Century Rain

The question of whether Alastair Reynolds’s sci-fi is reminiscent of Robert Charles Wilson (or vice-versa) is largely moot, because it just is. Same goes for the technological depth of his civilizations and the universe of wormholes. Whether it’s just as emotionally effective is a good question. Because, that’s where he does turn up short.

Century Rain is of that particular sci-fi genre where the myriad twisting and turning of the plot will get you in two worlds; one, an alternate-history earth in the 1950′s and another a nanotech devastated one three centuries later. The particularly clever bit is operating both at the same time (nearly) without involving any sort of time-travelling teleportation plotting. The plot setting is so prosaic, so near-science that it seems almost plausible.

On to the protagonists, the scene is that of an earth devastated due to technologies beyond the control of man (thankfully, not a nuclear war scenario). This devastation has resulted in two divergent groups being formed; the Threshers & the Slashers. Taken simply, one is a luddite (or a near approximation) & the other says forget the past & look to the future. The conflict between the two parties is an uneasy peace when our protagonist, an archaeologist, Verity Auger gets shanghaied into going to the alternate history earth (E2) because there seems to be trouble brewing. On the E2, we get to see a bass-player musician cum detective, Wendell Floyd, investigate the most peculiar scene of murder of a young woman who had recently come to Paris from US. Or had she. That is the beginning of the plot in a nutshell.

As I said earlier, the science behind Reynold’s book is solid. By solid, I mean it’s a fairly easy to spot genre half-science. But the way the science is integrated into the plot makes for pretty decent reading and on the whole the story looks good. And it better look good because that’s the only thing the book has going for it.

The character prose is just way too long. On my PRS500, this book came to about 1236 pages and I definitely got the feeling that somewhere between 350-450 words, a decent editor could have made it into a halfway exciting novella (if not a complete book) which would have rocked & rolled. What we get is just incessant plodding from one location to the other, easily anticipated plot-twists and nerdy half references to Casablanca & SlashDot. In spite of having a cool doomsday device, the endgame seems flat and without the gut of his other Revelation Space books

My rating on the book is 5/10. The poor characters and plotting let the book down majorly. Atleast it can be read independent of any other book in the series. That’s a mercy.

The Steel Remains, or does it?

Richard K. Morgan, that mouthful of hard-boiled gritty sci-fi ventures into fantasy with his take on the swords & sorcery shebang with The Steel Remains. Unfortunately, while the prose is just as testy and the characters suffused with just the same amount of rage & cynicism, the overall story remains spent & flaccid. Much like the end result of the protagonist’s pleasures.

While in no way influencing this review ipso facto, Morgan’s views on LOTR (On suvudu) where he decries the lack of insight into the other side; that rigid barrier between utter good & utter evil as the common failing of fantasy (most notably LOTR) drives much of the book. Taken in context, it seems as if Morgan is determined to show the other face of every upturned cheek, where evil has a human face and the ‘heroes’ have evil intent. That determination leads to a largely circumstitious prose which disappointingly ends with the evil vs good hinge anyway.

But first, a bit of background about the story.

The three primary characters are all veterans of a war in the recent past. Broadly there’s a swordsmaster – Gil Eskiath (with a legendary weapon made by a race long gone & techniques long forgotten), a barbarian – Egar the dragonbane (with a blessed lance) and an advisor to the King/half-breed human lady – Archeth. Unlike the usual fantasy fare, the King is not an outright evil despotic; he’s what D&D players might call Unlawful neutral. He does have his kick the dog moment and also has his (unpopular) protect his subordinates stand. Morally ambigious yet. The setting is that Gil is asked by his mother to search for a missing cousin who has been sold to slavery. Egar the barbarian has trouble with his clan-mates because of his agnostic behavior & frequent changing of bedmates. Archeth is out doing what she thinks the emperor should do to protect his empire. All are fashionably embittered with war, & fighting the good fight. The search for that cousin is the quest.

And, as a plot device it succeeds, brilliantly. At no point of time are we led to believe that this is the quest and to be honest, it is not. But having it as the central theme allows Morgan tremendous freedom to let his characters do what he makes them do best; Edgy,Violent & non-flinching action. Also the back-story is revealed in little bits & pieces which motor the plot along quite nicely. I’d say it again, the story is good, a little bit of fantasy staple, but interesting nevertheless.

Where Morgan triumphs in writing, is often about war-weary tough dark brooding heroes (remember Takeshi Kovacs). A sure-fire formula to make any story interesting. And Gil is exactly that. Talented, dangerous & doesn’t care whether he is lying in silks or in a boardhouse. And, oh by the way, he’s gay. That’s right. And we get the full treatment of his antics. Just the way we usually get for fair-haired maidens & blue-eyed boys tumbling around. Remember this point, because I’ll come back to it.

Shock & awe. That’s what Morgan’s books usually are. Whether they’re about an augmented soldier in the future conflicts of man, or a genetically new breed of superhuman fighters or these sword & lance swingers. When you pick up a book by him, what you see is basically his assault on the established tropes of the genre. And he has done that fantastically well till now.

And that genre-bending is quite clearly his unmaking here. Reading through the book, one gets the feeling that Morgan tried to be too different, too raw-edged with his characters. In trying to make every character a Gorbag in Minas Morgul, he blurs all characterizations that basically confuses the reader. Suddenly the so-called evil go legit and the heroes look like trespassers. His dwenda (basically the bad guys, I am assuming) were on earth before everybody else. They just want to rid everybody else (who they feel are trespassers) from here. And our heroes oppose them, fight them, kill them. Here’s the problem, Morgan gives these guys legitimacy and then takes it away. WTF!! And on our hero; If I replace every gorgeous guy in his bedroom with an equally gorgeous girl, what difference will I get? Will I have mutilated the story beyond repair? Will it all stop making sense?

I’ll tell you – It’ll make exactly zilch difference in the story. His homesexuality is completely incidental. Replace every blue-eyed boy with a brown-eyed girl and there’s no change. I am sure this is what Morgan intended to showcase; that we should also accept the fact that not all heroes get swayed by the hay, sunshine & bees. That somebody has the balls to write who and what one is, without pulling a Dumbledore on us.

The problem is that it all backfires miserably. And not just that one thing, it’s across the complete story. In that incessant drive towards upturning all tropes of fantasy in one genre-bender, the tale suffers. Sure the violence is visceral, the characters edgy and all the grit in the world is right there on the roads that they travel; but eventually the storyline is still that of a reluctant hero (Or if I may predict, a reluctant villain). That’s it all becomes Shannara on steroids.

Richard Morgan is a hell of a writer, that fact remains. This book is a 5/10. Sadly, that remains too.

Review: S. Andrew Swann – [Apotheosis 1] Prophets

Space Opera; that buzzword which has launched a thousand ships warping their way through the known & unknown space-time continuum rediscovers the spirit of the Big Dumb Object in this new series from Andrew Swann. Alex Benedict fans may note that there is definitely a new game in town and it’s kicking butt.

Overall, the premise of the story is pretty straightforward. There is an unknown anomaly in space around a distant star which needs investigating. And then someone does exactly that. And there are complications. And inevitably, the situation on hand is that science fictional special…all f*cked up.

Written with the right touch, that is all that a SO novel really needs. L.E.Modesitt Jr. specializes in those types. As a bonus for us, S. Andrew Swann does exactly that. And he also pulls a trick of the Malazan on us. Multiple POV characters. Yes, multiple POV. On a non-GRRM/Erikson novel. Whowuddathunk, right?

But before I get ahead of myself, lemme just construct a bit of a straw man of the Swann’s universe. Okie, so the setting is a far distant future when FTL has already made possible the first wave of humanity’s conquest of the galaxy and the subsequent breakdown of this pax imperium. The eventual wars following the meltdown of junta have also quieted down and now there is a loose alliance-based polity at work. So, yes the setting is of peace. Of the people, the confusion couldn’t be more pronounced. Prior to the war & meltdown, there were three main areas in which human endeavor has been put – nanotech, AI and genetic evolution of other sentient species. And religions have sprouted in and around these genetic missteps.

In the backdrop of this, there is a somewhat disreputable scrap trader who brings together a bunch of mercenaries (who are all obviously the eminently quotable POV characters) and scientists to investigate a possible anomaly in a distant star system. On their heels is the establishment (or all the separate interest groups in the story) and some jack-in-the-box mysterious character who is pulling everyone together. The story is about what happens when all of these players are made to meet in a spot far away from their respective strongholds.

The strength of the novel lies in the unique species that the author has managed to create and manipulate. The underlying emotions although are all too human though. But these characters make for a very interesting reading and the POV shifts are not abrupt enough to shake away your attention from the story. It is a fair bit difficult to start off as the back-story is spread across info-dumps in the first quarter of the novel which makes for a fair bit of plodding before you catch on to whatever is happening. However, persistence at this stage would be paid off handsomely later in the book when you do get sucked into the story.

Personally for me, the book tipped the balance into interesting enough that I’d care to read the sequel. Although the current Amazon listing shows only one review of that indefatigable (wo)man-machine Klausener with 4 stars, I expect to see a bit more traction as the novel hits the reading circuit.

I’d suggest 8/10