Dark Intelligence, by Neal Asher—awesome characterizations!
I read this book a few years ago, and am just now going through my sci-fi reads to extract feedback. This book was a new foray into speculative fiction in anticipation of writing some. I’m long-time and unapologetic Anne McCaffrey fan (not her son).
Dark Intelligence is a delicious read. I could hardly put it down. It’s about Thorvald Spear, a dead soldier brought back to life to help fight Penny Royal, an unstable AI who’s gone rogue. Spear hires Isobel Satomi, a crime lord, to find her. What creativity with all the life forms—Golem, hoaders, AIs, and aliens transforming to humans and vice versa! It was cool how Isobel evolved into an AI. I really liked the Prador and want to read more about them.
There was awesome interplay between all the characters! It’s hard to pick which of the three main characters I liked the best. Thorvald Spear, Penny Royal, and Isobel Satomi, are respectively, Focused, Chilling, and Damaged.
The “shipmind” was like Annie McCaffrey’s “The City Who Fought.” Mechanization with a human core is always a fascinating read. N.K Jemison uses this concept in her Broken Earth series. (I’ll review that soon.)
I liked everything about Carapace and the Rock Pool. My favorite parts were:
- Trent’s boat ride with the sea creature after him; his capture, beating, and subsequent healing
- Father-Captain Sverl, and his transformation to human, which helped him understand the creatures around him
- The Prador first and second child concept
- The tidal wave.
I liked how the shifting points of view moved the story forward. Both males and females were described as strong. Asher didn’t resort to cliched gender roles. I appreciate that. This type of characterization in speculative fiction will draw readership from genders other than male.
I give this book an A.
The Girl With All The Gifts, M.R. Carey—what a gift of a book!
This is the best book I’ve read in a long time. I’ve never been a fan of Zombie fiction. Maybe I need to take another look. This book was fast-paced and pulled more than a few heartstrings. I had a hard time living my life while it its grip, and plan to read it again in a few months.
M.R. Carey did a great job of getting into the hearts and minds of the main characters. I especially liked Melanie’s innocence, intelligence, and strength. What an amazing little girl. She was happy with her friends and her world, saying good morning to everyone, despite what they called her. Strapped in was normal. She knew nothing beyond the boundaries of her cell and classroom. Seeing her teacher, Ms. Helen Justineau, once a week was her main pleasure. What book would Ms. Justineau read? What fun task would she have them do?
Ms. Justineau saw her as a child, as did the others once they got to know her. Who wouldn’t touch such an appealing child who absorbed lessons like a sponge?
Melanie only got stronger as she learned what she was, and how she needed to relate to the others around her to keep them safe. Her love for Ms. Justineau drove her, because that love was returned. At every step, Ms. Justineau took care of her and made sure she was safe.
Melanie’s relationship with Dr. Caldwell illustrated science versus ethics. How could she kill children to further science? Though Dr. Caldwell was determined to make her mark and find a cure at any cost, she always told Melanie the truth. In the end, telling her the truth of what she’d discovered was all that she could do.
Switching who was captured and who had a future was disturbing. No one truly won in the end.
The movie was enjoyable but changed key details. Ms. Justineau asks Sargent Parks if he ever killed a child but doesn’t tell him why. She also doesn’t have sex with him or scavenge for food with Gallagher. Dr Caldwell’s entrapment of the feral kids and her death were also different. Though Melanie’s name meant “the black girl,” in the book she was blonde, blue-eyed and very pale. In the movie, she’s played by Sennia Nanua, a black girl. Maybe the book should have been that way, too.
It turns out that the author wrote the book and the screenplay at the same time: the book with multiple points of view, and the movie with just Melanie’s. This book is also a re-read.
I give this book an A+
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin—a walk on the male side
“The Left Hand of Darkness” was just ok—not a favorite—though I might read it again. It got bogged down with too much telling and not showing how the society worked. Was Genly trying to decipher it or Estroven trying to explain it? Hard to tell. I tried to read it but kept zoning out.
I liked the introduction, where Le Guin describes fiction, and that “a novelist’s business is lying.” We make up world in our heads and describe characters that don’t exist—as if they do.
The main character, Genly Ai, was dorky, awkward, and very relatable. I liked how he observed the reactions and behaviors of people around him and often came to the wrong conclusions.
The concept of living in a cold planet was interesting. Eskimos get their babies used to the cold by rubbing their fingers and toes. People in equatorially hot places find temperate zone springs days too cold. It’s what you’re used to. Genly learns that it’s a matter of how you dress.
Though he transitioned from seeing the world through a bi-gender lense, to one that’s more inclusive, he still saw females as “other.” It was only because Estroven was both male and female that he “tolerated” the female at all. He seemed to view kemmering and giving birth as an inconvenience. When asked to explain what females were on his world, he described them in traditional gender roles; then admitted to knowing little about them.
I liked the trek across the ice and was sad when it was over. I’ve lived through such intense, difficult experiences, where every decision is fraught with consequences, and then suddenly find myself looking back in retrospect, forever changed.
I didn’t like that Le Guin referred to dual-gender humanoids as “he.” Seeing “he” everywhere was annoying. Understandably, when she wrote this book, “they” was not an acceptable pronoun.
Funny how Estroven’s name is derived from a feminine hormone. Though Genly longed for a sexual relationship, he couldn’t bring himself to respond to Estroven’s female side when they were in kemmer (See how easy that was?) Genly seemed prudish, insecure, and overly introverted. Where was his curiosity as an ethnologist?
Like many people with deep insecurities, he was blinded by arrogance. He saw kemmer as an “animal like” way to reproduce; and felt that “always being in kemmer,” or able to want and have sex, was a more advanced state. He wondered why the original founders—long-ago geneticists—decided on that approach. Yet he did nothing about his own needs, and was shocked by the the female who eventually arrived from a nearby space, thinking her voice was too high-pitched.
How much better or worse would my world would be in the absence of female as the “other.” What a horrible question! The trouble is, this book was more about that than viewing the two primary genders as equally worthy of respect. First, there are more than two genders. Second, a book that focus on “he” misses an opportunity to build a female readership. In “Dark Intelligence,” I could feel the estrogen. In this book,” I could not.”
“Man-splaining” this is not advised.
According to Wikipedia, “This book “stunned the science fiction critics”; it won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards for best novel, making Le Guin the first woman to win these awards, and a number of other accolades.”
Interesting. Were the reviewers mostly men?
Ergo, I’m not a fan. I will, however, read some of her other books because she’s an excellent writer.
I give this book an A for its creativity and excellence and a C for its treatment of the feminine.