“The Jonah Kit” by Ian Watson- Reading the British Science Fiction Association Awards: 1977

The British Science Fiction Awards often highlight books that don’t even make it onto awards lists dominated by American authors. I’ve been reading and reviewing winners and nominees, looking for hidden gems I might not have found otherwise.

1977: The Jonah Kit by Ian Watson

A plot description of The Jonah Kit is somewhat straightforward- a Soviet boy shows up in Tokyo, but appears to have the mind of someone else implanted imperfectly in his head. The plot follows the Americans as they try to figure out what to do even as echoes of scientific discovery suggest there’s something awful looming. The simplicity of the plot belies the complexity of the prose and interconnectedness of the story, however.

Readers experience life within the mind of a sperm whale to which has been added the mental capacities, in some disjointed way, of a man. Additionally, the Soviet boy provides some wayward musings, and the sub- or main- plot of questioning whether our universe was possibly an accidental offshoot of the “real” universe gets mixed in as well. The whole thing ultimately becomes a morass of confusion at times. Each strand has strengths of its own, and Watson’s prose makes some of the scenes quite striking. However, some of the strands read like afterthoughts, and a clunky middle section does little to shed light on the direction the plot is supposed to be going.

What are we to do with the notion that our universe is a kind of accident/unintended/destroyed already? I don’t know, because the vision of that question is only given through glimpses, and even those are largely disdainful comments by other scientists. What of the sperm whale, what lesson has it for us? Is it that humanity is something we’ve invented to make ourselves appear better than the beasts? Maybe, but it could be more or less than that as well. And what are we to make of the ending, which falls somewhat suddenly and without resolution? I don’t know.

The Jonah Kit was ultimately a cacophony of disjunctions. I struggled to piece together its plot, even as strange visions of reality were presented. I don’t know what to make of it, but it was a tantalizing read.

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SDG.

Announcing Team Red Stars SPSFC2 Semifinalists- Self Published Science Fiction Contest

The second annual Self Published Science Fiction Contest rolls on, and my team now has an exciting announcement! We have determined our three semi-finalists! These books will continue to the broader group, going to two separate groups to be judged for a chance at a coveted finalist spot. Without further adieu, let’s take a look at these three books.

Heritage by S.M. Warlow

Heritage is space opera on a grand scale. Galaxy-spanning war, massive consequences, and a focus on the crew of a ship make this plot move quickly. Group members loved the scale of it, the characters, and the story. The most obvious comparison to the book would be The Expanse series. I plan to re-read it for the competition later, but for now I hope this has whet your appetite enough to check it out.

Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days by Drew Melbourne

I don’t often go for books that lean into comedy, especially when that’s a sci-fi novel. But Drew Melbourne perfectly captured the blend of humor and plot that makes such books work when they do work. And Percival Gynt er… works. Tongue firmly planted in cheek, Melbourne throws all kinds of hilarious hijinks at the reader, but the hijinks actually matter on a large scale and are placed within a universe that is, despite being an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink experience, somehow meshes into an intriguing backdrop. I was won over by the tone of the story and stayed to enjoy the characters and evolving plot. An obvious comparison would be Douglas Adams.

Check out my full review for more.

Intelligence Block by Kit Falbo

A computer whiz uses VR and other technology to become a wizard in this strange story that has elements of gamelit and cyberpunk. What surprised me here was the tonal shift from what read initially like a happy YA adventure to a much more serious read within the span of just a few pages. The ride ends up being a wild one, with twists and turns that reveal more to the reader about the world and characters. Is everything as it seems? Read the book to find out.

Conclusion

The next stop on our SPSFC journey is that our group will receive two other groups’ semifinalists and analyze them. As last year, my commitment is to read and review every semifinalist to proved each other with a review. It may take longer than the contest runs to do that, but I had a blast with it last year and intend to do so again. Look forward to more interviews, semifinalist revelations, and more reviews coming up!

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Science Fiction Hub– I have scores of reviews of Hugo nominees, Vintage Sci-Fi, modern sci-fi, TV series, and more! Check out my science fiction related writings here.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

“Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Volume 4- Stratagem” by Yoshiki Tanaka

The Legend of Galactic Heroes is a… well, legendary anime series. What far fewer people have experienced is the novels upon which it is based. I’m probably something of an outlier here–having only read some of the books while not having seen the anime. I wanted to write about the series of novels to encourage others to read them.

Volume 4: Stratagem

Stratagem is the fourth novel in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and it is perhaps the first where Tanaka steps back and develops the political machinations more than anything else.

We’ve had some epic battles through the first three books of the series, sometimes comically huge battles, to be honest. I’ve said it multiple times, but it should be said again–the scale is intentional. It’s a kind of anime level of absurdity to get the point across of the epic-ness of the conflict. Readers looking for military realism should look elsewhere than this series. Here, however, the battles take a backseat to the planning of a coup in the Empire and the overthrow of Phezzan’s mercantile blockade of resources from both sides.

The coup is a major theme of the book as the 7 year old emperor is used as a pawn for multiple sides of the internal Imperial politicking as well as the actions of the Free Planets Alliance and Phezzan. Reinhard appears to be pulling the strings, aware of what’s happening even as he allows things to happen so that he can manipulate them more effectively towards his own ends. Tanaka’s style of writing–that of a kind of dispassionate historian reporting all the events in the story–struggles occasionally with characterization here. It’s clearly a choice Tanaka has made at this point to tell the story in the fashion he’s been using, but it also means that we don’t get as much of the internal dialogue or conflict as one might expect from some characters, especially Reinhard. What is his ultimate motivation? We can only know through the few vignettes we have in which others essentially ask him the same question. It’s frustrating at times, but I wonder if the payoff will be high towards the end of the series.

The conquest of Phezzan is another major turn for the galactic conflict, demonstrating the stakes that are involved much better than the last book’s conflict between two massive space stations. While Tanaka managed to make the latter of interest by hand waving some science fiction magic to make the locale essential, he’s done a significantly better job making Phezzan a kind of economic third player that has been a juggernaut in politics for books 2-4. Now that we end this one with the conquest of Phezzan, I wonder where Tanaka will go from there. One thing is clear–the Black Fox of Phezzan, Adrian Rubinsky, will have something to say and do about all of this. I think that character is one of the more tantalizing plot threads Tanaka has dangled thus far.

Stratagem ups the ante for the conflict’s scale, and sets up several characters to have larger parts in the series to come. I look forward to seeing where Tanaka takes us next.

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SDG.

Reading the BSFA Awards: 1975 “Orbitsville” by Bob Shaw

The British Science Fiction Awards often highlight books that don’t even make it onto awards lists dominated by American authors. I’ve been reading and reviewing winners and nominees, looking for hidden gems I might not have found otherwise.

Orbitsville by Bob Shaw

I was caught off guard by Orbitsville at several points throughout the novel. I didn’t read a description of it going in, so I had no idea what to expect. My description of the plot will have spoilers in it, of course.

Vance Garamond witnesses an accidental death but believes he may be blamed for it. He rushes to collect his wife and child and flee from the potential vengeance that might be wrought against him. It’s a fantastic setup that I thought would feature Garamond fleeing across space until some kind of epic confrontation. And, to some extent, I wasn’t technically wrong about those being aspects of the plot, but my expectations for how all of it would happen were completely blown up. Shaw weaves an endlessly entertaining yarn. Garamond eventually stumbles upon a Dyson Sphere, and realizes the humanity-defining moment this is fairly quickly. Many questions about the Sphere remain, however, and he contacts those he was fleeing to tell them about the spectacular find. His discovery leads to instant fame, making him basically immune to the vengeance he feared–probably. As humans start to make their way to the sphere and spread across it, more events lead to surprising consequences and discoveries throughout the book.

Shaw also has numerous fantastic lines that stuck with me after reading the novel. At one point, humans find some aliens within the Dyson Sphere. The chapter ends with some hopeful lines about first contact and the lives they may build. Then the next chapter starts “Rumours of massacre came within a month.” It was a gut-punch of a line that was set up so perfectly by the end of the previous chapter. These moments are scattered across the novel and done fantastically well.

If I have any complaint about Orbitsville it’s that it kind of just… ends. Yes, there are some great moments towards the end, but it reads like there ought to have been a bigger and better ending point. I realize two more novels follow this one, but I still think the ending could have been done better.

Orbitsville is a phenomenal read for any fans of space opera and adventure. It’s the kind of book that makes lists worth reading for me, and it has catapulted itself into my vintage favorites. I highly recommend it.

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Science Fiction Hub– I have scores of reviews of Hugo nominees, Vintage Sci-Fi, modern sci-fi, TV series, and more! Check out my science fiction related writings here.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

Vintage Sci-Fi: “The Invincible” by Stanisław Lem- The Universe is not for us

Vintage Sci-Fi is always fun to discuss!  There’s even an official “Vintage Sci-Fi Month” (January). As I recall, the rule they have for calling something “Vintage” is that it was written before you were born, but feel free to adjust that as you like. Follow Vintage Sci-Fi Month on Twitter and get in on the fun, too.

The Invincible by Stanisław Lem

Stanisław Lem’s works are always thematically fascinating, and Invincible is no different. The Invincible sets down upon a desert planet, Regis III, in search of her sister ship, the Condor. That ship has gone silent, and the question of what could have even possibly managed to silence such a powerful machine hangs at the center of the novel.

Lem relies very little upon characterization. The people in the story are there almost as ghostly apparitions of emotion and sensation. They are there to give us that human grounding we need in the midst of a radically inhuman, though strangely familiar, landscape. Lem’s novel isn’t read for the sake of falling in love with the characters, but rather as a kind of warning and clarion call to humanity. What are we humans in the face of the universe, really?

As the humans spread out across the desert like ants, driving their machines, sending out probes, using various sensors, we encounter not just the Condor, but its horrific fate. People have been mind-wiped into a kind of infantile state, apparently without any kind of battle. As the novel goes on, we discover that this is due to crowds of nanobots called “flies” that have apparently evolved their own ecological niche on the planet, namely, its entire above-ground surface. They fiercely protect themselves and manage to use magnetic attacks to brainwipe living creatures.

The questions of how they got there (aliens, millions of years ago, apparently) and what it might mean are only briefly touched upon. Instead, Lem remains almost hyper-focused on bringing us into conversation with our humanity and the place of that humanity in a universe that may have such hostilities as we can’t even imagine. A cold, mindless hostility exists in the “flies” that is all the more horrifying for its very fact of being mindless. It isn’t calculated whatsoever. Instead, humans are just another enemy to be purged. Despite the late realization that the Invincible can likely take off and eradicate these flies (and one character’s objections to the plan), the message of the awfulness of the universe rings loud and clear.

Ultimately, we are left with the great, pseudo-heroic journey of the first navigator, Rohan, into the desert in a seemingly futile search for some lost members of the crew. On the journey he comes closest to the world of Regis III, walking upon its surface rather than driving, breathing its native air, and resisting attacks of the flies through scientific devices and his own decision to be as non-threatening as possible. But Rohan also realizes the ultimate message of the book, that the whole universe is not anthropocentric. We are incidental creatures on the world of Regis III, caught up in a battle that we’re not ready to fight. And how many Regis III’s might exist out there in the universe?

One could go on about the many predictions and ideas Lem has in this novel which are found in others. It’s one of the earliest (to my knowledge) explorations of nanomachines, and particularly their evolution (for which Lem coins the term “necroevolution”). Its foresight about how we might change existing technologies is often startling. While these are all impressive, the point of the novel isn’t found in Lem’s uncanny ability to predict, but rather in his constant drumbeat of futility for humanity in the cosmos. It’s a visceral hopelessness that calls to mind time and again perhaps the central line of the novel, uttered by Rohan, “not everything everywhere is for us.” Ware we tread, humans.

The Invincible is a powerful novel that relies as much upon its foreboding atmosphere as it does upon the storytelling itself. Readers are left to put together the messages for humanity scattered throughout the novel like diamonds on the sand. It’s an incredible work from a master.

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Science Fiction Hub– I have scores of reviews of Hugo nominees, Vintage Sci-Fi, modern sci-fi, TV series, and more! Check out my science fiction related writings here.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

“The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall” by Chris Dolley- An SPSFC Review

I’m a judge for the Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC), and I’m reading and reviewing whichever books in the contest appealed to me! Follow the blog to keep up with more updates from the contest, along with many, many other reviews and topics!

The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall by Chris Dolley

Steampunk pseudo-Holmes madcap retelling-ish! That’s the fastest elevator pitch I can come up with to sell this book to you. It’s a fun premise, and Dolley capitalizes on it to make an ultimately satisfying story.

Family money is on the line as murder haunts the Baskerville-Smythe family. Strange reptiles, steampunk tech, and the bumbling nonsense of detective-antics all pile up to make this mystery a funny, entertaining read. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when the attempt at solving the mystery is put forward, but there’s a twist that readers might not expect.

The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall is a good read with a mystery at its core. I enjoyed it, and I think readers who enjoy steampunk and/or mystery will as well.

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The Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC) Hub– Check out all of my posts related to the SPSFC here!

Science Fiction Hub– I have scores of reviews of Hugo nominees, Vintage Sci-Fi, modern sci-fi, TV series, and more! Check out my science fiction related writings here.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

Vintage Sci-Fi: “Moderan” by David R. Bunch

Vintage Sci-Fi is always fun to discuss!  There’s even an official “Vintage Sci-Fi Month” (January). As I recall, the rule they have for calling something “Vintage” is that it was written before you were born, but feel free to adjust that as you like. Follow Vintage Sci-Fi Month on Twitter and get in on the fun, too.

Moderan by David R. Bunch

I spotted Moderan on the shelf at my local bookstore, a pristine new edition of a collection of olde stories. The cover’s haunting oddness spoke to me–there was a strangeness to it that both repelled and called to me. The Foreword by Jeff Vandermeer hyped me up even more. The back cover has a quote from Brian Aldiss describing it “As if Whitman and Nietzsche had collaborated.” That did it. I knew this odd collection of horrifying stories of post-humanity needed to be on my shelf. I bought it and then, over the course of months, read about one story per day.

Moderan is a collection of stories centered around one Stronghold’s post-human existence. Humans have gone to extremes to become immortal, and the celebration of various frivolities, excesses, and beauty have taken over various parts of Earth. For our protagonist, whose story links most of the short stories together, this endeavor took over his body in an extremely painful procedure that turned his body (minus a few flesh strips) into a fighting Stronghold, capable of waging endless, delightful war on the plastic-covered Earth.

No element of Earth or its humans is untouched by the push for the ever more modern, ever more immortal post-humanity. No aspect of humanity is unplumbed, and in the rare moments in which a human character breaks through with a realization that things may not be as perfect as imagined, our narrator reasons himself into a new stupor, denying his own humanity for the sake of the Moderan myth.

Mythmaking is a major part of the stories, operating often in the background but occasionally coming into focus. Our narrator rants about the “monster god of contrivance,” the God who dared to create humans such that they have bodies that tick down into uselessness over time rather than the “science of infinite life” (52-53). He scorns those who allow any but the elite to survive as pandering to weakness. Only those who he believes could contribute to the great moderan society–a society of endless faux warfare and destruction–should be allowed to survive (72-73). But even he must answer “THE QUESTION” of whether to let human life–that is, non post-humans–to survive, and finds in himself a startling weakness. Namely, that he would have voted to allow them to continue after all (75-76).

The oscillation between absurdity and poignancy found throughout this collection is surely intentional. Readers are buffeted with series of images that enthrall and repel; which are ridiculous and astute. Bunch creates a cacophony of wild imagery while he simultaneously takes the time to slow down and watch the (plastic/fake) birds fly across the skies of Earth. The imagery alone could yield endless fruits for the imagination and reflection.

The stories themselves are largely small windows into the mind of our narrator and the events he encounteres in the Moderan world. I mentioned above the absurdity–and that’s a good word. At first glance, the stories are absurd to the point of silliness at times. But the backbone of their existence is found in a contemplative spirit that pervades the whole collection and asks us to take the deepest questions of humanity into our hearts and wonder at them.

God, humanity, mortality, sexuality–all are contemplated under the strange microscope of Bunch’s collection of strange tales. Moderan is exquisite in its pain, agony, and denial. Bunch’s masterpiece deserves to be read by all fans of science fiction.

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Science Fiction Hub– I have scores of reviews of Hugo nominees, Vintage Sci-Fi, modern sci-fi, TV series, and more! Check out my science fiction related writings here.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.