Singularity Review

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(More customer reviews)I had no idea what to expect from Singularity written by new author Bill DeSmedt. After reading the blurbs from the likes of Kevin Anderson (Dune: Battle of Corrin) and Greg Bear (Darwin's Radio), I had to give it a try. What a great ride!
The novel is gripping from the very beginning. It has spies, killers, not-so-altruistic scientists, and consultants ... yes, consultants - but these are not the same ones that read your watch and tell you what the time is. The characters are smart, witty and engaging. I found myself wishing my plane ride was longer so I could continue reading!
There are various storylines cleverly weaved together. I kept wishing I could read faster so I could find out what is happening to protagonists Jonathan Knox and Marianna Bonaventure. The unexpected twists and suspense reminds you of The DaVinci Code - but Singularity is so much better. The story is just so solid, witty and smart.
As for the writing, Singularity is beautifully written - similar to CRYPTONOMICON or even My Life as a Geisha or The Grapes of Wrath - you are transported into the characters lives and into exotic locations. The writing is witty and delicious. It is also a smart read - the author weaves the story around a mysterious microscopic black whole. You unwittingly learn more physics than you expect. He brings in science more artfully than Michael Crichton.
In addition to the great story and writing, the characters are clever and interesting. There is a strong female protagonist that is smart, can take care of herself (a la Alias) and knows how to wear Gucci. The male character - now there is a real man!
The one negative is that the book had to end. I can't wait until the sequel comes out.


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Ilium Review

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(More customer reviews)I reached the point long ago where I became rather fiercely committed to the idea of reading a novel without knowing too much about the story. Book covers are immediately discarded upon purchase (sometimes not to be found for months later when they surface again all crumpled and wrinkled), and I passionately avoid reading the back covers of paperbacks until after the book is read, at which point I am usually grossly offended. Consequently, I picked up Dan Simmons' "Ilium" simply because I heard it was a retelling of the Trojan War in general and Homer's "Iliad" in particular. Since I teach that epic poem in my Classical Mythology class and have always considered myself to be an "Iliad" person rather than an "Odyssey" person, that was enough to get me to pack this book away for a recent trip when I could commit myself to some serious continuous reading. So I was rather surprised to learn that a retelling of the "Iliad," after a fashion, is but one of three story threads that start to come together over the course of this 576 page novel, which is itself but the first half of the saga envisioned by Simmons.
The Trojan War is being reenacted on an Earth created by a race of metahumans who have assumed the roles of the Greek gods of classical mythology, who apparently live on Mars. Our vantage point to this exercise is Thomas Hockenberry, a scholar who is pretty sure he is dead and remembers little of his life on earth, but knows Homer's epic poem chapter and verse, and along with the rest of his colleagues is cataloguing where the action diverges from the "Iliad." It seems that Homer played around with the chronology when he wrote his epic thousands of years ago, which begs the question of why Hockenberry is now watching it played out and getting involved in a way that goes well beyond academic interest, beginning with a night in the bed of Helen of Troy herself. Meanwhile, a couple of robots with a propensity for quoting Shakespeare and Proust are leaving Jupiter to head to Mars to check out the strange readings they are picking up and back on Earth a group of humans living in a post-technological world where mechanical servants take care of their every needs are starting to rethink the way things are. When the latter meets up with Odysseus, we have another substantial clue that (surprise, surprise) these three plot threads are all parts of the same puzzle.
I have to admit that my interest for the non-"Iliad" parts of "Ilium" took a while to be kindled, mainly because my fascination with how the Trojan War was playing out was so great. Hockenberry has been studying the Trojan War for nine years and as the novel begins he and his colleagues are excited because they have finally reached the start of the "Iliad," when Agamemnon, King of the Acheans, arrogantly insults the great warrior Achilles over Briseis of the lovely arms. However, this becomes almost a minor consideration for Hockenberry the Muse he serves brings him to the goddess Aphrodite, who wants the scholar to kill the Athene herself.
From the opening paragraph, where Simmons does a pointed take off on the famous beginning of Homer's epic, Simmons dances his story in and around the "Iliad." The question of how a mere mortal such as Diomedes could dare to attack the gods themselves on the battlefield, and actually wound then, is not answered: he is injected with nano-technology by another deity. However, it is when we get to the fateful point where Homer's story is effectively derailed and Hockenberry makes the inevitable declaration to Dorothy's little dog that we are no longer in the "Iliad" and are now charting new ground.
Ultimately Simmons is more like Euripides than Homer. It was the Greek dramatist who set up the ironic foreshadowing of the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles in "Iphigenia at Aulis" and who created an emotional counterpart in "The Trojan Women" to the end of the "Iliad," where Hector's corpse is brought back to the city. Homer's epics were not holy writ for the ancient Greeks, and the tragic poets could use his characters to tell their own stories, which is exactly what Simmons is doing (there is one part that struck me as a deadly serious twist on Aristophanes' "Lysistrata"). I have the feeling that the conclusion will be more like the "Odyssey," especially since the "original" fate of Troy, Achilles, Hector, and the others are well over the rainbow, but now I am curious to see not only what happens next, and who wins the new war that has begun, but also because I want to find out who is behind the curtain.

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Dragon's Time: Dragonriders of Pern (The Dragonriders of Pern) Review

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(More customer reviews)I read this book in one sitting, true, but for all the wrong reasons. The plot is extremely thin and convoluted. The character development is non-existent. Hey, it's been 10 pages, let's throw in another queenrider or two, mention her twice, then never mention her again. Whee! Timing it has turned from a very serious action with tremendous implications (Dragonquest, All The Weyrs) to something that can be done casually, over and over again, before death, after death, with only "muzzy-headedness" being the result. And then there's the casual loaning of dragons! Who knew a dragon didn't care who rode it?
Very disappointing to see carefully built parts of the Pern world so casually dismantled in this book. I've put up with Todd's Pern creations, but I think this one did me in. I'll just continue reading Anne's Pern books over and over and ignore any with Todd listed as the author.

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Use Once, Then Destroy Review

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(More customer reviews)Painted onto paper with pen strokes much like a dark feather tickling down your spine, Use Once, Then Destroy is a chilling and eerie treat to the horror fan in you.
Not particularly graphic or even overly shocking, these tales are old time creepy combined with new world situations, brought to vivid life with the poetry of William's prose.
The horror are vague, and they hide in the shadows as they salivate over your soul, waiting for the appropriate moment when the air is at its chilliest to sweep over you in shivering apprehension and dread, leaving you bleak and trembling in their wake.
UOTD is a chilling collection of quiet terror, of felt but unseen things in the mists, of low-lying dread and unspeakable impulses. There are seventeen stories in all, too many to cover each one, but here is a quick summary of my favorites:
City In Aspic - a haunting and misty tale of a hotelkeeper in Venice, and the horrors that haunt him through the city's winter streets.
The Windmill - A vacation in Norfolk will be the beginning or the end of Claire's relationship.
Wire - A boy remembers his mother, and the dark terror that stalked her when he was young.
Edge - Another vacation gone awry, and love that turns bitter and violent.
The Owl - A young man and his expecting wife move into an old house in the country, and a storm comes that changes everything.
The Suicide Pit - In streets filled with "little samples and smears of humanity that won't erase", a lonely man finds his destiny.
Nearly People - (the longest and best of the stories) Eerily futuristic look at a quarantined area of a city, where Carrier stalks food for Jake, and meets the Dancer. I loved the Mowers, and there is some graphic and dizzyingly disgusting scenes in this tale, causing my shiver-meter to jolt into the red.
Conrad Williams' surreal and nightmarish tales are well worth the price, poetically written and devilishly creepy, this is a great collection to add to your bookshelf. Enjoy!


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Lost in Time Review

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(More customer reviews)In Hans Magnus Enzensberger"s Lost in Time, a boy daydreams and sees strange scenes when he rubs his eyes; but one day finds the visions all too real when he lands in the past and finds himself caught in increasingly complex political worlds. Robert covers close to four hundred years of history as he jumps through time in search of the elusive way home. Lost in Time is an original, well-crafted, and totally involving story of time travel with a different tone and twist.

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Spider World: The Tower (Spider World: Epic Visionary Fiction) (Bk. 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)Dig
this is a great yarn, with a huge world to let your mind wander through. The first half is an interactive Discovery special on the insect kingdom, except you're trapped in the TV with them. Life is rough for the characters and you look up expecting your own skin to be sunburned and your belly empty. But it's all foreward moving, foreward thinking. Our hero grows on each page and ends the book thinking entirely for himself. The Spider Kingdom is at once frighteningly sterile, and exceedingly organic at the same time. The perversion of the insects seems abrupt until you meet the humans. Our yarnspinner Wilson is definitely trying to say something about the nature of the human race, and once I dream about it for a few more weeks, I'll be able to tell you what that message is.

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