Axis - Robert Charles Wilson

Axis is the sequel to Wilson's Hugo award winning Spin.

ISBN: 9780765348265
format: Paperback
pages: 368
publisher: Tor Books
pub. date: 2008-06-03
started reading: 2008-12-28
finished reading: 2008-12-29

It may be my upbringing on classics by Heinlein, Asimov and Bradbury that leave me feeling that too often these days, Science Fiction as a genere has merged too seamlessly with Fantasy that it is often hard to tell them apart and the 'in betweens' often leave me feeling disappointed with few good authors able to blend the two successfully. As a result I have a definate bias towards books which more clearly adhere to one genere or the other (though I'm more than willing to take recommendations of authors able to tread that middle ground). Further, I fully admit to being more a fan of fantasy than of science-fiction.

Hence the reason I really enjoy it when I do come across a modern science fiction book that captures me.

Axis was an excellent follow up to Spin. While I generally find it very hard to get into sequels where the cast of characters and time period have changed, Axis smoothly takes you back to the world Wilson created in Spin. Or, to be more precise, to the same universe as the setting of the story takes place on The New World which is only briefly introduced at the end of Spin.

Once again, the story centres on the Hypotheticals and their gross manipulation of time and space and the impact that that has on the human race. Wilson attempts to introduce some subtler questions of morals and ethics into the literature, however I find that these attempts are half hearted at best, and the primary focus of the book remains on the overwhelming answer to the question of 'what is out there?'. One exception which I felt was, given the opportunity for a type of immortality... would you take it? Or let it pass you by? Especially if you had already lived a life longer than any other human...

I personally enjoyed the secondary plot of the romance between Lise Adams, her ex-husband Brian, and her lover Turk. There were times when the confusion and second-guessing that comes with this territory is played out well in the actions and thoughts of the characters.

In the end though, it is the final few chapters that left me with a very hollow - and almost spine tingling creepy - feeling as I closed the cover.

What do you call those things you encounter in life that are so much bigger than you? You could call them gods, but what if you understand them? We understand the weather - how it is formed, what causes it, we can even predict it - yet it never fails to awe us in its power or surprise us from time to time. Is it a god? The ancients seemed to think so and yet today we feel we are enlightened and wrap it in words of science and understanding. And still... it is so much more powerful that us, that no matter how well we feel we understand it, we will forever be humbled by it.

In much the same fashion, Wilson's Hypotheticals - small microscopic, inorganic machines that permeate the known cosmos - represent a force that, no matter how well the mechanics of it are understood, remains difficult to define its relationship with humanity. Are they gods? Are they unthinking machines? And what other things are out there that we have yet to discover?

All in all, while not as thought provoking, and somehow smaller in scope than Spin, Axis remains a good follow up, and a worthwhile read.

One last thought... There is a third book in the series forthcoming called Vortex. I can't imagine what else he could explore... unless he actually intends to pursue the 'hypotheticals have a conscience'... which, to me, would detract from the merit of the first two books. I like that it's not really conscious, but is like a force of nature - immense... powerful... and not really 'human' or 'god'. It just 'is'.

My only hope is that the third volume is set on Mars and explores in more depth the Martian society of humans that evolved outside of the Spin, and gives us a closer look at how a few million years of human evolution changed us.

The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their Employees, Retain Talent, and Drive Performance - Gostick & Elton

This was a book recommended to my by the CEO of my firm. While the core message of the book was something I found admirable, overall I found that the book echoed the title - needlessly long and cumbersome.

ISBN: 9780743290098

format: Hardcover

pages: 224

publisher: Simon & Schuster

pub. date: 2007-01-02

started reading: 2008-12-22

finished reading: 2008-12-25

The core message of the book is that in order to get the best out of people that you manage, you need to reward them. This doesn't mean you need to do so with tangible things (though depending on the person, that may be the solution), but just that in general, a little recognition goes a long way.

There. In the space of a two sentence paragraph I have told you most of what you will take away from the book, and odds are good that if you have been in a managerial role for any length of time, this is something you already know.

The book does go on at some length about the qualities of good leadership, and provides concrete recommendations for how to reward people (both in terms of frequency and raw cash value) however I found most of their statistics to be the sort of pseudo-science that often offends my delicate mathematician sensibilities.

When people start tossing around numbers like '80% of employees aren't...' and '65% of people feel that...' and then drawing conclusions from it, I can't help but be reminded of the satirical cartoon that proudly states '95% of all statistics are made up'.

While the authors of the book certainly have an impressive pedigree of consulting experience with companies like KPMG and DHL, it does not unfortunately make their knowledge applicable to all companies and all situations.

One of the telling signs comes from Chapter 10, which really should be an appendix and not a chapter. It is a listing of 125 suggestions of ways to reward employees. They preface the chapter with a statement that 'not all of these will work for your company, or with your people, so these are just recommendations'.

What these are really is the other 30 pages they needed to flush the book out and satisfy the publisher (and the end consumer) that what they were buying had some content to it. In otherwords, there is a limit to how far you can wordsmith a simple idea and heavy amounts of filler was required to make this a book and not a pamphlet.

The authors themselves seem aware of this in how they set up a lot of the chapter introductions with excuses and quid pro quos. Part of me can't help but think that perhaps their best lesson is that if you want to make a lot of money, invest in taking one simple idea and transforming it into a business book and sell a million copies.

Kudos guys for escaping the consulting world. This is not a book I would recommend.

Blindness - Jose Saramago

I bought the copy with the movie tie-in cover. The book was recommended to me by a close personal friend, and was well worth the read.

ISBN: 9780156035583

format: Trade Paperback

pages: 352

publisher: Harcourt Trade Publishers

pub. date: 2008-08-15

started reading: 2008-12-21

finished reading: 2008-12-17

The first thing I noticed upon starting Blindness was that there is no significant amount of punctuation. No quotes, few paragraph breaks, and in general appears to be one long unbroken paragraph of text on the page. For someone who reads a lot, and as a result, relies heavily on the ability to skim read text and pick up the content, being faced with page after page of unbroken text provided a serious impediment to my reading of the book. The first day I picked it up in fact, I read only 4 or 5 pages before giving up in defeat and wondering if I really wanted to read this book or not. In the end, I thought to myself, Sure, why not? After all, it was recommended by someone whose opinion I trusted. Though I was left wondering afterward if this would prove to be a sign that our tastes in this regard were anything but similar. Even so, the next day provided me with a significant amount of downtime that I didn't want to spend in front of the computer so I went back to the book. I can say that Saramago's writing style is in fact something that you get used to after a while. By the end of the book I was confidently skimming through it as I normally would, having picked up on the fact that conversations often had a larger than proportionate number of capital letters.

But the book iteself? It is an interesting insight into the break down of society and how quickly we return to more primal natures... at least, that is what the general reviews online say. Personally, I found something lacking in his view of how things degenerate, though I have been unable to put my finger on it. Perhaps it is that some of the scenarios seem contrived. Perhaps it is how long it takes for the doctor's wife to suffer a break with her persona and how complete it is once she does. Perhaps it is the odd mix of an almost lightheated storytelling voice mixed with darker imagery and messaging. Regardless, there is something to the book that I found to be lacking. More positively perhaps was how the story speaks of the love that persists and develops under those circumstances. And overall, the characters are carefully developed and I think most people who read the book will find a mix of those that they can relate to, love and hate. Also, in one particularily good scene, the doctor's wife finally breaks down in tears as she has the opportunity to finally find release. This stuck me as one of the truest moments in the book as it speaks to how she had to take on a completely different persona during the crisis... and the inevitable balancing of the scales that happens when those images of yourself need to recombine. This is how people get through crisis. They adopt a different image of themselves. For her, it was murderer, nurse, caregiver and much more. She condoned and lived through things that the normal persona of her would never have allowed. Moreover, not only lived through it, but endorsed it, and felt it. It is a great story highlighting how the actions and thoughts that one takes can direct our emotions and physiology.

There are many parts of the book that I feel I still missed out on, and some which may come across better in the original portuguese. The dog of tears for one seems to play an important role with how much it is mentioned, however the underlying meaning is lost on me. The flow of words, and Saramago's trademark style are a shock to an English reader, but I am left wondering if it is an intentional method lending itself to the confusion and decent into a deteriorating enviroment portrayed in the novel (though I suspect not since he uses the same style in his other novels), or if the style is something which would be less of a shock to someone native to his country.

The book was turned into a movie, as I alluded to by buying the tie-in cover. I have not seen the movie, and after reading the book, somewhat doubt that I will. Not only do I generally find that movies are shallow and pale reflections of the books they are inspired by, but in this particular case I can't see the movie being watchable. It would either be too grossly violent, disgusting and pornographic in some scenes to something I would willing force myself to watch - or - it would be watered down for commercial audiences to the point that the scene would lose all meaning and the context would be lost. Either way, I feel that a mainstream movies would not be able to adequately represent what was in the book.

Though it will not make my top list, for that intangible reason that I can't quite put my finger on, it is a worthwhile read and if you can get a copy, I would recommend it.

Feast Of Souls - C.S. Friedman

C.S. Friedman's latest book is the first in a new trilogy called the Magisters Trilogy. It promises to be a good example of the epic fantasy genre

ISBN: 9780756404635
format: Paperback
pages: 576
publisher: DAW
pub. date: 2008-02-05
started reading: 2008-12-11
finished reading: 2008-12-14

First, let me state that C.S. Friedman is the author of one of my favorite series of all time. Or at least, one of my favorite characters. In the Coldfire Trilogy, he depiction of a man who is at the same time the founder of a 'good' religion, as well as being a person utterly consumed by 'evil', is one of the best characters to ever walk that fine line between black and white. So, when I saw she was set to release another series, I couldn't help but be interested.

Thankfully, she did not let me down.

This new world that she creates is fantastic for having created a system of magic that, by its very nature, makes every practitioner of it walk that fine line between black and white. If you could save a village at the expense of one man's life... would you? If you could spare a child from illness at the expense of 5 minutes of your own life... would you? What if it were 5 minutes of someone else's life whom you didn't know? What if you did know them?

These are the sorts of moral dilema's that Friedman sets her story against. Where two types of practicioners of magic exist - those who consume themselves, and those who consume others. The almost vampire-like ability of the second group is revealed through the main character, who just happens to be the first female to ever achieve that ability.

Add to the mix political intrigue, a rebellous prince, a love story, an ancient enemy reawakened, and a wide cast of characters and subplots and you have the sort of epic fantasy that makes the genre worthwhile.

The second book in the series is due out this coming year and I am looking forward to seeing where Friedman takes this series.