Poor Man's Fight

I bought this book, in large part, because of the price (under £2.00 on the kindle), thinking if it not that good I have lost out too much. Well it is on this blog, so I am more than happy I took the chance.

This is a fast paced book, mixing politics, a tiny bit of social commentary but mostly a good sci-fi action book. The story revolves around Tanner who joins his system's Navy largely to repay the debts for education. The book starts with him not doing as well as he should have on standardised tests; leading to greater debt, joining the Navy and becoming a hero fighting pirates. There is a lot more to this book than that one sentence summary, it could have gone down all the standard plot-lines of all in the military are deep good-at-heart, who are just being tough for positive reasons; instead the crew maybe heroic but are flawed. There are twists in the book, and politicians doing what ever it takes and making some morally questionable deals.

I enjoyed this book. A good read at a very good price.

  

The Lives of Tao

Two competing factions of an alien race, using Humans as hosts to get off this planet, but with different philosophies [though not always that easy to tell the difference]. Now imagine you are an over-weight software engineer, getting in your car and one of these aliens merges with you and over a relative short time turns you into a secret agent in their war. This is the beginning of this book by Wesley Chu.

A good sci-fi book where the concept of what would happen in aliens were behind the leading figures in history is re-explored. Basically anything we think of us humans developing that is significant, is actually developed through these aliens. Now, throw in martial arts action, deception, politics, and blood-feuds what you end up with is an interesting and more importantly enjoyable read.

The Stars Do Not Lie

The Stars Do Not Lie by Joseph E Lake published as a novella in Asimov's Science Fiction October/November 2012. What is especially nice, is the story is available at http://www.asimovs.com/pdfs/Stories/The_Stars_Do_Not_Lie.pdf.

A Scientist makes a discovery which when he tries to announce it, he gets removed from the stage quickly and becomes the focus of a lot of initially unwanted attention. The story mixes politics, religion and science policy to make a interesting story. It has a steam-punk feel to it, with airships, pomp,  and presentations to Royal Society type organisations.

Confession time, at first I didn't think the story was going to work for me, I was wrong.The basic story is not a new one, but the way it is written and the spin taken is good. It is not hard to see why this a Nebula Prize nominee, it is enjoyable without insulting the readers intelligence.

The Mongolian Book of the Dead

The Mongolian Book of the Dead by Alan Steele published as a novella in Asimov's Science Fiction October/November 2012.

A US citizen gets caught up in the turmoil of a fictional invasion of Mongolia by China, by initially be rescued by a band of Mongolians. Why was he rescued gradually becomes clear as the story develops. The story revolves around the fact that he had a near death experience when he was young, a shaman, soul and Ghengis Khan's army. Work that one out.

As a reader you are lead through the story at the right pace, with the Mongolian language and landscape being integral to the story. It is an interesting, enjoyable, fantasy/sci-fi story, that I didn't predict the conclusion. Well worth a read

vN: The First Machine Dynasty

This is an interesting book by Madeline Ashby in many ways; in part in that the main players are not human, even though it is essentially a human world, but robots and often 'female' robot. The vN in the title is von Neumann machines, they self replicate (even if they 'male' robots), and takes a look at the dark side of having robot built with the inability to harm humans. I know Asimov got there first, but he didn't go as far as the thinking in this book, the robots are forced in many ways to be in love with humans and some of the degrading possibilities that could lead to for sentient creatures.

Also explored is what happens if the inability to harm or even to watch humans being harmed is removed do you necessarily get psychotic robots (in one case yes). The flipside of all this is also looked at from the human who prefer vNs to their own species - in places in some very creepy ways.

As a reader you are lead through some thought provoking ideas, in a fast-paced way.

Bedlam

Christopher Brookmyre does it again with another great comic read.

The main character is a medical technologist who volunteers to have his head scanned and comes around in a game he used to play as a teenager and the adventures follows from there. In the game world (or is it real) he becomes Bedlam.

It has a mixture of comic and philosophy (don't get put off by that) asking the question if you were brain was scanned and is essentially a copy of you  -
Is it right for someone else to use it anyway they want?
Who owns it?
Would you be able to tell the difference between being in a simulation or the real-world?
Is the real-world a simulation anyway? Not original but still interesting. See the relate bit below for more information.

Mix this with corporate greed and politics; adventure; retro-gaming and great comic writing, you have a book that is worth reading.




Related
Links to the work mentioned in the book can be found at:

• http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html 
• http://www.simulation-argument.com/matrix.html 

In Analog magazine: http://www.analogsf.com/2013_07-08/altview.shtml 

S. Wolfram (2002) A New Kind of Science, Wolfram Inc.

Nexus

There seems to be interest in books about 'transhumans' at the moment, no least of which are two books called Amped are just two examples. Nexus is the best so far of the current bunch (and I liked the others).

A group of post-grads add an operating system to an illegal drug, Nexus 3, creating Nexus 5 which enables users to share thoughts, control each others bodies and share experiences. Government agencies are out to ruthless surpress the drug; stopping people becoming more than human. The main character gets arrested with his friends and is 'turned' by the agency to be bait for bigger fish. It doesn't work out the way the agency hopes!

Though it is fair guess which way the author goes on the idea of whether people should have the opportunity to become 'more than human' or sharing experiences, the book is not clear cut. There is an great ongoing discussion of several issues

• Is it right to stop the use of these drugs?
• What happens to normal people if some people become enhanced?
• What would happen if a small group has the enhancement and others don't? would it be better if no one had it?
• How would it be abused? 
• Is it right to stop everyone having the opportunity to be enhanced because some may abuse it?
• How much responsibility to the developers of the enhancement have for the abuse? 
• Is it ok for government agencies to use these enhancement on their own agents, to prevent others gain the abilities? In effect turning some of the agents into the 'monsters' they are trying to prevent!

I found this a fast paced, intelligent book and not least a great read. Please post with any comments if you have read this book.