Review of "Nineteen Eighty-four" by George Orwell

What is there to write that hasn’t already been written about George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four?  Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the novel’s ideas proved so fundamental they have become idiomatic in the English language.  ‘Big Brother’, ‘Thought Police’, ‘Orwellian’, and to some extent ‘doublethink’ and ‘2+2=5’, are expressions most are familiar with and part of everyday speech.  Given the depth political and social realities are delved into in realistic, eye-opening fashion, it’s an understatement to write Nineteen Eighty-four is one of the most significant works of science fiction to have been written.

Ignore the title; Nineteen Eighty-four is not an attempt at futurology.  Intended as a cautionary, the book is the story of Winston Smith, an ordinary government worker living in unordinary circumstances.  His job to revise history per orders from above, Smith’s life is filled to the brim with cameras, listening devices, and government snitches trying to maintain a status quo that is anything but free.  The Party’s totalitarian regime—generally nicknamed ‘Big brother’ by citizenry—monitors nearly all aspects of life, including work, home, even people’s love lives.  Beyond voyeuristic, Smith et al must watch their every move lest the most minor of statutes or laws be broken. The Thought Police watching and waiting, most offenders are dragged away, never to be seen again.  Smith’s days filled with anxiety and dread as he trudges from work to home, meeting the enigmatic Julia one day moves life in new directions.  But is Big Brother watching?

Review of "Hominids' by Robert J. Sawyer

Reading the author bio in Robert J. Sawyer’s 2002 Hominids, I noted the extreme lack of meaningful content.  One page long, it is an endless string of: award for this, award finalist for that, considered by many this, heralded as that—even an appearance on Geraldo is lauded.  But nothing spoke of the man (except the last sentence: he’s married), his style of writing, or the subjects his books approach—the usual bio fodder.  This was not a surprise, however: the author bio was located at the end of the novel.  I will explain what I mean by this.

Hominids is a book filled with ideas having that new car smell; they’re straight from the theorist’s pen.  Sawyer bets everything on the state of research of 2002, no leeway for what five or ten more years might reveal.  More than half the book is “conversations” on theology, physics, biology, law, human rights, chemistry, social science, and other subjects that touch upon the cutting edge of scholarly study at the time of the book’s publishing.  The problem is, 10 years have passed and already some of it feels dated.  There are even old ideas (eugenics!) utilized.  I can only imagine another decade will cast further doubt on the ideas discussed, the effect of the novel diminishing with each passing year.

Review of "Ships from the West" by Paul Kearney

For readers perusing the volume titles of Paul Kearney’s Monarchies of God series pondering whether to slap down the cash, Ships from the West would seem a spoiler of a title for a finale.  It’s not, and the further those readers get into the series, the more they realize exactly how unpredictable the story is.  The pieces having long been introduced and the battles waged back and forth, Ships from the West is epic fantasy end-game near its best.

Regarding timeline, Ships from the West is the most unique of the series.  Picking up events sixteen years after the end of The Second Empire, it breaks the contiguity created by the first four volumes.  Almost all of the main characters still yet live, but each has matured.  Corfe has a daughter by Odelia named Mirren.  Jemilla’s controversial child, named Bleyn, has grown up and seeks the throne.  And the Sultan and Heria have likewise produced a child, a boy named Nasir.  The time has also been used by Aruan and his followers, among them Himerius and Bardolin, to build a mighty army at Charibon, their blades pointed directly at Torrunn.  King Abeyleyn has also been busy.  With the help of Hawkwood, he has constructed the mightiest fleet the world has ever seen, and at the opening of the book, the flotilla aims its prows toward the Western continent in an effort to wipe out the evils discovered there.  From the mighty battle killing numerous important characters in the first one hundred pages to the conflicts that follow, Ships from the West is virtually non-stop action.

Review of "The Second Empire" by Paul Kearney

With Hawkwood, Bardolin, and Murad arriving back on Normandian shores in the epilogue of The Iron Wars, Kearney hinted the next book is ready to shift back into a continent-scope story.  Like Hawkwood’s Voyage and The Heretic Kings, The Second Empire does precisely that. With Abrusio still uncertain over the state of their king, the Merduks preparing for a final assault, matters in the West still unexplained, and Corfe’s newfound role anything but trusted by the nobility he usurped, the series is back in full swing. 

 

The Second Empire opens by going back in time to explain exactly how the trio of voyagers were able to get their way back to Hebrian shores—a tale that Gondolfin, Abeleyn, and Isolda scarcely believe as Abrusio starts to rebuild itself from the tatters of civil war.  Corfe, now general of the Torunnian armies, continues to face opposition from not only the Merduks, but also his own countrymen, in particular a nobility who hate to see non-blue blood take power.  And though the Sultan himself is softening with his Torunnian wife Heria, he continues to push military matters, commanding a direct and final assault be laid upon the capital, Torunn.  Events in the interior continue to develop as word reaches the provinces that Charibon is starting to prepare an army of its own.  And through it all, the mysterious Aruan, the shape-shifting mage, continues to ply for influence and collaboration from those he considers able—taking and giving as he sees fit.

Review of "The Iron Wars" by Paul Kearney

The Iron Wars is unique among the five volumes of Paul Kearney’s Monarchies of God series.  Like the handle of a dumbbell, it connects the two fat ends of the story.  Focusing on a single area, the book is almost entirely centered on the eastern province of Torunna, Corfe’s point of view driving the novel from beginning to end.

With the Merduks gathering for a major sortie into Torunna, matters in the province are on edge, a fact not helped by the single-minded antics of King Lofantyr and his desire to maintain the appearance of power.  Taking matters into her own hands, Odelia continues sponsoring Corfe and his ragtag army as they handle skirmishes with not only Merduk raiding parties, but also the king’s attempts to prevent his mother from damaging his reputation, and as a result, ego.   Tension inside the kingdom as strong as the threat they face from outside, the fate of Torunna, one of the last bastions of power in Normandia, is far from certain.

Review of "A Song for Arbonne" by Guy Gavriel Kay

Following on the heels of the success of his 1990 Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay’s 1992 A Song for Arbonne finds the author moving in a slightly new direction.  Toning down the magic but upping the ante from a soft-fantasy/romance point of view, the novel is almost a paean to the virtues of femininity.  Set in a fantasy version of medieval France and focusing on the Court of Love, music is once again an art form at play.  No wizards or powerful displays of magic, this time around court politics which value musical composition and performance are set against the lascivious and aggressive dogma of the neighboring country, Gorhaut.  Style uneven, the remainder is a typical Kay story, heroism, religious conflict, honor, and loyalty carrying the day.

A Song for Arbonne features a variety of characters and points of view.  The main character is Blaise, a mercenary warrior from Gorhaut who now makes his home in Arbonne working for the nobility.  An outcast, Blaise’s father is the religious leader of the Gorhauts, a country firmly ensconced in the male-centric beliefs of the deity Corrascon.  Arbonne a follower of the female god Rian, a religious/cultural knife threatens to cut Blaise in two as he balances his heritage with the ambitions of the queens and dukes, troubadours and ladies of Arbonne he has sworn to protect.  Assassination attempts, court intrigue, and moments of destiny beyond his control, it is not long before war threatens the land and Blaise must declare his allegiance.

Review of "Outlaws of the Marsh" by Shi Nai’an & Luo Guangshuo

There are four “novels” in the Chinese canon that are considered the greatest of all time.  Even the devastating Cultural Revolution of the 1970s unable to shake cultural perception of their importance, Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong’s 14th century(ish) Outlaws of the Marsh, or as it is known in other translations, The Water Margin, Men of the Marshes, or The Marshes of Mt. Liang, is one of the four.  Though technically a work of historical fantasy given the parallels to factual Song dynasty events and “super-hero” powers many of the outlaws possess, the book is better classified as a work of social commentary given the political and social context, not to mention denouement.  Considered a juxtaposition to another of the canonical works, Chinese people say: “The Three Kingdoms should not be read by the old, and Outlaws of the Marsh should not be read by the young.”   It took me years of thought to realize why, but I finally did.

Spanning more than 2,500 pages (yes, 2,500), Outlaws of the Marsh is the story of Song Jiang and the rise and fall of the band he unites to fight against a corrupt government.  Bearing some similarity to the legend of Robin Hood, the first half of Outlaws relates how 108 men come together, fighting off government troops who seek to infiltrate and destroy their mountain-marsh stronghold.  Each of the men having his own history and entry point into the group, Shi goes into varying levels of detail describing the motley collection and the fantastic skill each possesses.  Dai Zong for example, is able to run nine times faster than the average man, Wu Song is strong enough to kill a tiger with his bare hands, and perhaps the most enjoyable Li Kui, the human Tasmanian Devil, flies in to a rage at the slightest provocation, but always remains loyal to the cause.

Review of "Permutation City" by Greg Egan

William Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive, the concluding volume to his influential Sprawl series, saw several of the main characters living within an aleph. The idea borrowed from Jorge Luis Borges, an aleph is an object that contains a virtually infinite amount of knowledge. Operating as a permanent virtual reality, the surface of the idea was only touched upon by Gibson, begging another writer to fully detail the idea. Greg Egan’s 1994 Permutation City does just that. 

The world of 2050 Egan imagines is not so far removed from our own, and like Gibson’s, is scarily plausible.  Technology advanced to the point personalities are uploadable, the rich are able to afford the computing power necessary to maintain a virtual copy of themselves in VR while the less well-to-do save in the hopes of having immortality upon death—or at least until their finances dissipate.  The technology capable but not ubiquitous, it requires huge quantities of computing power to keep the system running, making competition for technical resources fierce.  Public services (not unlike the “cloud” service companies are currently driving at) are rented and used as needed, home networks prohibitively expensive to operate.

Review of "The Cat from Hue" by John Laurence

John Laurence, a young television reporter for CBS news, was sent to the front to cover the Vietnam War in 1965. Though barely surviving some situations, Laurence would go on to serve two additional “tours of duty”. It is this experience, along with personal reflection and commentary on the social and political arenas of Vietnam and the US that would later be collected in The Cat from Hue.  Interesting reading, those wishing to look deeper into life on the front lines in America’s war in Vietnam and media in the US should have a read.

A devil-may-care attitude is not precisely the mindset with which Laurence arrived in the southeast Asian country at war. It’s fair to say, however, his relative youth played a hand in repressing his fears and being somewhat innocent regarding American political interests in the region. The more time he spends at the front, however, interacting with soldiers and dealing with the contradictions and propaganda produced by not only the government but his own news agency, slowly drives Laurence to take his opinion of the war in the direction of much of America’s counter-culture, though naturally with a higher degree of sympathy for the soldiers and veterans and the clashing expectation from each side.

Review of "An Outline History of China" by Bai Shouyi

Having one of the earliest recorded in the world, China’s history becomes even more interesting when one learns it is unbroken.  From the 3,600 years ago to modern day, scholars and historians have kept record of the Middle Kingdom’s events—amazing considering the multiple fragmentations and government transitions.  When China’s Foreign Language Press decided to publish this history in 1982, they called upon Bai Shouyi, a man with impeccable credentials, to condense 5,000 years into a book.  The 800 page An Outline History of China is the result.

Often when a person needs something, it’s best to go to the source.  Such as it is with An Outline History of China.  Bai being Chinese and having complete access to historical archives, the book is flooded with data and information coming directly from actual records and the work of thousands of years of Chinese historians.  Of particular interest is the early history of China.  Dynasties numerous and important figures even more so, I will not even begin to relate a summary of this, but suffice to say Bai’s work can be considered the authoritative version of matters in China before the 2nd millennium.  In this regard, the book is invaluable.