Book Series
Books Reviewed
Babel 17
Starship Troopers
Stranger In A Strange Land
The Precipice: The Asteroid Wars, Volume I
Ender's Game
The Sparrow
Babel 17
Samuel R. Delany
The Allied forces (which include humans) are at war with a coallition of alien races known as the Invaders. The Alliance discovers a sort of code used by the Invaders prior to each one of their attacks, and send for Rydra Wong to decode it. The key to winning the war might be in the deciphering of the language.
Babel 17 is hailed as one of Samuel R. Delany's finest novels. I liked it (especially the concept behind the code), but I wasn't particularly impressed. It is not one of those novels that have you frantically turning page after page to find out what comes next; rather it piques your interest just enough to keep reading, at whatever pace you wish for, to find out how the mystery unravels. The ending is satisfying but unimpressive, and yet you are left wanting to read more about Rydra Wong and her crew.
Starship Troopers
Robert A. Heinlein
One of my favorite Science Fiction books (up until recently my favorite SF book), this is one of those works that either you love or hate it. There's not much middle ground.
Earth is at war with a race of highly intelligent interstellar bugs...and we are losing. We follow the adventures of John Rico, from his training in the Mobile Infantry to his campaigns against the Bugs and his bid to go "career" and become an MI officer, all told from his point of view.
The reason why this is a love it or hate it affair is that along with this you get a "glimpse" at some school classes (both in high school as well as officer's school) that deal a lot with sociopolitical issues that downplay the 20th century in favor of the militaristic future shown in Starship Troopers. Personally, I found these parts to be fascinating (like attending a sociopolitical class in college), but just as I find them fascinating and entertaining you will find many who dislike the book precisely because of them. So ultimately it doesn't boil down to the story but to whether or not you don't mind these essays by Heinlein.
Stranger In A Strange Land
> Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Valeitine Michael Smith is a human that has been raised for most of his life on Mars. Suddenly, he is found by a group of humans and brought back to Earth. He suddenly has to adjust to customs totally bizarre to him. On Earth, he meets Jill Bordman, a woman who eventually becomes his water brother. As time goes on, more of the humans Michael meets and is sure he can trust become his water brothers. After several years on Earth, he opens a church that isn't exactly a church, one that completely flouts all of Earth's conventions to the point where he angers many of Earth's religions to rise against him.
I have always heard of this book. However, this is the first time that I have read it. It is a powerful book. I mean, it is a really quick read. I blew through it in no time flat. In its way, it comments on art, politics, religion and human culture all while dealing with man's reaction to the Man from Mars and vice versa. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and would easily read it again and again!!!!!
Raz
The Precipice: The Asteroid Wars, Volume I
by Ben Bova(Tor Books, NY, Dec. 2002, $7.99,
mass market paperback, ISBN #: 0-812-57989-5.)
http://www.tor.com/tor.html
http://www.benbova.net/ American doyen of nuts-and-bolts hard SF adds another volume to The Grand Tour, his next century saga of solar system exploration - a companion to 'Venus', 2000, 'Jupiter', 2001, etc. The Precipice, first in a trilogy, refers in its title to the disastrous warming effects of the "Greenhouse Cliff" on Earth's climate, causing flooding to coastal cities, drought to farmlands and displacement of millions who face homelessness and famine.
Hope to ease the plight of Earth lies in exploiting the resources of the Asteroid Belt, the logistics of which needs the finances and high technology of private industry and in the novel two such rival entities in particular. Astro Manufacturing, Inc., headed by struggling, maverick, idealist businessman Dan Randolph pools assets with Martin Humphries, (an unscrupulous, spoiled-brat), and heir to a vast fortune who wishes to dominate the market in asteroid exploration.
Teaming up with interested, independent parties who live on the Moon (as opposed to the obfuscating bureaucracies and the pessimistic New Morality of Earth), Randolph and Humphries set up a corporation to use new innovations in fusion and nanotechnology to construct an experimental spacecraft that will make mining the Asteroid Belt a financially viable reality.
Randolph's desires to help save humankind in contrast to Humphries' greedy wishes to control for personal gain, generates the suspense that drives the plot, for the latter mentioned man will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Randolph himself goes on the mission in Starpower I along with the highly qualified, refreshingly feisty female pilots Pancho Lane and Amanda Cunningham and planetary geologist Lars Fuchs.
Humphries, yearning for the expedition to fail in order to buy out Astro Corp. and eliminate any competition, attempts to recruit Lane to spy on her boss and at the same time he blackmails nanotech Nobel laureate Kris Cardenas to sabotage the ship, an action that torments the brilliant lady scientist. In addition to all this, Humphries lusts after Cunningham who only cares for Fuchs.
In his unadorned, workmanlike prose, Bova tells how Lane proves her loyalty to Randolph and how the various interpersonal, technical and corporate intrigues get resolved (some resolutions with unfortunate consequences amidst the triumphs). This involves cutting from vivid descriptions of the voyage to the Asteroid Belt to the activities of Humphries and Cardenas et al on the Moon's Selene Colony, making for exciting, suspenseful and emotionally gripping reading with a climax that thoroughly satisfies while leaving hints for developments to occur in future volumes.
Bova's characters here could be considered his most complex and interesting so far with his story featuring strong and engaging women, a sympathetic and charismatic protagonist and a completely nasty yet believable antagonist. The supporting players also have enough depth to be distinctive in this swift-paced, space worthy yarn that will add further luster to Bova's already confirmed stature among the best writers of thoughtfully conceived hard SF.
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott CardI bought Ender's Game because so many people recommended it to me. Later I wondered why I had listened. A book about a little boy who is a genius, taken away from his family at the age of six to save the world? Not my cup of tea, or so I thought.
One of my reading groups, Armchair Readers 2, was doing a group read of Ender's Game and I thought I might as well read it with them. I was pulled in almost from the beginning.
When Earth was attacked by the "Buggers", they were taken by surprise. It was almost an accident that humans were able to destroy them. To prepare for another invasion, Earth began breeding military geniuses who would save the world. Children wore monitors from an early age so that their every thought, word, and deed was recorded. Ender Wiggin was the best of the best. Taken from his family at the age of six, he begins his education in war games strategy and command. My heart ached for Ender's lost childhood and loneliness.
As each test got harder and his isolation more complete, his determination for success grew. He knew he couldn't depend on anyone but himself because that was all he had. I quickly became attached to Ender and some of the secondary characters, as well. Geniuses all, they knew the world was depending on them and they pushed themselves to their limits. I highly recommend this book.
Pam Hund
The Sparrow
A Novel by MARY DORIA RUSSELLThe author had a unique way of writing this story so that the reader's curiosity would force him to continue reading. First we meet the characters and learn of a musical signal received from outer space. A Jesuit team is put together and sent to the planet. The next chapter shows us the lone survivor, Emilio Sandoz, back from the expedition a broken man whose hands have been mutilated. This Emilio is so different from the humorous man we met in the previous chapter that we wonder what happened to him while away, and most of all, what happened to the other characters who went with him. I believe Russell's characterization was another reason I kept with the book. I fell in love with most of them and cared about what happened to them.
I found the aliens to be very interesting and, keeping in mind the condition Emilio returns to earth in, watched for signs of cruelty from them. We learn all about their culture and how different their thinking is from ours. Even though it has been several years since I read this book, I still think about it all the time. At times it was extremely hard to read but you could not have pried the book from my hands. I was completely wrung out when I read the last page.
I don't usually read Sci Fi but this one doesn't feel like Sci Fi to me. It has just enough science in it to be believable and the rest is both character and plot driven. I read the book with more than a little impatience because I wanted to hurry up and find out what was done to the characters. I think you will, too.
Pam Hund
bravenet.com