Robert Reed
A strong effort, although not one of Reed's best and seems to lose a lot of momentum in the middle. Very strong opening and close, however, and the main premise sustains itself for a lot of neat idea-centered story. The whole question of humanity's symbiotic relationship with an alien species is well conveyed here, and serves as a slow revelation to how alien and potentially menacing the 'normal' humans are. What also works here is the sense of scale, the sheer numbers involved with the wider galactic civilization and then the degree of mental power hinted at with the aliens and made explicit in the end. Much of science fiction gestures at huge expanse, particularly in space opera, but tends to go with a lot more small scale circumstances to ground the narrative in the conventional. Reed works with a similar balance generally, but seems to have a lot more awareness of the sheer numbers that would be involved with reaching into space, and in turn how that changes the whole quality of society and any narratives formed from it. There's a tone to that which I find irresistible in virtually all of his books, a linking of story and setting that pays off quite well. On one level this book like most of his is a very conventional, classic piece of SF, but there's an energy to investing the premise and focus on coherence that make this work worthy of notice. It doesn't transcend a stock premise in the way that a lot of the best science fiction writers do (see Richard Morgan, for instance) but it invests in and fulfills his setup in a way that feels relatively rare. There's something about that which makes Reed's futures seem uniquely real, and the larger strength of the author is in making his works fairly detailed in tone and scale.
Among other things Reed may be lowering my opinion of Stephen Baxter, since he shows an enormous commitment to wide-scale futures without sacrificing character and politics in the way that Baxter does most of the time.
Better than: Swiftly by Adam Roberts
Worse than: Marrow by Robert Reed
Showing posts with label reed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reed. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Beyond the Veil of Stars
by Robert Reed
Imaginative scenario, good worldbuilding and engaging characters, but for some reason this story never came together for me. I felt entertained but not particularly invested in anything that happened, and the unfolding of the plot felt predictable at points where it seemed like it should have been sudden and exciting. Ultimately I can't put my finger on any single element that's inadequate, and the work as a whole was certainly well written, but it falls short of greatness by a fair margin, and I wasn't nearly as engaged as a lot of his work. The main SF device here is change to the general planetary environment, in this case through a change in the age of the surrounding universe and a sudden capability for accessing other planets and species. The impact of the shift is nicely conveyed, but a consideration of how the wider culture alters from the switch in apparently objective markers of time. In a similar pattern the process of alien investigation is unique and vivid, involving a mechanism by which humans take on the literal bodies of aliens as part of the investigation.
Where it falls down in the main character work. The protagonist’s father was an avid UFO devotee pre-Change, and seeing his views vindicated and then undermined by something big actually happening should be an engaging story of the rise and fall of family fortunes, mediated through the intense view of the main character. For whatever reason it comes across as overly melodramatic and the protagonist as too flat and emotionally predictable, the consequence of too many little twists in the family arc and not enough positioning of truly being invited into the head of our viewpoint character. I felt a similar sense of interest as he did with the alien exploration and interplanetary intrigue that he gets drawn into, and many of the details of the setting rang true, but the actuall process of conflict within the family never really clicked. Reed often reminds me of Robert Charles Wilson, but here it was a particularly strong resemblance; the sky suddenly changing as setup reminded me a lot of Splin, while the study of the aliens was very reminiscent of Blind Lake. Of course this work predates both these novels.
Worse than: Down the Bright Way by Robert Reed
Better than: Axis by Robert Charles Wilson
Imaginative scenario, good worldbuilding and engaging characters, but for some reason this story never came together for me. I felt entertained but not particularly invested in anything that happened, and the unfolding of the plot felt predictable at points where it seemed like it should have been sudden and exciting. Ultimately I can't put my finger on any single element that's inadequate, and the work as a whole was certainly well written, but it falls short of greatness by a fair margin, and I wasn't nearly as engaged as a lot of his work. The main SF device here is change to the general planetary environment, in this case through a change in the age of the surrounding universe and a sudden capability for accessing other planets and species. The impact of the shift is nicely conveyed, but a consideration of how the wider culture alters from the switch in apparently objective markers of time. In a similar pattern the process of alien investigation is unique and vivid, involving a mechanism by which humans take on the literal bodies of aliens as part of the investigation.
Where it falls down in the main character work. The protagonist’s father was an avid UFO devotee pre-Change, and seeing his views vindicated and then undermined by something big actually happening should be an engaging story of the rise and fall of family fortunes, mediated through the intense view of the main character. For whatever reason it comes across as overly melodramatic and the protagonist as too flat and emotionally predictable, the consequence of too many little twists in the family arc and not enough positioning of truly being invited into the head of our viewpoint character. I felt a similar sense of interest as he did with the alien exploration and interplanetary intrigue that he gets drawn into, and many of the details of the setting rang true, but the actuall process of conflict within the family never really clicked. Reed often reminds me of Robert Charles Wilson, but here it was a particularly strong resemblance; the sky suddenly changing as setup reminded me a lot of Splin, while the study of the aliens was very reminiscent of Blind Lake. Of course this work predates both these novels.
Worse than: Down the Bright Way by Robert Reed
Better than: Axis by Robert Charles Wilson
A Billion Eves
by Robert Reed
Novella, won the Hugo a few years back. Pretty strong scenario and building of character and story together, although it didn't work for me quite as well as some of Reed's stuff, particularly "Truth" from 20008’s nominees. Still it's a good story, managing a surprisingly nuanced story of religion's undermining of women's position, and some very unique incidents. Reed continues to demonstrate an admirable ability to think in large scale, to imagine what huge numbers actually looks like, on the physical and especially social level. Here, there’s a deep exploration of what hyper-expansion actually means, and what kind of unwholesome but not completely monstrous social elements it can be linked to. In a related issue, it’s very intriguing to see this scenario of religious society with some severe systemic abuses to women, yet in a much more sublte and nuanced way than the stock science fiction use of this theme.
Better than: True Names by Cory Doctrow and Benjamin Rosenbaum
Worse than: Down the Bright Way by Robert Reed
Novella, won the Hugo a few years back. Pretty strong scenario and building of character and story together, although it didn't work for me quite as well as some of Reed's stuff, particularly "Truth" from 20008’s nominees. Still it's a good story, managing a surprisingly nuanced story of religion's undermining of women's position, and some very unique incidents. Reed continues to demonstrate an admirable ability to think in large scale, to imagine what huge numbers actually looks like, on the physical and especially social level. Here, there’s a deep exploration of what hyper-expansion actually means, and what kind of unwholesome but not completely monstrous social elements it can be linked to. In a related issue, it’s very intriguing to see this scenario of religious society with some severe systemic abuses to women, yet in a much more sublte and nuanced way than the stock science fiction use of this theme.
Better than: True Names by Cory Doctrow and Benjamin Rosenbaum
Worse than: Down the Bright Way by Robert Reed
Monday, June 28, 2010
The Hormone Jungle
Robert Reed
A lot better than the title, cover and side-blurb would lead one to expect, since these seem oriented to make it seem a sub-Heinlein Heinleinesque story of male virility and adventure. In fact, what’s produced here is in fact a worthwhile story and engaging science fiction. However I didn't like this nearly as much as most of the Reed I've read, most of the characterization didn't seem as good, and while I was caught up in some interesting situations I didn't feel very connected to the plot. It’s there, it works reasonably well on its own terms, but it doesn’t seem to connect enough to a true sense of relevance. By the end, in particular, I felt less a sense of climax than a desire for a score-card to look through and seen where the different sides had ended up.
What does work great is the setting, showing a real grasp of scale and casual mind-blowing viewpoint. A well developed solar system, two trillion people, casual use of an artificial afterlife and transhumanism, creative variety of societal conditions. It’s a future that’s smartly enough framed not to be definite, to contain a strong measure of variety and flux along with its unifying structures. The general tone of the future is a kind of faintly baroque grandeur of scale, a picture of society effective enough at carving out new territories off planet to give expression to many contradictory groups and subcultures.
This book more than most of Reed reminded me of Vance, partly because sexuality did play a focus, but on the whole I find Reed's worlds more solid and inventive if not with nearly the same brilliance of detail. The actual story is a bit lacking for this one, but in the end it still has a level of creativity and plausibility that can’t be found in many other writers.
Worse than: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
Better than: Friday by Robert A. Heinlein
A lot better than the title, cover and side-blurb would lead one to expect, since these seem oriented to make it seem a sub-Heinlein Heinleinesque story of male virility and adventure. In fact, what’s produced here is in fact a worthwhile story and engaging science fiction. However I didn't like this nearly as much as most of the Reed I've read, most of the characterization didn't seem as good, and while I was caught up in some interesting situations I didn't feel very connected to the plot. It’s there, it works reasonably well on its own terms, but it doesn’t seem to connect enough to a true sense of relevance. By the end, in particular, I felt less a sense of climax than a desire for a score-card to look through and seen where the different sides had ended up.
What does work great is the setting, showing a real grasp of scale and casual mind-blowing viewpoint. A well developed solar system, two trillion people, casual use of an artificial afterlife and transhumanism, creative variety of societal conditions. It’s a future that’s smartly enough framed not to be definite, to contain a strong measure of variety and flux along with its unifying structures. The general tone of the future is a kind of faintly baroque grandeur of scale, a picture of society effective enough at carving out new territories off planet to give expression to many contradictory groups and subcultures.
This book more than most of Reed reminded me of Vance, partly because sexuality did play a focus, but on the whole I find Reed's worlds more solid and inventive if not with nearly the same brilliance of detail. The actual story is a bit lacking for this one, but in the end it still has a level of creativity and plausibility that can’t be found in many other writers.
Worse than: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
Better than: Friday by Robert A. Heinlein
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Down the Bright Way
Down the Bright Way by Robert Reed
Excellent book, definitely makes me puzzle why I hadn't heard of Reed at all until encountering his "Truth" in Hugo novella candidates last year. With everything of his I read I find more reason to consider him one of the greats. This book specifically is a great study in a widely vibrant setting with believable and engaging characters, combined with some stark and exquisitely murky moral ambiguity. The background involves a group called the Wanders that move from parallel universe to parallel universe, seeking to make small subtle changes to improve the lives of the inhabitants and develop their own wider knowledge. The story tracks several viewpoints in relation to the Wanderer presence, at first as a somewhat plotless survey of their policies and priorities. It becomes increasingly clear that there's something larger going on, though, and it's eventually revealed as a struggle by a small conspiracy of Wanderers to destroy the whole system. The intention is a destructive one and the eventual story involves foiling the attempt, but the plan and antagonists are rendered in considerable sympathy. In transpires that Wanderers on the other side of the Way encountered a fundamentally malevolent species labelled the unFound, the Pyrric nature of the struggle lead to attempts to shut down the whole multi-worlds system.
What I love primarily is the intimacy of the character nuances and attendant pathos with the epic scale of the setting. In particular, the energetic way the possibility of contact with a huge array of parallel universes, and conflict between rival multiverse groups unfold make Banks and Melko's recent efforts in this theme look even more pitiful by contrast. More than just the usual twists of divergent recent history, Reed's book explores alternate hominid development, a wide array of different social models and significantly different situations. Among the array of civilizations--including multiple Earths depopulated by human efforts--there's a fundamental optimism in the array heavily tied to the creativity of the setting. Reed provides enough solid description and small hinting detail that makes the wide scale of the universe credible. It's the ultimate believability of the setting that constitutes the book's greatest accomplishment, and the book's refusal to signpost the larger picture into either an utopia or a dystopia builds up this strength.
Also worth mentioning is the effective construction of some very interesting personality types. Normally for a work this wide ranging in environment and dealing with such a twisty plot it's frustrating to go beyond a single viewpoint perspective, losing track of events and making connection to the novel's pace rather difficult. Here Reed pulls it off quite effectively, in part because the different characters have such easily distinguishable voices and intentions
I was most interested in one character, a regular out of sorts normal human who meticulously pretended to be one of the famous Wanderers out of a basically psychological compulsion. It's effectively the type of approach that has someone spend a lot of effort plagiarizing for an assignment when in so doing they demonstrate enough skill to do their own work effectively. In this case, the fact that someone is able to imitate the patterns of behavior enough to actually fool real Wanderers establishes that he could do just find on conventional Earth, but he's drawn to this specific type of masquerade. It's an interesting take on the whole nature of the alien, and it works as presented particularly not as any kind of big breakthrough or self-realization but the small little details involved in keeping up the charade.
If there was one weakness it's that more probably could have been done with more fully describing the nature of the unFound and some of the background technology. Still the stark nature of the larger menace helps put the ambiguity of the narrative villain into sharper relief. Overall I've few complaints, and put this book high on my list for examples of how one can write classic, fairly conventional science fiction really well.
Better than: Transition by Iain Banks
Worse than: Marrow by Robert Reed
Excellent book, definitely makes me puzzle why I hadn't heard of Reed at all until encountering his "Truth" in Hugo novella candidates last year. With everything of his I read I find more reason to consider him one of the greats. This book specifically is a great study in a widely vibrant setting with believable and engaging characters, combined with some stark and exquisitely murky moral ambiguity. The background involves a group called the Wanders that move from parallel universe to parallel universe, seeking to make small subtle changes to improve the lives of the inhabitants and develop their own wider knowledge. The story tracks several viewpoints in relation to the Wanderer presence, at first as a somewhat plotless survey of their policies and priorities. It becomes increasingly clear that there's something larger going on, though, and it's eventually revealed as a struggle by a small conspiracy of Wanderers to destroy the whole system. The intention is a destructive one and the eventual story involves foiling the attempt, but the plan and antagonists are rendered in considerable sympathy. In transpires that Wanderers on the other side of the Way encountered a fundamentally malevolent species labelled the unFound, the Pyrric nature of the struggle lead to attempts to shut down the whole multi-worlds system.
What I love primarily is the intimacy of the character nuances and attendant pathos with the epic scale of the setting. In particular, the energetic way the possibility of contact with a huge array of parallel universes, and conflict between rival multiverse groups unfold make Banks and Melko's recent efforts in this theme look even more pitiful by contrast. More than just the usual twists of divergent recent history, Reed's book explores alternate hominid development, a wide array of different social models and significantly different situations. Among the array of civilizations--including multiple Earths depopulated by human efforts--there's a fundamental optimism in the array heavily tied to the creativity of the setting. Reed provides enough solid description and small hinting detail that makes the wide scale of the universe credible. It's the ultimate believability of the setting that constitutes the book's greatest accomplishment, and the book's refusal to signpost the larger picture into either an utopia or a dystopia builds up this strength.
Also worth mentioning is the effective construction of some very interesting personality types. Normally for a work this wide ranging in environment and dealing with such a twisty plot it's frustrating to go beyond a single viewpoint perspective, losing track of events and making connection to the novel's pace rather difficult. Here Reed pulls it off quite effectively, in part because the different characters have such easily distinguishable voices and intentions
I was most interested in one character, a regular out of sorts normal human who meticulously pretended to be one of the famous Wanderers out of a basically psychological compulsion. It's effectively the type of approach that has someone spend a lot of effort plagiarizing for an assignment when in so doing they demonstrate enough skill to do their own work effectively. In this case, the fact that someone is able to imitate the patterns of behavior enough to actually fool real Wanderers establishes that he could do just find on conventional Earth, but he's drawn to this specific type of masquerade. It's an interesting take on the whole nature of the alien, and it works as presented particularly not as any kind of big breakthrough or self-realization but the small little details involved in keeping up the charade.
If there was one weakness it's that more probably could have been done with more fully describing the nature of the unFound and some of the background technology. Still the stark nature of the larger menace helps put the ambiguity of the narrative villain into sharper relief. Overall I've few complaints, and put this book high on my list for examples of how one can write classic, fairly conventional science fiction really well.
Better than: Transition by Iain Banks
Worse than: Marrow by Robert Reed
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