FACT SF Reading Group

May 1998

May 5: Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Six people attended the discussion of Men at Arms, a fairly recent entry in Pratchett's long-running Discworld series. This humorous fantasy novel is a follow-up to Guards! Guards!, which we discussed last year. To confound those who like to pigeonhole books into single genres, I should mention that despite the presence of wizards and dragons, this book's plot has strong mystery elements.

Our reactions to this book ranged from "one of my favorite all time books" to "really good -- I read it twice" to "enjoyed it, but not a great thrill" to "completely boring -- I couldn't get past page 60". Those who liked it most had read prior Discworld novels, so we surmised that some of the background gleaned from reading the other books increased appreciation.

There were a lot of nice touches in the book. I personally enjoyed the surprise appearance of Leonardo da Vinci, who appears in an awful lot of Reading Group books. Several people commented favorably on the book's exploration of ethnic relations. There were also thoughtful insights into the connection between vocation and duty. The characters were well realized, especially Corporal Carrot -- a rare good, heroic, simple character without any apparent dark side. The humor in the book was compared to the work of Douglas Adams, Tom Holt, and Piers Anthony.

There were some negative comments. Some folks found the writing clever but didn't find the material thought-provoking enough for their tastes. Other complaints were mainly along the lines of "this humor is not to my taste".

The majority of our group enjoyed this book, and we were pleased to learn from the staff of Adventures in Crime & Space that Pratchett has written several more "guards books".

May 19: Distress by Greg Egan

Six people attended this discussion. Two other Reading Group members had read the book but weren't able to attend the meeting, so they relayed their comments via e-mail and word-of-mouth. The subject of this month's discussion, Distress, is a hard SF novel that follows a journalist covering a physics convention where top scientists are presenting their "Theories of Everything".

We all liked this book quite a bit. The near-future Earth in which the story takes place was well realized, with a believable amount of "progress" from today's world. The book is full of expository lumps as the scientists explain their theories, but Egan writes so well that it isn't hard to digest the material. The realistic portrayal of a scientific conference is a nice change from the stereotypical "lone mad scientist" so common in science fiction stories. The book is structured like a mystery, and Egan presents the material in a very effective manner. The mind-boggling "truth" revealed about the Theories of Everything is a spectacular achievement.

The few criticisms of the book had to do with mechanics of writing. A couple of people thought the book started slowly and took a few chapters to get going. Some questioned the author's use of first person narrative, since the limitations of this approach forced a few plot threads to remain loose ends.

Overall opinions of the book were quite positive. The Reading Group has discussed each of Egan's SF novels as they came out, and we're likely to do so for the foreseeable future. Two relative newcomers to the group had never read Egan before Distress, but they plan to catch up on his earlier work quickly. Egan is a writer to watch.

-- A. T. Campbell, III