melita's booklog - mostly

Reading has been going pretty slowly recently. I'm halfway through two books and started a third, but keep getting distracted. Right now I would like to know what's going on with Omnitopia East Wind. It was supposed to be published on 8/2, but now appears to be indefinitely delayed.

I thought I had already written up the Sime/Gen stories but I think I just thought so hard about how I would write the post, that it's taken on a pseudo-life in my brain!

Back in July Kate Nepveu reported that Smashwords was having a sale. Some of the books are the Sime/Gen series by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah (stories have been written by each author separately with some as collaborations). I enjoyed that series quite a bit so I picked up the whole set, including several works. One, To Kiss or To Kill, had been announced years ago but there was some publisher issues. The Sime/Gen series started in the seventies, and particularly the early books, feels like a product of the times. Humanity has split into two sub-races that are interdependent. Gens produce selyn while Simes require selyn to live. Simes have tentacles on their lower arms: handling tentacles that are always active, plus two selyn-absorbing ones [per arm]. It's also post-apocalyptic, with technology levels back to 19th or early 20th century in the books set early in the history.

It is a science fictional vampire story. General simes usually strip a gen of selyn, killing them in the process. They need one each month, and 'farm' gens. Children are neutral and randomly turn Sime or Gen when the hit puberty, leading to much angst and horror. I'm not sure the economics works, although the authors do include 'Zelerod's Doom' at one point where a sime mathematician proves that if something isn't done, simes will end up killing all gens and self-destruct. It is possible to have a sime and gen with matched usage/output where the gen doesn't die turning transfer.

A subset of simes are channels and have extra abilities. They can draw selyn from a gen without killing, store it, and then pass it on to other simes. Many books deal with the channels and and the change in sime society--stop killing and switch to receiving selyn from channels.

Most of the new stories take place during this wide upheaval of society. To Kiss or To Kill by Jean Lorrah focuses on Jonmair and Baird. Baird is a tavernkeeper's son, sime. Jonmair is the daughter of simes who becomes a gen. Baird ends up rescuing her and there's much gnashing of teeth as they try to work out their differences, and as Baird tries to disjunct (stop killing gens). Secondary characters are Tony (Tonyo) and Zhag. Tony turns out to be a Companion (gen with sensitivity to selyn fields) while Zhag is a channel, but discovered to late to become one fully. They're both musicians and feature in some of the other stories. While I liked them a lot, because they show up so much, I ended up feeling like the authors were a little too enamored of them.

Personal Recognizance by Jacqueline Lichtenberg takes place several hundred years after most of the other stories. I'd have to call it a young adult novel. It's set at a college that trains young channels (their learning ability is enormous in the first year or so after changeover) and provides advanced training for adults. The young people get involved in some 'pornography'--fiction dealing with the Kill is the new pornography and learning to crave the kill can disrupt a sime's ability to take selyn from a channel. It's okay. The training techniques were quite interesting, but generally I thought the kids were being stupid and dense. The 'lessons' felt a little too heavy-handed. It might have helped to bring out just how young the main characters are. They must be in early puberty, so younger than they come across as.

There is also a collection of three stories, "The Story Untold and other stories", that all focus on Tony and Zhag at different points in their relationship. Selyn transfer partners don't have to be lovers as Tony and Zhag aren't, but it's still a very close relationship and requires trust. They are also used as propaganda tools during the change when the Kill is outlawed. The three stories are fine.

If you like the Sime/Gen series, by all means, look these up. As a place to start, check out House of Zeor, First Channel, or Unto Zeor, Forever instead.

Andrew Wheeler mentioned Jason Shiga's Empire State, a graphic novel, last week. Shiga also did Meanwhile, an amazing accomplishment which I'd gotten earlier (also after hearing about it from Wheeler). The main character, who lives in Oakland, decides to visit his best friend who's moved to New York City. He's never been out of the state before and it's a joy to see how he reacts to arriving in NYC. It's a slice of life story, quite enjoyable.

A mention in the August issue of Locus pointed out that there was a Steven Saylor story in the July/August 2011 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine. I managed to find a copy at my local B&N. It's a Gordianus story, set before Gordianus became known as the Finder. Saylor has a long series of mysteries set in Roman before and as Julius Caesar came to power. The series is excellent. John Maddox Roberts has his SPQR series set at the same time, and a few of the books deal with the same real-life incident. I prefer Saylor's series. Saylor's series takes place over many years so we get to see Gordianus as a young man, adopting children, marrying his wife, having a daughter, and then stories with the grown-up children. It's all handled wonderfully. This story, "The Witch of Corinth", takes place when Gordianus is just 18. He's touring the seven wonders of the world with his old Greek tutor. While in Corinth, viewing the ruins, they come across a mystery involving witchcraft. I'm happy to see Gordianus again, but felt the story was slight. I tend to be eh on shorter fiction anyway and prefer novels.