Books: The Severed Streets By Paul Cornell (2014)

Desperate to find a case to justify the team’s existence, with budget cuts and a police strike on the horizon, Quill thinks he’s struck gold when a cabinet minister is murdered by an assailant who wasn’t seen getting in or out of his limo. A second murder, that of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, presents a crime scene with a message… identical to that left by the original Jack the Ripper.  The new Ripper seems to have changed the MO of the old completely: he’s only killing rich white men. The inquiry into just what this supernatural menace is takes Quill and his team into the corridors of power at Whitehall, to meetings with MI5, or ‘the funny people’ as the Met call them, and into the London occult underworld. They go undercover to a pub with a regular evening that caters to that clientele and to an auction of objects of power at the Tate Modern. Meanwhile, the Ripper keeps on killing and finally the pattern of those killings gives Quill’s team clues towards who or what is really doing this.

Paul Cornell’s second book (see London Falling) in his urban fantasy series continues the mash-up between almost every supernatural movie or TV series and the police procedural. The book took a bit to get going –as did the first book- but this one takes longer. Perhaps because the characters were all doing something separate, trying to investigate these events, but I felt the book was a bit messy.

And then, Cornell pulls out a bizarre twist that features real-life author Neil Gaiman. At first I thought this was just an odd cameo, but Cornell has this version of Gaiman become an accessory to murder and helps the real villain of the story dispose of a body. I’m curious as to why Gaiman would attach himself to such a story that paints him in such a bad way. Perhaps it amused him, but it is a distraction. 

While it’s also disappointing that Cornell dips into the Ripper lore as many have done before, the last third of the book is well paced and comes to a satisfactory conclusion. All the characters seem to grow from the previous adventure, and like much British crime drama, some are not all likable. At times I have a bit of conflict with this, but I realize it’s more my thinking than writers. I grew up in a media culture that had clear differences in such roles, where the good guys had flaws, but none that made them so unappealing you hoped they died.

Books Read in 2014

I finish 2014 with 41 books being read (including the one re-read, The Hobbit). That's up three books from 2013 and ties with what I read in 2012. 

Having no life does help, I guess. Being single and poor makes doing things trickier. Not that I want to come off as all passive/aggressive, you know. :-)

Anyways, I've sort of returned to my roots with reading a bit more science fiction, but I'm still very much open to reading almost anything that catches my attention. Plus, I still have a list of books on my Amazon Wish List that covers a few different genres. It is, in the end, a never ending queue that I never finish.

And I'm okay with that. 

Onto 2015. 

01.   The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

02.   Every Dead Thing by John Connolly

03.   Red Rising by Pierce Brown

04.   The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

05.   The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma

06.   Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

07.   Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

08.   The Night Circus by Erin Morgensten

09.   Where Did You Go Bernadette? By Maria Semple

10.   Creativity by Ed Catmull

11.   The Serpent of Venice By Christopher Moore

12.   The Runes of the Earth By Stephen R. Donaldson

13.   Fatal Revenant By Stephen R. Donaldson

14.   Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line By Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

15.   Against All Things Ending By Stephen R. Donaldson

16.   The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair By Joel Dicker

17.   The Goldfinch By Donna Tartt

18.   Mr. Mercedes By Stephen King

19.   Cibola Burns By James S. A. Corey

20.   In the Woods By Tana French

21.   Last Call By Tim Powers

22.   The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie By Alan Bradley

23.   Expiration Date By Tim Powers

24.   Fault Lines By Tim Powers

25.   The Likeness by Tana French

26.   The Silkworm By Robert Galbraith

27.   The Bat By Jo Nesbo

28.   Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst

29.   When HARLIE was One By David Gerrold

30.   Jumping Off the Planet By David Gerrold

31.   Bouncing Off the Moon By David Gerrold

32.   Leaping to the Stars by David Gerrold

33.   Recent History By Anthony Giardina

34.   You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman By Mike Thomas

35.   Revival By Stephen King

36.   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick

37.   Under the Eye of God By David Gerrold

38.   Covenant of Justice By David Gerrold

39.   Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human By J.W. Jeter

40.   Starman Jones By Robert Heinlein

41.   Severed Streets By Paul Cornell

 

Books: Starman Jones By Robert Heinlein (1953)

I've not read much of Robert Heinlein novels. And what I did read was well over 30 years ago. But since, in some way, I've decided to read some classic science fiction, I picked up his 1953 "juvenile" novel Starman Jones. 

Maximilian "Max" Jones is a poor boy from the Ozarks in some dystopic future Earth. He also possesses a talent -eidetic memory- and who dreams of going into space like his dead uncle.When his widowed mother remarries a loathed neer-do-well, he seizes the opportunity and heads off to Earthport with his uncle's books and hope. He falls in with a a quiet man who first betrays him and later befriends him. The Sam want's to go back to space as well and hatches a plan to get them on-board a starship as crew. By good luck, Max -who is very good at math as well as having a perfect memory- gets a chance to apprentice as an astrogator and winds up standing a watch when the head astrogator suddenly dies. Things go from bad to worse when the elderly Captain and the paranoid assistant astrogator manage to muff a Jump and lose them in uncharted space.

It's an enjoyable novel, even if Heinlein's future was not very prophetic -as computers are used to navigate the ship, but they're more like giant pocket calculators than anything else and need humans to operate. Plus the ending is a bit ludicrous -even if Max has the math skills and memory to program the computer to Jump back to their universe, it simply more "magic"than science. The villain -a fellow crew member- is a bit cartoonish and the crew itself get little (especially the women) in the way of full development, but Max is fun enough that book is still a worthy read.

Books: Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human by J.W. Jeter (1995)

I remember, back in 1995, when K. W. Jeter began a new series of books (three in all, eventually) that were sequels to both Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the movie version of that book, 1982's Blade Runner.

Of course, up until a few weeks ago, I had not read the novel by Dick (and that reading was precipitated by me seeing the film again). But knowing that Jeter (a long-time friend of the late author) had been authorized by Dick's Estate to continue the themes presented in both the 1968 book and the film, after I actually got done with Androids, I checked out this book at the library.

Beginning several months after the events of the film, Deckard has retired to an isolated shack outside the city, taking the replicant Rachael with him in a Tyrell transport container, which slows down the replicant aging process. He is approached by a woman who explains she is Sarah Tyrell, niece of Eldon Tyrell, heiress to the entire Tyrell Corporation and the human template for the Rachael replicant. She asks Deckard to hunt down the "missing" sixth replicant. At the same time, the human template for Roy Batty hires Dave Holden, the blade runner attacked by Leon, to help him hunt down the man he believes is the sixth replicant - Deckard. Deckard and Holden's investigations lead them to re-visit Sebastian, Bryant, and John Isidore (from the book), learning more about the nature of the blade runners and the replicants. When Deckard, Batty, and Holden finally clash, Batty's inhuman fighting prowess leads Holden to believe he has been duped all along and that Batty is, and always was, the sixth replicant. 

I give kudos to Jeter for trying to meld the two media products together, but to be honest, instead of creating a new narrative, the author spends way too much time creating one contrivance after another, shoehorning plot points in like Mary Shelly's Doctor Frankenstein in some desperate attempt not to fully admit that the book and the movie are really two different visions of same story and should be treated that way.

My understanding is the conspiracy theme Jeter pulls out (someone is out to end the reign of the blade runners) is more or less designed to cover plot holes that have been identified by fans of original movie -such as Leon's ability to bring a gun into the Tyrell building, or the reference to the sixth replicant. Also, the character of Sebastian died in the movie, yet he is alive in this sequel. Pris was clearly stated as being a replicant in both the movie and the original novel, yet in Jeter's story he claims she was human. Pris was clearly destroyed by Deckard in both the movie and the original novel and that Sebastian has the ability to bring Pris back to life as a replicant unwittingly introduces numerous problems: the book implies that Sebastian somehow was able to do this without realizing that her original body was human. It is likewise unclear why Deckard would have left her, or any suspected replicant he retired, in a state from which they could be repaired.

The book does rely too heavily on the film more than the original tome, which clearly indicates that the folks behind this continuation thought that audience who would read this novel would feel more comfortable if this new series monkeyed Ridley Scott's take than Philip K. Dick's one. But to be honest, the only ones who might've read this were the hardcore fans of the original tale (and not, I think, the movie -which is a completely different fan base). But they would be disappointed to find how much Edge of Human is not really a Dick story.

Which is a shame really, because Dick's story was so good.

In the end, this book was constructed like sequel to a movie and a novel that never intended to have a sequels. In Jeter's attempt to explain the plot holes of both, it reads too much like fan-fiction, ala Star Trek; he spends way too much time creating an overly complicated tale of conspiracy, lies and deceit and then smashes us over the head with those ideas to drive home his point that he is trying to fill in all the blanks. It is then that you eventually realize why there's never been a movie sequel to Blade Runner -because it's just too complicated to move the story further- plus, more importantly, why the estate of Philip K Dick should've just left well enough alone. 

Books: Covenant of Justice (Trackers #2) By David Gerrold (1994)

The Phaestor have established a reign of blood and terror. Now the genetically engineered predators have set in motion their final plan for the complete enslavement of the galaxy. But they will not go unopposed. For on numerous worlds, humans, androids, and bioforms have joined forces against their vampiric overlords. As those entrusted with the wisdom of the galaxy sanction the struggle against the Phaestor, a cunning Vampire war queen, her ambitious suitor, and the fierce and invincible Dragon Lord vie for total domination. Standing in the way are the rebels from Thoska-Roole: a band of malcontents, outnumbered and pursued, fighting for their freedom, their lives, and the future of the stars.

The continuation of Trackers now focuses more on Sawyer and Finn as they lead the rag-tag group across the stars in search of a TimeBinder who can aide them in bringing down the Phaestor's. Here Gerrold continues to make the action and the future space traveling universe very real. Like the last one, the humor is key to the novel's success. The delicate balance of believable sibling rivalry and not falling into typical sitcom one-liners is handled very well here. 

Still, there was many times I felt I was reading Gerrold's take on Star Wars -though the mythology of that franchise has been around since forever. It's not to say that's a bad thing, as the characters do react more logically than most in this genre, but there was never a doubt the ending though. 

Gerrold continues to put his characters into moral dilemma's and gives us a great ideas on how to solve them. That's what good science fiction does, it tests the human condition, it puts humanity up to the light, and how we react to that is what defines us. I'm also learning, as I read his stuff, he likes court room drama. He repeats those set pieces in other novels.