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~ Musings of a newly published writer

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Tag Archives: Science Fiction

[Review] Raven Song by I.A Ashcroft

17 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Review

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Cyberpunk, I.A Ashcroft, Inoki's Game, Raven song, Science Fiction, SFF, Shadowrun


Raven Song by I.A AshcroftThis is a surprising book. Not because it is well written (it is) and not just because it has an engaging plot that keeps you reading and wishing for more but rather because it is such an unusual concept.

Or, rather, it successfully mashes together two well worn concepts and makes out of them something new which is very close to originality.

From the title and a brief read of the blurb my brain instantly tagged this as ‘urban fantasy’ or ‘fantasy’. There is talk of an Order of Mages and similar and the idea of ravens being linked to magic and spirituality. I therefore had expectations for something similar to Ilona Andrew’s writing with maybe some riffs from the Harry Dresden books in there for good measure. Tropey but fun. So, to be thrown into a cyberpunk style near future world that also happened to have magic in it was a surprise and a pleasant one at that. Of course on a second read of the blurb it became more obvious so maybe I should have read that more clearly in the first place.

The story follows two characters. Jackson is a orphan in the 2200’s who has grown up to be the CEO of his adopted father’s delivery company (that also dabbles in some illegal smuggling) in a world that is ravaged by nuclear war and the populace living in cities that are shielded from the radiation. He has a mysterious past, is haunted by shadows and visions of ravens, and is being treated by the Order of Mages for these uncontrolled outbursts of magic.

Our other character, Anna, was a physicist working at a Las Vegas based US Military base in the 21st century. How she comes to be in suspended animation in a box that Jackson is tasked to recover by the Coalition government from the radioactive wastes and why she has the ability to emit radioactive energy when stressed is what kicks us off on our rollercoaster of a plotline.

This is an engaging read with many fascinating characters and ideas expressed in a very easy to read prose. The plot progresses at a fast pace, while giving sufficient time to take in the details of the world building – a balance that is sometimes difficult to achieve.

Overall, an excellent novel that is well worth reading if you want something different to the usual tropes.

Buy here – Raven Song by I.A Ashcroft

Website for I.A Ashcroft

 

[Review] Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Reviews

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Adrian Tchaicovsky, Arachnophillia, books, Children of Time, Planet of the Apes, Science Fiction, Shadows of the Apt, Spiders, Terraformed planets


Children of Time

Written by Adrian Tchaicovsky

Published by: PanMacMillan

Children of Time opens with a rather neat concept. An obsessive scientist, Dr Avrana Kern, an excellent characterisation of the very definition of hubris, is seen at the culmination of her life’s work – about to release a colony of apes and a gene modifying nanovirus onto a terraformed planet. Her goal is to create a species of sentient ape and to collect data on their evolution and cultural development from a satellite in orbit. Clearly this is a universe in which ‘Planet of the Apes’ was never created otherwise she may have thought twice… However, a terrorist group who are opposed to such experimentation* target the experiment leading to the apes being destroyed, the nanovirus infecting a colony of insects and our arrogant professor trapped in the monitoring satellite slipping in and out of suspension as the centuries pass.

What follows are two separate stories. In one we see the development of the insect cultures created by the virus, in particular the species of spider who form the dominant lifeform on the planet. They go from primitive creatures not too different from our own earthly spiders to establishing a complicated society with religion, social issues and technology. Each iteration of this story sees a new leap in evolution as the spiders learn new tricks, helped by the virus, and make attempts to commune with their ‘god’, the AI in the satellite which is set to find evidence of sentience.

The other thread follows the last remnants of the human race, asleep in a generation ship called the Gilgamesh, travelling through the centuries in search of a new home. Here we have our hero, Holsten Mason, a mild mannered classicist – an academic who studies the ancients. Just as a modern day classicist would study the culture of the Romans or the ancient Greeks, Mason is an expert on the languages and cultures of the long dead culture who were capable of terraforming planets.

The story set in the Gilgamesh is fairly standard SF fare. Generation ships, light years of travel, changes in the crew each time the PoV character comes out of suspension. There is very little here that has not been seen before, though I am enamoured of the concept of the equivalent of a modern day Latin master – an expert in the culture and language of a civilisation millennia old – being used to translate documents and transmissions that could be vital for humanity’s survival. Mason is an entertaining and sympathetic ‘everyman’ who interacts well with the other characters on the ship, being the unwitting participant in the mutinies and insane plans that happen around him as the others vie for power when all he really wants to do is carry out his studies and conduct his somewhat understated and pathos filled affair with the ship’s chief engineer.

Where this book really shines, however, is in the wonderful treatment of the spider culture.

Tchaikovsky clearly has a thing for insects, in particular spiders. You can tell that simply by reading the fantasy series, Shadows of the Apt, for which he is more well known. All of that Arachnophilia also comes out in this. Indeed, I did harbour suspicions that Children of Time could very well end up as a prequel to that series. When reading Shadows of the Apt I did sometimes wonder how a planet could be populated by races descended from insects and here is a plausible explanation. In the end, however, this seems to not be the case but you do have to wonder if the author was riffing off his previous ideas and trying to justify them in some way? Certain plot events make this idea less likely but it was still an entertaining thought for a while. Whether linked to the Apt books or not, the spider culture in this novel is fascinatingly established with a clear line of development from primitive savages to a modern culture that explores some modern societal issues in an interesting way. For example, gender equality is given a lot of time, which is understandable in a species where the females traditionally eat the males after mating, and there are debates about religion and the ethics of survival. These sections of the story have an unusual feel to them, being written from the PoV of characters who do not communicate via speech but rather via vibrations on webs and a complicated body language involving multiple limbs. This means little or no dialogue in the traditional sense and this adds a little edge of ‘uncanny valley’ to the feel of these parts of the story.

The spider story could have faltered due to lack of characterisation. After all, each time we see them we are progressing several generations in their development. However, the author neatly avoids this by following set lineages of spider as they progress – the representative of each one being called the same name. So the story follows successive Portias, Biancas and the males that serve them which adds a false sense of continuity to the characters. This works well and allows the reader to gain a greater sense of empathy with the characters.

In all there is little not to like about Children of Time. It hits a number of SF concepts that have been revisited before but does so in an entertaining and novel way. Speaking as a biologist, the science aspects of the fiction are well represented and while on the edge of what may be possible, do not feel too far fetched with even the blatant deus ex device of the nanovirus to paper over any cracks in the evolutionary biology being not all that obvious. Definitely recommended.

*Maybe they have seen Planet of the Apes?

###

D.A Lascelles is the author of Lurking Miscellany, Transitions (Mundania Press) and Gods of the Sea (Pulp Empires). He lives in Manchester UK. You can sometimes see him writing about Zombie porn on https://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ but he mostly blogs about books, vampires, science fiction and Terry Pratchett. He is inordinately proud of the fact that one of his Pratchett articles was referenced on the French version of the author’s Wikipedia page.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaLascelles

Twitter: @areteus

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[Spoilers] Twisting the cliche

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Battlestar Galactica, clichéd, clichés, Cliche, Dwarves, elves, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George Lucas, GRR Martin, Inigo Montoya, Lannister, Red Wedding, Robb Stark, Science Fiction, SF, Spoilers, Stark, Trial by combat, writing


I am guessing that most people out there have watched the recent episode (series 4, episode 8) of Game of Thrones by now? If not, you may want to look away and come back when you have as there may be spoilers ahead… I am delaying posting this blog a few days to help prevent this but I am worried there may still be those out there who haven’t seen it even then.

You see, I want to talk about clichés here. In particular, I want to talk about how they might be of benefit to a writer. They are often seen in a bad light – ‘don’t write that, it’s too clichéd’ is a common refrain. However, attempts to make things more original often fail to get anywhere. So, being clichéd is bad because it is too derivative of previous works whereas being original can also be bad because the readers do not connect with the material, finding it too strange or unfamiliar. There is also, of course, the very relevant truth that there are no new stories, only old ones retold. When you do find something you think is original, quite often it turns out to be derived from another source you maybe only barely remember* or coincidentally happens to follow the lines of a much older story.

So what is a writer in search of originality to do? How can you maintain the very fine balance between cliché and the familiar? The answer seems to be to twist the cliché in order to subvert the audiences’ expectations.

Now Game of Thrones as a series and as a set of novels is actually not all that original in terms of the fantasy concepts it throws up. It includes a lot of old standbys – dragons, quests, knights, barbarians, battles, pantheons of gods, young children going off on quests (actually it has several of these…), the list goes on. However, fantasy was for many years a very staid and static genre where everyone was trying hard to be Tolkien (so many elves living in forests, so many dwarves living in mines) so in many ways even small changes from these clichés is a bonus and GRR Martin’s does manage to do this very well, mostly by making the characters very realistic and three dimensional. He also manages to avoid Elves and his only dwarf is a human who just happens to have been born short rather than a member of an ancient, gold obsessed race. But he does more than this, he often twists expectations so that what you think is going to happen doesn’t. There are a few examples of this I could mention, one of which is this week’s big shock end (which I admit was not a shock to anyone who read the books).

Let’s take Robb Stark to begin with. In the second series his story looked like it was well mapped out in cliché land. He was the eldest son of a man executed for treason, raising an army to defeat those who had killed his father and fighting against a mad king to boot. In your old fashioned fantasy epic the conflict therefore becomes Stark vs Lannister and in that tale the only ending cliché would accept is Robb winning and becoming king. Subconsciously we all know this. Robb has to win, it is imprinted in everyone’s understanding of story. The hero prince sets out on a quest to avenge his father’s death… come on, we have seen this story a million times.

And yet that is not how things work out… instead Robb makes a political error, a very human one, and as a result is murdered during the infamous Red Wedding, leaving no one in a position to lead his rebellion which crumbles.

Another example is the trial by combat in this week’s episode. To be honest, I was a little sceptical of Tyrion managing to get away with the same trick twice.** Remember, he used trial by combat to get out of a previous murder rap and honestly no writer would allow a character to get away with something that audacious again. So I was sort of expecting there to be an ending that did not include Tyrion’s champion walking away unscathed. However, that combat threw another revenge based cliché at us – the brother of a murdered woman seeking vengeance on the man who killed her. Again the story imprinted in our bones screams at us ‘of course he is going to win!’ and I don’t know about you but I was certainly seeing good old Mandy Pantinkin in his most famous role as Inigo Montoya in that scene and we all know how that works out rather well. And for a moment it looks as if he will win. He actually does win, in fact. His enemy is down and helpless. Then there is a sudden change in fortune… Again, he makes a critical error, an error based on his human nature. Had he merely killed his enemy he would have won. Instead he had to gloat and therefore lost spectacularly.

Both examples given show how characters are being set up by the author (and in some cases the script writers of the series in some of the material that is newly added) to apparently be following a clichéd path. They even get some way down that path, enough for our minds as readers or viewers to spot the pattern (however consciously or subconsciously) and expect a particular outcome. Then something happens, often a very human mistake, which completely throws that pattern out of the window and the nature of the plot changes – we are horrified by this because the person set up as the hero cannot lose and yet they do. This, I feel, is the main reason these scenes cause such outcry. It is not just because of the gore, it is because of the cognitive dissonance of our well trodden clichés being suddenly wrenched from under us. This is also why it is seen as innovative, despite being riddled with tropes. The places where the expected outcomes are subverted are ones that stick in the mind and suddenly the writer is a genius for doing it. Even an occasional scene like this can be enough to plaster over the many occasions where the writer does follow the standard tales. These scenes also increase the tension because, dammit, even characters you previously believed safe because of some perceived ‘hero’ status can die. Its been happening in SF TV for a while now. A famous example is Mal’s innovative method of resolving the infamous Mexican standoff (clue: Mal definitely shot first, no Han Solo/Greebo confusion here) and recent series like Battlestar Galactica have been constantly violating our expectations with respect to the relative safety of those afforded supposed hero status.

All of this makes me somewhat concerned over the safety of other characters in Game of Thrones. After all, several of them are clearly on clichéd fantasy hero paths. For example, Arya and Bran Stark are each following slightly different classic versions of the typical child hero in a fantasy novel. They each quest to understand themselves and their abilities in order so that they may return some day to wreak revenge on those who murdered their families. A cliché that was old when George Lucas used it. The cliché says that they should succeed. This means that something nasty and fatal awaits them in their future.

Unless, of course, it is by now considered cliché to subvert the cliché which means that, now, it is perfectly fine to let things follow their normal course and let the children achieve their destiny. Sometimes fashions in writing can change so quickly and soon we may well be expecting the opposite to what the story should be… Thinking of such things can easily send someone insane.

For now, the best advice seems to be to be aware of tropes and clichés and try to figure out ways to use the expectations of readers to your advantage.

*This happened to me at least once that I am aware of. When I was writing the background and concepts behind one of the race of aliens in Waypoint I knew I was stealing from Celtic, Native American and Norse myth and was good with that. However, when I wrote about their attitude to technology I unconsciously inserted several ideas from an obscure Doctor Who short story (the People of the Trees), mainly the idea of them worshipping technology as religious icons capable of ‘magic’. I only became aware of this when I re-read that story several years later and the penny dropped. I did change it enough that no one can see where I filed away the serial numbers (and besides it is a common enough concept with primitive cultures in SF that I could just have easily stolen it from Return of the Jedi) but it was fascinating to see how my mind was working there.

** Plus my wife who has read the books as far as the current series knew it wouldn’t work either, despite her rants about all the changes they have made in this series so far, and although she tried hard not to reveal anything I can read her responses well enough to spot certain facial expressions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Review] Salvage by Chris Howard

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Review

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Captain Jay Wilraven, Captain Wilraven, Chris Howard, Jon Andreden, Masque Books, novel, Salvage, Science Fiction, Thriller


Salvage

By: Chris Howard

Published in 2013 by Masque Books (an imprint of Prime books)

This entertaining novel starts out as an intriguing maritime thriller. A ship, the Serina salvageBeliz, sinks barely twenty miles from Cuba without a trace. The crew of the salvage ship Marcene, led by Captain Jay Wilraven, are hired by a mysterious backer to locate the wreck and bring it to the surface. What seems at first to be a simple job soon turns out to be far from it as the crew encounter their employer’s extreme paranoia and are very quickly the prisoners of the security team foisted on them ‘for their protection’. It is clear that there is more to the wreck than first appears and the crew begin to take steps to try to find out more, working to undermine the brutal regime of the security team without being caught. This part of the novel – involving as it does shipwrecks, mercenaries, floating cities and Cuban pirates – is firmly entrenched in the realms of a modern day thriller, at least initially. You can make comparisons here between the travails of Captain Wilraven and other maritime protagonists such as the recent Captain Phillips as played by Tom Hanks. The drama here is tense and relatively contemporary, only veering off into fantastic and futuristic areas very late in the narrative.

Meanwhile, interspersed among these scenes of hardship and violence, more or less chapter for chapter, is another tale. This involves a scientist by the name of Jon Andreden who works for a company researching submersibles with artificial intelligence. It is in this story that a vague element of science fiction creeps into the plot as the technology evidenced by Andreden and his company is slightly ahead of what is possible in the modern day. Andreden encounters a woman who refers to herself as ‘merely a Toymaker’ and is intrigued by the wonderful technology she shows to him, which is even further away from what is possible in the real world. She is searching for a missing sister and believes that Andreden can help her. This story takes us through several more thriller style episodes with a definite X-Files twist –  involving black ops teams and secret government conspiracies – before delving into deeper science fiction and finally out the other side into the realms of myth, but I won’t tell you which myth as that might be considered a spoiler.

Initially it seems as if the stories of Wilraven and Andreden are completely unconnected. Indeed, I did wonder at first if there hadn’t been some mix up in the ebook formatting that led to two entirely different novels being mixed together. However, I do not think it creates too much of a spoiler to tell you that there is a link and that this becomes apparent as the story progresses and the two do dovetail nicely into a complete tale as Anreden’s missing persons search brings him closer to the fate of the Serina Beliz and the predicament of the crew of the Marcene.

In all this is a finely crafted novel. Both storylines are well written and researched, especially the scenes involving Captain Wilraven and his crew which show a good knowledge (and possibly personal experience) of the life of a salvage crew. A lot of detail is included in all chapters and the author’s interest in the sea is evident. More importantly, this does not devolve into tedious info dumps. The advanced tech used in the Andreden chapters is also very well portrayed and involves some good ideas, with the AI submersible even emerging as a sympathetic character. The human characters are equally well realised, at least the main ones are. If there is one complaint about the characters it is that of the mercenary squad who serve as the main antagonists for one storyline, only two of them really get given any particular attention in terms of depth of character. The rest are kept as two dimensional ciphers. This is a minor criticism, however, and does not detract from the storyline.

I would definitely recommend this novel to those who like mysteries or thrillers, especially those with a marine theme.

Buy from Amazon

 

[Guest Post] When it’s no longer science fiction—A peek behind the Double Helix by Jade Kerrion

21 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Guest posts

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Cloning, Double Helix Series, Genetic Engineering, Jade Kerrion, Science Fiction


For the past several years, our attention has been consumed by faltering economies, unstable governments, an epidemic of bullying, and an explosion of social media. In the meantime, largely ignored by mainstream media, the genetic revolution marches on quietly and inexorably.JadeKerrion

Let’s test your knowledge of bioengineering. Which of the following is true?

  1. We used genetic engineering to create hybrid creatures, like the goat-sheep, and the camel-llama
  2. We used genetic engineering to transfer bioluminescent genes from coral and deep-sea jellyfish to create glow-in-the-dark mice, cats, dogs, pigs, and monkeys
  3. We cloned animals, including sheep, dogs, and horses
  4. We used genetic engineering to create animals that excrete pharmaceutical products in their milk and other bodily fluids
  5. We used genetic engineering to preserve endangered species, creating animals that possess the nuclear DNA of the endangered species, and the mitochondrial DNA of the host species…in effect, a genetic hybrid
  6. We created bug-bots by implanting wires in the central nervous system of insects, and we can now control their movements, including flight
  7. We created organic robots by implanting wires in the central nervous system of rats, and we can now control what they do
  8. We wired a monkey to control a third artificial arm entirely through its brain waves
  9. We genetically engineered rats with pliable skin in order to grow human organs (e.g., ear) under their skin for eventual transplant to a human
  10. We used organic computer chips made out of rat neurons to control a flight simulator
  11. We isolated a brain of a lamprey eel and placed it in a nutrient medium, surrounded by electrodes. The living, intact brain controls a machine that moves toward the light (in much the same way a lamprey eel moves toward the light)
  12. We used a DNA synthesizer to create an artificial organic cell. (Isn’t that an oxymoron?) The computer is its parent

If you answered “Yes” to all of these, you are right. All of these are true. Science fiction is now science fact. Today, we possess an unprecedented control over bioengineering, an area that remains largely unregulated by governments.  Our scientific advances raise many ethical questions, such as “Is it right to control the autonomy of another creature, even if it’s just a rat?” Other more pragmatic questions focus on timing, “When will we start applying directed evolution (i.e. design) to humans?”

I majored in Biology and Philosophy at the Johns Hopkins University, and the philosophical implications of genetic engineering naturally combined my two interests. I started by asking myself, “What would the world look like to the perfect, lab-created human being?” And then, I wondered, “How would the world change for the people whose genetic templates were used to create the perfect human being?” The Double Helix series sets out to answer both those questions from the point-of-view of Danyael Sabre, an alpha empath whose genetic code was used as the physical template for the perfect human being.

In the world of the Double Helix, directed evolution has become the norm, but is accessible only to those with financial resources. Historical personalities are reincarnated as clones. Genetically optimized in vitros abound, and they tend to succeed at the expense of normal humans who struggle to keep up. Nevertheless, normal humans still form the political majority, and thus, the world of the Double Helix is deeply stratified by genetics, wealth, and politics. Into this already chaotic mix, I added mutants and their dangerous variants of psychic powers, and finally Galahad, the lab-created, perfect human being.

The story explodes into a “highly-enjoyable, brainy guilty pleasure of a novel: a perfect mixture of non-stop action, gripping plot, thought-provoking philosophy, and beautiful visuals.” Set in Earth’s near-contemporary future and frequently compared to X-Men, Heroes, and Alphas, the Double Helix series is highly accessible, even for non-science fiction readers.

I invite you to check out a world that is closer to science fact than science fiction. Welcome to the Double Helix.

Author Bio:

Jade Kerrion unites cutting-edge science and bioethics with fast-paced action in her award-winning Double Helix series. Perfection Unleashed and its sequels, Perfect Betrayal and Perfect Weapon, have been described as “a breakout piece of science fiction” and drawn rave reviews for their originality and vision. Her latest novel, When the Silence Ends, is a Young Adult spinoff the Double Helix series.

DoubleHelixCoversAbout The Double Helix series: 

His genetic code sourced from the best that humanity offers, Galahad embodies the pinnacle of perfection. When Zara Itani, a mercenary whose abrasive arrogance exceeds her beauty, frees him from his laboratory prison, she offers him the chance to claim everything that had ever been denied him, beginning with his humanity.

Perfection cannot be unleashed without repercussions, and Galahad’s freedom shatters Danyael Sabre’s life.

An alpha empath, Danyael is rare and coveted, even among the alpha mutants who dominate the Genetic Revolution. He wields the power to heal or kill with a touch, but craves only privacy and solitude—both impossible dreams for the man who was used as Galahad’s physical template.

Galahad and Danyael, two men, one face. One man seeks to embrace destiny, and the other to escape it.

The award-winning Double Helix series, consisting of Perfection Unleashed, Perfect Betrayal, and Perfect Weapon, will challenge your notions of perfection and humanity, and lead you in a celebration of courage and compassion. Science fiction, urban fantasy, and action-adventure readers will enjoy this thrilling roller-coaster ride as it twists and turns through a world transformed by the Genetic Revolution.

Review: Human Legacy Project by Christian Cantrell

20 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Guest posts, Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

guest blogging, guest posts, reviews, Science Fiction


On the ePublish a book site this week, I talk about The Human Legacy Project by Christian Cantrell

http://www.epublishabook.com/2012/01/20/book-review-human-legacy-project-by-christian-cantrell/

 

 

 

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