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Alien Taste by Wen Spencer

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The Curse of Chalion by Louis McMaster Bujold

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Alien Taste by Wen Spencer

The Curse of Chalion by Louis McMaster Bujold

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Alien Taste by Wen Spencer

Curse of Chalion, The by Louis McMaster Bujold

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Bujold, Louis McMaster: The Curse of Chalion

Spencer, Wen: Alien Taste

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Near future SF

Alien Taste by Wen Spencer

Biological SF

Alien Taste by Wen Spencer

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Alien Taste by Wen Spencer

Fantasy, General

The Curse of Chalion by Louis McMaster Bujold

SF Procedural

Alien Taste by Wen Spencer

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Fantasy

I have grown weary of the tendency in both SF and Fantasy to take our existing culture and warm it over slightly, especially in the religion and politics department. Perhaps the need to crank out title after title encourages this “reduce, reuse, recycle” attitude, but as a reader it sends me fuming towards the exit. Then along comes
Lois McMaster Bujold with another richly detailed fantasy world that is a joy to enter–and hardly anything like ours.

I have to admire Louis McMaster Bujold. She one of those authors whose work just keeps getting stronger all the time. (She won the Nebula in 1989 for Falling Free.) Craftsmanlike from the beginning, her sense of compelling narrative just keeps improving. With Chalion, Lois has developed a nice, functionally distinct world and peopled it with wonderful, engaging characters.

The Curse of Chalion is the engaging story of Cazaril, a man who has been knocked down in the game of life but refuses to surrender. A noble man betrayed by his superiors and sold into slavery, Cazaril has finally been freed. Scarred, marked as a slave, without friends or resources, he makes his way slowly and painfully back home where he hopes to impose upon the kindness of the noble household where, in his youth, he served as page for a job. Any job.

But a man, a noble man of priciples, is more precious than gold. Cazaril is quickly given a position more suited to his inner beauty: he is to be made secretary-tutor to the Royesse Iselle.

As guardian and advisor to Iselle–the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the boy who is next in line to rule the land–Cazaril will come face to face with those who betrayed him. For the capitol, Cardegoss, is filled with a disease of the mind and spirit–the Curse of Chalion–and Cazaril has been chosen by the gods to try and return the land to balance.

I have always been suspicious of the type of hero who starts the story as an unrecognized ubermensch and changes the world without apparant effort once their great abilities are discovered. I prefer Enlightenment heroes: the hero who starts as a person not much different than I am and succeeds on their own wit and ability, rther than some divinity conferred advantage. In Cazaril I have a wonderful example of the kind of hero who rises from the dungheap through his own initiative and ability.

But that doesn’t mean the gods don’t have plans for Cazaril. In fact, Cazaril’s humilty and unswerving devotion are essential to the gods and their plans. Louis McMaster Bujold offers a perspective on deities, curses, and the poor mortals who are caught up in the affairs of the gods that you will long remember.

Throughout the story, I can never quite forget however, that I’m in my arm chair, reading. I feel sympathy for the characters without ever feeling that I am truly a part of their universe. But the story is intelligent, the characters warm and sympathetic, and the suspense made this book one I read in three sittings.

You have a winner when the title was the most objectionable feature of this finely crafted tale of nobility and self-sacrifice. (The title unfortunately reminded me of far too many lazy, self-indulgent fantasy novels.) Overall, Curseleft me with a strong feeling that I’ve been away from Lois McMaster Bujold’s work for too long.

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A nominee for the 2002 Hugo Award (American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, won), they just don’t come more reliable than this. A page turner offering a solid retreat from the relatives during the holidays, beach or airport reading. Buy it new in paperback, hard cover if you’re a Bujold fan.

Rating

4 out of 5.

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Categories

Near future SF; Biological SF; Alien SF; SF Private Investigator/Police Procedural

If you’re wearing a path in the rug waiting for the next installment from your favorite author, maybe it’s time to give Wen Specer, winner of 2003 John W. Campbell Best New Writer award, a try.
Alien Taste is her first effort and its a good one, easily equalling or exceeding the quality of many, more seasoned, writers.

I don’t know what was wrong with me. I was given a copy of “Alien Taste” about a year ago, flipped to some point in the middle where the main character, Ukiah Oregon, was playing super “do-it-all” dude–finding bad guys, looking studly, getting the girl–and experienced a moment of juvenile petulance.

I have little patience for super types, heroes who have it all–looks, money, all the suspiciously right connections–and have it easy. Maybe I’d seen to many short stories featuring heroes where Mary Sue-ism was an issue. In retrospect, I threw the baby out with the bathwater. Alien Taste sat on my shelf for a year as I treid to give it away. Fortunately for me, there were no takers.

I should have noted of the steady chorus of “Read it already. Kind of liked it myself.” But I got my HEA: sitting around feeding an infant for hours on end can burn through your unread shelf amazingly quickly and one evening I found cupboards were bare except for Taste.

I’ve very glad I did. I would have missed out on a very rewarding read. (Apparently my experience isn’t unique. Another reader has mentioned going through the same process: picking the book up in the middle, being put off by the numerous powers granted to Ukiah, but later find it rewarding when they started from the beginning.)

Ukiah Oregon was found in the wild, living with a pack of wolves near Ukiah, Oregon. His real age unknown, Ukiah has been granted adulthood and citizenship. However his years spent among the wolves have left hims a stranger in a strange land when it comes to coping with modern society but boy can he track.

When a killer dispatches three female roomates and is suspected of abducting the fourth, the police know they can’t dink around. There’s no time to get it wrong and Ukiah’s tracking is unequaled. Ukiah and his partner, Max, are called in despite the doubts and occasional hostility of the police.

But nothing is what it seems, and Ukiah will be drawn into conflict with the Pack, a biker gang so tough the FBI have yet to successfully infiltrate it. But there is a mysterious gang, even tougher than the Pack. When FBI agents start dropping left and right, only Ukiah has any chance of containing the conflict before it has a chance to spread irreversibly. Throughout, Ukiah must deal with uncomfortable, dangerous revelations about him and his heritage.

Taste gives you action that never lets up in a character driven work. Wen makes bold, innovative use of biological systems as both adaptive systems and information technology. Strong characters and relationships–especially the partnership between Max and Ukiah–drive the tension.

You should be comfortable with the existence of aliens. You will need to be able to suspend your sense of scientific credibility. The science here is consistent, well and cleverly used, but won’t hold up under tight scrutity. It wasn’t an obstacle for me and if you can swallow the contradictions of “faster than light” travel found in so many SF works, you should have no trouble with the science here.

Taste left me hungry to go out to buy the rest of her books. The good news? I hear they’re at least as good.

An example of the emerging biological
The big reason I gave it a second chance was Wen Spencer’s participation in the BroadUniverse newsgroup. She constantly delivered smart, savvy, solid answers that showed she knew a thing or two. I’d also heard that she did a great job at a reading at Readercon. A friend’s summary left me wishing I had got to the reading instead of the rather staid panel I had atttended. One of those where I expected a row on stage but instead got nothing new.

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Taste was a two sitting read for me. If you only read a book a year, this ain’t it, but its
head and shoulders above an airport read. Buy it new in paperback, you’ll want it for your collection. Be prepared to loan it out. This book will suit most readers who enjoy action. It ain’t art, but it’ll keep you glued to your seat.

Rating

4.25 out of 5.

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“You know that book you loaned me? I loved it!”

“Wasp Factory? Good. I have someone else waiting for it.”

Much hemming and hawing ensues.

“I think I’ll have to get you another copy. See, I went and loaned it out.”

“That’s OK. Just get it back to me when they’re finished.”

“That’s not the problem. They’ve finished it already and they’ve loaned it to one of their friends.”

A modern Gothic horror…

“The Wasp Factory,” is a disturbing story of what we do to the people we care about, of trust betrayed and abused past forgiveness. Yet, in the end, it offers unexpected relief and possibility of redemption.

Not for the faint of heart, this book is the one I’m most likely to recommend to friends who have come to trust my recommendations.

It’s a slow start for most people. persevere. Everyone I’ve recomended it to has had to start
at least twice and I warn people before I hand them a copy.

However, everyone I’ve recommnded it to has gone on to both finish it and to recommend it to their friends as well, usually with the same warning!

Convinced me that biology could legitimately be included in that crown of the literature–”hard science” SF.

The increasing use of biological polymers and proteins in things as diverse as computer chips convinces me that the field systematically ignores cutting edge science when it excludes biology from what is throught of as “hard science” science fiction. The separation between the bilogical and the mechanical in the real world is shrinking much faster than it is in our literature. Soon, in the real world, the advances in biological or combined sciences could overshadow those in the physical sciences while the field is still playing tin robots.

Besides, you have to admire the tour-de-force of starting out with a mundane infection and ending up uniting every living thing (literally) on the planet!

I think someone once told me that C. J. Cherryh practiced Aikido in Seattle. When, and for how long, I don’t know. But it sure would explain why both her heroes and villains have a strong effect on the reader. She frequently delves into the relationship between two sides under conflict. Often, at least one side emerges stronger by understanding and embracing “the other.” Sometimes both sides.

I thought this was a strong, new and different look at the warrior and warriorship, a subject that is too often overlooked even in literatures supposedly devoted to it such as “Sword and Sorcery Fantasy” and “Military Space SF.”