Now that I’ve read the second volume, I’m willing to give the whole thing a 3.5 star rating. It’s still far, far too long, though.

Learning The World tells the far-future story of a human colony ship making first contact with a race of bat-like aliens. The chapters alternate between following a group of alien scientists as they try to deal with the imminent contact, and a variety of humans on board their ship, which has been underway for hundreds of years. Mankind (now stretched over thousands of worlds) has never encountered another intelligent species before, and bumping up against these aliens comes as a huge shock. Especially as there is a generation of colonists eager to get out and lay their claims on the real estate of the alien system.

I can’t quite put my finger on exactly why, but this seemed like an easier read than McLeod’s previous novels. It explores his favourite social and economic themes, and the alien society gives him an interesting new point of view to play with. At times the alien narrative can feel a bit like a lecture, as they (re)discover science that is familiar to the reader, but I think that the process of making the aliens seem human and familiar (after all, it’s not they who are the aliens), has given McLeod’s writing a much more human feel overall.

A bit too over-the-top, even for Brookmyre. Having said that, it’s still great fun.

Nine connected short stories, following the one character and his descendants from the early years of the 21st century into a post-singularity near future. It’s obvious that this is a landmark piece of science fiction that is going to be referenced for years to come. It is thick with ideas and speculation. Unfortunately, I found reading it to be a purely intellectual exercise. It never gripped me on a visceral level.

It took me about a quarter of the book to really get sucked into what was happening–there are several plot threads running right from the start, and I couldn’t quite see how they were connected–but I liked it once I got with its flow. Judging by its cover (a bad thing, so I’m told), which shows a woman from the neck down wearing a military-style jumpsuit and holding a pistol in her metal cyborg hand, you think this might be on the militaristic side of SF, but it isn’t really. The main character, Jenny Casey, is ex-military, and a lot of the plot surrounds the Canadian army trying to reel her back in, but there are no big space battles in sight.

What you do get is a scene-setting novel filled with interesting characters who are being drawn against their will into a Cold War-style secret project to be the first nation to build and fly a starship. It is very clearly the first novel in a sequence (trilogy?), and it doesn’t really end–the last pages open up a vista onto what is to come in book two. Which is now sitting in my Amazon shopping cart.

Better than Singularity Sky, but I find its Hugo nomination a bit of an anomaly…it’s a decent SF thriller, but it seemed overly complex, and lacked emotional weight to back it up.

(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)

Good dystopia with layers of mystery.

(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)

Inventive time-travel thriller, but I found the ending a bit confusing.

(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)

Spenser by numbers is still pretty good.