I know that what I'm about to say I say entirely from personal prejudices and, essentially, for no good reason. But I really hate romance stories woven into sci-fi. It feels so damned nerdy. Even in Hyperion, the first scifi I read with an arguably fleshed out romantic story (several romances actually [with surprise sex scenes and turgid members ambushing you at the flanks. I thought I was reading scifi! Surprise! It's really a story about swollen and throbbing orifices and accessories!]), but even then I kind of had to look away and prepare myself to shut and hide the book at a moment's notice if someone were to walk in the room, so that I wouldn't have to explain to them what I was really doing. I mean, I doubt I'm the only person that can't not help but think of Kirk and Moon Babe 5 whenever the topic of romance pops up in scifi.
Unless of course the story is built around love, such as the Fountain, where the entire thing would not happen if it weren't for love. And I don't get that feeling with Cosmonaut's Keep. Maybe it really is, and I'll find out that she has the missing half of the golden amulet (not really in the story), or that she's secretly a robot squid sent to deliver Ultimate Illumination to all the poor slovenly human folk. But I don't really get that feeling.
So, that's not really all of the book. In fact, it's split in twain, as it were. One half in the year 2050ish (estimating to the nearest ish) where some slick, and no doubt sexy, hacker types are up their asses in uncovering a government cover up involving aliens and the such. There's a kind of love story here. It makes me feel less embarrassed to read, mostly because it doesn't have some (maybe?) hard and grizzled sailor (kind of?) guy gently caressing the small of a girl's back, and then the narration waxing poetically about the duality of feeling safe on a cliff's edge ad nausea. But the hacker one is pretty interesting. And I always feel happy when I get to read a chapter of it.
Then there's the whole Mingulay thing. Fuck (I'm ensuring I earn this R rating) if I know what's happening there. I think I could only as of page 100, and because of page 100 exclusively, give you a coherent idea of what's happening: this guy and his grandpa (I think. Might be an uncle) are SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! charting a course from their planet to... some... other... place (end spoiler? I guess.)? Using maybe like, a kind of old spaceship that's just been, you know, hanging out. I don't really know. At first I thought the main character was James in this story, and his wife Margaret, mainly because the book opened with them. And then there's something about krakens and clinging tenaciously to their cephalopodal bosoms like barnacles as a substitute for space travel. And then there's pot smoking dinosaurs. The pot thing is all the rage and oh so funny, but I think it's pretty dumb. Sure, you could argue that the pot makes them self reflective, and that's one of their favorite states, but it still seems like there's really no good reason to include pot specifically. It mostly just seems the author thought he would be clever and risqué by including it in his book. He might as well of had them smoke babies.
To get back on track, all of a sudden, fuck off James! Don't give two pisses about you! Now it's all about your grandson Gregor and his consuming drive to... meander. And hit on chicks at parties. Well, mostly just one.
So, I understand that as an author you don't want to tip your hand all at once. You don't want to open up the big with a big lengthy monologue that explains all of why everything is, because then there's nothing left for the big reveal, when I as the reader go, “oh, I get it! It was the nanny!” and the big reveal is really important. But at the same time, going out of your way to not mention stuff is pretty lame, and hella confusing. Also, love story = dumb. But thankfully there has been nothing turgid. Yet.
I also imagine that as this guy (Macleod) starts to actually flesh out the things he's been vaguely not telling us, I'll like the far future stuff as much as the cyber hacker stuff. But until then, this guy's on some thin ice.
Sincerely,
Cuyler
4 comments:
OK - I will say this once and only once, and it applies to all of us as a class. Never, ever again do I want to hear or see the word "GAY" used to mean anything other than "HOMOSEXUAL" or "HAPPY". By saying that something was "GAY", and not meaning it in the previous two references, you are inferring that "GAY" = "RETARDED". If that is indeed what you are inferring, then this RETARD is going to have to kick your ass until you learn that such statements are offensive, discriminatory, and small-minded.
Hi,
I just wanted to let you know that you probably shouldn't use the word "retarded" if you want the word "gay" not to have a negative connotation.
You see, the word "retard" is just as offensive to some people as using gay in the aforementioned sense.
As such, I found your post highly insensitive and a bit two-faced. I doubt this was your intent, so I'd hope you'd correct yourself as you seem like a very tolerant individual.
Thanks
Oh, I am nothing but trouble...
One reason I chose the word "retarded" was because in this pop-culture society, that is the most commonly used word that people find interchangible with "gay".
Another reason as to why I chose "retarded" is because it was just as offensive, and I wanted people to see exactly that. Also, as a gay man, when I hear someone negatively use the term "gay", I feel like I've been slapped in the face and called retarded. But that's just my personal perspective.
Love stories suck, no question there. Don't even get me started on the false human fabrication that we call "love". Macleod's done one good thing with this though, he's made me realize that I like cyber punk more than space drama.
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