Monday, March 18, 2024

Review of Never-Ending Day by Graham Storrs

Never-Ending Day is an enjoyable read. Its title comes from the fact that most of the action takes place in a Dyson wheel which is a structure built around and enclosing a star, so those inside always have the star’s light shining on them.

The story is set hundreds of years into the future where a police officer, Tara Fraser, is chasing a terrorist, Yuna, across space. Tara comes across the previously unknown Dyson wheel, and his ship is captured and dragged in. He assumes the same thing happened to Yuna with her ship, so he goes looking for her, thinking that when he captures her he will worry about escaping the Dyson wheel. He is a really committed cop.

He discovers the wheel is inhabited and stops to ask the natives if they had seen Yuna, using his computer implant to translate. Instead of helping, they capture him. He now has another problem, dealing with a treacherous native population.

The story is written in a light-hearted tone, along the lines of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A tone I found refreshing after reading a lot of hard science-fiction and literature. This tone is reflected in the banter between Fraser and Yuna. Fraser is a stick in the mud, doing everything by the book even though he knows his employers are not the nicest people. While Yuna loves to break laws and rules and is prone to impulsive actions. Some of which are successful, others which are not.

I have read a couple of other of Graham Storr’s novels in the Timesplash series, which I plan to return to with his third novel in that series. They are time-travel thriller novels, while Never Ending Day is more of an adventure novel with plenty of humour.

I did find the dialogue slightly disconcerting to begin with, as Yuna and Fraser conversed like they were living in the late 20th Century. But who knows how people will talk in the future. I recently listened to a radio program on trends which said that everything old is coming back in again, so maybe in hundreds of years times it will be trendy to talk like people in the 20th Century. The dialogue was very funny at times.

 After reading a lot of hard science-fiction, I enjoyed reading something fun. I very much cared for the protagonists and really hoped they could come to some mutual arrangement to escape the wheel and its somewhat suspect inhabitants.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

A review of Julia by Sandra Newman

I can’t remember reading a more harrowing novel than Sandra Newman’s Julia. The novel really had me fearing for the two main characters and where our society might be heading. Julia is the story of Winston Smith’s lover from the novel 1984. I read 1984 decades ago, so I am not sure how much the story in Julia diverges from Orwell’s novel, but Julia seems to be set in a lot more desolate world than what I remember of Orwell’s 1984.

Julia is much more than the story of her relationship with Winston Smith. We meet Julia as a child of well-off parents, but then the parents get on the wrong side of Big Brother, and they are banished to a special area zone. A zone full of proles and labour camps. But with the help of her mother, Julia manages to get a job in the Ministry of Truth. She is a mechanic whose main task is to keep the machines running in the Fiction Department. A department that, among other things, rewrites novels and poems to make them suit the Big Brother ethos. It is there that she meets Winston Smith.

Julia lives in a rundown dorm with other unmarried women. It is very basic, just a bunk bed with a cupboard and surrounded by telescreens to keep an eye on the women. The dorm has no showers, and the toilets keep getting clogged. It is in a state of decay like the rest of London, except for the Party areas. Apart from the failure to fix and clean the infrastructure due to resources being spent on the ongoing war, many areas of London have been bombed and continue to be bombed.

Julia is a product of her environment. She keeps to herself, hardly trusting anyone. She hides her occasional sexual activity, as unmarried sex is illegal. Like many, she pays lip service to the plethora of Big Brother rules. She is definitely guilty of Wrong Think as she pretends to display hate during the daily hate broadcasts. She puts on a total front to the world. She is a strong woman whose sole aim is survival, but she is also a victim of the society she lives in. She has no intention of rebelling against Big Brother.

On the other hand, Winston Smith is full of secret bravo about taking on Big Brother. He seeks the truth and is looking for a way to fight to achieve it. When they first meet, Julia thinks he is somewhat naïve. She eventually sees him as someone totally deluded by thoughts of a successful rebellion.

The ending of the novel looked like it was going to surprise, to leave the reader with hope for Julia, but that hope is squashed under yet another boot.

As I read the novel, I found myself becoming paranoid about who might be watching me and how much of a performance everyone is giving to me. That is the sort of effect this novel can have. It is an excellent read, and really rams home the warning that we should be wary of ceding our freedom to bright and shiny false hopes like Trump and Putin.

I think Julia will be considered a classic in the not-too-distant future. Either that, or it might be rewritten to suit the authoritarian government of the day. I also would not be surprised if a Big Brother of the future recommends school children read Julia so they will fear the consequences of Wrong Think.


Monday, February 19, 2024

The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer

 

The Terminal Experiment is a terrific science fiction thriller set in what was the author’s near future. It was written in 1995 and set in 2011. The novel has a prologue, so the reader knows that a murder is going to happen, and a police officer is also going to be poisoned.

The plot starts with a scientist, Dr Peter Hobson, accidently discovering the electrical signature of a soul leaving a body. This discovery has all sorts of implications for society. Some people suicide so their soul can go to a better place, some go on health kicks as they fear where their soul might end up. But this is only the beginning of Hobson’s experiments with the human mind.

Hobson then teams up with another scientist to conduct an experiment where copies of his mind are uploaded onto a computer. He alters two of the copies in different ways and a third is a control copy. The experiments don’t go as expected, with Hobson’s marital problems having an effect on them.

As mentioned, the novel was written in 1995, so it is interesting to see what technology Sawyer has people using in 2011. Obviously, no one uploaded human minds that functioned as such in 2011. And no one had tracked the human soul in 2011. But, for the most part, the technology is what it actually was like in 2011. Sawyer had a really good grasp of what the internet might be like. The one major missing technology is mobile phones, with characters often having to find a phone to use. Many of the phones did have video screens though.

The novel has some wonderful speculations on what uploaded minds might get up to. It also has some very interesting insights into how police can manipulate the people they investigate. Sawyer seems to have a keen interest in police procedures due to the nature of his novels, like Flash Forward.

I have not read many “crime” novels set in the future, so reading The Terminal Experiment was an enjoyable different read for me. It may be the type of novel that introduces readers of crime fiction to science fiction. It is very much a page-turner.

Monday, February 12, 2024

The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson

The Glad Shout is a novel that will shake many readers expectations of their future prospects. It portrays a potential future for many of us, especially those who live near the coast. The novel is set in 2045 after a massive storm has flooded Melbourne, destroying much of the housing and infrastructure, including power.

The story is about one family: Isobel, her three-year-old daughter Margaret, and Shane her husband. It is told almost exclusively from Isobel’s point of view. The family have just made their way out of the floodwaters to higher ground in a sports stadium. It could be the MCG but that is never made clear. It is supposed to be an evacuation centre but has limited supplies, limited staff and virtually no communication with the outside world.

The family sets up a tent in the muddy stadium field. They then wait to find out the extent of the damage to Melbourne and where they might eventually be relocated to. There is a lot of tension in the camp. As the novel is set in Australia, it fortunately lacks the American gun and gang culture. No one tries to take control with guns as would happen in many similar American novels. For the most part, the survivors still behave like they are part of a continuing society that has order to it.

In between the story of Isobel and her family’s attempts to survive, the novel explores her backstory. Isobel and her older brother, Josh, were brought up by their mother, Luna, a real estate agent. To Isobel, Luna seemed more concerned about having a house that looked like it belonged in a magazine photoshoot than being a caring mother. Isobel frequently escaped to stay with her bohemian grandmother who also lived in Melbourne. Her and Josh also frequently holidayed at their grandfather’s small farm.

Through the backstory we learn that Isobel has had an emotionally unfulfilling childhood. She longed for a mother who took more interest in her and her brother. We also see the creeping effect of climate change, and how it changed the character’s lives over the years.

The plight of internal climate change refugees is one of the themes of the novel. As climate change destroys the environment and the economy, more and more people are displaced. 

The novel is much more than a disaster story. It is about how a woman needs to take control for her family to survive while exploring her fears, desires, concerns for her child, and sense of abandonment, as well as her questioning whether she could have done more to prepare for the disaster and climate change.   

The story is written in first person and present tense, giving it a real urgency. It is very well-written as it immerses the reader in the main character’s life.

This is a fantastic novel that should scare climate change complacency out of many of its readers. It should have them asking if it is even possible to prepare for coming climate change disasters. It asks these questions while exploring a woman’s life and the effects of her family on it.

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Review of Saha by Cho Nam-Joo

Saha is a dystopian novel set on a fictious Korean island called Town. The island is completely corporatised. Everything is run by a company, from education to health to the government. To survive in Town you have to be a good corporate citizen. It is the sort of utopia someone like Elon Musk or Gina Rinehart would idolise.  

The story is set around what was an abandoned housing tower complex, Saha, which is now inhabited by dispossessed squatters. They have set up their own power source, have a well for water, and a vegetable garden. They are tolerated by the authorities as they can be used for menial labour. But they have no access to any services, like medical, social security or educational services. Charities don’t exist. The squatters are classified as non-citizens who are left to fend for themselves.

The novel tells the story, in an episodic fashion, of the inhabitants of Saha. It begins with Do-Kyung waking and vomiting, and then finding Su dead in a car. We are not told what has happened as he flees. But the novel is not a mystery. It is an examination of the lives of people who have been abandoned by a totally corporatised society. A society, from what I have read, that South Korea is not far from in reality.

Some of the characters have deformities, like the one-eyed Sara. Some of the characters are fleeing persecution. One of the characters is used for medical experimentation. Many of them have secrets. All of them hope for a better life. All of them hope to one day become citizens of Town.

Saha is a novel that questions how the less fortunate are treated in society and where neo-liberalism is taking us. This could be the western world of the near future. It is probably close to the China of the present. It is a brutal novel that could devastate a reader who is yet to realise how harmful and uncaring capitalism is.

I found the writing good, but a bit stilted to begin with. I think the style of writing emphasises the uncaring nature of the society and how the novel’s characters are not able to participate in it.

I really enjoyed the novel and will be looking up more of Cho Nam-Joo's writing. I really cared about the characters and what happened to them. I recommend this book to any readers who have a social conscience. 

[Spoiler alert] The ending is ambiguous. I took it to mean that the characters find no one to attack or blame for their plight, just a faceless corporation.

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Review of HG Wells' War of the Worlds.

I read War of the Worlds after seeing it on a list of subversive novels. It is a novel that attempted to get its readers to question the British invasion of countries and the way it treated their indigenous populations. Wells wrote it in part as a response to how the British slaughtered Aborigines in Tasmania. The War of the Worlds is an allegory of the conquest of a primitive society by technologically sophisticated colonists with no respect for the indigenous culture.

The novel is narrated by a philosopher and amateur astronomer. He is one of the first to notice that something is happening on Mars, and then the first alien spacecraft lands not far from his house in an English common. He goes to investigate. At first the spacecraft, which just looks like a huge cylinder, gives nothing away of what it might contain or its purpose. People gather to gawk at it and contemplate what it might be. It then opens, and the war for humanity’s survival gradually begins. 

The novel contains a lot of extended war and action scenes, with small sections of contemplation of what the Martians are up to and why. Humanity attempts to fight back but, like the inhabitants of many countries the English invaded, are totally outgunned by the Martian technology. The narrator spends much of his time fighting despair as he sees human resistance to the Martians fail. He is on the run for much of the story.

The POV character changes for a few chapters to the narrator’s brother who is, along with thousands of Londoners, trying to find somewhere safe to flee. Only then do some slightly useful female characters appear. Their main role in the novel is basically to be placed somewhere safe and out of the way, or to scream. They are not deemed likely of doing anything productive to defeat the Martians. One memorable line, “He was as lacking in restraint as a silly woman”, emphasises the role Wells thinks women would play in such a war. His writing is a product on its time, 1895.

The novel also takes a swipe at religion, where people hopelessly pray to be saved, rather than try to do some productive to save themselves. The narrator gets trapped with a curate (a vicar or priest) for a few days. His religious rants do none of them any benefit.

The novel is written in the style of someone telling you what they experienced after the event. Wells curiously breaks the fourth wall every now and then by referring directly to the “reader”. If you were not aware of the outcome of the novel, this would tell you that the narrator survived.

Overall, with its anti-imperialism sentiment, the novel appears to be subversive for its time when Royal Britannia wanted to rule the world, no matter what the cost. I very much enjoyed reading the novel and it deserves to be the renowned classic of science fiction and literature it is. I will be reading more of Wells’ novels.  

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Review of Clarie G. Coleman's Terra Nullius

Having read Claire G. Coleman’s The Old Lie, I knew she was an Indigenous Australian who wrote science fiction that commented on historical and present-day treatment of Indigenous Australians. When I started reading her earlier novel Terra Nullius, I was immediately looking for science fiction elements.

The novel starts as if set in the outback of 19th century Australia. It has a few main characters and constantly switches point of view between them. They include Jacky who is on the run from his "master". Then we have a heartless nun in charge of a mission. She thinks the “natives”, who have been stolen from their families and placed under her dubious care, are sub-human and not worthy of her time. Another character is Johnny, a trooper who has deserted after participating in a massacre of natives. There are a few other main characters but describing them will spoil the plot of the novel.  

The first half of the novel really reminded me of the horrors that have been inflicted on Indigenous Australians by their colonisers including: Indigenous Australians dying on mass from diseases the colonisers introduced, the stealing of their land, the use of natives as slave labour, the massacres of tribes, the stealing of children from their parents and attempts to re-educate them into the white man’s ways, the introduction of alcohol and its devastating effects on Indigenous Australians, etc.

It seemed like the perfect book to be reading on Australia Day, or Survival Day as many Indigenous Australians call it.

As a reader of science fiction, I was wondering about the lack of descriptions of certain characters, and the lack of wildlife. The “mounts” the troopers rode as they chased Jacky were not described. So, I began to wonder where and when the novel was set. About halfway through the reader finds out.

I found the narrative gripping and emotionally engaging as I hoped that the “natives”, as the colonisers called them, would survive. But I knew they were no match for the weapons and other technology of their colonisers.

When reading Australian science fiction my interest always picks up when indigenous characters appear as they are rare. When in the hands of white authors, they tend to win in the end. This is probably a result of the guilt white Australians have about what has happened and is still happening to Indigenous Australians. Whereas, Indigenous Australian authors view their future, from my limited reading, as continuing the fight for survival.   

The manuscript and novel deservedly won awards was short-listed for many others, like the Stella Prize.

Terra Nullius is one of the best novels I have read by an Australian science fiction author.