> SCIENCE FICTION: ALEX GOOD
GIDEON SMITH AND THE MASK OF THE RIPPER By David Barnett (Tor, $18.50, 384 pages)
Gideon Smith and the Mask of the Ripper is the third of David Barnett’s marvellous steampunk novels chronicling the reallife penny-dreadful adventures of Gideon Smith, Hero of the Empire.
It’s best to read the earlier books first, if only for an introduction to Smith’s entourage (Maria the Mechanical Girl, Belle of the Airways Rowena Fanshawe, and gutter journalist Aloysius Bent), but prior familiarity with these characters isn’t necessary.
Fans of steampunk will recognize all the usual trappings of the genre, including lots of gimcrack Victorian inventions from an alternative history of science and a rococo plot involving, in this instance, Jack the Ripper, as well as a hungry young tyrannosaur.
FUTURISTIC VIOLENCE AND FANCY SUITS By David Wong (St. Martin’s Press, $29.99, 384 pages)
It seems fair to say that most young people, on learning that a father who had long abandoned them had just died and left them a fortune beyond imagining, would be in the mood for celebration. For Zoe Ashe, however, this ticket out of the trailer park only leads to trouble.
David Wong delivers a vision of the future as a hysterical, fully wired, 24-7 stream of violent spectacle. A satire on all things now, including the media, technology, corporate power, celebrity and obscene wealth, Futuristic Violence
and Fancy Suits is a roller-coaster ride of a novel filled with bizarre characters and stamped with extreme punctuation that gets dialed all the way up to “!?!” and even “?!?!”. It’s not a book to be read slowly, but enjoyed in a rush.
LIGHTLESS By C.A. Higgins (Del Rey, $33.00, 304 pages)
Lightless, the debut novel from C.A. Higgins, hits the ground running with the black hole-powered spaceship Ananke being infiltrated by a pair of break-and-enter men who infect its computer with a virus. The rest of the novel will be spent trying to figure out who these guys really are and what they’re up to.
After the jolting opening chapter things slow down a bit, and Higgins starts to pace herself for a longer game. She also effectively manages a restricted, almost claustrophobic setting, talky plot and small cast of characters.
Chief among these is Althea Bastet, the computer engineer aboard the Ananke. As the story develops Althea is drawn into a techno-mystery that pits the forces of order, known simply as the System, against anti-authoritarian elements who are either freedom-loving rebels or terrorists. Meanwhile, Ananke appears to be fatefully evolving into an artificial intelligence with plans of its own.
THE END OF ALL THINGS By John Scalzi (Tor, $28.99, 384 pages)
The End of All Things is John Scalzi’s sixth book set in his Old Man’s War universe. It follows closely on the events portrayed in The Human Division, and is comprised of four sequential novellas or episodes that were published serially earlier this year as ebooks. While it can be read on its own, it’s recommended you start with some grounding in the basic political setup.
In brief, the always-tricky triangular diplomacy between Earth, the Colonial Union and the Conclave (a federation of aliens) has gotten even trickier with the discovery of a threatening new player on the interstellar stage, an organization that calls itself Equilibrium.
Trying to stop Equilibrium, and the end of all things, are Harry Wilson of the Colonial Defense Forces and a motley group of like-minded team members, including a reluctant “brain in a box” who narrates the first episode. As always with this Star Trek-style series you can expect first-rate storytelling and highflying space-opera adventure put forward with intelligence, energy and wit.