FACT SF Reading Group

September 1999

September 7: Secret Realms by Tom Cool

Nine people showed up to discuss Secret Realms, the second science fiction novel by US Naval Commander Tom Cool. Several of us had met the author and been impressed by him at his recent appearances in Texas (at LoneStarCon 2 in San Antonio and at the Turkey City Writers' Workshop in Austin). Additionally, Tor editor David Hartwell had been praising Secret Realms at last year's ArmadilloCon, so we felt we needed to discuss this book.

Secret Realms is about a military experiment where a group of people is raised since birth in a virtual reality world designed to teach them to be warriors. The story is largely told from the viewpoint of the experimental subjects, who initially think their VR training camp is the "real world" but gradually come to suspect that something more is out there.

We found that this book offered a fascinating examination of a horrifying yet believable premise. The political motivations to for the experiment rang true, and Cool's depiction of the technology made it seem feasible. The virtual reality world was well developed, with a cleverly thought out set of stylizations of our own world. It had different social patterns that made sense in context. We liked the hybrid fantasy/SF tone the author used to describe the world and what happened in it. The characters raised in the VR world to be great warriors actually seemed extremely smart.

We all thought the story started off strongly. The actions in the VR worlds were interesting, and we cared about the characters. Somewhere in about the last third of the book, the story seemed to change direction and turn into more of a standard technothriller. While the fast-paced ending was effective and well-written, we felt that it didn't fit well with the beginning and was less special than the earlier parts of the book.

The military/VR aspects of this novel brought up obvious comparisons to two famous books that won the Hugo and Nebula awards: Ender's Game and Forever Peace. We thought that much of Secret Realms held up well against these books. Some folks even said that they enjoyed Secret Realms more than Forever Peace, which we read earlier this year. We feel that Tom Cool is a skillful writer with interesting ideas, and we're looking forward to his future books.

September 21: The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

The discussion of Martha Wells's third novel drew eight participants. The Death of the Necromancer is a dark fantasy set in a world much like 18th Century Europe. The main character, Nicholas Valiarde, is a nobleman secretly plotting revenge against the evil Count Montesq, who had Valiarde's godfather executed on false charges. While attempting to steal a treasure and frame Montesq for the crime, Valiarde encounters a dark supernatural evil. Distracted from his mission of vengeance, Valiarde decides to find out more about the evil force and to try to stop it.

We found this book told an exciting, page-turning adventure story. The plot kept taking unexpected turns, but we were enjoying it so much that we gleefully went along for the ride. As one member put it, this is a "cracking good yarn."

This book has a cast of genuinely interesting characters. Although superficially they fit many of the standard archetypes from regency romances (the fallen noble, the kindhearted actress, the evil count, etc.), Wells imbued them all with a uniqueness that made us care about them and what happened to them. Many of them seem truly clever. Nicholas Valiarde is an amazingly complex creation. At times reminding us of such classic characters as the Saint, Moriarty, and Batman, he seemed a truly original character created specifically for this story.

The characters and setting worked well together to evoke a proper mood. The city's long history, large ancient castles, and dark sewers provided a suitably mysterious background for the strange events and horrifying menaces of this tale.

There were so many exciting and interesting scenes in the book that we were hard-pressed to name a favorite. Memorable moments included the chilling seances, the break into prison, the break out of prison, and the confrontation with evil in the sewer.

It should be noted that The Death of the Necromancer is set in the same world as Ms. Wells's first novel, The Element of Fire. The stories in the two books are unrelated, and they feature none of the same leading characters. The Death of the Necromancer takes place several generations after the events in The Element of Fire, and it only occasionally refers to plot elements from the first book as history. These references were so interesting that many of us wanted to buy and read The Element of Fire. We were disappointed when Willie told us that it is now out of print.

Many of us felt that The Death of the Necromancer was one of the most entertaining books we'd read in quite a while. Even those who don't normally read much fantasy liked it quite a bit. This book seems to offer a wonderful new direction for fantasy. We felt that Wells shows a tremendous level of accomplishment for only a third novel, and we're anxious to see her next book.

Since this was the second Martha Wells book our group had discussed and liked, we plan to take the author to dinner soon. We're lucky to have so many good and fan-accessible writers who live in Texas.

-- A. T. Campbell, III