The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

A second book by Ian McDonald I have read. The book is stylistically similar to Brazyl which I read a few years ago; the writing is very descriptive and heavy with adjectives. The writing itself is very good, but I am not a great fan of this writing style where the style and descriptions are more important than the plot. Not to say that the plot in this book would be insignificant or poor. Ian McDonald seems to place his books on varied countries which are less commonly used in science fiction or in English fiction in general. This time the book happens in the fairly near future Istanbul which could even be considered as a main character of the book.

The book starts with a terrorist attack which seems to be failed – only the woman herself who detonated a bomb died. There seems to be some unusual interest for some of the survivors of the attack, especially for one man who starts to have extremely realistic hallucinations.
Another plotline deals with a hunt for the mystical mellified man – a man who has been mummified with honey, and is supposed to have mythical healing properties. And third plotline deals with emerging nanotechnologies. The connection with those main plot-lines seemed first fairly marginal at the beginning and the book was fairly confusing with many different characters but all things converged fairly well by the end of the book.

I found one stupid mistake - I seriously doubt that it would be possible to make a plea bargain or pay bail in Turkey. Especially plea bargaining is a typical practice which happens only in countries with common law type of justice system; and it is practically unknown in countries with more developed or sensible legal systems. I couldn't either find any evidence that it would be possible to pay bail in Turkey.

Most of the plot lies, and last hundred pages were really entertaining. However, I believe that I prefer Brazyl to this book. The beginning of this book was somewhat too slow and disjointed, and it took too much time to really get inside the events. By the way, somehow the book felt a lot of longer than 410 pages.

I have now read three of the Hugo nominated books. So far none of them has been something really worth of the award. This has probably been the least bad so far.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact June 1971

A fairly nice issue. A serial takes a lot of space. Read from iPhone during lunch-breaks.


Glory Day • [Telzey Amberdon] • novelette by James H. Schmitz
A telepathic woman is kidnapped with some of her friends and other people who happened to be on the same spaceship. A potential ruler of one planet was on the same ship, and the kidnappers what him to delinguish his power. Felt pretty similar that an earlier "Telzey Amberdon" story I have read. Telzey is kept as a prisoner in a large house with extensive gardens around it. Fairly ok, but there wasn't really much of suspence as Telseys psi-powers are so formidable that there apparently isn't anything she coudn't face. ****+
The Swan Song of Dame Horse • shortstory by Theodore L. Thomas 
A drug addict doesn't get high with his dose as he is supposed to. He goes after his pusher, but that doesn't really help. A scientist has developed something that might stop drug addiction once and for all. There are problems with the story, there were a few very jarring changes of viewpoint. And the plan the scientist had was in part fairly impressive for something in a story this early (genetic engineering), but how he was implementing it wasn't really logical (not to mention unethical). ***
The Habitat Manager • novelette by William E. Cochrane
A spaceprobe lands on another planet (to Mars apparently, sent by humans). All life of the planet works in unison to evaluate the probe, and to prevent it from finding the abundance of life on the planet. The idea is fairly good, but the alien characters are somewhat too human in spite of the external differences and the story is very badly overlong. **
With Friends Like These . . . • shortstory by Alan Dean Foster
This story was the reason I picked up this issue: I read a description of it from rec.arts.sf.written.
It is a pretty much ultimate Campbellian story where humans are by far better in everything than any alien race. Humans very narrowly lost a war thousands of years ago and they were confined to earth beyond an impenetrable barrier. But now a new very savage race has risen which is threatening all civilized planets of the galaxy and an expedition has been sent to find out if the very savage human race still exists and if it would be able to help in the fight. The landing party finds a very pastoral place where simple folk are tending farms with horses. Of course, appearances can be deceiving...Pretty fun story. I am fairly certain that it was written purposefully to press John W. Capbell's buttons. ****+

The hundred thousand kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

The second Hugo nominated book I have read this year. The book was pure fantasy. I am not usually too keen on fantasy as I prefer pure science fiction, but this book was surprisingly readable in spite of that.

The world is ruled by a powerful family who has been able to enslave the gods of the realm to help them to maintain power. The daughter of the ruler, who was supposed to inherit the power had abandoned her position about twenty years before this story. She had married a minor nobility and moved with him to a desolate and unimportant province. After she was murdered, her daughter, Yeine, has been asked to appear in the court. To her surprise, Yeine hears that she has been selected as a contender for the throne. The are two other nominees who aren't too happy to hear that there will be more competition. But it is more complicated than that... And the captive gods have their own plans, also.

The first half of the book was excellent, especially the first few chapters (this seems to be common for the first books). The main character was interesting and original, especially on the first half of the book. For some reason she seems to turn stupider during the story. This might partly be due to the fact that I didn't like the later half story as much as the beginning – there was too much paranormal romance and too many plots going on. The writing also seemed somewhat clumsier. This is the first part of a trilogy. However, I feel that story was fairly well finished in satisfying matter as it is and I don't have any urge to read the last parts as the most relevant questions were answered in satisfying manner.

412 pp.

All Clear by Connie Willis

The second part of the series. This review will contain some spoilers, so beware!

I was hoping that this continuation would have been better than the first part, but I had to be disappointed. The same faults were evident. A lot of space is spent on constant worrying and going from one place to another while accomplishing nothing. Also, the characters seem as stupid as earlier - they often withhold crucial information from each other for no good or sane reason. ”Oh, I can't tell that they would worry”.

They are constantly forgetting that they are time travelers and what the sequence of events in future Oxford was doesn't really matter; for example, they remember at last possible time that another historian visited the same time period years before in the “Oxford time”. Doh.

There are some really stupid small subplots. Pages are spent on worrying one characters lost jacket. “Oh, you'll get a cold without it”. No wonder that the character who lost his jacket faked his own death, later on, apparently to rid himself of those two whining women – at least no other good reason was stated.

The characters are constantly worrying that they'll change the world, but they are constantly making decisions which certainly would change the path of history without any concern at all.

There are anachronisms, apparently, they are traveling on subway lines which built thirty years after the war (at least according to some British reviews). And I cringed every time they talked about V-1 and V-2 bombs. I really don't believe that they were called that during the war in Britain, especially why anyone would call V-1s V-ONEs before there even were any V-2 type of rockets?

And I am still wondering what is the point of time tourism? The characters were supposed to be historians, but they don't seem to have any kind of research plan whatsoever beyond “I'll go to see what the blitz looked like”.

The ending, especially the reason why the “drops” weren't working was extremely stupid and illogical. The time-space continuum apparently has a conscious mind?

I find this even worse book that the first part, probably because I was expecting that the story would have gone in a better direction. This was the first Hugo nominee I have read this year, and this will certainly be below the “No award” on my ballot.

656 pp.

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Another Hugo award winner.
I approached this book with some reservations, as I had tried to read this book years ago never getting beyond page ten, and I have seen this book mentioned on at least one or two lists of unreadable sf novels. I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself enjoying most of the book. It isn't one of the most readable novels around and it takes some time to get used to it.
The books tells about a fairly near future (from a sixties point of view) when overpopulation is rampant, unemployment is more common than working, crime and terrorism are everyday fear, genetic manipulation is either a threat to human existence or the last way enabling the survival of the human race. The story is told on several segments. Some of the chapters, titled ”continuity” tell the main plot line of the novel, some of the chapters ”Tracking with Closeups ” present glimpses to the life of other charters living in the world, most of them are unconnected to the main plot. In addition there are chapters called ”context” which give background information of the world, including chapters from popular and scholarly books discussing the world and finally fourth style of chapters are those called The Happening World are flashes of the world, for example short news headlines. The unusual structure took some time to get used to, but it worked very well. The main plot line dealt with a fictional African country called Beninia which seems too good to be true. No crime, no racial prejudice, no hate crimes. Another plot line deals with a supposed major breakthrough in genetic engineering. The plot lines weren't as important as the vividly described world and I found that the most interesting segments were “Tracking with Closeups”, which dealt mainly with the background. They presented very interesting glimpses to an interesting world. The writing was fine and interesting, and even the fair amount of made up words didn't hurt. This book was really a pleasant surprise.

650 pp.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 2007

A fairly good issue, the most of the stories were fairly light-hearted.


Murder in Parliament Street • [Jaggers and Shad] • novella by Barry B. Longyear
A pair of detectives investigates a murder of a pigeon. The pigeon was a human wearing a pigeon “suit”. His work was to keep real pigeons off the statues. One of the detectives is a duck. As one might guess this was a slightly lighter story. A nice story, a tad overlong, too many movie references which all weren’t even funny. ***
These Are the Times • novelette by John G. Hemry
Time travellers journey to American revolutionary war. In fact that is so popular an era, that there is abundance of visitors. There is some romance between two travellers, some excitement from a deranged traveller who tries to change past. Nice and entertaining, nothing really deep, but enjoyable. ***½
Yearning For the White Avenger • shortstory by Carl Frederick
Not really science fiction: A well-trained parrot “translates” dog “speak” to human language. The pair helps a young boy with an abusive father. A nicely written entertaining and even moving story, which could have been somewhat longer. ****-
The Suit • shortstory by Bud Sparhawk
When the clothes function as computers, and control eating habits, communications with other people’s clothes and the outside world, you shouldn’t wear a poorly functioning suit with software which hasn’t been updated. A light, humorous story, writing ok. ***+
Permission to Speak Freely • shortstory by David Walton
A machine which enables a physician really feel what the patient feels enables easier and more accurate diagnosis. A very nice concept, but the conflict in the story is slightly forced and the ethical considerations were slightly overblown. ***½
The Paradise Project • [The Paradise Project] • novelette by H. G. Stratmann
A young couple has been selected for a trip to Mars, when aliens move that planet closer to the Earth orbit and change it gravity and atmosphere to more suitable for humans. They travel there and find an alien construct. A part of a series. I still wonder why that clueless pair was selected – they are supposed to about thirty, but they behave like irritating sixteen year olds who are less mature than average. The writing isn’t my favourite either. **

Analog Science Fiction and Fact March 1976

A Dune serial takes most of space. Otherwise a slightly below average issue.

Field Test • [Bolo] • shortstory by Keith Laumer
An automated tank with a self-aware AI is used in a battle for a first time despite some reservations. It wins the battle against insurmountable odds, as fights ”for the honor of the regiment”. An overlong story with too much exposition first, and then with a boring description of battle, and everything leading to ”shaggy dog” -like last line. **-
 Blessing in Disguise • shortstory by Herbie Brennan
A Muslim-like sect has a ”real” messiah, and a pilgrim is traveling to visit him. The messiah is a result of selective ”breeding” campaign, to ”pilgrim is a brain washed assassin whose goal is to murder the figure head. Writing was ok, maybe a longer form would have been better suited for the story. ***
A Penny's Worth • novelette by Stephen Robinett
A lawyer takes a case involving a battery. A young man walked into a house of another and beat him badly. He claims that he doesn't remember anything about the assault, and didn't even know the man he beat. The beginning of the story was pretty good, the ending was somewhat overlong, and the plot decayed too much. ***

Analog Science Fiction and Fact May 2011

Average, or somewhat above average issue.

Tower of Worlds • novella by Rajnar Vajra
The story begins when a man is facing execution. How and why aren't known. Suddenly, he seems to start transforming to a reptile, and manages escaped as he suddenly gains a set of very impressive skills, among other ability to stretch his body through unbelievably small openings. After that, he encounters strange creatures, diabolic plots and almost endless action (except for a very long stretch of exposition). The beginning of the story was excellent, but then it decays to pretty mindless action. The story feels more like fantasy than science fiction. (when an immortality treatment is reversed the person turns to a withered corpse - feels more like a magic spell than a scientific treatment). The first fifth was a solid four star story, the rest with all the exposition and boring action felt like a two star story. ***-
Boumee and the Apes • shortstory by Ian McHugh
Intelligent elephants and the first humans encounter each other, and a war leading to genocide seems imminent. A pretty good story, but I found unclear if the story was supposed to happen in an alternative past, or in the "real" past and the smart elephants were ultimately wiped out by the humans. The odds for that happening seemed fairly bad...***½
The Wolf and the Panther Were Lovers • shortstory by Walter L. Kleine
A kind of "tall tale" of a card hustler who came to a small wild west town. He encounters a pair of intelligent wolf and puma, and wonders if he is being scammed in one way or other. Pretty good, maybe somewhat too short a story. ***+
The Old Man's Best • shortstory by Bud Sparhawk
A pair of bored asteroid workers decide to brew some beer to lighten their days. They encounter a score of difficulties which they are able solve, but usually very poorly. A very light story without any deeper meaning, ok read. ***
Ellipses . . . • novelette by Ron Collins
An author start to wonder why his neighbors have a few freshly dug grave-like mounds on their backyard. He starts to investigate and finds himself as a prisoner. Pretty good start for a story - where is the rest of it? Very entertaining anyway. ****
Blind Spot • novelette by Bond Elam
A detective examines an extortion case. A formula for a memory wipe has been stolen. The examination can be slightly hard when everyone, eventually including the man who was extorted seems to have lost their memory. A pretty good story. ***+