Reviews Archive: S through Z
Saunders, George: The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil
This novella has been described as "a kid's book about genocide," and as such, I expected something along the lines of Nick Mamatas's Under My Roof, with its political allegory presented through the perceptions and actions of realistic or fantastic characters. Instead, all the characters of Phil are mish-mash assemblies of biological and mechanical parts, like surreal robots cobbled together from handy odds and ends, inhabiting a postmodern cartoon landscape. While this strategy offers plenty of strange and does work on some levels, Saunders gives readers little reason to care about his characters, and their punchy dialogue and unusual actions, while entertaining, doesn't do much to salvage them or make them memorable. Hip and different right now? Sure. For the ages? Not so much.
Scalzi, John: Old Man's War
Old Man's War works well on many levels. On the surface, it serves as a fine example of military science fiction, ranking easily among Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and David Drake's Hammer's Slammers for action-packed futuristic combat, tactics, and adventure. On a deeper level, however, Old Man's War is reminiscent of old fashioned romantic fantasy, imagining the very idea of an afterlife and the possibility of reunion with loved ones through the metaphor of mortal combat against bug-eyed monsters and insurmountable odds. And it's laugh-out-loud funny. [2/2007]
Scalzi, John: The Ghost Brigades
This freestanding sequel to Scalzi's Old Man's War does a great job of expanding the universe and characters of its predecessor, even if it does lack just a bit of that novel's originality. Even so, there's lots of great high-concept SF battlefield action, weird aliens, and characters, particularly Old Man's War's Jane Sagan, that are easy for a reader to care about. Good stuff. [3/2007]
Shepard, Lucius: Life During Wartime
While Lucius Shepard's 1987 chronicle of near-future Central-American jungle warfare wears openly a uniform of post-Vietnam-era disappointment and is decorated with the emblems of Cold War paranoia, it hasn't aged badly. Shepard's prose is hallucinogenically vivid, his plotting Borgesian, his ideas, larger than life. Protagonist David Mingolla's odyssey, from hesitant trooper to lethal psy-ops assassin, is darkly picaresque, if at times episodic. From time to time, Shepard's asides (always-helmeted helicopter pilots, the Lost Patrol, a downed chopper that claims to be god) threaten to steal the show, and it is to his credit that he manages to reign in the story. Audacious, and occasionally even indulgent, Life During Wartime is an SF war story ranking with the best of Haldeman, Hasford, or O'Brien. [1/2009]
Sterling, Bruce, ed: Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology
I somehow missed "Cyberpunk" the first time around (though I did read Sterling's The Artificial Kid, which helped define the genre, within a few years of its 1977 release), but this short story collection seems a great way of getting up to speed. Stand out stories, so far, are William Gibson's "The Gernsback Continuum" and Paul Di Filippo's "Stone Lives." [7/2007]
Stross, Charles: A Colder War
1980's Cold War paranoia meets the Cthulhu Mythos in this novelette by Charles Stross. Unsurprisingly, the Great Old Ones and the Reagan era mesh seamlessly, providing fertile ground for Stross to extrapolate a "present" (circa 1984) in which the events of H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness actually happened, making the late 20th Century a far, far stranger era. Loaded with detailed references to Cold War politics, military hardware, and, of course, Lovecraft's pullulating pantheon, "A Colder War" is an alternate history/mythos mashup well worth reading. [1/2009]
Templesmith, Ben: Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, Vol 3: Calamari Rising
My first exposure to the madness of Ben Templesmith. The writing crackles, the art astonishes. Yeah, sure, the entire book's one big fight scene, but still… amazing. [4/2009]
Thompson, Jim: The Killer Inside Me
Thompson's loquacious, seemingly dull-witted, rural Texas deputy is one of the genre's supreme sociopaths, a brilliantly crafted first-person narrator balancing sheer brutality and aw-shucks amiability like no other. [6/2007]
Van Vogt, A.E.: Slan
A truism in SF circles is that "fans are slans," comparing the outcast experience of the SF geek with A.E. Van Vogt's titular mutants. However, as much as I wanted to enjoy Slan, the novel hasn't aged well over the last sixty years, and its nostalgically-obsolete gee-whiz technology, its two-dimensional "women in refrigerators" heroine/love interest, and its brick wall ending, combined with its naïve "True Slan"/"Tendrilless Slan" racial dynamic left me frustrated and annoyed. [6/2007]
VanderMeer, Jeff and Ann, ed: The New Weird
I've been reading The New Weird lately, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's recent Tachyon collection of the sort of bizarre, visceral, urban fantasy that's had the placard card reading "New Weird" hung about its neck for the past few years… continue [2/2008]
Wellington, David: Monster Island
Zombies run rampant throughout the ruins of the first world, overrunning the globe's former population centers. Manhattan has become Monster Island, and it falls to a former U.N. weapons inspector, acting on the bequest of a Somali warlord, to penetrate this quarantined graveyard of a city in search of vital supplies. Think Escape from New York meets Dawn of the Dead, with a dose of black humor, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect. There are two follow ups, Monster Nation (which Mike the Gorehound told me he found disappointing) and Monster Planet, so if you're series-phobic, keep that in mind before you get hooked. [3/2007]
Wolfe, Gene: Shadow & Claw
Forming the first half of Gene Wolfe's dying earth tetralogy The Book of the New Sun, Shadow & Claw collects the series' first two books, Shadow of the Torturer and Claw of the Conciliator. The conceit of the The Book of the New Sun is fairly unique, presenting itself as Gene Wolfe's translation (also the case with Wolfe's Latro in the Mist) of a memoir from the far future, forming a sort of bildungsroman of a torturer's apprentice named Severian (which sounds so much like Severin from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs that I can't help but wonder if the latter inspired Wolfe's naming of the former), following his journey from youth to manhood (and beyond) over the course of a single summer. Wolfe's literary language is sublime, choosing archaisms over neologisms to present a universe that, on the one hand, fits nicely into the "dying earth" subgenre of science fiction pioneered by Jack Vance, yet, on the other, is wholly original (though I did detect a nod to Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz in Severian's descriptions of the monastic lives lived by those in his Guild of Torturers. Set pieces, including a to-the-death duel with giant (and deadly) flowers, a surprising mystery play performed by primary and secondary characters, and the against-genre-expectations (but character correct) use to which Severian first puts his sword, are satisfying, startling, and occasionally shocking. Great stuff. Come for the banquet, stay for the alzabo…and dessert. [7/2007]
Wolfe, Gene: Sword & Citadel
Completing Gene Wolfe's dying earth tetralogy The Book of the New Sun, Sword and Citadel collects books three and four of the series, Sword of the Lictor and Citadel of the Autarch. As with Shadow & Claw, Wolfe's language is sublime, but his storytelling, particularly when his convincing characters break form to share their own stories with one another, is easily among the best to be had. Here, Severian has begun to ply his trade, working as a lector (or torturer and executioner) in a city far from the citadel and guild home where he began. Since that would make for a rather short epic, rest assured that by this volume's end, Severian will encounter strange creature, godlike beings, a stunning set piece best described as primitive villagers attacking Frankenstein's castle, and, most shockingly, war. While Wolfe does continue to expand on this universe in later novels, including The Urth of the New Sun, which acts as coda to the tetralogy, The Book of the New Sun is a complete, self-contained, and satisfying work well worth reading. [7/2007]
Wolfe, Gene: Castle of Days
I haven't read this whole book yet, merely the section previously published as The Castle of the Otter, which is Wolfe's own dissection and explanation of his (in-progress) dying earth epic. Reasonably spoiler-free, this appendix to The Book of the New Sun is well worth reading for insights into its creation and especially for the glossary to the archaic words peppered throughout the text. The rest of Castle of Days appears to be a short story and essay collection, and I fully plan to read it, but other books keep jumping ahead in line. [7/2007]
Wolfe, Gene: Soldier of the Mist
I hadn't read Gene Wolfe before, though I'd read of him and had seen pictures of his enormous moustache. I actually thought he was dead, thanks to a recent Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction tribute issue. I read this on the recommendation of Jay Lake. Soldier of the Mist eloquently comments on personal identity, memory, and the power of the written word (although, fair warning, it is the first book of a trilogy — doggone serials).
Wolfe, Gene: The Fifth Head of Cerberus
I read this on the recommendation of Jay Lake, who had read my review of Samuel R. Delany's The Einstein Intersection and commented that Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus said many of the same things. The three novellas comprising The Fifth Head of Cerberus form one of the finest examples of post-colonialist literature I've read, commenting on racial identity, passing, occupation, and cross-cultural hybridization with eloquence and mystery. Truly amazing stuff. Thanks, Jay! [6/2007]
Wood, Anne-e: Two if by Sea
I made the mistake of reading this Michael Rubin Chapbook Award-winning collection of short-short stories deadpan. It was a gut-wrenching emotional experience, like tragedy in slow motion. Tonight, Anne-E came to the creative writing class that I T.A. and read for us. Had I realized that the stories are meant to be read with a smirk and a smile, I would have had a much better time. Ah, well. Live and learn. [4/2007]
Yang, Gene Luen: American Born Chinese
A clever and resonant graphic novel, American Born Chinese examines race and identity through three seemingly unconnected narratives. Author/artist Gene Luen Yang's writing and illustrations meld seamlessly, one underscoring the other, and American Born Chinese is often laugh-out-loud funny, particularly in Yang's retelling of Monkey King myths. Well worth the time. [2/2009]
