FACT SF Reading Group

July 2004

July 6: Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling

Of the ten people who showed up for this discussion of the second book in the Tamir Trilogy, seven had read the book and one still had to finish it. Seven people had read Flewelling's work previously, and seven (not all the same seven) had read the previous volume, The Bone Doll's Twin.

In the second book, Tobin, the second heir to the throne of Skala, now knows that he (Flewelling uses male pronouns for Tobin until nearly the end of the book) is really a girl and was given his twin brother's shape by dark magic. Throughout this book Tobin trains as a warrior and deals with the problems of coming of age as a girl in a boy's body. He must keep his true identity secret from the king who would kill him, even though only a warrior queen can save Skala from the plague, famine, and war threatening to destroy the country.

Everyone enjoyed the book, finding it a fast, well-crafted read. However, a few people were disappointed that this volume was more of a standard fantasy and did not have the dark, edginess of the first book. Flewelling's characters, even the villainous wizard and king, have a mixture of flaws and virtues that make them realistic, although some readers thought Tobin was too good and needed to be a darker character.

Although this is the middle book of a trilogy, it has enough back story (well interwoven), critical events, and a strong climax to allow it stand well on its own and certainly not be skipped over. It also has enough dangling ends to hook us into reading the next book.

July 20: Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

Fifteen people showed up for the discussion of Stross's first novel published in book form (a previous novel was serialized). Two people had not read the book and five had not finished.

Comments ranged from "The best book we've ever read," to "I'm surprised it made the Hugo [nomination] list." We found this post-cyberpunk space opera surprisingly complex for its length. The conflict begins when an artificial intelligence called The Festival drops telephones on a repressed pseudo-Russian colony and offers people anything they ask for (although not quite what they wanted) in exchange for stories. Chaos ensues.

Most of us thought Stross made fresh creative use of real physics, but others were not convinced by the techno-babble. Some of us thought the writing was smooth; others found it clunky and spotted gaps in the story. The two secret agents from Earth were well characterized, but other important characters were not.

One thing we did agree on was that the military dialogue and the space battles were not as interesting as the rest of the book, nor as well done as David Weber's Honor Harrington series. Most of us enjoyed the humor--from sporks of the revolution to carrot-chomping alien Critics. We wondered, though, if we were missing some of the British humor, particularly the political puns.

We would recommend this book for those who enjoy hard SF. After all, information wants to be free--but beware of mimes with pies.

-- Sandy Kayser