Ebooks de Tim Powers en oferta

En estos momentos se pueden adquirir en Amazon España varios ebooks de Tim Powers a precio reducido (cuidado, porque de algunos hay varias ediciones y no todas están rebajadas). 

Los libros son los siguientes:

• Declare (2,74€)
• The Stress of Her Regard (2,99€)
• On Stranger Tides (2,74€)
• Hide Me Among the Graves (2,99€)
• Three Days to Never (2,99€)

Novedad y oferta: Crashing Heaven, de Al Robertson

La editorial Gollancz pone mañana a la venta Crashing Heaven, la novela de debut de Al Robertson. Además, durante unos días se podrá adquirir el libro en formato electrónico al precio promocional de 2,49€ (Kobo, Amazon ES). 

Ésta es la sinopsis de la novela:

A diamond-hard, visionary new SF thriller. Nailed-down cyberpunk ala William Gibson for the 21st century meets the vivid dark futures of Al Reynolds in this extraordinary debut novel.

With Earth abandoned, humanity resides on Station, an industrialised asteroid run by the sentient corporations of the Pantheon. Under their leadership a war has been raging against the Totality - ex-Pantheon AIs gone rogue.

With the war over, Jack Forster and his sidekick Hugo Fist, a virtual ventriloquist's dummy tied to Jack's mind and created to destroy the Totality, have returned home.

Labelled a traitor for surrendering to the Totality, all Jack wants is to clear his name but when he discovers two old friends have died under suspicious circumstances he also wants answers. Soon he and Fist are embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens not only their future but all of humanity's. But with Fist's software licence about to expire, taking Jack's life with it, can they bring down the real traitors before their time runs out?

Novedad: The Life of the Mind, de John Scalzi

Ya está a la venta The Life of the Mind, primera de las cuatro partes de the End of All Things, la nueva novela de John Scalzi situada en el universo de Old Man's War. Las cuatro entregas se irán publicando en versión electrónica en los próximos meses para después reunirlas en un solo tomo. 

Ésta es la sinopsis del libro:

A down-on-his-luck Colonial Union starship pilot finds himself pressed into serving a harsh master-in a mission against the CU. But his kidnappers may have underestimated his knowledge of the ship that they have, quite literally, bound him to piloting. 

Part One of the four parts of The End of All Things, John Scalzi's conclusion to the Old Man's War tale that began with The Human Division.

Children of Time, de Adrian Tchaikovsky

Banda sonora de reseña: Sugiero leer esta reseña escuchando Children of the Earth, de Praying Mantis (Spotify, YouTube).

Adrian Tchaikovsky es sobre todo conocido por Shadow of the Apts, su serie de 10 novelas de fantasía épica. Sin embargo, y aunque tengo un par de esos libros (uno de ellos incluso firmado por el autor) y quiero desde hace tiempo empezar a leerlos, mi experiencia previa con la obra del autor se reduce a un puñado de relatos y a la novela Spiderlight (que me gustó un montón). Ahora he leído también Children of Time y eso sólo ha hecho que tenga aun más ganas de ponerme con sus otras novelas.

Children of Time está compuesta por dos tramas paralelas, narradas en capítulos alternativos, que convergen en algunos puntos. De estas dos líneas, una se centra en la historia de una nave espacial en la que se encuentran los últimos supervivientes de la humanidad, que buscan un planeta en el que vivir después de la destrucción de la Tierra. La otra se sitúa en una planeta terraformado en el que un experimento fallido ha hecho que una especie de arañas evolucione de forma excepcionalmente rápida. Aunque la parte de los humanos es interesante y tiene algunos momentos brillantes, los capítulos de las arañas son simplemente excelentes y sólo por ellos vale la pena leer la novela.

En ellos, Tchaikovsky consigue tejer una historia con un claro sabor clásico. Mientras le leía, no pude evitar recordar algunas obras de Hal Clement o Robert Forward y, especialmente, El crisol del tiempo, de John Brunner. De hecho, este tipo de trama en el que una especie alienígena tiene que enfrentarse a una amenaza global y sólo puede superarla usando la ciencia se puede encontrar en novelas más modernas como Learning the World, de Ken MacLeod, A Darkling Sea, de James L. Cambias, o Incadescence y The Clockwork Rocket, de Greg Egan.

También hay otro punto en común con esta última obra de Egan, ya que Tchaikovsky usa muy inteligentemente la biología y la organización social de las arañas Portia para acercarse a importantes e interesantes problemas de género desde una perspectiva inesperada:

Several of her closer friends are holding court there at the centre of a worshipful knot of younger females and fluttering, dancing males. Their dances are courtship rituals that they constantly almost, but not quite, consummate. Other than menial labour, this is the place of a male in Portia’s society: adornment, decoration, simply to add value to the lives of females. The larger, more notable or more important a female is, the more males will dance attendance on her. Hence, having a crowd of uselessly elegant males around one is a status symbol. (...)

The act of courtship is consummated as a public ritual, where the hopeful males – in their moment of prominence – perform in front of a peer group, or even the whole city, before the female chooses her partner and accepts his package of sperm. She may then kill and eat him, which is thought to be a great honour for the victim, although even Portia suspects that the males do not quite see it that way.

It is a mark of how far her species has come, that this is the only openly acceptable time when killing a male is considered appropriate. It is, however, quite true that packs of females – especially younger ones, perhaps newly formed peer groups seeking to strengthen their bonds – will descend to the lower reaches of the city and engage in hunting males. The practice is covertly overlooked – girls will be girls, after all – but overtly frowned upon.

Es una delicia leer cómo las arañas van evolucionando social y científicamente. El ritmo casi perfecto, la inspirada especulación, las escenas de acción... todo está estupendamente medido y equilibrado y, de hecho, podría haber sido una historia independiente por sí misma. Me ha gustado especialmente el desarrollo de un tipo de computador biológico que no sólo es fascinante como idea, sino que también es muy relevante para la trama. Además, la técnica de usar patrones genéricos para los personajes arácnidos (Portia, Bianca, Fabian... este último con un nombre de lo más apropiados) no sólo me ha parecido muy original, sino muy adecuada en vista del tipo de memoria social que tienen las arañas. 

Comparados con la parte de las arañas, los capítulos en los que seguimos a los humanos palidecen un poco. En más de una ocasión tuve la impresión de que el autor necesitaba que las arañas se desarrollasen hasta un punto en el que pudieran interactuar con los humanos de cierto modo y, por tanto, hacía que los humanos fueran a un lado y a otro en misiones no demasiado interesantes. Es más, el personaje humano principal, Holsten Mason, me pareció poco atractivo, ya es que es alguien a quien le pasan cosas más que hacer él mismo que las cosas pasen. Afortunadamente, una vez que las tramas confluyen, todo se vuelve mucho más interesante. El final, además, es estupendo, atando todos los cabos sueltos a la vez que abre la posibilidad de una secuela que me gustaría muchísimo leer.

En definitiva, Children of Time es una muy buena novelas y recomiendo mucho su lectura. Tiene todos los elementos que me gustar encontrar en un libro de ciencia ficción: ideas interesantes, buen ritmo, algo de acción, aliens exóticos y bien desarrollados y un maravilloso uso de la ciencia. Lo he disfrutado un montón y espero con ganas sacar algo de tiempo para empezar a leer la saga de Shadows of the Apt. 

(You can also read this review in English/También puedes leer esta reseña en inglés)

Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

(Disclaimer: English is my second language, so I want to apologize in advance for there may be mistakes in the text below. If you find any, please let me know so that I can correct it. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.)

Review Soundtrack: I suggest reading this review while listening to Children of the Earth, by Praying Mantis (Spotify, YouTube).

Adrian Tchaikovsky is better known for his Shadow of the Apts series of 10 epic fantasy novels. However, and although I own a couple of those books (one of them even signed by the author) and I've been meaning to read them for some time now, my previous experience with the author's work only includes a handful of short stories and the short novel Spiderlight (which I really, really enjoyed). Now I've also read Children of Time and it has only made me want to read more of his novels. 

Children of Time consists of two main plot lines, told in alternating chapters, that sometimes converge at some points. Of these two threads, one focuses on the story of a spaceship in which we find the last remnants of humanity, looking for a planet to live on after the destruction of Earth. The other is set on a terraformed planet where an experiment went wrong, making a species of spiders evolve unnaturally fast. Although the part of the humans is interesting and has some brilliant moments, the chapters of the spiders are just excellent and worth reading the novel alone.   

In them, Tchaikovsky manages to weave a story that has a distinct classic flavor. While reading it, I couldn't help recalling works by Hal Clement or Robert Forward and, especially, The Crucible of Time by John Brunner. In fact, this plot in which an alien species has to face some kind of global threat and only can overcome it with the use of science can be found also in more modern novels such as Learning the World, by Ken MacLeod, A Darkling Sea, by James L. Cambias, or Incadescence and The Clockwork Rocket, by Greg Egan.

There is also another parallel with that latter Egan's novel, for Tchaikovsky very intelligently uses the social and biological organization of the Portia spiders to approach interesting and important gender issues from an unexpected perspective:

Several of her closer friends are holding court there at the centre of a worshipful knot of younger females and fluttering, dancing males. Their dances are courtship rituals that they constantly almost, but not quite, consummate. Other than menial labour, this is the place of a male in Portia’s society: adornment, decoration, simply to add value to the lives of females. The larger, more notable or more important a female is, the more males will dance attendance on her. Hence, having a crowd of uselessly elegant males around one is a status symbol. (...)

The act of courtship is consummated as a public ritual, where the hopeful males – in their moment of prominence – perform in front of a peer group, or even the whole city, before the female chooses her partner and accepts his package of sperm. She may then kill and eat him, which is thought to be a great honour for the victim, although even Portia suspects that the males do not quite see it that way.

It is a mark of how far her species has come, that this is the only openly acceptable time when killing a male is considered appropriate. It is, however, quite true that packs of females – especially younger ones, perhaps newly formed peer groups seeking to strengthen their bonds – will descend to the lower reaches of the city and engage in hunting males. The practice is covertly overlooked – girls will be girls, after all – but overtly frowned upon.

The social and scientific evolution of the spiders is a delight to read. The almost perfect pace, the thought-provoking speculation, the action scenes... all is perfectly measured and balanced and, in fact, could have been and stand-alone story on its own. I did especially like the development of a kind of biological computer that is not only interesting as a wonderful idea but very relevant to the story. Also, I found the technique of using generic templates for the spider characters (Portia, Bianca, Fabian... this last one with a really appropriate name) not only very original, but also a brilliant choice given the social memory that the spiders share.  

Compared to the spiders' part, the chapters in which we follow of the humans pale quite a bit. In more than one occasion, I had the impression that the author needed the spiders to develop to a point where they could interact with the humans in a certain way and thus made the humans go on some errands that were not that interesting. What is more, I found the main human character, Holsten Mason, a bit unappealing, being someone to whom things happen more than someone that makes things happen. Fortunately, once the two plots merge, everything becomes much more interesting and the ending is superb, tying all the loose threads but, at the same time, opening the possibility of a sequel that I'd very much like to read.

All in all, Children of Time is a very good novel and I highly recommend it. It has all the elements that I like when reading a science fiction book: interesting ideas, good pace, some action, intriguing and well-developed alien species and a wonderful use of science. I have enjoyed it a lot and I am looking forward to finding some time to start reading the Shadows of the Apt series. 

(You can also read this review in Spanish/También puedes leer esta reseña en español)

Novedad: Beneath London, de James P. Blaylock

Hoy se pone a la venta Beneath London, una nueva novela de James P. Blaylock. 

Ésta es su sinopsis:

When the sudden collapse of the Victoria Embankment uncovers a passage to an unknown realm beneath London, Langdon St. Ives sets out explore it, not knowing that a brilliant and wealthy psychopathic murderer is working to keep the underworld’s secrets hidden for reasons of his own. 

Assumed to be dead and buried deep beneath London, St. Ives lives secretly on the streets of the great city where he, Alice St. Ives, and their stalwart friends investigate a string of ghastly crimes: the gruesome death of a witch in a forest hovel, the kidnapping of a blind, psychic girl who can see into the human soul, and the grim horrors of a secret hospital where experiments in medical electricity and the development of human, vampiric fungi serve the strange, murderous ends of St. Ives’s greatest and most dangerous nemesis.

Ebook en oferta: Fundación, de Isaac Asimov

Durante el día de hoy se puede adquirir en varias tiendas online (Casa del Libro, Amazon España) el ebook Fundación, de Isaac Asimov, al precio promocional de 1,89€. 

Ésta es la sinopsis de la novela:

Mucho tiempo después de que la Tierra pasara al olvido, la galaxia se unificó alrededor de un Imperio pacífico gobernado desde la majestuosa ciudad de Trántor. El sistema funcionó y prosperó durante incontables generaciones. Todo el mundo creía que duraría eternamente... Todos menos Hari Seldon, la mente científica más poderosa de su tiempo. Sus investigaciones en el campo de la psicohistoria (las matemáticas aplicadas a las grandes aglomeraciones humanas) auguraban un desastre imposible de prevenir. El Imperio estaba condenado... 

Pero el Plan Seldon era una estrategia a largo plazo, destinada a minimizar las peores consecuencias del futuro que se avecinaba. Para ello se establecieron dos Fundaciones en ambos extremos de la galaxia. Esta es la historia de la primera.