My Say
Reviews and Comments on Books
and things generally science-fictional.
By Karen Johnson, from Out of the Kaje #1 (June/July 1998)
I recently sat down and made a list of my favourite authors for Bruce
Gillespie, and I made an astounding discovery - even though I say I like
science fiction, I don’t read it very much. Almost all the authors on my
list were there because they write fantasy or at best very ‘soft’ people-centred
stories. I watch all the science fiction programs (Star Trek, Babylon 5
etc.) I can find, but I don’t have the patience to read anything that takes
a lot of work. I also don’t like ugliness in my fiction - I read to get
away from reality, not to take it with me.
Anyway, I decided that if I was going to hold my head up in public again
(especially come Aussiecon) I’d better do something to widen my horizons
a little. My brother Greg reads more books than anyone else I know, and
he keeps them all (no wimpy tossing out of books that you didn’t
really like/couldn’t be bothered finishing for him). I asked him to give
me a few representative samples of recent and/or Australian SF. So far
I’ve been handed (and at least started) Excession (Ian M.Banks),
Santiago
(Mike Resnick), The Dark Between the Stars (Damien Broderick) and
Distress
(Greg Egan). Santiago is a western set in space. I didn’t find it
much more interesting than the traditional earthbound genre, so I gave
up after 5 chapters.
The Dark Between the Stars
This is a collection of short stories previously published in assorted
locations. It’s subtitled ‘speculative fiction’ and the four stories I’ve
read so far are all highly speculative. They all make you think, but if
they’re typical of Damien Broderick’s work, you want to read him in small
doses as they are very, very dark. The first is the story of an encounter
between a little man and a psychiatrist, with a twist in its tail. The
second is an original but disturbing vision of a near-future where something
nasty is happening to babies in utero. The third story, Resurrection,
features a computer programmer who is a cryogenically frozen corpse for
a few hundred centuries. When he is revived, he finds a world very different
to our own. The fourth story, Coming Back, is about a researcher
with a not particularly pleasant personality who is caught in a time loop
during an experiment. There are another 6 stories in the anthology that
I haven’t read yet, but I have a feeling that they are more of the same.
Excession is Ian M.Banks’ latest Culture novel. I haven’t read
any of the others, so I don’t know if this typical Ian M.Banks or not (is
there such a thing as ‘typical’ Banks?), but it took me close to 100 pages
to make much sense out of what was going on. Banks doesn’t go in for explanations,
so you start off by going ???, but if you keep going all gradually becomes
clear. I’m only 1/3 of the way through, but I’ll be reading the rest in
the near future so that I can find out whether the ‘object’ is the outside-context-experience
which could spell the downfall of the Culture, or whether they will continue
to make the universe what they want it to be.
Distress
This was a very interesting book. The opening pages (a reporter observing
the temporary resurrection of a crime victim who is clinically dead) pass
the excitement test without a question. I picked it up off the table, started
reading, and read 50 pages without even sitting down. Our hero finished
his story, broke up with his girlfriend, and went off to an artificially
engineered coral island in the middle of the Pacific to report on a physics
conference before I caught my breath. Unfortunately, once the story moves
to the conference, the physical action stops dead for a considerable length
of time while metaphysics and the rival Theories of Everything (mathematical
equations that would explain the existence of the Universe) are discussed
at great length. Not being a physicist, or a mathematically minded person,
I got rather lost here, and waded reluctantly through the next hundred
pages or so. I was just about to give up when the pace picked up again
- our hero is poisoned, chased, abducted, attemptedly brainwashed, and
rescued in quick succession, and there’s still more than 100 pages to go.
My attention was recaptured, and I read on to the end of the book with
increased interest. The denouement is unexpected but it follows logically
from the rest of the story, and I found it fascinating to consider its
implications.
Distress is a novel packed with ideas - philosophy, physics,
metaphysics, genetic engineering and its consequences, medical ethics etc.
even the use of force against weaker nations in a slightly East Timorese
situation, all come into it at some point. Unfortunately, it seems as if
there are too many ideas packed into it to come to grips with them all.
They were all interesting, carefully thought out, and provocative, but
there were enough of them to provide the basis for at least one other book.
I felt that the middle third could have been cut out altogether (or drastically
shortened) without affecting the story, but you might not agree. Read it
and decide for yourself.
Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt
When I’m not reading fantasy or SF, I have a weakness for thrillers, but
only those by certain authors, especially Clive Cussler, Alastair Maclean
and Dick Francis. I just read Clive Cussler’s latest Dirk Pitt epic Shock
Wave. I enjoyed it, but I don’t know how many more there can be after
this. Dirk Pitt started out modestly enough, as a tough-guy marine expert
with a taste for danger and no family to tie him down. Unfortunately, with
each passing book Clive Cussler has raised the stakes to keep the reader’s
interest. The dangers Pitt faces have got more extreme, the villains wickeder,
and the plots more dastardly and labyrinthine. To overcome these perils,
Pitt and his faithful companion Giordino (who is a cross between a labrador
retriever and a brick wall) have had to become more exaggerated, until
the Dirk Pitt we see in Shock Wave (the 13th Dirk Pitt adventure)
reminds me rather of Hitler’s ubermenschen, not because he is a fascist
(nothing could be further from his mind) but because he is as good looking
as Adonis, as indestructible as Superman, and as compassionate and self-sacrificing
as Mother Teresa. If he becomes any more indestructible, Dirk Pitt will
be able to breathe vacuum. Unfortunately, Pitt’s female companions are
not as indestructible. The heroine of this book, Maeve Fletcher, is beautiful,
intelligent and courageous, and has twin sons. She and Pitt fall madly
in love with each other, so you can guess what happens in the end... modern-day
superheroes don’t get to be family men. If you enjoy exciting adventures
in exotic locales, try Cussler on for size. I’d recommend Inca Gold
(the 12th book) highly.
Want to contact me? E-mail karenji@labyrinth.net.au