nwhyte's reviews
4413 reviews

Year's Best SF 10 by David G. Hartwell

http://nhw.livejournal.com/571392.html[return][return]Anyway, this is a nice collection; no particular standout story for me, though I did enjoy Glenn Grant's "Burning Day" (for once, a cute anthropomorphic robot story that didn't make me cringe), Neil Asher's "Strood", James Stoddard's re-telling of American history in "The Battle of York", and two stories which included Islam in slightly different sfnal ways (Jean-Claude Dunyach's "Time, as it Evaporates.. ." and Pamela Sargent's "Venus Flowers at Midnight"). There were several time-travel stories that didn't really take that sub-genre anywhere it hasn't been before, and a couple that I really didn't understand, and two that for some reason chose to feature brilliantly intelligent women with autism as their protagonists. I also didn't like the extent to which the editors felt they had to reveal details of the plots of what are, in the main, already pretty short stories in their introductions to each piece. But still, you can't really complain about 22 pieces of generally good short fiction for $7.99.

A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

http://nhw.livejournal.com/628604.html[return][return]The first I've read of the Tiffany Aching series. Obviously meant for young adults but a good read for everyone, I think, with a typically humanitarian message. My favourite line was:[return][return]'AAaargwannawannaaaagongongonaargggaaaaBLOON!' which is the traditional sound of a very small child learning that with balloons, as with life itself, it is important to know when not to let go of the string. The whole point of balloons is to teach small children this.[return][return]It's that "as with life itself" that really makes it memorable.

Year's Best SF 11 by Adam Roberts, Peter F. Hamilton, Gregory Benford, Tobias S. Buckell, David G. Hartwell, R. Garcia y Robertson, Ken MacLeod, Greg Bear, David Langford, James Patrick Kelly, Alastair Reynolds, Matthew Jarpe, Oliver Morton, Justina Robson, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Michael Swanwick, Vonda N. McIntyre, Bud Sparhawk, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, Rudy Rucker, Liz Williams, Stephen Baxter, Ted Chiang, Larissa Lai, Paul McAuley, Kathryn Cramer, Lauren McLaughlin, Neal Asher, Hannu Rajaniemi, Daryl Gregory, Joe Haldeman, Gardner Dozois

http://nhw.livejournal.com/705321.html[return][return]There was only one story out of 31 here that failed to really engage my interest (OK, some of them were very short) and two that I thought were really good and would not have come across otherwise. I liked very much R Garcia y Robertson's "Oxygen Rising", about future war, peacekeeping and sex, and Ken MacLeod's "A Case of Consilience" struck me as one of the great sf and religion stories (OK, it references many of the others, but that if anything is a strength).

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

http://nhw.livejournal.com/919771.html[return][return]Novel about a hostage crisis in an unnamed Latin American country rather similar to the 1996-97 hostage crisis in Peru (so the second book about Latin America I've read this weekend). Actually it's much more a relaxed character study of the key individuals among hostages and captors, and their relationships with each other and with music, before the brutal ending that of course we know is coming. Slightly disappointing that all the different nationalities are exactly out of central casting (the Russian is particularly embarrasssing). But quite an interesting read.

Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay

http://nhw.livejournal.com/945115.html[return][return]My write-up of the first of these two books, Sailing to Sarantium, ended by wishing that I had bought the sequel at the same time. I repeat that wish now. The two books are so closely intertwined that it's a shame to let the memory of one fade before you start the other. Anyway, like its predecessor, this book is simply a triumph.[return][return]But with a difference. Where Sailing to Sarantium stuck fairly closely to the history of our world, in particular the story of Justinian, Theodora, Belisarius and the Hagia Sophia, Lord of Emperors starts by nibbling away at the edges, and then abruptly and brutally swerves into its own timeline a bit over half way through. Suddenly, it all is up for grabs. Viewpoint characters die horribly. Any certainty we had is lost. I think that even if you don't know anything about Byzantium, it's a dramatic development on a par with George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. But if you do know what is 'supposed' to happen, the impact is incredible.[return][return]But the historical knowingness is not what makes this a great book. (And I add to that historical knowingness the accelerated appearance of Kay's versions of the rise of Islam and a specific spoilerish Christian controversy, brought into the novel for justifiable plot reasons respectively about a century and about two centuries too early.) The overall title of the series is The Sarantine Mosaic, and this is not only a reference to the grand work of art which Caius Crispius is brought to Sarantium to construct, but also surely a reference to the way the books are built up from little pieces - a progression of tight-third-person narratives (some crucial characters to the plot, some purely incidental) - within the overall structure of a framing plot, most of which in Lord of Emperors takes place in the course of two intricately and intimately described 24-hour periods, two days which illuminate the book's structure like the mosaics on either side of an orthodox church.[return][return]And apart from fantastic characters, desperate sex, Machiavellian politics, and an unforgettable chariot race, the book - indeed both books - are a deep reflection on the place of art in life, and how some are called to it, some respond to it, and some reject it. A couple of people said they felt the ending of Lord of Emperors was a bit of a let-down. I agree that the emotional place where the key characters end up has been signalled too far in advance to retain the dramatic momentum which Kay probably intended. But read it again, and look at what he is saying about art and the artist. And then look at the work that inspired him. I don't think you will remain unmoved.

Year's Best SF 6 by David G. Hartwell

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1331230.html[return][return]This pulls together Hartwell's selection of the best stories of 2000. As you would expect, they are all good: the standouts for me are David Langford's 'Different Kinds of Darkness', from his series of BLIT stories, this one set in a boarding school for specially talented children; Greg Egan's 'Oracle', which has an alternate-universe take on the possible interactions between C.S. Lewis and Alan Turing; and Teg Chiang's 'Seventy-Two Letters', which combines steampunk and qabalah.[return][return]It is interesting to compare Hartwell's choices with those of the Hugo and Nebula voters that year. 'Different Kinds of Darkness' won the Hugo for Best Short Story (deservedly and decisively; the other nominees were all terrible). 'Oracle' and 'Seventy-Two Letters' were both on the Hugo shortlist for Best Novella, but were beaten by Jack Williamson's 'The Ultimate Earth', which is not as good a story as either but was obviously the last chance to give an award to the nonagenarian author (it won the Nebula too, I guess for the same reason). None of Hartwell's selections made it to the Nebula shortlist, or even the preliminary ballot, for either year of eligibility. Draw your own conclusions...

The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer

http://nhw.livejournal.com/722787.html[return][return]This is not quite as bad a book as I had been led to believe. The prose is often leaden - in particular, the cringe-worthy opening passage which I think should be used as a model of how not to write in classes for impressionable young writers, and the numerous info-dumps idicating that the characters have read all the available scientific literature up to 1994 (which is a shame as most of the book is set in 2011). What appears to be the killer idea of the first half of the book - that science can detect the soul leaving the body at death - is simply forgotten for the last third of the narrative, which plays the rogue-AI's in the net cliche as a murder mystery, leading to an unconvincing resolution. The detective character herself violates standard operating procedure by burbling her theories about the crime to one of the key suspects.[return][return]But apart from that, the characters were not too unbelievable and the exploration of the issues of artificial intelligence and the scientific basis of the soul not too undergraduate (with all due respect to my undergraduate readers). And he does predict a future Pope Benedict XVI. (Of course, whether the present Pope will still be there in 2011 is another matter.)[return][return]Still, it is pretty surprising that this won the 1995 Nebula Award for Best Novel. I confess I haven't read any of the other nominees, and if this was voted better than them I don't really intend to. (Actually, I may have read Beggars and Choosers by Nancy Kress - I know I read one of the later books in the series, and was seriously unimpressed.) The Hugo for the equivalent year went to Bujold's Mirror Dance, which is the start of the superb four-book climax to the Vorkosigan saga (as continued in Memory, Komarr, and A Civil Campaign).[return][return]This is not the worst Nebula-winning novel I have read - that title goes to either The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro or The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov - but it is certainly in the bottom four. I can't decide if I like it less than Neuromancer, because I can't remember anything about the Gibson book, even though I know I have read it several times.

The Sandman: Book of Dreams by Neil Gaiman

http://nhw.livejournal.com/66458.html[return][return]A nice idea, short stories based around the Sandman structure. The one that really stood out for me was the horrific "Splatter" by Will Shetterly, telling the story of the Cereal convention from a different perspective. (Oddly, Shetterly doesn't appear to have published a short story since this 1996 collection.) Most of the other pieces were good but not remarkable.

Year's Best SF 7 by Gregory Benford, David G. Hartwell, Simon Ings, Lisa Goldstein, James Morrow, Richard Chwedyk, Nancy Kress, Gene Wolfe, James Patrick Kelly, Brian W. Aldiss, Alastair Reynolds, Terry Bisson, David Morrell, Michael Swanwick, Edward M. Lerner, Stephen Baxter, Kathryn Cramer, Thomas M. Disch, Terry Dowling, Ursula K. Le Guin

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1340425.html[return][return]this was a year when I think the shortlists were at least equal to if not better than Hartwell's selection - there are only two overlaps, Michael Swanwick's 'The Dog Said Bow-Wow' and James Patrick Kelly's 'Undone'. Other stories I liked from Hartwell's selection included Richard Chwedyk's 'The Measure of All Things' (to which the Nebula-winning 'Bronte's Egg' is a sequel) and Ursula Le Guin's 'The Building'.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

http://nhw.livejournal.com/951453.html[return][return]A very enjoyable fairy tale by Gaiman. As ever I find myself spotting similarities with Sandman (in this case, the supernatural siblings, and the half-human heir), but I felt he had rung the changes here rather effectively, and the story combines lovely incidental detail with a good sound (if traditional) plot. Great fun. (Wonder if I will get to see the film.)