Isaac Asimov's I Robot: To Preserve by Mickey Zucker Reichert

Published by Penguin/ Roc on February 2, 2016

Isaac Asimov made me care about robots. In Isaac Asimov’s I Robot: To Preserve, Mickey Zucher Reichert didn’t make me care about anything. Particularly not robots. The only robot to play a central role spends most of his time standing (or being rolled around) in the background, contributing nothing to the plot.

The plot, by the way, involves an accusation that Nate (the robot N8-C) murdered someone. That suspicion derives from the fact that he’s found holding a bloody pry bar and standing next to the bloody body of a dead researcher. Nate confesses (sort of) which persuades an overzealous police detective to arrest Lawrence Robertson, Nate’s creator/programmer, for murder. That this happens without questioning Nate more completely is a bit eye-rolling, as is the notion that Robertson could be arrested in the absence of even slight evidence that he programmed Nate to kill the researcher. Those are lapses of logic that Asimov would never have made.

Of course, every Asimov fan knows that it is impossible for a robot to deliberately harm humans, but the plot depends on an arrest that sends the current incarnation of Susan Calvin on an obvious mission -- to find the real killer. Enlisting the help of a hunky ex-Marine who saves her in a shootout, Susan (granddaughter of the original) goes about the business of solving the murder.

Susan’s speeches fill in background for readers who may have missed Reichert’s previous two robot novels in this series. That background is essential to understanding the plot, but given the filling-in, this book can probably be read as a stand-alone.

Susan actually has two hunks in her life, the other being homicide detective Jake Carson. One or both may or may not be on Susan’s side. Most of the plot surrounds Susan’s interaction with one or both of the hunks, and occasionally (although infrequently) Nate.

The hunks provide the excuse to add a love triangle subplot that is even clunkier than one that Asimov might have penned. Certainly, Asimov would not have written the scenes that read like outtakes from a trashy romance novel, complete with Susan swooning over a bare-chested man’s “tousled hair.” Has a trashy romance novel ever been written that didn’t use the phrase “tousled hair”?

There is a lot more touchy-feelyness and a lot less intellect in this book than a reader would find in any of Asimov’s robot stories. More to the point, there is a lot less emphasis on robots, which sort of misses the point of a robot novel. For that reason, the story, while mildly interesting, doesn’t come close to being as absorbing as an Asimov robot story. There are certainly many science fiction novels far worse than this one, but as a continuation of a seminal sf series, the novel is a disappointment.

NOT RECOMMENDED

H.G. Wells: The Dover Reader

Published by Dover on February 17, 2016

H.G. Wells is rightly regarded as a pioneer of science fiction. The four novels/novellas collected in this edition have all been filmed, some more than once, which attests to Wells’ skill as a story-teller. As a prose stylist, Wells created rambling, ponderous sentences that require the reader to engage in a good amount of labor before reaching the end. It is nevertheless a style that tends to grow on readers, contributing to the continued popularity of his books. But Wells’ popularity is primarily due to his imaginative creation of themes that modern science fiction writers continue to embrace.

The novellas in this Dover edition are:

The Time Machine (1895) - Probably the most “literary” of Wells’ works, The Time Machine is important in the history of science fiction as one of the first widely-read time travel stories. The distant future Wells imagines, populated by above-ground Eloi and underground Morlocks, is a forerunner of novels that depict a dystopian future. The novel might best be seen as an allegory of class struggle, although scholars have blessed it with a variety of academic interpretations. The Time Machine is probably the most discussed of Wells’ works, and it might be his most popular, given the number of times it has been adapted to film, television, and comics, as well as the number of books and stories that have been derived from it or paid tribute to it.

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) - Wells ventured into horror with this story of a biologist who is stranded on a remote island with a doctor and a “mad scientist” whose experiments have transformed animals into man-like beasts. A forerunner of modern novels that address genetic experimentation, The Island of Dr. Moreau is notable for its exploration of the difference (and more importantly, the similarity) between man and beast.

The Invisible Man (1897) - A scientist experimenting with optics figures out how to bend light in a way that makes him invisible. While largely an adventure story, the novella has a moral lesson, as the scientist, who uses his discovery for nefarious purposes, comes to a bad end. The novella’s literary value comes from the sympathy that Wells creates for the scientist, even as Wells makes it clear that the Invisible Man is responsible for his own undoing.

War of the Worlds (1898) - One of the first popular stories to imagine contact between humans and aliens, War of the Worlds was famously adapted as a radio play that shook up the nation, and has been filmed repeatedly. In addition to working as an adventure story, the novel touches on important issues of imperialism, evolution, and religion. War of the Worlds is one of the most influential works in the history of science fiction, having inspired an entire subgenre of “alien invasion” stories, most of which (the ones in which aliens are imagined as evil lizards) are quite awful in comparison to Wells’ story.

Wells wrote some or all of these works as serials, so they overlapped a bit, but the fact that he was able to produce four of the most important works of science fiction in roughly four years is stunning. No literature class that covers science fiction would be complete without including at least one of Wells’ novels.

The Dover collection also includes five short stories of varying quality: “The Stolen Bacillus,” “The Country of the Blind,” “The Purple Pileus,” “The Crystal Egg,” and “The Door in the Wall.” They are all entertaining, but readers will get more bang for their buck from Wells’ longer works.

RECOMMENDED

The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks by Igort

First published in separate volumes in Italy in 2010 and 2011; published in translation in a combined volume by Simon & Schuster on April 26, 2016

The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks is a collection of brief stories about Russia and Ukraine. Some are the stories of individuals. Some are the stories of eras. One is the story of land. Another is the story of radioactive land. The volume combines two separate notebooks, one devoted to Ukraine, one to Russia, but the stories necessarily overlap.

Some of the stories told in The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks are almost like recordings of oral histories related by elderly survivors. An old woman talks about the Famine. An old man describes the hardships of his life during World War II and after Stalin. The stories combine to form a graphic modern history of two countries and their peoples told from deeply personal perspectives.

The notebook entries jump around in time and place. Some are repetitive. I suppose that’s the nature of a “notebook” format, so I don’t see the lack of organization or conciseness as a significant failing.

Both of the notebooks address the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 (one of the worst acts of genocide in modern history) and the earlier relocation/deportation of kulaks (property owners). Stalin regarded Ukrainian kulaks as class enemies, even if they only owned a couple of cows. Viewing self-sufficient farms as a threat to collectivist ideals, Stalin used the military to block the borders of Ukraine and to confiscate food, animals, and property. Millions people died of starvation or related disease during the forced famine. The exact number is both disputed and unknowable, and depends upon whether indirect deaths are counted (Igort adopts one of the highest estimates), but there is no dispute that the Ukrainian population suffered immensely as a result of Stalin’s policies.

Some stories of the famine are told by its survivors but other entries, less personal but all the more chilling because of their detachment, reproduce excerpts from official reports. The reports contain stark accounts of illness caused by eating rotting food and animal carcasses. Instances of cannibalism, the living eating the dead, are itemized by district.

A variety of perspectives capture life during the Second World War, during the reign of Khrushchev, and after the fall of communism. Interestingly, some of the people who tell their stories view life under Khrushchev as the high point of their national history, and view the fall of communism as a disaster. In the absence of a planned transition, prices skyrocketed, jobs were lost, and once productive fields were abandoned. Production was replaced by destitution. The fantasy that western nations have constructed around the fall of communism is far removed from the reality that Russians and Ukrainians have endured.

Igort describes the present Russia as a brutal “sham democracy.” He illustrates that belief with several entries that revolve around Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006 for (in Igort’s view) speaking the truth about Chechnya. Igort writes of journalists and activists who have been gunned down, of Chechens who have been tortured and who have turned to terrorism in support of their cause, of Russian military violence that might well be defined as state-sponsored terrorism.

The art accompanying the texts is bleak. It gives the impression of an artist’s sketchbook. The art is well-suited to illustrate the stories that Igort tells. The best images are leafless trees, footprints in vast stretches of snow, symbolic expressions of lost hope.

The Notebooks are ambitious, perhaps too ambitious. When Igort writes about the scope of Russian history and Tolstoy and Dostoevsky he strays from the personal stories that he does best. I appreciate the desire to provide context, but the book seems scattered when Igort tries to look at the bigger picture. Still, as a graphic reminder of the suffering of Russians, Ukrainians, and Chechens in an oppressive system, Igort succeeds admirably.

RECOMMENDED

Escape the Night by Richard North Patterson

First published in 1983; published digitally by Open Road Media on November 25, 2014

Notable for its intricacy of plotting and depth of characterization, Escape the Night interweaves the lives of a number of characters while building a tight story. I liked it more than some of Richard North Patterson's recent fiction.

The backdrop to Escape the Night is a publishing dynasty. Peter Carey's grandfather, John "Black Jack" Carey, co-founded the firm. He built the business with ruthless efficiency. When Peter was a child, his father, Charles, and his uncle, Philip, competed for its control. Missing from the equation, and from Peter's life, is his mother. The novel begins with Allie Carey giving birth to a baby she does not want. It moves forward a few years to reveal Allie's strained relationship with Charles, whose relationship with his father and brother is equally strained. The brothers are divided in their response to HUAC's demands that they not publish "subversive" books, while a HUAC investigator takes Charles' defiance personally.

Peter is nearly 30 when the story resumes. He has nightmares that he doesn't understand. Nor does he understand why he lost the memories of his childhood. Peter is poised to take control of the publishing company just as a wealthy businessman named Clayton Barth is attempting to acquire it. The genesis of Barth's interest in the business lies in John Carey's past. Peter and his uncle Philip become locked in a conflict that centers on Barth's bid for ownership.

Patterson takes his time to build characters and suspense. During the first half of the novel, it is clear that something will threaten one or more of the central characters, but the source of the threat is not immediately apparent. Will this be a novel of brother against brother? Overzealous law enforcement agent against innocent victim? Aggrieved descendent seeking revenge for sins committed against a father? As possibilities unfold, Patterson holds the reader's attention with an intricate family drama that avoids melodrama. Still more questions arise: Why does Peter hate Philip with so much passion? What memories has Peter suppressed?

Patterson also builds tension with the setting -- a menacing city, violent posters, lurking strangers. Danger seems to be everywhere, leaving the reader to wonder where it will strike. Patterson fashions some truly warped characters, including a former CIA assassin, the HUAC investigator, and Clayton Barth, but they are all convincingly nuanced. He also creates sympathetic, troubled characters, including Charles' secret lover and that woman's brother, a therapist who is haunted by his mother's suicide, by his friendship with Charles, and by his interpretation of Peter's nightmares.

Escape the Night is written in a cinematic style, with jump cuts and multiple images flashing through Peter's mind. Some of that (particularly all the one sentence paragraphs) is overdone. Multiple murders, framed suspects, and a desperate man in a tightening noose give the plot a Hitchcockian feel. The plot becomes a bit too convoluted at the end, demanding that the reader accept too many improbabilities at one time, and the climax is too obvious, but those flaws diminished my enjoyment of the story by only a small degree.

RECOMMENDED

Back Blast by Mark Greaney

Published by Berkley on February 16, 2016

As the Director of Clandestine Services, Denny Carmichael is “the top spy at CIA.” He’s also the most powerful person in the agency, more powerful than his boss, or for that matter, anyone else in the intelligence community. That power gives him the ability to pursue his own intelligence agenda without worrying about the laws that should constrain his conduct.

Court Gentry, a former asset who has been given the ridiculous code name “Violator” and the slightly less ridiculous nickname “Gray Man,” has an understandable grudge against Carmichael. For years, the CIA has tried to kill him. Now he’s back in the United States to find out why. Back Blast is the fifth and possibly last of a series that follows the Gray Man's exploits.

Everyone is petrified because they fear this “one man killing machine” is probably targeting Carmichael. Despite their panic, the CIA don’t want to bring in the FBI or any of the thousands of the law enforcement agents who can legally act within the nation’s borders. But the CIA does bring in a dozen elite members of the military, allegedly with presidential authorization to engage in domestic law enforcement, because the Violator is a real badass. Unbeknownst to the rest of the intelligence community, Carmichael wants Gentry to be killed rather than captured, and so he covertly arranges for Saudi intelligence agents to go on a search-and-kill mission in downtown D.C. to terminate Gentry. It seems like Carmichael is the one who should be called the Violator, given all the laws he violates in the name of protecting the CIA (and his own career).

The setup to Back Blast is so preposterous that I feared I would be unable to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the story. That fear lasted about ten minutes. Preposterous setup or not, the novel is captivating. Carmichael wants Gentry dead, Gentry wants to know why, and the reader hangs in the middle, wondering what’s going on while watching the body count rise.

Still, when Gentry parachutes onto a roof, knocks out one guard with an uppercut, forces another to drop his weapon by shooting him in the arm, and uses his suppressed .22 handgun to shoot a gun out of a third guard’s hand, all while nursing a rib injury, I had to guffaw. The scene would be great in a movie, but a novel gives the reader a chance to reflect upon how implausible Gentry’s heroics become. Gentry can hit any target while aiming on the fly, but teams of professional shooters can’t manage to hit Gentry. The makes it difficult to take the story seriously, although this kind of spy novel isn't meant to be taken as seriously more thought-provoking works.

The story mixes ordinary action scenes with a few that are more creative (I particularly liked one that takes place inside a McDonald's). Key characters include a crime beat reporter and a national security reporter who begin to connect the threads of all the D.C. killings, a CIA analyst whose job is to assess domestic threats against the CIA, and a CIA assassin who wants a chance to take out Gentry despite his belief that Gentry is the good guy. None of the characters are deep but they are deep enough to carry an action novel.

The ending neatly resolves the mystery that plagues Gentry through the course of the novel. The ending is marred by the wholly unbelievable notion that a Washington Post reporter would decline to write a story about the massive crimes that Carmichael commits, including multiple domestic murders, because telling the truth might “harm the CIA.” Mark Greaney seems to believe that exposing governmental misconduct in an intelligence agency is a bad thing because Congress might respond by cutting the agency's budget. That's unlikely to happen but even if it did, democracies can't function if the illegal acts of government officials are concealed from the public. Weaking a democracy is a greater sin than weakening the CIA. Reporters understand that. Back Blast’s suggestion that a respected reporter would decline to report a Pulitzer-worthy story about outrageous governmental misconduct is beyond fantasy, and if he thinks that would be a good outcome, Greaney is delusional. Still, despite the number of times I had difficulty suspending my disbelief in the story, Back Blast is a ton of fun. It earns my recommendation on that basis.

RECOMMENDED