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The book reports, they are here.
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve never read Nnedi Okorafor, or seen any of her other work – in fact, I’d never even heard of her. But I came across this in the bookstore and was intrigued. The basic idea is a fairly simple SF trope – teenager defies tradition to attend the most prestigious university in the galaxy, but en route her ship is attacked by aliens. But like most good SF, it’s the details that really make it work, from the title character’s Himba heritage and culture to the technological MacGuffin that plays a part in the narrative and the interactions between Binti and the Meduse (the aforementioned aliens). Between the time I bought the book and wrote this review, Binti won a Hugo for Best Novella, and I can see why – it’s exceptionally well-written, well-told, imaginative and believable. I really enjoyed reading this, and I’ll definitely be looking for more of Okorafor’s work.
The Left Left Behind by Terry Bisson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Another installment from the PM Press Outspoken Authors series, from an author I haven’t read before. Terry Bisson does SF and speculative fiction, but also plenty of non-fiction, novelizations, plays and political writing (sometimes all at once). He’s also been the one handling most of the Q&As for this series (or at least the ones I’ve read so far). This collection features a parody of the Left Behind series – which doubles as a left-wing dream scenario where every conservative on the planet just vanishes forever – and a one-act play in which Einstein, Paul Robeson and J. Edgar Hoover return from the dead at a house full of protesters preparing for an anti-Bush demonstration. All of which is great if you share Bisson’s unapologetically hard-left views. For everyone else to the right of that (to include moderates) it may come across as heavy-handed, or at least too polemical and reliant on political stereotypes. Bisson isn’t necessarily unfair, but he’s not subtle either, and if yr not in the choir he’s preaching to, it can be a bit eye-rolling at times. That said, at least he has a sense of humor about it.
Spy Story by Len Deighton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
There’s debate as to whether the main character is the same protagonist from Deighton’s “Harry Palmer” spy novels (even though Deighton himself has said he's not), but it’s clearly set in the same spy universe, with recurring minor characters from that series. Anyway, the story follows “Pat Armstrong”, a former agent who works at the Studies Centre (which uses actual military intelligence and computers to conduct war-game scenarios, historical and otherwise). Armstrong accidentally discovers that an imposter has taken over his old flat, and that British intelligence may be behind it. To say nothing of the Russians. His subsequent investigation ends up getting him recruited into the plot behind it all. I like Deighton, but this one is a bit of a mixed bag, mainly due to Deighton playing his cards much closer to the chest than usual, which works against his fairly complicated plot. Also, whether Armstrong is Palmer or not, he’s not quite as compelling as the unnamed hero of the earlier books. On the other hand, I like Deighton’s take on the espionage world as messy, paranoid and highly politicized, and the behind-the-scenes war-games stuff is interesting.
Distrust that Particular Flavor by William Gibson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a collection of William Gibson’s non-fiction writing from 1989 to 2010 (including a few public talks), which covers many of the bases you’d expect (computers, technology, SF, the future, Tokyo, etc) and a few bases you might not (9/11, Jorge Luis Borges, a Steely Dan album review, Skip Spence’s jeans, etc). It also includes his 1993 infamous article about Singapore, “Disneyland With The Death Penalty”, which is now somewhat out of date and yet not entirely. It’s something of an oddball anthology in that Gibson uses the intro and post-article commentary to disavow his reputation as a futurist tech guru – that his strength is writing fiction, not non-fiction, and that he really sort of bluffed his way through a lot of the futuretech stuff, at least in the earlier days. Which is fair, since Gibson also reminds us that most SF is really about the present, not the future, and is usually only prophetic by dumb luck and circumstance. For all his disclaimers as a non-fiction writer, though, this is a diverse and thoughtful collection – even the dated stuff is a handy illustration of the gap between where we thought information technology might take us and where we ended up here in 2016.
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is one of Dick’s first books to dive into religious themes, but otherwise it’s a classic PKD scenario – interstellar colonists cope with the drudgery of colonial life on other planets by taking Can-D, an illegal drug that creates shared hallucinations that transport the user's perception into miniaturized layouts (imagine building an elaborate Barbie townhouse and taking a drug that takes you into that world as either Barbie or Ken). Businessman Palmer Eldritch returns from the Prox system with Chew-Z, a new alien drug that promises eternal life and reincarnation in your own private world – or so he claims. And is it really Eldritch – or something else? The story follows Barney Mayerson (a precog who works for P.P. Layouts) and Leo Bulero (his boss, who also controls the Can-D trade that drives the layout business), who end up opposing Eldritch and discovering his real plan for Chew-Z. Apart from PKD’s characteristically clunky prose, this is typical of his best work in terms of satire, drug addiction, layered realities, depression, failed marriages and sheer imagination. And the religion angle is handled better than I expected. It gets a little shaky by the end, but overall this is one of his better novels.
View all my reviews
I want Can-D,
This is dF
Binti by Nnedi OkoraforMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve never read Nnedi Okorafor, or seen any of her other work – in fact, I’d never even heard of her. But I came across this in the bookstore and was intrigued. The basic idea is a fairly simple SF trope – teenager defies tradition to attend the most prestigious university in the galaxy, but en route her ship is attacked by aliens. But like most good SF, it’s the details that really make it work, from the title character’s Himba heritage and culture to the technological MacGuffin that plays a part in the narrative and the interactions between Binti and the Meduse (the aforementioned aliens). Between the time I bought the book and wrote this review, Binti won a Hugo for Best Novella, and I can see why – it’s exceptionally well-written, well-told, imaginative and believable. I really enjoyed reading this, and I’ll definitely be looking for more of Okorafor’s work.
The Left Left Behind by Terry BissonMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Another installment from the PM Press Outspoken Authors series, from an author I haven’t read before. Terry Bisson does SF and speculative fiction, but also plenty of non-fiction, novelizations, plays and political writing (sometimes all at once). He’s also been the one handling most of the Q&As for this series (or at least the ones I’ve read so far). This collection features a parody of the Left Behind series – which doubles as a left-wing dream scenario where every conservative on the planet just vanishes forever – and a one-act play in which Einstein, Paul Robeson and J. Edgar Hoover return from the dead at a house full of protesters preparing for an anti-Bush demonstration. All of which is great if you share Bisson’s unapologetically hard-left views. For everyone else to the right of that (to include moderates) it may come across as heavy-handed, or at least too polemical and reliant on political stereotypes. Bisson isn’t necessarily unfair, but he’s not subtle either, and if yr not in the choir he’s preaching to, it can be a bit eye-rolling at times. That said, at least he has a sense of humor about it.
Spy Story by Len DeightonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
There’s debate as to whether the main character is the same protagonist from Deighton’s “Harry Palmer” spy novels (even though Deighton himself has said he's not), but it’s clearly set in the same spy universe, with recurring minor characters from that series. Anyway, the story follows “Pat Armstrong”, a former agent who works at the Studies Centre (which uses actual military intelligence and computers to conduct war-game scenarios, historical and otherwise). Armstrong accidentally discovers that an imposter has taken over his old flat, and that British intelligence may be behind it. To say nothing of the Russians. His subsequent investigation ends up getting him recruited into the plot behind it all. I like Deighton, but this one is a bit of a mixed bag, mainly due to Deighton playing his cards much closer to the chest than usual, which works against his fairly complicated plot. Also, whether Armstrong is Palmer or not, he’s not quite as compelling as the unnamed hero of the earlier books. On the other hand, I like Deighton’s take on the espionage world as messy, paranoid and highly politicized, and the behind-the-scenes war-games stuff is interesting.
Distrust that Particular Flavor by William GibsonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a collection of William Gibson’s non-fiction writing from 1989 to 2010 (including a few public talks), which covers many of the bases you’d expect (computers, technology, SF, the future, Tokyo, etc) and a few bases you might not (9/11, Jorge Luis Borges, a Steely Dan album review, Skip Spence’s jeans, etc). It also includes his 1993 infamous article about Singapore, “Disneyland With The Death Penalty”, which is now somewhat out of date and yet not entirely. It’s something of an oddball anthology in that Gibson uses the intro and post-article commentary to disavow his reputation as a futurist tech guru – that his strength is writing fiction, not non-fiction, and that he really sort of bluffed his way through a lot of the futuretech stuff, at least in the earlier days. Which is fair, since Gibson also reminds us that most SF is really about the present, not the future, and is usually only prophetic by dumb luck and circumstance. For all his disclaimers as a non-fiction writer, though, this is a diverse and thoughtful collection – even the dated stuff is a handy illustration of the gap between where we thought information technology might take us and where we ended up here in 2016.
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. DickMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is one of Dick’s first books to dive into religious themes, but otherwise it’s a classic PKD scenario – interstellar colonists cope with the drudgery of colonial life on other planets by taking Can-D, an illegal drug that creates shared hallucinations that transport the user's perception into miniaturized layouts (imagine building an elaborate Barbie townhouse and taking a drug that takes you into that world as either Barbie or Ken). Businessman Palmer Eldritch returns from the Prox system with Chew-Z, a new alien drug that promises eternal life and reincarnation in your own private world – or so he claims. And is it really Eldritch – or something else? The story follows Barney Mayerson (a precog who works for P.P. Layouts) and Leo Bulero (his boss, who also controls the Can-D trade that drives the layout business), who end up opposing Eldritch and discovering his real plan for Chew-Z. Apart from PKD’s characteristically clunky prose, this is typical of his best work in terms of satire, drug addiction, layered realities, depression, failed marriages and sheer imagination. And the religion angle is handled better than I expected. It gets a little shaky by the end, but overall this is one of his better novels.
View all my reviews
I want Can-D,
This is dF
