Books: Clarke, Bujold, Westerfeld, Gibson

The Deep Range by Arthur C. Clarke

A lesser-known Clarke novel, possibly because it doesn't get reprinted much, possibly because the core premise is that, in the future, the world government is herding whales for their meat. (Though, to Clarke's credit, his point in the book seems to be that this, and indeed meat-eating in general, is morally dubious.) Apart from being set in the oceans rather than space, it's a fairly typical man-vs.-nature mid-50s Clarke novel, rich in authentic technical detail, poor in complex characterization.

Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Comprising the somewhat-mediocre Shards of Honor and the Hugo-winning Barrayar, these are the prequel novels to the Miles Vorkosigan series, telling us how Miles' folks met. I first read Shards years ago, and it improves slightly on rereading, though Cordelia still shows all the signs of romance-novel-format Stockholm Syndrome. Barrayar, while still rife with unlikeliness, is nevertheless worthy of its Hugo, and has successfully convinced me I need to pick up the following books.

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

The conclusion of the Uglies-Pretties trilogy, our teen hero Tally Youngblood is now a member of Special Circumstances, and has been "upgraded" into a semi-cyborg semi-psycho. And she's once again torn between the strictures of her society, the commands of her peers, and her love for the Cute Boy. Interesting, and tackles a lot of Big Issues, but I'd make sure to have a long talk with any impressionable teenagers I might lend this to, as its messages are occasionally kind of buried. (Not helped by the fact that for most of two books, our POV character has been trying to think with a meddled-with brain, and thus she keeps mixing up bad ideas and good ideas.)

Spook Country by William Gibson

A very light Gibson novel, basically a caper story, told from three points of view. It suffers badly from the fact that two of the three POV characters are entirely reactive ciphers, who basically get ordered around for the entire novel, never telling us much about their history, or making any decisions of their own. It is also, in my opinion, severely lacking in the exotica typical of Gibson's earlier work. A blue-green shipping container is not exciting, it's positively quotidian. Still, it's Gibson novel, so it's readable, but I'd wait for paperback.