The Aliens Among Us

Oct. 22nd, 2018 11:30 pm
mtvessel: (Default)

Nov 2017
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky – Pan Books, 2015 (kindle edition)
* * * *
I am pretty certain that the author has a pet tarantula; this is the second book of his to feature sentient arachnids, so he clearly has a thing for them. Unlike Spiderlight, however, this one is a science fiction thriller in the mould of A Fire Upon The Deep, with which it shares more than a passing similarity. And it's good, which makes Tchaikovsky one of the few authors who can challenge Zerothin's Law of Genre-hopping.
( Read more... )
Tags:

Post-postmodern Fantasies

Oct. 12th, 2017 12:01 am
mtvessel: (Default)

Aug 2016
Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho - Pan Books, 2016 / Spiderlight – Adrian Tchaikovsky - Tor.com, 2016
* * * * / * * * * *
I appreciate the arts but have little time for most contemporary manifestations of them. The main reason for this (apart, of course, from the time wasted due to Sturgeon's law) is that art, music and dance appear to have stopped evolving, instead diversifying into myriad forms of individual self-expression. Art is no longer a conversation between the artist, their predecessors and contemporaries, but a monologue - "look how clever, original and talented I am!". As most artists are not particularly profound thinkers, what new insights they have tend to relate to the minutiae of the social milieu in which they live, and for me their effusions generally lack analytical interest and deep emotional meaning.

Fortunately, the same is not true of genre fiction. One can tell this by the fact that identifiable styles and trends exist, for example steampunk, grimdark and Scandinavian noir, which can be analysed and, more importantly, moved on from. As a result, modern genre fiction, even when it is not startlingly original - and the two books to be discussed here have deeply familiar settings and character types - can still be interesting and worthwhile in a way that the artworks considered for the Turner Prize, for example, are not.
( Read more... )
Tags:

Profile

mtvessel: (Default)
mtvessel

Navigation

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1 234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

  • Style: Midnight for Heads Up by momijizuakmori

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 21st, 2025 04:15 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios