Big Dumb Object: Reviews Archives

New Model Army - Adam Roberts

New Model Army by Adam Roberts starts with a great idea at its core: what would happen if a fully democratic fighting force, enabled by modern technology, took on the regular British Army? The new fighting forces are called New Model Armies, they use wikis and continuous comms, they have no hierarchy, they vote democratically on everything, including tactics, and always follow the majority. They're not guerrillas as such, but at a moments notice they evaporate to nowhere. And they're contracted by the Scottish government to force what turns into the War Of Succession.

The story follows a single character, who tells the story from their perspective in the past tense, through battles and loses and victories.

The ideas are intriguing. The reaction of the British Army is disbelief and they try and discredit the enemy as terrorists. The point made by the NMAs is that they are truly democratic, they don't put a cross on a piece of paper every four years and pass their decisions to a representative, everyone takes part, there are proposals and counter proposals for everything, things are decided and the majority is followed. Often when the idea of everyone voting on an issue is discussed in the real world current politicians dismiss it as unworkable. You can see their reluctance to even have a referendum on big issues. The attitude is "we're in, we won, see you in 4/5 years". It's about power not democracy. This novel felt like a rallying call against the status quo. With of course a look at the drawbacks. Later in the novel the main character confronts an American soldier and tries to goad him, the only point that succeeds is about what real democracy is. Which is the point. The American is fighting for democracy, yet the enemy is more democratic than him.

The middle section of the novel becomes more personal, following the lead character as he returns to an old lover. This section does personalise the story, adding some background to the main character's life, however I was itching to return to the big ideas.

Well, I got what I was wishing for, because finally the novel, as is said in SF parlance, "goes off on one". Which I feel slightly contradicted about. On one hand I love it when a story has the guts to go crazy, take the big idea and go bigger than anyone expected, to go a bit abstract and bonkers. On the other hand I wanted a more concrete resolution to the novel, with more of the blanks filled in and maybe a bit of the aftermath, it felt like the start of something, not the finish. On balance though I think I come down on the "glad it went bonkers" side.

The story also wins point from me for setting the main part of the tale in Southern England, where I now live. Purely personal, but sometimes it's nice when a location you know gets turned into a war zone. I'm pretty sure that anyone who has had the joy of interacting with the twosn of Basingstoke or Reading will probably enjoy those scenes too.

All in all a truly thought provoking Science Fiction novel with big, big ideas and moments that made me want to jump up and scream for the revolution.

The Islanders - Christopher Priest

The Islanders by Christopher Priest pretends to be a guide to the islands in The Dream Archipelago. A travel guide for would-be explorers of the thousands of islands which band the world of the story. Of course, this being Christopher Priest, nothing is quite what it seems. There's an introduction from a (as then) unknown writer and then the first few guide entries are functional descriptions of the islands: geography, climate, currency and confusingly the multiple names for the island depending on the local patois. So far, so intriguing.

The entries progress to different types, not just the quick functional entries but other kinds of stories. There are first person accounts, letters, third person accounts. As the entries progress a common history and story of the islands emerges. Certain characters reappear, their stories told from different perspectives, often with contradicting facts. Sometimes I read an entry and then doubted my memory as something seemed to be wrong. If it was any other writer you might assume that it was an error, but with Priest you can be sure it's intentional, seeding doubt and adding differing sides to every tale.

The writing varies with the style of the entry, from the functional descriptions to some wonderful poetic descriptions of the islands and the characters feelings. Sometimes it felt like dancing, quick, quick, slow.

There are a lot of themes, they swirl around, in and out. The two that stand though are love and art, with several stories of romantic entanglements and love lost, stories of people searching for who they want to be, of art and the sacrifices for it, of the circumstances that created great art, often sad. There's a lot to think about, it's not plot driven, but there are plots within the stories and a greater arc for each of the characters. You could describe the novel as a collection of short stories, but if so you'd have to qualify it as highly interconnected stories that form a greater whole and you still wouldn't really be giving a true picture. It's more than a collection, it is a novel, because all the parts build on each other, clarifying (or confusing) the picture, creating something more.

The novel is also knowing and self-referential. There's a point where an artists novels are described, and that one of them was not successful because it doesn't have a traditional plot. There's a mention of Priests own novel The Affirmation, said to be written by one of the characters. Not done in an irritating manner, but instead leaving me to wonder what else I'd missed, and what other layers there were to be peeled back.

If you've enjoyed Christopher Priest's other books you will definitely enjoy The Islanders. If you're after a straight-ahead-thriller, this isn't it, but if you want an intoxicating, slowly revealed puzzle of a novel, with true heart and soul, you'll like it. I liked it a lot.

Arctic Rising - Tobias Buckell

With his new novel Arctic Rising, Tobias Buckell may well just have invented a new sub-genre : near-future optimistic global warming thriller.

Set in the Arctic after the ice-caps have melted, Arctic Rising is fast moving and styled as a thriller, one incident leads to another and another, things escalate, we're swept along with the heroine as her world changes. The first half of the novel especially succeeds in this regard, with short sharp chapters and threat and an enigma. The second half of the novel changes somewhat, the focus panning out from the personal challenges in the story to encompass global aspects. The novel climaxes with a set of sequences that brought to my mind James Bond films, not ridiculous but expansive and explosive. On the surface this second half worked for me as a thriller, I can easily envisage a film adaptation, fast paced, panoramic, visually explosive, however I found myself wanting some more poetry within the prose, maybe a pause to revel in the majesty of the Arctic and what was happening. But that's a personal preference for how I like my novels, anyone who is distracted by descriptive discursions and wants instead a taut thriller will more than likely dismiss my criticism.

The optimism comes from imagining how the Arctic would exist once the ice caps had melted, and for that region the world envisaged is a positive one: shipping lanes are open, trade thrives, natural resources are easier to get to, the economies of North Canada and Greenland boom. For that region there is no downside. The effect on the rest of the world is mentioned, somewhat in passing, with regard to another main character who used to live in the Caribbean but who's home island is submerged due to rising sea levels. Sad, yes, but because the focus is, enjoyably, on the booming Arctic when the plot depends on us understanding the downsides of the melting ice-caps and the emotions characters feel with regard to that, I was not convinced. The intensity and anger at global warming displayed by some of the characters felt unreasonable to me, given the upsides created in the Arctic region. Maybe that's just me revealing my adapt-to-survive tendencies? The native Caribbean character does however continue with Tobias Buckell's tradition of creating enjoyable dread-locked action heroes who you'd want on your side of a fight.

So in the end, Arctic Rising is a modern Science Fiction thriller, aimed, intentionally or not, at a modern thriller reading market. I enjoyed it, but my disappointment was that I didn't get to linger longer within the creation of a thriving Arctic region, the intricacies and the wonders within it.

The Fuller Memorandum - Charles Stross

I read The Fuller Memorandum (book 3 in Charles Stross's Laundry series) back in July and then promptly forgot to blog a review as I went immediately on holiday. So here's some thoughts, finally, although somewhat diluted (including in length) by the passing of time.

The core idea of the Laundry series is quite cool, magic is just applied advanced mathematics, the government has a secret occult agency, technology can be used for occult measures. This idea was explored fairly comprehensively in the first novel of the series, The Attrocity Archives, which I enjoyed. The second novel and this one, the third, is more of the same.

I was optimistic at the start, it's an easy fun read and there was hope that it would go somewhere different, but despite the inclusion of zombies and a quite nice climactic battle, I was left feeling that I'd read it all before. Plus, the inclusion of an iPhone as a tool for occult magic, I'm afraid, just annoyed me.

If you're a fan of the Laundry novels I'm sure you'll enjoy it, but to me it just felt redundant.

Reamde - Neal Stephenson

"Neal Stephenson's most accessible novel yet," said the publisher blurb about Reamde. By this they mean:

It's not Science Fiction
They haven't read Zodiac
It's got enough plot for a trilogy of thrillers

It begins like other Stephenson novels, slightly slowly, meandering somewhat, yet with that inimitable geeky style. It appears to be a contemporary novel about a MMORPG video-game but then very suddenly it all kicks off and accelerates and doesn't slow down for a long time, and then only to catch its breath before breaking into a sprint again.

If you want the quick analogy Reamde is like Neal Stephenson doing Robert Ludlum in the present. It's an action thriller and a highly entertaining one.

Like other recent Stephenson novels, it's big. 1042 pages in the hardback edition. A veritable brick. It doesn't read like it though, it's not full of tangents and discursions, it's taut and fast and populated with characters that I came to care about. Characters who have the grief piled upon them again and again, and who I was willing to succeed.

I was never the slightest bit disappointed that Reamde wasn't Science Fiction, interestingly in complete contrast to William Gibson's Zero History. Somehow Stephenson manages to capture the present without making it feel like the past, he has that nerdy understanding of culture and technology that never feels cool and removed but engaging and real.

Reamde is tremendous fun, not whimsical fun, but high octane guns and explosions fun, and probably the best value pence per minute entertainment that I have purchased in recent years.

It's not SF but it's all Neal Stephenson.

Outpost - Adam Baker

I wasn't even intending to start reading Outpost by Adam Baker. I had mentally queued Outpost after Reamde by Neal Stephenson, which was due to arrive at my door any day. However I thought I'd read the first page to get a feel. Which turned into the first chapter, and then I couldn't put it down. I finished it in record time for recent books, a mere couple of days.

Outpost is a fast paced apocalyptic Science Fiction thriller, set in the Arctic aboard an isolated oil refinery. It's not revolutionary SF but it takes some well worn tropes and crafts fast paced action out of the ideas. It's one of those thrillers when everything keeps getting unimaginably worse, cranking up the tension and the action and the pace. The sort of novel you can very easily imagine being turned into a Hollywood action film.

There's a few interesting choices the characters have to make, my favourite: would you prefer to live in luxury at the expense of safety, or a bare but safe(r) existence? And there's also some examination of the purpose of living: when you're living in a bleak, black Arctic, what's the point? What keeps us as humans going? It's not deep philosophy but does show the characters struggling with these questions.

The (very) end let me down a little bit, but it made perfect sense and fits the overall tone of the story. I think I was just looking for something else after all the tension, not going to say any more, spoilers.

I thoroughly enjoyed Outpost. If you want a novel that pulls you through it at breakneck pace I think you'll like it too.

Super 8

Somehow I managed to avoid spoilers for Super 8. Not just detailed spoilers but completely what the film was about. I didn't watch a trailer, read a review or even see a poster. Quite deliberately. An amazing feat don't you think given the fact that it was out in the USA about a month before the UK. All I knew was that it was written and directed by JJ Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. And I thought Lost was amazing. That was enough.

I'm sure my ignorance helped increase my enjoyment because the film managed to surprise me.

To say I enjoyed it is an understatement, I grinned from beginning to end, apart from when I was jumping out of my skin. It's like a classic Spielberg film except that the climax is cranked up to 21st Century standards and there are lots of lens-flares. The heroes are the kids, the bad guys are the adults (sort of), there's teenage angst and troubled parents and a moral, there's almost teenage love and homemade zombie films. And of course it's Science Fiction, but I didn't know why when I started watching the film, so I won't say now. But it's cool.

The film is clearly an homage to Spielberg, but you also feel that there's an autobiographical element, with the love of making films highlighted by the kids joyous film making using a Super 8 camera. In fact the film is infused with love and joy, right down to the end of the credits. I don't think it's just a nostalgic trip either, I reckon the kids of today will love it too.

Tremendous fun. Loved it.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

Does the world need another Planet Of The Apes film? The original is a classic, the subsequent films are often regarded as under-rated, the TV show was pretty rubbish and the Tim Burton reboot was terrible. Surely another film would be pointless? I had low expectations.

The first good decision made for this film however was to dispense with the masks (aka Helena Bonham Carter as an ape) and use CGI. To be honest, until I heard an interview with the director after seeing the film, I had no idea whether it was all CGI or whether they had used some real apes. It's all CGI, but it's remarkable. Andy Serkis plays Cesar the protagonist ape, using state of the art motion capture by Weta, and the expression and emotion conveyed is quite brilliant.

Also good is the human acting, with James Franco playing the scientist struggling with morals, and John Lithgow as his Alzheimer suffering father.

And then, amazingly, there is a good story. It's a story which offers believable reasons for actions, moral questions and a surprising and yet inevitable climax. The characters try to do the right thing, both the humans and the apes, but every step leads to complications.

It's a completely believable story of the origin of The Planet Of The Apes, with a few knowing nods to the original: the TV news showing the astronauts setting off for Mars, the repetition of the "damned dirty ape" line. Not too much in your face, and raised a chuckle from those who knew the original.

I enjoyed it immensely, and yes I'm quite surprised. It's intelligent Science Fiction, taking one key idea and examining its consequences, then taking it a step further. All rather good. And the apes are amazing. A sequel please (you don't get me asking for that very often.)

Bricks: A Novel by Leon Jenner

Bricks by Leon Jenner is full of interesting promise on the outside. The cover is a beautiful wrap around ink style drawing, the blurb talked of meta-physical uncertainty, the size was thin and presumably punchy?

The story starts with a first person narrative of a brick layer, explaining why he was a brick layer and then implying that he is more than a brick layer, talking of earlier lives, of the Romans invading Britain.

Unfortunately there's no plot to speak of, the book is instead a first person wandering metaphysical waffle. Is the bricklayer a Druid who saw off the Romans? Did he get slaughtered in a Roman invasion? By the end I wasn't sure and didn't care. The metaphysical meandering left me bored, the occasionally thrown in word from physics (like quantum) felt forced and I was left longing for something to actually happen.

Maybe I missed something? Maybe I didn't get the deeper meaning or appreciate the bricklayers musings?

Don't know, but unfortunately I didn't enjoy it.

Things I Never Got Around To Writing A Review For

Should have done, didn't.

Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan - Excellent Science Fiction novel. Starts out feeling a bit YA but quickly reveals lots of depth and themes that turn it into a Clarke Award nominee. It ended up where I thought it would but via quite a few unexpected twists. Enjoyed it a lot, thoroughly recommended.
Source Code - Not a full Duncan Jones film as he was brought in after the script was written, but still a good little Science Fiction film. Where by little I mean focused. In print it would be a short story not a novel. Engaging and intelligent. Liked it a lot but would have preferred the early ending.
Doctor Who, 2011 Series, Part One - Dense and mysterious. Enough overlapping plotlines and hanging threads to make JJ Abrams happy. Excellent performance by Matt Smith who has made The Doctor his own. Only two slightly boring episodes, and they turn out to be pivotal. River Song has transformed from being annoying to quite cool. Looking forward to Part Two. (Annoyance: using the phrase "Mid Season Finale", this is not America, we have series and endings.)
Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect - A book on the psychological aspects of playing golf. Interesting. Some transferable knowledge to writing.

Recently in Reviews Category

January 31, 2012

New Model Army - Adam Roberts

January 17, 2012

The Islanders - Christopher Priest

January 10, 2012

Arctic Rising - Tobias Buckell

October 31, 2011