MOVIE REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

The Other Half and I have seen all of the Harry Potter movies, and I have read all the books. The final installment in the movie franchise is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, which was also released in 3-D. I wasn't that enamored with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 but since I had read the books I knew that more than 2/3rds of the action in the book was going to happen in Part 2. We decided to splurge for the 3-D since it was the last time we would be seeing a Harry Potter movie in the theaters plus it was garnering rave reviews from most critics (96% on Rottentomatoes.com). 

Surprisingly, the last movie in the Harry Potter series is also the shortest in the series, coming in at a zippy 130 minutes. Also, another surprise about this installment is that it is basically a war movie. There are two competing armies, a large one on behalf of the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort and a small one on behalf of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, called Dumbledore's Army. This movie is so different from the early Potter films which were filmed with the hijinks of school children and featured games of Quidditch.

For the last two movies we have been following the quest of Harry, Ron and Hermione as they chase down magical objects called Horcruxes, which contain the soul of Voldemort. If the horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort will cease to exist. We think that there are six horcruxes, but one of my major quibbles with the the movie adaptation is that it doesn't really do a very good job of keeping the audience on track on how much progress is made on destroying all of the horcruxes.

Another aspect of the story is that when the audience discovers that Harry Potter must die (spoiler alert) we also see that he has the Resurrection Stone, but Harry drops the stone to the ground instead of carrying it with him to his death. It's unclear to the audience (or at least, me) why Harry couldn't just use the stone to die and then be resurrected and the movie doesn't do a good job of answering that question either.

There are several things that the film does do very well. I did think the 3-D effects were used sparingly but very effectively. Alan Rickman, as always, is excellent as Snape, although some have complained about the nature of his character's demise. My favorite character has always been Hermione, and Emma Watson plays her well. Daniel Radcliffe has most definitely grown into the leading role of Harry Potter. Rupert Grint has also grown, and is no longer cringe-worthy.

Overall, the final movie in the series works well as an action film and also has an excellent pay off for those of us who either read all the book or saw all the movies (or both). It is doubtful we will see a more successful adaptation of successful fantasy novels into successful fantasy films in my lifetime.

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.
Director: David Yates.
Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.
MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexual content.
Release Date: July 15, 2011.
Viewing Date: July 17, 2011.

Plot: A.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A.
Impact: A+.

Overall Grade: (4.0/4.0)

A Dance With Dragons Arrives!

Slow blogging today as my 1,016-page copy of George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons has arrived at my door!

Most preliminary reviews say that it is hella awesome, more like Book 3 (A Storm of Swords) instead of like Book 4 (A Feast for Crows) which was published 6 years ago and widely panned.

BOOK REVIEW: The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

Richard Morgan has made quite a name for himself with his science fiction novels, winning several prestigious awards for his books Altered Carbon (2003 Phillip K. Dick Award) and Thirteen/Black Man (2008 Arthur C. Clarke Award). 

I have greatly enjoyed reading his Takeshi Kovacs novels, Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies.

The Steel Remains is Morgan's first fantasy novel, and it is pretty terrific. It is the first book in a series that is now to be called A Land Fit for Heroes. There are three main characters, Ringil Eskiath, Egar Dragonbane, and Archeth Indamaninarmal. Ringil is a war hero, the no longer young scion of one of the most important families in the city-state of Ishlin-ichan and a talented swordsman with a famous blade called Ravensfriend forged by aliens. Ringil also happens to be openly gay, which is not accepted culturally or legally. As a gay reader of the book, I was thrilled by this aspect of the character and the book. It is a huge credit to Morgan that he decided to make the most important character in the book, gay, and as a straight author included remarkably well-written (and explicit) sex scenes between this gay character and other men. This aspect of the book has been remarked upon (not often favorably) by mostly straight reviewers. The fact is that explicit sex scenes have been a part of all of Morgan's books that I have read and enjoyed, but as a gay reader I have grown accustomed to reading past those paragraphs. I completely applaud Morgan for creating a lasting (and compelling) work of fiction which will affirm gay readers of fantasy.

Egar Dragonbane and Archeth Indamaninarmal are the other two main characters that complete the trio of veteran warriors who get point-of-view chapters in The Steel Remains. Egar is a huge, muscular "savage from the North" who is well-known for killing (not one, but two) dragons. Archeth is a Kiriath-human "half-breed" who is over two centuries old but who was left behind when the aliens left the world. Archeth is also a lesbian, giving The Steel Remains not one but two main characters who are sexual minorities.

Unfortunately, although the reader might expect the story to be built around this heroic trio, it really is centered around Ringil, and although we get some, we don't get a full understanding of Egar's and Archeth's character. This is fine with me, because Ringil is pretty interesting and compelling a character as created by Morgan. Ringil does have some similarities to Takeshi Kovacs in that they are both extremely adept at meting out violence and they both seem to enjoy bravely picking fights against more powerful foes. They are also not exactly sweetness and light to be around, and have a generally jaundiced view of the world.

The plot of The Steel Remains is not as intricate as Morgan's science fiction masterpieces, but what Morgan does well is provide the setting, background and atmosphere of his novels which make them a fascinating and enthralling place to spend hours of your time. The basic outline of the plot here is what happens after Ringil is asked by his mother to find a cousin who has been sold into slavery and discovers that the criminal elements of the city have been employing an incredibly powerful ghost-like figure called a Dwenda. Ringil, of course, can not resist following the trail of clues to find his cousin regardless of how far afield it takes him or how dangerous the path is.

The Steel Remains  is highly recommended, especially for gay readers or fans of adult fantastical novels.

Title: The Steel Remains.

Author: Richard K. Morgan.

Length: 432 pages.

Publisher: Del Rey.

Published: January 20, 2009.

OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0).

PLOT: A-.

IMAGERY: A.

IMPACT: A+.

WRITING: A.

BOOK REVIEW: Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan

The first two Takeshi Kovacs novels by Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, are pretty amazing, so it's bittersweet to be reading and reviewing Woken Furies, which is billed as the third and last of the series.

Each of the three books featuring Takeshi Kovacs written by Morgan is so different it's hard to call them part of the same series, but they do all feature Kovacs, a hard-bitten, world-weary, brutally efficient killing machine and violent mercenary with his own unique sense of fairness and justice in the very unfair universe of the future.

Altered Carbon takes place on Earth, in a faintly recognizable San Francisco Bay Area several centuries in the future, where Kovacs has been hired by an incredibly rich and old man to find out why he killed himself (or someone made it seem like he did). In Morgan's vision of the future consciousness download technology is  available, but not cheap. So, both Kovacs and the formerly dead man have been downloaded into new bodies (called "sleeves") from their memories stored in their "cortical stack." Morgan's depiction of an Earth of the future dominated by megalomaniacal oligarchs and capitalism run amok is weaved in with a  suspense-filled, violent hunt for the truth of the reason for the mysterious death. Synopsis: Maltese Falcon meets Bladerunner.

Broken Angels is set a couple decades in the future, subjective time, on a completely different planet called Sanction IV. Consciousness can be beamed from one planet (and star system) to another and then downloaded into a brand new sleeve. It's basically a way of virtually travelling at the speed of light. Kovacs begins the book in pure mercenary mode, fighting for the bad guys in a civil war he doesn't believe in . However, he goes AWOL to lead a mission to find and plunder a secret hoard of priceless alien artifacts with a corporate money man and two mysterious strangers he shouldn't (but does and doesn't) trust. Synopsis: Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Alien.

Woken Furies has Kovacs back on his homeworld, Harlan's World, which is 90% covered with water but also orbited by Martian artefacts which rain destructive "angel fire" on any "too large" object which exceeds a vertical distance of 400 meters above the surface. Kovacs is engaged in an extensive campaign of vengeful murder against a powerful religious sect who have rejected the promise of immortality via technology the consciousness download process provides. After saving a woman with advanced implants who was being attacked by some of the more militant members of the sect by slaughtering a half-dozen of them, he discovers that she is the head of a group of mercenaries who are working to decontaminate a nearby continent of abandoned military hardware with artificial intelligence that has run amok. The woman is named Sylvie and she can provide Koacs safe passage from the consequences of his latest massacre.

Kovacs ends up joining Sylvie's "decon" team and is able to get the team out of danger when a raid goes wrong and Sylvie is injured. While Sylvie is off-line she goes through an episode where it seems as if another personality is residing within her. The other personality appears to be Quellcrist Falconer, the most important revolutionary figure in the last several hundred years of struggle against the oligarchal families who run Harlan's World. Falconer has been dead for hundreds of years but Sylvie/Quellcrist appears to be aware of information that only Falconer would know.

Kovacs is being chased by a younger version of himself who is working for the Harlan family for reasons which are some combination of retribution for Kovacs' murderous rampage, a desperate attempt to find and neutralize Quellcrist/Sylvia and suppress any neo-Quellist revolutionaries and a desire to eliminate the competition provided by the "older-model" Kovacs.

All these motives and motivations are portrayed and resolved by Morgan in an engrossing way which is somehow not as compelling as the denouement in Broken Angels. He does make it possible that another Takeshi Kovacs novel of some kind could follow this one, but the author has expressed his desire for this to be the last one and moved on to writing a ground-breaking fantasy series, starting with The Steel Remains.
Morgan has quickly jumped to the top of my list of authors whose work I will look out for, just beneath the likes of Peter F. Hamilton, Patrick Rothfuss and Peter V. Brett.

Title: Woken Furies 
Author: Richard K. Morgan
Length: 480 pages.
Publisher: Del Rey.
Published: May 29, 2007.

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.75/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

BOOK REVIEW: George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords

Which book in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire written by George R.R. Martin is the best? Many would argue that the third entry in the series, A Storm of Swords, is the most likely candidate. There is no question that it is the largest of the four books published to date; in fact, in England it was published in two volumes (Steel and Snow and Blood and Gold).

At Amazon.com  A Storm of Swords has 822 reviews, with an average of 4.50365 (90.07%) with 76.6% of reviews selecting the top 5 star review. The book preceding A Storm of Swords is A Clash of Kings and it has a slightly higher average review of 4.50857 (90.17%) but they are less numerous (700) and has a lower percentage of 5-star reviews (71.6%). The first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, is the most well-known, naturally, since it was published first. It has by far the most number of reviews, 1,840 with an average of 4.38587 with 71% being 5-star reviews. The fourth book, A Feast for Crows, is the least popular book of the series so far and most harshly reviewed (an average score of 3.206557 based on 915 reviews). The fifth, A Dance with Dragons, will be released on July 12, 2011.

I would generally agree with the crowd at Amazon.com that A Storm of Swords is the best book of the first four in the A Song of Ice and Fire series that I have read so far.

The book's impact is not just based on it's length, though, as in most things, size does matter. There are so many important, stunning and horrifying plot twists which affect the characters we have grown to love and hate that several times I had to re-read sections of the book because I was reading so quickly to find out what was going to happen I realized I had missed an important event that had happened.

In this third book in the series the story that began in A Game of Thrones has progressed in surprising directions. It is almost impossible to review this volume without giving away important plot developments which a first-time reader should really experience unspoiled. I can say that the structure of the book follows the form of the previous entries in the series, with point-of-view chapters from various characters following one another seamlessly to reveal the overall storyline. There are POV chapters from Lannisters (Jaime, Tyrion and Cersei), Starks (Catelyn, Sansa, Arya and Bran) and their associates (Daavos Seaworth, Samwell Tarly, Jon Snow). Daenerys Targaeryen also returns and makes progress towards establishing herself as a true Queen of Westeros far away in the East.

The main storylines (internecine political conflict in King's Landing, Jon's foray beyond The Wall to learn the truth about the wildlings, Daenerys' quest for an Army and a crown, the impact of the War of Five Kings on Westeros' citizens as experienced by several of our main characters) are told with expert deftness and intriguing suspense. You literally do not know who will survive or perish, even if they have a chapter named after them (hint!).

Some say that Martin is trying to dethrone J.R.R. Tolkien as the universally acknowledged king of fantasy, and it may be true. Others say that Martin may actually have higher aims such as joining Shakespeare in the canon of literature. I'll leave it up to future readers to decide, but the decision of whether or not to invest the time and energy to read these books should be an easy one for anyone who delights in the pleasure of fiction itself.

Title: A Storm of Swords.

Author: George R.R. Martin

Length: 1008 pages.

Publisher: Bantam.

Date: May 28, 2002.

OVERALL GRADE: A+/A (4.167/4.0).

PLOT: A+.

IMAGERY: A.

IMPACT: A+.

WRITING: A.

Celebrity Friday: Connie Willis Wins '11 Nebula Award For Blackout/All-Clear

Connie Willis

Connie Willis is the author of one of my all-time favorite books, the suspenseful, award-winning Doomsday Book. Her most recent book is the diptych Blackout/All Clear, a sequel of sorts to Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, which are all time-travel based, suspenseful novels set in Great Britain and usually filled with biting comic wit.

I previously blogged about this year's nominees for the 2011 Nebula Awards, which included Blackout/All Clear. Now comes word that Connie Willis has won her seventh(!) Nebula award, her second for Best Novel, for Blackout/All Clear.

The Guardian reports:

Willis, already the recipient of 10 Hugos and six Nebulas and recently inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, took the Nebula best novel prize this weekend in Washington for her titles All Clear and Blackout. The prestigious science fiction and fantasy award is voted for by the 1,500 author members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and has been won in the past by Ursula K Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Larry Niven's Ringworld and Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves.

Blackout and All Clear, two volumes making up one novel, see three Oxford historians from 2060 time-travelling back to an England in the middle of the second world war. When the three become trapped in 1940, they start to uncover small historical discrepancies and begin to realise that, contrary to a core part of time travel theory, it might just be possible to "horribly, tragically" alter the past.

The Left Hand of Darkness and The Gods Themselves and Ringworld are widely regarded as some of the best science-fiction books of all time. The Hugo awards are the other prestigious awards in science fiction, voted on by the fans of the genre, while the Nebulas are voted on by the writers.

I have read both Blackout and All Clear but I'm still working on my official review. In short, they weren't as impressive as Doomsday Book but they are noteworthy achievements and well worth reading. They give you a new appreciation for Britons during World War and are an intelligent handling of the mind-bending implications of time travel.

BOOK REVIEW: George R.R. Martin's A Clash Of Kings

A Clash of Kings is the sequel to A Game of Thrones (see MadProfessah's review) in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire award-winning fantasy series. The first book has been adapted to the source material for HBO's first season of its televised adaptation called Game of Thrones (which debuted Sunday April 17th.)

A Clash of Kings is an astonishing achievement. It is a gigantic book, chock full of battles, betrayals and brutalities. The main plot of the story is "The War of the Five Kings." With King Robert Barratheon dead, there are five men claiming the Iron Throne: Joffrey Baratheon, the teenaged son of his Queen, the evil Cersei Lannister; Renly Baratheon, Robert's handsome younger brother; Stannis Baratheon, Robert's stern older brother; Robb Stark, son of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell and self-proclaimed King of the North; and Balon Greyjoy, who has declared himself King of the Iron Islands.

The story in A Clash of Kings follows immediately the events at the end of  A Game of Thrones. Events are told from the perspectives of each of several characters, both familiar and new. Many of our favorites from the first book, such as Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen and Catelyn Stark return with chapters of their own. Of course, there are also chapters told from the perspective of new characters such as Davos Seaworth (who is in the employ of Stannis Baratheon) and Theon Greyjoy (son of Balon Greyjoy who grew up with the Stark children at Winterfell). Additionally, Arya's sister Sansa Stark has some chapters devoted to her perspective as well which make her a far less annoying character than she appeared to be in the first book.

Martin is pretty ruthless with the fates of his characters. One never knows who will survive, even if they are a character who has a chapter named after them. This feature of the book greatly increases the level of suspense for the reader and the emotional impact of the story on the reader.

Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is truly one of the great masterpieces of speculative fiction, a sprawling, messy, detailed work of art which will delight and despair readers for decades.

Title: A Clash of Kings.
Author: George R.R. Martin

Length: 784 pages.

Publisher: Bantam.

Date: May 28, 2002.

OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0). 

PLOT: A+.

IMAGERY: A.

IMPACT: A.

WRITING: A-.

WATCH: Trailer for Final Harry Potter film

Looks like the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 will be ending with a  bang, not a whimper. Part 1 was a bit slow (see MadProfessah review). Part 2 looks like it will be more closely following the book, which was pretty amazing.

BOOK REVIEW: Broken Angels by Richard Morgan

Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels have a stellar reputation among hard core science fiction fans. I have previously enjoyed reading Morgan's first book in the series, the exciting Altered Carbon, which introduces the Takeshi Kovacs character to the world.

In the second book Broken Angels, Morgan puts Kovacs in another compelling and very dangerous situation, while still maintaining the character's unlikeability. The themes of the first book, explicit sexuality, corporate greed, capitalist malfeasance, dangerous technological advances, and dehumanizing violence, all return in even greater amounts in the sequel.

Altered Carbon made Richard Morgan seem like the second coming of Dashiell Hammett with Takeshi Kovacs a 24th century Sam Spade, like a cross between Blade Runner and The Maltese Falcon. I am chosing movies to relate Morgan's book to on purpose. Although Broken Angels is very different from Altered Carbon, it is also so vividly written that the story has substantial cinematic potential. It really seems like it is only a matter of when, not if, we will see major motion pictures based on the works of Richard K. Morgan.

The story this time begins with Kovacs as a mercenary fighting in a civil war on a planet called Sanction IV, as part of a unit called Carrera's Wedge which is helping a company called the Mandrake Corporation achieve its goals during a bloody, planet-wide, military conflict. One of the basic tenets of Broken Angels is that war is commerce conducted by other means (and vice versa!)

Kovacs leaves his unit when he meets Jan Schneider, who says he needs help for a scheme to smuggle an ancient Martian treasure off-world. In order to make their score they need to break out an archaeologist named Tanya Wardani, which Kovacs does and then enlists a mid-level executive named Matthias Hand at the Mandrake Corporation to finance the logistics of the retrieval operation, which of course have to occur dead smack in the middle of the war zone.

The story turns into a cross between Raiders of the Lost Ark and (the first exploration-heavy hour of) Alien. Again, as in the first book, the most important draw is Kovacs, with his near-superhuman reflexes and situational loyalty. Kovacs find and trains an elite team of experienced warriors to go on the expedition with him, but he's really the only one we care about is Kovacs. Kovacs protests (too much) that he only cares about his survival as well but his actions belie this expressed belief. Morgan's action scenes are another highlight of the book, especially when told from Kovacs perspective and internal monologue.

Broken Angels is a memorable entry into the genre of hard-core, hard-bitten military science fiction by another talented British writer. Fans of Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds (which includes yours truly) will be thrilled to discover another author who possesses similar adeptness at creating rich, believable future worlds peopled with intelligent characters fighting battles against powerful (and sometimes alien) forces.

Title: Broken Angels.
Author: Richard K. Morgan
Length: 384 pages.
Publisher: Del Rey.
Published: March 2, 2004.

OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0).

PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

BOOK REVIEW: George R.R. Martin's A Game Of Thrones

Thanks to a friend on GoodReads.com, I was convinced to ask for A Game of Thrones for Chrismuhkwanzukkah, and received it. I had heard about the series A Song if Ice and Fire and was aware that HBO is going to start airing a miniseries called Game of Thrones in April 2011.

Variety reports that there are over 4.5 million copies of the first four books in the series in print and it has recently been announced that the fifth book A Dance with Dragons will be released on July 12, 2011. Many fans of the series are pretty bitter because the fourth book in the series, A Feast for Crows was released in November 2005 and they have been eagerly awaiting new material for well over 5 years. And the entire series is said to consist of seven books.

It all started with the first book, A Game of Thrones, and this idea of political intrigue surrounding who will rule the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros is a central theme of the book and the series. The setting is one akin to medieval Europe with very little technology beyond the Bronze Age, although magic plays a limited role and one of the most important features is that seasons can last for years. In A Game of Thrones summer has lasted for nearly a decade, but the longer-lived people realize that this may augur an equally long bitter winter. The phrase "Winter is Coming" is a common catch phrase of the people of the North, and reveals their pessimism (some would say stoicism) about the future.

Martin has embarked upon an incredibly ambitious,m sprawling work of high fantasy. He tells his story in discrete chapters with the names and point of view of a single character. This can result in  major events of the story being revealed multiple times, from differing viewpoints or sometimes an important development for one character is revealed from a casual remark made by another. It's a compelling device, and it requires close attention by the reader. These are generally gigantic books (on the order of 900 pages) with literally dozens and dozens of characters with complex and complicated familial and familiar ties.

A Game of Thrones sets the stage for the entire series by introducing our two main protagonists: a set of families and rivals called the Starks (of the North) and the Lannisters (of the South). The Starks are dark-haired, simple and stoic while the Lannisters and blonde, green-eyed, wealthy and ruthless. In the beginning it is clear the reader is intended to identify with the Starks, as we are first introduced to the entire family: Lord Eddard Stark, his wife Catelyn Stark and their five children (Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon) as well as Eddard's bastard son, John Snow. The Lannisters primarily consist of Lord Tywin Lannister and his three children (Jaime, Cersei and Tyrion). Cersei is married to Eddard Stark's best friend King Robert Baratheon and has borne him three children while carrying out an adulterous and incestuous affair with her brother Jamie. Tyrion is a deformed dwarf more commonly known as the Imp.

As a Black, gay reader one of the most noticeable aspects of the books is the treatment of gender and regulation of sexuality. Homosexuality is barely mentioned, but the expectation of each gender are rigidly defined. The morals of the time strongly condemn all sex outside of marriage, although they only barely look askance as abortion/contraception (there is a special tea women can take soon after having sex which is supposed to prevent them from getting pregnant). Women are basically property of their husbands, and daughters are just there to be married off while her "maidenhood" (or virginity) is intact in order to seal connections between  Lords and prominent families, which are called Houses. There are a dizzying array of various Houses, the most prominent for our purposes are House Stark and House Lannister, each with their own castle, Winterfell and Casterly Rock, respectively.

Martin hooks you into caring for the main characters early on and the plot twists and turns which delight and horrify. Just because the Starks are our putative heroes does not mean that everything will end "happily ever after." Plus, for most readers, there are so many named characters that almost any reader can find at least one (if not more) that they can identify with and root for.

I don;t want to give away or discuss the details of the plot, but suffice it to say that you will not be disappointed if you take the time to visit Westeros and watch the Game of Thrones from the comfort of your home, reveling in Martin's imagination.

Title: A Game of Thrones
Author: George R.R. Martin
Length: 720 pages.
Publisher: Bantam.
Date: May 28, 2002.

OVERALL GRADE: A (3.917/4.0).

PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A-.

BOOK REVIEW: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

I have been hearing a lot about the Takeshi Kovacs series by Richard K. Morgan and after spending the first 6 weeks of the year or so engrossed in reading the first four books of the acclaimed fantasy series Songs of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, I wanted to return to hard sci-fi instead of "swords and lords" fantasy.

Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books are well-known for their seamless melding of Raymond Chandler-esque hard-boiled detective noir atmosphere with the dizzying speculative future of William Gibson's cyberpunk. Since I'm a fan of both mysteries and science fiction this sounded good to me, but I was blown away by how well Morgan immerses the reader in his detailed future of a time where human life has become less valuable because of a technological advance called a "cortical stack" which allows the consciousness of people to be downloaded into a new body (chillingly referred to by Morgan as a "sleeve" with all the concomitant utilitarian and commonplace characteristics the word implies) after death. Peter F, Hamilton and other hard science-fiction authors have postulated similar technological solutions to physical death but Morgan's writing viscerally communicates to the reader what it would be like to have one person's brain downloaded into another person's body and additionally Morgan's plot depicts several of the complications and conundrums that can result.

One of the first thoughts that comes to mind after reading the first chapter or two of Altered Carbon, is "This would make an amazing movie, like Blade Runner." In fact, Morgan's debut novel Altered Carbon, won the 2003 Phillip K. Dick Award for Best First Novel and has been optioned by Hollywood to become "a major motion picture."

Takeshi Kovacs is an amazing creation. He is the ultimate anti-hero, a violent, highly trained elite soldier (called a United Nations Envoy) who is also sensitive to the plight of the powerless. And he is the main character in a book which is, as one reviewer on Goodreads described it, "A sex fueled scifi badass ex-super solider detective noir novel that rocks really hard."

The plot gets incredibly twisted (in multiple senses of the word) at times and it is always hard to tell who the bad guys are from the really, really bad guys but in the end one is convinced by the innate goodness of Takeshi and always interested in seeing what will happen next. I can't wait to read the other two Takeshi Kovacs novels, Broken Angels and Woken Furies.

Title: Altered Carbon
Author: Richard K. Morgan
Length: 375 pages.
Publisher: Del Rey.
Published: (1st Edition) March 4, 2003.

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.75/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

TOR.COM's Top 10 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books of the Decade

Tor.com has been running a poll of the best science fiction/fantasy books published between 2000-2010 (not really a decade) and now the results of the Top 10 are out:

1. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi - 295 votes
2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman - 270 votes
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 231 votes
4. Blindsight by Peter Watts - 221 votes
5. Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey - 194 votes
6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin - 179 votes
7. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - 167 votes
8. Anathem by Neal Stephenson - 141 votes
9. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson - 125 votes
10. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville - 124 votes

Of these Top 10, the only ones I have not read is #4, #5 and #9. I actually tried reading Blindsight but could not get past the first chapter or so. I've only recently heard of Mistborn and Kushiel's Dart. They are both high fantasy novels. Since I generally prefer science fiction, they will be lower on my list to be read in the future. Currently, I'm in the middle of reading the Saga of the Pliocene War series by Julian May and looking forward to reading The Wise Man's Fear by Rothfuss in the next few weeks.

You can click on the highlighted titles to see my reviews of those books; I am still working on reviews for American Gods and A Storm of Swords.

I am pleased to see that so many books that I have liked on this list but I strongly disagree with the Top choice (I would probably place Rothfuss' book there if I was restricted to this list of 10). I'm also very surprised not to see any books by Peter F. Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds

2011 Nebula Awards Nominees Announced

The list of nominees for the 2011 Nebula Awards have been released. I'm always interested in who is up for Best Novel.

• The Native Star, M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
• Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
• Echo, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
• Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
• Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

I have read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, but was not impressed. Connie Willis wrote one of my favorite books of all-time, Doomsday Book, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Blackout/All Clear is something of a sequel to that book, and I have just begun Blackout.

BOOK REVIEW: Iain M. Banks' Surface Detail

I received the latest Banks Culture novel for Chrismuhkwanzakkuh this year from my Amazon wishlist. I'm a big fan of Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds, who are also very popular and well-known British science fiction authors. Iain M. Banks is often added to that list, as is Neal Asher, and although I have read books by both of them, the only work by either of them that has come close to being as engrossing to me as a(ny) Hamilton or Reynolds book is Banks' Matter, which was the previous Culture novel.

The latest Culture novel is Surface Detail which is about the nature of death itself, as well as revenge and faith. The central character is Lededje Y'breq, a slave on the planet of Sichult, who is killed by her owner, Joiler Veppers, the richest man in the world. Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, a person who has been genetically engineered with an intricate, strikingly beautiful tattoo (yes, a "surface detail" of the title), which illustrates her indentured servitude and shameful familial debt to Veppers.

Y'breq is revented (reincarnated) by a Culture artifact which had been implanted in her head without her knowledge. The notion of death and after-life is a central theme of Surface Detail. Banks creates the notion that there is a philosophical dispute between various technologically advanced societies: some wish to have a Hell of an after-life while others have no after-life whatsoever. The dispute is currently being resolved through  a virtual war between the "pro-Hell and "anti-Hell" forces. The Culture is in the anti-Hell coalition and it turns out that the planet of Sichult and Joiler Veppers is a inter-stellar level player in the dispute over what should happen after death.

As with his other books, Surface Detail is a large book with many characters in addition to multiple plot strands. Unfortunately, many of the characters are not as interesting as as Y'breq and Veppers. For (too) long stretches of the book we are following the stories of other characters such as Prin and Chay, two non-humanoid aliens who are trying to expose the horrific nature of their species' Hell in order to diminish the appeal and salience of perdition. Another character which frankly bored me was Sergeant Vateuil, who is a fighter in the anti-Hell forces, and who may or may not have a connection to a central character in a few of the earlier Culture books.

What I liked about Banks' Matter, was its focus on an appealing central character (Dziet Sma) combined with quirky humor. There is almost no humor in Surface Detail  apart from Banks' longtime staple of the names and interactions between ship controlling artificial intelligences called Minds. At this point, that simply was not enough. I will be more skeptical about future Culture books by Banks, probably waiting to get them in paperback at the library instead of in hardcover. They simply are not at the same level of excellence, complexity and creativity as the other British sci-fi masters Hamilton and Reynolds.

Title: Surface Detail

Author: Iain M. Banks

Length: 640 pages.

Publisher: Orbit.

Date: October 28, 2010.

OVERALL GRADE: B/B+.

PLOT: B+.

IMAGERY: B.

IMPACT: B-. 

WRITING: B+.

BOOK REVIEW: DAN SIMMONS' Hyperion Cantos

Dan Simmons is the author of the four classic novels Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion which together are sometimes referred to as the Hyperion Cantos. Simmons himself explains why it took four boks to essentially contain two stories when he said "this so-called epic actually consists of two long and mutually dependent tales, the two Hyperion stories combined and the two Endymion stories combined, broken into four books because of the realities of publishing." 

All of the books were nominated for various big-name speculative fiction awards, with most of the books winning at least one.

Below I will review each of the four works which make up Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos.

Hyperion 
The first book of the series won the Hugo and Locus awards for the year it came out, despite being just the first half of a gigantic novel. Hyperion sets the tone for the entire series by introducing all the main characters through various background stories each given in its own chapter. They are, in order, The Priest (Lenar Hoyt), The Soldier (Fedmahn Kasad), The Poet (Martin Silenus), The Scholar (Sol Weintraub), The Detective (Brawne Lamia) and The Consul. They are known as Pilgrims, because they have traveled to Hyperion in order to encounter the only known supernatural being in this technologically advanced universe, The Shrike.

Dan Simmons uses these stories to paint a picture of a vibrant, intriguing universe. The Hegemony of Man is the name of a 200-plus confederation of worlds that have been colonized by humanity, connected by farcasters, portals which allow instantaneous travel between planets, facilitated by the TechnoCore, an artificial intelligence. Through a similar technology, called the fatline, there is also instantaneous communication between planets. Even in this gigantic collection of planets, Hyperion, is (in)famous because it is the location of The Time Tombs and the Shrike. The Time Tombs are bizarre artefacts that appear to be moving backwards in time. The Shrike is a terrifying creature that can appear anywhere at any time to inflict an excruciating death; he is known as the Lord of Pain.

Hyperion is an astonishing accomplishment. He has created fascinating, well-rounded characters and dropped them into a rich, realistic universe set in the far future. Additionally, he uses the formal structure of the book to  show off his ability to write in different styles and genres.The stories of the seven travelers include a love story, a horror story, a noir detective thriller and a fantastical tale of a father's love for his daughter. This is just one measure of complexity of this fine novel.

Title: Hyperion
Author: Dan Simmons
Length: 481 pages.
Publisher: Spectra.
Date: February 1, 1990.

OVERALL GRADE: A-.

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A.

The Fall of Hyperion

The second book of the series is The Fall of Hyperion, which begins immediately after the first book Hyperion concludes. In my opinion, this book is even better than the first book, which is an instant classic. Instead of repeating the stylized format of Hyperion, the sequel uses a more familiar direct structure to present a tale of interstellar war intertwined with the stories of what happens to the seven pilgrims introduced in the first book.

The book introduces, and is centered around, the character of Meina Gladstone, the Abraham Lincoln-like leader of global humanity, who in the 29th century number 130 billion on over 200 planets. Gladstone is like Lincoln, Golda Meir and Winston Churchill all rolled up in one. As CEO of the Senate, Goldstone is the leader of the Hegemony of Man, who are being attacked by a huge force of ships which are presumed to come from a faction of humanity which has embraced biological manipulation known as the Ousters. Gladstone is a very compelling character, and we get to see what it would be like to be the leader of a great civilization under the extreme duress of war.

However,  The Fall of Hyperion contains a lot more tricks up its sleeve. We get more information on the cruciform that was introduced during Father Lenar Hoyt's story in the original Hyperion. It appears to be a device which is indestructible, and when attached to a human being, makes that person immortal, because as long as there is some biological matter attached to the cruciform, it can regenerate the original host in approximately 3 days. The implications on religion, especially Catholicism are profound, and The Fall of Hyperion delves into those, while still unfolding the fates of the original Pilgrims (at least those who survived the first book). Not all the Pilgrims survive the second book, and the sacrifices and choices that Meina Gladstone has to make in order to "save" humanity will take your breath away.

Title: The Fall of Hyperion
Author: Dan Simmons
Length: 528 pages.
Publisher: Spectra.
Date: November 1, 1995.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A-.

PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

Endymion


Endymion begins with one of the great lines in science fiction: "You are reading this for the wrong reason." These words are written by Raul Endymion, in the 31st century, nearly 300 years after the events depicted in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. Raul was born on Hyperion, and is a 27-year-old outdoorsman who finds himself sentenced to death after killing an odious businessman. After being rescued from this fate, Raul is sent on an impossible quest by the last surviving Pilgrim from the first book.

Endymion is a road trip movie writ large, combined with a chase thriller and a religious fable. We discover that after the resolution  of the war in The Fall of Hyperion the Church has become the most powerful political force in the human Universe, as they use the cruciform as a bribe to gain complete fealty to The Pope and the Church Hierarchy by the vast majority of humanity. However, the Church is being challenged by She Who Teaches, also known as Aenea. Raul's impossible quest involved rescuing Aenea from the Time Tombs and The Shrike and keeping her safe from the Church forces who wish to do her harm. Aenea is the 13-year-old daughter of  one of the original Pilgrims, who have (mostly) been dead for multiple centuries at this point.

The Church forces are led by Father Captain de Soya, who is a pretty interesting character. Through his eyes, we get to see the inner workings of the Church, from the point of view of a true believer who is willing to die (and be resurrected) repeatedly in order to fulfill the mission his superiors have assigned him.

Another interesting aspect of Endymion is the re-appearance of The Shrike, and the new ambiguity we are presented about its motives and actions. We begin to see it as more than just a killing machine, since it seems to have some kind of odd attraction (and protective attitude) to(wards) Aenea. Aenea is another example of one of those all-knowing children we have seen before (Alia in Frank Herbert's Dune, anyone?) whose messianic destiny has been pre-ordained (somehow she will become The One Who Teaches).

The story is primarily told from the perspective of Raul, and although Aenea seems to know what will happen in the future, the future can be changed by current events, and so she often acts in ways that frustrate Raul (and by extension the reader). That being said, Endymion is an excellent follow-on to the first two books in the series, and nicely sets up the action for the series' conclusion in The Rise of Endymion.

Title: Endymion

Author: Dan Simmons

Length: 576 pages.

Publisher: Spectra.

Date: November 1, 1996.

OVERALL GRADE: A-/B+.

PLOT: A-.

IMAGERY: B+.

IMPACT: A-.

WRITING: A-.

The Rise of Endymion
The Rise of Endymion is the final book in Simmons' classic Hyperion Cantos. Although this entry is the weakest book of the four, it is still a compelling read and really just suffers in direct comparison to the other superlative works in the collection.


The Rise of Endymion is the most philosophical (and somewhat didactic) of the books. It focuses more o the story of Aenea and the conflict between her as the new messiah and the intransigent Catholic Church which has been headed by Pope Urban (formerly Father Lenar Hoyt) for multiple centuries. It's not to say that the other books lack Deep Thoughts, but it is in The Rise of Endymion that Simmons really makes his ideology clear. He is clearly opposed to organized religion but also promotes some form of Zen-Buddhism.

The strengths of The Rise of Endymion greatly outweigh the weaknesses I have mentioned here. These strengths include the description of the space battles, the characterization of Raul and the heart-rending ending. Some people have a real problem with the character of Aenea. I question their obsession with her because I re-read the Hyperion Cantos in 2010 after leaving the books on the shelf for at least a decade (although I did acknowledge they were some of my all-time favorite SF reads) and the main things that had stayed with me was The Shrike, the cruciform and the perfidious depiction of the Church--I had completely forgotten about the characters of Raul and Aenea.

One review I found while researching my reviews said about Aenea:

Aenea has become the most annoying character in the series. She denies being a messiah, but she speaks in koans. She can glimpse the future, but refuses to tell anyone anything about it. She doesn't say anything about why. She is ultimately secretive and holds back a lot of what she knows. There are parts of the book where characters ask her questions where her answers could save them, make their lives easier, etc., and she point-blank refuses to reveal anything, or begs to put off answering until "the right time." All this clichéd and cryptic messianic behavior is just far too ridiculous for me. Frank Herbert was far superior at handling characters who could see the future. Dan Simmons' "the One Who Teaches" is sadly reduced to a mystic know-it-all.

This is a pretty harsh assessment in an overall mixed review ("a work that will engross and absorb at times, and at others irritate and frustrate"). I am more positively inclined towards the book, and the series overall. Many people think the first book is the best, I actually think the second is slightly better, but I would recommend that any science fiction fan who is interested in reading the best the genre has to offer to take the time to complete the entire Hyperion Cantos.

Title: The Rise of Endymion

Author: Dan Simmons

Length: 720 pages.

Publisher: Spectra.

Date: July 1, 1998.

OVERALL GRADE: A-/B+.

PLOT: A-.

IMAGERY: B+.

IMPACT: A-.

WRITING: B+.