The Bookian » Science Fiction

Finch

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:13:54 +0000

The new book out by Jeff Vandermeer, Finch, has garnered some pretty good reviews from around the webosphere [latimes], and we have to say theyre pretty close to right. Hes pretty much known for the Ambergris city setting and Finch continues the series. Finch centers around the kind of metaphysical detective endemic to the Cohen Brothers films, without the overt humor quotient paradox. Characters include a dead historian who isnt quite dead, “memory bulbs” that grow from the heads of dead people, and all manner of fungal felicities. A great, fast moving read.

No Blade of Grass

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:10:17 +0000

In the spirit of the Cosy Catastrophe fiction, we begin an all out tribute to the works of John Christopher. The man of many pseudonyms, Samuel Youd aka John Christopher, Hilary Ford, William Godfrey, Peter Graaf, Peter Nichols, Anthony Rye, Stanley Winchester, is one of the great unpraised authors of the twentieth century. After No Blade of Grass, he wrote a long series of childrens books which must be considered amongst the best of all time. perhaps it was that adult science fiction often does not deal with the emotive psychology of the human organism, but for whatever reason, if you read any of them as a child, you know what im talking about. A master storyteller. No Blade of Grass, also known as The Death of Grass, was made into a movie in the 1970s. Does this sound familiar? A virus sweeps the earth, killing off rice, wheat and other grain staples. Hello, Monsanto calling! But the foresight is not the benefit of the novel: rather, hes just an awfully good writer. Out of this world, one might say. – reviewed by monsanto

The Golden Man and Selected Short Stories

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:58:17 +0000

The hyper real transition to movies from books or short stories, especially short stories by philip k dick, is a constant exercise in tedium ad infinitum. Witness the sarcasm of such resources as The Golden Man by Philip K Dick based on the movies trailer. (arent film trailers supposed to have all the best parts anyway?). But the short story The Golden Man, written by philip k dick in 1954, is just so good, it must be revisited, and often. In short, its the story of a future mutant, Cris Johnson, who doesnt speak. Hear that, Nicholas Cage? Shut up already! Anyway, its not even sure that Cris Johnson is human, really. Hey! Hear that, Nicholas Cage? Not Human! Ok, enough. The story is primarily about the fear of the little blue collar working guy, whom Philip K Dick primarily identified with tire regroovers and television repair men, when confronted with a superior race who can outbreed, out perform, and basically out out the little guy. This, of course, doesnt only threaten the little man, the working man, but the little-minded men.. in this case, ruling members of the military and technocratic elite. Even though Cris isnt human, his mutational powers, brought about by the stupidity of the, bring them back on stage: ruling members of the military and technocratic elite, allow him to out run, out think, and out dodge his enemies. In a stunning recognition of the coming future embodied by The Selfish Gene, PKD makes the character nothing more than an embedded expression of his genetic line. I wont give away the end. But its one of those ten page stories that say so much, an ontological depth of perception and art to which PKD will always be referred. – reviewed by PKD Android

Roadside Picnic

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:52:17 +0000

The Zone Returns! William Burroughs? No. Tarkovsky? You know, Stalker? before the whole George Clooney Solaris thing? No. Arkady and Boris, originators of the Stalker. Roadside picnic. Tarkovsky. Apocalypse. doom. Burroughs. wastelands. Strugatsky brothers. pure gold. This is one of those science fiction classics with the annoying habit of being out of print. No wonder the world is in such a horrible state. Because the trash of human race will appear as its own zone, and no one will be left to wander the fields of archaeological trash. This book should be cast in bronze, or at least some high-tech nanomolecular structure, so that it can settle in its own post-apocalyptic mausoleum to our dead race. Not that its a pessimistic viewpoint, or anything. Its just scientific. – reviewed by Zone Stalker

Definitely Maybe

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:47:17 +0000

One of the All Time Best Books. Ever. Arkady and Boris pushed the boundaries way back when, when there were still boundaries. Or maybe they didnt. Some have hated it. Others have loved it. But it is by far the best. Ever. Russian scientists and mathematicians live in gulag-style apartment complexes and never leave. Or Maybe they do. They might if they cared. Anyway thats not the point. The point is, its got cats and voluptuous distractions, along with vodka. No, wait… no vodka. Or vodka, but no voluptuous. Never mind. This book should be purchased and read today. Except, its a little hard to get a new copy because it hasnt been reprinted in, like, forever? So it might take a couple days. While were at it, why dont we just forget about it anyway. Take a trip to the boerarrium instead. No, forget that… the point is, its the best book. Ever. Except for the vodka. Actually, the vodkas OK. Hell, its all good. I think. Either way, good luck finding a copy. I found mine at a garage sale. – reviewed by Confessor

Four Novels of the 1960s: The Man in the High Castle , The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch , Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , Ubik

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:39:17 +0000

Ecstasy! Jonathan Lethem is channeling philip k. dick in this upcoming volume for the Library of America (yes, it sounds like Voice of America.. and it was started with NEA seed money in 1982.. perhaps to fight the Great Threat of Russian Literature trying to Swamp Americas Patriotic Heritage), but who cares about that. These are four great novels. Particularly Ubik and the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Jonathan Lethem is a lucky guy, kinda like getting your name carved onto the replicas of tombstones of famous people made for tourists in Guyacanal, Uruguay. Walking up steep mountain paths and watching the children drink gasoline in the garbage dumps. Like proximity to God. Or, in the case of Palmer Eldritch, proximity to… whatever that thing is. With the teeth and the eye-slit. We dont usually review books that havent even been printed yet, in case dogs urinate on monuments to the successful sales of the book a billion years in the future on bleak planets surrounded by ghosts. The only downside is this book looks like it will be a hardcover with patriotic American colorstripes on it, and no lurid 1960 watercolors of dementia being zapped with rayguns. Plus 10 for content, but Minus 5 for style, ok, Zaphod? – reviewed by palmer Eldritch

Tales from Inside the Boerarrium, Science Fiction Vol. I

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:17:17 +0000

Clearly a New Weird bias. Similar writing to Jonathan Lethem, kinda stoney, memory and feelings and sci-fi stuff, artistic. But a few shorts in this book are demented and hilarious. Ok, like Plantaddict. Or The Klotho Trigger. Like old Amazing Science Fiction pulp magazine writing. A couple hard-sf stories, mostly republished from early 1990s magazines Otterness wrote for. Like Rudy Rucker in the sense of pulp writing, but more Philip K. Dick-ian characters, not really new weird at all but kinda. Cant talk about em without giving away much cause theyre short stories. PlantAddict was probably my favorite. The soft apocalypse arrives from the plant kingdom? Ill take a dime bag. Havent been able to find out about Volume II, this is supposedly Volume I. Crazy scholar-type intro by A.J. Specktowsky about the current debate over technocracy in science fiction in which “Early 20th Century Socialist Nudist Cult Utopias” are somehow tied into science fictions origins. Recursive sculptural plot machinations. Five Sirius Cybernetics Corporation gold stars.
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From the Publisher…
Tales from Inside The Boerarrium collects for the first time, in two volumes, the strange and disparate worlds of A.K. Otterness. In a Universe where alternate realities exist in mad profusion, and mankind has spread his terms of engagement beyond the boundaries of the known and virtual worlds are physical, Otterness has tracked down these pixelated stories of future inhabitants and transcribed them backward in time to the disturbingly technocratic present. Volume I includes a new foreward by Aegon Specktowsky and 10 riveting short stories by Otterness, including: Plantaddict, The Blue, Integrand, FogFascists, Boerarrium, EggCreetor, and The Klotho Trigger. Vol. IX in the Machine-Humanist Library.

“Awesome… puts the pure Pulp back in Pulp Science Fiction!”
- Robert A. Stirling

“A hypercube of Ruckerian, Strugatsky-ite dimensions.”
- Jim Widderly, Eldritchs Sci-Fi Review

“I had to regress my age to sixteen years old, reading Ray Bradburys The Martian Chronicles late at night. Then I blinked out of existence.”
- Kiro Shenzhen, Manga-T Books

– reviewed by Sirius Cybernetics Corp