Monthly Archives: December 2016

Beyond the Burning Lands by John Christopher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book continues the story of book 1. Compared to book 1, this book has more of an adventure type of story than a pure politicking one. This changes the pace of the overall plot and also helps with character development.

You will see the main character, Luke, engaging and participating more in the story than just waiting for things to happen. You will see more of his thoughts and how he learns more about the country beyond the burning lands. This does wonders for character development. New characters are also introduced and old characters go through changes as well. With some changes being pretty drastic.

The plot loses the ‘game of thrones’ feel while the adventure part of the plot is proceeding. Although the politicking seems to be a permanent feature every time Luke is in his homeland. However, the adventuring plot isn’t particularly exciting. They just seem to be more of a series of events Luke has to go through to grow. It more like a plot device than a well thought out “hero’s journey” type of plot. It seems like politicking aspect of the plot is the ‘main’ storyline, and we are just being taken on a sideshow here.

I do have to give praise for the writing style this time. Whatever weird and draggy writing style that was in book 1 is suddenly gone in this book. Though it’s not the best I’ve seen, it still is certainly better.

Overall this book being book 2 of a trilogy suffers from the usual fate that all middle books of trilogies face. I.e. they werent as great or memorial as the first or last book. Book 1 was setting up the scene for the trilogy and getting you invested in it. Having already read book 3 myself, I can say that book 2 was really just setting up the climax in book 3.

This book might not stand on its own. But, if you want to see the final politicking, grey morality, game-of-thrones-for-kids style action in the next book, you will have to go through the passable adventure beyond the burning lands.

Score Breakdown:
Story/Plot (50%): 3/5
Character Development (25%): 4/5
Writing style (25%): 3/5

Total : 3.25/5

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We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the kind of book if you mix Robert Sawyer and John Scalzi. Sawyer likes to write about personalities or consciences put into an AI/robot form. Scalzi likes to write about the future of humanity in space. We are Bob is a personality or personalities put into a robot form, charged with exploration, colonisation and the future of mankind. And it’s one heck of an interesting read.

The plots in this novel are what hard sci-fi readers crave. The best part is that this book explores it to the fullest. You have doomsday scenarios, space colonisation, and looking for signs of life elsewhere in the galaxy all in one book. Not to mention Bob’s questioning of his existence as an AI. The best part is that the novel unfolds smoothly, which each main plotline being logical extensions of the original plotline. You get all the plots you crave for, and none of them feel forced.

The decision to make the POV character an AI based on a human personality, Bob, was a great one for multiple reasons. Firstly, you only need one character for this novel, Bob, and his many iterations/clones, Bobs. The Bobs are all extremely witty when talking to each other and make for many laughs with their delightful banter. Second, because the AI Bobs are immortal, the actual exploration events set in space, which would take many years can be shortened down into a readable narrative. AI Bob doesn’t have to experience time minute for minute and can just skip years of dull time used for space travel and then just pick up where he left off. Third, the AI Bobs make for a good thought experiment as to how AI might think and how they might question ‘themself’, themselves, and their own existence. As well as how they or any AI would respond to situations at hand.

The only real issue I found in this book was the interactions and introductions of new AI Bobs. Because most of the individual AI Bobs have similar personalities (and similar everything actually), it starts to be hard to tell them apart. Where in a conventional story, you can tell characters apart by their personality or features, you only can tell AI Bobs apart by their name and mission. Ultimately I had to resort to scribbling down simple notes of each major AI Bob and their mission just to keep track of who’s who. (I listened to this book in audio, so it made the problem worse.) In some ways, I can’t fault the author for this because the plot demands it, but maybe he could have found a better way to introduce the AI Bobs or label them. Even some sort of chart would have helped. In the audiobook form, the narrator did help a little by giving some of the AI Bobs a different accent.

I highly recommend this book to any sci-fi enthusiast. It’s hard sci-fi but written in light-hearted tones that anyone can easily pick up. Personally, I find this book to be a refreshing narrative in the sci-fi genre and it has definitely set itself apart from the recent sci-fi publications. Considering that this novel is the author’s first published work, it is exceptionally good.

Score Breakdown:
Story/Plot (50%): 5/5
Character Development (25%): 4.5/5
Writing style (25%): 4/5

Total : 4.62/5

Disclaimers:
– I read this as an audiobook

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