Calm Thoughts

After 4 days away from home, the cats follow me around more than usual. After work last night I opened the patio door so they could go outside and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air, and then parked myself in front of the TV and caught up on Desperate Housewives and The Daily Show. The cats parked themselves on the carpet in front of me, and took turns on my lap when they should have been outside. So I sat out on the patio for half an hour to get them out there.

The star jasmine I bought a week or two ago is in bloom, and the flowers in the planter all looked much better after I watered them. Thought about filling the hummingbird feeder, but I have not heard or seen any hummingbirds in the area for months. We have one at work which keeps trying to come through the space which is occupied by a window pane, but none at the apartment. Will probably fill the feeder sometime soon, though.

It's nice to look up at the giant redwoods. Very calming.

Review: Technogenesis

Someone on LJ posted a comment on a friend of a friend's page, I followed it back to their LJ, and saw a short blurb recommending the author Syne Mitchell, especially her book Technogenesis. I wish I could remember who I gakked this from, because it's an excellent read, and what is even rarer than a good science fiction book these days, is a good hard science fiction book.

Mitchell gives us science and speculation from a number of fields, sometimes they are the foundation for her story, and somethings they are just mentioned in passing, set dressing.

The story centers on Jasmine "Jaz" Reese, daughter of an east Indian computer scientist and Irish father. She is a leading computer intuitive - a "natural" - in a world where almost everyone lives on the net. Connections can be through a simple (but limited bandwidth) bracelet, or other data jewelry, or in Jaz's case, through a military grade professional rig which is worn on the face like a mask. Her job is to mine data - she uses her rig to connect to the net and she uses her natural talent to find information on just about anything a research company's clients may want.

One day her rig breaks, and there is no replacement available. She is forced off the net, and discovers that without a net connection, life is tough. You can't get the bus to stop, or pay the fare, or open your apartment door because all of this is done through a net connection.

And people stare at you.

But the way they stare, one at a time, like she's being kept under surveillance, makes her wonder if the net might not be something more than just a way to connect. A hint from a couple of "feebs" - people whose brains won't allow them to connect to the net - gets her to suspecting that someone may be controlling their thoughts via the net.

And the book takes off from there.

I like her writing style, it's easy to read, she doesn't go off on tangents and it's easy to follow the plot. On the down side, she does telegraph the romantic plot line a bit too much, and it's not clear how Jaz really feels about relationships. When it comes to her main character, Mitchell "writes like a girl". As opposed to writing like a woman.

The book is set in the Seattle area, and makes good use of Mitchell's knowledge of the Cascades, where she lives in real life. Interesting bio can be found here.

I'll be looking for her other books, now.

Review: Telempath

Spider Robinson wrote Telempath in the mid-70's, and I picked up a recent re-issue in the used book store. I've read most of his other books, having enjoyed Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and hoping he would grow into a less juvenile, less hippie dippy writer and still keep the excellent puns.

Instead, he has remained juvenile and if anything more hippie dippy, and his puns have gotten dull and witless.

Telempath is typical Spider Robinson, where a Bad and Dangerous Man finds Peace through Truth and Brotherhood and saves the world by talking to Higher Beings, to whom previously nobody was able to get through.

The book starts off pretty good. Isham Stone is a young black man who has been turned into a human killing machine at his father's orders, with the directive of going into the remains of NYC, finding the (white) man who destroyed Civilization As We Know It, and killing him.
( spoiler alert! )

At least four times, at the end of a chapter I would look down and wonder how come there was still more book left. And each time, the next chapter would be some plot twist which wreaked of the author saying, "WTF do I write now? I need 10,000 more words at least!"

Ironically, when the book does end, there are a lot of pieces left hanging which I thought should have been wrapped up, but do not warrant a sequel.

Sometimes, Spider makes me want to puke , with his sappy philosophies and back-to-the-woods themes. Bleeding heart doesn't begin to cover it - hemorrhaging heart might. He also seems to want us to be saved by non-humans, as if humanity must learn peace, truth and brotherhood from a higher intelligence which is not a God. He also subscribes to the peace and joy which controlled substances can bring, without paying much more than lip service to their ill effects. I don't mind characters in a book sharing a joint now and then, but smoking pot isn't going to help save the world.

And I don't like the way his leading man does an instant 180 when he finds out the woman he dumped 5 years ago is having his baby. Awfully macho for the world he's put the guy in.

I'll probably try another Spider Robinson book sometime, but someone please stop me if you see me heading in that direction.