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Looks at Books
I keep meaning to post about some of the books I've read lately. Of course I did a fairly long post about Lawrence Watt-Evan's The Wizard Lord recently (and about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, indirectly), but of course I've been reading a lot more than that.
I'll be brief, though.
Fred Saberhagen - Ardneh's Sword
It's nice to see that Fred Saberhagen can still write as well as ever at the age of 76. Ardneh's Sword is a bridge between Saberhagen's Empire of the East and the Swords series; as such, it doesn't entirely explain the transition, but it is vintage Saberhagen and does shed some more interesting light on the Empire/Swords universe. It also brings back a minor character from Empire of the East, to my great surprise.
Don't expect to find out who or what the Emperor is. I don't know if we'll ever find out. But the book is definitely a must read for any fan of either series, or of Saberhagen.
Frank Herbert - The White Plague (1982)
I dug this one out for a change of pace. I'd looked it over before, but hadn't read it. But I'm usually desperate for new reading material, so I decided to give it a try.
The basic plot is that a crazed scientist develops a plague designed to infect and kill women. It gets worldwide distribution, and so all of womankind faces the possibility of extinction - soon to be followed by all men, of course.
It's set in the modern day, or possibly in the near future - but so near that there's nothing to distinguish it from the present. Well, the present as of 1982, since a key plot point is the Irish Republican Army.
The book was surprisingly riveting - it was almost impossible to put down until I was about three-fours of the way through. And it's a LONG book. But towards the end the whole thing began to pall. With most women dead, and the major character in an incredibly bleak situation, the book became awfully hard to read towards the end. And I found the ending itself quite unpleasant.
James Alan Gardner - The Vigilant (1999)
Sometimes I pick up a bunch of books really cheap, for ten cents apiece up in Maine. Or I get them three for a dollar in Brookline. At those prices, I can afford to take a chance on writers that I've never read before - even though I only like three modern genre writers.
Once in a very long while, I find a new modern author who can write well.
The Vigilant is actually a surprisingly good book. Gardner's not a new Zelazny, but this long science fiction novel about a plague on a colony planet surprised me several times - and didn't annoy me once. Well, okay, the author's use of the word "Dads" annoyed me. A lot. But apart from that, the characters were well-written, and the plot worked pretty well.
The heroine was a bit annoying at times, but that was intentional. And the ideas behind the story were interesting; it takes place in a galactic "League of Peoples" in which unimaginably powerful races have issued a single command: that dangerous non-sentient beings cannot travel from planet to planet.
The novel also features an interesting idea for a non-governmental organization which exists solely to scrutinize the government, and to publicize malfeasance and the consequences of government action and inaction; it's not slanted in any obvious political direction, and doesn't pretend to perfection.
There's a pretty large mystery component to the plot, which when handled properly is always good. I don't know if it would have been possible to solve the mystery before the denouement, but I didn't feel cheated, and I didn't see the various revelations coming in advance. Apparently Gardner has written a number of other books; I'll probably try them.
I'll be brief, though.
Fred Saberhagen - Ardneh's Sword
It's nice to see that Fred Saberhagen can still write as well as ever at the age of 76. Ardneh's Sword is a bridge between Saberhagen's Empire of the East and the Swords series; as such, it doesn't entirely explain the transition, but it is vintage Saberhagen and does shed some more interesting light on the Empire/Swords universe. It also brings back a minor character from Empire of the East, to my great surprise.
Don't expect to find out who or what the Emperor is. I don't know if we'll ever find out. But the book is definitely a must read for any fan of either series, or of Saberhagen.
Frank Herbert - The White Plague (1982)
I dug this one out for a change of pace. I'd looked it over before, but hadn't read it. But I'm usually desperate for new reading material, so I decided to give it a try.
The basic plot is that a crazed scientist develops a plague designed to infect and kill women. It gets worldwide distribution, and so all of womankind faces the possibility of extinction - soon to be followed by all men, of course.
It's set in the modern day, or possibly in the near future - but so near that there's nothing to distinguish it from the present. Well, the present as of 1982, since a key plot point is the Irish Republican Army.
The book was surprisingly riveting - it was almost impossible to put down until I was about three-fours of the way through. And it's a LONG book. But towards the end the whole thing began to pall. With most women dead, and the major character in an incredibly bleak situation, the book became awfully hard to read towards the end. And I found the ending itself quite unpleasant.
James Alan Gardner - The Vigilant (1999)
Sometimes I pick up a bunch of books really cheap, for ten cents apiece up in Maine. Or I get them three for a dollar in Brookline. At those prices, I can afford to take a chance on writers that I've never read before - even though I only like three modern genre writers.
Once in a very long while, I find a new modern author who can write well.
The Vigilant is actually a surprisingly good book. Gardner's not a new Zelazny, but this long science fiction novel about a plague on a colony planet surprised me several times - and didn't annoy me once. Well, okay, the author's use of the word "Dads" annoyed me. A lot. But apart from that, the characters were well-written, and the plot worked pretty well.
The heroine was a bit annoying at times, but that was intentional. And the ideas behind the story were interesting; it takes place in a galactic "League of Peoples" in which unimaginably powerful races have issued a single command: that dangerous non-sentient beings cannot travel from planet to planet.
The novel also features an interesting idea for a non-governmental organization which exists solely to scrutinize the government, and to publicize malfeasance and the consequences of government action and inaction; it's not slanted in any obvious political direction, and doesn't pretend to perfection.
There's a pretty large mystery component to the plot, which when handled properly is always good. I don't know if it would have been possible to solve the mystery before the denouement, but I didn't feel cheated, and I didn't see the various revelations coming in advance. Apparently Gardner has written a number of other books; I'll probably try them.
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Try to read the rest in order; in particular, don't read Ascending until after Expendable.