The Secret Visitors ©1957

I’ve only read a couple of James White’s stories before, and while The Secret Visitors isn’t a great read, it is a good old fashioned story. I’m guess that this one was a precursor of sorts to the Sector General stories that Mister White would become more well known for penning.

Let me see if I can sum up the novel in one sentence (hold on, this may run on a bit). Doctor Lockhart is supposed to be treating an old man, who turns out to be an alien, and then it is discovered that there are a lot of aliens among them, one of them looks like a pretty young girl who says that there’s a conspiracy among the aliens to take over the world and that earth’s only hope is to convince the Galactic Federation that the Agency is bad and evil with the hope that the earth can be saved, unfortunately this forces the Agencies hand and they wage war on the Federation which doesn’t know what to do, until the small band of humans convince the Federation to allow them to take command of a handful of ships to combat the Agency all the while the good doctor is hoping to make a good impression on the girl.

So there you have it. The near golden age of SF. I did enjoy this book, cheese and all.

Reviewed October 20, 2005

Seetee
An omnibus version that includes Seetee Ship, and Seetee Shock.

The SeeTee novels were written in 1949, and 1950.  I enjoy reading the older genre work.  There's a sense of wonder and innocence that the newer "hard SF" misses.  While reading this one I was guilty of applying current standards to what I was reading.  Particularly with regard to dialog. But I'm not a revisionist by nature and the stories reflect their time and social mores.

As far as the stories go I found myself enjoying the ride.  The term space opera comes from this early type of work.  The second story was better than the first, and didn't suffer from the stilted dialog of the first, and had all of the wonderful naïveté that makes for a fun read.

Addendum April 2002 - it's been a long time since reading this book, and I find that I still remember a lot of it. Williamson is one of the legends of SF for good reason.

Lifeburst

One of the old pulp farts of SF.  I loved this book.  What an imagination.  I could really see what he was building.  This guy will be missed when he passes on.  There is a sequel Mazeway, not nearly as good.

"Yeah, but what's it about?" you ask.

"Stuff." I reply.

Additional July 2003, This was one of my earlier reviews, and I wasn't really saying much other than I really liked it. It's been a couple of years and to be honest I remember snippets, but not enough to give a decent overview. However, I do remember it as a heck of a good tale.

No Clock in the Forest (©1991)

No Clock in the Forest is a cleverly done one world to the next type story where the transition to the "other" world is handled in a way that doesn't feel clunky or overly explained.

I had to laugh near the beginning where one of the main characters who is a serious climber leaves his pack lying around his day camp without stringing the food up a tree, or using a bear cache. I suppose it was done on purpose, to show William's lack of sense. But the author obviously knows his hiking and I haven't seen anyone use the word gorp in a book before, and it brought back good memories of hiking with my dad.

Anyway, the book.

The story takes a long time to set up, and it wraps up quite abruptly, and leaves a few loose ends. I suspect this was to be the first in a series, I'll have to look around and see what is out there on the next about this guy. But it's been over a decade, and chances are there's not much out there. The author does a great job of developing irritating characters. Grace the young girl in the story, runs away in the mountains, and her stupidity actually got me pretty upset, which I suppose was the purpose. The good and bad sisters are never really explained that well, nor is the nature of the lava beast, nor is Garth's role as the wise old man. Nor is the ice ax and it's powers. But there is some good solid story telling going on. I enjoyed William as the ambitious climber who can't see the forest for the trees was well done.

What made this frustrating in the end was not knowing if this was all there was. There's so much potential, and it doesn't feel finished.

Oh, yeah - don't believe everything you read on a dust jacket."... where marmots speak ..." I kept waiting for something to happen. At the end of the book, one of the hoary little buggers says, "What?"

In the end, this was good, but I'm left saying the same thing, "What?"

Reviewed July 17, 2003

The Stolen River (©1992)

I checked around and sure enough there was another book out there. This one isn't as good as the first one, and there was something about the characters this time out that just didn't work. The author takes a couple of minor characters from the first book and propels them to the forefront.

The action in the Stolen River takes place a number of years after the first story ends. The premise remains and promising as ever, and there are moments where it seems like things will really get going.

You're probably thinking that I totally hated this one, which isn't true at all. There's enough good story telling to keep this above water, just not enough to leave any sort of lasting impression. I read this one a couple of months ago, and I can hardly remember anything at all about the book. It was good while it lasted, but it didn't sink in. Oh the talking marmot is back, he's a bad bad critter.

Having been a right stinker, I will say that if I was to find more of Mister Willis' story telling I'd pick it up.

Read August 2003

Reviewed November 17, 2003

Days of Bitter Strength

I loved this book (Heck, I loved the six books before this one).  It's big, it's wordy, it's hard to put down.  In a nutshell, the Chinese build huge continent sized cities, wipe out western society, restore the feudal system, cities go boom.  Sex, drugs, violence, and more characters with weird names than you can shake a stick at.  Book seven was supposed to be the last of the lot; however, Dave couldn't stop and now there's an eighth book out, which isn't yet available in Canada.

Marriage of the Living Dark

Ah, the nefarious eighth book. It was with more than a little trepidation that I embarked on this final chapter to the Chung Kuo saga. The reviews I had read were mixed. People either loved it or hated it.    

First my short review: Wow.    

Now the long version: My first thought when I finally found this book was "At last!"  Then I noticed that it was a much slimmer volume than most of its predecessors  However when I cracked it open, I noticed that the typeface was about a 6 point font.  They saved money on paper.  So I started in, and found myself swept away in a genuine page turning frenzy.  This was great.  Even at the end when the book started getting into the multiple universe thing, and sentient plants, I found myself buying into what I was reading (call me a sucker - my financial advisor does).

As with previous novels, Wingrove seems to like snuffing out characters off stage, or glossing over whole segments with a couple of descriptive paragraphs. For example in this novel, the whole Li Yuan thing in America is built up, and then resolved with a passing thought.  As well the major characters who get snuffed are offed in such a way as to have no emotional impact.

This series was so huge, and so detailed, that it truly was impossible to end without disappointing people.  I personally found it a little weak; but as I let the book settle in, I found myself strangely satisfied.  If you've never heard of, or read any of these books I'd recommend them.  They are on the whole, among the best books I have ever read.  Period.

The "Lomokome" Papers

The premise of a "Reasonable War" is always a tough sell.  Written in the late 1940s and published a decade later, this rather awkward allegory showcases the love of war between two races who have developed ultimate weapons.

It's hardly fair to judge this story on anything but it's entertainment value some fifty years later.  So let's just say that this story doesn't stand the test of time very well.  Herman Wouk is a writer who normally infuses his work with rich characters, and vivid story telling.  None of which are evident in this (thankfully) short novel.

Oddly enough there is a Star Trek episode that so closely follows the premise of this story it's a wonder Mr. Wouk didn't get a writing credit. 

The Road West

Found this one at a store that was getting out of the book business.  Everything in the store was a quarter.  Holy cow.  I was there for a while.  This book was worth more than a quarter.  I'd never heard of Gary Wright, but I really enjoyed this book.  No surprises.  A good solid template fantasy piece.  Nothing new, but it was fun while it lasted.

The Last Hope of Earth (©1965)

This was a promising book, and although it didn’t live up to my expectations it was okay. The basic premise is that a giant weed is growing out of control in the world’s waterways, and as it covers more and more of the earth the resulting chaos and global warming is decimating life as we know it. Coastal cities disappear, Japan sinks into the sea – soon the earth will be uninhabitable. Benbow is a scientist who travels from Africa, to England to Mars. Of course while there he gets homesick and wants to return to earth to find his girl. So he does, only to find that things aren’t as they appear.

On the whole there is very little action, and no real surprises here.

Reviewed May 26, 2005

Servants of Ark

The First Named (©1987)
The Centre of the Circle (©1987)
The Mage-Born Child (©1988)

A series that started off very strong, and although over time it lagged somewhat, it was a richly imagined world - and it was the characters who made the series.

There are a lot of the common elements here, and a few fun twits thrown in for fun. The novels are braided together through common characters, where each story deals with a darker evil until the final conclusion. This type of storytelling can get a little repetative, and at the time it bugged me - but not enough to spoil my overall impression of the whole series.

I'm not sure how widely available this was in North America, but it's worth a read. After all, if Terry Brooks can keep telling the same story over and over using different characters - there's no reason why someone else can't do the same.

Reviewed May 13, 2005