Monthly Archive for September, 2009

of absolution gap, a novel by alastair reynolds

Published on September 28, 2009 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

As a quick aside, I slammed through Dan Brown’s latest novel, prior to Absolution Gap.  Not much to be said there.  Heh.

[ This post will contain possible spoilers.  Nothing too glaring, but be warned regardless! ]

Absolution Gap is the final part of the Inhibitor story arc in Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe, granted other (later) novels touch on the ending aspects.  We start off the novel picking up where Redemption Ark left off, roughly 20 years in the future.  We find out the Inhibitors are still focused on humankind’s annihilation, yet some remarkable technological advancements have occurred.  The remainder of the novel is straightforward.  Leaps of time occur as he does so well as a writer, and it’s not too hard to keep up with.

Reynolds seems a bit too focused on ramping up humankind’s technology with massive leaps and bounds.  It felt rushed.  Sure it was necessary to what his goals were story wise, but it was too much of a leap of faith on his part.  Part of Alastair’s charm, for me at least, is how he can write brutally technical passages explaining very difficult concepts and ideas.  We’re left to sit back in awe at these technological MacGuffins, but if anything their lack of explanation was too distracting this round.  Yes it’s neat what they did, but his quick wash over the nitty-gritty details disappointed.

I was also dismayed at how his voicing of the Inhibitors in Redemption Ark did not translate over to Absolution Gap.  Reynolds has a remarkable gift when it comes to non-human voicing, and approach to trying to convey alien thinking.  It would have been fantastic to see this pushed further in this novel, especially when it came to some of the actions performed by the Inhibitors.  They lost their evil, and coldness in this novel, and to me it’s a shame.  They were personified so well in previous novels, chillingly so.

The rest of the novel is fairly well done, but again we see some tarnishing of ideas as they develop.  The Quaicheist religion was interesting at first, but failed to deliver.  The demise of Clavain was heartbreakingly simple, but again felt way too rushed.  The Captain of Nostalgia For Infinity countered with some excellent development, but then we’re left with a lame closure.  The rest of the characters continued along their merry way, most of whom we had been introduced to in Redemption Ark, but over all they were flat.

The most common theme of people discussing or reviewing this book is the ending.  For me it was suitable, and left the reader pondering the relationship between the shadows and our universe.  I’m surprised that people couldn’t see beyond the boundaries that Reynolds had written about all this time.  He was never far from pushing the idea of just how fucking big the universe is.  He hinted, quite often, about using the space BETWEEN the stars.  Perhaps people expected the utter annihilation of the Inhibitors.  I was reminded about Asimov’s inability to close things appropriately (hi2u Foundation series).  Closure appears to have been beyond Reynolds writing, and I can’t quite figure out why — I would have to ask the chap about it, heh.  This could be a similar case that befell Asimov.  I could have done without the epilogue.  It seemed totally disjointed from the entire concept of the book.

Over all there is a common theme of things being rushed.  Perhaps it was a result of a real world deadline, or perhaps pressures from other agencies in his life (editors, other stories in his head, etc).  One thing is for sure, it’s still a solid book.  Just don’t expect a blockbuster, knock your socks off read.

of tags in the bookstore

Published on September 16, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

After a quick jaunt in to a local bookstore, I was remarking to myself just how terrible finding books are in these massive wastelands littered with non-approachable employees.  Given how pervasive tagging is as an available “web 2.0″ option, I think it’s only a matter of time until we see some sort of taxonomy entering a physical environment (like a bookstore).  I recently saw a statistic, and I’m afraid I can’t find the source again (my failure to bookmark using tags!??!), that indicated slightly more than 25% of online web users have actively used a tagging system.  That’s good!  I think most savvy internet users have tags available on their favorite sites.  In fact tag clouds are an increasingly common find on nearly all types of sites now.

And yet bookstores are so damned frustrating!  As a quick example, I was looking for a book related to some self-management.  It wasn’t under Self-Help, or Time Management.  It was listed under Business.  Why?  I have no fucking clue.  It literally has -nothing- to do with Business, except perhaps businesses use a clock like everyone else.  That’s the best I could come up with.  I started to look around the adjacent bookshelves, and noticed that there was very little in the way of cohesive organizing.  A smattering of MBA books tucked up against a mish-mosh of finance books and Canadian small business law books.  What laws of Man governed these shelves!?  It made no sense.  Diving deeper around I began to see there were no markings or sub-markings on the shelves.  So much for the Dewey Decimal system, we’ve basically gone dumb and now group in vast swaths.  Business.  Fiction.  Non-Fiction.  New Stuff.  The rest is up to you.  I eventually found an employee and asked them to explain how the bookshelves were categorized.  I was politely told they had no clue, that it was done by large common themes.  Even this employee was unable to find my book (I had been curious to see if there was indeed a ’secret’ system I was not in the loop about).  Good grief!

So where does this leave us?  I’m not really sure, but I know I must not be the only one being pushed to Amazon because of how torturous big bookstores are now.  Using the same book I was looking for, I popped on Amazon’s Canadian site, and hit up the tag cloud.  A couple clicks later and there’s my book.  No walking from one bookshelf to another, wandering like a lost soul from section to section in the hopes I find what it is I was looking for.

Another new component to the mix are authors who switch up.  Take, for example, a rather interesting and expensive crossing that Neal Stephenson has done.

Neal Stephenson confirmed his status as one of science fiction’s leading authors, in the wake of the acclaimed Anathem, by selling his next book in what Publisher’s Marketplace calls a “major deal.” (In other words, it was worth at least $500,000.) But the book, called REAMDE, is classified as “thriller” rather than “science fiction.”

(http://io9.com/5314665/neal-stephenson-gets-half-a-million-dollars-but-did-he-have-to-switch-genres-to-get-it)

So this begs the question of where REAMDE will be in the store – Thrillers/Mystery or Science Fiction?  Stephenson has been in Thriller-land for some time now, but he’s still in Science Fiction in all the bookstores I know of.  Yet, this “major deal” seems to hint at not wanting the novel, at all, to be associated with Science Fiction.  Am I then forced to use one of the terribly inaccurate public store terminals?  Or will I be made to find some employee who will roll their eyes at me as though I was asking them to borrow their car?  We are spoiled by the conveniences of information display on the internet, but surely a store would not want to be inconvenient?  I am supposed to be lulled in to a purchasing state via my enchanted surroundings!

Not all is lost, however.  The only section that seems to be functionally accurate is Biographies.  That’s easily concluded by the fact every biographical writing has the person’s face on the cover.  It’s like picture books all over again.

For me the local bookstore, and I’m sad to say this, is basically a glorified magazine/periodical rack.  I know there are exceptions to the rule, especially places like Bakka Books in Toronto, but I’m definitely becoming more and more jaded on the issue.  I know Libraries do things with a brilliant system.  I don’t dismiss that fact.  Nor am I dismissing that commercial sales and vast quantities of merchandise can be very difficult to manage.  It’s just that there must be a better way.  Some type of consumer paradigm will come, that much is for sure.

And so I dream of the day when I walk in to a bookstore, greeted by a localized software agent nudging my phone.  A quick search entry or even a tag cloud greets me and off I go, following the arrows on my screen to my wordy treasure tucked away in some far off shelf.  And with gleeful excitement I shall rejoice, book in hand, my adventure concluded by a happy confirmation chime ringing from my phone.

of quick apologies

Published on September 13, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

Wups!  Apparently through my own inability to read the fine print, I managed to accidentally publish a draft!  This is what I get for playing with Live Writer, a product from Microsoft that can hook in to various blog engines from a native interface.  Oh noes.

This is actually good in some respects.  It makes you appreciate the Wordpress interface given that it automatically saves drafts *BUT* does not stuff the publish vs draft aspects in to some silly menu. It’s right there, on the right hand side waiting to be set.

Of course, you can use things like MarsEdit, another fantastic little tool for the Mac. It’s just like Live Writer (or the other way around, given that MarsEdit has been around for ages). Local drafts, online drafts too.

I can’t decide whether I like editing pages via the web or these handy native-OS tools, but one thing is for certain – I need to pay more attention to buttons! :)

of even more updates

Published on September 9, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

Ahhh! Too many updates. Aside from the 9/9/9 release of iTunes 9, I get to update that, along with my iPhone (3.1!).

The iPhone upgrade was quick and simple. Probably the best feature is the application sorting component where iTunes gives you an interface to your iPhone screens. You can adjust the icons from iTunes, something that is far more natural and easier, and then sync the changes to the phone. It’s well done, and a sorely over due addition to owning an iPhone.

About the only thing Apple needs to do to gain more user respect would be the addition of adjustable SMS sounds. I am annoyed that such a simple concept requires the effort to jailbreak. Apple would learn something by this as it seems most often people jailbreak specifically for adjusting things like sounds — less the more technical aspects gained from jailbreaking. Alas, such is the way of Apple.

of updates and more updates

Published on September 9, 2009 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Talk about annoying.

iTunes likes to update, at seemingly random intervals, the same bit of software for my iPhone. As an example, I am positive I have updated this one particular app three times in the last week. To make matters complicated, my iPhone then decides to pick its own updates, all of which are mutually exclusive to its desktop overlord (iTunes). This repetition is getting troublesome and irksome.

Fooie.

of redemption ark, a novel by alastair reynolds

Published on September 8, 2009 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This contains spoilers! Be warned!

Redemption Ark is the third installment of the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. First things first, I have covered my thoughts on Revelation Space, the first novel of the series. The second novel, Chasm City, considered a stand-alone novel of the main Revelation Space story arc, has also been covered here.

Redemption Ark is definitely well crafted. We find ourselves learning about a need, a desperate need, for some old military equipment we were introduced to in the first novel — the Hell Class weapons. These things are badass, and we’ve seen what they can do. The story is effectively about the pursuit of these weapons, and soon enough we’re on a roller-coaster ride between the stars. We’re dutifully returned some old characters, older and perhaps a bit more weary given the future time frames involved, and some new characters who aptly represent a good effort by Reynolds to make believable.

I find somemost science fiction glosses over the delivery of good character building and focuses too strongly on the strange or remarkable technology that piqued the author’s mind. It’s not like I need 60-pages to explain how neat some robot or spaceship is. But Reynolds seems to have learned much from Chasm City. One well developed character is Nevil Clavain. He’s a war-hardened mastermind, and one of the oldest Conjoiners. Clavain’s character was well rounded, as we always seem to get good solid glimpses of the past, and yet he strives to grow even given all the crappy circumstances of his life. Plus he still has some parries that may surprise the reader. We’re genuinely empathic to his cause, and his difficult decisions in Redemption Ark. Truth be told, he’s a badass grandfather archetype most people would love to have as a relative!

Reynolds always seems to have tricks up his sleeve with characters. Some who should have died, haven’t — or maybe they have. You get a sense of how engrossing Reynolds can be, in that we’re really never far from original characters from Revelation Space — it’s made more awesome by how he does this. There’s growth, between the novels, that he sets up well for some of these characters.

Space battles are complex. Yet they were artfully explained in this novel. I suppose you could say his writing style is one that is very patient yet has a strong undercurrent of very complex science without being too boring. It’s quite a knack to try to explain to the reader just how vast space is, and just how complicated things can get when you are dealing with relativistic speeds. Nor would the reader like to see things like, “The space ship fired some lasers, pew pew.” Given these encounters, the urgency of the main story arc is aptly enhanced by these particular passages. This patience, noteworthy when it comes to explaining the world around the characters, is fused effectively with dialogue and challenges the reader’s imagination.

This novel was quite fun, and had excellent pacing as far as I am concerned. I never felt he remained too long on one of the many sub-plots, and never lost sight of the main story arc. Suffice it to say he learned much from writing Chasm City.

Next up Absolution Gap.