I held off reading this for the longest time because I didn’t like the first one all that much and I’d heard that the English translation, by Joel Martinsen this time instead of Ken Liu, was kind of weak. Still I kept running across references to it such as how even Barack Obama is a big fan and went to meet author Liu Cixin. I also realized that even in the English-speaking world, big idea science-fiction novels are rather rare and this is nothing if not all about big ideas.
John Scalzi is pretty prominent in science-fiction circles currently and it wasn’t so long ago that he made his debut with the Old Man’s War series which I haven’t read yet. A big part of it is due to his holding the post of president Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and taking a strong stand on feminist issues and against Gamergate and related alt-right controversies. This particular novel won the Hugo Award in 2013 which brought it to my attention then. But the premise seems so obvious that it’s a wonder no one wrote this novel before this.
This was a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards though it ended up winning neither of them. I was intrigued by a Broken Forum member describing its premise as a science-fiction mystery novel. Unfortunately the premise is the best thing about the novel. Though author Mur Lafferty sets up the mystery beautifully, the way it plays out wasn’t satisfying to me as the plot revolves around a single malefactor whose identity can easily be predicted by the reader but is pieced together by the characters only at the end of the novel.
So yeah, I’ve never read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books before this which is embarrassing for a fan of science-fiction. I’ve read plenty of his short stories and even one or two his Robots novels but never any of the Foundation books themselves. I’ve inevitably absorbed some of what it’s about through cultural osmosis but I suppose it’s high time that I actually read them for myself.
This is a novel that I would never have known about if not for the recommendation in What Makes This Book So Great. It was successful enough to spawn sequels but author George Alec Effinger died before a fourth book could be completed and the series never seemed to have won any major awards. Apparently a supplement for this setting was made for the pencil and paper role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020 which I do own.
After being overwhelmed by the sophistication of Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, I approached this earlier novel by Samuel Delany with some trepidation. In retrospect, I needn’t have worried as it is a much shorter and simpler work. Though it is thematically rich with plentiful references to mythology, contemporary events at the time of the novel’s writing, art and much more, I think the plot is a little too straightforward and I’m not sure that its central theory on the relationship between people and the work they holds up well.
When I wrote my post about The Fifth Season I said I would be onboard for the next book and so here I am. Even so I am a little miffed that both books won Hugo Awards and the third book is similarly on track to do so. The rest of the nominees are no better, being novels that are part of a series by the same authors who win year after year. It’s honestly rather boring so it’s no wonder why Liu Cixin’s win in 2015 was such a breath of fresh air even if I didn’t like the book very much.
