Book Review: Warrior: Monster Slayer (Book 1, The Monsterworld Saga), by Sam Ryder

I came across this book totally by accident.  I was looking through the Prime Reading list on Amazon and found it in the fantasy section.  I'm a fan of the Monster Hunter International series by Larry Correia, so this sounded interesting.  However, this is more of a fantasy tale - something like GameLit or LitRPG (I'm not super familiar with either of these sub-genres, so take that with a grain of salt).  But, the encounter was very similar to Monster Hunter International, which I came across in the local bookstore years ago - the concept sounded kind of neat.  I wasn't really taking a chance with "free" - other than sacrificing a bit of my time.

I'm glad I decided to check this out.  It is a light and fun read! It is an interesting twist that the main character, Sam Ryder, is also the author of the book.  I also understand that Sam Ryder is a pen-name.

There are a few concepts borrowed from other fantasy series here - things I've seen in other fantasy works like the following:

• Conan stories - Robert E. Howard
• The Barsoom Series (John Carter) - Edgar Rice Burroughs
• The Dancing Gods series - Jack L. Chalker
• Guardians of the Flame series - Joel Rosenberg
  

For some reason, appears on a list of "Harem" or "Polygamy" fiction on GoodReads, and Time Enough for Love, by Robert A. Heinlein, is included on the same list.  Kind of strange - while there may be sex with multiple partners, I would not consider Time Enough for Love to be the same kind of story at all.  Yes, the main character has sex, but no more than James Bond does in a single film (well, at least the older ones with Sean Connery and Roger Moore).  The scenes may be a bit more graphic, but they don't last long, and I've seen similar scenes in may other books - I have no problem with the content.

Another oddity is that the series is on these two lists on Amazon:

• First Contact Science Fiction
• Time Travel Science Fiction
• Time Travel Fiction

The last two entries are strange - there is no time travel  in first book (and I understand there isn't any in the rest of the series either - the author is confused by this categorization).

The first contact piece I can understand - while there are sword and sorcery elements to the story, it is kind of science fiction as well.  This isn't just swords and sorcery on a single world - there is definitely a science fiction element to it, which I won't reveal.

So, Sam Ryder is kind of a loser - an outcast.  He has a dead-end job as a programmer, which he just got fired from.  He spends most of his time playing Alien Civilization, an online RPG.  A gorgeous woman on a motorcycle offers him a thrill ride, one thing leads to another, and he ultimately finds himself on a world filled with goddesses and monsters.

This world is kind of like an RPG - there are levels, and Sam arrives as an Outcast, which is what he was in the real world.  He is immediately leveled up to Warrior for free.  Future level ups have requirements.  After being leveled up, he finds himself fighting for his life in his new Warrior body - think Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan, or maybe even a little bigger than that.

Eventually, Sam learns that he has been recruited to protect the Three goddesses from the monsters on the world, along with other recruits, some of whom aren't human.  Survival on this world is brutal for new recruits.  There are daily fights against the monsters, and any real information about what is going on is sparse - different people know different things, and there is very little sharing of information.

The combination of different elements made this a very satisfying story for me.  Believe it or not, the sex scenes, while graphic at times, are fairly short (one or two pages at most), and are actually an integrated part of the story - it will become clear if you read it.

I enjoyed this first story enough that I bought the full boxed set that includes all five novels on Kindle - the price works out to about one dollar per book.

If you like some of the novels I mention above, you may enjoy this.  I was originally able to read it for free on Amazon Prime Reading, but the book is currently $0.99 - pretty low price to take a change on something you may enjoy.  At the end, you will learn the real name of the author, who has a few different series under different names.  I will definitely be checking out at least one of them.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from my readers.  Have you read this series?  What did you think of it?  Please feel free to leave a comment.

Book Review: The Oppenheimer Alternative, by Robert J. Sawyer

After reading Quantum Night back in 2016, I was very disappointed to hear that this would be Mr. Sawyer's last novel.  At some point after that, I learned that, of course, he was writing a new novel.  After that, I was anxiously awaiting his next effort.  Mr. Sawyer's books are among the best novels I've read, and each book seems to get better than the last.  Quantum Night was so good, and so thought provoking, I felt it was his best work to date, and that is saying something.  I've had this feeling with many of his novels.  And now, the wait is over - The Oppenheimer Alternative is here!

The end of the world - either the destruction of the Earth or the end of human life on Earth - is a familiar movie theme, but science fiction authors have been writing about this for many, many decades.  A few examples of such disasters that I've come across over the years include (I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to identify the sources):

• Self-replicating machines (many different stories/authors here)
  
• A nano-virus, part life-form and part machine, which literally devours the Earth
• A comet/asteroid hitting the Earth or the moon, causing an extinction level event
• A microscopic black hole falls into the Earth's core
• Alien invasions
• Deadly viruses/diseases
• Zombie apocalypse (practically a sub-genre these days)

The Oppenheimer Alternative has an end of the world scenario I haven't seen before.  I'm familiar with the theory that scientists believe that our sun, as it beings to run low on its hydrogen fuel, will eventually expand and envelop the orbits of the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and even Mars) - but this is projected to be millions of years away (I mean, the sun has a TON of hydrogen to burn).  In this story, it is speculated that the sun will eject its outer layer in less than 100 years (around the year 2030), destroying all the inner planets except for Mars.

Imagine being faced with such a threat at the end of World War II?  Humanity barely has the technology to create an atomic bomb (and this was a multi-year effort costing millions or billions).  High fidelity radio doesn't yet exist, television isn't in public use, a human hasn't been launched into

Remember dialing?

space, and most people would continue to have analog rotary dial phones in their homes for decades to come (granted, those phones seemed to last for decades) - and the Earth will be destroyed in less than 100 years.

What could we possibly do to save ourselves?  It's true that the human race has been on a steep curve of technological advancement for the past 100+ years, but evacuating the entire planet (after a war that was a resource drain for more than four years) or attempting to stop a wave of destructive plasma from the sun both seem to be astronomical long shots.

As you can guess from the historical material, the central character in this tale is Robert J. Oppenheimer - the "father" of the atomic bomb.  Approximately the first third of the book deals with the Manhattan Project, and the team of men who work under Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, New Mexico.  The main focus is around Oppenheimer's life, and his interactions with those around him (which is a large cast of historical figures, from Albert Einstein to Wernher von Braun), with the creation of the bomb mostly occurring in the background - but things keep popping up with ultimately contribute to this alternate history.  Part of the story also focuses on Oppenheimer's perceived connection to Communism, and his publicized hearing in 1954 which lost him his security clearance, and any access to nuclear information.

Once the war is over, and the scientists begin to agree that the Earth is doomed, the real problem starts to get tackled.  As in most disaster scenarios, there is the question of whether to inform the public - there are lots of examples of panic and hysteria from historical events.  And, of course, initial brainstorming produces the only obvious avenues of pursuit - I won't list them here, you can probably determine a few for yourself.  Given the Earth's level of technology at the end of the war, this task is likely akin to a colony of ants trying to stop the foot of a human from crushing their ant hill.

Overall, this novel is a work of alternate history, so the remainder of the story, except for the last couple chapters, follows suit in focusing on the ups and downs of Oppenheimer's life, and his relationships, both good and bad, with those around him, with the search for the way to save Earth in the background.

I have to say that this story was not what I expected.  It is very different from Mr. Sawyer's previous works.  While many previous novels involve a variety of different technologies and first contact elements, the common element in most, if not all, of his other stories is the Human Condition.  That is to say, how the relationships and attitudes of people may change through the course of the story.  In the case of The Oppenheimer Alternative, at least for me, this was the main focus of the story, with the technology mostly in the background.

Given the title, my expectation was that somewhere around the halfway point, Oppenheimer would realize that none of the ideas being explored to save the Earth would actually work, and he would come up with an "alternative" solution, which would then be implemented - but, that's not what the title means.  With the end of the book fast approaching, and with no real tangible solution realized, I was very surprised with how things actually turned out.  It was a real curve ball for me, and in hindsight, I feel like I should have been able to determine what was going to happen, if I gave it enough thought.

This was a very different kind of read for me.  I'm not a huge fan of alternate history.  I tried reading the first book of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series, In the Balance, but it fell flat for me within 150 pages (this is the series where aliens decide to invade the Earth, and by the time they arrive, World War II is under way and they are shocked at the level of progress humanity has made in such a short time).  The Oppenheimer Alternative was a much more successful story for me - it kept me interested all the way through.  I certainly learned more tidbits about the Manhattan Project than I knew before, and it was nice to see Albert Einstein participating in events after the war.  I couldn't help thinking of Walter Matthau playing Einstein in the film I.Q. from 1994.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from my readers.  If you've read this book, what was/is your interpretation of the title before/after reading it?

Book Review: The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time #3), by Robert Jordan

The Dragon returns!  This is the third book of The Wheel of Time series.  My impression is that this story picks up several months after The Great Hunt, as the winter season has passed.  Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne are on their way back to Tar Valon with Mat so that he can be separated from the dagger he picked up in Shador Logoth in The Eye of the World.  This was supposed to have been done in The Great Hunt - before the dagger was stolen with the Horn of Valere.

The rest of the group is gathering news from travelers of what is happening in Toman Head and the Almoth Plain after Rand declared himself The Dragon, and many witnesses saw him battling the Dark One in the sky.  Now that Rand has declared himself, no more false Dragons are appearing.

This title of this book is somewhat misleading.  In book one, Moraine realizes that Rand is the Dragon.  In book two, he declares himself.  So, in this book, with a title like The Dragon Reborn, you would expect the main focus to be on, well, The Dragon.  But, that isn't the case.  Aside from a little time at the beginning, where Rand decides to set off on his own, he is mostly absent from this story.  Oh, he appears briefly from time to time throughout the story, but the main focus is on all the other characters.  This reminded me of one of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality books - I think it was Being A Green Mother - where the individual the story is about doesn't even become the incarnation until the final chapter of the book (how then, is the book about that Incarnation?).

With this book, I've noticed a pattern in the storytelling which is consistent across all three books.  The group is together, they get separated into two or three groups that have separate journeys, and yet, whether or not they realize it, end up in the same place.

Throughout the story, we gradually learn more about what is going on.  We get more details on the Black Ajah, and what they have been responsible for in Tar Valon while the three Aes Sedai in training have been away (enslaved by the Seanchan on Toman Head).  The story becomes complicated for Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne - there's a lot going on in the background.  Many Aiel characters make an appearance as well, and we start to learn a bit more of their history, and why they are starting to appear.

Rand, Perrin, and Mat, the three young men from Emond's Field, all continue to have their own individual struggles.  Sure, they all have trust issues with Moraine - after all, they were raised to distrust Aes Sedai, which all relates to the Breaking of the World by the men who could channel who were driven mad by the taint the Dark One placed on saidin.  Despite all they have seen so far, they are all suspicious of being manipulated or controlled by the Aes Sedai.

Rand struggles with coming to terms that he is really the Dragon, and continues to have bad dreams, and wants to prove once and for all whether or not he is the Dragon, or if it is just dreams.

Perrin struggles with his ability to communicate with wolves.  He tries to close them out as much as possible, but finds that there are times where he simply MUST interact with them, and the interaction in this story was very surprising.

Mat seems in an odd place during this adventure.  In the past, he has been somewhat of a trouble maker, and has had distrust of Aes Sedai, and he definitely thinks mostly of himself (this is how he got in trouble with the dagger to start off with).  In this story, after being healed, he seems more angry and belligerent than before, and he has a huge distrust of the Aes Seda, and wants nothing other than to be left alone to go his own way.  But, he does what is right when necessary, and when asked.

With regard to Moraine and Lan, for the most part they fit their typical behavior pattern.  Moraine continues to reveal things only when necessary, which has a tendency to seed more mistrust - but, she has a lifetime of information which cannot be easily divulged, so it is a difficult balance.  This story is the first time we see real fear in her, which is sensed by Perrin through his extended wolf perception.

The pattern of slowness and extensive description continues.  I'm sure the pace and detail could certainly have been edited down, just as could have been done for the previous two novels.  I expected this installment, being the end of the first "trilogy" in the series, to have a much bigger climax, but it seemed about the same level as the previous two books.

The series continues to hold my interest, and I intend to keep reading, but my concerns about the pending slowdown which will be coming in a handful of books continues to grow.  We'll see what happens when I get there.

As always, I like hearing from my readers.  Have you read this series?  What do you think of it?

Book review: Culture Shock by M.G. Herron

I believe I saw this book pop up in one of my social media feeds - perhaps facebook, but I can't really remember.  The artwork was immediately appealing, and the story sounded kind of neat.  Advertised as "A First Contact Mystery Thriller".  I believe I've seen that combination of words put together like that before.  It's also recommended for fans of Men in Black and The X-Files.  This book was on sale for $0.99 on Amazon, so I took a chance on it.

The story kept me interested - there's lots to like here.  I don't know about The X-Files - I wasn't a major fan, and only saw a handful of episodes - but there are definitely elements of Men in Black here.  In this case, rather than a cop, we have a bounty hunter chasing an alien wearing the skin of a human.  Sound familiar?  And, the alien jumps off a building at some point to escape.  This story also shares some elements in common with The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher - rather than a down-on-his luck wizard, struggling to make enough money to pay rent for home/office, we have a down-on-his luck bounty hunter who has gotten himself in a deep hole of debt.

Anyway, just like in Men in Black, there are aliens on Earth.  They live right among us, and we have no idea they are there.  But, this story isn't about an organization that monitors and polices aliens that are on Earth.  Not that there isn't an organization that maintains galactic order, but said organization is not here, active in everyday life.  Most of the aliens are nice enough, and just want to be left alone - man are here for a better life than where they originated - but there are some who have become a criminal element, and some of them play a part in this story.

The main character, Anderson Gunn, finds his debt spiraling out of control and  he does what he must to try an dig himself out and make his situation better.  As he goes along, he learns more an more about what's really going on in the world, and who this alien is that he's been unknowingly tracking down.

There are some interesting twists and turns.  Unlike Men in Black, the aliens in this story have more than weapons.  Some of them have various mental abilities, or physical abilities that would make them seem like they belong on Professor Xavier's team of X-Men.

While there are many concepts that are borrowed from other sources, for the most part the author places a new skin on it.  The protagonist finds himself in a situation that he doesn't like, and will only involve himself far enough to help his situation - nothing crazy, like actually getting on the payroll of an organization that could loosely be referred to as a galactic police force.  That being said, there are echos of DC's Green Lantern Core here, and perhaps a "buddy system" reminiscent of R.I.P.D. and the TV show Heroes from 2006.

While Culture Shock doesn't break a large amount of new ground, this is a series introduction to take note of, and I'm interested in what the future volumes may bring (from what I can see, volumes 2 and 3 are more highly rated than the first one).  I'm a huge fan of The Dresden Files, which in my opinion, started off in a similar way.  The original story, while not one of the greatest first novels I've read, did lead to a series continued to improve and get more exciting and interesting as the volumes kept coming.  Essentially, the first volume introduced the main character, and some of his problems, while on a fairly short case.  I don't want to give away much of the new ground that is broken, as it takes away from the enjoyment of the story.  Although, I will hint that one of my favorite moments involves pizza

At the current price on Amazon, Culture Shock is definitely worth a look, and it's an easy, quick read, so check it out.

As always, I like to hear from my readers.  If you've read this book/series, I'm interested in what you thought about it.

My Favorite Aliens

I'm a big fan of science fiction - movies, TV shows, novels - and I've been a fan for a very long time.  I was watching Battlestar Galactica when it first aired in 1978, and I was a fan of Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor on Doctor Who several years before that (thanks to PBS).  I saw the original Star Wars at the theater when it was released in 1977, followed a few years later by Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and then many more after that.  Some of my favorite TV shows were Alien Nation (the movie was awesome too) and Babylon 5 (lots of aliens there).  There have been too many aliens to count over the years, and this post is about some of my favorites, and why I like them.  Here we go!

Davros - Doctor Who

We'll start off with a villain from one of my favorite TV series of all time - I've been watching it most of my life.  Davros is the evil genius who is responsible for creating the Daleks.  The Daleks have been around on Doctor Who since the very beginning, in the second story to air in Season One, way back in 1963.  They appeared in stories for the first, second, and third incarnations of The Doctor, but Davros did not make an appearance until Season 12, in the story Genesis of the Daleks - as it turns out, the fourth story for the fourth incarnation of The Doctor, Tom Baker (my favorite of all the actors to play the role).  While he is certainly a genius, he is also a twisted, megalomaniac, prone to wild, ranting outbursts, and willing to go to great lengths to achieve his goals - including the destruction of his own race, the Kaleds (note that Dalek is an anagram of Kaled).  To reveal the depths of his desire for power, The Doctor asked him that if he created a contagious and infectious disease that killed on contact, which would destroy all other forms of life, would he allow its use?  After imagining himself, holding a tiny glass capsule that held such power, that his act of crushing it would end everything in the universe, he realizes he would do it, as the power would make him more powerful than the gods. Ultimately, he sees himself achieving that power through his Daleks, as they exterminate all other forms of life, and become the dominant life form in the universe.  You wouldn't want to be in the same room with this guy!  Davros continues to appear in different times throughout the history of Doctor Who, right up to the Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, in 2017.

Kosh Naranek - The Vorlon Ambassador on Babylon 5

The  Vorlons are among the most cryptic aliens I've come across.  The Heechee from Frederik Pohl's Heechee Saga, are deemed somewhat mysterious, they they take second place when compared to the Vorlons.  Kosh is the one we get to know the best (if you can really call it that) throughout the series.  They are a mysterious race - not only to viewers, but also to the other races on the show.  They have been around for millions of years, and speak in vague riddles most of the time.  Some of their statements eventually come to make some sort of sense at some point in the series, and others...not so much.  Well, nobody said that an alien mind needed to work the same way as ours.  Kosh has some great quotes throughout the series and, IMO, we gradually learn some of the reasons why they appear so cryptic.  One of the greatest things about Kosh is that he is not what he appears to be, in more ways than one.  Overall, my favorite alien.

The Vorlons also have really cool ships, which are made with organic technology.  Each ship is mentally/psychically paired with an individual Vorlon.  Yes - the ships are alive.  Very neat concept, and while Babylon 5 was one of the first series to use it extensively, the idea isn't new to science fiction.  A few past examples of organic/living technology include:

• The novel Sentenced to Prism, by Alan Dean Foster
• The Night's Dawn Trilogy, by Peter Hamilton
• Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Tin Man"

I'm sure there are many other examples that I'm either forgetting or have not yet encountered.

The Shadows - from Babylon 5

The Shadows are the mysterious bad boys on Babylon 5.  They mostly, well, hide in the shadows...metaphorically.  They mostly work behind the scenes through intermediaries.  It is a rare occurrence to see one on the show, and it is a major event when this happens.  The shadows are even older than the Vorlons, and have equivalent, or even superior technology in some ways.

The Shadows also have very cool organic spaceships, which work a bit differently from the Vorlon ships in how they are piloted.  They also have some superior abilities.  I won't reveal details - you should watch the show and see for yourself.  Ultimately, there isn't much to write about the Shadows - even after several seasons of the show, we still know very little of them.

The Xenomorph, from the Alien franchise

Since the film Alien came out in 1979, you might say that the Xenomorph is the original bad boy of modern science fiction.  As the film unfolds, we encounter it in three forms:  the facehugger, the chestburster, and the adult form.  All three forms are horrifying.  Ash, the Science Officer of the Nostromo, states his opinion of this creature in very cold words:  "A perfect organism.  It's perfection is matched only by its hostility."  These words are backed up byXenomorph behavior in the 1986 sequel, Aliens.  This alien was a truly original concept.

A few interesting notes on this alien.  The idea for the chestburster was a shocking idea - nothing like it had been done in film before.  Where this idea came from is a matter of some debate.  First, the novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle, by A.E. Van Vogt, has been suggested by critics to be a source for the idea.  In fact, two chapters of the book are attributed as source material for the movie Alien.  The chapter called "Black Destroyer", involves an alien creature which gets aboard the ship and hunts the crew members.  Another chapter, called "Discord in Scarlet", is attributed to the chestburster.  A creature called an Ixtl, which lays its eggs inside crew members; when the eggs hatch, the young eat their way out of the host.  It appears that while there are similarities here, it may be mere speculation.  According to other sources, the screenwriter came up with the chestburster from his own experience with Crohn's disease.  These days, who knows where the truth lies.

As it turns out, there is at least one on Earth that has a similar reproductive cycle.  The ichneumon wasp, which was the inspiration for the Wirrn in the 1975 Doctor Who story The Ark In Space, has a similar parasitic life cycle.  You can't make this up - it is terrifyingly real.  Kind of reminds me of a Sherlock Holmes quote:  "Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent".

Calvin, the life form from the film Life

The life form which is discovered by the crew of the International Space Station is quickly named "Calvin" by schoolchildren, which unknown to them is an appropriate name.  Just like Calvin from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, he is a handful - literally a TON of trouble.  Calvin gives the Xenomorph from Alien a run for its money - especially in the horror department.  Calvin starts off as a single cell, which quickly becomes a multi-celled organism, and continues to grow at an alarming rate.  This is very similar to the plot of Alien, but unlike the Xenomorph, Calvin does more than put in a handful of appearances - he is ever present, and the horror of its nature grows as the story progresses.  The tension in the plot reminds me of the growing feeling of uneasiness in John Carpenter's The Thing, where a scientific team in Antarctica slowly realizes that they can no longer instinctively trust any other member of the group.  You feel the same feeling of desperation with the ISS crew, and the dread they feel wondering what might happen if Calvin ever makes it to Earth.  Easily one of the most terrifying aliens I've seen in the last few years.

Arachnid, from the film version of Starship Troopers

 
I've never read Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, but I was really excited about the movie when it came out.  Unlike many purist fans of the novel, I enjoyed the film immensely.  The Arachnid soldiers were nasty, capable of dismembering a human in a matter of seconds.  Facing one is bad enough, but facing hordes of them is a completely different level of insanity.  The fact that they are more than 75% combat effective after losing a limb is a dire statistic.  I would not want to encounter a swarm of these things.  In the film, they were capable of dismembering soldiers in a matter of seconds.

The Thing, from John Carpenter's The Thing

Barlowe

"So, how do we know who's human?  If I was an imitation, a perfect imitation, how would you know if it was really me?" This is the question asked by Childs, one of the twelve members of an Antarctic research team which encounters a form-changing alien that can perfectly imitate any living organism.  This is an alien which can imitate your best friend perfectly, and you would have no idea.  When this movie came out, there was no way my parents would let me see it, so my first experience was the novelization by Alan Dean Foster, and it was excellent.  In fact, I think it portrayed the tension and desperation better than the movie at times.  Several years later, I came across the original short story by John W. Campbell Jr.  The depiction to the left is by Wayne Douglas Barlowe, from his book Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.  It is based on the description in the story.  The appearance of the Thing in Carpenter's film is far more disgusting and frightening.  Even when the men realize that the alien is very likely standing among them, it's motive is unclear.  It wants to stay hidden.  Is it out of fear?  Does it want to take over the Earth?  Does it simply want to escape?  We learn almost nothing about the ship it arrived in, which stayed buried in the permafrost for at least 10,000 years.  Did its race build the craft?  Was it a prisoner on the ship?  All these unknowns add up to a chilling encounter that keeps you guessing who is the Thing until the very end.  What is really chilling about this alien is that it was imagined way back in 1938.  I have also included a picture of the original hardcover of the story.  In 2011 a prequel film was made, which was also called The Thing.  This was a prequel to the Carpenter film, and deals with the Norwegians from the beginning of the 1982 film - the original discoverers of The Thing.  In this film, we actually get to see inside the ship, but we don't learn much else - the alien pretty much remains an enigma.  Author Peter Watts wrote a short story called The Things, which tells the story of the 1982 film from the perspective of the alien. This is a very interesting story, and the thoughts and motivations of the alien are surprising, as are its history and perspective on the universe.  Worth your attention - if you can find it.  I also recently learned that there is a novel-length version of the original story, which is called Frozen Hell.  This is definitely one I'll be checking out.

There are many other aliens that I like, but this is still my main list of favorites.

What are your favorite aliens?

Book Review: The Dark Lord Bert, by Chris Fox

The title of this book caught my interest immediately.  After reading the first sentence of the book description, "How does a 1-hit-point goblin become the Dark Lord", I was intrigued further.  I didn't even bother reading the rest of the description (well, I eventually did AFTER I started the book).  After seeing this sentence, I thought that this story would be similar to Goblin Quest (great book BTW - you can find my review here).  It is, kind of.  Within the first two chapters I was having a great time.  The names of the characters, and some of their deities, are funny.  I can mention them here, as they already appear in the book description:  Crotchshot (name comes from his cursed weapon), Brakestuff, and the deity Knowsbest.  After reading chapter two, I felt this story is likely going to have a lot in common with The Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg (reference here).  Of course, if this were the case, this had me wondering:  what would this make Bert?  After all, part of the story is told from his perspective.  Verrrryyy interesting.  I thought Bert's identity might be alluded to in the next few chapters, but even by the end of the story there are no additional clues.  Perhaps he's just an NPC?

What does a 1-hit-point goblin look like?  Well, at one point he considers a chicken to almost, but not quite, large enough to be his mount.  Much smaller than I was expecting.  I'm used to goblins being much larger, thanks to the Rankin & Bass production of The Hobbit back in 1977 - the goblins are much larger than dwarves and hobbits!  While I did play Dungeons and Dragons as a teenager, I don't think I paid much attention to how big most monsters were, so perhaps this size is accurate?

This is an interesting world, and the concept is definitely a mixture of other ideas - it's not similar to any one thing that I've read before.  There are elements of Guardians of the Flame, just not as much as I thought.  The main elements that are in common are role-playing, alighnment fulfillment, and party interactions.  Also, it certainly feels like there are elements of Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline - there are certainly references to Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek and Star Wars, in addition to references to other fantasy works - Lord of the Rings most prominently.  There may also be elements of Neal Stephenson's REAMDE (not sure; I haven't read that one, but I have a vague idea what it is about).  Commonalities with these last three are interesting, as these are all science fiction novels.

Anyway, this was a fun, easy read, and you really find yourself rooting for Bert.  I'm definitely interested in hearing more about how this world works, as there is definitely an immersive role playing element to this story which is only hinted at.  Things seem setup for a sequel - one of the characters even mentions that this is likely.

If you like Dungeons and Dragons, you'll probably enjoy this one.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from my readers.  Have you read this book?  Are there similar works that you enjoy?  Please leave a comment!

Book Review: We are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

I saw this book on amazon quite a while ago (many months at least), and it caught my interest, but I was hesitant to check it out.  I recently noticed that it had over 2,500 ratings, and the combined rating was 4.6 out of 5 stars.  So I decided to check it out - if it was good, it is the first book of a trilogy.

The basic story is about AI - sort of.  Really, a human mind uploaded into a computer to be an AI.  This isn't the first story of this kind that I've read.  A few other stories that include a similar concept of uploading a human mind into a computer include Heechee Rendezvous, by Frederik Pohl, and Mindscan, by Robert J. Sawyer.  There are many others that deal with interfaces between a machine and a human mind, but I personally haven't read very many about specifically uploading a mind into a computer - but I'm sure there are probably many others that I'm not aware of.  And, for the most part, in the story told by We Are Legion, the main character, Bob, isn't really an AI - the only artificial element is that he exists in a machine.  For the most part, his personality and memories are intact - he just doesn't have a body.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

This story is about Bob Johansson.  Bob has come into some money, so signs up for a service (with some of his newfound wealth) which will freeze his head upon death, and then be uploaded into a computer simulation when the technology exists, so he can live on.  Naturally, the story immediately takes a bad turn and Bob is killed by a car.

He wakes, for lack of a better word - perhaps, he was turned on, would be better - to find that it is over 100 years later and he has indeed been uploaded into a computer.  He can't see, he has no appendages, in fact, he can't talk initially - he must learn how to again (of course, as a machine, it takes considerably less time).  The world has changed drastically - and not for the better.  He also learns that the extended life he paid for before he died has been voided - he is now corporate property, and a slave.

During his training, Bob learns that he is being groomed for something big, but they won't tell him what.  While he excels at his training, doing better than other candidates which were evaluated before him, he quickly learns that being an intelligence uploaded into a machine isn't all it's cracked up to be - there are potential viability problems, that I won't go into (aye, you'll need to read the book).  He eventually learns that he will be the AI portion of a Von Neumann probe (a self-replicating machine to be used for exploring the universe).  This sounds very exciting to Bob - if he makes it through the training.  The first part of the book focuses on this training, and before he knows it he is ready to launch into space.  He leaves at a time when all is not well on Earth, and global conflict is imminent.

The second part of the story deals with his tasks once he reaches his destination - an 11 year journey away at close to light speed.  Naturally, over the course of his journeys, he makes copies of himself - which has interesting and sometimes funny results.  Eventually, Bob has a "todo" list, which gets quite long with items that there is no real time to handle.  Sounds just like real life, huh?

As Bob and his copies roam the galaxy, they quickly learn that the universe is not a very hospitable place.  Furthermore, it is dangerous out there.  It turns out he's not the only probe that was successfully launched from Earth.

This was a great story, lots of fun, and very original.  Overall, Bob is a very interesting...group of characters, and they come up with interesting solutions for some of the problems they encounter.  Oddly enough, even AI's can be plagued by Murphy's Law.  I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

Have you read this series?  What did you think of it?  I'd be happy to hear from you - please leave a comment.