BOOK REVIEW: Alastair Reynolds' Absolution Gap

Alastair Reynolds' Absolution Gap is the third novel in his Revelation Space series. I was turned on to his work by Mark Chitty's Walker of Worlds blog, who is also a big fan or Peter F. Hamilton and Neal Asher, two other big British science fiction writers.

I read the first book in the Revelation Space series in Fall 2009 but have been eagerly devouring all of Reynolds works since then. See my reviews of the first two books in the trilogy, Revelation Space and Redemption Ark. In addition, there are two other novels which are set in the Revelation Space universe, Chasm City and The Prefect, both of which are excellent, well-written science fiction novels.

Surprisingly, even though Reynolds is most well-known for his original trilogy of novels set in the Revelation Space universe, they may not actually be his greatest creations.

Absolution Gap is the third and concluding book in the trilogy and features all the characteristics we have come to expect from Alastair Reynolds: dense, multi-layered plot(s), ambiguously identities of main characters, political intrigue, relativistic suspense and vast quantities of prose.

There is a 20-year gap between the events from the end of Redemption Ark and the events from the beginning of Absolution Gap. Our main protagonists Neil Clavain, the Conjoiner who defected to join Humans, Scorpio, a human-pig genetic hybrid, Ana Khouri (the main character from  Revelation Space and Redemption Ark), Skade (head of the Conjoiners and arch-nemesis of Clavain) all return and interact in ways on the planet Ararat which are exciting and horrifying (not everyone survives and I don't want to give away any spoilers here). It is nice to see characters that we are familiar with re-appearing in this third and final book of the series.

As with his other books in the Revelation Space series, the sophisticated plot of Absolution Gap also unspools in multiple time periods, due to Reynolds' insistence on no space flight greater than the speed of light combined with events that occur in different star systems.

The new characters that Reynolds introduces are terrifying and fascinating. On the planet Hela, Rashmika Els is a teenaged girl who apparently always knows when someone is telling the truth. Hela is ruled by the clearly insane Quaiche, who is a former crewmember of the Ultra spaceship Gnostic Ascension, and Grelier another crewmate who acts as Quaiche's right-hand man and enforcer. Quaiche has been infected with an indoctrination virus which makes him obsessed with Hela's star, Haldora, which appears to disappear intermittently (for fractions of a second every decades or so). He has had his eyelids removed and placed himself in a cathedral in perpetual motion so that he can (literally) keep his eyes constantly on Haldora so he doesn't miss a single vanishing. Rashmika goes to work for Quaiche and Grelier since someone with her unusual talents are invaluable.

The two storylines from Ararat and Hela intersect when the "lighthugger" Nostalgia for Infinity leaves Ararat (the Inhibitors are destroying that planet's star and are only prevented from destroying the planet itself by Clavain's old Conjoiner friend Remontoire) and everyone goes to Hela for the resolution of the story. It turns out the mystery behind Haldora's bizarre disappearing act is the existence of another alien species who may be able to help humans in the fight to stave off extinction, or who may be even worse than The Wolves.

Overall, although Absolution Gap is not as gripping as the first two installments of the trilogy, it is a reasonably high-quality conclusion to an incredibly original, well-written space opera which can be favorably compared to any of the classics in the genre of hard science fiction.

Author: Alastair Reynolds.
Title: Absolution Gap.
Length: 768 pages.
Publisher: Ace.
Date: May 31, 2005.

OVERALL GRADE: B+ (3.4/4.0).

BOOK REVIEW: Peter F. Hamilton's The Evolutionary Void

 

Peter F. Hamilton's The Evolutionary Void is the third (and final) book in the British science fiction grandmaster's Void Trilogy which started with The Dreaming Void and The Temporal Void. I was looking forward to reading this book very much and even purchased the hard copy on Amazon.com months prior to its official publication.


Hamilton is well-known for his long, intricately plotted, hard sci-fi space operas which are peopled with a dizzying number of characters. The Evolutionary Void is no exception, and it is even more complicated than his other books because it is not only the culminating work in the Void Trilogy, it also follows his earlier Commonwealth Saga books Judas Unchained  and Pandora's Star.

The Evolutionary Void picks up exactly where The Temporal Void concluded. There are multiple storylines which are instantaneously resumed which requires the reader to get up to speed very quickly. In fact, it is probably impossible to read and enjoy this book without reading the first two books (The Temporal Void and The Dreaming Void) first, and relatively recently.

The main story lines are bifurcated into action that takes place either inside or outside the Void, a spatial anomaly which can potentially expand to eliminate the known Galaxy. Inside the Void, the main character is Edeard the Waterwalker who lives in the curiously exogenous city-state of Makkathran which possesses a pseudo-feudal political structure with very limited technology but is populated with humans having telekinetic and telepathic powers. Outside the Void, 1200 years have passed since the exciting events depicted in Hamilton's Judas Unchained  and Pandora's Star. Many of the main characters from those books (Paula Myo, Ozzie Isaacs, Nigel Sheldon, Gore and Justine Burnelli and Oscar Monroe come to mind) are still around, and if you haven't read the previous duology then the reader will miss some nuances of these characters' interactions. The people outside the Void know about the goings on inside through Dreams which are shared in the gaiasphere, a galactic-wide network where properly equipped humans can share their emotional states (invented by Ozzie, of course!) with everyone. Only two people have ever been able to dream about events happening (or that have happened?) within the Void: Inigo (The First Dreamer, around whom a powerful religion called Living Dream has been formed) and the unknown Second Dreamer, who is only identified (and publicly exposed after a multi-planet manhunt) as an average Commonwealth citizen named Araminta. Araminta is a great creation, again demonstrating Hamilton's deft approach with female characters; just as Paula was the heroine of the first series, Araminta is the heroine of the second.

For someone whose reputation is built (deservingly so) on his depiction of action-packed, explosion-filled space battles and mind-blowing, futuristic technology, Hamilton does a surprisingly compelling job of telling what is essentially a fantasy tale inside the Void involving Edeard. The fantasy bits are the best part of the Void books, in my opinion. Hamilton's actually used this device of interlaced chapters of fantasy and hard science fiction before, in Fallen Dragon, and it works very very well. In fact, when the fantasy section becomes somewhat irrelevant due to an ill-chosen plot device I will not give away here, the science fiction story did not hold my attention nearly as well as my previous interest in Edeard's story and as a result I lost interest in The Evolutionary Void. This really surprised me, but it's undeniable that at some point I was just simply confused and slogging through the out-of-the-Void story, anxiously looking forward to catching up on Edeard's story inside-the-Void. When all I could look forward to was whatever Paula, Araminta, Oscar or Inigo would do next, my attention and interest flagged.

This is not to say that The Evolutionary Void is a bad book; Hamilton is an incredibly ambitious author and I think he just tried to do too much in one ridiculously large novel. (Really, the three Void books are clearly just one gigantic tale that due to the constraints of the publishing industry had to be released as three separate volumes.) This is also not surprising because Hamilton's masterwork, The Night's Dawn Trilogy, which is hands-down the best science-fiction trilogy ever written, was released as no less than 6 different books when really it is one gargantuan tale. I have to confess even reading that work one can get lost, but there the problem was that one had too many plot threads and characters one cared about. Reading the Void trilogy we have precisely the inverse problem: too few characters we care about--even characters that we had previously cared about quite a bit in the earlier duology. Of the new characters, only Araminta and Inigo are really fully drawn, with the primary villain of the piece recycled from the earlier series (The Cat). I think there was just one more hook (mystery, romance, comedy, horror) which if it had been included would have greatly strengthened my overall evaluation of this final book, and by extension the entire series. I have read both The Night's Dawn trilogy and Judas Unchained & Pandora's Star twice in their entirety; I believe I would rather re-read those than the Void trilogy (although I will probably give The Evolutionary Void another read, just for completeness).

There is still a lot of science fiction out there I have not read, such as Hamilton's own Misspent Youth, which is a standalone novel set around 1500 years before The Void Trilogy. If any of it is as creative and compelling as this sub-par (by his superlative standards!) Hamilton novel, I will be happy indeed.


Author: Peter F. Hamilton.
Title: The Evolutionary Void 
Hardcover: 704 pages.
Publisher: Del Rey. 
Date: August 24, 2010.

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A-.

OVERALL GRADE: (3.583/4.00) B+/A-.

BOOK REVIEW: Alastair Reynolds' Chasm City

British science fiction master Alastair Reynolds has very quickly become one of my favorite authors and Chasm City is a big part of that. Although it is not formally in the Revelation Space trilogy of Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap, it is set in the same universe as those other books, like The Prefect and his short story collection Galactic North.


Specifically, Chasm City is located on the planet Yellowstone, which once featured the most advanced human civilization in Reynolds' Revelation Space universe; the planet and its environs are mentioned frequently in Revelation Space and Redemption Ark.

The main character of Chasm City is Tanner Mirabel, or at least we the reader think it is. One of the themes in Reynolds' work that I have noticed is the idea that the narrator doesn't not always know their own identity. In other words, the threat of subversion of one's individual identity is always a possibility. Tanner arrives on Yellowstone from another planet called Sky's Edge in order to kill Argent Reivich, whom he believes killed the woman he loved (who just happened to have been the wife of the crime boss Cahuella who hired Tanner to be his chief of security). This storyline appears to be a pretty straightforward revenge tale.

The second, more intriguing story is about Sky Haussman, the original colonist of Tanner's home planet Sky's Edge, who in the intervening centuries since the planet's colonization has become revered as a near God-like figure by some but a Machiavellian mass-murderer by others. Tanner has been infected with a bizarre virus which causes the infected to bleed stigmatically from the palm and to dream obsessively about the life story of Sky Haussman and the sad, bizarre tale of how Sky's Edge was colonized.

There are multiple other subplots, which are also well-written and fascinating. One of the most memorable involves a bizarre extra-terrestrial  creature which is part plant and part reptile called a hamadryad which Cahuella is obsessed with capturing and confining in his private zoo/garden. Another subplot involves a subculture in Chasm City which revolves around a particular drug called "dream fuel." This dangerous substance allows users to avoid the devastating effects of the Melding Plague (a nanotech virus which destroys all machines at a cellular level, including nanomachines that most advanced humans possess during this era and which shows up in the other Revelation Space novels).

Chasm City is the most ambitious and intricately plotted of Reynolds novels, and, in my opinion, the most successful. The threads come together in a surprising way. I thought I had figured out the secret twist about two-thirds through the novel but there was a twist on the twist which completely floored me.

Any lover of well-conceived speculative fiction who has an appreciation for other genres (especially hard-boiled detective fiction) will not be disappointed by taking the time to read Chasm City.

Author: Alastair Reynolds.

Title: Chasm City.

Length: 704 pages.
Publisher: Ace.
Date: May 27, 2003.

PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A+.


OVERALL GRADE: A+/A (4.15/4.0).

MOVIE REVIEW: The King's Speech

Finally saw The King's Speech, the latest Oscar-bait ("Based on the incredible true story") from The Weinstein Company. It is directed by Tom Hooper, starring the crème de la crème of British acting talent (Colin Firth as King George VI, Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth, Timothy Squall as Winston Churchill, Michael Gambon as King George V) as well as some renowned Australian actors (Geoffrey Rush and Guy Pearce).

The King's Speech is widely seen as a front-runner for the 2010 Best Picture Oscar, with Firth garnering kudos from almost every critics group under the sun and building a convincing claim that last year's Best Actor nomination for A Single Man was merely a precursor to a win this year. Rush, who already has a Best Actor statuette for Shine, is generating buzz for a supporting Oscar, but it looks like Christian Bale's work in The Fighter may have that category wrapped up.

It's hard to evaluate the film outside the context of the annual Oscar race, especially considering the Weinsteins' history and the caliber of the actors involved. Hooper is a well-regarded but youthful British direct most well-known for the HBO miniseries John Adams which starred Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney and won a boatload of Emmys last year.

The King's Speech is about the story of an unorthodox Australian speech therapist named Lionel Logue who worked with the Duke of York (the King's second oldest son) to try to correct a severe stammer and a concomitant paralyzing fear of public speaking. Firth does a heart-wrenching job of portraying the agony of a chronic stutterer. Since, he is second-in-line for the throne, Firth's character (called Bertie by his friends and family) has many, many opportunities (and obligations) to give public speeches and the film depicts the way time seems to stand still as Firth labors to produce coherent and articulate sounds. In addition to the personal journey of Bertie to overcome what appears to be an insurmountable disability, the film also is leavened with suspense as the political intrigue thickens as Bertie's brother becomes King, making Bertie next in line. Of course, the problem is that if Bertie becomes King then of course he will have even more obligations to speak publicly.

Overall, the film depicts pre-World War II era London impeccably. Firth's performance, along with Bonham Carter's clever turn as his consort and Rush's attempt to steal scenes are the main reasons to see the film. Although it is hugely entertaining and captivating, I did n;t leave the film thinking "Wow, that was a reallly good movie" which is how I did feel when I walked out of Toy Story 3, Inception, The Kids Are All Right and The Social Network.

Title: The King's Speech.
Running Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes.
MPAA Rating: R for some language.
Release Date: Friday, November 26, 2010.
Seen: Tuesday, December 21, 2010.

Plot: B+.
Acting: A.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: A.

Overall Grade: A- (3.75/4.0).

Celebrity Friday: British PM David Cameron Says "It Gets Better"

BOOK REVIEW: Alastair Reynolds' Redemption Ark

Alastair Reynolds' Redemption Ark is the second novel in his Revelation Space series. I was turned on to this work by Mark Chitty's Walker of Worlds blog, who is also a big fan or Peter F. Hamilton and Neal Asher, two other big British science fiction writers.

Midway through reading the first book (see MadProfessah review) I ordered the next two books of the series from Alibris.com right away.

The best part of  Redemption Ark is the return of two of the main characters from the first book, Ana Khouri and Irina Volyova. Additionally, Reynolds introduces us to the Conjoiners, technologically advanced humans who have learned how to integrate nanotechnology with human physiology so that they have greatly increased strength and speed, machine-level mental processing capacity and speed as well as the ability to network with all other Conjoiners within range. Basically, to a Conjoiner any form of electronics is not only accessible but manipulable.

Of course, this being Reynolds, the plot of the story is the main attraction, and boy is it a doozy. Following on the events of Revelation Space, the powerful "hell class" weapons that are housed in the bowels of the 4-kilometer-long ship called Nostalgia for Infinity become the prize for a trio of very determined individuals.

The first member of the group looking for the weapons are a group of Conjoiners headed by a woman named Skade. The second group is led by Skade's previous deputy named Clavain who had defected from the group of humans called the Demarchists who are currently fighting an interstellar war against the Conjoiners when his Demarchist commander brother tried to kill him. Clavain finds out that Skade has developed a fleet of ships that can fly very close to the speed of light in order to have an "escape route" to another galaxy if the Inhibitors from Revelation Space, predatory machines (dubbed "Wolves") who exterminate species whom they detect have achieved interstellar flight, decide to eliminate humanity. The third group consists of Khouri and Volyova, who (together with archeologist Dan Sylveste) discovered the Inhibitors' purpose in the Resurgam system and currently have possession and access to the weapons in the hull of Nostalgia for Infinity. By using the hell class weapons Volyova and Khouri in the first book Revelation Space not only alerted the Inhibitors of humanity's existence but also alerted the Conjoiners of the existence and location of the hell class weapons (which they had created and lost hundreds of years before).

In addition to a race to get to Resurgam by the two Conjoiner factions, Redemption Ark features multiple asides in which Reynolds provides extensive the details of the Wolves. They turn out to be machines intelligences who have been around for billions of years and are culling life in order to save it from extinction when the Milky Way collides with the nearest galaxy in a few billion years. The characters of Volyova and Khouri are fleshed out and Clavain is also a very interesting new character.

The result is a very exciting work of very hard science fiction replete with fascinating ideas which is probably the high point in the Revelation Space trilogy.

Author: Alastair Reynolds.
Title: Redemption Ark.
Length: 704 pages.
Publisher: Ace.
Date: May 25, 2004.

OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0). 

PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A.

BOOK REVIEW: Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space is the first novel I read by this British author. His work is reminiscent of another British sci-fi author, the brilliant Peter F. Hamilton. Hamilton happens to be one of my favorite writers, so it is great praise from me to compare Reynolds favorably to Hamilton.

It takes a while to get going but around page 50 or so it had sucked me in and I had great difficulty in putting the book down. By about page 200, I started looking to buy the sequels Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap on Alibris.com.

The main idea of the Revelation Space universe is that there is something, which eventually gets named the Inhibitors, that eliminates sentient species soon after they have demonstrated the ability to travel between stars. Once they have demonstrated that they can travel significant fractions of the speed of light, something completely annihilates the species and they become extinct. This explains why spacefaring humans have discovered the remains, fossils and artefacts of nearly a dozen technological species, but never a live alien. It's an intriguing premise, but it merely serves as background to the central storylines which are more character-driven.

Here is a great summary of the characters in Revelation Space written by Ryan Anderson at The Martian Chronicles blog

 The main character, Dan Sylveste is a scientist studying that civilization, driven by an unstoppable compulsion to solve the mystery of what happened to the Amarantin. Meanwhile, Ana Khouri is an assassin who has been hired by the mysterious “Mademoiselle” to kill Sylveste and prevent him from discovering the answer. A third main character, Volyova, is one of only a handful of surviving crewmembers on a starship that holds some of the most powerful weapons ever concieved. The ship is gradually being consumed by a virus emanating from their captain, who is kept frozen in stasis to slow the spread of the infection. 

I think it is pretty significant that the two of the main characters are female. Some reviewers have complained that none of the main characters are very likable, but there is no question that they are interesting and intriguing.

I really liked seeing the world through the eyes of Irina Volyova and Anna Khouri. Dan Sylveste is the most important character in terms of the Revelation Space universe, but he was not the character that most appealed to me.

The book itself is paced pretty slowly, but is well worth the time invested to unwrap the intricate, overlapping plots. It is a great introduction to the gripping, very hard sci-fi universe of Alastair Reynolds, a place any fa of real space opera will enjoy.

Author: Alastair Reynolds.
Title: Revelation Space.
Length: 592 pages.
Publisher: Ace.
Date: May 28, 2002.

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.5/4.0).
PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: B+.

Celebrity Friday: Ed Milliband Announces He Is An Atheist

Ed Milliband, newly declared head of the British Labour Party (which is now the main opposition party in England after it lost the right to form a government to a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in May 2010), has announced that he "does not believe in God."

Interestingly, the Deputy Prime Minister of England, Nick Clegg, who is the head of the Liberal Dems has also declared he is an atheist.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

BOOK REVIEW: Tana French's In The Woods

I was completely unaware of Tana French's Edgar-award winning first novel In the Woods until a friend of mine who knows I like mysteries told me I had to read it. I'm very glad of the recommendation. Having read every single one of Ian Rankin's Inspector John Rebus novels I was delighted to find a new mystery author.

The two have some similarities, in that they are both British authors who set their books in their respective countries' biggest city (Rankin in Scotland's Edinburgh and French in Ireland's Dublin). French's books are less centered around a specific main character but instead are more emotionally focussed narratives.

For example, In the Woods is the story of Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox, two Murder Squad detectives who are investigating the horrific murder of a 12-year-old girl named Kary Devlin. The body was found in the very same woods a then-12-years-old Rob had been found 20-years before covered in blood with no memories while the two best friends he entered the woods never seen again.

In the Woods at its core is a story about the powerful bonds of friendship. The friendship between Rob and Cassie is lovingly depicted, from Rob's perspective as the narrator. The complications of a friendship between a straight man and straight woman are acknowledged and even emphasized in some ways. The other friendship that anchors the novel is the friendship between the young Rob (then called by his middle name Adam) and his two best friends, which is depicted in nostalgic flashbacks.

It becomes clearer and clearer as the novel progresses that the resolution of the recent Devlin murder involves some deep secret buried within the creepy Devlin family but that more importantly, regardless of that resolution, the lack of resolution of the old crime is weighing increasingly heavily upon Rob's psyche. In the end, Rob becomes a quintessential "unreliable narrator"  but there are other, more serious ways that Tana French breaches the contract between reader and murder-mystery author which makes In the Woods an unforgettable and thrilling read.

Author: Tana French.

Title: In the Woods

Length: 429 pages.
Publisher: Viking Adult.
Date: May 17, 2007.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A+.
PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A+.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A.

Eye Candy: Ben Lauder-Dykes

Ben Lauder-Dykes is a 25-year-old model from England who has already been on the cover of the September 2008 Men's Health magazine. Eye-catching, wot-wot?

BOOK REVIEW: Alastair Reynolds' The Prefect

Despite never having heard his name before a year ago, British science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds has turned into one of my favorite authors.

In the space of about 8 months (December 2009 through July 2010), I have read five of his novels, all of which are set in his Revelation Space universe. Those books are (in the order I read them) Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Chasm City, Absolution Gap and The Prefec.

The Revelation Space universe is at least as interesting as Peter F. Hamilton's Confederate and Commonwealth universes. The two British authors have similar ideas: humanity is flourishing hundreds of years in our future, we have met a few aliens and technology (especially in computing) has advanced in particular ways. Both universes feature a way for humans to "cheat death." In Hamilton's, a memory cell which contains the entire personality can be backed up and then inserted into a cloned copy of the original person, and people can generally select their age, sex and overall physical appearance. In Reynolds' universe a back-up of the personality can be made and then installed in either an "alpha-level" or "beta-level"simulation which runs on a computer. Alpha-level simulations are controversial, they are considered independent entities in their own right; beta-level simulations are more common and are more likely to be replications of the original human personality they were based on.

Reynolds' stories are darker, more cerebral and intricately plotted with secrets within secrets to be revealed to the reader during the execution of the plot. Hamilton stories are usually more straight-up swashbuckling military space operas, thrilling adventures that greatly entertain. Hamilton is still my favorite writer, but Reynolds gives him a run for his money!

A theme of Reynolds' work is the inclusion of complicated choices (often between multiple, equally bad scenarios) that his characters have to make and his obsession with identity and misdirection. Oftentimes a central question in the books is discovering the solution to a central mystery, and several times that mystery involves the "true" identity and motives of a central character.

The Prefect is set in a time period between the events of Revelation Space and Chasm City, set in the Glitter Band, a group of 10,000 human-made habitats set in orbit near the planet Yellowstone in the Sky's Edge star system. The title character is Tom Dreyfus, who is a member of Panoply, which is basically the police force for the 100 million people who live in the Glitter Band. Panoply officers are not allowed to carry guns, because their mission is to insure the process of democracy in the band, which occurs through nearly continuous electronic plebiscites of the populace. However, The Prefect at its core is really a standard detective novel, which I like because I am also a big fan of mysteries. It is reminiscent of Reynolds' best book to date, Chasm City, which also revolves around the work of a cop.

It is also a hard sci-fi novel. The book has profoundly altered humans known as Ultras, another group of altered humans known as Conjoiners, space battles, sentient computer programs and a possibly alien entity known as The Clockmaker.

If you like "hard" sci-fi and the work of authors like Hamilton, Reynolds and Neal Asher, you will almost definitely enjoy The Prefect. I did!

Title: The Prefect.
Author: Alastair Reynolds.
Length: 416 pages.
Publisher: Ace.
Date: June 3, 2008.

OVERALL GRADE: A.

PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

BOOK REVIEW: Peter Hamilton's Fallen Dragon

Peter F. Hamilton's Fallen Dragon is one of my favorite author's only stand-alone novels, since it is not part of any of his multiple trilogies or series.

Fallen Dragon was written soon after Hamilton had completed his masterpiece, the 3000-page Night's Dawn trilogy but I read it while waiting for the next book in the Void trilogy.

The parallels with the books in that series (The Dreaming Void, The Temporal Void) are immediately apparent. Both works intertwine Hamilton's typical hard-sci fi plot with another tale which is softer, more fantasy-related.

The main character in Fallen Dragon is Lawrence Newton, whose story is told in two different timelines: one as a teenage kid in the throes of his first love dreaming of getting off the godforsaken planet Amethi his family is colonizing and terraforming and the other as a hard-bitten mercenary working for the Zantiu-Braun corporation in the pillaging of asset-rich, defense-poor worlds.

While participating in "asset realization" on the planet of Thallspring as part of a quasi-military invasion force which is being resisted by a local insurgent population, Newton hears rumors about a "fallen dragon" in a rural village. The village Arnoon is rumored to harbor a vast treasure and a curious Newton goes to explore.

Overall, Fallen Dragon features Hamilton's typical flairs of militaristic activities, especially space battles and combat missions. It doesn't feature characters as resonant as his best work but is still a compelling suspenseful read.

Title: Fallen Dragon.
Author: Peter F. Hamilton.
Hardcover: 640 pages.
Publisher: Aspect.
Date: March 11, 2002.

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A-.

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.5/4.0).

UK PM Cameron Salutes LGBT Inclusion

In today's Independent new British Prime Minister David Cameron has published an op-ed which celebrates the inclusion of the LGBT community in contemporary British society.

But as well as being a celebration, the Pink List is a reminder that we must go further. Yes, the UK is a world leader for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, but we cannot be complacent. As long as there are people out there feeling marginalised or threatened, we must continue to tackle prejudice.

Of course, politicians have a big part to play in that. When I first stood on the steps of Downing Street as Prime Minister I paid tribute to what the last government did to make our country a more open and tolerant place – and we're continuing that work. In June, the coalition government set out an ambitious programme which includes tackling bullying in schools, changing the law on historical convictions for gay sex that is now legal and commencing the Equality Act. It's also important that we maintain the drive on tackling hate crime in our communities and promoting better recording of homophobic attacks. Violent crimes like those committed on Ian Baynham and James Parks – which happen simply on account of someone's sexuality – are disgusting and we must do everything possible to stop them happening.

[...]

But making this country a more equal, open place isn't just a job for government alone. The truth is we will never really tackle homophobia in schools, the workplace or in sport just by passing laws. We need a culture change as well.

There's no single lever we can pull or even collection of measures that we can take to make that happen. The wall of prejudice is also chipped away by high-profile role models, by public celebrations, by a positive approach to diversity. That's why I am proud that there are now more openly gay MPs in the Conservative Party than any other party. It's why I wish the upcoming Pride events – today in Leeds, all week in Brighton and on Saturday in Liverpool – every success. And it's why I congratulate everyone on this list for doing their bit to inspire and change attitudes. This is a country where people can be proud of who they are – and quite right too.

BOOK REVIEW: Aravind Adiga's THE WHITE TIGER

Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger won the 2008 Man Booker Prize, the most prestigious individual book prize in English (only writers from Commonwealth countries are eligible).

I got the book for Christmas in 2008 and finally read it over my summer vacation in August 2009.

The White Tiger is a book about contemporary Indian life, told in a very readable, darkly comic style by a prose magician.

It is one of the few Booker prizewinners that can easily be read in an afternoon. (Or even read at all. I still have a copy of Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children, barely begun, no my bookshelf.) Having been to India myself in the last 5 years I am always curious to see depictions of the country in film and novels. This was one of (not the most important) things which made Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (read my review here) so enjoyable to me. I'm not saying if it wasn't set in India the movie would not have been interesting to me; I'm saying that the added India element enriches the work in my eyes, thanks to my interest in the subject.

Anyway, Aviga's work is written in the form of a series of letters to the Premier of China (The White Tiger of the book's title) and follows the adventures of Balram Halwai, a perfectly ordinary Indian man from a typical Indian village who happens to be the narrator of the book--and a murderer.

Adiga has harsh social commentary on almost every aspect of Indian society, from elections to malls to religion (so many gods, so little time!) which has made the book somewhat controversial in some circles, presumably even more so now that it has been awarded the Booker.

In the end, though, there's something not quite satisfying about The White Tiger. After you finish it, you feel like you are ready to read another book, about half an hour later.

Title: The White Tiger

Author: Aravind Aviga
Publisher: Free Press
Date: October 14, 2008.
Length: 352 pages.

PLOT: B.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: B-.
WRITING: A-.

OVERALL GRADE: B/B+.

WATCH: new Sade video for "Soldier of Love"

Finally!! Sade's new album Soldier of Love is available in stores today. It is her first album in over a decade, following 2000's Lovers Rock.
I got mine through the power of Amazon.com.

You can see my list of Top 5 favorite Sade songs here.

BOOK REVIEW: Iain M. Bank's MATTER

Iain M. Banks has been on my list of science fiction authors to try for quite awhile since his name is often mentioned in the same breath as my favorite, British master of space opera Peter F. Hamilton.

I actually tried to read Banks a few years ago when his The Algebraist came out. It got excellent reviews and was nominated for big awards soI picked it up from the library and hated it. I didn't even bother to wrie up a review. In fact, I'm not even sure I finished it, but I am pretty sure I did. All Banks novels are intricately plotted with multiple threads and characters leavened with wry humor but for some reason The Algebraist just didn't work for me.

Happily, Matter, which is one of the books in the series Banks is most well-known for (The Culture series) is very different from The Algebraist although on the surface their descriptions seem somewhat similar.

Both books feature a sophisticated, galaxy-spanning society which has an intricate, hierarchical culture and a story that centers around a single key individual. In The Algebraist this person is the annoying Fassin Taak, while in Matter this person is Prince Ferbin.

Most reviews of Matter talk about its overwhelming length (600+ pages) but for someone who is a Peter F. Hamilton fan this is really not an obstacle to enjoying the book, since we are accustomed to the 1000+ page-turners Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.

Iain M. Banks' work is reminiscent of Hamilton, with a similarly complicated plot and overly detailed combat scenes. However, Banks also includes a wickedly sharp sense of humor that he deploys to great effect as he simultaneously creates and pokes fun at typical space opera tropes such as advanced weapons technology, super-smart computers, humongous artificial living environments and bizarre aliens.

Reading Matter has convinced me to try and read the earlier works in the Culture series, like Excession (1998) and Look to Windward (2001), the immediate prequel to Matter.

Title: Matter.
Author: Iain M. Banks.
Length: 624 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date: February 10, 2009.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A+ (4.08/4.0).
PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A+.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

LISTEN: First Single from Sade's "Soldier of Love"

Recently I told you all about the fabulous news that British-Nigerian sultry songstress Sade will be releasing her new album Soldier of Love on February 8, 2010. Now, the first single from the album is streaming on her website.

Happy Birthday to Cherry Jones

Greg in Hollywood alerted me that today is the 53rd birthday of Cherry Jones, the Emmy-winning award best supporting actress of Fox's 24 television series (she plays the President of the United States).

Jones is also one of the most prominent openly lesbian actresses working in Hollywood, and Greg repeats the news that she is newly single, having recently broken up with actress Sarah Paulson.

Black, gay, invisible (and British)

There's an interesting recent article about the plight of people who happen to be racial and sexual minorities by Topher Campbell of rukus!, a British Black lgbt organization, called "Black, gay,... and invisible." Campbell does an excellent job of detailing the parameters of the problems that Black gay people have in both Britain and in the United States. Here's an excerpt (with especially poignant points bolded by MadProfessah):

Black people need to stop treating homosexuality as if it's a white man's disease. We need to embrace the vibrant presence of gays and lesbians in our community and stop siding with bigots and racists.

Over the past few weeks the homophobic murder of Ian Baynham in Trafalgar Square and the assault on PC James Parkes in Liverpool have shocked the gay community. Every anti-gay opinion adds strength to their attackers and supports other gay bashers.

Whenever the subject of homosexuality is raised in the black community there is hysteria and denial. We who are black and lesbian or gay are considered at best a joke and at worst just plain wrong, weird or dirty. Many think we are somehow infected with a western decadent ifestyle and are undermining our race.

This thinking is fuelled by a combination of ignorance, fear, hatred, Christian and Islamic-based homophobic religious beliefs, and perversely racial pride. This deadly combination of prejudice forces us to be invisible in our own communities. Being black and lesbian or gay makes it harder for many of us to come out. The fear of losing our families in a racist society, and therefore our connection with our culture, is very real. Also having to negotiate through a white gay scene makes it doubly difficult to forge an identity or gain support from our peers.

The knee-jerk reaction of many African or African Caribbean parents is to either throw their lesbian and gay children out of the house at 16 or 17 or disown them. The wider community is hostile, too. I know of one teenager who was chased out of his school in East London by a group of 40 armed youths with dogs.

An alternative to coming out for many young people and even adults is to live invisible lives. Through disguise and deceit many black lesbians and gay men establish friendships, networks and lovers and never tell their families. The stress on themselves and their relationships can be unbearable.

The underlying problem we are faced with is to choose between our sexual identity and our race. The reality is that we cannot choose because both are intrinsic to us.
One cannot be hidden while the other cannot be denied. Sadly, in today's world, for black people who are "flamboyant" whether gay or straight or just more bookish or more sensitive or even academic (or for girls more sporty) we cannot escape the "accusation" that we are gay.

Homosexuality is as natural as eyesight. It is not a choice. It cannot be denied or made subject to one's race no more than you can change your place of birth.

You should go to The Guardian's website and read the rest of the article and leave a comment there, or I'd also like to hear what my readers have to say in the comments of my blog.

Marriage Of Kenyan Gay Couple Sparks Debate

There's an interesting article written by Makua Matua in the prominent Kenyan newspaper The Nation which demolishes the idea that "homosexuality is un-African." Ever since the couple pictured above, Daniel Chege and Charles Ngengi, got married in October in Britain, the Kenyan media has been enthralled.

Many Kenyans have been outraged that two men of Kenyan descent would get married to each other and have contacted (and threatened) the men's relatives who still live in the rural sections of their African homeland. The wedding was a public recognition of their legally registered British civil partnership, since Ngengi is a British citizen.

Now Mr. Matua, who is the Dean of the SUNY Buffalo Law School and chair of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, has written an incisive piece of writing intended to combat the nonsensical and virulent homophobia exposed by the same-sex marriage of two gay Kenyan men:

One common – but completely false – argument is that it is un-African to be gay. This is an absurdly vacuous claim that is internally illogical and utterly ahistorical. Most Kenyans are today indoctrinated by religious institutions, cultural guardians, and the moral police to be anti-gay. Rather than find someone to love, anti-gay crusaders find it convenient to find someone innocent to hate. Why has such a hatefully primitive and backward cosmology gone unchallenged?

Let me illustrate the seriousness of the problem by giving you a short human rights history of the last 50 years. Can you imagine a credible defence today for apartheid or the view that blacks are inferior to whites, and that the former exist solely to serve the latter?

How would you like to be declared illegal – or unworthy of existence – simply because you are black or African? Would you agree that all women and girls in your life – your mother, sister, wife, girlfriend, aunt, and grandmother – are inferior beings because of their female gender?

[...]

Modern democracy is not possible without two key interrelated principles – equal protection and anti-discrimination. Understand that it is “identity” that is afforded equal protection by insulating it from discrimination.

Historically, “identity” referred to your “state of being” – colour, sex, ethnicity, race, religion, language, marital status, national origin, political opinion, disability, and wealth or other social status.

But today “identity” is understood to include sexual orientation. That is why many countries explicitly prohibit discrimination against gays in social, political, and economic life. Others regard attacks on gays a hate crime. Civilised countries recognise gay marriages.

I have heard it said that being gay is “un-African.” Some Africans, who obviously know very little about the continent, have charged that there were no gays in Africa! The historical record, however, amply demonstrates that there were – and continues to be – gay Africans.

Let's hope that lawmakers in neighboring Uganda who are considering legislation that would punish homosexuality as a capital offense will read this article in The Nation and come to their senses.