Review of number9dream by David Mitchell

David Mitchell is living proof that style and technique matter. You've read the generic stories out there—the mysteries, the adventures, the historical novels, the dystopias, etc. But throw a Mitchell novel into that mix and it sticks out like a lighthouse. Boiled to their bare bones, his stories aren't any different than those discount brands. It's Mitchell's way with words that distinguish his books. number9dream is his 2001 (stylish) take on bildungsroman.

If you have a bildungsroman, then you need a young person to grow, and in the case of number9dream that person is nineteen-year old Eiji Miyake. Alone in Tokyo on a mission, he seeks his long estranged father. But sub-consciously, of course, he is seeking direction, purpose in life. Through a swirl of bizarre blue-collar jobs, cafe run-ins, immutable strangers, as well as a healthy dose of youthful imagination, Eiji does eventually find what he's looking for. The journey, as they say however, is what matters.

Review of Slaves to Darkness by John French

There have been entire books devoted to the downfall of certain primarchs. Fulgrim, for example, saw the leader of the Emperor's Children's turn down a dark road. Betrayer saw Angron's potential fully unleashed. A Thousand Sons witnessed Magnus' tragic downfall. Legion turned Alpharius. And so on. An episode of herding cats, Slaves to Darkness (2018) brings this wild group back together as Horus sits on the doorstep of Terra.

Slaves to Darkness picks up in the direct aftermath of Wolfsbane. Horus lies wounded following Leman Rus' spear attack. In the void of leadership, Malaghurst attempts to keep the Sons of Horus ship upright, and like it or not, is faced with the task of getting the traitor forces organized. This includes coralling the wild primarchs Angron and Fulgrim. But Malaghurst's task becomes all the more complicated as the forces of Chaos rear their head(s). The assembly of forces anything but certain, the traitor forces may devour themselves before ever setting foot on Terra.

Review of South by Babak Lakghomi

Myself, like many, many readers out there, enjoy a good dystopia. They balance social and political concerns with tales of individuals struggling through tough times. And perhaps nothing triggers my/our ire more than tyrannical forms of government. Zamyatin's We, Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four, Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale—these and several others have gone down in history as cautionary yet gripping stories for the forms of government they present and their impact on the individual. Looking to add his name to the list is Babak Lakghomi's 2023 South.

South is the story of an unnamed journalist who heads to an unnamed part of the world, ostensibly in the southern hemisphere, to investigate what happened to his deceased father, and in the process research and write a book about him. At first things seem normal at the places he visits. The man is able to write, he is helped by those around him, and he generates pages of manuscript. But slowly things start to crumble. Little bits of freedom are taken away here and there, and he becomes aware he is being monitored. What follows is a downward spiral of understanding and circumstance.

Review of Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone by Ian McDonald

It's no secret this blog has a love affair with Ian McDonald. The author displays an excellent mix of lexical agility, fertile imagination, and themes human and existential in nature. (If I had to build the strongest science fiction house, those are the three pillars I would start with.) On top of this, McDonald has shown incredible range, from gonzo (Out on Blue Six) to staid (King of Morning, Queen of Day), magic realism (Desolation Road) to mainstream (Luna trilogy), and beyond. In the novella Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone (1994), McDonald shows what he can do with cyberpunk.

Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone centers on a man named Ethan, who at the start of the story is on a pilgrimage in the remote parts of Japan, hoping to find direction in life. Ethan is in possession of fracters, a technology more advanced than subliminal messages, which has the possibility of subconsciously altering people's minds. Fracters are a highly sought after technology, naturally.  In what Ethan describes as a previous life, government agencies and organized crime were doing the seeking—not always with the best of intentions, his life in danger. It's in trying to reconcile this past life that Ethan struggles with his current one. Throwing a spanner into these spinning works is the fact Ethan is not entirely sure he himself hasn't been affected by fracters.

Review of Cryptozoic by Brian Aldiss

With great quantity comes great chances of a stinker. With Brian Aldiss, and his dozens of novels and one-hundred+ short stories, it was just a matter of time. <DING> It's Cryptozoic (1967). A kitchen sink of fiction, the novel changes identity more times than a Gen Z teen from an ultra-liberal family, making for a difficult piece of fiction to make heads or tails of (mixed metaphors intentional, natch).

Cryptozoic is the story of Bush, an artist living circa 2090. But at the start of the novel he is deep in mind travel in the Jurassic past. Mind travel a form of time travel, it allows people to cast their consciousness deep into the depths of time. Physical contact not possible, people can nevertheless go back and observe, and if they happen to meet other minds, interact. People spend years embedded in mind travel, it's thus happens that Bush has a Rip van Winkle meets George Orwell moment when he awakes. And it's not good.

Review of Heralds of the Siege ed. by Nick Kyme and Laurie Goulding

With the Black Library's decision to make Horus' attack on the solar system a separate series, the final books of the Horus Heresy end up reading more like bridge books. They connect what has happened previously and set the stage for the big conclusion, the Siege of Terra. Containing the precise moment Horus breaches the solar system, Heralds of the Siege (2018), an anthology edited by Nick Kyme and Laurie Goulding, gets the reader ready for the grand finale.

The anthology kicks off with one of the best in the bunch, “Dark Compliance” by John French. A frame story, it tells of Horus' general Argonis ordering a planet to bend the knee. When the planet's leader refuses, Argonis proceeds to tell the story of the last time a planet failed to capitulate. Giving the planet's leader a taste of things to come, it is dark compliance, indeed. While overall a straightforward story, the frame gives the story appreciable nuance. Another John French piece, “Now Peals Midnight” is more symbol than story. It exists to portray one moment, and for that I wish it had been located at the end of the anthology, but so be it.

Review of Electric Forest by Tanith Lee

There is a never a clear fault line between eras of fiction. Books appear here and there, under the radar, with one or two elements in common. Slowly these elements occur more often until coalescing into something identifiable, and at that point become a recognizable phenomenon in fiction. It's at this time that writers begin consciously producing material in and around the phenomenon. Then comes the inevitable exhausted—steampunk <cough-cough>. But we are not here for that. Tanith Lee's 1979 Electric Forest is a clear work of cyberpunk, but its worth noting was created in the hazy gray area between unknown phenomenon and known quantity. Let's see what the innocence leads to.

Electric Forest is the story of Magdala. Born poor, ugly, and deformed, she jumps at the chance a suave stranger offers her for a new body. In the days that follow, he transfers her consciousness into the android body of a goddess. Capable of functioning like a human, for all its pride and pleasure, Magdala's only drawback is that she cannot stray far from her biological body, which is kept in a chamber. She enjoys her new body initially, but the deeper Magdala goes into her journey of selfhood, the more nuanced her views become.

Cardboard Corner: Review of Altered TCG

Magic: The Gathering has been a smash hit. Inspiring dozens upon dozens of similar games, it brought about the Golden Age of expandable card games. But interest waned, the market moved in new directions, and the model faded. But it didn't disappear. A tiny number of such games stood strong while new ones appeared and disappeared like fireflies. It's now 2024 and a new wave of expandable card games is hitting the market. We're in the middle of a second Golden Age. Putting a horse in that race is Altered TCG (2024), which automatically generates questions. Does it have a unique edge to distinguish itself from the dozens and dozens of similar games releasing now? Does it have a chance at outlasting the Age—of being one of the few still standing once the sun has set on the second age? Let's check the horse's teeth.

I would (and will in a moment) argue that Altered has a truly unique edge. But at its absolute core, Altered does not upset the collectible card game apple cart. Two players bring pre-prepared decks comprised of units, spells, and permanents to battle it out in a head-to-head duel. These central concepts of CCGs remain the same. What lies beyond, however, is where things get special.

Review of The Buried Dagger by James Swallow

It's taken fifty-four books, but we're here: the threshold of Terra. Horus' forces loom on the horizon as the universe focuses on the battle that is about to unfold. The last step to that edge is The Buried Dagger by James Swallow (2019).

The Buried Dagger is comprised of two primary storylines that oscillate as the book progresses. The first is centered on the Death Guard. In the opening pages, Mortarion ravages an Imperial planet but is pulled away from the action by one of his captains with direct orders from Horus himself: time to attack Terra. Slipping occasionally into Mortarion's childhood, this storyline forms the largest proportion of the book. In the second storyline, a secret operative traverses the labyrinths beneath Terra. He is approached by Malcador the Sigillite and given a special mission. Garro and the Grey Knights pulled into the action in the aftermath, Terra may fall before Horus arrives if they don't take care of business.

Review of Citizen in Space by Robert Sheckley

Robert Sheckley is one of the most exciting authors on my shelf. I never know what I'm going to get when cracking a book, only that it will be a smorgasbord of subtle wit, easter eggs, and imaginative storytelling. His 1955 collection Citizen in Space hasn't changed my mind despite the relative lack of substance.

The collection begins with “The Mountain Without a Name”. Something akin to Dubai in space, it tells of an Earth construction company terraforming a planet for human use, which includes converting their version of Mt. Everest into a sea. But bad luck seems to tail them, wrecking the crew's best made plans. Things eventually come to a head, and the men are left with the most dire (as intended) of choices. In “The Accountant”, Sheckley must have been having a bad day with bureaucracy. A throwaway story, it tells of parents pressuring their child to become a magician when all he wants is to be an accountant. Though structured like a bar joke, the punchline is more dark humor than knee-slapping.