Dammit Jeb Kinnison you made me break my “OH SHIT” button. Badly. Where am I supposed to find another one this time of year? It's all your fault. Seriously. And honestly, have you ever ridden public transportation? Have you ever missed your stop and had to do extra walking on tired feet because you couldn't wait to see what was next? Your latest book, Shrivers: The Substrate Wars 3 had me hanging on every word. It's hard to watch out of a window to see how close I am to my stop when my nose is stuck in an e-reader.
*SIGH*
Seriously folks, this is a good one. Fans of the site (both of you) will remember that I have reviewed both of the first two books in the series, The Red Queen and Nemo's World and enjoyed them both but this is easily the best of the three. Once again we see the fight against Big Government and a crackdown on the dirty little guy, this time on an existential level. It's not even about a human government anymore. This one is all about the fight of humanity to survive against a force that is regulating the substrate. If you don't know what the substrate is, it's because you haven't read the first two books and that is a mistake you need to fix quickly. The links are listed below.
As a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy, one of my favorite things is an epic plot and an existential threat. Kinnison got both of those into this book in spades. The Red Queen was about a renegade group of students rebelling against oppression. That's good stuff. Nemo's World was about setting up a government and what to do with dangerous criminals. It was a lot of fun as well. This one is not just bigger than either, it's bigger than both put together. The impressive part about the whole thing is really about how well Kinnison humanizes it though.
The previous cast of characters is all still here and they're all doing their thing. Some are perhaps a bit older, wiser and more mature but things tend to work that way in real life so that's hardly surprising. What is incredibly surprising is the inclusion of a young girl on whom the fate of the entire human race depends. Whether she is up to the challenge or not... well... read the book. I don't do spoilers. I will say that she gets put into her position because she is a unique young lady and that the decision is not made by a human being. Humans have friends among those who would try to kill them. And that's one of the things that I really, really enjoyed about this book.
Look, I'm okay with a cardboard villain if it fits the story. Battle: Los Angeles was a good movie that pretty much went "The bad guys are here to steal water and they're going to kill us all to get it," and left things at that. This book is not that way. Kinnison's villains are every bit as much motivated as they are dangerous and they have very clear motivations that MAKE SENSE. I get the fact that alien reasoning may not always be obvious to a human mind, especially given the fact the motivations of a person from another human culture can be opaque at times. Still, the enemy, known as the First because they were the first culture to discover the substrate, is looking to perpetuate their own existence against anyone they see as a threat. New species are, to them, a threat to take up the space they need to live. The Shrivers that Kinnison named his book after are their method of doing so. Nuclear annihilation awaits those that aren't unique and impressive enough.
I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the ability of anyone to wipe out an enemy that has access to the substrate when I first read about it. That lasted until I had read a little further. It turns out that there is a fairly simple way to mess with a computer program (a virus) and that a society who has had access to the substrate for billions of years is better at using it than we would be. Go figure. It works here though because it's so familiar. I had missed the possibility but the reasoning was sound and it made the story easy to follow.
This tome cooks from beginning to end. It just doesn't let up. Problems come up and are solved just in time to set up the next round of problems. I wonder if perhaps Kinnison didn't run out of mountains to drop on his character and decide to start using meteors instead. After all, they're plentiful and require less lift. Things go from bad to worse to OH SHIT and pretty much stay there until the last page or two when my least favorite character shows up. I don't know why Cliff Hanger is such a popular guy but I'd like to break all of his teeth. Then again, at least this means we'll be getting another sequel and that's a good thing.
The politics of the story drift a bit in the work as well. At first it was a plucky bunch of kids rebelling against an overreaching government. Then it was those kids a few years later finding a way to turn things into a government in which everyone has a say. Those were impressive. But now things are shifting a bit. Control of the substrate is control over the future or humanity and its use is restricted to just a few people who are planning to pass that control on to their children. This has potential to lead to a government even more repressive than the one they overthrew. So far they haven't gone down that road but the possibility to do so is certainly there. If Kinnison will steer his series away from that eventuality. If he does so it will be interesting to see how he pulls it off. So I'm waiting (im)patiently for the sequel to see what comes next.
Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Micro Black Holes
Shrivers: The Substrate Wars 3
Jeb Kinnison
Self Published, 2015
The books in the trilogy are available at the link below:
Showing posts with label Quantum Computing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quantum Computing. Show all posts
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Nemo's World :The Substrate Wars 2 by Jeb Kinnison
Justin Smith, Steve Duong and friends are back again and this time it's WAR... err... peace. Sort of. The crew is up to no good (lots of good?) for the second time and this time they're facing off against the whole world. This one is not for the faint hearted. Kidnappings, theft (granted, of nuclear warheads and for the good of mankind) and gunfights about as we're brought into the world of a bunch of idealistic kids who want nothing but peace and freedom from government constraint. Nemo's World: The Substrate Wars 2 discusses some great ideas while still putting story first.
Kinnison spends quite a bit of time on the politics and diplomacy of his new world in his volume. Smith is doing a lot of work toward setting up a new interstellar government. Relationships are set up between the new planet and the existing governments of Earth. New planets are being applied for and assigned. There is a lot here. There has to be though, because this is a very political story.
The goals of the students (and that's what most of the good guys are) are laudable and they're very aware of the potential downside of the computers they have built. They can detect and destroy just about everything. They seize all of the world's nuclear weapons and hide them in space. They can destroy just about everything and Steve Duong knows all the tricks to do so. So far they haven't succumbed to the evil possibilities of their technology, at least by their standards. They're well aware of some of the potential damage that can be done with a technology that can detect, transport and create just about everything. Even punishment of criminals is performed with an eye toward mercy. In the end, not everything works the way it was intended to, but that in and of itself makes sense.
Nuclear weapons are stolen back by the United States government. A fight breaks out on the penal planet. It's made possible by the use of replicator technology (very similar to that used in Star Trek) that wasn't meant to produce weapons. Kinnison is very well aware of what can go wrong here and he is making the point. Sometimes I wonder if he takes it far enough though.
One of the factions that is on the "Good guy" side is the Grey Tribe. They're a group of cyber-rebels who have been sought by various governments. A lot of them are also programmers. So far Steve Duong has managed to keep them from getting loose and doing something - seeking revenge against the government on a personal level? - that he doesn't want. No one seems to have gotten hold of a joystick and taken something they shouldn't have for their own enrichment. Kinnison is obviously aware of the terrible potential of a computer that can move/create just about anything but he seems to be unwilling to take the logical next step. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It hasn't happened yet. Equally as strange is that nothing has gone hideously wrong. With technology this new and radical I would expect more accidents.
There could be a bit less talk in this book and a bit more action as well. Granted, there are fights, assassination attempts and a potential nuking so the story is not all talk, but there are large chunks of people talking instead of doing. Even a few minutes in the computer lab with Steve Duong while he is attempting his newest innovation and worrying about a potential failure might spice things up.
For all of that though, this is a really solid story. I read through it in about two days and I really did enjoy it. I'm waiting for the next book in the series (err, well... I hope I am. I haven't heard anything from Kinnison about whether it's going to happen or not) with bated breath.
Bottom line:4.25 out of 5 Stolen Nukes.
Nemo's World: The Substrate Wars
Jeb Kinnison
Jeb Kinnison, 2015
On Thursday : Cedar Sanderson's Trickster Noir if I'm done reading it by then. If not, whatever movie I decide to watch and review.
Kinnison spends quite a bit of time on the politics and diplomacy of his new world in his volume. Smith is doing a lot of work toward setting up a new interstellar government. Relationships are set up between the new planet and the existing governments of Earth. New planets are being applied for and assigned. There is a lot here. There has to be though, because this is a very political story.
The goals of the students (and that's what most of the good guys are) are laudable and they're very aware of the potential downside of the computers they have built. They can detect and destroy just about everything. They seize all of the world's nuclear weapons and hide them in space. They can destroy just about everything and Steve Duong knows all the tricks to do so. So far they haven't succumbed to the evil possibilities of their technology, at least by their standards. They're well aware of some of the potential damage that can be done with a technology that can detect, transport and create just about everything. Even punishment of criminals is performed with an eye toward mercy. In the end, not everything works the way it was intended to, but that in and of itself makes sense.
Nuclear weapons are stolen back by the United States government. A fight breaks out on the penal planet. It's made possible by the use of replicator technology (very similar to that used in Star Trek) that wasn't meant to produce weapons. Kinnison is very well aware of what can go wrong here and he is making the point. Sometimes I wonder if he takes it far enough though.
One of the factions that is on the "Good guy" side is the Grey Tribe. They're a group of cyber-rebels who have been sought by various governments. A lot of them are also programmers. So far Steve Duong has managed to keep them from getting loose and doing something - seeking revenge against the government on a personal level? - that he doesn't want. No one seems to have gotten hold of a joystick and taken something they shouldn't have for their own enrichment. Kinnison is obviously aware of the terrible potential of a computer that can move/create just about anything but he seems to be unwilling to take the logical next step. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It hasn't happened yet. Equally as strange is that nothing has gone hideously wrong. With technology this new and radical I would expect more accidents.
There could be a bit less talk in this book and a bit more action as well. Granted, there are fights, assassination attempts and a potential nuking so the story is not all talk, but there are large chunks of people talking instead of doing. Even a few minutes in the computer lab with Steve Duong while he is attempting his newest innovation and worrying about a potential failure might spice things up.
For all of that though, this is a really solid story. I read through it in about two days and I really did enjoy it. I'm waiting for the next book in the series (err, well... I hope I am. I haven't heard anything from Kinnison about whether it's going to happen or not) with bated breath.
Bottom line:4.25 out of 5 Stolen Nukes.
Nemo's World: The Substrate Wars
Jeb Kinnison
Jeb Kinnison, 2015
On Thursday : Cedar Sanderson's Trickster Noir if I'm done reading it by then. If not, whatever movie I decide to watch and review.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Jeb Kinnison's Red Queen: The Substrate Wars
Red Queen: The Substrate Wars is both a thoroughly entertaining read and a primer on modern day rightism from a member of the rightist movement. Highlighted are the true beliefs of those of us on the right, and not the slanted, stilted cries of RAAAAAAAAACISM!!!! that often come from those on the left. As a matter of fact, I would absolutely recommend this work to anyone on the Left who is interested in taking a look at the rightist point of view as explained in our own words and not as we are slandered by mainstream media outlets like CNN or MSNBC. I don't want to go too far down this road though. Red Queen is, at its heart, a story of Science Fiction and rebellion and one that does a terrific job of entertaining first and delivering message second.
When we meet our hero, Justin Smith, he is hard at work in a computer lab running a simulation of the evolution of a planet full of life. The life in the simulation is, at this point, incredibly basic. It's a concept we'll come back to throughout the story though and makes a good metaphor for the advancement of the plans of Justin and his friends as the story moves forward. As their movement expands and becomes more complex so does the life in the simulation. I'm not entirely certain I'm doing a good job of describing what it adds to the story, but there is definitely something here. It is entirely possible that there was something here that I missed as well, as the interpretation I made at the beginning may have been overridden by later developments. I'll leave it to the sequel to see if I was right or not.
This novel is not the quickest to start, but given the fact that it is the first in the series that is hardly surprising. As a matter of fact, I debated about reviewing it at first because the SF part of the story doesn't really come into play until we meet Steve Duong and find out what he's building. Once it does though, it's off to the races and the plot starts moving very quickly. Our friends find their involvement in things illegal and semi-legal deepening at every step. Government monitoring starts and is gradually increased. A couple of our heroes are arrested and make the kind of escape only possible in an SF novel. Another planet is visited using a method that I won't reveal here, except to say that it is similar in some ways to a spacefold in Robotech and also similar to the method of travel seen in Event Horizon yet totally different in that it doesn't actually involve a ship.
The story eventually turns into one of a revolution aborning. The problem with a story like that is that there is no way that a group of college students could pull off a revolution without making some fairly major mistakes. Kinnison's solution to the problem is to let them make those mistakes in ways that are both believable and entertaining. Sometimes it's a small thing, like a password left written on a notepad. At other times, foul-ups come as major issues like the siren song of another man's woman. Regardless of how they happen, they never fail to move the plot forward and keep things interesting.
The story is not perfect. Kinnison frequently injects political statements into conversations that run a bit longer than they really need to. It seems to me that the characters in the story are a little too quick to understand all of the potential uses and consequences of the quantum computer in the story. Steve Duong picks up on something monumental off-screen and does it in seemingly less time than it takes to talk about it. That much being said, all of these are forgivable as well as probably being plot-necessary. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well written story and is prepared to either enjoy or accept some political content to go with it.
Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 quantum computers
Red Queen: The Substrate Wars
Jeb Kinnison
Jeb Kinnison Publishing, 2014
On Sunday: Something Hunger Games related. I'm not sure what yet
When we meet our hero, Justin Smith, he is hard at work in a computer lab running a simulation of the evolution of a planet full of life. The life in the simulation is, at this point, incredibly basic. It's a concept we'll come back to throughout the story though and makes a good metaphor for the advancement of the plans of Justin and his friends as the story moves forward. As their movement expands and becomes more complex so does the life in the simulation. I'm not entirely certain I'm doing a good job of describing what it adds to the story, but there is definitely something here. It is entirely possible that there was something here that I missed as well, as the interpretation I made at the beginning may have been overridden by later developments. I'll leave it to the sequel to see if I was right or not.
This novel is not the quickest to start, but given the fact that it is the first in the series that is hardly surprising. As a matter of fact, I debated about reviewing it at first because the SF part of the story doesn't really come into play until we meet Steve Duong and find out what he's building. Once it does though, it's off to the races and the plot starts moving very quickly. Our friends find their involvement in things illegal and semi-legal deepening at every step. Government monitoring starts and is gradually increased. A couple of our heroes are arrested and make the kind of escape only possible in an SF novel. Another planet is visited using a method that I won't reveal here, except to say that it is similar in some ways to a spacefold in Robotech and also similar to the method of travel seen in Event Horizon yet totally different in that it doesn't actually involve a ship.
The story eventually turns into one of a revolution aborning. The problem with a story like that is that there is no way that a group of college students could pull off a revolution without making some fairly major mistakes. Kinnison's solution to the problem is to let them make those mistakes in ways that are both believable and entertaining. Sometimes it's a small thing, like a password left written on a notepad. At other times, foul-ups come as major issues like the siren song of another man's woman. Regardless of how they happen, they never fail to move the plot forward and keep things interesting.
The story is not perfect. Kinnison frequently injects political statements into conversations that run a bit longer than they really need to. It seems to me that the characters in the story are a little too quick to understand all of the potential uses and consequences of the quantum computer in the story. Steve Duong picks up on something monumental off-screen and does it in seemingly less time than it takes to talk about it. That much being said, all of these are forgivable as well as probably being plot-necessary. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well written story and is prepared to either enjoy or accept some political content to go with it.
Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 quantum computers
Red Queen: The Substrate Wars
Jeb Kinnison
Jeb Kinnison Publishing, 2014
On Sunday: Something Hunger Games related. I'm not sure what yet
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