Category Archives: science fiction

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

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How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe written by and starring Charles Yu has been popping up on a lot of best-of lists for 2010. This is Yu’s first book (he does have a collection of short stories titled Third Class Superhero), but it doesn’t show. Having listened to an interview with Yu, he mentioned that he put his name in for the main character as a placeholder, but it worked so well in the novel, that he was reluctant to remove it later. So, how do you life safely in a science fictional universe?

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Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

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Over 30 years ago, Orson Scott Card wrote a wonderful short story called Ender’s Game. The story won numerous awards and was much beloved. Almost a decade later, while working on a new novel, Card realized that the protagonist from the short story (Ender Wiggins) would be the perfect lead character for this novel. But, for this new novel to work, he needed to expand the short story. So Ender’s Game was expanded to be a novel, so that Card could then write Speaker for the Dead. The two books won Hugo and Nebula awards in consecutive years and were widely loved. Card then wrote about 600 (approximately) more novels in the series with new characters, old characters, and filling in time gaps. As expected, the general quality of these books have gone down the further along Card went. Ender in Exile is the latest of these books and starts a new series to cover the time between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead. So, what is new about this series?

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The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz

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The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz is not an easy book to read. The first half of the book is all I got through before I realized that this isn’t a book for me. It’s constructed as part anthropology, part history and part Gulliver’s Travels. The narrator starts off describing an island where he spent many years. Each chapter is a look into a different aspect of the island and the natives who live there. The history (or as much as the narrator can determine) of the island starts popping up. The narrator (currently living in Europe) is not only reminiscing about his time on the island and also starts out with events from Europe.

It’s an interesting story, but a bit too much meta narrative for me. The book starts off interesting, but I found myself caring less and less about it as I dove deeper in.

Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks

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Use of Weapons is the third Culture novel by Iain M Banks and is essentially a rewrite of an earlier manuscript. Originally the book had the Culture in it, but was written before the other Culture universe was really created. What I like about the Culture novels so far is that they are very decentralized. All three books I’ve read so far can be read as standalone without any knowledge of the Culture, but the added Culture layer does add to the enjoyment.

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American Gods by Neil Gaiman

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Neil Gaiman has made his career out of writing about Gods. His Sandman dealt with Gods in varying forms and to varying degrees. In the Sandman storyline Seasons of the Mists, Gaiman dealt with varying Gods. Many of whom had lost power and were still trying to recapture it. The idea of ancient Gods losing powers and desperately trying to recapture them is one of Gaiman’s favorite themes and he deals with that here. In American Gods, Gaiman mostly works with the ancient Norse Gods, but they could be any other ones as well.. So, what are these American Gods?

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The Player of Games by Iain M Banks

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Iain M Banks keeps or loses the ‘M’ in his name depending on what type of book he is authoring. If you see the M, then you know it’s a science fiction novel and most likely in his Culture series. The Culture series depicts a universe with a dominant civilization known as the Culture (more information about the Culture is available in an IO9 article). The Player of Games is the second Culture novel (after Consider Phlebas). I had read the first book years ago, so I decided to move onto the second one. So, how is it?

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Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

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Super Sad True Love Story is another in the growing trend of mainstream writers dabbling in science fiction settings. This is similar to Solar (review) by Ian McEwan in that a non-sciencefiction writer puts an non-science fiction story in a science fiction setting. I like the trend, as better writers in science fiction can only bring better stories, but I do have to say that I’m disappointed with the results so far. What’s the problem with Super Sad True Love Story?

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Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke

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Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke is an interesting book. If you read it recently, you’ll start wondering if about people stealing the idea for other media. One of the interesting things about the book is that Clarke made changes to the first chapter after the fall of the Soviet Union. And while some of the details might be out of date now, the story itself is timeless.

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The Affinity Bridge by George Mann

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The Affinity Bridge is another steampunk novel by George Mann. It was actually written before Ghosts of Manhattan (review) and there is a sequel, The Osiris Ritual (review), which just came out in the US (Four books in the series have been published in the UK). Mann is setting himself up as the master of the steampunk universe. So, how is the book?

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