Books: Clockwork, Archie, Void, Miracles, Nazis, and Strange Loops

[woodwardiocom]

Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan

This novel is set in an alternate universe where the speed of light varies by frequency, and time and space are truly interchangeable. The protagonist aliens are also interestingly weird, both in their bodies (extra eyes and reformable limbs) and their reproductive habits. Our hero is a female scientist who discovers a threat to her world, and takes advantage of her universe's weird physics to find a solution. One of her chief problems, alas, is her world's sexual politics: When it comes times to reproduce, the females of her species literally split into two or more children, effectively dying in the process. Thus, birth control becomes a matter of mortal fate... The physics in this book are definitely not for the timid, but it's still recommended.

The Best Of Archie Comics

I confess to some amount of bafflement over the durability of Archie Comics. Apart from its 80-year presence on the comic book stands, it's spawned numerous cartoons, a number one pop hit, a live-action TV show, a live-action movie, and even, briefly, a theme park. And yet, there's not much "there", there. Still, for the duration of this cross-section of Americana, I wasn't bored. Mildly recommended.

The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton

The conclusion to the Void trilogy, in which the galaxy is threatened by the void at its heart, which turns out to be a giant computing substrate designed to empower those within to godlike status. At, y'know, the cost of eating the rest of the galaxy. The ending was a touch anticlimactic, but it made lots of sense, and melded well with the themes of the book. And the bad guys get what's coming to them. Recommended.

Small Miracles by Edward M. Lerner

A novel about a man who becomes infected with megalomaniacal nanomachines. It treads ground better covered by Bear's Blood Music a few decades ago, and I nearly didn't finish it. Not especially recommended.

Enemy Ace: War In Heaven by Ennis, Weston, Alamy, Heath

Hans von Hammer was one of the greatest German aces of WW1. In this novel, he's called back into service in WW2. This graphic novel is mostly about his struggle to reconcile his duty to the German people with his distaste (and eventually outright hatred of) the Nazis and Hitler, much as the classic Ace stories were about duty vs. having to kill people. Recommended, though I don't get why all the German characters use British slang.

I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter

Lord, was Hofstadter always this annoyingly cutesy in his analogies? Didn't finish.

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

No, Hofstatder was not. I did not find the analogies cutesy as convoluted. My comment to Nancy Leibowitz was he was trying too hard. I suspect part of it is involvement/connection; during his G/E/B and Metamagical Themas days, he was actually working as a teacher (and for part of G/E/B as a PhD student), and so there seems to have been more practical examples. He has been an emeritus type for a decade or so, and it shows. I think the other problem is that he tried to make a more personal book; he drew more on his own life, and the result was that he was less able to be incisive, especially when talking about his sister's lack if consciousness as he has come to describe it, as opposed to a third party at a remove.