A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Premise: Captain John Carter is a Civil War veteran, and when his friend comes across a band of Indians the friend is killed. John Carter goes right into the middle of the Indian camp to find his friend, then heads into the hills to escape death. In the ensuing chase, John Carter enters a mysterious cave where he falls unconscious and he is transported to Mars.

On the Red Planet, or Barsoom as the locals call it, he encounters a savage green alien race and quickly becomes respected among them. Though he resembles the red men, he has incredible physical abilities that set him apart from all others on the planet. Because of a lower gravity and his muscles attuned to the pull of the Earth, he can leap great distances and has much greater strength than those around him. With these abilities he gains respect, but when he meets Dejah Thoris, princess of the red men of Helium, he immediately falls in love.

For the love of the princess, John Carter is willing to traverse a savage land, face strange creatures, and throw himself into battle against men, both red and green, in order to save her. It takes traveling to a planet millions of miles away for John Carter to find friendship and love, but it very well may cost him his life.

Themes: A Princess of Mars really is a love story. After spending most of his life without love, or any real close relationships at all, John Carter finds his love on another planet. It is for this love that he is willing to do anything and give everything, including his life.

Appearances are not what they seem on Barsoom. One cannot judge someone for being green or red, male or female, or even between creatures of varying size and ferocity. We discover that those coming from different tribes, or even within the same tribe, must be judged as individuals and not by the reputation or past of the entire group or race.

A Princess of Mars is also an adventure about sacrifice and loyalty. John Carter fights for himself and for his goal of protecting the princess and fighting for her love, but he also fights for friendship and the common good of all creatures on the planet. He must discern his allegiances within and between battling factions and the different races on Barsoom.

Pros: There is much swashbuckling adventure and excitement in A Princess of Mars. We also find chivalry that is difficult to find in today’s fiction. A Princess of Mars has an optimistic view of the world and sees the goodness in people. Burroughs’ writing is full of action and the pacing is great, even when it glosses over details at times. With a cliffhanger ending, it still felt complete and just the right length.

Cons: There are a few instances where things just so happen to move the plot along in favor of John Carter. Call it deus ex machina or coincidence, but at these points it seemed almost lazy on the part of Burroughs, though it did help the quickened pacing when used. It may be the time when A Princess of Mars was written, but it is thoroughly sexist. Even the savage green Martian women are considered fairer and weaker. For example, where perhaps a few of the green men could probably have dispatched an entire pack of wild dogs, a dozen females armed with daggers fare much worse.

Recommendations: With its quaint look at interplanetary travel and alien worlds, the ideas in A Princess of Mars are still grandiose and forward-thinking. Burroughs was well ahead of his time when he wrote the Barsoom series, perhaps if not in scientific terms, then in human nature and fantastical storytelling in general. His inspiration for other stories in the genre to follow make A Princess of Mars a groundbreaking work of fantasy and science fiction. This is a must read for fans of the genre.

Disney’s Edgar Rice Burroughs website
A Princess of Mars on Goodreads
Buy A Princess of Mars (Penguin Classics) on Amazon
Buy John Carter of Mars: The Collection (first 5 books in the series)
Download ebook of A Princess of Mars for your Kindle (free!)
Download ebook of A Princess of Mars in multiple formats from Project Gutenberg (free!)

 

All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen

Premise: Violet Adams is a great scientist who aspires to attend the illustrious Illyria College, a school for the most promising students of science that was founded by the famous Duke Illyria and now run by his son, Ernest. The biggest obstacle to her attending is not Violet’s abilities as a scientist, but the tradition of being a male only school. When their father goes away to America for a year, Violet’s twin brother, Ashton, helps her pull together the ruse of dressing as a man so she can enter the hallowed halls of Illyria.

Their friend, Jack, is also accepted into the school, so having a roommate who knows her ruse is less of a challenge. The real challenges come when the duke’s ward, Cecily, becomes enamored with Violet, who goes by her brother’s name. Ernest also develops feelings for Violet, but for the real Violet, not her alter ego. She discovers her feelings for the duke may be reciprocal, but to let him know without it destroying her chances for her lifelong dream of becoming a great scientist makes things difficult.

But love and science are not the only things Violet will encounter at Illyria. It is a place full of surprises around every corner, with invisible cats, killer automota, and a mysterious train in the basement. Blackmail and threats come from students and teachers alike. With the end of the year faire to work towards, she must hold up her disguise and her feelings at the same time.

Themes: All Men of Genius is as much a romance novel as it is a fantasy or science fiction novel. There are at least seven love triangles, romantic misunderstandings, or sexual trysts that I can think of, but could be as many as ten to twelve between all the different characters. One of the main plot points is the romantic feelings between Ernest and Violet, both as herself and as her alter ego. We see romance between her brother Ashton and Antony, one of their servants, between Cecily and Violet (as Ashton), Toby and Miriam.

This is definitely a book speaking out on social constraints based on money, social class, gender, sexuality, race, and more. Violet is trying to attend a school for only men, Ashton is a gay male not so covertly expressing his love for another, Miriam is a Jewess standing up for her life while living as a governess for Cecily, while really only upper class people are allowed to attend Illyria.

This is also a book about deception and truth. Violet’s deception about her true identity may end up hurting not only her reputation, but her family’s as well, along with the possibility of hurting Ernest and Cecily along the way. It is the true Violet who the duke falls in love with. Unfortunately, the repercussions of deceit are not necessarily explored completely, as the only deceit that ends in tragedy is that of Volio, our villain. Everyone else seems to turn out happy, but isn’t that how most comedies end? Many who read this will simply give the response, “What is truth?”

Pros: All Men of Genius has everything you could want in a steampunk novel. Not only does it have gears and springs of brass, but it also has something that I haven’t seen much of in other steampunk, and that is an inclusion of other sciences: astronomy, biology, and chemistry, and not just the mechanical sciences. It is funny with compelling characters, each one with great potential and most of them fulfilling that, with a few exceptions. The hat tips to Shakespeare and Wilde inject the story with life, without which it might have fallen totally flat.

Cons: There is entirely too much sex in this book. Ranging from innuendos to bedroom behavior, it goes to the point of ridiculous at times. For such a witty book, throwing in things such as mechanical vibrators is beneath it. It seems like every character’s sexual proclivities are laid out and curiosities are simply commonplace traits for all characters, including Ashton and Antony rolling in the hay, Toby and Miriam’s secret romance, Ernest’s questioning of his sexuality, and Professor Valentine’s love for senior women.

One of the greatest fears for Violet is getting caught travesti, or dressing as a man. This is also one of the biggest problems I had with the book, since Ashton is an invert (gay), but the fear of being caught as a homosexual is inconsistent with this fear of being caught cross-dressing. Violet is afraid she will be caught, embarrassed, put in prison, or even put to death, but Ashton getting caught as an invert is only given a passing glance with little fear of retribution.

My other complaint is that the end felt rushed, as if Rosen was running out of time and space and had to wrap all the character arcs by giving an explanation of everything at the end and he only had a few pages to do so. After the action climax we needed a little more treatment of the characters other than Violet and Ernest to take a breath and soak in what just happened. Even the romantic climax between the duke and Violet seemed bland because it felt rushed and too easy.

Recommendations: All Men of Genius is a witty and socially defiant romp through love and science. It helped to redefine my expectations of not just steampunk, but in most other fiction. While the deviant behaviors of the characters may put people off from reading it, Rosen gives a strong argument for for the importance of being earnest, something which I will heed and respond to with a quote from another famous book: “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Lev AC Rosen’s website
All Men of Genius on Goodreads
Buy All Men of Genius on Amazon
Buy ebook of All Men of Genius for your Kindle

 

The Practice Effect by David Brin

Premise: The zievatron is a device that can access parallel worlds, and physicist Dennis Nuel has been locked out of the Zievatron Project by his rival, Bernald Brady. However, when the return mechanism ends up malfunctioning, Dennis is tapped as the only one who can fix it. The only problem is that he must go through to the other world to do so. With him will come the “pixolet”, a flying pixie-like creature that slipped in from the other world.

In searching for the materials to repair the return mechanism, Dennis comes across the Coylians, people who speak English, but whose culture is quite different from Earth. Their society is based upon “The Practice Effect,” where nothing is made from scratch. Everything is “practiced” until it gets better and better through use. Sticks are practiced into tools and rough cloth becomes fine silk. The L’Toff are the “makers” who create the basic structures from which objects are practiced from.

Dennis gets pulled into the politics of the world and finds himself pitted against Baron Kremer, who is putting himself into a political position to rule the world, and has plans for the making “wizard” Dennis. Instead, Dennis must use his knowledge of science from his own world and combine it with “The Practice Effect” to stop Kremer, repair the zievatron, and return home. Luckily, he has the help of the pixolet, an ever-improving exploration robot, the L’Toff Princess Linnora, and a thief named Arth.

Themes: Dennis is called a wizard simply because the thought of making something from scratch is absurd to the Coylians, since you can practice something into perfection from a primitive rudimentary start. Because of his gift to make things, however clumsy they may be, he quickly becomes a leader against Kremer, with his leadership skills combining with his abilities as a scientist. The man with these skills that Kremer wants to take advantage of ends up becoming the adversary he must face.

In The Practice Effect, we discover that not only are we looking at traveling through worlds laterally, but also through time. The progression of science can bring worlds together, but it can also cause harm and degradation if unrestrained. Balance can be achieved through using knowledge and tools responsibly.

There is some romance in The Practice Effect, but it isn’t really explored incredibly deeply. There is a love triangle between the trio of scientists of Gabriella, Dennis, and Brady, with attentions going in different directions. With the addition of Linnora (slight spoiler) things might just work out for everyone.

Pros: While the dialogue isn’t the greatest, I found the most fun characters to be those who don’t speak: both the robot and the pixolet. These were far more interesting than most of the other characters, though Arth’s accent was fun to read. I thought the premise, once you buy into it, becomes an interesting twist on what we know about the physics of our world. Dennis’ exploration robot even improves as the story progresses and becomes an important character as well.

Cons: If you can’t buy into basic laws of physics being turned on their heads, then you might not enjoy The Practice Effect. The characters are fairly bland, and the premise might fall apart under close scrutiny of certain readers. Because of this, I found it to be more of a mix of both science fiction and fantasy.

Recommendations: If you can overlook what we know about physics, the story holds together quite well by the time you reach the end. The final explanation about why things work the way they do makes everything much more plausible. While the dialogue isn’t spectacular, the story is well told with a different concept I haven’t seen before. The Practice Effect is a recommended quick, quirky, and fun read.

David Brin’s website
The Practice Effect on Goodreads
Buy The Practice Effect on Amazon
Buy ebook of The Practice Effect for your Kindle

 

Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell

Premise: The world has succumbed to global warming and the polar ice caps have all but completely melted away, opening up the Arctic to previously inaccessible oil fields. Anika Duncan is on a routine patrol in her airship when she scans a ship and finds a radioactive signature. She goes in for a closer look but is shot down.

With her partner dead, assassins trying to kill her, the authorities constantly on her trail, and the threat of a nuclear weapon being set off, she doesn’t know who to trust. She goes on the run looking for answers and finds help in unlikely places: Roo, an agent-for-hire from the Caribbean, and Violet, a lesbian drug dealer that really likes Anika.

When Anika discovers there was something else on the ship of the people that shot her down, she realizes she is getting into the middle of a conflict that spans the globe but is quickly coming to a head in Thule, a city on the last chunk of ice in the Arctic, where leaders of the Gaia Corporation have plans for reversing the effects of global warming. The only problem is that it might just mean the beginning of another world war, with Anika right at its center.

Themes: Although Arctic Rising is science fiction, it is a political novel more than anything. In man’s lust for oil it has destroyed Earth through global warming. Power has shifted to oil companies and countries who have lower tax rates and move through open international waters. Gaia Corporation is an environmental group that has somehow gained power to the level of a powerful nation in spite of the destruction of the climate.

Though it is not a single incident we can point to, Arctic Rising is still a post-apocalyptic novel. Islands and coastlines have been devastated and destroyed, economies have shifted, the landscape of the world has been dramatically changed, and power has shifted between countries and corporations. Survival is a struggle as equatorial temperatures heat up and Arctic ice is turned to water.

This is also a story about trust, where Anika learns who she can trust even through such horrible global circumstances, but also must learn to trust on a personal level.

Pros: Arctic Rising is non-stop action with obvious nods to James Bond. Each of the characters have a voice of their own, and their interactions are believable and at times very visceral. While it seems impossible, the solution for fighting climate change was something new and curious, especially on the scale that Buckell puts forth here.

Cons: With its obvious environmental commentary, Arctic Rising was also fairly preachy in quite a few other topics, including global warming, politics, sexual orientation, and morality issues. Not only that, but it seems right around halfway through the book that the vulgarity was ramped up for no good reason, especially with swearing and sexual language. I also didn’t care for the description that was printed on the book itself because it simply gives too much away. Don’t put spoilers on the book!

Recommendations: In spite of the preachy messages in Arctic Rising, many with which I disagree, I still found myself enjoying the overall story. It should tell you something about the quality of the writing when someone who isn’t on board with the premise can still buy into the scientific speculation and recourse. I found Arctic Rising to be fast-paced, imaginative, and a surprising combination of action thriller and science fiction.

Tobias Buckell’s website
Arctic Rising on Goodreads
Buy Arctic Rising on Amazon
Buy ebook of Arctic Rising for your Kindle

 

Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Premise: General Tiber Adolphus has been exiled to the Deep Zone planet of Hallholme, named after the victorious Commodore Percival Hallholme, after his failed attempt at overthrowing the Diadem Michella Duchenet and the corrupt Constellation government. Hallholme is a planet in constant chaos and harsh conditions, the effects of an asteroid impact centuries ago. Its nickname is very fitting: Hellhole. During his ten years in exile, Adolphus has been planning for the day he can declare independence from the Constellation. With the discovery on the planet Candela of iperion, a molecule that can be processed to help guide faster-than-light traveling spaceships, he has been able to set up his own network of travel, with Hellhole as the initial hub. This will essentially allow free trade between the fifty-four Deep Zone planets and sever the reliance on the twenty Crown Jewel planets and its overwhelming demand for tributes.

Pools of oily water are discovered that store the collective memories of the alien race that lived on Hellhole before the asteroid destroyed the planet. The Xayan race dissolved their bodies in the slickwater so that their memories could go on and so that the next life forms that came along might take on the personalities saved in the pools. When the word of these pools gets out, outcasts and the afflicted come from all over to put off their old lives and take on the memories of the alien race. When four Xayans are found in their original bodies deep in a mountain, the memories are confirmed and more people are converted.

This all comes to a head when D-Day arrives and General Adolphus declares independence, having completed his stringline network. The message is sent throughout the Constellation and everyone’s world is upturned. A group of people containing Xayan personalities travel with one of the Original Xayans to Sonjeera to try reaching out to the Diadem, but they are quickly murdered. War is imminent.

Themes: The honor of each character is challenged in Hellhole. From the very beginning, General Adolphus shows us that he is a man of honor, even when it means losing his five year rebellion. Innocent people are held as human shields by Commodore Hallholme at the orders of the Diadem, and refusing to fire on them causes his own forces to be decimated, sending him into exile on Hellhole.

Hellhole is primarily a story of politics. Nobles and leaders battle with each other and make alliances for money and power. A corrupt government led by a selfish and horrible leader holds a galaxy under its thumb in order to keep control and a standard of living for the nobles. We also learn there are factions between the Xayans, just as there are factions within the human race, which led them to diverging paths in the face of extinction.

Pros: This world is full of new ideas and laid out in a clear and engaging way. Doing world-building with so many characters is no easy task, especially when trying to make each character unique with their own back story. In a complicated story with different viewpoints, this aspect is done quite well. I was hooked fairly early on in the book.

Cons: At over five hundred pages you would think that a lot of story could be told and at least something might happen to tie up a few loose ends. When I reached the end of the book I discovered that it really was only starting. We are left with too much story left to tell and absolutely nothing is resolved. When reading a series, and especially a trilogy, it is my opinion that the first book needs to at least be able to stand on its own as a novel. There was no epic battle and no real fighting at all between the Deep Zone and the Crown Jewel planets. You must fulfill the promises you make to a reader in each book you write, and those made were left unfulfilled.

There were also inconsistencies on the planet Hellhole as it pertains to the horrible weather patterns and people’s ability to survive there. For example, there is a massive static storm that overcomes their tent city near Slickwater Springs. The shadow-Xayans use their telemancy to push the “growler” over them with no harm to anyone. However, when the converts go off to live on their own apart from Slickwater Springs we are led to believe that people are still living in tents and cabins at the springs, but no word is said about their survival in these conditions. Others who have gone off to live on their own are quickly decimated by the planet’s weather, but here it sounds like they are having a good camping trip.

Recommendations: I will still probably read the next book to find out what happens next to some interesting characters and to see if General Adolphus’ plans pan out, but I was disappointed by having the book end before a real climax took place. While I very much enjoyed this new world from the coauthors of the Dune series, there was too much left hanging at the end for me to consider this book “complete”. I hope an omnibus or trilogy collection eventually comes out for the readers’ sake.

Hellhole on Goodreads
Kevin J. Anderson’s website
Herbert’s Dune website
Buy Hellhole from Amazon
Buy ebook of Hellhole for your Kindle