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Robert Charles Wilson, Spin: Not too long from now, while privileged twins and their housekeeper’s son are watching, the stars go out. The Earth is sealed off from the rest of the universe, nearly stopped in time, as the solar system ages around it, with incomprehensible technology keeping an illusion of the sun in place so that most life goes on—at least until the sun dies, which will be within about 50 subjective years. Wilson can’t decide whether he cares more about the human reactions to impending extinction or the science, and, with his chilly narrator, he never made me connect with the characters. I see why it won the Hugo: it really does try Big Ideas, and it’s not indifferent to the fact that sf is made with people; it just didn’t gel for me.
Josh Bazell, Beat the Reaper: High concept! Our narrator is a former Mafia hitman, now in witness protection as a doctor in training, who begins his day by demonstrating to a mugger exactly why he picked the wrong guy in scrubs to assault, confiscating the guy’s gun (this becomes important later, as you might imagine), dallying with a cute drug rep, and lecturing on all aspects of the hospital experience in a world-weary tone. We slowly learn more of his backstory—the tragedy that impelled him into the Mob, and the reasons he got out (too heavy on evil to be called tragic, at least for him). When the wrong patient recognizes him, he needs to rely on his medical and his criminal expertise to survive. Contains a scene so gory that it makes me nauseated just recalling it; exploitatively compelling. Is this why people like Chuck Palahniuk? I enjoyed it, but I feel a little dirty admitting that.
Jordan Castillo Price, Among the Living: ebook, available at the author’s site. There’s also a big chunk available as a free preview. Victor is a PsyCop and Jacob is a regular cop with a PsyCop partner of his own. Victor’s special talent, talking to the dead, distresses him so much he regularly doses himself with serious drugs to numb his sensitivity. Jacob hooks up with him (they’re having sex only a few pages in!) and then they immediately get caught up in a murder investigation that seems to involve the paranormal. It moved a little fast for me—I never really got why Jacob was so into Victor so fast, especially given Victor’s self-description as sloppy druggie—but I can see why slash fans might like Price’s work.
Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals: For reasons of the sort that generally occur in Ankh-Morpork, the professors at UU have to field a football team. Ridcully and Stibbons both do their best to deal with the resulting messes. Meanwhile, there’s a new fellow working as a candle dribbler at UU, whose secret might be enough to get him and a lot of other people killed. I don’t know why this didn’t move me much—the gentle romance between two sensible people was the kind of thing I ordinarily find delightful. Maybe it was the sports thing; I just don’t get it, and I don’t know enough about UK rowdy culture to appreciate what Pratchett was sending up.
Josh Bazell, Beat the Reaper: High concept! Our narrator is a former Mafia hitman, now in witness protection as a doctor in training, who begins his day by demonstrating to a mugger exactly why he picked the wrong guy in scrubs to assault, confiscating the guy’s gun (this becomes important later, as you might imagine), dallying with a cute drug rep, and lecturing on all aspects of the hospital experience in a world-weary tone. We slowly learn more of his backstory—the tragedy that impelled him into the Mob, and the reasons he got out (too heavy on evil to be called tragic, at least for him). When the wrong patient recognizes him, he needs to rely on his medical and his criminal expertise to survive. Contains a scene so gory that it makes me nauseated just recalling it; exploitatively compelling. Is this why people like Chuck Palahniuk? I enjoyed it, but I feel a little dirty admitting that.
Jordan Castillo Price, Among the Living: ebook, available at the author’s site. There’s also a big chunk available as a free preview. Victor is a PsyCop and Jacob is a regular cop with a PsyCop partner of his own. Victor’s special talent, talking to the dead, distresses him so much he regularly doses himself with serious drugs to numb his sensitivity. Jacob hooks up with him (they’re having sex only a few pages in!) and then they immediately get caught up in a murder investigation that seems to involve the paranormal. It moved a little fast for me—I never really got why Jacob was so into Victor so fast, especially given Victor’s self-description as sloppy druggie—but I can see why slash fans might like Price’s work.
Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals: For reasons of the sort that generally occur in Ankh-Morpork, the professors at UU have to field a football team. Ridcully and Stibbons both do their best to deal with the resulting messes. Meanwhile, there’s a new fellow working as a candle dribbler at UU, whose secret might be enough to get him and a lot of other people killed. I don’t know why this didn’t move me much—the gentle romance between two sensible people was the kind of thing I ordinarily find delightful. Maybe it was the sports thing; I just don’t get it, and I don’t know enough about UK rowdy culture to appreciate what Pratchett was sending up.
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