In High Places by Harry Turtledove

This is the third book in the six-volume Crosstime Traffic science-fiction series for young adults.  Set in the late 21st century, the series revolves around a company called Crosstime Traffic, which has discovered the ability to travel to alternate earth's that have experienced different histories.  For instance, in some alternate timelines Germany has won World War I, the United States never came to be, the Soviet Union triumphed in the Cold War or the Roman Empire never existed.  The role of Crosstime Traffic employees is to travel to these alternate worlds to engage in trade, while pretending to be from the world that they are visiting.

Each novel in the series is a standalone story with unique characters and plot lines.  It is therefore not necessary to read the series sequentially, as the books only share the general context that lies behind each story.  As such, I did not read this collection in order, but rather jumped around from book to book (see previous reviews here, here, here and here).  Overall, I found the series to be mixed, with some books being good and others so-so.

Fortunately, this novel is the best of the five books that I have read to date. The story takes place in an alternate world where 80 per cent of Europe's population was killed by the Black Death, the industrial revolution never took place, slavery is widely accepted, and Spain and southern France are occupied by Muslims.  It also has a different form of Christianity, in which a second son of God named Henri who came after Jesus is worshipped.

The books sets up an intriguing story when a Crosstime Traffic employee is captured by bandits and then sold into slavery.  To her surprise, her new masters turn out to be rogue Crosstime employees who are running an illegal slave operation in another alternate world, and who are unaware that one of their slaves works for Crosstime.  This clever story captured my imagination, as did the book's intelligent discussion on the relationship between Christianity, Islam and Judaism.  In short, an excellent  book that is worth reading.

4 out of 5 stars

Wake by Robert J. Sawyer

This book is the first volume of the WWW trilogy by the excellent Canadian science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer. (Note: If you are like me and sometimes read a book series out of order, then you can link here for my review of Wonder, which is the final installment in this series).

Like in his previous novels, this book is based on a fascinating set of ideas. At its core, this story asks the following question, "How does consciousness arise, and is it possible that such an awakening could occur within the World Wide Web?" To answer this question, the novel focuses on Caitlin Decter, a blind teenage girl who is originally from Austin, Texas, but whose family moves to Waterloo, Ontario after her father receives a job offer at the Perimeter Institute. After being contacted by a Japanese scientific researcher who wants to see if he can cure her blindness, she travels to Japan where she undergoes an experimental operation in which a signal processing device is inserted behind her left eyeball. This device, dubbed an "eyePod" by Caitlin, sends visual data back to a computer, which then reprocesses the images and transmits it back to the signalling device.

At first, the operation seems to have failed, until Caitlin is able to "see" images of the World Wide Web as a result of the interaction between her "eyePod" and the computer back in the Japanese lab. Following this breakthrough, she slowly gains her sight and begins to see the real world. This sense of awakening is a metaphor that is discussed in different ways throughout the book. Among the ideas that are mentioned are:

• The groundbreaking book by Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, which postulates that human consciousness changed about 3,000 years ago. In the this lengthy tome, Jaynes argues that the minds of ancient humans were split in two, i.e. a bicameral mind, that was divided into a speaking part and a listening part. This book theorizes that the bicameral mind disappeared about 1,000 B.C. when the two parts of the human mind merged, i.e. the breakdown of the bicameral mind. 

• The story of Helen Keller (1880-1968), a deaf-and-blind person who learned to communicate, eventually earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. Sawyer user her story to draw a contrast between the "phantom" Keller, i.e. the unconscious entity that existed before she was aware of the outside world and could communicate, and the awakened woman who became conscious of the world. This metaphor is used to describe the awakening of a conscious entity from within the world wide web.

• A chimpanzee-bonobo hybrid called Hobo, which is a character in the book and which begins to draw art and become self-aware.

All of these ideas set the stage for the main plot, which revolves around an entity that emerges within the world wide web, and whose interactions with Caitlin make it self-aware, eventually leading to consciousness.

Like other Sawyer books this novel is overfilling with ideas. While the writing is OK, (the ideas are much more important than narrative flow), the characters and pace were interesting enough to grab my attention through the entire novel. While Sawyer sometimes focuses his energy on the science part of science fiction, while paying less attention to the fiction part, this book is a good one from a literary perspective.

3 out of 5 stars

Gunpowder Empire by Harry Turtledove

The parents of Jeremy and Amanda Solters work for Crosstime Traffic, the groundbreaking company in the late-21st century that has discovered how to travel to different earths with alternate histories. From places where the Nazis won World War Two, to an alternate North America in which the United States was never created, to worlds where the planet was destroyed by nuclear war or in which humans never existed, Crosstime Traffic employees visit many numerous "earths".

For the Solters family, they have been assigned to travel to a world in which the Roman Empire never fell and which has survived for more than 2,000 years. In this earth, technological progress has been incredibly slow, although a primitive form of gunpowder and guns do exist. When their mother gets ill, their parents travel back to the home timeline for medical treatment, leaving the two teenage children behind in Polisso, a Roman city that is located in what we would call Romania.

After the parents leave, something goes wrong with the computer system hidden in the basement of their house that they use to communicate with the home timeline. To their horror, the Solters' children realize that the communication link has been cut-off, and that they have no way of getting in touch with their parents or anyone back home. The situation becomes grave when war breaks out and a neighbouring empire attacks Polisso. Will they be stuck in this alternate history forever? Will they ever see their parents again? And will the city fall to the invading army?

These questions form the basis of a fairly interesting plot. Unfortunately, this potential is squandered by robotic writing and one-dimensional characters. While I appreciated the alternate history, the story did not engage me very much.

This book is the first novel in the six-volume Crosstime Traffic series for young adults. Each part of the series, however, is a standalone story, so it is not necessary to read them in order. In fact, I previously read three other volumes (see reviews here, here and here). From what I have read up to this point, it is clear that this series is based on a formula: Crosstime Traffic employees travel to an earth with an alternate history; a female and male protagonist drive the story; the Crosstime employees return to their home timeline after making an impact in the alternate world.

Sometimes this formula works, as is the case when the characters tackle such themes as slavery, sexism, war, inhumane treatment of animals and resource extraction. However, the positives are often undermined by characters that are pure plot robots, i.e. wooden personalities without any interesting identities of their own, whose only purpose is to move a story along. In addition, the writing is often clunky. The latter makes sense given that Harry Turtledove is a prolific writer. This impressive output, however, means that the writing often seems rushed, as if output was more important that quality.

Of the four Crosstime Traffic books that I have read this is my least favourite. Part of my opinion comes from the fact that I am now familiar with the series formula, and that this technique is repetitive. Even though the setting is different from other novels, and the characters are not connected to the other books, this story feels like a clone of the others. Hopefully the other two books in the series that I have not read are better.

2 out of 5 stars

The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove

Earlier this month I started reading the six-volume Crosstime Traffic series by Harry Turtledove. The first novel that I read I enjoyed, while the second one not so much. Fortunately, this story was more like the former than the latter.

Like all of the Crosstime Traffic books this tale takes place in an alternate earth with a different historical timeline. In this case, the story is set in a North America that is divided into numerous autonomous states, in which the United States never came to be. The book opens with Beckie Royer, a teenager from the independent territory of California, travelling to the country of Virginia with her grandmother who is visiting relatives. During their visit, a war breaks out between Virginia and Ohio, both of which are separate nations, and which sees Ohio use biological weapons by spreading a virus that was created in a laboratory.

The other main protagonist is Justin Monroe, a teenage boy and employee of Crosstime Traffic, the company in the "home" earth that has discovered the ability to travel between alternate worlds. As part of his assignment, he travels to Virginia where he meets Beckie, and then is stranded due to the Virginia-Ohio war. The resulting narrative is a captivating story that is pretty good.

This book is meant for young adults, and as such much of it's language is written in PG form. In the hands of a weak writer this could be a big problem. Fortunately, Turtledove is able to convey the idea of swearing without actually using the F-word or other cuss-terms. The result is a funny literary style that is fairly witty. However, while the language is PG, much of the content is not. Covering such themes as racism, oppression, the horror of war and the political history of the United States, this novel allows teenage readers to think about some fairly heavy subjects.

Out of the three books that I have read so far in this series this is the best. In total I have enjoyed two and given the thumbs-down to one. Hopefully the others will be as good as this one.

3 1/2 stars out of 5

Curious Notions by Harry Turtledove

This novel is the second book in the six-volume Crosstime Traffic science-fiction series for young adults. The premise of the series is quite interesting: Set in the 2090s, a company called Crosstime Traffic has discovered technology that allows company employees to travel to other earth-like worlds that have alternate histories.  Each book tells the story of a different set of characters, so the only overlapping element among each of the books is the common premise.

Earlier this month, I read The Gladiator, which is the fifth volume in the series. While that book was not spectacular, I enjoyed it enough to pick up another book in the collection. Unfortunately, Curious Notions is a pretty weaker novel. Set in San Francisco in a world in which Germany wins the First World War and then conquers the United States after bombing it with nuclear weapons, the story revolves around Paul and Lawrence Gomes, a father-and-son duo who run a store called Curious Notions. As employees of Crosstime Traffic, they sell gadgets from the "real" earth in order to buy produce from local farmers in order to meet agricultural shortages in the home timeline.

When the German authorities start to wonder where these strange gadgets come from, they shut down the store and arrest Paul's father. While trying to rescue his dad, Paul teams up with Lucy Woo, a teenage girl who works in a shoe factory. As the novel progresses, the mysterious Chinese Triads who operate in San Francisco's Chinatown put pressure on Lucy to find out who Paul is and where he really comes from.

In most contexts, this plot would produce a very good novel. In what is a big disappointment, however, this interesting storyline is converted into Disney-like mush. In order to make the tone appropriate for "young" adults – a big emphasis on the word young – the dialogue, content and plot twists are reduced into pretty bland stuff. It is one thing to write a book for teenagers, it's quite another to treat them like children. In too many parts of the book the narrative flow sounds like a children's film from Disney, rather than an interesting science fiction story for teens.

Now that I have read two books in the series I will like finish all six volumes. My hope, however, is that the other books are more like The Gladiator and less like Curious Notions.

2 out of 5 stars

The Gladiator by Harry Turtledove

Crosstime traffic is a six-volume series for young adults by science fiction writer Harry Turtledove. Set in the late 21st century, the premise revolves around a company called Crosstime Traffic, which has developed a technology that allows people to travel to different earth-like worlds that have alternate histories.

In The Gladiator, we are introduced to a place in which the Soviet Union has won the cold war, and communism has become the dominant global ideology. The title of the book refers to a game shop of the same name, in which capitalist-inspired board games from the "real" earth are sold. The aim of the shop is to subtly subvert the totalitarian control of the Marxist governments that rule the different countries in this alternate world.

Set in Milan, Italy, the story revolves around two teenagers called Gianfranco and Annarita whose family share the same apartment. Gianfranco is a regular at The Gladiator shop where he regularly plays a board game called Rails across Europe. However, when the authorities become suspicious of the game shop, they decided to shut it down, and in the process radicalize the two teenagers. Their desire for freedom becomes especially acute when they discover that there is another world in which capitalism has triumphed and in which people are free.

This book was a fun read. While the politics are pretty simplistic – the struggle between capitalism and communism is presented in an almost childlike fashion – the story is enjoyable. While this novel is no masterpiece, and the writing can be pretty wooden at times, it is entertaining. If you are looking for a serious discussion on political theory, then this book is not for you. However, if you want to be entertained with a light and quick read on a grey weekend afternoon, then this story may be what you are looking for.

3 out of 5 stars

Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer is a wonderful novelist and one of my favourite science fiction writers. When I open up one of his books I expect to read an intriguing story chock-full of brilliant ideas. This high standard explains why I was disappointed with this novel.

Like much of his previous work, this tale tackles a fascinating concept and – at least at the beginning – is a page-turner. Describing the story of Webmind, a vast consciousness that emerges from the complex network of the World Wide Web, Sawyer presents an intriguing plot line that is half-AI speculative fiction, half-action novel. For amidst the birth of this new sentient being is a top Pentagon military official by the name of Colonel Hume who becomes convinced that Webmind is a threat to the world. To counter this danger, he begins to search through the hacker underground for computer experts that can shut down this new intelligence. Meanwhile, a blind 16-year-old teenage girl named Caitlin Decter who first discovers Webmind aims to protect her "friend" from the forces that want to destroy it.

So far so good. Then, about a third of the way into the book, the story starts to break down. Instead of advancing the plot with his usual skill, Sawyer begins to use his characters as mere excuses to present his ideas on artificial intelligence. As the book progresses, the story and characters become less and less important, until the reader is left wondering what the purpose of the novel is, i.e. to tell a story or to express ideas.

Science fiction writing cannot forget its dual parts. The "science" (which this book does very well) is meant to capture the readers’ attention with far-reaching and thought provoking concepts. The "fiction" element is meant to present these ideas in an interesting literary form. This book (to my surprise) sacrificed the story at the altar of the scientific idea. The result is that characters that were initially interesting devolved into plot robots with little personality of their own.

1 1/2 out of 5 stars

Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin

Among the impoverished clans of the Uplands are people with wondrous gifts. Some have the power to twist a limb, others to destroy living things, and then there are those who can call animals on a whim. These magical clans, however, live in desolate farms, while being under constant fear that their neighbours may use their gifts again them.

In this bleak world, two young people who have been friends since childhood decide not to use their gifts. The first is a boy, who decides to wear a blindfold in order to prevent his eyes, which can kill with a mere look, to see the light of day. The other, a girl, refuses to use her power to call on animals as she doesn’t want to participate in her village’s hunt. In this wonderful story by a master of science fiction, we learn how it’s possible to forego power, while being reminded of the difficulty of growing up.

4 out of 5 stars

Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling

This could have been an excellent novel. The story begins with a strange electrical storm that causes all electrical devices -- radios, cars, televisions, telephones, appliances, computers etc. -- to stop working. In the ensuing chaos, a group of survivors in Oregon begin to adapt to the new "medieval" reality, as they adjust to a world in which modern civilization has collapsed.

While some people are seeking to create farming collectives to survive, others decide to raise armies in order to take control off the  newly formed farms. These parallel developments lead inexorably to conflict and at times a captivating tale.

Unfortunately, Stirling couldn't help but fall in love with his own book, with the result that the reader is inundated with a tonne of unnecessary information. One of my favourite science fiction writers uses a technique called, "killing your babies." In effect, this technique teachers writers how to eliminate parts of a story that do not assist in advancing the narrative, but which the writer has difficulty in letting go because they have become so enamoured with their characters. Stirling should have used this technique in this book, and this novel is filled with a ton of screaming "babies" that should have been edited out from this book.

In a nutshell, this otherwise excellent story is undermined by countless pages of unnecessary description and rambling scenes. Far too often the reader has to plough through extraneous pages that should have been edited out. In fact, by the end of the book, finishing this novel had become painful as I was thoroughly bored with the book. Which is a shame, as this story had the makings of an excellent tale.

2 out of 5 stars

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

This science fiction classic is a brilliant book. When the story opens, we are introduced to Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged man who is about to undergo an operation to increase his intelligence. As the novel progresses, we watch Charlie make remarkable progress in a very short period of time, as his experimental treatment leads him to a genius-level IQ.

His increased intelligence, however, comes at a steep price, as he quickly discovers that many of his so called "friends" from his earlier life where in reality making fun of his mental handicap, while the doctors who are responsible for his treatment see him as a mere human version of Algernon, the laboratory mouse that was first experimented on before the human trial. Amidst this existential angst, Charlie discovers the mysterious of love, the uncertainty of being human, and -- by the end of the book -- utter fear as he learns that his newfound intelligence is destined to dwindle away.

This book is a stunning literary work that deserves its title as a modern classic. With an innovative style and unforgettable characters, Daniel Keys has created a story that readers won't soon forget. This book is a great read for anybody who loves literature, not just science fiction fans.

5 out of 5 stars

Empire by Orson Scott Card

I once knew a person who only watched movies that were rated two stars or less. From his perspective, a movie isn't a forum for engaging in serious discussion, but rather a simple form of entertainment that shouldn't be taken seriously. Using this viewpoint, I would hazard to guess that this person would have enjoyed this book.

Empire is a work of speculative fiction that asks the question, "if civil war were to break out in the United States between Conservatives and Liberals, what would it look like?" If you take this book seriously (something that I wouldn't recommend) then you run the risk of being pretty disappointed. On the other hand, if you ignore the political rants and enjoy the action, then this book is OK.

The novel revolves around two army officers, Major Malich and Captain Coleman, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack that leads to the assassination of the U.S. President, Vice-President, Secretary of Defence and several other people. Following these assassinations, a left-wing group led by a thinly-disguised George Soros takes over New York City and claims that it is the legitimate government of the United States. The resulting chaos leads to armed conflict and, depending on your point of view, a fast-paced action thriller, or a literary mess that contains mindless conservative babble.

In my opinion, this book has numerous, numerous flaws. First, the characters are so wooden you could crack them in half. Then there is the dialogue that comes straight out of a Rambo movie. The historical references, meanwhile, seem more like a high school essay than insightful analysis. On the plus side, I found the pace of the book quite good and the action very enjoyable, if you like big explosions and lots of shooting.

This book won't win Orson Scott Card a PhD in political science or history, nor is it a particularly believable vision of a civil war in the Unites States. What it does accomplish, however, is provide a fun action story that appeals to those who like video game-like entertainment.

2 out of 5 stars

White Light by Rudy Rucker

Felix Rayman is a frustrated mathematics teacher at a state college in New York. "Some fool or misanthrope had acronymed the college SUCAS," sighs Felix, as he has to face the reality of an unfulfilling academic career.

His home life, meanwhile, is no bed of roses either. "When I got home April would always be lying on the couch staring at the TV with the sound off," notes Felix, as he thinks about his wife. "She would just lie there in silence until I came over and asked how she was. The answer was always the same. She was pissed-off, fed-up, and dead sick of it all. The hick town, the constant baby care  (of their baby girl Iris), the shopping in sleazy chain stores, the problems with the car, what the neighbor lady had said today, and so on and on.'

Amid this unhappy mix, Felix keeps himself busy by trying to find a solution to Georg Cantor's continuum problem, while experimenting with lucid dreaming and fuzzy weed, i.e. marijuana. After visiting a local bookshop, where he discovers a strange pamphlet about a world called Cimön, Felix experiences an out-of-body experience in which his astral body leaves his physical self. While travelling in the astral realm, he is almost captured by the Devil, only to be saved by Jesus. Felix is then asked by Jesus to take care of a ghost called Kathy, and to bring her to Cimön, where they can merge with God / Absolute Infinity.

While travelling in this astral world, Felix undergoes a surreal set of adventures that includes: transforming into Donald Duck before having his "Duck" heart cut out by an Aztec priest; befriending a giant beetle called Franx that is reminiscent of the bug in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis; checking into an infinite hotel modeled after the famous mathematical paradox by the renowned mathematician David Hilbert; and meeting such famous thinkers as Albert Einstein and Georg Cantor. Within this surreal landscape the reader is presented with a vision (albeit a very weird one) of the mathematical concepts of transfinite numbers and Cantor's absolute infinity.

This is the third book by Rudy Rucker that I have read and it is the only one that I have enjoyed. Unlike the previous two novels, which can be described as poor parodies of a Salvador Dali painting, the characters in this book are not absurd caricatures, but rather interesting persons. The writing is also infinitely (no pun intended) better that his other works that I have read.

That being said, it is clear that Rucker's instinct is to be the far-out, weird math guy, and as such, this novel does contain the occasional bizarre rant. In fact, by the end of the book, I was starting to worry that Rucker was going to descend into pointless gibberish, like in some of his other books. To my pleasant surprise, however, this book did not become a bad literary version of an acid trip, but rather provided some interesting food for thought about the concept of infinity.

This book is definitely not for everyone, but if you want to read a novel that mixes math with hallucinatory images, then you will find this work interesting.

3 out of 5 stars

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

It's the near future and genetic diseases are being cured by modern medicine. Most people with a genetic disorder will be corrected before birth, while the rest will receive treatment while infants. For one generation, however, the new treatments came too late, having been born after the new techniques arose.

Lou Arrendale is a member of this lost generation. A high-functioning autistic man, he works for a pharmaceutical company while living a carefully structured life (grocery shopping on Tuesday; fencing class on Wednesday; laundry on Friday). This calm life is soon shaken, however, by a series of events at work and in his personal life. First, there is a new treatment that promises to reverse his autism and turn him into a "normal" person. Then he has to deal with Mr. Crenshaw, his power-hungry and mean-spirited boss who wants to eliminate the special privileges that the autistic employees enjoy at work as a cost-saving measure. And then there is the series of attacks that are launched against his car, as his tires are first slashed, then his window broken, and finally an explosive put in his motor.

As Lou tries to figure out who wants to hurt him (and why), he imagines what will happen to him if he undergoes the new treatment. If the procedure is successful, will the new, non-autistic Lou be a different person, and will he still like his friends from fencing class, especially Marjory, the women he has fallen in love with?

I discovered this book while browsing in my local library, so I was not familiar with the writings of Elizabeth Moon. After finishing this impressive work, however, I definitely plan to read more of her books. With great skill and love, Moon is able to switch from the first-person perspective of an autistic person, to the voice of a "normal" character. In this transition, the reader gets the sense that they are viewing the world through a different set of eyes (one pair autistic; the other "normal"), and in the process acquiring a better understanding of what it means to perceive the world, and also what it means to be an individual, with a unique set of thoughts and emotions.

4 of 5 stars

Spaceland: A Novel of the Fourth Dimension by Rudy Rucker

Joe Cube is a high-tech worker living in Silicon Valley who wants to develop a 3-D TV. On New Year's Eve, while working on his prototype, he is visited by a creature from the fourth-dimension named Momo who tells him that he can give him an advanced new technology.

In the ensuing pages, the reader is taken on a screwball sci-fi adventure involving Joe Cube (the names in this novel are awful), his wife Jena, and other characters with such names as Spazz, Tulip and the strange Wackles. As Joe works towards attaining this strange new technology, he is caught up in a geopolitical struggle between two different fourth-dimensional worlds, while having his body "augmented" so he can leave Spaceland (i.e. the three-dimensional world where humans live) in order to be able see into the hyperspace of 4-D.

This book is a modern rendition of the sci-fi classic Flatland, the 19th century story of a two dimensional creature that is introduced to the third dimension. Unlike the original story, however, Spaceland is hampered by some terrible writing. The dialogue is particularly horrific, while the cheesy humor throughout Spaceland comes across as a weak attempt to hide wooden characters that are (if I can use the expression) one-dimensional.

This is the second book by Rudy Rucker that I have read and, once again, I have not been impressed. It's true that Rucker's ideas are interesting, and that his background as a mathematician, computer scientist and professor give him a lot of legitimacy. As a novelist, however, I find him quite weak, and I am still not sure why he is held in such high esteem by some science fiction fans.

If you are interested in stories about multi-dimensional space, you should forego this book and read instead such works as Flatland, Sphereland and the Planiverse.

1 out of 5 stars

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

For years my friends have encouraged me to read Kurt Vonnegut. After choosing other authors for a long period of time, I finally decided to take the plunge and was not disappointed. This highly-enjoyable book reminded me of the first time I read Tom Robbins, or Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49". Like the work of these latter two authors, the plot for Cat's Cradle is fairly silly, and in the hands of a weaker author could come across as slightly stupid. But with great skill, Vonnegut is able to craft a profound book from a group of eccentric characters who live in the strange island state of San Lorenzo. Among others, their is Newt the midget, Bokonon (a holy man who is also a calypso singer), and one of the fathers of the atomic bomb.


4 out of 5 stars

Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe by Dionys Burger

This book is the sequel to Flatland, the peculiar fantasy novel by Edwin Abbott that was released in 1884, and which tells the story of the mathematician A. Square who lives in a two-dimensional world. After coming into contact with a being from a higher dimension, A. Square discovers the wonders of three-dimensional space, and postulates the existence of even higher dimensions. Instead of being declared a hero, however, he is jailed for preaching the heresy of higher-dimensional worlds.

In the sequel Sphereland, which was Published in 1965, or more than 80 years after Abbott's book's first appearance, the reader is introduced to A. Square's grandson, who discovers that Flatland is actually made up of curved space. This amazing discovery leads him to postulate that the third dimension, which is home to bizarre figures called homo sapiens, is curved by a fourth dimensional world..

From a purely geek perspective, this book is an interesting thought experiment. From a literary point of view, on the other hand, the written is unfortunately quite wooden. As a science fiction fan I often let poor writing slide if the idea is interesting. In this case, however, the weak narrative structure does not make up for the interesting mathematical ideas. That being said, I enjoyed this book, though I must also confess that I like books with characters called A. Square, so I understand why this novel would not be everyone's -- if not the vast majority of people's -- cup of tea.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

The World Inside by Robert Silverberg

It's the year 2381 and 75 billion people live on earth. In order to sustain this enormous population, (the growth of which is actively encouraged), humanity has moved into massive buildings called urbmons, which climb 3 kilometers in the sky. This vertical existence allows the human race to pack itself one on top of each other, while being able to use most of the arable land on planet Earth for food production. Inside the urbmons, humans have learned to coexist peacefully, and on paper everything seems idyllic. But in this highly regimented world where you are not allowed to leave your own urbmon, and where those who think differently -- or "flippers" -- are eliminated, some people dare to dream about what exists outside their giant vertical homes. Overall, I found this novel fascinating. My only complaint is that it is obsessed with sex, with its vision of a sexually liberated culture being a thin disguise for a teenage male sex fantasy. This being said, parts of this book are brilliant, and the reader is left with this interesting question, “what if human population growth did not slow down, but was actually encouraged to increase unabated?

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Turing (A Novel about Computation) by Christos H. Papadimitriou

This book should never have been made into a novel. It's clear that Papadimitriou has many interesting ideas about mathematics, computer science and artificial intelligence. But when it comes to writing fiction, this work falls flat. Everything in this book (characters, plot, dialogue) simply serves as a thinly veiled excuse to lecture on the history of computers. The result is a string of wooden characters, a plot that goes nowhere, and academic speeches that masquerade as "dialogue". It would have been better if these ideas were presented as part of a straightforward academic work, rather than a poor third-rate work of fiction.

1 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Traveler (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 1) by John Twelve Hawks

This novel is like the Matrix movie trilogy: A brilliant plot line that grips its audience from the beginning, only to lose steam, and then wither away into a typical action thriller.

The book begins with a wonderful story of the epic struggle between the "Travelers" and the "Tabula". The Travelers refer to a series of people throughout history who have been able to project their life essence into other realms, and in the process gaining a perspective of life that fosters revolutionary ferment on Earth. The Tabula, on the other hand, are a secret group who want to kill the Travelers, in order to impose complete control on the human race. Caught in the middle of this struggle are a group of warriors known as Harlequins, who are sworn to defend the travelers.

The first-half of this novel (the first book of The Fourth Realm series) is a wonderful page turner that contains excellent writing. Unfortunately for the reader, however, the second-half of the book descends into a ho-hum action chase, that undermines the wonderful plot line. I still plan to read the rest of this series, but I hope that the following books are more Matrix I then Matrix II or III.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Fate of Mice by Susan Palwick

Every once in a while you discover a writer that simply blows you away. Susan Palwick is one such author.

In this fantastic collection of short stories, the reader is introduced to a series of fascinating characters. For instance, there is Rodney, an IQ-enhanced mouse, who becomes self-aware and is forced to confront his own mortality. Then there are the victims of a terrorist attack, who are revived for a day so they can remind the living that they should cherish life. In another story, we meet a girl who discovers that her mother is a captured snow-maiden. And then there is the tragic love story involving a female werewolf, and another tale that recounts how a young boy deals with his father's suicide.

This collection of short stories is simply fantastic, and I will definitely pick up Palwick's novels to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in first-rate fiction.

4 out of 5 stars