Review: Legends & Lattes

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book has had a lot of buzz and hype (it was initially self-published and later picked up by a traditional publisher), and I thought it was pleasant and entertaining enough. Unfortunately, that's all on the surface, with not much depth. This is the story of Viv, a battle orc who has had enough of the slaughter and swordplay and decides to hang it up.

After twenty-two years of adventuring, Viv had reached her limit of blood and mud and bullshit. An orc's life was strength and violence and a sudden, sharp end--but she'd be damned if she let hers finish that way.

It was time for something new.

This book is subtitled "A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes," and that is accurate. Viv's obstacles are remodeling her shop, hiring an assistant and cook, and getting the business going. She acquires friends along the way, changes her life, and makes herself a home. (She also acquires a giant feline known as a "dire-cat" who starts hanging around the shop and ends up taking out the elf who is as much of an antagonist as this story offers.) There are a few bumps along the way--the shop is burned down and has to be rebuilt--and Viv ends up falling in love with Tandri, the succubus she hires to be her assistant. This story is perfectly fine for what it is, and will serve to while away a few hours, but if you're like me and prefer deeper worldbuilding and characterization, it's pretty frothy and forgettable.

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Review: Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak

Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak by Charlie Jane Anders
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'm beginning to think this author is not for me anymore. I read and enjoyed her first novel, and also her nonfiction writing book. But my opinions of her fiction books have been on a steady downward spiral, and I couldn't even finish this one.

The problems with this book are the same as the first in the series, only ramped up to 11 with additional teenage angst. I don't have any problems with teenage angst in and of itself, as long as it's balanced out with a decent story and not allowed to drag on and on for endless pages. This book fails on both fronts. I realize it's supposed to be a takeoff and satire of superhero movies, with the same nonsensical "science," but this story is so over-the-top that it grated on me like fingernails on a chalkboard. Here, the focus is on Elza and Rachael, the girlfriend and best friend of the previous volume's protagonist Tina Mains respectively. Tina is the alien clone of a dead general, and Rachael sacrificed her ability to make art to stop the first book's Big Bad. But the alien Vayt from the first book are back, trying to take over the galaxy and wipe out non-human species, and the six teenagers from the first book are the only ones standing in their way.

Or so I assume, because when I got to page 165 of this I said, "That's it, I don't care what happens to these people," and set it aside. (This book really suffered in comparison to my previous book, the excellent Rubicon. That is some galaxy-spanning space opera done right.) There is obviously an audience for this series, but it's definitely not me.

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Review: Rubicon

Rubicon by J.S. Dewes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is military science fiction that owes a lot to the second iteration of Battlestar Galactica (2004). The TV show had humans facing off against synthetic Cylons; this book has its war between humans and the android hive-mind Mechans. Here, the warring humans are like the Cylons, uploading into new bodies--"husks"--through "rezone" technology. This conceit makes up a central theme and plot point of this book, which also tackles consciousness, what makes someone a sentient person, and whether it is moral or just to win a war "by any means necessary."

(Never mind that according to our current science, consciousness is generated by, and cannot be separated from, the physical brain. Sometimes this idea of "uploading" makes me a bit uneasy, as it's really a fancy science-fictional term for the existence of the soul. This raises a whole other host of issues about the soldiers being considered insignificant and disposable because if they are killed, they can just be stuck into new bodies and sent out again, no matter their trauma after dying and being resurrected multiple times. The uploaded person also has access to all their previous iteration's memories, and the uploaded consciousness can carve its previous pathways into the new brain. None of this is feasible, but if handled right, it provides exciting and thoughtful background for the story. It's handled pretty well in this book.)

Adriene Valero is a soldier who has died and "rezoned" 96 times fighting the Mechans. In this universe, humanity is not on Earth--they are confined to another system with a dying star, and they need to establish new colonies before the expanding sun swallows their home planets whole. But twenty years ago, they were discovered by the Mechans, and have been confined to their home system. Any attempts to scout or settle other inhabitable planets results in the wholesale slaughter of the humans. (It also raises the question of why the Mechans don't just invade the humans' home system of Mira and wipe them all out. The rather horrifying answer to this is revealed as the story progresses.) If an individual soldier does not commit suicide before they are captured by the Mechans, they are "hybridized," or forced into the Mechan hive mind and used as a stalking horse to kill other humans. Adriene was hybridized for two weeks until she died of thirst (the Mechans not knowing to feed or water their captive) and rezoned.

Needless to say, Adriene is afflicted by a great deal of trauma/PTSD because of all this, and her inner journey of recovery is just as important as the action of the main storyline. She is transferred to another company and given the titular "Rubicon," a virtual-intelligence brain implant that will help her to survive and fight the Mechans. But Adriene's Rubicon has...something extra. It is a full-blown artificial intelligence that develops in character and personality as the story goes on. Adriene's special Rubicon leads her to fall in with a Major West, who has an unorthodox and illegal (and definitely unethical, by any definition of the term) plan to defeat the Mechans forever.

There are quite a bit of plot twists and turns as the action ramps up, and the final twist of the ending is both sad and infuriating, and whets the appetite for the second book. Military science fiction isn't my favorite sub-genre, but this story is handled well and has good pacing and characterization. Certainly worth reading.

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Review: Witch King

Witch King by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a Martha Wells fan because of the Murderbot series, but she has written fantasy and epic fantasy for decades. (I also have the complete Books of the Raksura collection.) This book is a secondary-world fantasy with some truly excellent worldbuilding. The world is layered and complex, and Wells is expert at doling out only the information needed to understand what is going on at specific points in the story. The background and exposition never bogs down or detracts from the overall tale.

The titular Witch King, the demon Kaiisteron, is abruptly awakened after the death of his current body and needs to find a new one. (Just trying to write a synopsis of this book is difficult, because this world is complicated. It makes me appreciate what the author did all the more.) He takes over a recently deceased body, fights his way free of the watery tomb where he was imprisoned, and is thrust into a world of competing human/demon/Witch factions fighting for control.

There are two storylines here: one in the present of Kai's awakening, and one in the past which reveals the history of many of the primary players. Both storylines are equally compelling and converge in the final chapters. Kai is hardly the typical evil, blustering sort of demon: he is vulnerable and often unsure of himself, especially as he is thrust into new bodies and has to figure out how to use them to help his friends. We see everything through Kai's tight third person point of view, but the supporting characters are well drawn and interesting, especially Bashasa Calis, the driver of the "past" storyline.

This book is a slow, compelling burn, in story, characterization and worldbuilding. It requires a bit of patience in the early chapters, but it is worth it as everything comes together beautifully in the end. This is also a fairly self-contained story, although there are enough dangling threads to warrant a sequel. I hope it gets one, because above all else, the worldbuilding is fantastic.

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Review: Lords of Uncreation

Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't usually read doorstopper-sized books like this one. But I make exceptions for certain authors, and Adrian Tchaikovsky is at the top of that list.

This is the last book in the Final Architecture series, and is a galaxy-spanning adventure with universe-level stakes. This could easily get muddled down in the twists and turns of its plot and the enormous battle scenes, but the author's firm grasp on his characters and relationships turns this into the Last Desperate Stand of the Plucky Heroes. Except that none of the characters really qualify as "plucky"--Idris Telemmier, the Intermediary genetically and surgically modified to transverse the Throughways through unspace and to protect humanity from the moon-sized, world-destroying Architects, is a profoundly damaged person who nevertheless keeps struggling to do the right thing. The other character spotlighted in this book (and a welcome spotlight it is) is Olli from the salvage ship Vulture God, who ends up anchoring nearly the entire plot. Olli is a sarcastic, stubborn badass, and it is just a delight to see her whaling away against the various enemies she has to fight to save the day.

One thing that impressed me with this book is the author's impeccable sense of pace. There is a lot going on here, between the reveals of what is happening with the Architects, what really lies at the heart of unspace, the various competing factions of humanity and aliens, and the final battle where all the Architects are sent to wipe out humanity. Most of the book is one long chase scene where Olli is trying to keep ahead of the Architects while Idris, down at the heart of unspace, is facing the godlike entities that live there and ferreting out their secrets. The story could easily be overwhelmed by all the pow-pow and bang-bang, but the author expertly slows things down for some nice character moments, then takes off again for some breathtaking battle scenes. In that way both the characters and the reader are given some much-needed breathing room before the next crisis.

In short, this is a damn fine book, and it expertly wraps up the story. Don't let the weight and heft of this book (and indeed, all the books in the trilogy) put you off. (I especially appreciated the "Story So Far" sections at the beginning of books #2 and #3 bringing the reader up to speed.) There is also one faction of humanity who believes they are the only ones worthy to be saved from the Architects, and another that realizes they need variation and diversity to survive. This is not an overwhelming subplot, but it's a welcome bit of ethics (and the former faction gets a suitably nasty end). I loved this book.

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Review: Dual Memory

Dual Memory by Sue Burke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a near-future (within the next few decades, although it's not specified) science fiction thriller. It's far enough along that there are plenty of technologies that do not exist in the present day, mainly artificial intelligence--every device used by humans is smart, from buildings and streets to carts. Yet there is no true sentience among all of these "smart" things, except for one of this story's protagonists: the personal assistant Par Augustus, who develops an obnoxious, manipulative, condescending, sometimes whiny personality all its own.

This book also takes place in something of a post-climate-change future: the setting, the artificial island of Thule, was built in the Arctic Circle using materials scavenged from drowned cities. (We don't see much of the rest of the planet, but I can well imagine what it might look like, and it's not good. But that's not this story.) It opens with an exciting action sequence, as one of our two main protagonists, Antonio Moro, is shown in a small sub firing off missiles, fighting the raiders who are trying to take the island's resources. Antonio is an artist who had been working on a recycling scow until he volunteered for the hired mercenaries Bronzewing to fight the raiders and protect the island. His sub is damaged and he is left on Thule to be taken in by the community there, where he is hired as an in-house artist for a wealthy couple. Almost by accident the newly sentient Par Augustus falls into his hands, which leads to a convoluted tale of fights against raiders without and greedy entitled capitalists within (trading in extra-terrestrial life forms from the other planets, called Extra-T's, constitutes a big part of the Thule's economy), and Par Augustus rounding up all of Thule's smart buildings and devices to join the fight.

The latter is the genuinely scary and unsettling part of the whole thing, as it is shown that all the smart devices banding together are virtually unstoppable. It's not Skynet, not yet, but Antonio realizes it easily could be. The smart buildings and things are so far adhering to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, but that could change. Antonio has his own ethical conundrums in dealing with Par and protecting the island against the raiders, and eventually meets up with his estranged, long-lost brother who joined them. (Antonio was raised in a climate refugee camp, and his parents were killed by the raiders, so he is very invested in his revenge against them.)

This is a thriller, but it's also an examination of the ethics of artificial intelligence, the drawbacks of capitalism, and the importance of art to the human condition. It's pretty interesting as both.



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