group_mind – Made by Mikal

Children Of Ruin

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 3, 2024
Post category:Book

This book did not go where I expected it to. Sure, it has a species uplift plot which is similar to Children of Time, but that's not all that's happening here. If the previous book was about refugees and redemption, this book is about alternative ways of structuring societies (I don't want to ruin the surprise by being too specific). Let's just say some of these societies are small and some are big, but they both cooperate to achieve their goals better than perhaps our society does. There's definitely a pattern forming about how books in this series resolve their conflicts. I'm not normally into horror as a genre, and there are definitely horror elements to this story. I probably wouldn't have bought this book if I'd known how it was going to be different from the previous one. That said, the horror element decreases after a mid-book peak and overall I enjoyed the story although not as much as that of the first book in the series.

A Separate War & Other Stories

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 12, 2010
Post category:Book

This is a short story collection. I like anthologies, and this one was pretty good. The stories are: A Separate War: the end of The Forever War told from the perspective of Marygay. Diminished Chord: love and music on an old harp like instrument. Giza: genetic engineering to enable space mining. Foreclosure: let's get rid of those nasty squatters. Four short novels: eventually it came to pass that no one ever had to die... For White Hill: artists as collateral damage in an interstellar war Finding My Shadow: biological warfare in Boston. Civil Disobedience: global warming in a post Bush world. Memento Mori: a very short story about modern medicine. Faces: life as a draftee on a planet with a noxious atmosphere. Heartwired: viagra for the soul. Brochure: a badly polluted Earth reopens as a Disney resort. Out of Phase: a shape shifting alien learns about power on Earth, to the detriment of the Earthlings. Power Complex: the same shape shifting alien learns about real power. Fantasy for Six Electrodes and One Adrenaline Drip: a script involving love (or at least sex) and murder in a world with immersion entertainment.

Forever Free

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 1, 2010
Post category:Book

This book isn't as good as The Forever War and Forever Peace, which makes it a pretty big disappointment. The book revolves around disaffected characters from The Forever War living on the planet reserved for them by Man. Almost all of the book is William Mandella complaining about how hard it is to live on an arctic world, with some minor plot development along the way. The book often ruins surprises by Mandella mentioning them before they happen. The ending of the story is particularly disappointing, and I am left wondering why Omnis were introduced at all.

The Forever War

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 12, 2009
Post category:Book

I read this book mainly because multiple sites recommended it as a response to Starship Troopers. I'd actually read the start of this book already in the form of the short story "Hero", which is included in Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow. At the time, I would have described it as an ok short story, but not the best in the book. That's interesting, because the extended version in the novel is amazing. Its one of those books I had trouble putting down, and its gripping to the end. The book has a very different perspective on war from Starship Troopers and is more like some of David Drake's writing (they're both Vietnam veterans). There is also a little bit of Bill the Galactic Hero mixed in as well, without being so over the top. I strongly recommend this book.