REVIEW: THE MARTIAN

THE MARTIAN

BY

ANDY WEIR

ISBN: 978-0-8041-3902-1

Pages: 384

Publisher: Crown Publishing

Published: 11 February 2014

On the cover:

 (From the publisher's website.)

 

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

   Before I start off the actual review, I have to tell you a little anecdote from when I grew up. Back in around 1980 my grandparents had what would be defined as a smallholding. It wasn't big, basically just a patch of land along a road going through a farm-field.About a quarter of that property was used to grow potatoes. When I was a kid I used to help with setting the potatoes in the ground in the spring, and getting them out of there in the autumn. This was done by hand.So, despite being a city-boy I have personal experience with low-tech potato growing.

   At this point you might very well wonder what my personal anecdote has to do with a Science Fiction book? It's actually pretty essential. The growing of potatoes is essential to the whole premise of the book. And for me it is also where things start to fall apart. My recollection of potato farming doesn't completely mesh with what happens in the book. I'll grant that I could be misremembering things, it is after all 30+ years ago, but I am pretty sure there are flaws in the book's description.

   This is actually a huge problem when it comes to this novel, there is a lot that has to be bought without question when it comes to science in this narrative , most of it quite more advanced than potato growing. Usually I would have no problem accepting this science as facts, I assume that the author has done his research. But when I feel something is wrong I start on the path to distrust, and that brings me out of the story. Basically, my suspension of disbelief has ended, and I stop taking the story seriously.

   Not taking a story seriously need not be a problem. I enjoy Action Adventure and Action Thriller books, neither of which usually has a close relationship with realistic events. This is however a Science Fiction novel, and one that spends a lot of time setting up its science.

   That is really where The Martian falls down for me. It spends so much time trying to be a Hard SF book, more than enough time is spent with the science of surviving to bore anyone who isn't planning to get marooned on Mars. Even if I didn't have the potato-problem I stated above there is so much science talk here that it quickly takes on the cloak of techno-babble. Page after page of unnecessary detail that add nothing to the story, just shows off how little story there really is.
   This is coupled with lots of plot-points that make little or no sense. Even the events leading up to the novel's starting point seem to be taken straight out of an Action Adventure novel. And as in an Action Adventure novel there are problems facing the "hero" that seem totally unlikely to even occur once, yet they keep coming up time and time again. That the main character always has the skills needed to rig together a solution keeps getting less and less plausible.
   Before the novel was halfway through, I was already fed up with the obstacles put in the main characters way. There was simply too many of them, and it started to feel repetitive, like there was a list that needed to be gotten through before the end of the novel. And at times it feels like you're reading a novelisation of a Final Destination movie with all the coincidences. There were times I thought about abandoning the novel because of the repetitive series of obstacles.

   When it abandons Hard SF the novel works well. Weir writes good action and suspense, and in the passages that aren't smothered by techno-babble the novel flows well. But it is bogged down by the structure of the novel, everything on Mars is told as a journal/log. That gets very dry. Worse than that it means we are distanced to some degree from the main character, and I found I only started caring about his survival when it would mean success for the people back on Earth. I felt the main character only came to life when he interacted with others, and for much of the novel he's completely on his own.
   The Earth-set parts of the narrative work much better. There's a bigger cast of characters, and their interactions makes the story flow much better. I even found there to be more tension in what is happening elsewhere than Mars, and it also brought more immediacy to what is going on on the red planet. However, some of the tension that could have been there from the Earth point of view is lost when we already know what is happening on the surface of Mars.

   There is some glimpses of a good story here. The final chapter especially is giving us a glimpse of a suspense-filled story. Unfortunately, at that point the only thing I really cared about was being done with this book.
   If pressed to describe this book in one word I would choose uneven. It's all over the place when it comes to pacing, especially between the Hard SF parts and the Action Adventure parts. For me the Hard SF parts became just a distraction from what is in parts a good, and tense, story.They also felt completely out of place in a narrative that contains lots of elements you'd be more inclined to look for in a summer blockbuster movie than in a novel of this type.
   There's plenty of good ideas here, and at times Weir shows he can pull off a fast-paced narrative, but I feel it fails in becoming a coherent whole. There's glimpses of something much better here, but they get lost in a desire to be both action-filled entertainment and dry Hard SF. Even with all those problems I feel that this would be an interesting novel for those that are interested in fiction about the exploration of the Solar System.

LINKS: Andy Weir  Crown Publishing

REVIEW: STAR WARS: RAZOR'S EDGE

STAR WARS:

RAZOR'S EDGE

EMPIRE AND REBELLION BOOK 1

BY

MARTHA WELLS

ISBN: 978-0-345-54524-4

Pages: 288

Publisher: LucasBooks/Random House Del Rey

Published: 24 September 2013

On the cover:

(From the publisher's website)

Times are desperate for the Rebel Alliance. Harassment by the Empire and a shortage of vital supplies are hindering completion of a new secret base on the ice planet Hoth. So when Mid Rim merchants offer much-needed materials for sale, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo lead an Alliance delegation to negotiate a deal.

But when treachery forces the rebel ship to flee into territory controlled by pirates, Leia makes a shocking discovery: the fierce marauders come from Leia’s homeworld of Alderaan, recently destroyed by the Death Star. These refugees have turned to pillaging and plundering to survive—and they are in debt to a pirate armada, which will gladly ransom the princess to the vengeful Empire . . . if they find out her true identity.

Struggling with intense feelings of guilt, loyalty, and betrayal, Leia is determined to help her wayward kinspeople, even as Imperial forces are closing in on her own crippled ship. Trapped between lethal cutthroats and brutal oppressors, Leia and Han, along with Luke, Chewbacca, and a battle-ready crew, must defy death—or embrace it—to keep the rebellion alive.

  This novel brought back a lot of memories to me. It's set two years after the Battle of Yavin (, the destruction of the first Death Star). And it has Leia, Han, Luke, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2 in it - this is in the middle of Original Trilogy territory.
   On one hand the nostalgia is a good thing. Star Wars set in that period is the most important thing when it comes to getting me interested in Science Fiction in the first place. On the other hand it means this novel has to compete with the memory of a lot of the comics that Marvel published in the 1980s (and that I read in Norwegian translations). Honestly, I think the two cancel eachother out. The nostalgia is balanced with me having read many stories with these characters. I have already seen these characters outside the movies, so while I want to reminisce, I don't want repetition of what I've seen before.

   Wells has written a story that definitely fits in with the feel of 1980s Star Wars. It captures the action-filled Space Adventure vibe that drew me, and many of my friends, into the world of George Lucas & co perfectly.
   When this story starts out, it concern the practical realities around establishing something that will be familiar to fans of the movies. It's a nice hook, and an interesting look behind the scenes - so to speak - of the rebellion against the Empire. In itself that would be something that is interesting, although to many it could become a bit mundane. But this doesn't go that straight path, it very quickly veers off to become a much more action filled and exciting story.

   There's lots to instantly like here. Pirates, battles, betrayals, peril, action, eh...you get the picture (- don't think there's a need for me to sound like an '80s movie trailer). This is fast paced, action filled, with a lot of tension and suspense. Of course there's little suspense as to what will happen with the main characters, most of us have already seen them in two movies set after this. But Wells introduces us to some very interesting new characters that you are never certain where will end up.
   And that isn't the only tension you get in this story. Wells is excellent at getting you close to the action, and feeling the peril the characters are in. Even with the characters from the film you sometimes forget that you know where they are at a later time. Wells pulls you in with writing that makes you live in the moment of the story, and that is a great strength of this novel.

   The characters are important in this story, and of the familiar ones it's Leia Organa that shines the most here. It's good to see her at the forefront of events, and being the one who initiates much of what happens. We get to see Leia in some depth here, and she handles herself very well. Wells manages to show off Her Holiness to great effect and really make her come alive.
   There's also some very interesting new players here, one of them is very much connected to Leia. And that works very well, it means she has someone to play - and show herself off - against. It is also handled well. For me it was in some ways the deciding point of what I felt about the novel. This is something that could have broken this novel for me if it felt artificial, like something put there for the sole purpose of showing off Leia. Fortunately it doesn't. It adds a lot of depth to the story, and raises the stakes. It's the element that lifts this above the average Star Wars Extended Universe story for me.

   All in all this is a great Star Wars story for those that want to reminisce about the days between the end of Star Wars and the beginning of Return of the Jedi. And it is a great place to start for those that wants to know more about the days of the Original Trilogy. It is also a good Space Opera tale in its own right.
   Wells writes great action and adventure set in space, and you don't have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy this novel. I can recommend this to anyone who wants a "fun romp" between the stars.

NOTE: I got an e-ARC of this book from the publisher/NetGalley.

REVIEW: Emilie & the Hollow World

STAR WARS REVIEW: Kenobi

LINKS: Martha Wells  Star Wars at Suvudu (Del Rey)

REVIEW: STAR WARS: KENOBI

Cover art by Chris McGrath

Cover design by Scott Biel

STAR WARS:

KENOBI

BY

JOHN JACKSON MILLER

ISBN: 978-0-345-54683-8

Pages: 400

Publisher: LucasBooks/Random House Del Rey

Published: 27 August 2013

On the cover:

(Taken from the publisher's website.)

The Republic has fallen.
Sith Lords rule the galaxy.
Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi has lost everything . . .
Everything but hope.

Tatooine—a harsh desert world where farmers toil in the heat of two suns while trying to protect themselves and their loved ones from the marauding Tusken Raiders. A backwater planet on the edge of civilized space. And an unlikely place to find a Jedi Master in hiding, or an orphaned infant boy on whose tiny shoulders rests the future of a galaxy.

Known to locals only as “Ben,” the bearded and robed offworlder is an enigmatic stranger who keeps to himself, shares nothing of his past, and goes to great pains to remain an outsider. But as tensions escalate between the farmers and a tribe of Sand People led by a ruthless war chief, Ben finds himself drawn into the fight, endangering the very mission that brought him to Tatooine.

Ben—Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, hero of the Clone Wars, traitor to the Empire, and protector of the galaxy’s last hope—can no more turn his back on evil than he can reject his Jedi training. And when blood is unjustly spilled, innocent lives threatened, and a ruthless opponent unmasked, Ben has no choice but to call on the wisdom of the Jedi—and the formidable power of the Force—in his never-ending fight for justice. 

    This book is set more or less straight after the events of Episode III, and is from what I can see the first Star Wars book to focus on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Something that in itself should make for interesting reading to any fan of Star Wars.

   I should perhaps begin with introducing my own relationship to Star Wars. It doesn't begin at the cinema, but when the first movie aired on Norwegian TV in 1984. (This will be common in Norway.) And after that I started reading the comics, and I read all of the Marvel Star Wars comics that were published in Norwegian in 1983-1987. Except for a brief reading of some of the 1990s comics and watching the Clone Wars movie (is that EU or not?, I haven't gotten into the Extended Universe (EU) stuff. Before reading this, the only EU book I'd read was The Splinter in the Mind's Eye.

   I have however kept an eye on the Star Wars EU, and assumed that this would be quite different from what I experienced in the late 1980s. 

   I review this here on completely its own merits, I simply don't have anything to compare it to, It could be that something I react to is par for the course in the EU, but that is something I know nothing about. This is a review made by someone who has made their first dip into the EU for 25 years, and will probably be most helpful for those who have not wandered out of Star Wars' movie universe.

   The first thing I must mentioned is the main character, going by the title you'd think that would be Obi-Wan, but it isn't. Not that he doesn't feature in the book, he does. To be fair he's pretty central, but he is a supporting character. And because the presumption is that he should be the main character, that was something of a problem.

   Not that it is really fair to the real main character to complain that she is not Obi-Wan Kenobi. Annileen Calwell is a good main character. She's strong and independent, at least up to a certain point. She does suffer somewhat from having to be blind to the faults of another character so that Obi-Wan can save her... And as I write that, I realise that actually sounds pretty bad. In a way it is, but not because Annileen is a woman, but because it shows off how stereotypical many of the characters are.

   There's not much new about Annileen's situation, she's a widow with two teenage kids, making a living in a tough environment. Nothing really wrong with starting there, but it doesn't really go any further. And that is true for the other characters as well, there's no real development of characters. What you are presented with at their introduction is pretty much what you are left with when the book is over.

   The only real exception to that is one character who has a "hidden side"...I say "hidden" on purpose, because it really is obvious. Later revelations are only only revelations in the way that you get the specific level his character is on in regards to that character trait. And there's a second characters that we see develop somewhat, but being that the character is of a "race" that is extremely stereotypically portrayed, that doesn't really help. It just highlights how cardboard cut-out the rest of its members are.

   I can't really write this without actually mentioning the character who has is name on the cover. Obi-Wan does to some degree show some personality here, but it comes pretty late. Kenobi spends most of the book being a one-dimensional presence, and he's actually really annoying for the first two thirds of the novel. And I got a feeling he's kept in check because he's such an important part of the Star Wars universe. There's directions this novel could have taken that would have given Obi-Wan more layers, but they are never acted upon. It felt like a bit of a missed opportunity, and I can almost feel how the author has been hamstrung by the demands of the franchise at times.

   On to the story, it's an interesting one once you get past the stereotypical characters and situations. But that takes time.

   The first two thirds of the book are very slow. It feels like walking through the desert with all the repetitions of situations and characters. Which is really a shame, because once the story really gets going, it turns out it is a very good one. The action is well written, there are some interesting turns, and although Obi-Wan's faith is never in doubt, there is some question as to what will happen to the other characters. And some of what does happen is very well done, and has a nice twist to it.

   It is however a case of "too little, too late". Although it absolutely becomes clear that there is a good story in there, it's not one that really deserves this much attention. This would be an excellent novella if most of the first two thirds were cut. But as it stands, there's just too much waiting for the story to get going for what comes late in the book to redeem it.

   This may look like I had a very negative view of the book, but I really didn't. Despite the problems I had with large pars of it, I enjoyed the ending, the action there was great, and the twists satisfying. I think much of my disappointment stems from me having higer expectations about learning something, if not new at least interesting, about Obi-Wan Kenobi. I don't really feel the novel tried to do that, so I can't really fault it for not happening.

   There are problems here, but they are not insurmountable. And this has by no means put me off reading more EU novels, or from grabbing a book by the same author at a later date. Perhaps this is not the best introduction to the EU, but it is one that makes it interesting to take a further look at what is going on there.

   

NOTE: I got an e-ARC of this book from the publisher/NetGalley.

LINKS: John Jackson Miller  Star Wars at Suvudu (Del Rey)

REVIEW: THE CONFESSION

Cover photo by Fry Design Ltd./Getty Images

Cover design by John Fontana

THE CONFESSION

BY

JOHN GRISHAM

ISBN: 978-0-440-42295-2

Pages: 515

Publisher: Dell (Random House)

First published: 26 October 2010

This edition published: 19 July 2011

On the cover:

AN INNOCENT MAN IS ABOUT TO BE EXECUTED.

ONLY A GUILTY MAN CAN SAVE HIM.

In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, Travis Boyette abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.

Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right and confess. But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they’re about to execute an innocent man?

   I have read most of Grisham's novels, and I have enjoyed all of them to some extent. They are always interesting, fast-paced, and they usually have a good suspense element to them. When this novel starts, it seems to follow that pattern, and it does so very well. The story presented in the first few chapters is an intriguing one, and it seems like it will be interesting to follow it wherever it leads. But it soon became apparent I was going to have some issues with this novel.

   After the initial set-up, that as I said above is a good one, you will quickly get the feeling that you have encountered this story before. At least if you watch crime on TV, and especially if you have followed news to do with capital punishment in the US.

   Familiarity doesn't have to be a problem in a novel, sometimes it can even be an advantage, but I felt this was too much of something I have seen before. Not only were the characters pretty much what you would expect to see if you tried to come up with a list of character clichés for a story about an innocent man, but the story itself brought very little new to the table.

   As I  said the story is familiar. I think I actually may have read most of it in a magazine article at some point (, can't remember if it was online or offline). And in some ways I was just waiting for this story to veer off track, to deviate at least a little bit from what felt like familiar territory to me. This is actually where this novel surprised me the most, by not going "off the beaten path", it actually stuck to what I expected the whole time.

   There is only really a couple of minor points that bring in any suspense as to what will happen at all, and those are quickly done. Especially one of them, who would seem to be a long awaited source of some suspense, was quickly resolved.

   All of the above are not actually bugs in this story, they are features. And while I have a reading/watching/news experience that makes this old to me, that isn't necessarily the case for anyone else. If you have little or no expectations of what to find in a story about an innocent man on death row, you'll probably find this much fresher than I did. And there will probably be a lot of suspense in there for you.

   The writing isn't really bad in itself, the novel is on the same level there that you can find in all Grisham novels, and it is really a fast-paced novel. Even with the problems I had with it, I found myself reading chapter after chapter at a steady pace.

   This is definitely one of those novels where the readers mileage will vary to a great extent. I can't really say that there was really something wrong with it as such, it just wasn't a story that worked for me personally. It hasn't put me off reading Grisham though, and I will surely pick up one of his novels again in the future.

LINKS: John Grisham  Bantam Dell

REVIEW: 2010: ODYSSEY TWO

Cover art: Michael Whelan

2010: ODYSSEY TWO

BY

ARTHUR C. CLARKE

ISBN: 0-345-30306-7

Pages: 332

Publisher: Del Rey

Originally published: December 1982

This edition published: February 1984

On the cover:
(Taken from the Random House web site)

Nine years after the disastrous Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition sets out to rendezvous with the derelict spacecraft, to search the memory banks of the mutinous computer HAL 9000 for clues to what went wrong . . . and what became of Commander Dave Bowman.

Without warning, a Chinese expedition targets the same objective, turning the recovery mission into a frenzied race for the precious information Discovery may hold about the enigmatic monolith that orbits Jupiter.

Meanwhile, the being that was once Dave Bowman, the only human to unlock the mystery of the monolith, streaks toward Earth on a vital mission of its own . . .

   This is the second book in Clarke's Space Odyssey quartet, and follows 2001: A Space Odyssey. It does function as a direct sequel, and it does a very good job of bringing the reader back to the world of the first book.

   The novel starts out on Earth, but quickly move on to another expedition to Jupiter. Despite having the same destination as in the previous book we get a wholly different journey this time. And Clarke is really good at giving us a realistic feeling for how this journey passes.
   There's quite a bit of hard science involved in the "space exploration" side of this story. And that is something I found very interesting, despite it being dated. Although a lot has happened in the thirty years since this book was published there's still a very good sense of realism, and for me the parts that have been dated by later discoveries didn't impact my enjoyment of the story.

   Alongside the scientific exploration of the solar system, we also get another story that is much more fantastical. And this is a part of the story that adds a lot to the novel as a whole. The return of Dave Bowman, and his part of the story, is fascinating. It does however provide quite a departure from the rest of the book.  It's almost metaphysical, and it takes some effort to get used to the shift in direction.
   Despite this being quite different to the feeling of the rest of the story, it does as I said add a great deal to it. And Clarke shows himself to be very capable of blending two so different elements into a coherent whole. The more fantastical elements would not have worked so well without having a grounding in the more mundane elements of the rest of the story.

   From the start this novel moves at quite a quick pace, it doesn't take long before we are thrown into events. There are some real surprises for the reader before we even get to what is the physical destination of the novel. These add quite a bit of suspense and wonder.
   Suspense and wonder are really the essential elements of the story. The suspense is not only there in the events that unfold, but there is an eerie atmosphere to what is going on that creates some real tension. Clarke keeps his cars close, and it is really hard to get any sort of grip on what is going to happen next.
   As for sense of wonder, there is a lot of it. There are things happening here that are really mindblowing, and they can really stretch your imagination when you try to grasp what is happening. Especially events towards the end make this a work of great imagination.

   Overall this is a really great follow up to 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you have read that book, or seen the film, I'd urge you to get this book and see what Clarke has in store next. The expansion of ideas is great to experience, and it is great reading for those that like near future Science Fiction.
   The more fantastical parts of this novel will make it suitable for those who like their Science Fiction to not be constrained to hard science. And the space exploration part is very much a must for those that find that fascinating.
   This is another great Science Fiction novel from Clarke.

Review: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Link: Del Rey/Spectra