- "Lords of Uncreation", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2023, 532 pages, 165k words. The 3rd of this trilogy. Humans still being dickheads, aliens being inscrutable, ancient alien assholes being defeated, FTW! Very enjoyable series, great characters, great plot twists. Plus, how can you not like a god-like alien (who is what looks like a 12' tall mussel standing on end) turned demon/gangster named "Aklu the Unspeakable, the Razor and the Hook"? Tchaikovsky continues to be my current modern fav hard sci-fi author.
- "The Mimicking of Known Successes", by Malka Older, 2023, 123 pages, 38k words. I enjoyed Doctora Older's Infomocracy trilogy, very interesting, forward-thinking ideas. This is more of a standard murder mystery. The pacing is OK, the mystery's resolution somewhat mundane.
The thing that really threw me about this novel: there's a missing person from a university-type place. The female investigator enlists an old lover from the ~university to help in the investigation. I think they hook up again? Regardless, throughout the book, I was getting references to the investigator being on a spectrum - autistic, ADHD, I never figured it out. I felt like I was missing something.
Throughout the book, I somehow thought the old lover was male. Maybe a little over-sensitive for a male (crying?). But then, last week, I happened to see a blurb for the novel which mentioned a "sapphic romance".
??? Wow, the dude was a woman? Definitely a surprise. But, I did not enjoy this novel anyway near enough to go back through & research whether I should have picked up the 2ndary character's sex.
I remember a Richard K. Morgan fantasy that had explicit man-on-man sexual scenes, which had and have (somewhat less) a "yuck" factor for me, thinking, they should have smart tech in the eBook that changes sexual scenes into genders that are comfortable to the reader. Did Older achieve this just by writing style???
But, what about the novels that have explicitly had:
- human-humanoid alien sex;
- human-reptilian alien sex;
- human-robot sex;
- etc.
I kind of thought the point of LGBQTAZ-P was, who cares about gender? Whatever gets you through the night ...
It appears that my old, white male brain is hopelessly confused about what is expected of it. Oh well, no worries, I'll be dead soon enough, younger brains can figure this shit out, given that the planet is still alive.
- "Red Team Blues", by Cory Doctorow, 2023, 221 pages, 68k words. The latest from The Bard of the Revolution, my hero. A not particularly sci-fi thriller. The protagonist is 67 YO mostly retired forensic accountant Marty Hench. This is the 1st of 3 Marty Hench novels, the other 2 will take place earlier than this 1.
So, where did all the $$$ pumped into your now belly-up startup go? Marty is the man who will find out for you. I like his terms, he gets 1/3 of whatever he recovers, no negotiation (which leaves him very, very rich fairly early in the book). He is hired by an old friend to recover backdoor keys to secure computing platforms worth potentially billions. Various criminals, governments, etc. would also like those keys. It is a compelling page-turner, a lot of fun.
Interesting that Marty has a couple of sexual encounters & winds up hooked with up a beautiful & accomplished woman of close to his age. Not sure why Doctorow would include this, I guess as an old guy I should say thanks? Maybe he's trying to establish some good luck for himself in his declining years? Hopefully his wife is OK with this?
- "A Psalm for the Wild-Built", by Becky Chambers, 2021, 127 pages, 34k words. Industrial robots revolt & go live in the wilderness. Decades/centuries later, a tea monk who wants to go adventuring winds up meeting a robot who is wanting to reconnect with humans. They become friends. The robot learns to cook. The end. Not a bad read, not much action. But, you know, increasingly I avoid all things stressful, which includes action, suspense, etc. Book 1 of "Monk & Robot" series, book 2 is out, I guess I will read it. Although, I didn't read later Murderbot books by Chambers because they seemed pricey for short works, as this is - $8.99 maybe for 127 pages, 34k words?
- "City of Last Chances", by Adrian Tchaichovsky, 2022, 598 pages, 162k words. So my current fav hard sci-fi writer also does fantasy. I decided to check it out. A really rich tapestry of politics, refugees, demons, intrigue, revolution, very well plotted. A most excellent read.
- "Crosstalk", by Connie Willis, 2016, 659 pages, 176k words. The premise is an outpatient-type surgical procedure can allow couples to feel each other's emotions, or some such. The female protagonist is a director-level employee of a smartphone company. Her total-catch boyfriend proposes that they get it done before he proposes marriage to her so that they can both enjoy the proposal/acceptance so much more together. Which immediately everybody knows about - including her way-too-sharing & incredibly lame family, and her incredibly annoying pseudo-Irish Aunt Oona, who invade her corporate office.
I mean, seriously??? Such shit doesn't happen. & the Aunt Oona character reminded me of something out of a take-your-pick execrable CBS TV show of the last several decades, "Barnaby Jones" or "Murder She Wrote" or whatever. I did 2 chapters & just could not read it anymore - really unusual for me, but Aunt Oona was just too, too annoying. Very disappointing, I have loved much of Willis' (current age 77, this was published when she was 70) past work. Per her Wikipedia page "She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major SF awards than any other writer." Oh well. I marked it as "finished" & gave it 1 star.
p.s., my birthday was a few weeks ago, I am now 72 years old, old, old ...
