Author: Christian Sauvé

  • Northern Dreamers, Ed. Edo Van Belkom

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Quarry Press, 1998, 254 pages, C$19.95 tpb, ISBN 1-55082-206-3

    Curious Reader: So, what’s that Northern Dreamers book about?

    Reviewer: It’s a collection of interviews that Edo van Belkom -himself a renowned horror writer- conducted with some of Canada’s best speculative fiction writers.

    Reader: Really? Who’s interviewed?

    Reviewer: A good cross-section of CanSF writers. Robert J. Sawyer, Charles de Lint, Candas Jane Dorsey, James Alan Gardner, Dave Duncan, William Gibson, Phyllis Gotlieb, Terence M. Green…

    Reader: Whoa, enough! How many in total?

    Reviewer: Twenty-three of them. The nice thing is that Belkom doesn’t stop at SF or Fantasy, nor to the most obvious authors. Some of his choices are pretty eclectic, like W.P. Kinsella, Michael Coney or Ed Greenwood-

    Reader: Ed Who?

    Reviewer: Yeah, that was my reaction too. Ed Greenwood is the guy who created the “Forgotten Realms” module for-

    Reader: -for TSR’s Advanced Dungeons and Dragon! Cool! You mean a Canadian did that? I had no idea!

    Reviewer: Neither did I, actually. That was one of the many surprises of the book. I won’t spoil most of them here, but I learned things from Northern Dreamers.

    Reader: Is it kind of a oh-we’re-both-so-cool type of interview book?

    Reviewer: Well, there’s a lot of that, obviously, but Belkom has the guts to ask some fairly pointed questions, and the results are honest. You’ve got Robert Charles Wilson talking about using LSD to overcome Writer’s Block-

    Reader: No way!

    Reviewer: -and Robert J. Sawyer talking about the reactions to his auto-promotion, and Andrew Weiner telling us how he hates SF, and Spider Robinson talking about composing his first published story while under the influence of drugs and-

    Reader: Gee, there’s a lot of dirt in there.

    Reviewer: Well, there’s a lot of dirt all right, but also many good revelations that will allow you a different take on the author’s work.

    Reader: So this is the definitive CanSF interview book?

    Reviewer: No, not really definitive… but it’s real close. It’s a pretty good cross-section of the market right now. The variety of the writers’ works is impressive in its own right.

    Reader: So you’re recommending it to everyone?

    Reviewer: It depends… I found that the best interviews were with people whom I had already read a lot. So you could say that it’s a must-read book for those who are already big fans of Canadian SF.

    Reader: Uh-huh. Are there any shocking revelations about the state of Canadian SF in there?

    Reviewer: Perhaps the most shocking is that while there are many writers writing SF in Canada now, few of them are purely Canadian-born. Most (Vonarburg, Gibson, Weiner, etc…) have immigrated here long ago, other hold dual nationalities, etc… If CanSF has a dirty little secret, I guess that’s it.

    Reader: Whoa. Shooocking, duuude.

    Reviewer: I guess we deserve the SF that we get.

  • The Jericho Iteration, Allen Steele

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Ace, 1994, 279 pages, C$25.95 hc, ISBN 0-441-00097-5

    It has become something of a cliché to set future stories in California against a backdrop dominated by the aftermath of a massive Earthquake. On the other coast, at least one novel dealt with a devastating earthquake on New York (Charles Scarborough’s Aftershock). Few writers, however, have examined the effect of an earthquake on non-coastal areas of the United States.

    Enters Allen Steele, who lived a few years in Saint Louis. An ex-investigative reporter and freelance journalist, Steele is now regarded as one of the most promising hard-SF writer to have entered the field during the past decade.

    In The Jericho Iteration, Steele departs from his usual future history to look at a future Saint-Louis devastated by an major (Richter 7.5) earthquake. The year is 2013 and the hero is Gerry Rosen, an investigative reporter for one of the devastated town’s alternative newspapers.

    Even almost a year after the disaster, Saint-Louis is far from being back to its old levels of comfort. Indeed, thousands of homeless people are roaming the city and government officials have instituted martial law over the city, enforced by troopers who take an almost-sadistic delight in their work.

    The sad life of Gerry Rosen (grieving father, estranged husband, alcoholic journalist) is thrown out of whack when someone contact him with information not meant for his ears. Soon, bodies begin to pile up and Rosen must not only save himself, but also find out the truth…

    The Jericho Iteration is, in short, a standard “lone-investigator-against-conspiracy” story told reasonably well. The first-person narration is up to Steele’s usual high standards. Most readers, however, will have seen most of the plot elsewhere. At least three times, the next plot point can be predicted with a fair degree of accuracy. The novel is even less successful when considered from a dynamic perspective: Rosen doesn’t evolve a lot (even acknowledging the fact during the last pages) and remains as mildly unlikeable as in the beginning.

    There are a few good scenes here and there; I especially liked the resolution of the “laser sniper” episode. The conclusion is not as strong as it might have been, but Steele obviously wanted to wrap everything up in as short a time as possible. Just ignore the fact that Rosen’s presence by the end of the story is rather less than essential to the resolution of the plot…

    Certain SF elements, like “Ruby Fulcrum”, are handled without many surprises and with assumptions that would be more adapted to SF movies than written works. Otherwise, good use is made of the gadgets, especially during the otherwise unsatisfying finale.

    But even with this substandard effort, Steele manages to deliver a competent action/adventure SF thriller. While your time and money would be best spent on something better, The Jericho Iteration is not exactly a bad choice.

  • Mathemagics, Margaret Ball

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Baen, 1996, 341 pages, C$7.99 mmpb, ISBN 0-671-87755-0

    In his room, the apprentice is slouched over a tattered grimoire. The room is getting colder as the heat is drained away by the snow storm raging outside the dwelling. But he scarcely notices, as he squints hard at the strange symbols imperfectly reproduced on the paper. To his dismay, he finds that his own annotation do not help him. In fact, they only serve to confuse him further. It takes all of his willpower to continue his study without thinking about the consequences of failure. And yet, the test of his powers will take place in only a few day. How will he be able to prove to his aloof master that he deserves to continue his study? He has long abandoned any thoughts of distinguished honour; he now want only to pass…

    Don’t laugh. That’s how I thought about Calculus 101. Strange symbols, weird results, wonderful applications, difficult application, heavy memorization… It did have similarities with magic.

    This Math/Magic congruence has been noted by many authors, but few have explored it in as much details as Margaret Ball with her novel Mathemagics. A follow up to a story in Chicks in Chainmail (Ed. Esther Friestner), Mathemagics follows the adventures of Riva Konneva, a warrior woman from an alternate dimension currently in happy matrimony in this universe. She’s here mostly (but not entirely) because of her daughter Salla who, as the novel begins, is driving her teachers crazy at the local high school.

    Where’s the math? Well, as you surely know, every warrior deserves its wizard, and the mages in Riva’s reality cast spells with complex mathemagical equations. Indeed, Riva is here to study mathematics, and her chosen male companion in this reality is… a math teacher.

    Bringing more fun to the plot are a deviously manipulative mathemagician (ex-lover of Riva, father of Salla) who also crossed to this reality (only to ally with an overambitious fundamentalist preacher) and an alternate-dimension warrior who’s now on every romance novel cover.

    But the fun of Mathemagics is less in the plot than in the details surrounding it. In the chapter numbering in mathematical equations (Chapter e^0, chapter 3!, chapter 2^4, etc… The proofs are at the end of the book.) In the hilarious description of a Science Fiction convention gone wrong. In the rehabilitation of romance novels. In the sharply-drawn, very sympathetic characters. In the skewering of the educational system. In the in-jokes.

    One could say that Mathemagics is a novel for a specialized readership. To fully enjoy it, one should be versed in fantasy, SF, math, computer science, fandom, education… But fortunately, the novel doesn’t require those elements; I’m sure that most casual readers won’t mind reading about Riva Konneva, suburban warrior woman.

    Which isn’t to say that the novel is entirely enjoyable. Half the chapters in Riva’s world could have been cut, or at least shortened. The inclusion of child-harassing traits in the preacher character is not only insufferably cliched, but takes away a chunk of the novel’s lighthearted tone. The style is often too-quickly-paced, with confusing results.

    Still, it would be a shame for any SF reader in search of a fun read to miss out on Mathemagics. Margaret Ball obviously known her stuff, both in math and in SF, and the result will bring at least a smile -if not a laugh- to the reader’s face.

  • Diplomatic Act, Peter Jurasik & William H. Keith, Jr.

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Baen Starline, 1998, 364 pages, C$31.00 hc, ISBN 0-671-87788-7

    Nichelle Nichols did it. George Takei did it. Jonahan Frakes did it. James Doohan did it. LeVar Burton did it. And of course, William Shatner is still doing it.

    No, not only play on “Star Trek”. All the above-mentioned people followed their stints as actors in that celebrated SF franchise by “writing” a science fiction novel. Now, let’s not fool ourselves by pretending that these brainy actors actually typed a whole 500-pages manuscript and sent it off to some publisher in hope that it would be picked up. No; far more logical, as Spock would say, to assume mercantile interest from both the actor, the publisher and some often-anonymous SF writer with a house to pay.

    Baen books has pushed the celebrity-novel idea to what might be its limits with its “Starline” imprint. It’s a book collection specialized in celebrity novels. Diplomatic Act is their third title.

    Historically, celebrity novels have never been of exceptional quality, and Diplomatic Act‘s greatest achievement might very well be that it does not suck.

    Peter Jurasik is one of the stars of fan-favourite TV Show “Babylon-5”. He plays ambassador Londo, a representative of a glory-starved extraterrestrial race. Diplomatic Act‘s premise starts from there; a human playing a wise extraterrestrial ambassador is kidnapped by fiction-challenged aliens convinced that the ambassador is for real. Oh, and one alien stays behind to impersonate the actor.

    At least two separate warning bells should ring loudly in your heads by now. First, the alien-among-us-trying-to-figure-out-humankind shtick has been done to death. First in the magazines of the Golden Age, then in the books of the sixties, and then on television ad nauseam. STARMAN, ALF, STAR TREK’s Data, etc… It’s not new, it’s not fresh and it should definitely be forgotten.

    Second, the ordinary-human-is-whisked-off-to-an-alien-place-where- he-ultimately-wins-over-all cliché has also been done to satiety. Whoever plotted Diplomatic Act (whether Jurasik contributed something else than his name or not) didn’t waste any brain cells there.

    Beyond the premise, the book drags on for almost half it length after a fairly zippy “behind-the-scenes-of-a-TV-Show” first chapter. While not exactly boring, the plot does takes a break in its first half.

    So, it’s almost a surprise to find out that, after all, Diplomatic Act does manage to pack an entertaining amount of fun.

    As the plot manages to start again, we’re gradually introduced to another dynamic arc that suddenly ties up the narrative together. The heightening of tension slowly sucks you in until the book concludes.

    What also helps is Keith’s talent in creating believable advanced civilizations. Too many inferior SF writers will just say “hyperspaceship, nanotechnology and antigravity” and expect us to believe in an immensely advanced civilization. Keith backs it up with competent-sounding jargon and interesting philosophical issues. (Though these tend to be solved far too easily.) Obviously, Keith knows his hard SF, and if Diplomatic Act is lighthearted, at least is sounds okay.

    Furthermore, the novel is definite entertainment. Unlike other novels which will remain nameless, Diplomatic Act does talk about the Grays and other aliens, but does it tongue-in-cheek, even putting an intriguing spin on the mythos. We’re there to have fun, and Keith’s having fun with us.

    It may strange to praise a novel by saying that it doesn’t suck, but that’s the most apt qualificative for Diplomatic Act. It doesn’t do much for the advancement of the genre, relies on stock premises and simply competent writing, but can be read with a certain amount of pleasure. Not bad for a celebrity novel.

  • Virus (1999)

    Virus (1999)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, January 1999) As my first movie of 1999, I wanted a baseline. A not-too-good film against which to compare the others I’ll see this year. I certainly got that with Virus. Neither astonishingly bad or particularly good, Virus is about the most generic movie you could imagine about an energy life-form taking over a boat. As a representative of the “there’s-something-evil-on-this-ship-and-we’re-stuck-with-it!” subgenre, Virus does the job without distinction but also without being too tiresome. Joanna Pacula is as lovely as ever, and Donald Sutherland’s deliciously bad performance as the ship captain is a hoot to watch. The direction is promising, but hampered by jumpy editing. The special effects aren’t all that special (the CGI sequences are unfortunately easy to spot) and some lines of dialogue are hilariously bad. (Lighting coming out of the computer: “Something’s accessing the computer!” “Impossible! Only I have the access codes!”) Might be a good choice in a few years on late-night TV. Until then, it will join Mimic, Screamers, Species and other undistinguished not-too-bad-not-too-good SF movies on the shelves of your local video store.

  • Twister (1996)

    Twister (1996)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Second viewing, On VHS, January 1999) I loved that movie when I saw it in theatres. It was fun, fast, exceedingly well-done and incredibly exciting. Those who complained about the lack of character development, plot or thematic relevance were, I felt, missing the point of the film. Twister existed solely to make us see things we hadn’t seen on the silver screen before, and it delivered the goods. I was concerned, however, that the video version wouldn’t pack the same audiovisual punch than the movie, and up to a certain point, it’s true: this is a movie to be enjoyed on the biggest, loudest home theatre system you can find. But no matter; even diluted down to my monaural 20” TV setup, Twister is still a fun ride. Well-directed and competently acted within the confines of the action movie genre, this movie doesn’t loses itself in philosophical meandering and endless digression: Everything is to the point and we’re carried along for the ride. Enjoy it again.

    (Third Viewing, On Blu-Ray, July 2024) For years, Twister was my answer to “what if you won a contest and could organize a private theatrical showing for family and friends?” The unexpected release of a sequel had me second-guessing myself — would the film hold up after twenty five years of CGI?  While the verdict is not unqualified, I’m happy to report that Twister generally holds up. Not so much for the special effects — some of them still quite good, others not so much: the opening credits sequence is rough but a lot of the practical effects are pretty good.  What’s perhaps missing most from director Jan de Bont’s visuals is the kind of CGI-fueled large-scale shots that help ground everything in-between quick cuts and tight shots.  But here’s the really surprising newsflash: Twister nowadays isn’t as remarkable for its visuals than for the absolute sheer fun of the characters.  For a film that regularly gets dinged on the quality of its script, there’s a really convincing atmosphere of camaraderie between the storm-chasers at the middle of the narrative. Co-written by Michael Crichton, the script is not subtle but it knows what it’s doing. The characters may be stock figures, but they’re played by actors who understand the assignment (none more than Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt and pre-stardom Philip Seymour Hoffman in a small role — “We crave sustenance!”) and effortlessly create attachment to the characters.  The story is simple, and that’s part of the beauty of the film’s maximalist execution. While I’m not so sure that Twister would still be my top choice for a private theatrical showing (more out of increased competition), it’s still a lot of fun to watch.

  • Forbidden Summit, Payne Harrison

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Berkley, 1997, 340 pages, C$8.99 mmpb, ISBN 0-425-16214-1

    Open letter to Payne Harrison:

    Dear Mr. Harrison,

    It is with considerable dismay that I write you about your latest novel, Forbidden Summit. For reasons which shall be exposed at length below, I find it regrettable to contemplate the possibility that one of the best techno-thriller writers in recent memory has fallen prey to disillusions so laughably flawed that he must be pitied, not scorned.

    I really loved your first two books. Storming Intrepid was a tremendously exciting novel of cold war conflict, adroitly mixing limpid writing with an exceptionally thrilling plot of warfare in near space. I bought it twice: In paperback, and then in hardcover. Thunder of Erebus was no slouch either. You managed to bring techno-thrillers to a fresh new location -Antarctica- and the story contained far too many good scenes to enumerate. It was great.

    I was slightly disappointed by Black Cipher, though. Even though the field of cryptology is intriguing like few else, your narrative talents had slipped a notch, and this rather simple tale of a lone cryptologist against a conspiracy of highly-placed officials… was satisfying without being spectacular.

    Still, when I heard that a new Payne Harrison book was in bookstores, I rushed to the shelves, only to be surprised by the fact that your new book was a paperback original. When dealing with an established author, this is usually a sign of an inferior work. Puzzled, I read the synopsis and understood.

    “A powerfully convincing novel of the ultimate government secret”… “Four unidentified aircrafts are tracked on a controlled descent over North America.”… “The official response -or lack of it- is puzzling.” “A desolate summit on a desert mesa. There, far from public eyes, the truth is waiting…” A glimpse through the afterword confirmed my doubts.

    I quietly placed the book back on the shelf. Is that what it had come to? One excellent author reduced to pandering to the wide-eyes neurotic true X-Files believers?

    Having thus resolved not to buy Forbidden Summit, I was ironically pleased to unwrap the book at our Christmas office party; my reputation as a voracious reader had netted me two books, including yours. So I would be able, after all, to actually have an informed opinion on your latest novel.

    So I read and find myself unpleasantly vindicated. The shocking thing is not as much the fact that you do believe in this alien stuff -all pretences of harmless fiction are erased by your afterword- as how most of your writing skills seems to have gone to waste since Thunder of Erebus.

    I’ll be blunt: The pitifulness of your cardboard characters is only surpassed by the shallowness of your plotting. Old flashes of the Payne Harrison of old still resonate at odd moments: Good technical descriptions, a few interesting scenes. But beyond that, it is not an impression of dislike that one gets of Forbidden Summit. It is one of pity, of shameful embarrassment at the fall of a once-promising writer. Your book is boring, misogynist, clumsy, inconsistent with reality and sadly paranoid. It reads like something you threw up after watching INDEPENDENCE DAY once too many.

    In a way, you are your own best advertisement for your theories of alien conspiracies. Bring back the original Harrison, you alien bastards!

    In the meantime, your pathetic belief in alien conspiracies are not only miserable in their own right, but they are an insult to the millions of soldiers, officers, scientists, engineers and politicians whose virtues you so espoused and profited from in your previous novels.

    And if only for that, you should not be allowed to publish another novel.

    With sincere wishes for an improvement in your mental health,

    An ex-fan, Christian Sauvé.

  • The Thin Red Line (1998)

    The Thin Red Line (1998)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, January 1999) An acceptable 90 minute WW2 movie mixed and intercut with a five-minute credit sequence, thirty minutes of a Discovery Channel special on the plants, animals and wonderful savage people of the south east-asian jungle, a fifteen-minutes experimental film by stoned freshmen philosophy students and another forty-five minutes of footage that the editor forgot to cut, probably because he fell asleep at the editing console. I really loved the camera work, the cinematography and the war scenes. I also liked the characters, but I just wish they’d been featured in a better movie. Saving Private Ryan it ain’t, because Spielberg never forgot that great movies entertain as much as they’re art. Now, could someone re-cut The Thin Red Line and chop off all the simplistic philosophy, repetitive romantic imagery and non-sequitur interludes? There was a great film in there, but director Terrence Malick choked it to death it with his disillusions of cinematographic grandeur. I’ve seen better reflections on the nature of war in men’s adventure novels, and those were entertaining.

  • I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

    I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, January 1999) I expected nothing from this film and wasn’t entirely disappointed. Sure, it’s even worse than its prequel, but at least the supporting players are fun to watch (with distinctions to Jack Black’s stoned hippie) and Brandi’s irresistible charm did a lot to raise my opinion of the film. (Not to mention her tight clothes.) The remainder of the movie is a representative example of a genre that should have remained dead for some more time.

  • I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

    I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, January 1999) This does nothing to enhance my low opinion of scriptwriter Kevin Williamson. If he’s supposed to be so clever, then why is the movie so ordinary? A particularly bland entry in the “psycho killer” genre, I spent hours trying to find something distinctive to say about it, but in vain… At least, the (mostly-teenaged) audience I was with regularly snickered and laughed out loud at moments that were supposed to be scary or tender. Whether this reflects the unredeemable cynicism of our generation or good movie-watching sense remains an exercise to the reader.

  • Brute Orbits, George Zebrowski

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Harper Prism, 1998, 222 pages, C$33.50 hc, ISBN 0-06-105026-1

    TITLE: Brute Orbits

    AUTHOR: George Zebrowski

    STATUS: Hardcover Science-Fiction Novel

    SUMMARY OF PREMISE: In the near future, Earth has successfully brought several asteroids to Earth orbit in order to mine them. Once the precious core has been extracted, some bright guy has the idea of transforming them in habitats, stuffing them with prisoners and sending them away in ten, twenty, thirty-year long orbits before they come back to Earth. Of course, it’s not that difficult to make a “mistake” and send the asteroid for an even longer orbit.

    SUMMARY OF PLOT: There isn’t much of a plot. The massive space and time frame covered makes it difficult to have a unique protagonist. So Brute Orbits follows a few prisoners and historians, each vignette trying to tell a facet of the story. In one series of linked chapters, a super-intelligent prisoner tries to manage his micro-society of fellow criminals as they head away from Earth. In another, a political dissident talks with other exiles until the asteroid’s indoor lights go dark. In another, a historian tries to piece together the history of the Rocks. These are pretty much the only three sustained stories; other passages feature characters we seldom see again.

    SUMMARY OF THEMES: Zebrowski here attempts to use his premise as a vehicle for argumentation about the judicial system’s corrective branch. As with any work dealing at length with criminality from a serious perspective, Brute Orbits exhibits a dark and violent viewpoint. Unlike most of these other works, however, Brute Orbits strongly suggests that not all prisoners deserve their fate and that society -not to mention more specifically society’s elites- ultimately define and causes crime.

    SUMMARY OF VIRTUES: Brute Orbits‘s premise is exceedingly clever, forcing us to contemplate virtually escape-proof prisons, and the realization of a “just throw’em away together” social phantasm. Zebrowski’s writing is also, with a few exception, quite readable. Some good scenes. Good grasp of the hard sciences. His argument that society is the biggest criminal is a provocative systemic self-examination on the level that SF does at its best.

    SUMMARY OF FLAWS: Though other readers might disagree to the “flaw” designation, the “vignette-sequence” structure of Brute Orbits has its disadvantages. Probably the most important of those is the lack of attachment to characters. Without those, Zebrowski is hard-pressed to illustrate his ideas convincingly. Not only does Brute Orbits reads like a fix-up, but the stories of the fix-up are all interleaved with each other. It’s not only difficult to read as a whole, but doesn’t really convince. Unfortunately, Zebrowski’s charge that society-is-criminal really needed a good dose of sympathy and credibility. This is lacking.

    VERDICT: Not worth buying in hardcover, and a risky choice in paperback given the wealth of competent storytelling out there. Readers intrigued by the strong premise should consider borrowing from the local library.

  • Luminous, Greg Egan

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Millennium, 1998, 295 pages, C$21.95 tpb, ISBN 0-85798-552-4

    Greg Egan’s reputation is already established: A hard-SF writer of considerable ambition, he invariably integrates stunning ideas in his fiction. Even though his shortcomings are significant, there’s no arguing that he’s one of the defining SF writers of the nineties. His influence is considerable, given that he now seems to exemplify Hard-SF. (It will be noted, though, that Egan seems to have few political ambitions and thus will not promote himself as heavily as other writers.)

    His first short story collection, Axiomatic, was an impressive compilation of unflinching Science Fiction. Egan tackled the Big Themes head-on, producing stories that might have been slight in literary qualities, but iron-clad in concepts. To say that Luminous was heavily anticipated is to understate matters.

    Was it worth the wait? Well, mostly yes for the fans.

    The best news are that Luminous shows that Greg Egan has lost none of his willingness to confront the big themes. Tackling Happiness, Mathematical Certitude, Genetics, Cosmology, Sexual Orientation and -oh, that too- Consciousness, Egan is a perfect poster-child for SF’s grandest literary aims. It’s not quite as well executed as it’s attempted, but still…

    The title story has a strong beginning. It doesn’t really meshes well with the remainder of the story, but draws you in effectively. “Mitochondrial Eve” is a good satiric story, with an impeccably readable style. “Cocoon” forces you to think twice about sexual politics. “Our Lady of Chernobyl” is a futuristic Private Eye mystery that’s as enjoyable as anything else written in the sub-genre. “Reasons to be Cheerful” is fascinating in the exploration of a few key assumptions.

    Other stories are less successful. “Silver Fire” ends as it was just beginning to take flight. “Mister Volition” is almost a rambling monologue about some ill-defined point. “The Plank Dive” lays on the science too thick: I love Hard-SF, but this went over the limit. “Transition Dreams” is an interesting horror story à la Dick, but dragged on. “Chaff” is like a lengthy description of an neat idea, with two pages of plot at the end; it took me two readings to grasp the point, and it’s not much of a stunning one.

    Containing only ten stories, Luminous is also a disappointment in its length. Still, it’s an essential part of the Egan bibliography, and a key piece of nineties SF. Wait for the paperback, sure, but don’t miss it then.

    BRIEFLY: My conclusion after reading Egan’s Diaspora: I must stop reading Greg Egan on the bus. If, for some reason, you’re unable to concentrate, you won’t be able to extract all the good stuff from Egan’s concept-heavy writing.

    A huge tale (both in space and time) of humanity’s expansion in the metaverse, Diaspora inverts most of the standard cliches of SF and, even then, presents some inspiring thoughts. If you even felt uncomfortable at the silly STAR TREK-style space exploration paradigms, this is the book for you. It’s not especially readable, or gripping, but it’s almost endlessly surprising. I’ll definitely need to re-read this one again in a few years. But not on the bus.

  • Time Bomb 2000, Edward Yourdon and Jennifer Yourdon

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Prentice Hall Ptr, 1998, 416 pages, C$27.95 tpb, ISBN 0-13-095284-2

    This review will look silly in two years.

    But that’s okay, given that the book I’m reviewing is going to look even sillier in two years.

    Personally, I love the idea of the Y2K bug. It appeals to several archetypes that I find just irresistible: The failure of improperly managed technology; the trans-generational ticking-bomb suspense of it all; the signal that computers really ruled the late twentieth century… Plus, the timing just couldn’t be better. Just as we had half-convinced ourselves that we were rational creatures that didn’t really fear an arbitrary year-symbol increment, here comes this wonderful doomsday problem, sprung up from half-buried secrets and whose consequences could be as terrifying as anything we could imagine…

    If it wasn’t a science-fiction story (and it was, cf: Arthur C. Clarke’s The Ghost of the Grand Banks, 1989 —my first exposure to the Y2K problem), well, gosh-darn it, it should have! It’s just too good for it!

    Of course, the mercantile instinct has awaked in the shadow of this impending catastrophe. Since they’re saying our money might become worthless, some people are quite ready to take it away from us right now!

    How many “miracle solutions” newscasts will we have to endure before the madness ends? Well, Time Bomb 2000 will at least tell you what’s in store, given that there’s no such thing as a magical Y2K silver bullet.

    Time Bomb 2000 looks at the Y2K problem on twelve sectors from three perspective. For Jobs, Utilities, Transportation, Banking/Finance, Food, PCs, Information, Health/Medicine, Government, Embedded Systems, Education and Telephone/Mail, the Yourdons (father/daughter) estimate the chances of day-long, month-long and year-long disruptions. Their conclusions, as might be expected, aren’t very optimistic.

    Their conclusion is both rational and chilling: Nobody knows what’s going to happen. Given this premise, the Yourdons gently suggest that it might be better to be over-prepared than caught without necessities. The authors remain quite confident despite everything. They don’t predict the fall of civilization as we know it, but they’re not ready to call it a non-event at this point. Seems reasonable to me. If anything, being over-prepared for the Y2K might be a good idea in case of extraordinary snowstorms, etc…

    (Readers who think that I’m being too gullible on the subject of disaster preparation should know that during January 1998, the whole Eastern Ontario/Central Quebec area was paralysed by an ice storm of extraordinary proportions. Though my hometown was spared from any ill effects beyond a twenty-four blackout, it did hammer home the usefulness of a wood stove, a good set of preparation, candles and a positive attitude in the face of these event. Other areas went without electricity for almost three weeks. When people ask me about Y2K, I usually answer by telling them to prepare for another ice storm.)

    Consider Time Bomb 2000 mental insurance; even though you might not follow each suggestion or take each threat seriously, at least you will have the choice to make up your mind. As for me, I must say that the book forced me to take in consideration a few factors. Given that I’m planning a major lifestyle change (buying a house is a major lifestyle change) the potential Y2K systemic failures described in Time Bomb 2000 led to establish a timeline that takes in consideration at least the possibility of Bad Stuff happening… just in case.

  • The Golden Globe, John Varley

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Ace/Putnam, 1998, 425 pages, C$32.99 hc, ISBN 0-441-00558-6

    Thirty-three bucks for a tour of the solar system. How does that sound to you? Even better: Wait a year and get it for ten bucks. Or rush to your library and get it for free! But given that it’s a new John Varley novel, why wait?

    My first exposure to Varley was tardy, but significant: An impulse purchase of a (discount) hardcover edition of Steel Beach. I loved that book. Varley’s style -a chatty, lively first-person narrative loaded with fascinating asides about an original future- make than made up for a weak narrative structure and deliberately shocking details.

    It was only later than I discovered Varley’s most successful works: The short stories assembled in The Persistence of Vision and The Barbie Murders. I wasn’t really ecstatic over the “Titan-Wizard-Demon” trilogy, but liked Millennium and loved The Ophiuchi Hotline. So, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I was waiting for the arrival of Varley’s first novel since 1992’s Steel Beach: The Golden Globe.

    Even casual students of the Elizabethan era will infer that this novel has some relation with Shakespeare and/or the famous theatre in which many of his plays were first performed. But Varley gives another meaning to the title by referring to the cornerstone of his imaginary “Nine World” sequence: Luna.

    Taking place a few years after Steel Beach‘s “Big Glitch”, The Golden Globe is a gigantic travelogue through Varley’s most celebrated future history. Kenneth “Sparky” Valentine is a once-famous actor, now running from the law after a few rather illegal acts on Pluto. He’s a spectacular thespian, a student of Shakespeare, a con artist and a terrific narrator. As with Steel Beach, Varley opens with a shock sequence as Sparky plays both Mercutio and Juliet in a rowdy representation of the Bard’s classic—including the sex scenes.

    Before long, however, we’re on the run with Sparky as an unkillable Charonese (think “Silician”) mafia assassin is aiming for him. A few flashbacks, a few exotic locations, a few action scenes, a sudden new plot, a sudden conclusion and you close the cover on one of the best SF books of 1998.

    There’s no denying that The Golden Globe is a shaggy-dog story. Fans of complex plotting won’t really find what they want here. Varley’s talent is in writing short stories, and he does the next best thing here by offering a string of vignettes, mini-adventures, tourist visits and linked flashbacks. Some will find it tedious; others will read it with glee.

    In this regard, it’s very similar to Steel Beach, which also spent a lot of time describing future life on Luna, and included unrelated vignettes here and there to either sustain our interest or divert us from the main action. I may prefer the earlier novel by a nose (I’m more partial to a journalist protagonist than an actor) but the bottom line is that readers who loved Varley’s previous novel will also like this one.

    Reader references run deeper, as it’s difficult to talk of this novel without mentioning Heinlein at least once, and Double Star at least twice. Much like Heinlein’s Lorenzo Smythe, Valentine’s narration is a compulsively readable mix of classical theatre and street smarts.

    Indeed, it’s difficult not to like Varley’s protagonist, and in the end, that’s what carries the novel through. Even the travelogue aspect of The Golden Globe should not be a disadvantage given that SF has a long and illustrious history of such novels (Clarke’s 3001, Niven’s Ringworld, large segments of Robinson’ Mars trilogy, etc…)

    So get the book, sit back and enjoy.

    The show is just waiting to begin.

  • Zero Effect (1998)

    Zero Effect (1998)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On VHS, December 1998) Another of these movies whose opening sequence might be too strong for its own good. We’re very convincingly introduced to Daryl Zero, an utterly eccentric modern-day Sherlock Holmes and the plot is set rolling by a series of rather fun scenes. But then, the movie begins to takes itself seriously, Zero loses a lot of his peculiar nature (and doesn’t use his amazing deductive powers as much as we’d like) and the result, while reasonably good, is somehow disappointing. Too bad, given Bill Pullman’s good performance and the potential of his character.