Redshirts
by John Scalzi starts with Ensign Andrew Dahl assigned to the Universal Union’s
flagship, the starship Intrepid. He works in the Xenobiology department and his
coworkers advise him not to go on away missions with the officers of the
starship. Crewmembers on away missions who are not officers are dying at an
alarming rate. Dahl must discover the unbelievable truth, or he will die like
the other Redshirts.
Summary
Andrew Dahl connects with a group of new crewmen on the
Intrepid. His group includes Maia Duvall who transferred from her last post,
his rich friend Jimmy Hanson, a suspected ‘fungus’ dealer Finn, and the mysterious
Hester. They learn not to go on away missions with the ship’s officers or risk
death. The officers to watch are the Intrepid’s Captain Abernathy, chief
science officer Q’eeng, astrogator Kerensky, medical chief Hartnell, and chief
engineer West. The key to the mystery is finding the missing crewman Jenkins. The
story is connected to the original Star Trek TV show. They must discover the
nature of what Dahl’s coworkers call the sacrificial effect and another effect
called the Narrative. Shenanigans ensue and the conclusion arrives to complete
Dahl’s story. There are three codas that are from different viewpoint
characters that finish the theme of the story.
Recommendation
Redshirts by John Scalzi is a great novel. It’s funny, has an unusual premise, and moves quickly to the conclusion. The novel is sneaky because the humor overshadows a great theme. The three codas bring home the theme of making your own reality. There is a first-person coda and a second person coda. The third person coda ties up the themes explored in the novel and the final image ends the novel perfectly. I like that there is no sequel because the end says it all.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page for Redshirts by
John Scalzi
The
Dispatcher by John Scalzi is about Tony Valdez who is a legal professional
murderer. In the future, people who are murdered
come back to life in the place where they find most comforting. People who commit suicide and have natural deaths stay dead.
Murder victims return to life naked but alive. So, murderers can keep people
from dying an eternal death. Someone has kidnapped one of Tony’s colleagues,
another Dispatcher and Tony must rescue him, or his colleague may be killed and
stay dead. Will Tony continue to search for him even though Tony may face his
own eternal death?
Summary
The story starts with Tony at the hospital on an assignment
covering for his friend Jimmy Albert. Insurance companies demand Dispatchers
are present at risky surgeries so if the operation goes wrong the Dispatcher
can murder the patient so the patient can live again. This will protect the
hospital and the insurance company from wrongful death lawsuits. It is a judgment
call for the Dispatcher on whether to do the task. After he completes his
assignment, Chicago detective Nona Langdon interviews Tony about Jimmy. Jimmy
is missing and Nona thinks Tony can help her find him. Tony knows the right
people to ask about what assignments Jimmy was working on. Jimmy was taking
less than legal jobs and they wondered if that was why he was kidnapped. Tony
uses his contacts without Nona knowledge and it gets him into trouble. Nona and
Tony follow their leads to find out what happened to Jimmy.
Recommendation
The Dispatcher is a 130-page novella and is a tight, intriguing story. The mechanism of how murder victims are returned to life is an interesting idea and the ramifications are explored in this story. It’s a future police procedural with a surprising moral. If you don’t pay attention to your loved one’s wishes, you will suffer at your own peril. I want to read the next novella, The Dispatcher 2 when published and learn more about Tony and the role of Dispatchers in this world.
Links
The Dispatcher by John Scalzi is Book #1 of the
Dispatcher Series
This is the link to The Dispatcher’s Goodreads page.
John Scalzi read the first chapter in his work in
progress, the Dispatcher 2, at the science fiction conference ConFusion in Detroit
on January 19, 2019. This is a link to my recap of the conference and John
Scalzi’s reading
This is a link to my book review of The Consuming Fire
by John Scalzi, Book 1 of the Interdependency Sequence. It is the next most
recent book I have read by John Scalzi.
I attended the SF
conference named ConFusion at 5801 Southfield Freeway Dearborn, Michigan at the
DoubleTree Hotel from January 18 to 20,
2019. ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association. I
attended 4 panels, one reading, one interview, and watched the movie The
Princess Bride. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so the areas
were designated with names related to the movie like Miracle Max’s Film Room,
The Fire Swamp Artists Alley, The Cliffs of Insanity Consuite, Pit of Despair
Gaming, and the Thieves Forest Music Room. I stayed at the Hawthorn Hotel by
Wyndham which was next to the Double Tree.
Writers Talk about
Anything But Writing panel with Mark Oshiro, John Scalzi, and Delilah Dawson:
Mark was the
moderator and he came up with the topic. His point was that panelists get
questions about writing, publishing, and touring, but get few questions about
their other interests. This panel forced them to talk about something else.
John Scalzi talked about being almost 50, his exercise program, and taking
modern dance in high school. Mark talked about who he was cast as the lead in
the play Music Man, Harold Hill, in high school while being Mexican and gay.
John talked about working at Del Taco and learning about life. He was in an air
band in high school and won a contest drumming to Round and Round by Ratt. Mark
didn’t understand the concept of an air band since he is from another
generation. John finished up the panel by talking about his wife’s family’s
salsa recipe and how he was glad he married into the family to taste it, The
panel was fun and I’m glad Mark came up with the topic. I learned about the
panelists and I liked that.
Link to another
air band video of John Scalzi at the Webb school:
Mars in Fact and
Fiction panel with industrial scientist Bill Higgins, SF writer specializing in
Mars fiction Martin L. Shoemaker, and professor from Connecticut State
University Dr. Jennifer Piatek:
Two slide
presentations were presented in this panel.
Dr. Piatek’s
presentation was called Mars – A Short Tour, which covered the history of
scientific fact about Mars. The incorrectly proposed canals of Mars were
refuted in the ’60s with the Mariner mission.
The Viking mission extended our knowledge of the surface of Mars. Mars has a
rough southern highland and a smooth northern plain. Most Mars missions land in
the north. The next mission to Mars is scheduled to be the Mars Rover 2020
mission, scheduled to be launched in 2020.
Bill Higgins
presentation was called Mars in Our Stories, which covered SF writing about
Mars. He highlighted a picture printed in the September 1956 Life magazine that
imagined the aliens of Mars as told from many stories including War of the
Worlds by H. G. Welles, Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, and A Martian
Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum. He next mentioned the 1938 radio broadcast of
War of the Worlds adapted by Orson Welles that caused a panic in New Jersey.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and the John Carter series by Edgar Rice
Burroughs were also mentioned. The panel ran out of time to continue to more
modern examples of Mars fiction.
I thought that
both presentations were well done, and the information was interesting.
A copy of a
drawing by Boris Artzybasheff from the September 24, 1956 issue of Life
magazine.
Saturday,
January 19th at 3 PM
Reading
by John Scalzi:
John Scalzi’s
current work in progress is his sequel to his novella called The Dispatcher.
The tentative title for the work is Dispatcher 2 –the dispationing (probably not the final title). He read Chapter 1 of
his new work. In the world of the novel, people who are murdered will return
alive to a place they found comfort in
the past. They appear naked, healthy and well. Suicide does not work in this
world so there is a call for Dispatchers, who murder terminal patients or for
other reasons if their clients want a fresh start. This work is about a
Dispatcher debating if he will accept Mr. Pang as a client. The chapter comes
to a satisfying conclusion. Scalzi is an engaging reader of his work. Well
done.
Scalzi had more
time to read, so he read two posts from his blog named Whatever. The first post
he read was titled “Automated Customer Service”. It was a funny short story
about a computerized phone customer service call about a malfunctioning
Vacuubot.
A short Q and A followed.
The whole hour was fun and perfect. It was my best hour of the con.
Saturday,
January 19th at 6:30 PM (Err, I should have been there at 6:10 PM)
I watched the
movie The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride
was the theme of this con, Storming the ConFusion. I’ve seen the movie many
times but I thought that it would be fun to see it here with an audience. In
the Henry Ford boardroom (renamed Miracle Max’s Film Room for the Con) there is
a large screen TV at one end of the room and a large table with comfortable
chairs surrounding it. The movie played on the screen and all the dozen chairs
were filled.
On the sheet
posted on the door, it said the movie
would start at 6:30 PM but I think it started at 6:10 PM. Then I arrived at
6:25 PM the scene playing was the one where the Man in Black (Dread Pirate
Roberts, but secretly Westley) was sword fighting with Inigo Montoya and it was
almost over. The movie ended at 7:40 PM and the movie is 90 minutes long so I
figure about a 6:10 PM start. I watched the rest of the movie. The cool thing
is that the five scenes at the beginning of the movie that I missed are all
available on Youtube. I watched them all after the con. It turned out to be a
great idea to watch the movie with others and I am glad that I did.
Youtube link to a
playlist with 12 clips from the movie:
Sign on the door
to the boardroom where the movie played.
Sunday,
January 20th at 10 AM
I attended an interview with Ada Palmer, the Author Guest of Honor for ConFusion 2019. Ada Palmer was interviewed by Black Gate columnist Brandon Crilly. She is an associate professor of early modern European History at the University of Chicago. Ada Palmer first talked about her current project on censorship. She is co-writing a book called Censorship and Information Control in Information Revolutions with Cory Doctorow and Adrian Johns. Her project is funded through Kickstarter Their idea is that censorship has always been a part of society and always will. There are two kinds of censorship. The Catholic model where works are sent to a censer and edited before they are published and the English model where works are censored after they have been printed and deemed censorable.
Censorship relates to her current fiction novel series, Terra Ignota. She extrapolated certain trends from the past into the future to develop her series. Some of those trends are religiosity, the changing family unit, and gender relations. She recommended the short story The Autopsy by Michael Shae, link below. She identifies herself as a writer and not a professor. Her writing suggestion is to take an old story and edit it to half-length to get to the essence of the story. It will help the writer to be concise and make sure that every line and word is doing some work. Brandon conducted an interesting interview with Ada Palmer and I plan to read Too Like the Lightning this year. It’s on my Goodreads list.
State of the Solar
System panel with industrial scientist Bill Higgins, SF writer specializing in
Mars fiction Martin L. Shoemaker, and professor from Connecticut State
University Dr. Jennifer Piatek:
The same panel
members from the Mars panel on Saturday continued their discussion about space
exploration beyond Mars. They talked about the International Space Station
first and then spent most of the rest of the panel talking about probes to the
asteroids. The TV show Salvage 1 from 1979 starring Andy Griffith was mentioned
about commercial space exploration. The show was about a man who built a
spaceship intending to go to the moon and salvage the Apollo mission’s
equipment and sell it on the Earth. It was an interesting panel and the room
was packed, standing room only.
Sunday,
January 20th at 1 PM
Supply Lines and
Economics in Fantasy Worldbuilding panel with K. A. Doore, Ferrett Steinmetz, Jennifer
Mace, Scott H. Andrews, Jon Skovron, and Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
They authors talked
about how economics affected the story they write. The best part of the panel
was their recommendations of resource books to read. They are 1491 by Charles
Man, Debt by David Graeber, Great Cities in History by John Julius Norwich.,
and Food by Dorothy Hartley. There were two examples of novels using the topic illustrated,
the Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham and War of Light and Shadow by
Jenny Wurts. I wondered if six panelists were too many for them to get each of
their points across, but the panel went smoothly, and each panelist had
interesting comments. I put all the books mentions on my Goodreads to read list
and look forward too many hours of good reading.
Recommendation –
Conclusion
I had a great drive
to Detroit just before the snowstorm. The con was set up well making it easy to
find the locations. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent
reading and was engaging in the panel I attended. My other highlights were Ada
Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride at the con. I’m planning to
return next year.
Links
This is a link to
John Scalzi’s post about attending ConFusion 2019.
The next most recent conference that I attended was Cleveland
Inkubator which was held on August 4, 2018,
at the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library, 525 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115. The event was sponsored by Literary Cleveland.
This is a link to my conference recap.
This is a
book review of the Consuming Fire by John Scalzi. Cardenia Wu-Patrick is the most recent Emperox of the Interdependency. She is coronated as Grayland II and
her reign starts with a crisis. The star systems of the Interdependency are
connected by the Flow and the Flow is changing. She faces a looming disaster
when the dependent colonies of the Interdependency will become isolated. What
can she do about the collapse of the Flow and can she get the ruling class to
agree to her solutions?
Summary – Background
Cardenia is concerned with the crisis of the projected collapse of the Flow connections to her Empire. The Flow is a wormhole network that connects the different stars of the Interdependency. Humans can only live on the surface of the planet called End. All other colonies are space stations or enclosed stations on planetary bodies. The Interdependency is headed by trading clans. Each clan owns a star system and has a monopoly on one product. The products are traded between clans and no colonies are independent. Cardenia’s clan is the Wu clan. The Wu clan created the Interdependency and every Emperox for the last thousand years has been a member of the Wu clan.
The secondary plot of the novel involves the Nohamapetan clan’s opposition to Cardenia’s rule. Nadashe Nohamapetan has been accused of the attempted assassination of Cardenia. Her mother, the Countess Nohamapetan tries to free her daughter. Cardenia lets the wheel of justice progress without interference. Cardenia put Kiva Lagos in charge of the Nohamapetan clan’s finances, which causes conflict with the Countess.
Summary – Main Plot
The main plot involves the projected collapse of the Flow. Flow physicist Count Claremont predicts the collapse of the Flow by his calculations. Flow Physicist Marce Claremont, his son, continues his father’s work and is Cardenia’s closest advisor. When the first Flow collapses as predicted, the Interdependency is rocked with the ramifications. Flow physicist Hatide Roynold has different ideas than Marce about the Flow. She predicts that other Flows will open as others close. A flow opens to a lost colony in the Dalasysla system that has been isolated from the Interdependency for 800 years. Cardenia sends Marce and Hatide to investigate the lost colony. They want to discover what can happen to an isolated colony when the Flow collapses. What Marce finds in Dalasysla will change what the people of the Interdependency think about their past and their future.
Recommendation
The Consuming Fire is a quick reading action novel with a satisfying conclusion that answers questions but raises more questions. It’s a great follow up to The Collapsing Empire and shows enough about the conflicts in the Interdependency to set up a spectacular conclusion in Book 3 which is tentatively titled The Last Emperox due to be released in 2020. I liked the relationship between Cardenia and Marce the best. They make an engaging pair. I thought the best part was the revelations that Marce discovers in the Dalasysla system. It’s an excellent expansion of the story’s universe. I plan to read Book 3 as soon as it is published.
Links
This is the link to The Consuming Fire’s Goodreads
page.
Head On by John Scalzi, Book #2 of the Lock In Series
Introduction
Chris Shane witnesses the death of Duane Chapman, the first player killed in the new future violent sport of Hilketa. Years ago, in our future, an epidemic called Haden’s Syndrome affected millions of people who are now unable to control their own bodies. They interact with the outside world by using autonomous robots, called threeps, which are remotely connected to their brains. Chris and Duane have Haden’s Syndrome.
Duane plays in a team sport where the threeps battle on a sports field. The object of the game is to rip the head off the designated opponent’s threep and score a goal with it. Duane’s threep was destroyed and his body should not have died but it has. Chris is an FBI agent who must find out how and why Duane died. The case goes down unexpected paths and Chris must put together the clues to find the truth or risk Chris’s own life.
Summary
Chris is non-gender specific in the novel. Chris is at the Hilketa game because Chris’s father is interested in purchasing an expansion team based in Washington, D. C. Chris’s father is a famous championship-winning former basketball player and a real estate billionaire. Chris was the poster child for Haden’s rights but now wants to just solve cases for the FBI in relative anonymity. Chris’s partner in the FBI is Leslie Vann. She is the senior partner and helps Chris investigate the case. People keep dying in the novel as Chris gets closer to the truth. The criminals destroy Chris’s threeps and eventually threaten Chris’s life.
Recommendation
I enjoyed this novel very much. It is not necessary to read the first novel first though it helps with the background material. This novel reads fast, the action does not stop, and the revelations are valid. The police procedural part of the novel holds up well. The part of the novel dealing with Chris’s self-identity and struggle with being famous is the most interesting and the most frustrating. Keeping Chris gender-neutral has eliminated any romantic relationships. Duane is a Haden married to a non-Haden, Marla. Though that relationship does not end well, I wanted to see Chris struggle with a relationship in this novel. I think this might be what the author is building toward if there is a third novel in the series. I look forward to reading more about Chris Shane if there are more novels in the series.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Head On by John Scalzi.
This is a link to my review of Lock In by John Scalzi, Book #1 of the Lock In Series. FBI agent Chris Shane cannot physically examine a murder scene because Chris has Haden’s Syndrome. Chris interacts with the world with an android.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, Book #1 of the Old Man’s War series
Introduction
In Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, two things have happened to John Perry recently. His wife had unexpectedly passed away and he decided to join the army. It’s not just any army. The Colonial Defense Forces will only take recruits on their seventy-fifth birthday. All recruits are taken off of the earth and are never heard from again. The novel opens on his seventy-fifth birthday at the gravesite of his beloved wife. He says goodbye to her and heads to the CDF recruitment office. He has no idea what will happen to him next, but he has nothing left to keep him on the earth and so he enlists.
Summary
John Perry changes as part of the enlistment process. He must succeed to graduate boot camp. The recruits serve a term of ten years, but the survival rate is less than 30 percent. He is very practical and advances in the CDF by using his wits and a lot of luck. At the end of their term, the recruits can become colonists on a new planet or re-enlist in the CDF. The CDF protects the colonies. This novel follows John Perry at the beginning of his term of service.
Recommendation
To me, this novel is a mixture of many military science fiction novels of the past mixed up with new ideas making a great new novel. It takes the themes of pro-militarism and the boot camp to soldier coming of age from Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, But, there is also a sense of loss of humanity by the protagonist and the conflict of fighting the other from The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I was also reminded of Deathworld by Harry Harrison for the “anything can kill you” mantra of the CDF members. I highly recommend this novel and intend to read the many sequels.
Links
I received this novel from a Tor.com newsletter. Tor sends one free e-book every month to newsletter subscribers. I have copies of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and A Fire on the Deep by Vernor Vinge.
This is the link to my review of Lock In by John Scalzi. FBI agent Chris Shane has Haden’s Syndrome and interacts with the world through an android. Chris must solve a murder caused by an android.
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, Book #1 of The Interdependency.
Introduction
Cardenia’s father is dying. Once he passes on, she will become the emperox of the Interdependency. She is not ready and there are tremendous complications facing her immediately. Can she guide her interstellar empire through these problems or will her empire fall?
Summary
Humans have expanded to the stars by using a medium through space called the flow. The flow only travels to certain star systems, but the flow can move and star systems can be lost. One thousand years before this story the Earth is lost to her colonies. The colonies form an empire called the Interdependency. Families are grouped in Houses and each House has a monopoly on one trade good or one technology. The flow is changing. There are three main POV characters in this novel; Cardenia (the future Emperox Grayland II), Kiva Lagos (heir to the House of Lagos), and Marce Claremont (the physicist son of the physicist who first discovered the Flow’s change). Cardenia’s first problem is that the flow is changing and how it changes will determine how she will respond.
Recommendation
This was a fun novel to read. The dialogue was humorous and witty. I liked reading each of the three main POV characters. The novel’s ending featuring Nadashe Nohamapetan’s comeuppance was appropriate. It feels like the first novel in a series, it is, and I’m ready for the next novel.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page for The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi.
This is a link to my book review Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, the first book in The Expanse series. This book is a space opera set entirely within the solar system and is similar to The Collapsing Empire.
Lock In by John Scalzi, Book #1 of the Lock In Series
Introduction
Twenty-five years after a global pandemic virus, Chris Shane’s second day on the job as an FBI agent includes a complicated murder as the first order of business. The thing is, Chris cannot physically examine the murder scene. Chris has Haden’s Syndrome. It is a disease that has a slim chance that the person affected cannot physically move their body anymore and become what is known as locked in. The person affected can, however, have their brain fitted with a neural net that lets them either manipulate a specially attuned person called an Integrator or an automaton called a threep. Chris uses a threep and the murder appears to be Haden related. Chris must discover the perpetrator or everyone that has Haden’s Syndrome will be in jeopardy.
Summary
The novel is an interesting mix of a sci-fi thriller and a police procedural. The best part is the world-building on the effect that Haden’s Syndrome could have on society. It felt like it could have been a multi-episode arc of NCIS. If that is the story that you like to read, then this novel hits that spot.
Recommendation
I think that Scalzi was trying to play with two things with this novel; developing the ramifications of Haden’s Syndrome and to play around with writing gender and race. The world-building worked for me. It is never specified whether Chris is a male or a female. I have my opinion, but nothing written has changed that opinion. Chris’s race is not specified until later in the novel, so thinking about that revelation is thought-provoking.
Chris’s FBI partner Leslie Vann appears to think like a man, but I took it as a woman surrounded by males in law enforcement and taking their phrases as her own. I appreciated that Scalzi chose to explore these subjects, even though it might not have been totally successful because at times the writing felt forced. I am glad that the novel promotes discussion about gender and race. That does mean something. I would recommend this book if only for that.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Lock In by John Scalzi.
