TheBlueNebula

Europa Report is not for everybody, but I found it worthwhile. Its virtues reside in a parsimonious plot, understated action, and a plausible presentation of the experience of near-future space exploration. Its weaknesses lie in its ensemble of rather flat and static characters, and in a few technical faux pas* likely to trouble only space boffins and members of The Planetary Society. However since the movie bids so high in the Technical Realism suit, we do expect it to play that hand.

Also, potentially off-putting for some may be the chronologically-jumbled found-footage style of presentation that obliges the viewer to work a bit harder to make sense of the sequence of events than is warranted by the elementary story line. I mention it as a caveat, but trust me, you've see far worse.

The movie tells the story of a crew dispatched on a commercially-funded space venture to seek life, implied by the presence of water, on a moon of Jupiter. This is a long, tedious, bleak voyage with only the chance of a scientifically-profound payoff. Each member of the crew is committed to the cause in his/her own way, but the cost of the mission's success proves to be very high.

I particularly liked the lean, stoic tone of the narrative. The visuals, including the ship's austere interior, the exterior vistas, and the moonscapes, were well-crafted and convincing. The interface graphics of the crew's technology added subtle notes of credibility.

This movie is about the risks and rewards of exploring other worlds. It suggests, but does not exaggerate, the reasons why humans will choose to take those risks. And it illustrates the inevitable losses those gambles will entail.

I do not recommend Europa Report to you if you're looking for deep plotting, high action, rich fantasy, or space opera. Europa Report has more in common with Moon than with Star Wars. But if you have a taste for Science Fiction with a strong sense of near-future plausibility, I do recommend it to you.

(Spoilers follow)

* For example:

For a damaged communications array, a solar event seems much less plausible than any of a number of other signal-munging accidents.

Did you find yourself periodically wondering "Which of the ship's cameras is taking that shot, 'cause I'm pretty sure there is no reason to for them to have a camera aimed there?"

And since the real Europa's gravity is weaker even than the Moon's, much of the action depicted on the surface of their fictional version of the icy world just does not look right. Indeed, many of the perils facing the crew would not be so perilous but for the Earth-like gravity they mysteriously endure there. The captain's fatal fall is particularly troublesome in that regard

Europa Report

I give it thumbs up, a green light, a full popcorn bag . . . whatever. Oblivion is an entertaining and well-put-together movie with a refrigerator-logic story line and a post-apocalypse setting. Visually, it is lovely. Its special effects are top-notch. Its pacing is near-perfect. Best of all: it's not a sequel, a reboot of an over-appreciated franchise, or an extended commercial for a video game.

Cruise offers up a workmanlike performance, which is appropriate considering he plays a futuristic drone-repairman-cum-soldier, Andrea Riseborough is seductive yet eerily unnatural as his nubile companion who, having "taken the red pill," prefers her Reality just as it appears, thank you very much. 

You have likely seen elements of this story in numerous other movies, but not as neatly and appealingly prepared, packaged, and presented. The appreciative viewer just needs to be a little more like Victoria ("I don't want to know . . .") than Jack, troubled by intrusive recollections of a history he does not understand. Who really cares if the recipes have been done elsewhere if  the meal is delicious nevertheless?

Oblivion (2013)

I’ve had them say “You can do whatever you want, it’s SciFi, it doesn’t have to make sense.”

Well, that explains a lot about the last couple of decades of science fiction on television.

Slashdot Interviews: J. Michael Straczynski Answers Your Questions

A good friend recently mentioned that he had just finished the audiobook version of Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. (Highly recommends it, by the way.)  

I find it somewhat surprising that no film version of that novel was ever made. Both Childhood's End and 2001: A Space Odyssey begin with pretty straightforward near-future Science Fiction settings and trundle headlong toward seriously mystical, eschatological stuff in their endings. I don't know why one would have been filmworthy and the other not.

Could it be because studios didn't think the idea of an invasion by benevolent aliens would sell? Or, maybe they were leery of those creepy telekinetic kids who emerge as mankind's ultimate generation. 

My copy's cover carries this blurb:

“In the tradition of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and Frank Herbert's Dune books.”
--The New York Times

This book is in the tradition of Foundation and Dune in the same way Snow Crash is in the tradition of Beverly Cleary's "Beezus and Ramona" series, which is to say NOT. 

The Risen Empire has a couple of things going for it. It has some fast-paced high-tech tactical combat. The action is quite brutal and bloody, actually. The kind of thing that  might appeal to gamers—console first-person shooters, like Halo and Call of Duty, primarily. I suppose.

The book is also just chock-full of spiffy far-future technology ideas. It's a cornucopia of hyper-advanced weaponry, amazing vehicles, futuristic medical systems, wondrous communications devices, meta-intelligent machines, etc. The prose is so richly saturated with exposition of the author's prodigious technophilia that it sometimes gets in the way of the story.

For example, there are extended passages about a Von Neumann machine-like house that builds itself in the polar region of a planet. Written, more-or-less, from the point of view of the house's AI, this is not in itself an uninteresting idea. But it's about as welcome as a commercial interruption in the middle of a free-throw attempt where the author presents it. White-hot battle scenes, fulminating political intrigue, compelling foreshadows of mysterious secrets . . . and then BAM: “Hello snowy mountainside and happy sentient house construction.” All it lacks is a catchy jingle.

Indeed, fragmented storytelling is The Risen Empire's biggest problem. Westerfeld structures the book as a sequence of short narratives, each told from a different character's (house included) point of view. This amounts to waaaay too much viewpoint shifting. From the reader's all-important viewpoint, the story does not flow comfortably. And this uncomfortableness, sadly, is entirely intentional.

Westerfeld's narrative strategy also fails to overcome the challenge of getting the reader invested in his characters. Fully half of the first dozen characters whose viewpoints are introduced in the story are dead in the first eighty pages. Really dead, dead-and-gone--not just dead-and-back-again like numerous other characters. I have a rule: Don't invite me to care all that much about them if you're not going to keep them around. My time is important and I don't like to waste it.

I'm going to remain neutral on The Risen Empire recommendation-wise. I've shared some complaints but you might like the furious action, the political intrigue, or the splashy techno-wonderment.

As for what the New York Times reviewer saw in The Risen Empire that is “in the tradition of” Asimov and Herbert? Well, perhaps she meant that this work implies a sequel, and likely a multitude of sequels, the incrementally diminished quality of which will undermine the cumulative reputation of the work as a whole. This interpretation also puts it squarely in the tradition of Star Wars. But most certainly not that of "Beezus and Ramona."

The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld  (Succession #1)

Originally posted 20 Nov 2012 on Google+

Authored by Sci-Fi genre masters? Check

What's wrong here?

One: This book is the first volume of a series. It's very hard to tell that from the cover and front matter. Taken by itself, this book's ending is insipid and unsatisfying. “I paid for a book and got sold a prologue?”

Two: The editor failed this book profoundly. There is justification for professional shame here. Narrative inconsistencies, awkward redundancies, evidence of draft mismanagement . . . this book (and its audience) deserved a good solid developmental edit and obviously did not get it.

So, yeah, the angry reviews are justified, but for failings of the editor/publisher moreso than for lapses of the author(s?) I'm sure there are editorial challenges when you are dealing with drafts from two authors, but it's not as if these guys haven't successfully collaborated (major understatement) with other writers before!

So, there's the beef. Yet, despite this Kansas City strip-sized chunk, I must declare that I enjoyed the story--so far. Benford (I detect Benford more strongly in this volume than Niven) seems to be revving up a strong and stylish sci-fi vehicle. But I've already paid full price for my ticket and we haven't really covered much distance yet--and I'm looking eagerly for Niven to do some of the piloting. 

There is much to be hopeful about in this series--if future volumes get appropriate editorial treatment. I dissent on reviewer's complaints about the human characters. Ok, they're a bit generic; I say, “Give them more spacetime.” I think the aliens are actually quite interesting and show great potential.

And, I think reviewers are giving short shrift to the major theme of the work: the moral issues surrounding the capture and genetic/behavioral alteration of intelligent species with the intent of making them more amenable to servitude. There are overtures here to themes presented in Brin's Uplift novels and Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. I'm confident that this will be a major factor in future installments in the series.

Bottom line: Recommended with caveats. Not a finished story. Not for those demanding high action or video-game pacing. Be prepared for inexcusable lapses in editing. Speaking of that, does anyone have a pitchfork to lend?

Bowl of Heaven by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford

Originally posted 26 Nov 2012 on Google+

Well-researched and credible, this 10-year-plus old novel about the first human explorers on Mars leaves the reader feeling, perhaps, less entertained than educated. This is not a gripe—just an observation. The Martian Race is not an escapist lark; it’s rock-hard science fiction, carefully grounded in scientific method, enlivened with characters who behave like scientists, and peppered with passages of scientific exposition.

If you’re jonesing for Space Opera, there’s no reason to linger here. I’m tempted to say that this is book is better suited to readers of mainstream fiction who might just have an interest in Mars exploration than it is to Sci-Fi fans inured to the conventions of the genre. Readers will encounter: some suspense, not much “action,” plenty of details on the planet’s environment, and some thoughtful insights on human nature. The ending is cleverly illuminated by speculations on how Earth’s dominant species might learn a valuable lesson from the survival strategies adopted by Martian life.

If you’re worried that this decade-old story might be too dated, in light of recent events in Mars exploration, don’t be. There has probably never been a better time to pick up this book.

The Martian Race by Gregory Benford

Originally posted 19 Nov 2012 on Google+

I finished this science fiction novel about a month ago. It ends more or less as it begins--with the protagonist (Ruskin, a superstar astrophysicist) shorn of his identity and all but annihilated. In between, there are space opera, biocybernetics, political intrigue, and a touch of romance--all framed within an interstellar espionage mystery. 

The story develops cleanly and clips along well enough. The setting seemed a bit sketchy in places, but perhaps I missed a line or two of exposition. For example, I was never sufficiently clear on the goals of the various political factions to fully appreciate their representatives' motives.

Regardless, for the most part I found the novel entertaining and clever.Its biggest difficulty, I might suggest, lies with the very thing that makes the story unique. Since from the beginning, Ruskin doesn't really know who he is--and most of this book's narrative surrounds his discovery or reformulation of his selfhood--he's just not that easy to get close to. If he doesn't know who he is . . . well, readers don't either.

There are numerous interior dialogues between Ruskin and various nanobot-derived cybernetic entities that have invaded his body and psyche. Bedeviled by these nano-commandos, Ruskin suffers about as many blackouts in the heat of the action as a Christopher Paolini fantasy hero. Some readers will likely find this awkward.

Eventually, the more helpful nano-entities begin invading other characters in order to influence or control their actions so that they can assist Ruskin. From the reader's perspective, it's difficult to understand why this whole thing doesn't devolve into a war between mind-dominating nanobot armies controlling all of the human and alien characters. If you think about it, this resolution verges on enabling the ghost in the machine to actually become the deus ex machina. 

There's also an alien ninja super-assassin out to kill Ruskin--for the second time. And they eventually find themselves trapped on a space laboratory embedded in a red giant star threatening to go supernova. Yeah. Poor Ruskin. 

In the end, I wasn't all that sorry to see the protagonist "go." You could say he had a big red target glued to his face right through from página uno. Still, his story was an interesting one.

From A Changeling Star by Jeffrey A. Carver

Originally posted 3 Feb 2013 on Google+

Just finished reading David Brin’s Existence, a multifaceted story about the prospects for intelligent species’ survival, technological growth, and eventual exploration of the cosmos.

In view of the Fermi Paradox, will mankind find a path to the stars?  Brin offers numerous (both currently-relevant and highly imaginative near-future) reasons suggesting that the answer might be "No." These are the book’s true antagonists. The true protagonist, in my view, is humanity (ourselves) and the possibilities of what we might become (assuming we prove capable of sharing our existence with cybernetic sensoria, artificial intelligences/beings, uplifted animal species, resurrected Neanderthals, artificially augmented autistics, and perhaps simulated aliens). The message here is that humanity must eschew intellectual rigidity and fear of the unknown, must embrace complexity and strangeness, and must be prepared to endure profound change.

The tale spans multiple decades and many lives. Many pivotal events are mentioned by historical reference, but not “lived through.” The ending is less a resolution than an encouraging vision. Characters fade in and out of our notice in service to the dramatic focus on humanity’s struggle to avoid “failure modes” and find an almost impossibly difficult path to survival. Some characters stick around long enough for readers to start  caring about them, but are then snatched away as the focus moves on. The reader is left intrigued but often unsatisfied. I suspect that this is intentional.

Existence is a deeply-thought-out . . . well, not so much a novel, perhaps, as a fictionalized futurist tour-de-force. Prospective readers be advised: this is not escapist Science Fiction. 

Existence by David Brin

Originally posted 5 Nov 2012 on Google+

Twenty years ago the science fiction TV series Babylon 5 premiered. Despite numerous setbacks, the creative team produced some outstanding television. Here's an overview article from io9.

 The Strange, Secret Evolution of Babylon 5