The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

In this the fifth installment of the Dark Tower series, Mr. King takes Roland's ka-tet closer to the Tower in a Seven Samurai (or Magnificent Seven) Mid-world spin including Dr. Doom look-a-likes armed with lightsabers and snitches while trying to figure out how to protect the rose in 1977 New York. 

Mr. King's penmanship gets the main story arc advanced and manages to twist it with a remnant from Jake's entrance to Mid-world: Suze is in troubles an developing a new personality as a consequence of her mating with the demon guardian. Also, the cast of players related to the main story arc gets larger with Calvin Tower and Deepneau's role in the story increasing as a result of Tower's family being related to the rose; and Father Callahan from  Salem's Lot becoming a part of the gunslingers ka-tet. 

Again, the book is an intertwined collection of stories. The main one being the defense of old western town Calla Brym Sturgis from the Wolves that every twenty years or so kidnap one of each set of twins to deliver them back ruined: stupid and gigant; second in importance is the storyline developing in New York 1977 where the rose is in danger as the servants of the dark try to make a grab on the vacant lot; a third important arc is the developments in Susannah Dean's life that lead into the next installment of the series. A significant part of the book is filled with Father Callahan story during and after Salem's Lot.

The novel is a page-turner as all other installments in the series are. The confluence of all of Mr. King's worlds into the Dark Tower multiverse becomes stronger with the introduction of Father Callahan and the tales of his wandering through multiple worlds. Again, I have to tell that Mr. King's is making a better job than Mr. Heinlin did in consolidating all his stories into a single multiverse; oh, he even introduces himself into the story citing Salem's Lot. Also, he cites Mr. Heinlin's The Door into Summer—a nice self-recreation time travel paradox based story (one of Mr. Heinlin favorite topics) and a must read, I guess the idea of projecting into the future thanks to cryogenic storage came out ot this one. 

Anyway, as you, my five readers, know, I have become somehow addicted to Mr. King's Dark Tower series. That's why Wolves of the Calla was my first ebook purchase ever (I got it from Kobo Books alongside their Kobo Touch ereader). I managed to get through it during my daily commute for the last three weeks and I cannot wait to get the next installment sometime next week. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

When I started reading the windup girl, I thought 'yeah! cyberpunk!' It only took me a few pages more to realize that Paolo Bacigalupi just constructed something that I have learnt to call biopunk; that is, a cyberpunk derivative where the focus is the effect of gene-hacking—instead of cyber-hacking—in a world that has been taken over by mega-corporations.

The novel is an exploration of human nature in a world filled with biological threats produced by the unethical practices of biotechnology companies in their dog-race for profit and market monopoly. Peculiar, though, I perceived all characters as anti-heroes motivated by personal or corporate gain. Even the one driven by the love of his people dwells in a grey region far from the archetypal hero.

The story centers around the fate of the self-isolated Kingdom of Thailand and its seed-bank. It is told, mainly through Anderson Lake, an american cover operative for a biotech corporation, Hock Seng, a Malay Chinese refugee who barely escape ethnic/religious cleansing in the Malay peninsula,  Jaidee/Kanya, a captain and his right arm at the Ministry of the Environment of the Thai Kingdom, and Emiko, a genetic mashup created by the Japanese to be the perfect assistant, lady in waiting. It is through these characters that Bacigalupi explores different angles of ambition/desire/attachment in this apocalyptic setting where all decisions are made under pressure or, even, duress. The author's conclusion seems to be that human nature is immutable when it comes to ambition/desire/attachment.

I like the way Bacigalupi weaves the story going from one to another character. In the process, one gets to know each of them a little bit more as pages turn. It happens slowly, through their actions, fears, desires, attachments, and ambitions. Also, the author did his homework in researching the actual culture and environment of the Thai Kingdom and Southeast Asia.

I got the feeling that Bacigalupi's penmanship is still developing. Sometimes, the narrative seems choppy; a kind of stutter-step motion. Nevertheless, the story flows at a great pace and delivers some interesting visions of a what if world that may overlap with our future.

I highly recommend this novel. If you are living in this part of the world— South Pacific Asia—, it is a must read.

The Age of Zeus by James Lovegrove...

As you, my four readers, already know, last weekend I got my lazy derrière all the way up to Page One in Vivo City and got myself "The Pantheon Trilogy" written by James Lovegrove.

After finishing the first of the trilogy, "The Age of Ra," I was a little dispirited but I started with the second book of the trirlogy, "The Age of Zeus," as soon as possible in order to finish with what I thought will be an ordeal. I am very happy to say that "The Age of Zeus" was a better read, all in all, and I do not regret buying all the trilogy at once.

The age of Zeus is a kind of militaristic science-fiction story set up in an alternate version of our earth. Note, that it is not militarisctic-science-fiction any more. Now, this book is proper scifi with powered robotic armor and genetically engineered humans in almost every page. But it remains a "kind of militaristic" as the description of strategy and tactics still lack that flow and feeling of military novels.

It seems that Lovegrove favors a very well defined three sections structure, with the introductions made in the first, again a hundred and something pages, the plot developed in the second reaching the climax by its end, now a three hundred and something pages of compact short stories dealing with well defined operations, and the third bringing the great finale, again a hundred and something.

This book is neither a prequel nor a sequel of Age of Ra. It is set in an alternate earth and only shares the motif with Age of Ra.

All in all, "The Age of Zeus" is a good, fast and no-brainer read, it took me some ten hours of bus and before-bed time, with a couple of interesting twists that you can imagine and figure out but they are not so plain, simple and clear as in "The Age of Ra."

Go and get your copy, you will enjoy it.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

As I needed to recharge batteries, I spent this weekend reading, another free and good short novel by Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom; released under the creative commons copyright license, you can download it for free.

The novel deals with a good many things from philosophy of the self to political manifestos. What really got me is reading about the once hot topic of science fiction: life eternal. It might be that I have not been reading science fiction lately and I have lost my bearings, but it seems that the 20's to 60's fascination with life eternal somehow got diluted in contemporaneous science fiction.

I also liked the way the author presents a political/economical/cultural scenario through the exploration of change at the personal level. In the future, there might be a thousand ways to help us cope with feelings, emotions, change and all those things that take us away from the narrow path of logic and rational actions, but what about living with the lack of them?

Anyway, I imagine that this work can be read in many different ways. I'm waiting to hear about your opinion.



Other books I've read

Overclocked by Cory Doctorow

Last week, I bought myself a small android pad; so far, I have used it to read free books. While almost all the jewels of classic literature belong to the public domain, look for example at Project Gutenberg, it is hard to find good and free modern literature. Enter Cory Doctorow.

Overclocked by Cory Doctorow is a collection of five short science-fiction stories published under the creative commons copyright license. In short, you can download, distribute and generate derivative works if you follow the rules. When I started reading, I got the feeling that I would like the book; all the stories carry the name of an already famous science fiction story. After the second page, I realized I have already read the book and, most probably, it is gathering dust in my bookshelf at my mother's house. Nevertheless, I read it again and revisited Doctorow's views on copyright, sentience, netiquette, utopias, dystopias, and, of course, apocalyptic futures.

If you have a few hours to spare, each story is just a few scores of pages, please go to the Overclocked download site and give them a try. You will not regret that well spent leisure time.



Other books I've read

The Door into Summer by Robert Anson Heinlin

I have just finished reading "The Door into Summer" by Robert A. Heinlein, one of my favorite science fiction writers. This is a time-travel novel written in 1956. It is set, mainly, in a fictional, at the time, California of 1970 and 2000. It deals with one of the paradox on the flow of time and multiple personae; what if you somehow step out of the time-line for a while, in this case by means of cryogenic sleep, and then, after waking up, manage to go back to the time before you step out, avoid mixing with your former self, step out again and then reintegrate to the time-line before you woke up the first time? I cannot write more about it as I'm already confused.

This novel is quite different from what I have read by Heinlein, that is the Lazarus Long saga, the novels where any of the Rolling Stones appear somehow, Starship Troopers, et cetera. It shows a most grounded engineering side of Heinlein and seems to be written in quite a nonchalant mood. It reads pretty easily and smoothly flows.

I actually recommend it if you have nothing to do on a rainy weekend or a long trip. You can easily finish it in less than 8 hours.

This book is still under copyright law and not part of the public domain. You have to get a copy or an e-copy. Mine cost $290 TWD, which was around $8.50 USD at the time. Those were some nicely spent TWDs.

Other books I've read