-Spinward Fringe is a fantastic series and rapidly becoming one of my favourites.
Nine million people have been killed by the Holocaust Virus and still it spreads, coming ever closer to the core worlds. People are frightened and are willing to pay the 100,000 credits to the Order of Eden to save themselves and their families. The Eden Fleet is separating from Regent Galactic who are denying all knowledge. The war of machine verses man has taken a terrible toll, and it is just the beginning. This is the backdrop in Spinward Fringe Broadcast 4: Frontline.
**SPOILER ALERTS**There are those who are fighting and making a difference. Captain Jake Valance on board the Triton is willing to do whatever it takes to bring down Regent Galatic. And he is not alone, Ayan, the love of his life has been cloned. Minh-Chu believed dead has been rescued and reunited with Ayan both determined to reach Captain Valance.
Jason and Oz are also seeking the Triton, when their ship is attacked by the Virus, they are able to crash land on Pandem. Pandem has many secrets; it was here that the Holocaust Virus was launched. It is important to both the Order of Eden and Regent Galactic and when Captain Valance finds out that his people are on it, it becomes of vital importance to him.
This book was so fast paced and had so much going on that I was barely able to breathe. I couldn’t wait for old friends to meet new friends but was so caught up in the action that I found myself yelling at my ipad at certain parts.
I appreciated how there was more time devoted to the main characters in the Order of Eden and Regent Galatic so you could understand their motivations. I can’t wait to find out what happens with Eve and just whose side is the improved Wheeler on?
Spinward Fringe is a fantastic series and rapidly becoming one of my favourites. But trust me, don’t try and explain the plot to anyone…they would never believe it!
The prequel to this amazing series, Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins, is available for free download on Amazon. Click here to claim your copy.
Also, here are links to other books in the series in order:
Have you read Frontline or any works by Randolph Lalonde? Please share your comments below, and don’t forget to click on the yellow stars at the top of this post to share your rating (1-5 stars) of Spinward Fringe 4: Frontline.
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About the Reviewer: Yvonne lives on the NSW/Victorian border in Australia so it is always boiling hot or freezing cold, in other words great reading weather. She reads across all genres with the exception of Westerns. During the day Yvonne works at a library and loves her job and can’t imagine doing anything else.
-“The day approaches when insanity will grip what we have grown to trust. In every forest there is a burning, to every species comes a culling, and in time every program crashes. All so these things can be reborn, so everything from the smallest system to the whole of the galaxy can be renewed.”
Captain Valance and crew have taken control of the Triton, a massive Earth ship that used to belong to Captain Wheeler, now a prisoner aboard her. They emerge into the Enreega system to find it being attacked by Eden Fleet ships. They rescue survivors only to be betrayed by the Aucharians, the people they used to work for who regarded them as heroes. After a bloody battle the crew are victorious but at the cost of many lives. Jake Valance offers a home to any who will join his crew and many accept.
What many don’t know is that Jake Valance is a construct, flesh built around a materializer frame and that the real Jonas is out there, rescued by Alice, an artificial intelligence now human. They are on a collision course with the Triton, a trojan horse that they don’t even know about. Regent Galatic is about to test the Holocaust virus to pit man against machine in a fight that will cost billions of lives and end with everyone turning to them for help. But they didn’t factor in the Triton and her crew. They didn’t factor in Captain Valance and they didn’t factor in what would happen when Jonas and Jake met in the flesh.
I read this book with relish and delight, so happy to return to the world of Captain Valance and crew. I cheered them on through battle and victory and cried as shipmates were lost. Lalonde is an author you can’t rely on. Just when you think you know what’s going on, he tilts the board and leaves you gasping for breath. Plot twists, battles and big reveals, Spinward Fringe 3 has you in the middle of the action from page one until the end.
In case you’re not sure where to start, here are the earlier books in the Spinward Fringe Series in order:
If you’re a fan of Randolph Lalonde, you can click here to listen to our audio interview with him.
Have you read Triton or any works by Randolph Lalonde? Please share your comments below, and don’t forget to click on the yellow stars at the top of this post to share your rating (1-5 stars) of Spinward Fringe 3: Triton.
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About the Reviewer: Yvonne lives on the NSW/Victorian border in Australia so it is always boiling hot or freezing cold, in other words great reading weather. She reads across all genres with the exception of Westerns. During the day Yvonne works at a library and loves her job and can’t imagine doing anything else.
Directors: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant
-“All persons are puzzles until at last we find in some word or act the key to the man, to the woman; straightway all their past words and actions lie in light before us” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Not having read David Mitchell’s much-praised 2004 novel (who named it after music he admired by the Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi) I cannot comment on the movie version’s merits or limitations regarding its faithfulness as an adaptation, but the fact that the directors – Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer – had the courage and audacity to take on what was considered an ‘unfilmable’ book surely deserves some respect. Tykwer and the Wachowskis have strived to configure Mitchell’s unique literary material into something appropriately cinematic.
Mitchell’s intricate novel tells six interrelated stories in a variety of genres spread over a period of 500 years, from 1850 to 2321. These run consecutively but stop just before their crucial concluding episodes, which follow in the latter part of the book. The film however, runs the stories concurrently – interweaving and looping them one inside another. This challenges the viewer to detect the parallels, echoes, undercurrents and themes that connect them – as a complex piece of music might similarly challenge us – and like a piece of music, it deserves our careful attention in order to gain the most reward for our intellect and emotions.
The movie weaves together half-a-dozen distinct plot lines, not complex in themselves but spanning half a millennium, taking the viewer from the South Pacific in 1849 to a post-apocalyptic island “106 winters after The Fall”, via 1930s Edinburgh, 1970s San Francisco, present-day London and 22nd-century Neo-Seoul. Each setting is convincingly established (although I personally most enjoyed the gorgeous realization of future Korea) and various characters come into play. What dawns on the attentive viewer however, is that the events and personalities are all connected across the years by a phrase, an image, a piece of music, as well as more obviously through letters, files, films, diaries and books that pass on a predecessor’s experiences and thoughts.
‘Cloud Atlas’ is also not afraid to ask the big questions: about life after death; reincarnation; déjà vu; the purpose of love; karma; life as a repetitive cycle (as in Nietzsche’s concept of ‘eternal recurrence’); one might even say that it attempts to address Quantum questions such as Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, but primarily it asks: can enlightenment, love and sacrifice change what appears to be a recurring cycle of cruelty, exploitation, oppression or greed? In that sense ‘Cloud Atlas’ belongs alongside other mystical cinematic works such as Ang Lee’s ‘The Life of Pi’ and Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Fountain’.
The movie casts each of its leading actors in five or six roles. Stanley Kubrick used this device in several of his films, ‘Fear and Desire’, ‘Dr Strangelove’ and of course, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. Lindsay Anderson employed it in ‘O Lucky Man!’. In ‘Cloud Atlas’ characters reappear over the centuries, shifting in age, race and gender (a notion which must resonate particularly strongly with Lana Wachowski , considering the changes she herself has experienced within her own life). Spotting the recurrence of the same actors in different roles is rather an entertainment in itself, although the proliferation of facial prosthetics and heavy make-up can also be distracting (as far as the actors are concerned, having such a plethora of characterizations to play with must have made up in part for the discomfort of wearing all those false noses and wigs). Hugo Weaving plays an array of delightfully varied villains as does Hugh Grant. But since the ‘heroes’ tend to remain as ‘goodies’ throughout their many incarnations I could not help but wonder why there appeared to be no redemption for the ‘baddies’ since they are presented with so many reincarnations? (I hope the implication is not that we are trapped in cycles of behaviour that we cannot escape?)
With so many threads interweaving simultaneously, it’s not surprising that some viewers get in a tangle – but the gauntlet has been thrown down, the challenge presented – Twyker and the Wachowskis will not dumb-down for their audience – they expect us to step up and at least, meet them halfway. Certain enthusiasts will enjoy seeing ‘Cloud Atlas’ repeatedly in order to put together more pieces of the puzzle each time. I was drawn into game immediately, but then again, I have a weakness for detective stories and for spotting clues to a solution. But what here is the ‘solution’ – the purpose of all these pointers, connections and recurring motifs? That ultimate answer it behooves each viewer to find for themselves, but I perceive it to be a moral one. In a nutshell: we are dealing with the exercise of tolerance, an understanding of the connection amongst all peoples, and the acceptance of the responsibility that comes with freedom.
‘Cloud Atlas’ may not be a perfect symphony of narratives or images – there may be the occasional false note or awkward stroke – its art will not appeal to everyone’s taste, but after all the disappointing sequels, the remakes, the reboots and rehashes of recent years, I for one, salute and welcome a movie that at least shows a bit of ambition, a touch of ‘chutzpah’ and the courage to try something different and demanding.
“While my extensive experience as an editor has led me to a disdain for flashbacks and flash forwards and all such tricksy gimmicks, I believe that if you, dear Reader, can extend your patience for just a moment, you will find that there is a Method to this tale of Madness.”Timothy Cavendish
Have you seen Cloud Atlas? Please share your comments below, and don’t forget to click on the yellow stars at the top of this post to share your rating (1-5 stars) of Cloud Atlas.
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About Reviewer, Ren Zelen REN ZELEN describes herself as “a writer, academic editor, reviewer, pop culture junkie, movie buff, rock music enthusiast, science nerd and Sandra Bullock lookalike”. Her fiction and past reviews can be found on her own website: Lethal Lexicon.
Her post-apocalyptic science-fiction novel ‘The HATHOR DIARIES’ is available from Amazon in both the UK and USA.
Her book/film/TV reviews can be found on various sites on the web. Information and contact on twitter.
- A bold vision of the future and the individuals who will shape it.
Kim Stanley Robinson is widely regarded as a master of modern Science Fiction. His much acclaimed and Hugo award-winning Red Mars series set the benchmark on subjects as diverse as future economics and terra-forming. His ideas are often utopian and comprehensive in scope and are spoken with such authority you could argue that as a guide to terra-forming a planet, Red Mars and its sequels make for the de-facto starting point. Similarly, if you were interested in how we may come to colonise the solar system then you could do a lot worse than pick up his latest novel – 2312 – in which he plausibly lays out a colonised system three centuries from now in which humanity is thriving. And not just in the places you’d expect.
In this future asteroids have become hollowed out and turned into habitats called Terraria, some of which contain species and ecosystems now found to be extinct back on Earth. Our home planet is largely ruined thanks to years of dithering and a subsequent crisis but thankfully hope and wonder abound elsewhere. On Mercury a domed city runs from the sun on a track that encircles the globe whilst on Venus, radical terra-forming is under way to make the planet habitable. Mars already is whilst sealed domes exist on the moons of Saturn and elevators and harnessed orbits govern transit between the planets. Qubes – small quantum processors embedded in the brain – have been used to create the first artificial intelligence and people of trans-gender now widely exist throughout society.
Within this expertly realised future we’re introduced to Swan Er Hong, a hundred and thirty five year old artist distraught at the unexpected death of her grandmother. It turns out that her deceased relative left her a series of encrypted messages for her and others which she must deliver. This leads Swan to Saturn to meet a friendly diplomat and inspector whose investigating the strange circumstances that led to her grandmother’s death. After unexplained disasters occur, both on Mercury and then Titan, it becomes apparent that these can be related back to the Qubes. To get to the bottom of this mystery, the groups travels take them on a host of missions dotted throughout the solar system and it’s this central premise which serves to drive the narrative forward.
This is a post capitalist future with no crime or fear, in fact with none of the accompanying tropes that permeate much of modern science fiction. Kim Stanley Robinson goes to great lengths to make his world stick together convincingly and his elegant descriptions of the Terraria and such like are a pure pleasure to read. It has to be said though, any action or human drama is often pushed back in favour of this constant fanfare of ideas and whilst this might prove to be appealing at first, after awhile it all begins to feel quite hollow, as though all these locations are for show somehow and there’s no one actually living or breathing within them!
Eventually the main characters garner your sympathy but by then it’s too late, especially after a lifeless opening that lacks any punch or sense of motivation. Its left to the set pieces and special effects to hold your attention and this works well up to a point, especially with the mixed multi-media reporting style that’s so reminiscent of John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar. In the end though, despite all the interesting diversions and sights along the way, the plot feels very contrived, the whole more a speculative essay on future technologies with an added story stapled on to make it hang together.
It’s a shame because despite this, 2312′s positive and original future makes it an important work that deserves attention. It offers hope and a tantalising glimpse of humanities way forward amidst all the doom and gloom so readily forecast by many writers, myself included. So if you wish to look to the future with a sense of renewed confidence, 2312 could just be for you. Just don’t expect to be on the edge of your seat when you finish it.
Have you read 2312 or any of Kim Stanley Robinson’s work? Please share your comments below, and don’t forget to click on the yellow stars at the top of this post to share your rating (1-5 stars) of 2312.
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About Reviewer, Ol Wilson Originally from Nottingham, Ol has been living in London for two years. Writing comedy in his youth, he went on to study Drama and Art at A-Level and then an honours in Film & Television from Aberystwyth University. Moving back to work in Nottingham, he tried his hand at film scripts whilst working a variety of jobs and trades before he realised a passion for writing prose and fiction. Covering everything from horror to sci-fi, he started submitting short stories late in 2011 and has since managed to get two published in Short Story Me. Many more are in the pipeline, along with a novel and a re-draft plus outlines and loads of sketches for future works.
During the day you can find Ol enforcing environmental law on the dodgy land owners of West London or breaking into council houses deemed unfit for public health. Failing that, he’s either reading or writing, jogging in the park or messing about drinking beer. A keen football fan and follower of Nottingham Forest, he also enjoys a passion for film and music and is known as “The Hustler” in his ten-pin bowling team.
Ol currently shares a flat in North London whilst he awaits the finishing touches to be made to his underwater biome.
You can keep in touch with Ol at his blog, on Twitter, or you can click here to read Ol’s free three-part Science Fiction short, The Sleeper.
In ‘The Frozen Sky’ by Jeff Carlson, elite engineer Alexis Vonderach and her team of scientists discover a race of ancient and savage life forms beneath the icy plains of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, they name them Sunfish. Whilst her team is trying to initiate some sort of communication with the Sunfish, other agencies from Earth have arrived intent on exploiting the alien race for medical advances and big profits. Unfortunately the resulting battles end in heavy losses on all sides.
All in all, I thought The Frozen Sky was a reasonably entertaining, middle-of-the-road sci-fi thriller. There was plenty of action and the occasional graphically violent scene to keep up the interest but unfortunately I felt constantly distracted by the large chunks of internal dialogue. I know that sometimes it’s important to know what the characters are thinking but in this case I felt it pulled me away from the action and I sometimes lost interest in the story, for this reason I rate it with 3 stars.
The writing was well done and the plot picked up pace steadily throughout the book with a fairly predictable, if abrupt, ending. With a Kindle price of just £1.32/$2.00 it is well worth downloading a copy. A Sci-Fi classic in the making.
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About the Author J.M.Tweedie writes Science Fiction and is currently three quarters of the way through her first novel (as yet untitled). When she’s not writing, she can usually be found working hard at her full time day job with the NHS UK, looking after her family or with her head in a good book. You can find out more about her and sample some of her writing at her website or alternatively follow on Twitter.
In the 21st century there was a third world war which left nations in total anarchy. The populations turned on themselves and rebelled against their governments. Eight years later a group of powerful people made up of the rich, the military and scientists met in secret and decided to usher in a new world order. They abolished national identities and formed a single planetary government calling it the Confederacy. No one knows who makes up this ruling body.
Then the drones were invented as a way of controlling the population. They are always watching you and you are never alone. They are self -automated computers that read signals from facial expression and determine intent. They respond swiftly and aggressively. For twenty years now no one has been free. The Confederacy takes people off the street and uses them for secret purposes. People with an aptitude or special skills just disappear.
In this world Joshua lives on the streets. He trades and scavenges for food and other simple necessities. On a day like any other he finds a dead body and hoping to make some money and get some decent food he removes the body’s intra-Personal Computer. But this isn’t just a normal iPC, the information contained on it are vital to various groups of people and they will do anything to possess it.
Fortunately for Joshua the person who finds him is Sarah, a representative of the Academy, a secret organization that has been in operation working on bringing down the Confederacy. They offer him a place to live and to train him in exchange for the iPC. Joshua agrees but what they don’t know is that Joshua has an objective of his own and he will do anything in his power to achieve it, no matter what the cost.
Written well, Covert Academy is a fast paced, action packed read. The characters are interesting and the plot is intriguing. However the dialogue is quite clunky at times and the motivations of the characters are somewhat murky. Why are people loyal to Joshua after only six months at the academy? What did he do to deserve it? I think with a little work this will make a great trilogy enjoyed by adults and teenagers.
Have you read The Covert Academy? Please share your comments below, and don’t forget to click on the yellow stars at the top of this post to share your rating (1-5 stars) of The Covert Academy.
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About the Reviewer: Yvonne lives on the NSW/Victorian border in Australia so it is always boiling hot or freezing cold, in other words great reading weather. She reads across all genres with the exception of Westerns. During the day Yvonne works at a library and loves her job and can’t imagine doing anything else.
Unseelie was one of the Rim worlds with a very unusual topography; instead of oceans or mountains; it was filled with endless forests of metal trees. The Empire exploited Unseelie as a mining colony, for each of those metal trees could be used to keep a ship in space for a year.
Once it was a thriving planet with an indigenous population called the Ashrai. But the Ashrai were upset with the Empire for depleting their natural resources by mining their trees, and consequently they openly revolted. Overwhelmed, the Empire troops evacuated and then scorched the planet from pole to pole wiping out millions of lives. Unseelie became a dead planet with 127 miners stationed at a base representing the only living things on the planet.
Following a Red Alert emergency on Base Thirteen, the Empire raised the force screen and cut off all communication. Four days after the alert, the Empire responded by sending out a task force. The task force was comprised of one Investigator to handle any alien presence, two marines, one esper and a Captain Silence, the captain who gave the order to scorch Unseelie ten years earlier.
Upon arrival they found an alien vessel that crash landed. Knowing they wouldn’t be able to get through the force screen to find out what is going on, Silence goes looking for Investigator Carrion. Once his best friend, Carrion betrayed the Empire and sided with the Ashrai inciting their rebellion. Carrion helps them into the base where all were shocked by what they discovered there. No one is going to help them, and it looks like no one is going to make it out of there alive.
This book is so creepy at parts that it made the hair on the back of my neck will stand up. Green expertly writes about the horror and the “alienness” of what they encounter; it almost feels as if you are watching a movie rather than reading a book.
Great characters, great scenes, this book is as scary as hell.
If this books sounds interesting to you, please be sure to check out our review of Mistworld by Simon R Green that’s set in the same universe.
Have you read Ghostworld, Mistworld or other stories by Simon R Green? Please share your comments below, and don’t forget to click on the yellow stars at the top of this post to share your rating (1-5 stars) of Ghostworld.
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About the Reviewer: Yvonne lives on the NSW/Victorian border in Australia so it is always boiling hot or freezing cold, in other words great reading weather. She reads across all genres with the exception of Westerns. During the day Yvonne works at a library and loves her job and can’t imagine doing anything else.
There’s some phenomenal world-building that takes place in this short Science Fiction read from Isaac Hooke. In fact, for a minimal investment of time, there’s a lot of upside to this story.
I like the inclusion of 3D printers in his future world; I’ve seen similar technologies introduced in Randolph Lalonde’s Spinward Fringe series with the use of “materializers.”
Just as we deal with hackers and viruses, Hooke uses examples in his imagined future world of how even the most sophisticated security measures can be fooled.
Also, in a society obsessed with extending life as long as possible, medicine becomes the currency of the future. Related to this, I quite like this simple quote from Finding Harmon: -When you controlled the supply of Lifelongers, you controlled humanity.
This raises important questions about current society when one corporation or political power has an inordinate amount of power and influence.
I’ve read some of Hooke’s other work including his fantasy novel, The Forever Gate and felt more personally connected to the characters in Finding Harmon. For me this was a pleasant surprise for a short Science Fiction story and a credit to the author’s strong character development.
You’ve got to end a short story somehow, but for me personally, I wasn’t crazy about the ending of Finding Harmon. Some of the protagonist’s personal demons are put to rest, but the overall arc of the story seems to end abruptly. Otherwise, the pace of the story is very quick and I suspect that most readers will be able to get through this short story in a single sitting. I recommend this book as a fun, fast-paced read.
Have you read Finding Harmon, The Forever Gate or The Forever Gate 2 by Isaac Hooke? Please share your comments below, and don’t forget to click on the yellow stars at the top of this post to share your rating (1-5 stars) of Finding Harmon.
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