blocks” by Gregory Xane

 “Brides of Hanover Blocks” by Gregory Xane

Two words.. tentacle porn..

not as interesting as the first installment of this series..  also not as bizarre as some of existing tentacle porn out there..  

However, there are enough interesting bits to entice to me to read the the next installment to learn what the mystery mounds of flesh are all about.

I will admit I felt tricked into reading one. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.

I rate it 2 out of 5 stars.

#BizarroFiction

"Six Wakes" by Mur Lafferty, 2017

 "Six Wakes" by Mur Lafferty, 2017

A bunch of clones of criminals is put in a generational starship headed to a new world to colonize. They find their memories wipe as they wake amidst a murder mystery- their own.

The book was prefaced with the seven laws governing the existence of clones, reminiscent of Isaac Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics. And the novel starts interestingly enough; a bloody, gory murder scene in a starship. That got me on the hook fast.  As the story progresses and characters' backgrounds build, and the plot thickens, I found myself wanting to get off this "mystery train."

For me, there were plenty of areas where the novel stalled; some jarring transitions from scene to scene. But the fact that I put the story down and had to force myself to finish it by speeding through speaks how little I liked the novel.  Some attempted humor is sprinkled throughout to balance the artificial tension produced from the combination of the murderer's identity not being known while buried secrets rise to the surface.

In the end, I can understand why Six Wakes is seen as an impressive novel by others, probably young adult readers. I found myself uncaring for any of the characters and trudging along by the "interesting-enough" pull of the plot as the tension ratcheted up towards the climax. 

"Banksy: Genius or Vandal?" - "secret" location in Culver City

 "Banksy: Genius or Vandal?"  - "secret" location in Culver City

"You know its got nothing to do with me right?" the artist wrote. "I don't charge people to see my art unless there's a fairground wheel." -- Banksy about this exhibit.

While an unauthorized exhibition of the enigmatic British artist Banksy and hotly criticized by fans and Banksy himself, it's also a great way to learn more about the artist in a curated fashion. The organizers maintain that the show "democratizes the artist's body of work," providing access, and back story, to otherwise ephemeral Banksy works. People are really interested in his stance more than just his art. So this immersive traveling exhibit is more than just fun and Instagrammable, but also an educational experience.

I've chosen a few photos to share out of the more than 100 works featured in the exhibit — some re-creations of Banksy's public "wall" art and some "authenticated" pieces primarily from private European collectors (That includes limited-edition screen prints as well as sculptures, installations, videos, and photos. There's also an immersive, virtual reality tour of the artist's studio.)

"Summer Frost" by Blake Crouch, 2019

 "Summer Frost" by Blake Crouch, 2019

Summer Frost is a novella about the development of artificial intelligence by Blake Crouch, author of the WAYWARD PINES trilogy.

In Crouch's classic style, he wastes no time getting to the action. Summer Frost takes place in a near-future San Francisco. It blends video gaming, artificial intelligence, nanotechnologies, and other tech that is under development.

The story has an "Ex Machina" (with a hint of "Her") feel to it. The plot explores a software developer's interaction with an emerging self-aware artificial intelligence called Max, for who they are responsible for. As one would expect, the AI starts out rudimentary and expands in a series of natural progressions, eventually taking on a human-like form.

The handling of some of the gender-related issues felt a bit clunky;. However, it's a highly timely topic. There's more discussion of what Max is and is not from a gender point of view than seemed really relevant to the plot and Max's nature as an AI. 

I enjoyed how Crouch also introduces the thought experiment Roko's basilisk and Pascal's wager into Summer Frost, which lends itself well to the plot.

I rate this novella 2.25 out of 5 stars.