My Month of Science Fiction: Robot Uprisings, ed. Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams

Robot Uprisings (2014) ed. Daniel Wilson and John Joseph Adams

I'm just going to say up front that I love everything about this anthology: the eclecticism of the stories, the cover image, the mix of well-known and lesser-known authors, the fact that it's about ROBOTS...

Maybe it's because I loved Data's character on Star Trek: TNG, or maybe it's because I love the tantalizingly-terrifying feeling that creeps up my spine whenever I think about robots shaking off their shackles and getting their vengeance on. WHATEVER I just love robot stories. And Wilson and Adams have given us an anthology of robot stories that will stay with us, informing and changing how we think about the AI of the future and the robots we currently live with.

My Month of Science Fiction: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One (2011) by Ernest Cline

I think the closest I've ever come to reading a dystopian/scifi/video-game novel like RPO was when I delved into Cory Doctorow's For The Win (2010). Both novels are fast-paced, addictive action adventures, and I do enjoy a good adventure...

What struck me about RPO was the sheer amount of detail that Cline loaded into it- references to '80s pop-culture; descriptions of vintage and recent video, arcade, and computer games; discussions of gaming culture. 

Now, even though I was born in the early '80s, doesn't mean I remember much of that...er...strange decade. I was basically dressing up my stuffed animals and watching Sesame Street as it drew to a close. I do, however, have some knowledge of '80s video games, popular music, and TV shows because of my older brothers. So that was a HUGE help in deciphering what Wade/Parzival was talking about half the time.

My Month of Science Fiction: Embassytown by China Miéville

Embassytown (2011) by China Miéville

When I was asking around for recommendations for my Month of Science Fiction, the name "China Miéville" kept coming up. Now, I had heard the name before, but knew nothing about the author. Eventually, I chose Embassytown to read and BOY OH BOY am I glad I did (and all the other Miéville? Yeah, gonna read those too!).

Anyway, there are books that you read and you feel great afterwards- enlightened, almost buoyant. Other books leave you feeling confused and dizzy. Still others suck you in and make you work so hard that you come out on the other side saying "that wasn't a book, it was an EXPERIENCE."

Embassytown was an Experience.

My Month of Science Fiction: Bloodchild by Octavia Butler

Bloodchild and Other Stories, 2nd ed. (1996, 2005) by Octavia Butler

Having never read anything by Octavia Butler before, I was unprepared for the wonderful energy, wit, and precision of these short stories and essays. They were fantastic- the kind of science fiction that strikes a match in your brain and makes you want to write ALL THE SCIFI STORIES yourself. Now that's what I call good writing.

And then, just because being awesome wasn't enough, Butler had to go and add brief afterwords to each story, laying out her inspiration or thoughts on the issues that were raised. You guys, I wish every book of short stories was like this! It was like reading a story, and then going to the author and saying, "but why did you write it this way? How did you come up with this idea?" etc. Such a small book (just over 200 pages), but such a powerful punch.

My Month of Science Fiction: The Margarets by Sheri Tepper

The Margarets (2007) by Sheri Tepper

Wow.

This was quite a bit different from Neuromancer, and that's putting it mildly. Such diversity among the books that we label "scifi" made me take to twitter to ask people to try and define the genre (in 6 words or less- I know, that's unfair, but there were some great responses).

Having never heard of Sheri Tepper before, I dove into The Margarets without many preconceptions. It's a fascinating story that encompasses multiple planets, planes of existence, and time periods. A little girl named Margaret Bain, bored to tears and lonely while living on a human settlement on Phobos, summons up some imaginary friends and VOILA they all eventually split off from her and become separate beings, each of whom grows up to become a full-fledged individual. Seven separate beings, to be exact. They each develop their special abilities, all in the service of helping the human race survive.

My Month of Science Fiction: Neuromancer by William Gibson

Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson

Sooooooo, yeah. Not sure what just happened there.

I mean, I'm reading this "cyberpunk" novel and there's something about the "matrix" and "flipping" and "jacking in" somehow to a network where there are these two AIs and it's bad if they get together but one of them wants to get together with the other one. And then there's Case, the dude who used to be this big-time hacker but stole from his employers, who messed. him. up. and now he can get un-messed-up if he does this little job for some dude named Armitage but that's not his real name of course and he's really just a shell anyway after that thing that happened...

*deep breath*

June: My Month of Science Fiction

 


I had such a fun time back in March with my Month of Crime Fiction that I decided to dedicate another month to a different genre: contemporary science fiction (I'm defining it as 1980 - present). Now, I have read some recent scifi, but not enough to get a real sense of what's out there and where the genre is headed.