author : John Scalzi

I was a bit hesitant to read this. Scenario: author has gained fame, goes back and publishes his first novel (originally written in 1999, slightly updated for intervening events). First novels can be a bit gruesome. This isn't: I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Tom Stein is an up-and-coming Hollywood agent, who has just negotiated a career changing contract for one of his clients, when he's called into his fearsome boss's office. There he's stunned to discover he has a new client: the alien Yherajk, who want to make contact with Earth, and realise that they need an agent to do so. How can Tom "sell" to humanity an alien race who look like a bucket of something disgusting, and smell worse? Fortunately they are very moral, very patient, and have a sense of humour.

There's great humour here, but it's not broad slapstick: it just emerges from the bizarre situation Tom finds himself in, the even more bizarre egos of some of Tom's more human clients, the fact that the aliens have learned Earth culture from our TV broadcasts (and realise that this is a problem), and the sheer silliness of the movie industry. And it's not all comedy: there are also some truly moving scenes. And a massive coincidence needed to resolve the plot.

Earth is a lowly member of the interstellar Confederation, negotiating banana quotas with the Nidu, when diplomat Moeller ignites an interstellar incident, by farting. From such small beginnings events spiral out of control, as the Nidu demand compensation in the form of a rare breed of genetically engineered electric blue sheep, and other factions, both from Earth and from Nidu, are determined to make this fail, for a variety of reasons.

Very clever, mostly very funny, with the occasional lapse into grossness or seriousness, this is a great romp. The prose is a bit clunky in a few places (several consecutive sentences beginning with the same person's name, for example), but on the whole this just rips along. It's not just a bunch of unconnected gags: I love the way that many of the seemingly minor "decorative" events, there apparently just to add a bit of background detail, all suddenly become deeply significant and key, often in the most bizarre ways. The resolution is bizarre, clever, and unexpected.

The captive god that powers Captain Tephe’s starship is not the most cooperative, and needs to be whipped into obedience. Tephe thinks nothing of this, since he has faith in his own triumphant god. But when he is given a secret mission to gain new followers for his god, he learns something rather terrible.

This novella is not typical Scalzi in style (I certainly didn’t laugh at any point), but it is in quality. The plot unfold gradually, and appallingly, up to the shattering conclusion.

Scalzi plays the same game with the rook Shalle that Vonda McIntyre did with Meredith in Dreamsnake. I didn’t notice it there, but I did here. Maybe I’m more suspicious in my old age.

Contents

• Jay Lake. In the Forests of the Night. 2009

• Tobias S. Buckell. Stochasti-city. 2009

• Elizabeth Bear. The Red in the Sky is Our Blood. 2009

• Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis. 2009

• Karl Schroeder. To Hie from Far Cilenia. 2009

Jack Holloway is a prospector, one of many working for the ZaraCorp mining corporation on Zarathustra. He makes a massive find that will guarantee him riches beyond his wildest dreams. Then he is befriended by some local wildlife, dubbed "fuzzies", and he gradually realises that the find will do them no good at all. And then ZaraCorp learn the fuzzies might even be sapients...

This is Scalzi's "reboot" of H. Beam Piper's 1962 novel, Little Fuzzy. Scalzi, a fan of the original, originally wrote this version for fun, "mostly to see what a version of Little Fuzzy by me would be like". It's a fun read, and a great page turner, but it does feel very 1960s. I don't mean in attitude of the characters, which is quite modern, but in density and complexity of the story, which feels a little thin. From a book written today, I would expect more world-building, more complexity: maybe more on the linguistics and psychology of the Fuzzies, or on the planetary ecology, or on the mining technology, or on the interstellar politics, or something. That is all in there, for sure, but rather thin: it's mostly a linear story of sapience discovery. So, a fun read, but not much more.

Ensign Andrew Dahl is excited about his new posting, to the space ship UUC Intrepid. But when he gets there, everything seems a bit strange. His colleagues have elaborate ruses to hide from the bridge crew, so they are not sent on away missions. And the away missions have a surprising high fatality rate of the ensigns, and surprisingly lucky escapes of the bridge crew. Rather than hide as well, Dahl starts to investigate. The answers will change his life for ever, if only he can live long enough to find them.

This is fun. It makes great little digs at those plot holes in the SF series we know and love, spoofing them in story the same way Galaxy Quest did in film. It is clear what is going on quite soon, but Scalzi's resolution is imaginative and interesting. And then there are the unexpected codas, answering the traditionally unanswered questions.

Jamie Gray, down on his luck, is glad to take a job offered by an old friend. But he is astonished to discover this job is located on a parallel Earth populated by giant nuclear-powered dinosaurs, in danger of going extinct. However, he adapts quickly, and is good at his job, which is useful, as the Bad Guys have got wind of enterprise, and want to exploit it themselves. But that could cause the native Kaiju to break through into our Earth, potentially causing devasation as they explode.

This is a fast, fun romp, with some bonkers nuclear biology, and some hissable villains. Jamie is mainly competent, but at one point he makes what turns out to be a massive error of judgment, leading to a death in the crew, but this is never acknowledged, and he suffers no personal consequences. Despite this one slightly sour note, I enjoyed zipping through this.

A virulent new virus leaves one percent of its victims “locked in”, unable to move any voluntary muscles, but awake. New technology allows these people, Hadens, to control robot avatars, allowing them to participate in the world.

Chris Shane is a Haden with a rich and powerful father, but has chose to pursue a career as an FBI agent. First day on the job, with a new partner, and there’s a possible murder, with what turn out to be deep ramifications for all Hadens. And most of the rest of the Hadens are on strike, over the removal of their expensive subsidised care.

This is an interesting science fictional police procedural. We see all the action from Chris’s point of view, allowing us to experience both the downsides and the upsides of being a Haden, although some of the upsides are a consequence of being a rich Haden. The robot avatar idea has some parallels with the film Surrogates, but the world building and the plot here hold together much better, and better use is made of the possibilities of swapping robot bodies. And it turns out it might not be such a good idea to be an early adopter.

There’s potential for a whole series about Agent Chris and the Hadens. I’m hoping for more stories in this world.

Hilketa is a violent sport, where the goal is to rip the head off the opposing team’s “goat” player. Not that violent, though: the players are all Hadens, controlling robot bodies. There is some feedback to give the players a little pain, just to keep them motivated. Nothing too extreme though. Nothing that would cause damage. Certainly nothing that would kill. So when a player drops dead in a game, and people start acting weird, Haden FBI Agent Chris Shane investigates.

This is the second Chris Shane tale, and it keeps up the standard of the first. The possibilities and politics of Haden robotic bodies are central to the plot: they aren’t just a vehicle to allow Chris to jump between bodies at will. It’s fortunate that Chris has wealthy and influential parents, as this does help unstick some otherwise sticky situations. This has the trademark Scalzi snarky snappy dialog, bags of action, and a cat.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the world-building develops in future stories, as non-Hadens also start to use the robot bodies.

Ever wondered what Starship Troopers would be like with a Heinlein stage three protagonist, instead of a stage one? Wonder no more.

John Perry, widower for the last eight years, enlists in the Colonial Defense Forces on his 75th birthday. Whisked away from Earth with a load of other 75-year-olds, he is fixed up with a new younger fitter stronger greener body, put through boot camp, and sent out to fight aliens.

This is fast, frenetic, and fun -- with several very affecting moments. Perry is not naive, but a few of his fellow geriatrics are (or bigoted: age-hardened naivety). He learns quickly, but the universe is bigger, weirder, and more hostile than he can always cope with. The style is strangely flat -- even when the characters are discussing deeply-felt emotions -- and seems the more realistic and compelling for that. There's closure to this book, despite it being the beginning of a series.

Charles Boutin is a traitor to the human race, selling out to aliens and planning for war on Earth. The Colonial Union have only just discovered this, and they also discovered a recording of Boutin's consciousness, made immediately before he defected. So they grow a clone body, and download the recording. But it doesn't "take", and they are left with Jared Dirac, just another Special Forces soldier, who they send off to train for war. He does well, until Boutin's memories do begin to surface...

This is a direct sequel to Old Man's War: Jared ends up in Lt Jane Sagan's squad, and we see how Special Forces soldiers are trained (more Starship Troopers, but where the protagonist is essentially a child in a superhero's body). The plot trundles along in the expected way until Boutin's memories start to surface, then things become complicated, as it becomes apparent that the Colonial Union aren't being exactly open with everyone about what's going on in the universe.

There's very much a middle of trilogy feel to this. We've been introduced to the universe in the first book; now the plot is thickening sufficiently for the grand denouement. And we get to see some interesting aliens, and some interesting "humans". But I'm not totally convinced about what the Obin are lacking (or, if they really are, how they can have the reaction they do to that fact).

John Perry and Jane Sagan, mustered out of the military, back in ordinary human bodies, have become colonists. They are happy being ombudsman and constable in their local town, when their old boss contacts them to persuade them to lead a new colony. John realises he's got itchy feet, so off they go. But things seem a little odd: the composition of the colonists, the ship's manifest; small things. When the colony ship arrives at the "wrong" planet, it becomes clear everyone has been conned: this is all a setup by the Colonial Union in their war against the aliens. And it soon becomes clear that everyone has their own plans for the success or failure of this colony.

This is a great finale to the trilogy (there is a fourth book to come in the same universe, but there is certainly closure at the end of this one). The gradual unfolding of plot within plot makes you wonder how things could possibly get worse, and then they do! Many small battles, cunning politics, and desperate stratagems are needed as John and Jane fight for their colony and their lives, and maybe even the lives of all humanity. Good stuff.

John Perry and Jane Sagan adopted Zoe Boutin, daughter of traitor Charles Boutin, and object of reverence of the entire Obin species. Here, the events of The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony are retold from Zoe's PoV. As such, it helps fills in a few plot holes (such as what happened to Zoe when she went off to inform the alien leader about the assassination attempt). But the best thing is that it's not just a simple retelling: some things look very different from Zoe's PoV, and we get to explore her relationship with the Obin in much more depth. A worthwhile addition to the series.

The human interstellar empire is known as the Interdependency, because each outpost is dependent on all the others. It was set up this way by family guilds, when the faster-than-light Flow network shifted and cut off the outposts from Earth. What the manoeuvring factions don’t know, and will deny when they do, is that the Flow is about to shift again, cutting off every outpost, meaning a slow death for them all. Is this the best time for an untrained and untested new Emperox to take the helm?

This is the first book in a new series from Scalzi. It is curiously galactic spanning and claustrophobic at the same time: each outpost, apart from End, is either a space station or a small colony on a hostile planet, set up where the Flow led. And we really only see two of them: End (a backwater dumping ground for malcontents, but the only inhabitable planet in the system) and Hub (a giant space station from which the Empire is ruled). And some of the concerns might mirror today’s problems: although not particularly heavy handed, it would be dense not to read the Flow changes and its denialists as a metaphor for climate change.

Being the first in a series, there’s a lot of set-up: the new Emperox, the scheming Noehamapeton family guild, and the foul-mouthed trader Lady Kiva. This set-up is achieved, not through exposition, but through plenty of action moving the plot along at a brisk pace, in Scalzi’s typical breezy style (he tries for Banksian spaceship names, but doesn’t quite pull it off), and a roller-coaster ride of assassination attempts and citrus fruit sales (oh ghod, I’ve only just realised that this subplot is literally a case of “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”). We are left teetering on the brink of a potential giga-death calamity. Given this is a new series, I was expecting a slower build-up: at this pace, the empire will have collapsed and been rebuilt by the middle of book two. Which I will be reading.