Blindsight [52 Books #13]

I really had no idea what I was getting into.

Blindsight looks like a hard science fiction first contact novel; it is a first contact novel. But there's so much musing and ideas on the nature of sentience and so many ideas stuffed into the story it made my head spin. The five characters (and one computer) sent out to meet the stranger at the edge of our solar system are far, far from humans we are used to seeing.

The viewpoint character, Siri Keaton, is a synthesist on board the spacecraft Theseus. Siri can measure people and things by their exteriors, somewhat similar to Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques shown on television with Derren Brown. He judges everyone's mood and thoughts by observation to report back to Earth on the state of the mission. He's incredibly detached, unfeeling, and reminds me of Dexter from the series of the same name. The same constant litany of how he doesn't feel, how he learned mechanical routines to convince others he had emotional responses. Oh, and he had half his brain removed as a child.

The team's biologist is a cyborg who's medical gear is tied into his nervous system. Isaac Szpindel tastes blood and feels samples, his cybernetic body splayed across the ship's equipment. Szpindel is the most human of the crew in outlook; obsessed with work, tunnel-visioned, and distant that he is.

Linguist is a gang of four, or more – Susan James is the primary personality of multiple personalities in her body, all multitasking together and each having their own specialties and desires. She had surgery to divide her brain into a set of different cores but believes such fragmentation can be done naturally and at will someday in the future.

Amanda Bates is the military officer on the expedition. She, like Szpindel, is relatively human in outlook, though she can see and feel and command and fight through a distributed network of her 'grunts', robotic soldiers tied to her mind. She's also a pacifist and chafes under the command of the last two crew members.

The Theseus has a quantical computer on board, monitoring and deciding constantly, and could be in command if the powers that launched the mission didn't decide on a somewhat more human leader.

Sarasti is a vampire. Yeah. Vampire.

Watts worked out the biology and history of vampires in great detail, finding a way to make it work in a hard-SF setting. Vampires: a subspecies of humanity that went extinct about ten thousand years ago that was savant-autistic and predated on humanity due to an inability to produce certain neuro-chemicals. Tetra chromatic, dual-retina, resistant to prionic diseases, and capable of hibernation as it's prey replenished numbers over decades. Amazingly, it works as far as I can read the science.

Sarasti is the mission commander, and he doesn't suck blood. He eats brains. He's a predator ordering his food around, using his hunting mind to work the problem of first contact. He usually wears glasses to avoid spooking the crew.

So these are our representatives to the alien. The alien is far stranger than any of them. It chooses the name 'Rorschach' in first communications.

So, first contact is made, and then Peter Watts spins out every damn theory about consciousness he can in a mad rush of speculation, traps, pondering, torture, confrontation, and communication. The effects of EM fields on human minds. The usefulness of DNA. The distinction between empathy and intuition. The need for self-awareness. Viral talk. Dandelions as a model for space exploration. The last sentient being to exist. A strange, shambling host of mental defects throughout history. The blind playing catch. Blindsight.

The ending, as so often happens, is rushed, in a desperate climax once all the pieces are set in place. Really, the great joy is the ideas, the musings, the questions about what we are inside ourselves and just what is the use of ourselves, all brought up in a menagerie of humanity. The appendix alone is a trove of ideas, and reading all the references in the footnotes could keep you reading for a year.

Strangely, the most similar book I've read recently is 'Stumbling Upon Happiness,' also delving into the processes of our memery.

I'd recommend this book to those that like a hard-SF novel and those who love big questions. Blindsight is now available under the creative commons license at http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

Creating Unforgettable Characters [52 Books #12}

Seiger goes through the steps of creating a character for movies and television in clear,concise steps. It's a good guide for anyone looking to make better characters for fiction, dramatized non-fiction, role-playing games, or perhaps that other personality for 'that' chat room.

Each character is built through broad strokes then adding details to make them consistent with a real person. The next step is to add contrast to make the characters more interesting, then work on how they all relate to each other; who conflicts with who and how. The chapters are livened by real examples from produced works, such as Rain Man, Ordinary People, Gorillas in the Mist, Fatal Attraction, MacGuyver and Cagney and Lacey.

I liked it. It showed a clear process and gave much good advice for making a character from whole cloth, and showing how we -can't- make a character from whole cloth – we look around us to find ideas and kernels for our fictional parts.

Virtual Light [52 Books #11]

Gibson still works wonders with language. He paints landscapes and moods with his choice of words throughout his novels.

Closing his eyes, he centers himself in the background hiss of climate-control. He imagines himself in Tokyo, this room in some new wing of the old Imperial. He sees himself in the streets of Chiyoda-ku, beneath the sighing trains. Red paper lanterns line a narrow lane.
He opens his eyes.
Mexico City is still there.
The eight empty bottles, plastic miniatures, are carefully aligned with the edge of the coffee table: a Japanese vodka, Come Back Salmon, its name more irritating than its lingering aftertaste.
He opens another of the little bottles.
His gaze strays to NHK weather. A low-pressure front is crossing Kansas. Next to it, an eerily calm Islamic downlink ceaselessly reiterates the name of God in a fractal-based cryptography.
He drinks the vodka.
He watches television.

Virtual Light is a basic crime story done up in wonderful makeup and a dress to die for. You have characters filling the old noir roles of the PI, the girl in trouble, the evil plotter, the psycho killer right-hand man. All are twisted to nearly unrecognizable new shapes; the PI is instead a ex-cop, ex-security guard who's a nice guy with a little impulse problem. “Rydell had come to the conclusion that that high crazy thing, that rush of Going For It, was maybe something that wasn't always quite entirely to be trusted.” The girl in trouble starts everything when she steals the macguffin after a guy at a party treats her rudely. The common detective fiction archetypes are all there, including the buddy on the force, but all are done in new, interesting ways.

As a note, I love Sublett. Security guard, lapsed member of the church of television, pacifist, allergy sufferer. Amazing pile of personality quirks; I can imagine Gibson cackling with glee over the keyboard.

The story flows well, quickly, with small diversions to illustrate the San Francisco bridge culture. The item is stolen, the manhunt begins, bodes pile up, the turning point is reached and the story spirals to a climax. The climax is brief, though. It's natural in this world, but it feels rushed in relation to the leise taken over the details of the people and the cultures of L.A. And San Francisco. Really, my only complaint was how the story wrapped up in 10 pages a little too neatly.

To summarize: Gibson's Virtual Light paint a magnificent portrait of a near-future striated world of the powers, the squeezing-by and the semi-homeless. The characters are strong when needed, save for a slightly bland 'hero' mold on Rydell. The story is a bit simple but moves well and leaves you to focus on the portrait, not the message. After more than a decade since reading Gibson's famous cyberpunk stories I'm read to start reading his newer novels again.

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy [52 Books #10]

1987 was how many lifetimes ago? Card's writing guide for speculative fiction still has much good information on what works, what doesn't, and where the traps are for young writers. There's probably as good sources of information on the internet but most writing guides say 'buy this book'. And so I did, and while it was a page-turning drama it did keep my interest.

The chapters on technique are timeless; styles change, but a writer must understand what his audience expects before breaking new grounds. Simply, you need to know the rules before you break them. Managing exposition, finding the right viewpoint, finding the main character, all these lessons matter. I'd recommend the book for these chapters for people interested in writing or looking to critically analyze writing.

The latter chapters on getting published are hurt by the massive cultural shifts the publishing landscape has undergone. Card's advice to start with short stories published in magazines feels outdated. These days, I wonder if a young author could make a start using just Facebook and self-promotion.

The last two chapters dealing with conventions and writer's groups aren't quite so dated. Conventions are good for networking and meeting fans; bad if you make your career about attending conventions and your writing suffers. The pros and cons of writer's meetings, the Clarion workshops, and other circles are discussed, along with all the common problems leading you to quit them.

It's a solid book on writing SF&F. The techniques are always useful; the advice for dealing with other writers and fans is often helpful. The marketing world is different these days but the recommendations are a starting point for the unknowing.

Lamb, or the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal [52 Books #9]

Well... Let's assume no one in the world will be offended by this. 'Kay?

It's pretty damn funny. Lamb is the story of Biff, who first met Jesus when they were six. Shortly thereafter Jesus punches him for offering to make Mary his concubine. That about sets their relationship up for the rest of the book. Biff is Jesus's close friend, watching his back, facepalming when Jesus tells too much of the truth, and tagging along to keep him out of trouble as they set out from their town to cross the world. In short, he's the rascal who keeps the story grounded and funny. The world is researched well. Moore impressed me with a authentic feel, even though we have so little authentic tales of day-to-day life in that era.

The early book is the childhood trio, Jesus, Biff and Maggie (Mary Madelene, recently moved to town) . It's good comedy, Biff fawning over Maggie, Maggie fawning over Jesus, and Jesus really wants the messenger angel to go back and get some clarification on this 'not know the touch of a woman' thing. There's the roman soldier Justus, who shakes his head at the boys and just knows they'll be trouble when they get older. It all comes apart when Maggie s betrothed to the son of a pharisee and Biff and Jesus decide they can't stand to see her married. Jesus sets off to find the three magi who came to him at the manger and Biff follows to make sure nobody conks his friend and robs him.

Their travels tack them to Persia, to China, to the Himalayas and to India. Jesus meets his three teachers, learning compassion and wisdom; Biff learns explosives and kung-fu. Well, Jesus learns kung-fu as well, but he refuses to strike out at anyone, leading to the worst pun of the book.

The humor breaks down near the end. I dare anyone outside Monty Python to make the crucification funny. Still, it's a good book, trading comedy for drama at the end and I'd consider reading more of Moore's work.

The New Topping Book [52 Books #8]

I'm a roleplayer. I'm on the internet. Naturally, sex comes up now and then. One thing I learned from the New Topping Book is that the games people play in real life are nothing like the fantasies spun in a torrid corner of your favorite MMORPG.

The New Topping Book is a brief, carefully written guide on how to be a top, a dominant, a master or mistress in real life without hurting yourself or others. The two authors show experience and love of the dominant/submissive lifestyle in their writing, which is surprisingly tender. There's chapters on why anyone would want to be a dominant and have control over someone and inflict pain, with good answers ranging from surfing the bottom's emotional high to just wanting to 'do it right' after seeing tops not fulfill your wishes, to caring and wanting to act out your lovers dreams. Chapters detail how to be responsible, how the need for open communication and negotiation is so critical. How to start your life as a dominant, how to find others, how performance anxiety can drive you mad, and so much other advice.

Perhaps the best advice is this: you and your partner are doing what the two of you want to do. Don't get caught up in 'who's the best top' and 'if you're not 24/7 you're an amateur' situations. Live the lifestyle you and your partner wish and if others in the community don't respect that, it's not the community for you. Be happy together, explore your limits together, and don't let anyone denigrate or demand you exceed those boundaries.

The Lies of Locke Lamorra [52 Books #7]

I'd heard good things about The Lies of Locke Lamorra. Coming off of Blackfoot Physics, which I had several issues with, this book was a joy. I was caught up in the first chapter and blew through the book in a weekend. Not every bit was great, but it was a solid, unique fantasy novel.

Locke Lamorra is so not a fantasy hero – he's not even a fantasy villain. He's the scum your D&D party trips over in a random encounter. Young Locke is an orphan after a plague. With other orphans he's shuffled off and bought by the, for lack of a better term, thieves training guild. Locke steals, mugs, pickpockets, and quickly becomes too much for his master, ending with the great line only a few pages in the book as this master tries to sell him off to a beggar guild, “Either you buy him or I have to cut his throat tonight.”

We quickly move to an older Locke, now a con man and involved in deep schemes to defraud the rich. His plans are timed, tricky, and always within a breath of disaster – and they don't always work, so there's no sense of him being invulnerable. Locke and his companions, The Gentleman Bastards, are all drawn wonderfully with loves and depth. Locke is clever, smart, ready with a disarming word, but useless in a fight. The twins are like his older brothers, backing him up. Bug is the youngest, newest member of the troupe and is eager to prove himself to his betters, taking risks at every turn. Finally, Jean is the studious one, running the numbers for the gang and also the only decent brawler among them.

As the story progresses the con games become involved in an underworld war for control of crime in the city and things spiral far beyond Locke's control. His Capa faces threats to his leadership from a strange rival, the city's spymaster gets a lead on Locke's latest con game, and the new would-be crime lord picks Locke out to help him overthrow the city, like it or not. Locke dances as fast as he can between all of them. He almost keeps up.

I'd recommend it to any fantasy lover, any who like mafia movies, or anyone who likes the Grifters. My two disappointments are Lynch will draw wonderful characters and then kill them off; I can understand why he does it, but I miss them. The other is that I've heard the sequel is notably weaker, and from reading the preview chapter at the end of this book my interest in continuing this series faded.