The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Aeronaut’s Windlass is a steampunk flavored fantasy adventure novel set in a post-apocalyptic setting. Humans live in ancient constructed habitats referred to as Spires. Cities built out of implausibly strong material that the inhabitants have no way to replicate that tower into the sky and who communicate, trade and battle with each-other using airships powered by “aetheric” currents and magic crystals. The novel attempts to capture the gritty post-apocalyptic feel of population pressure and dangerous environment alongside epic three-dimensional naval battles and fast-paced swashbuckling action. But if fails to reconcile these pressures and ends up with a sprawling cast of viewpoint characters who split the focus of the fast paced action and a light bantering tone and description-light style that detracts from the weight of danger the setting feels like it should have.

Jim Butcher is most well-known for the Dresden Files urban fantasy novels where his sarcastic and hard-bitten gumshoe wizard gets entangled in high-powered magic showdowns with a variety of magical beings. I have read and enjoyed a few of them and I definitely respect Butcher’s ability to weave a variety of references into his genre mashup framework. I recognize that some of the flaws that I see in the Aeronaut’s Windlass are present with Dresden it works better because of the character viewpoint focus on Dresden and the genres he is working with are tighter. Combining noir detective story, modern setting and fantasy leads to a tighter paced novel with a more unified perspective and less need to explain background to the reader. The combination of swashbuckling adventure tale and a post-apocalyptic setting with a fantasy framework leads to a much more sprawling story that lacks the focus to tighten the story and highlights the lack of depth in the characters.

The biggest problem I had with this novel was the characters. They were wooden archetypes and worse than that almost all of the dialog and character interaction could be predicted by guessing “what is the most cheeky thing to say or do in this situation” and then repeat from the other actors in the scene back and forth until you get tired of it. Everyone was making smart comments and striving for wit in a brash and irresponsible way. It didn’t matter if it was the bratty heir to a high house, the shy awkward girl, or the honorable but disgraced airship captain. It was in your face levity all the time. The villains were comically bad or just doing their duty. There just isn’t much nuance and glaringly obvious mysteries are the norm. The one exception to the characters all feeling the same were the mages, who are unironically and unabashedly insane, but in a childish “what are insane people like” sort of way. It made them convenient deus ex machina machines to showcase their powers but unreliable to actually be applied as part of a plan to deal with any situation.

The plot of the novel is a bit of a mess, I’m guessing here but I think the overarching plot may be intended as a kind of move-countermove representation of a larger game between two (or more) actors plotting large schemes with superhuman foresight selecting and positioning pawns in the right place to conveniently thwart each other’s plans. This sounds like it could be an interesting structure or idea, but the capricious nature of the external hand and the lack of knowledge of the pawns involved makes it narratively frustrating. The story leads to an impressive plot cascade where each move is answered and the full force of the enemy plans is never fully realized because the bigger action has already been blocked by something the characters have done. As such it feels like there is never any danger and the reaction to the circumstance seems obvious though the characters do somehow manage to muddle it up to make the situation worse than if they hadn’t split up or if they had any capacity for long term tactical thinking.

I would like to say that the worldbuilding is nice: it does not rely on exposition and we aren’t treated to long passages about the histories of the different Spires or why the setting is the way it is. The hints throughout the story that suggest things about the world are well placed. I am intrigued by the suggestions that metal is corroded by contact with air unless sheathed in copper and am very interested to see what the world looks like on the surface which we never see in this story.

The other things I enjoyed about this novel is the portrayal of the sentient cats the live in the underbelly of the Spires. The interactions with the cats are done in a way that is both plausible, entertaining and humorous, I was particularly fond of the viewpoint character who was a cat who keeps one of the other viewpoint characters as a pet. The other thing that was done quite well and I wanted more of was the airship battles. It is obvious that Butcher spent a lot of time thinking about the mechanics of how aeronatical tactics would work, the consequences of the technologies he had invented and the application of a third dimension to standard naval ship-to-ship combat. These action scenes were well paced and thrilling, but they were few and far between.

I am a little conflicted overall about this novel. I enjoyed parts of it but there were significant flaws in the execution that really disappointed me. I keep going back and forth: but I think in the end it intrigued me enough that I will probably try to pick up the next book when it comes out. However I have a hard time recommending it based on the first book alone.

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Lock In by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lock In is a near-future crime story set in a future America. The setting is defined by Haden’s disease a flu-like disease epidemic that causes some of its sufferers to experience what they call “lock in” leaving their minds perfectly healthy but unable to move. In reaction to this symptom technology has been developed to allow people who suffer these symptoms to be able to interact with the world. Neural interfaces are developed that allows the user to connect directly to a virtual internet-like space called the Agora and to perceptually inhabit android bodies (called Threeps after everyone’s favorite annoying droid C-3PO from Star Wars) or other humans who have also been implanted with a neural interface. The story revolves around a locked in rich-kid joining the FBI in the midst of rising tensions as Federal funding for supporting victims of this disease is being withdrawn and follows a sequence of crimes that are related to violence against these digitally assisted humans.

I’ve read several of Scalzi’s other novels (Redshirts and Android’s Dream) so I was familiar with his style and I was not disappointed. His writing is clever and concise with a refreshing tone of wit throughout. This novel was a little bit more serious than the other novels I had read but still maintained an optimistic note of techno-optimism throughout. The worldbuilding is well done on the large and small scale, it is obvious that a lot of thought went into thinking about the disease symptoms and technological consequences. The narrative is involved with the technical and political ramifications but does not devolve into heavy-handed exposition. The world felt natural through the eyes of the characters who were themselves fun and enjoyable people to spend some time with.

The discussion of the partisan political debate as government considers decreasing funding that previously went to Haden’s research and healthcare for the victims is in the background of the novel with characters reacting in understandable personally motivated ways. I find it unlikely in the current political climate that the imagined bi-partisan effort could have unified behind spending the billions of dollars necessary to support the technology development and special treatment of the victims in the first place. And I also find it highly unlikely that if such technology as the neural network were available that it would be possible to restrict it only to victims of Haden’s. It is also strange to me that the use of Integrators is allowed, it seems to me the ethics of having a brain network implanted in your mind expressly for the purpose of allowing a locked-in individual to inhabit your body would be the subject of a heated debate. Most importantly the technology is handled with respect. The presentation of neural net coding and the security flaws, obsolescence and software development process described were refreshingly believable from a technical standpoint. I basically squealed with joy at the plausible description of the exploitation of a security flaw and the description of how it was accomplished and the resultant deployment of a security patch.

It is to the author’s credit that I didn’t realize until reading the discussion about it, but the main character, Chris Shane’s gender is never mentioned throughout the book. As expected I just kind of assumed that he was a white male, but that is mostly because I am a white male, I know Scalzi is a white male and I listened to the audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton who is also a white male. There is another version of the audiobook narrated by Amber Benson for this reason. Looking back on the novel it makes sense that since Chis doesn’t inhabit his own body for most of his life that he doesn’t associate strongly with gender.

The plot is that of an exciting action-thriller with clever twists and turns and it holds together until the end when the motivations and execution of the overarching plot turn on a comically implausible super-villain economics. Other than that it was a refreshing quick and exciting read. It manages to accomplish two things very well. It provides a framework to explore concepts of self and identity while giving us a diverse cast of characters and a fun and engaging plot that manages to stay lighthearted and endearing throughout.

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The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Hero of Ages is the conclusion to the first Mistborn trilogy, neatly wrapping up all the elements of the world introduced in the past two books and tying everything together with a neat and tidy bow. This is an example of Sanderson’s ability to take all the little world-building details of his work and tying everything together with almost obsessive consistency. There are no loose plot threads, everything comes together in the conclusion and elements introduced along the way that you didn’t even realize were mysteries are revealed. This attention to detail and care for consistency and conclusion make this novel stand out despite its other flaws.

*Spoilers Final Empire and Well of Ascension*

After the conclusion of the second book, Eland has been left in charge of the largest part of the remains of the misnamed Final Empire with Vin at his side and the world coming to an end around them as the manifestation of deific power called Ruin was released from its prison in the Well of Ascension. Can they unite humanity in the face of the dangers of the world and will Vin be able to fulfill the role of the Hero of Ages as foretold by the pre-Emipre religion?

The book reflects on what religious truth means and explores both the struggle between faith and logic and the way religious beliefs can quickly diverge from truth when shaped by individual perceptions. Sanderson presents religious fanaticism as an obstacle that keeps people who share the world with a deific being intent on destroying everything from working together to save the world. We are shown elements of radical Survivor-ism worshiping Kelsier and dragging the world to Ruin in one city and elements of what is left of the Lord Ruler’s organized church struggling to preserve the status quo which also poses a threat to the forces trying to fight Ruin directly to save the world. It is also interesting to see the take on the prophetically ordained savior, as the words of the past are filtered through falsehood by the passage of time and the twisting influence of Ruin. I am always wary of the prophecy trope but I think that it was applied with sufficient subtlety in this case.

I appreciated the way that the human antagonists were humanized. We are given glimpses into the mind of the Lord Ruler that almost redeem the way he oppressed the people and polluted the world. And Yoman is an excellent addition as a foil for Eland with his faith in the Lord Ruler motivating his resistance. However the conclusion is also hampered by the true villain being an elemental force of god-power whose sole goal is encapsulated in his name: Ruin is as stereotypical evil destructive force with no nuance and sympathy, which makes him an uninspiring antagonist.

The craft of writing is not Sanderson’s best here, the text is rendered in clear and usually invisible standard American english, but there are a few times that jarring use of modern colloquialism or word choice stood out for me as harmful to the tone of the setting. But overall I enjoy the clean and workmanlike translation of the world into simple standard language though the dialog is occasionally awkward and unrealistic, particularly when working with group scenes.

Overall the characterization has improved, you get a good sense of the different characters insecurities and their progression to dealing with changing circumstances. The characters each have their journeys. Eland has grown so much, and Vin has managed to transition out of her angsty teenage phase, but they still feel a little lackluster. Of particular positive note in this story are Sazed, Spook, and TenSoon’s character progressions, they all carry their parts of the story very well.

Ultimately this book does an excellent job of concluding all the threads in the series and providing an epic showdown of humanity in the face of apocalypse. But it still manages to not live up to the first book. All of the characters are shown with heavy doubts, which weigh them down as they face their all-powerful foe, but they lack the will and charisma that Kelsier had while he stared certain death in the face, laughed and carried on his a plan to survive anyway. It is understandable that Kelsier is worshipped in this world, but it is sad that his direct followers spend most of their time wallowing in self-doubt and following the plans of those that came before them to try to fix the world. They are interesting characters, and it is to their credit that they keep fighting even in the face of their doubts, but it just lacks the spark of will that Kelsier carried.

It was sad to say goodbye to this world on such a final note, but that sorrow is much alleviated by the existence of Alloy of Law and the continuation of the Mistborn world in the second era novels that follow after it which are excellent in their own right and benefit immensely from being grounded in the lore established in this trilogy.

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MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oryx and Crake, the first book in the Maddaddam Trilogy, isolated it’s protagonist Jimmy with his experiences, guilt, regrets and memories. The Year of the Flood also isolated it’s protagonists with their wounds and consequences. MaddAddam brings them all together and they need each other to survive. This novel is about relationships and healing. About synthesis bringing disparate elements together in the face of external threat to meet shared goals. Jimmy alone is sick and weak and unable to take care of himself, he needs help from others to survive. Toby is strong and capable but she still needs others to lean on to pull herself out of depression and inaction. Ren and Amanda need others around them to hold up to the pressures of the world and put themselves back together after their traumatic experiences. And most of all the genetically engineered and naive Crakers need some of the knowledge and interpretation of the apocalypse that destroyed humanity to survive.

Even now after the apocalypse in the ashes of society humanity has survived. Not just the God’s Gardeners, MaddAddamites, Jimmy and the Crakers. Some of the worst of humanity have survived are criminals convicted of horrible crimes and forced to participate in the televised death-sport called Painball where they were encouraged to live in savagery and violence for the entertainment of others. Evil still exists and so in the Garden of Eden Crake created by killing the vast majority of the world the period of childhood for the Crakers is ended, bringing pain and suffering and confusion to their world. Can they encompass the changes in mindset to allow them to live in this world? Can they conceptualize evil and how will they react to it?

In the earlier books a numb acceptance of the debauchery of the world suffuses most of the world before the flood. People exist merely to survive amidst the corporate greed, hedonistic excess and rampant consumerism of the corporate controlled world with little to no eye on morality. There are no consequences before the flood for rapists, murderers, abusers and child molesters. Those that try to stand up to the weight of the direction of the world are beaten down and ridiculed, forced to segregate themselves and try to live unaffected by the world around them, but that isn’t tenable and everyone is tainted by the excess of the world. Zeb, Toby, Ren, Amanda. None of them are unaffected by the world around them. They are changed and broken by it but they take action to rise above.

MaddAddam also gives us more backstory about the world before the “waterless flood”, we learn more about Adam One and Zeb. The way everything is tied together with Zeb’s story being told to Toby as they grow an intimate relationship and her relaying parts of that story to the Crakers who integrate it into their nascent mythology is intricate and heartfelt. The petrobaptist megachurch/corporation is amusingly conceived if hyperbolic. Zeb and his comparison to Adam One is interesting and the parallels they go through in their development from beginning to end. The depiction of humanity at its most base, with Painball punishment, greedy religious leaders serving corporate interests and perverse sexual abuse enabled by technology is wearing. The parts of the old world that we are shown it is easy to see the desire to wipe it clean. The chance to make it right.

And Toby is given that chance through the Crakers as they come to her to continue the storytelling tradition that Jimmy established. Through this tradition we are given a glimpse into the power of storytelling as Toby realizes the effects that she is having on the innocent Crakers. She re-frames the story of their creation and the destruction of humanity to try to help them understand while also sheltering them from ideas that she thinks could corrupt them. She adds stories about Zeb to their mythology and uses the stories as a way to explain things the Crakers can’t conceptualize on their own. She gives them the gift of written language to help them remember the stories of the past.

I was a little conflicted by the coincidence that everyone that survived the epidemic was related to Jimmy’s past life. It made the story tightly woven and delightfully self-referential at times. But the implausibility shrank the scope of the world and weakened the impact of the disaster. If all these people survived just because they at one point dated Jimmy then it seems probable that large numbers of people who haven’t dated Jimmy have also survived and just not made it to the tiny geographic bounds explored in the novel.

In reading the other reviews on Goodreads for MaddAddam I found that many of them fell into two camps: those that worship Atwood unquestioningly and gave the book 5 stars with little thought to the why (frequently mentioning her as a pioneer of feminist literature) and others who also praised her for her feminism but criticized this book as a disappointment because it showed Toby, Ren and Amanda in weaker positions, Toby particularly is criticized as fawning over Zeb like a besotted schoolgirl. But these criticisms and praise seem to me to miss the central point of the story and the skill that Atwood has displayed in weaving characters and story together about so much more than just women being equal to men.

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The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*Spoilers Mistborn: the Final Empire*

In this second book of the Mistborn trilogy Kelsier’s crew of thieves and con-men have to figure out how to deal with success after deposing their totalitarian god-king. Now they have to rule in his place without his god-like powers or the stability granted by a thousand years of legitimacy. The empire is gone, fractured overnight into a collection of warring kingdoms and several of the most powerful warlords set out to conquer Luthadel, the capital city where Kelsier’s crew have set up their own attempt at government.

The tight pacing and plan-focused narrative drive of the first novel is replaced by a more reactionary plot as the characters adapt to roles in the fledgling government. The novel suffers some as the characters become less archetypal and more confused in their roles. It works from a plot perspective, and the characters need to be unsure of themselves as they try to adapt from being revolutionaries to ruling. But the transitions character arcs mean that we are stuck in transition with some awkwardly presented characterization as they try to change to their new situation.

The siege of Luthadel as the neighboring kings come to claim the wealth of the empire and compete for the legitimacy of holding the old capital city. This siege is a central point of the plot but it hangs over the story without urgency and the effects are rarely felt as the characters work on resolving internal conflicts. The same lack of urgency plagues the mystery presented by evidence that a shape-shifting Kandra has infiltrated the group. The effort to address either of these issues is sporadic and drawn out with long gaps between attempts to deal with these issues as other character points become more pressing. Both conflicts are played as plot points and feel artificially paced to resolve at the end of the story and are drawn out in time to allow the other events to occur. Instead of the characters having a clear goal that they are working towards with a plan which is challenged the plot hinges around characters trying to meet the demands of their situation from one state of mind and needing to move to a state of mind where they can take actions to change the situation.

That said. The mysteries that are revealed as the plot unfolds are very interesting and the book manages to transition the arc of the whole trilogy from the setting establishing work of the Final Empire to the events of Hero of Ages, moving to a completely different phase of the world with impressive escalation of urgency and scope. I really enjoyed Vin’s interactions with the Kandra OreSeur as she takes over his contract and works with him. And Sazed is solid in this story as he holds the group together with his conviction and faith in the individual members of the crew and the goal that they are trying to accomplish. His knowledge of religions and the exploration into the background of the Lord Ruler and the ancient religion of Terris are some of the best parts of the book tying into the mystery and depth of the setting in unexpected and satisfying ways.

One of the themes that comes up frequently in Sanderson’s books is the reflection on what it means to be a leader and how to handle the responsibility of ruling. This is often a secondary theme to the explorations about the process of deification and the conversation is sometimes a little confused by his mixing of the two. Deification and the qualities needed to rule rightly are not always granted to the same people in his body of work: we are definitely shown gods who do not have the qualities that make a good ruler and we are shown simple men who learn how to rule at least with a modicum of wisdom, but those same simple men are frequently rewarded in the text by the gift of godlike powers as a consequence which can cheapen the qualities that made them good rulers or lead them to make decisions that prove them to be not ready to rule at that level.

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