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Title:
The Joy Makers Series: Standalone Author:
James Gunn Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre:
Fantasy Pages: 223 Words:
67K Publish: 1961
Back
in 2024 (waaaaaaay back then, a whole two years, whoooohoooooo), I
did a series of posts asking for book recommendations. In one such
post (Book
Recommendations III), Marzaat
recommended this book to me. The names “James Gunn” caught my
interest because that’s the director for several Super Hero movies
that I’ve enjoyed. Obviously this was a different Jame Gunn and one
that I hoped was superior to that pathetic excuse of a human that
trafficked in total mediocrity ;-)
If
you’ve paid attention, you’ll have already seen my rating and
deduced that it was not a smashing success for me.
Ever
since I finished I’ve been wondering how to write what I really
think without casting any aspersions on Marzaat for suggesting the
book to me :-) It has been a real struggle, because despite my
sometimes brash and gruff words, I care deeply what the people who
know me think of me. If Marzaat was just some rando on Devilreads,
I’d roast him without a thought. Which is why I don’t review
books for people I know.
This
was a philosophically oriented SF story. About hedonism. That’s the
first strike. It is the rise and fall and then steadying out of
Hedonism as a thoughtful philosophy to live your life by.
That
is so ridiculous that I won’t even go down the rampaging path.
Saying that Hedonism is a viable lifestyle for the human race is like
saying that Moloch worship is a viable way for Humanity to live.
So
I’m chalking this one up to Experience and moving on. I’m
definitely not going to read any more by Gunn and I’ll leave him to
those who enjoy his brand of ivorytower-SF.
★★☆☆☆
From
TheRuinedChapel.com
The
first section deals with a company called Hedonics, Inc., a business
which promises to make people happy, or give them their money back. A
hardboiled businessman thinks he sees through this obvious scam. But
after awhile, he starts to find that maybe it isn’t just a scam
after all.
In
part two, Hedonics has basically taken over the world, to the point
where there are professional “hedonists,” who are essentially
doctors assigned to make sure that their charges are in a state of
happiness. This section follows one such hedonist, whose name we
learn very late in the section, is Morgan. Morgan gradually uncovers…
let’s say… issues within the structure of the
government-sponsored philosophy of absolute happiness.
The
third section deals with a Venus-born man returning to Earth to warn
of what appears to be an impending alien attack. What he finds on
returning to Earth is that it has been nearly entirely taken over by
machines, whose prime directive is ensuring that humans are happy at
all times. And being machines, they followed this logic to its
inevitable conclusion.
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Title:
Small Gods Series: Discworld #13 Author:
Terry Pratchett Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre:
Fantasy Pages: 227 Words: 91K Publish:
1992
I
originally read this back in 2004 and for the most part, the
humanistic belief system was brand new to me and thus it came across
as “profound”. Twenty years later, with much more experience
under my belt, this was complete garbage.
The
basic idea, and Pratchett carries this through all his books, is that
Man is the center of the universe and everything springs from him. It
is a very “mushy” philosophy and thus is used by people like
Pratchett who don’t want to get down to the nuts and bolts of
theology. It allows for everyone to feel pretty good about themselves
while being totally self-contradicting and also completely illogical.
Pratchett’s
humor is still here in the story, but man, I could not overlook such
shoddy theology. It is just plain bad.
The
more I re-read of Discworld, the less inclined I am to ever re-read
it again. There are individual books that are standing out as very
well done, but overall, the underpinnings are slop and this makes the
books themselves slop. Like this one.
★★☆☆☆
From
Wikipedia.org
The
Great God Om tries to manifest himself once more in the world, as the
time of his Eighth Prophet is nigh. He finds himself in the body of a
tortoise, stripped of his divine powers except for the ability to
singe eyebrows with tiny thunderbolts. In the gardens of Omnia's
capital of Kom, he addresses the novice Brutha, the only one able to
hear his voice. Om has a hard time convincing the boy of his
godliness as Brutha is convinced that Om can do anything he wants and
would not want to appear as a tortoise.
Brutha
is gifted with an eidetic memory and is therefore chosen by
Vorbis, the head of the Quisition, to accompany him on a
diplomatic mission to Ephebe as his secretary. Despite his
amazing memory, Brutha is illiterate and rarely thinks for himself.
This begins to change after Brutha discovers Ephebe's philosophers;
the idea of people entertaining ideas they are not certain they
believe or even understand is an entirely new concept to him.
With
the help of Ephebe's Great Library and the
philosophers Didactylos and his nephew Urn, Om learns that
Brutha is his only genuine believer. All others either just fear the
Quisition's wrath or go along with the church out of habit. After
learning that Vorbis had facilitated the death of the missionary
Brother Murduck to cover up his being mocked by Ephebian citizenry
and to provide a reason for war against Ephebe, Brutha uses his
memory to reluctantly aid an Omnian raid through
the Labyrinth guarding the Tyrant's palace. Because of his
authorship of De Chelonian Mobile (The Turtle Moves), which
contradicts Omnian dogma about the shape of the Discworld, Didactylos
is brought before Vorbis to face reprisal. Seemingly conceding his
previous views about the shape of the world and willing to write a
retraction extolling Omnian interpretations, Didactylos escapes after
hitting Vorbis with his lantern. Ordered by Vorbis to burn down the
Library, Brutha memorizes many scrolls in order to protect Ephebian
knowledge as Didactylos sets fire to the building to stop Vorbis
reading its scrolls. Completely unrelated to the story, the Librarian
of the Unseen University travels through L-Space to rescue several of
the abandoned scrolls.
Fleeing
the ensuing struggle in Urn's steam-powered boat, which is destroyed
as the price for an earlier deal made between Om and the Sea Queen,
Brutha and Om end up washed up on the desert coast. Trekking home to
Omnia with a catatonic Vorbis, they encounter ruined temples
dedicated to long-dead, long-forgotten gods, the faint ghost-like
small gods yearning to be believed in to become powerful, the
small-god-worshipping anchorite St Ungulant, and the human
cost of Vorbis's plan of leaving caches of water in the
desert to attack Ephebe. Realising his 'mortality' and how
important his believers are to him, Om begins to care about them for
the first time.
While
Brutha, Vorbis, and Om are in the desert, the Tyrant of Ephebe
manages to regain control of the city and contacts other nations who
have been troubled by Omnia's imperialistic ambitions. Sergeant
Simony, whose native Istanzia had been conquered by Omnia in his
youth, brings Didactylos and Urn to Omnia to lead the Turtle Movement
in a rebellion against the Church.
On
the desert's edge, a recovered Vorbis attempts to finish off Om's
tortoise form, knocks out and abducts Brutha, and proclaims himself
as the Eighth Prophet, elevating Brutha to archbishop to buy his
silence. After Urn accidentally activates the hydraulic system
which secretly operates the doors of the Great Temple, Brutha
interrupts Vorbis's ordainment. As a result, Brutha is to be publicly
burned for heresy but Om comes to the rescue, dropping from an
eagle's claws onto Vorbis' head, killing him. The great crowd
witnesses this miracle and comes to believe in Om, making him
powerful again. In the ethereal desert, Vorbis learns to his horror
that what he thought was the voice of Om was in fact his own voice
echoing inside of his own head, plunging him into despair and leaving
him unable to cross the desert and face judgement.
Om
manifests himself over the citadel and attempts to grant Brutha the
honour of establishing the Church's new doctrines. However, Brutha
wishes to establish a 'constitutional religion' whereby Om Himself
obeys Omnianism's new commandments and answers some of the prayers of
his followers in exchange for a steady source of belief, believing
that Om will lose his power again otherwise.
Ephebe
has allied with several other nations along the Klatchian coast and
has sent an army against Omnia, establishing a beachhead near the
citadel. Brutha attempts to establish diplomatic contact with the
generals of the opposing army, wishing to stop the war before it
starts by surrendering. Despite trusting Brutha, the leaders state
they do not trust Omnia and that bloodshed is necessary. At the same
time, Simony leads the Omnian military including Urn's 'Iron
Turtle' war engine to the beachhead in order to fight the
anti-Omnian alliance.
Om
attempts to physically intervene in the battle, but Brutha demands he
does not interfere with the actions of humans. Om is infuriated but
obeys Brutha, and instead travels to Dunmanifestin, where gods gamble
on the lives of humans in order to gain or lose belief. Om unleashes
his fury on the other gods and causing a storm that disrupts the
battle. Eventually he compels all other gods of the forces at the
battle to tell their soldiers to stop fighting and make peace.
In
the aftermath Brutha becomes the Eighth Prophet, ending the
Quisition's practice of torture and reforming the church to be more
open-minded and humanist, with the citadel becoming home to the
largest non-magical library on the Discworld. Om also agrees to
forsake the smiting of Omnian citizens for at least a hundred years.
A hundred years to the day after Om's return to power Brutha dies. In
the afterlife he finds the spirit of Vorbis and, taking pity on him,
guides him to his judgement. It is revealed that this century of
peace was originally meant to be a century of war and bloodshed which
the History Monk Lu-Tze changed to something he liked
better.
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Title:
Rise of the Warrior Cop Series:
(Non-Fiction) Author: Radley Balko Rating:
1 of 5 Stars DNF@63% Genre: Non-Fiction Pages:
459 / 290 Words: 176K / 111K Publish:
2021
(updated)
When
the author apologized for his whiteness and his editor’s whiteness
in the “updated” introduction, I knew this was going to be a
rough read. When the author made it clear that he wanted to legalize
marijuana on a national scale and claimed that there were no harmful
side effects to using it, the ride got rougher. When the author used
personal attacks against one political party for doing something,
then softballed the other political party when they did the exact
same thing, it became Defcon 6. Finally, the ride went straight off a
1,000 foot waterfall when he claimed that ecstasy was harmless and
that doctors who “over-prescribed” opioids were victims of a
federal government witch hunt.
With
all of that, I simply cannot trust ANYTHING he writes about in the
book. You and I, as readers, don’t get to pick and choose what we
want from an author when he makes it obvious he isn’t telling the
truth. He’s either lying his little political ass off, or he isn’t.
Balko
made it plain that he is a druggee and lying sack of politically
filled bullshit. Which is just too bad because I was looking forward
to reading on this subject.
What
makes it even worse, personally, is that this is my THIRD dnf in the
last two weeks. I have got to start picking out my books better than
this. My monthly average rating is going to tank at this rate :-(
★☆☆☆☆
From
the Publisher
The
last days of colonialism taught America’s revolutionaries that
soldiers in the streets bring conflict and tyranny. As a result, our
country has generally worked to keep the military out of law
enforcement. But according to investigative reporter Radley Balko,
over the last several decades, America’s cops have increasingly
come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the
home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been
gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens
they serve as an other—an enemy.
Today’s armored-up
policemen are a far cry from the constables of early America. The
unrest of the 1960s brought about the invention of the SWAT
unit—which in turn led to the debut of military tactics in the
ranks of police officers. Nixon’s War on Drugs, Reagan’s War on
Poverty, Clinton’s COPS program, the post–9/11 security state
under Bush and Obama: by degrees, each of these innovations expanded
and empowered police forces, always at the expense of civil
liberties. And these are just four among a slew of reckless
programs.
In Rise of the Warrior Cop, Balko shows how
politicians’ ill-considered policies and relentless declarations of
war against vague enemies like crime, drugs, and terror have blurred
the distinction between cop and soldier. His fascinating, frightening
narrative shows how over a generation, a creeping battlefield
mentality has isolated and alienated American police officers and put
them on a collision course with the values of a free society.
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Title:
The Resolve of Immortal Flesh Series:
Collision #1 Author: Rich Colburn Rating:
2 of 5 Stars DNF@45% Genre: Thriller Pages:
543 / 242 Words: 212K / 95K Publish:
2016
I
really tried to give this book the benefit of the doubt, mainly
because it had been recommended to me in the Book
Recommendations V post. However, the guy who wrote this made that
impossible. He’s a bad writer with a terrible sense of pacing, an
ego that demands he blather on and on about his pet philosophy and
the lack of ability to write realistic characters that are more than
cardboard.
This
should have been a 300 page book, tops. But we spend an inordinate
amount of time following the main character as he grows up in a
broken home with insane parents. Things randomly happen with no
apparent connection. The main character is also an asshole. I’d
have gladly chopped his self-centered head off with my Tool
of the Trade.
This
is bad writing by a bad writer and I’m glad to see that he hasn’t
churned out any more trash after 2017 when he put out the sequel to
this book. Harsh, yes, but writers like this guy are polluting the
literary landscapes like microplastics are polluting our water
supply. They should be ashamed of putting out such sub-par garbage.
They aren’t skilled enough and they are also teaching a whole
generation of readers to accept writing that isn’t good. I’m
going to stop there before I start talking about their “special”
place in the afterlife :-(
★★☆☆☆
From
the writer
What
if the spirit world was rampant with technology sophisticated beyond
anything mankind
has imagined?
What if a sociopath got his
hands on a powerful piece of this technology?
What if you
couldn’t die no matter how much damage your body sustained?
Join
a reluctant hero on his quest to discover what the heck he should do
with his time now that he has unlimited power and the world as he
knew it collides with the “unseen” world. Will demon-possessed
biomechanical monsters kill everyone? Will there be enough coffee to
last through to the end of the world? Will that play into our hero’s
decision whether or not to bother saving it? These are questions
we’ve all wondered about. Explore these and other important
philosophical questions as you follow the adventure that was
contrived to do just that.
On
a more serous note:
The Collision series offers a technological
explanation for the supernatural. Human psychology, questions of life
and death, and the nature of the supernatural play a critical role in
the story of a man who becomes aware of the technology used by beings
existing in higher modes of reality. The story is filled with
humorous situations and comments, fantasy machines, and philosophical
discussion.
The target audience is young adult to adult. The
book does include some supernatural horror and some violence.
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Title: Conan and the Mists of Doom Series:
Conan the Barbarian #34 Author: Roland
Green Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars Genre:
Fantasy Pages: 184 Words:
71K Publish: 1995
This was one of the worst Conan stories
I’ve read so far, and I’ve read some real stinkers. It was an
accumulated weight of misery that built up over time and I just
couldn’t take it any more. When I finished this book, I swore off
of these pastiches. Not necessarily for good, but at least until I go
and read ALL the original Conan stuff by Howard.
This was a garbage story and the
writing was that of a hack. It felt very much like Green had written
his own “adventure” story and when it wouldn’t sell (because it
was so boring and dumb and stupid), repurposed it into a Conan story.
This wasn’t just “not good”, but it was “bad”. I shouldn’t
feel like I’m reading some highschooler’s “story” when I’m
reading a Conan novel. I need the skill and talent in the writing
that makes me feel that sizzle, that zing as the sword chops through
the monster. Just describing the action isn’t writing the action
and I’m afraid this writer doesn’t have the skill to do that.
Blehhhhhh...
★✬☆☆☆
From Wikipedia
The story is
set in the Kezankian Mountains and the borderlands of Turan. After
Conan's time spent with the Afghulis begins to sour, he leads a band
of tribesmen away from the Afghuli mountains and towards Koth. During
their journey, the tribesmen are intercepted by a force of Turanian
cavalry, led by Khezal, an old acquaintance of Conan's.[2] Khezal
offers Conan and his warriors freedom if they help combat the Mist of
Doom, a life-draining force that is attacking Khezal's territory near
the mountains. Unbeknownst to ether Conan or Khezal, the Mist is
controlled by the Lady of the Mists, who is gathering captives to
feed to the Mist, in hopes of controlling it.
The Afghulis and Turanians meet up with
a third group of desert nomads, the Ekinari, led by Bethina, an
attractive young warrior woman. The three groups combine forces in an
effort to defeat the Mist before it grows out of control. In the
climactic battle, the Lady of the Mist is killed, but not before she
can summon an elemental. The two magical forces collide, destroying
the valley and each other. Conan's chief advisor, Farad, and Bethina
stay in the valley to repopulate it while Conan rides on into Koth.
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Title:
Lavondyss / DNF Series: Mythago Wood
#2 Author: Robert Holdstock Rating: 2
of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages:
200/325 Words: 84K/137K Publish: 1988
I
wasn’t particularly enjoying this read but wasn’t really hating
it either, so I guess I was coasting along, being lazy.
Then
one of the characters says to another something along the lines of
“Now you’re just talking nonsense” and it suddenly hit me, this
entire book is nonsense and the WHOLE idea by Holdstock is nonsense
and so I just stopped reading without further ado.
I
was wasting my time on utter nonsense and when I realized that, I
stopped. Not as good as not starting the nonsense in the first place,
but much better than continuing it to the end and allowing it to
infest my mind, even if negatively. I’m also giving this book the
“garbage” tag because it’s not fun nonsense :-(
The
cover is awesome however. I would have picked this book up based on
it alone. It’s a real shame such garbage is hiding inside.
★★☆☆☆
From
Wikipedia
During
her formative years, Tallis encounters the British composer Ralph
Vaughan Williams (not a mythago, but real flesh and blood).
Tallis sings him a song that she thinks she has made up herself, but
the composer identifies its tune as that of a folk
song he has collected personally in Norfolk.
Slowly Tallis's links with the wood intensify. She makes
ten chthonic wooden
masks, each of which represents one of the ten first legends in
Ryhope wood. Within the context of the story, these masks
are talismans that
help to engage certain parts of her subconscious and so link her with
the characters and landscapes which are forming within the wood. When
properly used (especially later in the book), these masks allow
Tallis to see things that cannot be seen without them, and they can
also be used to create 'Hollowings' — pathways in space and time
which allow her to step into far-off places within the wood which
would otherwise take days, weeks, or even months to travel to on
foot. Tallis makes the masks in the following order:
The
Hollower — made from elm, this female mask is painted red and
white.
Gaberlungi
— made from oak and painted white, this mask is known as "memory
of the land".
Skogen
— made from hazel and painted green, this mask is known as "shadow
of the forest".
Lament
— made from willow bark, this simple mask is painted gray.
Falkenna
— the first of three journey masks is painted like a hawk; this
mask is known as "the flight of a bird into an unknown region".
Silvering
— the second of three journey masks is painted in colored circles;
this mask is known as "the movement of a salmon into the rivers
of an unknown region". The Silvering is also the name
of a short story included in Merlin's
Wood.
Cunhaval
— the third of three journey masks is made from elder wood; this
mask is known as "the running of a hunting dog through the
forest tracks of an unknown region".
Moondream
— made from beechwood, this mask is painted with moon symbols on
its face. This mask plays a prominent role in The
Hollowing.
Sinisalo
— made from wych elm and painted white and azure, this mask is
known as "seeing the child in the land".
Morndun
— this mask appears dead from the front, but alive from behind and
is known as "the first journey of a ghost into an unknown
region".
Before
setting foot in the wood, Tallis has one particular encounter that
has major repercussions through the rest of the story: with the
'help' of one of the mythagos, she 'hollows' (creates a Hollowing)
and observes Scathach, a young warrior, dying on a battlefield
beneath a tree. Tallis' misdirected magic used to help this young
warrior changes both her story and Harry Keeton's story in Ryhope
wood.
Deep
within Ryhope wood Tallis eventually meets up with Edward Wynne-Jones
(human, not mythago) who was only mentioned in Mythago Wood. He
is now living in the wood as a shaman to
a small village of ancient people. Through his understanding of the
wood (which he studied with the scientist George Huxley from the
first book), Tallis herself gains an understanding of her connections
with all that surrounds her; most importantly, she asks him how she
might find her lost brother Harry Keeton
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Title:
The Infinity Gate Series: Pandominion
#1 Author: Mike Carey Rating: 1 of 5
Stars Genre: SF Pages: 523 Words:
163K Publish: 2023
I
was intrigued by the writing and the storytelling. I stayed up late
one night, when I couldn’t really afford it.
Technically,
this is a duology. The reality is that it was one long book that he
just randomly cut in two and called it a duology. This just ended,
abruptly. No resolution, no closure, nothing. I was so pissed off
that I was on the edge of just abandoning the next book and sending
Carey to hell. Yes, you heard that right. I have that power. I have
chosen to be merciful and let him live though.
I
will also be reading the next book, hopefully enjoy it, mark it 1star
and also label Carey as an author to avoid. Authors who don’t know
how to actually write individual books within a series, even a
duology, are trash in my eyes.
★☆☆☆☆
From
the Publisher
Infinity
is only the beginning.
The Pandominion: a political and trading
alliance of a million worlds - except that they're really just the
one world, Earth, in many different realities. And when an AI threat
arises that could destroy everything the Pandominion has built,
they'll eradicate it by whatever means necessary, no matter the cost
to human life.
Scientist Hadiz Tambuwal is looking for a
solution to her own Earth's environmental collapse when she stumbles
across the secret of inter-dimensional travel. It could save everyone
on her dying planet, but now she's walked into the middle of a war on
a scale she never dreamed of.
And she needs to choose a side
before it kills her.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Neuromancer Series: The Sprawl #1 Author: William Gibson Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Cyberpunk Pages: 251 Words: 84K
Because this might be seen by more than the usual suspects, I spoil my reviews. So read at your own risk. But if you’re reading Neuromancer, you deserve whatever you get. No sympathy from me. This is a rage fueled hate re-read of this book and I plan on venting my spleen at John Wick levels, and I have pencils. You have been warned.
PART I Chapter 1 – In which Bookstooge meets some Main Characters, and Hates them.
Having read this once before, back in 2011 (2011 Neuromancer Review) I was passably familiar with what I was getting into. My review back then left a lot to be desired, even by me, someone who is usually pithy and pointed and rather economical with my words. However, it bloody well sums up this whole first chapter to a flipping Tee. Maybe my pithy pointedness was more spot on than I realized.
We are introduced to Case, a drug addicted hacker who stole data from the wrong people (those employing him, dumbass!) and they burnt out his nervous system so he could never jack into the system (here called The Matrix. Hmmmmm, sound familiar?) again. Case is 24 and on such a downward trajectory that he’ll commit suicide by risky job within a month.
Everyone who Case knows, or comes into contact with, is as much a junkie and a loser as himself. We are talking scum of the Earth here. Case’s dealer is trying to steal from him, his ex-girlfriend lies to him to steal 3megabytes of RAM (oh, did I laugh out loud at THAT!!!). Case is so strung out that he can’t function without drugs.
Speaking of drugs, Gibson for sure was a damned junkie himself at some point. His use of terminology and slang is way too prolific to have been learned using a dictionary and thesaurus. I HATE drugs. They destroy the very essence of a person and leave them a shambling wreck that only causes pain and ruin to those around them. As far as I’m concerned, drugs are the physical embodiment of spiritual evil. And our main character Case has deliberately placed himself within that web of evil.
Rage fueled hate read? Oh, game on!
Chapter 2 – In Which Bookstooge meets some other characters
At chapter’s beginning we meet Case’s new employer, an Ex-Special Forces military guy and his crazy teched out assassin girl. Who has Wolverine style fingernails. Case gets his matrix jockey ability back, has sex with the tech assassin, watches his ex-girlfriend get whacked by a former employer and is disappointed that his new mods make drugs of no use to him any more.
Wow, what a bunch of scumbags killing each other. I wasn’t sad about that at all. Case proves what a man whore he is and between that and his former drug use, if he dies I’ll be happy. When you hate the main character from the get-go, and that hatred only grows in the second chapter, it just doesn’t bode well for the book as a whole.
Gibson really throws around a lot of tech terms in this chapter. I don’t know enough to tell if he was using some real terminology or if it was just mystical mumbo jumbo garbage. I think it was all complete bullshit, but then I’m not exactly unbiased about Gibson.
PART II
Chapter 3 – In Which Bookstooge reads a metric ton of technobabble and rolls his eyes a lot
I seriously thought of giving up in this chapter. Chase gets his online mojo back, has a lot of sex with Molly the ninja/assassin/thingy and finds out that he is biologically boobytrapped to help him stay loyal to his employer. Then Gibson throws around even MORE technobabble, to the point where it didn’t make any sense to me and my mind just skipped over it. And I didn’t feel like it made one iota of difference to the story.
Chapter 4 – In Which terrorists help our protagonist to steal something from a library
Booo! Stealing from a library, booo!!!!!! I don’t care if it’s some super duper secret locked down online only library, it’s just plain despicable to steal from one. Even if it’s a digital version of Case’s old mentor who taught him every cowboy trick he knew (apparently Gibson didn’t foresee that Brokeback Mountain would be a thing in the future and that we could make endless jokes about cowboys). While the graphic sex scene happened earlier in the book, there’s still pornographic levels of description included. Bad people, worse people, and then people I don’t know how to describe other than plain and simple evil, doing bad things, doing worse thing and doing evil things.
Chapter 5 – In Which Bookstooge learns that AI are really pulling the strings and Case meets the digital version of his old boss
I have such issues with how AI are used in stories and in popular culture. Digital selves as well. It all springs from the idea that our minds are self-existing containers and as long as you scoop all the info-goop, you can dump that goop somewhere else and still have that mind. I call it the harddrive fallacy. We are more than just containers for data. There is a reason every human is unique. Genes, dna, bits of broken biology, etc. It all comes together to make the person. We are our minds, our bodies and our wills/emotions/spirits. Take away one and it changes everything. Plus, the idea that sentience can come out of non-sentience is so bullshit that how any intelligent person can give it credence in real life is ridiculous. Most of the time I don’t mind, because it’s just a plot line like “aliens” or superheroes. We all know the X-Men aren’t real nor can they be. But imagine if people actually thought they could be and started irradiating themselves. And a whole culture lived that way. It would be madness. And our culture is descending into madness and the promise of “AI” is just one step down along that path.
Chapter 6 & 7– In Which Bookstooge just gives up.
I’m reading the rest of the book, but it’s not worth any more commentary than these blasted 1000 words I’ve already given it. Pure trash. Drivel. Garbage. Filth.
There, that’s three pencils in Gibson’s eye! I hope it hurts, a lot.
PART III
Chapter 8 – In which Bookstooge keeps writing
because that’s what I do. I don’t do drugs, or whore around or kill people. I write. So if I have to suffer this wretched book, then I’m going to make sure you suffer as much as I possibly can make you with my words. In fact, you are simply:
USELESS
LOSER
SCUMBAG
UNLOVABLE
WASTE OF SPACE
INSIGNIFICANT
STUPID
GULLIBLE
FAT
UGLY
STINKY
DIRTY
There, did I manage to hurt your feelings at all? I hope so. Now you don’t have to read this book and hurt your brain.
Chapters 9-16 – In Which Bookstooge wishes he was dead
This book is only 250 pages and it feels like I have spent a veritable eternity here. It’s horrible, just horrible I tell you! This is the book that simply will not end. No matter how much time I spend reading this, it just keeps going! It’s like I’m stuck in some sort of horror themed Dr Who episode where terrible things are happening just offscreen but the terror is palpable.
I guess, let me put it this way. Last month I had a needle stuck in each of my eyes. I would rather do that again than continuing this. But I am so tough, so macho, so manly and totally a man’s man that I’m going to cry like a little baby and keep on reading!
~strikes macho pose
Don’t even think about questioning my utter hatred of this absolute piece of moldering, maggot infested tripe. I hate this enough to finish it.
Chapters 17-End – In Which Bookstooge proves that nothing is more implacable than him.
I finished this. I finished this disgusting piece of shit and I feel bad. I feel terrible. I feel terrible that I wasted my time. I feel terrible that a person can exist whose mind is even capable of writing utter drivel and dreck like this. There is NO justification for this novel or it’s influence on Cyberpunk. But it explains why I’ve always hated cyberpunk. I probably blocked out the details of my previous read but my subconscious kept the truth just out of focus, but still there.
This is the exact scenario I imagine when I don’t listen to my gut and a read goes disastrously wrong. I knew I was going to hate this, based on my original read from years ago, but I had no idea it would be this bad. I know I haven’t given you analytical details. But when your eyeballs have been gouged out and your entrails are sliding out of your sliced up stomach, will you really tell someone “Oh boy, this really hurts. Gibson just scooped my eyeballs out, cut my abdomen open and is in the process of ripping my guts out.” No, you’d be screaming and clawing and too busy dying horribly. That is my experience with this book. Melodramatic? Absolutely! Is this is horrible book? Even MORE absolutely.
I have serious regrets about re-reading this book. It sucked all the joy out of reading for me for weeks on end. It has burned out my desire to write reviews and I don’t know when I’ll recover. But as I view the wreckage that is my literary self, I can cross my arms in satisfaction, KNOWING that I was tougher than this book. I beat it. I finished it. AND I BLOODY WELL WROTE ABOUT EVERY EXCRUCIATING EXPERIENCE. I am scalped, I am gutted, I am sliced to pieces but I stand here, screaming out into the internet, I STILL STAND!!!! I am tougher than this book. I am more determined than Gibson ever could be. I am victorious because I beat this book to a bloody pulp and it’s not getting up and walking away from this, while I am.
This was a crucible experience and now I am on the other side. Let the healing begin.
This post was brought to you by SciFiMonth2024 and hosted by various individuals. I’ll hold Bookforager responsible this time though 😉
✬☆☆☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City, Japan. Once a talented computer hacker and “console cowboy”, Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment, Case’s central nervous system was damaged, leaving him unable to access the virtual reality dataspace called the “matrix”. Case is approached by Molly Millions, an augmented “razorgirl” and mercenary on behalf of a shadowy US ex-military officer named Armitage, who offers to cure Case for his services as a hacker. Case agrees, and his nervous system is repaired, though sacs of poison are placed in his blood vessels. If Case completes the job, Armitage will have the sacs removed; if not, they will burst and cripple him again.
Armitage has Case and Molly steal a ROM module that contains the saved consciousness of one of Case’s mentors, legendary cyber-cowboy McCoy Pauley.
Case and Molly discover Armitage’s former identity as Colonel Willis Corto. Corto was a member of “Operation Screaming Fist,” meant to disrupt Soviet computer systems. As his team attacked a Soviet computer center, EMP weapons shut down their flight systems. He and a few survivors escaped over the Finnish border, but their helicopter was shot down, killing everyone except for Corto. After months in a hospital, Corto was visited by a US government official, who returned him to the United States to receive psychotherapy and reconstructive surgery. After providing what he came to realize was false testimony, misleading the public and protecting corrupt military officers, Corto snapped, killed the official who contacted him, and disappeared into the criminal underworld, becoming Armitage.
In Istanbul, the team recruits Peter Riviera, a sociopathic thief and drug addict. The trail leads Case to Wintermute, an artificial intelligence created by the Tessier-Ashpool family. The Tessier-Ashpools spend their time in cryonic preservation at Freeside, a cylindrical space habitat which functions as a Las Vegas-style space resort for the wealthy.
Wintermute reveals itself to Case and explains that it is one half of a super-AI entity planned by the family. It has been programmed with a need to merge with its other half, Neuromancer, and has recruited Armitage and his team since it cannot achieve this goal by itself. Case is tasked with entering cyberspace to pierce the software barriers with an icebreaker program. Riviera is to obtain the password to the lock from Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, the CEO of the family’s corporation.
Armitage’s personality starts to revert to the Corto personality as he relives Screaming Fist. It is revealed that Wintermute had originally contacted Corto through a computer during his psychotherapy, creating his Armitage persona. As Corto breaks through, he is uncontrollable, and Wintermute ejects him into space.
Riviera meets Lady 3Jane and tries to stop the mission, helping Lady 3Jane and Hideo, her ninja bodyguard, capture Molly. Under orders from Wintermute, Case tracks Molly down. Neuromancer traps Case within a simulated reality after he enters cyberspace. He finds the consciousness of Linda Lee, his girlfriend from Chiba City, who was murdered by one of his underworld contacts. He also meets Neuromancer, who takes the form of a young boy. Neuromancer tries to convince Case to remain in the virtual world with Linda, but Case refuses.
With Wintermute guiding them, Case goes to confront Lady 3Jane, Riviera, and Hideo. Riviera tries to kill Case, but Lady 3Jane is sympathetic towards Case and Molly, and Hideo protects him. Riviera flees, and Molly explains that he is doomed anyway, as she had spiked his drugs with a lethal toxin. The team makes it to the computer terminal. Case enters cyberspace to guide the icebreaker; Lady 3Jane is induced to give up her password, and the lock opens. Wintermute unites with Neuromancer, becoming a superconsciousness. The poison in Case’s bloodstream is washed out and he and Molly are profusely paid, while Pauley’s ROM construct is apparently erased at his own request.
Molly leaves Case, who finds a new girlfriend and resumes his hacking work. Wintermute/Neuromancer contacts him, claiming it has become “the sum total of the works, the whole show” and is looking for others like itself. Scanning recorded transmissions, the super-AI finds a transmission from the Alpha Centauri star system.
While logged into cyberspace, Case glimpses Neuromancer standing in the distance with Linda Lee, and himself. He also hears inhuman laughter, which suggests that Pauley still lives. The sighting implies that Neuromancer created a copy of Case’s consciousness, which now exists in cyberspace with those of Linda and Pauley.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Mostly Harmless Series: THGttG #5 Author: Douglas Adams Rating: 1 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 148 Words: 64K
In the first book, I stated that the philosophy of Hedonistic Nihilism portrayed by Adams disturbed me. That got some good comments going.
Well, I feel flipping vindicated. The book ends with the Vogons destroying every version of Earth on every possible space/time continuum. And Arthur just sits back and enjoys the thought of the coming total nonexistence coming his way.
I cannot state strongly enough how abhorrent I find that attitude.
★☆☆☆☆
ps,
Two sub-2star books in a row is a REALLY BAD WAY TO START THE MONTH!!! Just saying…
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
Arthur Dent plans to sightsee across the Galaxy with his girlfriend Fenchurch, but she disappears during a hyperspace jump, a result of being from an unstable sector of the Galaxy. Depressed, Arthur continues to travel the galaxy using samples of his bodily tissues/fluids to fund his travels, assured of his safety until he visits Stavromula Beta, having killed an incarnation of Agrajag at some point in the future at said planet. During one trip, he ends up stranded on the homely planet Lamuella, and decides to stay to become a sandwich maker for the local population.
Meanwhile, Ford Prefect has returned to the offices of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, and is annoyed to find out the original publishing company, Megadodo Publications, has been taken over by InfiniDim Enterprises, which are run by the Vogons. Fearing for his life, he escapes the building, along the way stealing the yet-unpublished, seemingly sentient Hitchhiker’s Guide Mk. II. He goes into hiding after sending the Guide to himself, care of Arthur, for safekeeping.
On Lamuella, Arthur is surprised by the appearance of Trillian with a teenage daughter, Random Dent. Trillian explains that she wanted a child, and used the only human DNA she could find, thus claiming that Arthur is Random’s father. She leaves Random with Arthur to allow her to better pursue her career as an intergalactic reporter. Random is frustrated with Arthur and life on Lamuella; when Ford’s package to Arthur arrives, she takes it and discovers the Guide. The Guide helps her to escape the planet on Ford’s ship after Ford arrives on the planet looking for Arthur. Discovering Random, the Guide, and Ford’s ship missing, the two manage to find a way to leave Lamuella and head for Earth, where they suspect Random is also heading to find Trillian. Ford expresses concern at the Guide’s manipulation of events, noting its “Unfiltered Perception” and fearing its potence and ultimate objective.
Reporter Tricia McMillan is a version of Trillian living on an alternate Earth who never took Zaphod Beeblebrox’s offer to travel in space. She is approached by an extraterrestrial species, the Grebulons, who have created a base of operations on the planet Rupert, a recently discovered tenth planet in the Solar System. However, due to damage to their ship in arriving, they have lost most of their computer core and their memories, with the only salvageable instructions being to observe something interesting with Earth. They ask Tricia’s help to adapt astrology charts for Rupert in exchange for allowing her to interview them. She fulfills their request and conducts the interview, but the resulting footage looks so fake that she fears it will destroy her reputation if broadcast. She is called away from editing the footage to report on a spaceship landing in the middle of London.
As Tricia arrives at the scene, Random steps off the ship and begins to yell at her, mistaking Tricia for her mother. Arthur, Ford, and Trillian arrive and help Tricia to calm Random. They remove her from the chaos surrounding the spacecraft and take her to a bar. Trillian tries to warn the group that the Grebulons, having become bored with their mission, are about to destroy the Earth. Random disrupts the discussion by producing a laser gun she took from her ship. Arthur, still believing he cannot die, tries to calm Random, but a distraction causes her to fire the weapon, sending the bar into a panic. Arthur tends to a man hit by the blast, who drops a matchbook with the name of the bar – “Stavro Mueller – Beta” – and Arthur realizes that this is the scene of Agrajag’s final death. He sees Ford laughing wildly at this turn of events and experiences a “tremendous feeling of peace”.[1]
The Grebulons destroy the Earth, believing that their horoscopes will improve if it is removed from their astrological charts. It is revealed that the Vogons designed the Guide Mk. II to achieve their desired outcome by manipulating temporal events. As a result, every version of the Earth in all realities is obliterated, fulfilling the demolition order that was issued in the first novel. Its mission complete, the Guide collapses into nothingness.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: False Flag Series: Jason Trapp #2 Author: Jack Slater Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 362 Words: 114K
This was an absolute piece of garbage, trash, whatever word you’d like to refer to it as. I’ll be done with this writer after this.
To give any of those of you who have hung around for awhile a comparison, this reminded me exactly of the Agent Zero series and the Jet series, both of which were also about supposedly super duper secret agents written by authors who obviously don’t know a thing about that subject, and I do mean absolutely nothing about it.
I ended up emailing Fraggle to run some things across her radar to make sure I wasn’t completely out to lunch. I wasn’t. So I’m going to copy/paste the majority of that email to show just how stupid this author this and why a brick wall is smarter than he supposedly is.
I didn’t start taking notes until later. I wish I had started from the get-go. But I’ll try to list the chapter, the relevant sentence or sentences in italics and then my question or comment.
I also had a ton more notes after where I leave off, but most of it was around Trapp being wildly inconsistent in his methodology (who he kills, why, etc) that shows he’s not a professional at all. We’re just told that he is. I was getting steamed, again, so figured I’d leave off 😀
Plus a lot more pro-China stuff. The President of the United States would NEVER lower himself to talk to some random ambassador. He’d be on the Red Phone, or whatever color it is, with the General Secretary (ie, China’s president) himself. And this is an instance of the author just not getting the American mindset. Whether it is of Trapp or anyone else, they do not THINK like Americans who are in those positions. It is Hollywood’ized beyond even Hollywood.
Chapter 14: about Trapp
“Maybe he was being irrational, but he couldn’t help it.“
The “best in the business” agent, like Trapp supposedly is, has that kind of feelingzzz trained out of him. He CAN help it, or he would have been dead long before this.
Chapter 23: about Ikeda (female agent)
“Alstyne was her first kill. He deserved it, but the CIA operative was no psychopath. She should have been flown directly to an Agency shrink after completing the operation, for a debrief to check he mental state.”
Is equating killing of any kind with being a psychopath. I can’t even begin to describe how wrong that mindset is. Especially for those in a military/black ops situation.
Killing is part and parcel of an agents job. It is beyond unbelievable that she would have immediately flown back to have her little feelingz coddled. She’d get a 10min exam to make sure she didn’t enjoy it and that would be it. She’d spend more time on paperwork for the poison lipstick. And only a naive idiot in the business would think otherwise. Or an uninformed writer.
Chapter 28: about Trapp arriving in China
“he knew that if America picked a fight with this country, it would be like Germany invading the Soviet Union in 1941, or Napoleon doing the same a hundred and fifty years earlier.”
Choice of the word “picked a fight”. The whole book is pro-China, anti-America and no agent of the United States black ops would even THINK that way. And numbers aren’t everything. Sure, China has 4 times the US’s population, but 9/10ths of them are still uneducated peasants, because China’s communist party keeps them that way to control them. We’d kill the leadership and let the country wallow like a ship without a rudder. I’m a civilian and even I know that much military doctrine.
Chapter 39: about Trapp and his boss talking about Ikeda
““Ikeda isn’t the priority,” Mitchell said sharply. “She knew what she was signing up for. Those are the risks in this business.” Trapp’s fist clenched, and a pang of anger shot through his body. He knew that Mitchell wasn’t saying anything that he himself didn’t believe. Hell, he’d said exactly the same to others many times. But this, somehow, was different. It wasn’t academic, or cut and dry. He had sent Eliza into that room and hadn’t been able to protect her. She might have known what she was signing up for. But she couldn’t possibly have expected to have been failed in that way. This was Trapp’s mess. And he damn well intended to clean it up.“
He obviously doesn’t believe it, otherwise he wouldn’t be “reacting” this way. He’s no professional. It isn’t different. Every agent can expect to die on a mission, and to be tortured first. Trapp knows this, Ikeda knows this. And it isn’t Trapp’s job to “protect” Ikeda, she’s a full fledged agent after all. Nor is it his “mess”. His job was to kill the scumbag and recover the info/flash drive. He did both of those. Rescuing Ikeda is a good thing, but it’s not priority, just like his boss says at the beginning.
Chapter 42:
“”But in all those years, at least since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the real threat had come from terrorists, not nation states.“
And those terrorists were and continue to be, funded by Nation States. It’s a series of proxy wars. 9/11 was funded by the Saudis. Libya trained and funded terrorist cells all during the 70’s and up until Qaddafi died. And a “trained agent” would know this and not make asinine statements like the above.
★✬☆☆☆
From Devilreads.com
Synopsis – click to open
They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But Jason Trapp is losing his taste for it. For six months, his personal crusade has taken him around the world, mopping up the last of the Bloody Monday conspirators. There’s only one left, and after the crooked financier Emmanuel Alstyne meets his maker, Trapp’s debt will be paid in full. He vows he’s done with the business of death. Unfortunately, it isn’t done with him. After a simple kill mission goes sideways in Macau, leaving a CIA spy kidnapped, half a dozen Chinese agents dead, and America’s satellites burning in the skies, Trapp is propelled back into the game. Eliza Ikeda was taken on his watch, and he’s determined to get her back–no matter the cost. The problem is, he has no idea who took her, why, or what they plan to do next. Trapp knows he’s being played. And with the world’s only two superpowers hurtling toward the precipice of war, time is running out…
ps, Due to work, my online presence for the next couple of days will be very sporadic.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Expanding Universe #1 Series: Editor: Craig Martelle Rating: 1 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 432 Words: 178K
Where do I even start? That’s the thought that kept running through my head as I waded through this pile of utter drek. Every new story would bring me hope that maybe “this” writer would write a good story and then the first paragraph would show me they were just as much a talentless hack as the previous writers.
I had seen Martelle’s name in the Larry Correia collection No Game for Knights. I am always on the lookout for SF anthologies of short stories and thought I’d give this a try. It was a big mistake.
My first clue to the impending disaster to come was the big fat inclusion of Michael Anderle’s name on the front cover. He wrote the introduction. If you don’t know, Anderle is a whore who writes bad space vampire fiction and will put his name on anything, written by anybody. He has no talent, no shame and no limits. But he just wrote the introduction I reasoned, I can’t blame the other authors for that. I do now.
This was published in 2016, and Martelle hadn’t written anything on his own before ‘16 as well. He’s one of those turn and churn authors. But even a mediocre author can be a decent editor, or so I thought. Martelle also belongs to an organization of Indie Writers who support each other. Apparently, what that means is that if one of them edits an anthology, they will automatically include stories from other writers in the organization, no matter how terrible or badly written those stories might be. Martelle could have gone to any Science Fiction forum on the internet, copy/pasted some of the fan fic on there and he couldn’t possible have done a worse job than he did with these stories.
Another issue was that almost all of these stories took place in existing universes or storylines of the writers and were not standalone stories at all. They were prequels, sequels, side stories, to already established storylines and were nothing more than advertisements by the writers waving their wares obnoxiously in my face. Over half of these had some sort of “and if you want to find out how the story resolves, read the writers other books”. That really got my goat.
Another issue is that many of these stories were not actually science fiction. They were modern dramas set on a spaceship or had some fantasy element. Putting a spaceship into a story doesn’t automatically make it a science fiction story. I’m afraid that all of these authors do not understand that very fundamental concept and I’m also afraid that they will never learn it. Because they are all chowderheads with no talent.
The lack of skill here was atrocious. I mentioned internet forum fan fiction early and this is that level of writing. These stories are the things you write when you are practicing to learn the very basic basic of writing. None of these stories should have seen the light of day. Some were definitely better than others, but not a single one of them deserved to be in print. There’s a reason these writers belong to that organization that Martelle belongs to.
Then you had the moral content. I knew going in that since this was published in 2016, that the chances of at least one of these authors would be some woke dill head pushing a perverted agenda was high. I made it almost to the end and was pleasantly surprised that perversion hadn’t reared its ugly head when bam. Sho’ nuff, one writer just had to add it to their story, for no apparent reason either. It was the literal expression of “check box” writing.
Finally, I want to highlight the worst two of the stories here. Taken for a Walk describes itself thusly:
“The short story that follows is Justin’s teaser for a novel he hopes to one day write in what he thinks will be something like Alien meets The Matrix meets Braveheart. The short story is at times silly, but leads into a very serious moment and situation”
The only good thing about this story was that I think it was the shortest of the collection. It was just plain bad.
Worlds Revealed has this for its intro:
“This is a brand new story in the Alpha Alien Abduction Tales series. It starts out with the couples we know from the first two books in the series, Worlds Away and Worlds Collide. But it quickly goes back to the summer of 1947 when a spaceship crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. Venay’s grandfather was the Commander of the ship that was involved in that nightmare. But it wasn’t the V’Zenians, or even the Zateelians, who crashed on Earth! You can expect to learn the true story of the Roswell Aliens, and who they really were.”
When I read that intro, I immediately made a note in my kindle along the lines of “Frak No!” Aliens abduct human women, use their mind powers to make them fall in love with them and then marry and mate them. Just for the record, the author is a woman. This is not some man’s fantasy, it’s a woman’s fantasy.
To end, I had several of these collections lined up, but after this Titanic level of reading disaster, I’m dumping them like a pile of nuclear waste.
★☆☆☆☆
Table of Contents
Click to Open
Fear Peace – Craig Martelle
Taken for a Walk Justin Sloan
Fall to Earth TJ Ryan
Blue Eyed Devil Spencer Pierson
Those Who Breathe Under the End James Osiris Baldwin
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Children of the Mind Series: Enderverse #4 Authors: Orson Card Rating: 1 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 334 Words: 108K
Man, when I finished up Xenocide, I didn’t think Card could get any worse, which is why I dived into this book with a headstrong attitude, convinced I was bigger, badder and stronger. Well, Card sure showed me.
This was a 20 page short story jam packed into 334 pages of complete blather and blither. I was going to still give this 2 stars because of the technical side of things, but then he made one little remark about Jesus that showed the heresy of the Mormon belief about God and so I knocked it down a star. (Here is a run down of the basic 8 issues that separates Mormons from Christianity – Link Here)
With that, I think I am done with Card as an author. While I enjoyed the First Formic Wars trilogy, the fact that the second trilogy has been stuck on book 2 for many years couple with my distaste of the original Enders series means I simply will ignore whatever new book comes out with his name on the cover.
Ugh. I hate when this happens in a series. I thoroughly enjoyed Ender’s Game and to see it end like this (Ender dies in this book, so even though there are 1 or 2 more direct sequels, it is pointless even if I didn’t hate this now with a passion) was simply disappointing and maddening all at the same time.
After Xenocide, several people asked what books by Card I did enjoy. To answer everyone all at once, I’ll list them here:
At the start of Children of the Mind, Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, is using her newly discovered abilities to take the races of buggers, humans and pequeninos outside the universe and back instantaneously. She uses these powers to move them to distant habitable planets for colonization. She is losing her memory and concentration as the vast computer network connected to the ansible is being shut down. If she is to survive, she must find a way to transfer her aiúa (or soul) to a human body.
Peter Wiggin and Si Wang-Mu travel to the worlds of Divine Wind and Pacifica to persuade the Japanese-led swing group of the Starways Congress to revoke their order to destroy Lusitania. By tracing the decision-making trail backwards, they are able to show a philosopher his influence on the Starways Congress. After several complications, the philosopher persuades the Tsutsumi clan to exert their influence with the Necessarian faction in the Starways Congress to stop the Lusitania fleet. The admiral at the head of the Lusitania fleet, however, disobeys the Congress’s order and does what he believes Ender Wiggin, the perpetrator of the first Xenocide, would have done and fires the Molecular Disruption Device (MDD).
Upon Ender Wiggin’s death, Jane guides his aiúa to Peter’s body, while she is granted possession of Young Val’s body, and thus is not destroyed when the ansible shuts down. She is then able to continue transporting starships instantaneously by borrowing the vast mental capacity of the simple-minded Pequenino mother-trees. She transports a ship with Peter and Wang-Mu around the missile, then transports the missile and them to inside of the Lusitania fleet, where it is then disarmed and disabled. Peter and Wang-Mu’s efforts finally come to fruition, and the destruction of Lusitania is averted.
Jane falls in love with Miro, and Peter with Wang-mu. Both couples are married under one of the mother-trees of the pequeninos on the same day as Ender’s funeral.
