Red Rising. Pierce Brown, author. (Del Rey/Random House, 2014.) I don’t buy Big Five ebooks much anymore; they often cost as much as the print versions! I fell into a trap on this one, though. The publisher has learned to set the trap of offering the first book in a series at a very low price. Sometimes that works, and readers buy more books in the series, so the trap is good for the publisher, author, and readers. In this case, that trap didn’t work. Let me explain why.

The book is a mixed bag. At times it seems like alternate history, a sci-fi subgenre I detest for the most part (the only exception if memory serves is Hogan’s The Proteus Operation). Here the evil Roman Empire is alive and well and dominates our solar system. The novel is almost dystopian too, not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn’t work here. The cruelty of the Golds, the rulers of this futuristic empire, seems worse than any oppressors’ in known history, primarily because they have some fancy tech to back up their oppression. And they have lied to the Reds, the Martian miners, and other low-colored castes so they will believe they are creating a new home for humans by terraforming Mars.

I don’t buy into the concept. It seems as unbelievable as the Hunger Games concept (but Hollywood’s idea of good, believable science fiction is often questionable). Clancy said fiction has to seem real, and this story fails that test. The sociological aspects just don’t make sense either. The author needs to understand that world building also requires creating an alien or futuristic society that makes sense. The Roman Empire lasted a long time because it had layers of complexity underneath the emperors and generals that supported the ruling classes. That’s missing here because the book features lots of blood, gore, and guts as if all of Mars is dominated by gladiator dominance.

Yes, there is a lot of fighting among these sci-fi Romans, and this narrative becomes old rather quickly because of it. Old Rome was filled with intrigue and murder, but readers who like that sort of thing should read historical chronicles about Caesar and Nero instead. I get tired of the blood and gore here. Moreover, the setting of a terraformed Mars is absolutely absurd—at 0.37g in the valley where a lot of action takes place (the Colloseum?), why does Mars now hold onto its atmosphere and have grasslands and forests? There’s not much science in this sci-fi, to say the least.

Yet you can’t help but be sympathetic to the main character Darrow, the ex-miner who watched the Golds murder his wife. Darrow is a Red who becomes a Gold to infiltrate that caste and bring it down. The transformation is accomplished via a painful body reconstruction. What happens after that could have made an interesting read if it weren’t so much about warring Romans who pit their children against each other. Darrow’s quest is lost. I won’t touch the other books in the series—Book Two is $9.99—because this one fails so miserably. And I’m glad I didn’t spend a lot of money on it! (Hey, Big Five staffers, an ebook is just a computer file. I won’t spend more than $6 on one! And this is probably one review I should repost to Amazon, but it would just be lost among all the readers who swallowed this drivel.)

Die 6. Scott Dyson, author (Deadlock Press, 2014). To end on a much more positive note, let me consider this collection of extremely interesting short stories—speculative fiction but not necessarily sci-fi, and a pleasant respite from the blood and gore of the novel above for the most part. Short fiction collections are becoming rarities, but writing short fiction represents interesting dashes and mid-distant races compared to the marathon of novel writing. As such, they’re often gems with the excitement of Usain Bolt in the hundred meters.

This little collection of six short stories is a good example of what I mean. The stories range from the humorous to the serious. In the first, a man is seduced by a digitized woman (OK, maybe that is sci-fi)—an unusual love story. In the second, a real psychic gives fake readings, and gets into a lot of trouble—very humorous. In #3, a real tooth fairy gets into trouble—fantasy, yes, but humorous and thought provoking. In #4, a fun house at a carnival is not so much fun—the author here is channeling Stephen King (It comes to mind in comparison, but the short story is more concise and frankly scarier, and that King novel proves the point I made above—the ebook version is $12.99 and the print version is $14.99!). The fifth story is a beautiful romance with a sad twist—a good time-travel tale that ably avoids the paradoxes (OK, that’s sci-fi too). And the sixth story, the longest, features an old train accident from the 19^th century and its effect on three kids from the 20^th, a powerful and cautionary tale about overpowering guilt.

Mr. Dyson’s breadth here is surprising—every story is interesting. I just wish he’d write more stories!

***

Comments are always welcome.

More than Human: The Mensa Contagion. One reviewer compared this novel to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series. The first part is about how an ET virus creates homo sapiens version 2.0, though. The second is about how these new humans colonize Mars and discover a starship filled with the same ETs who sent the virus to Earth. The ebook is available on Amazon and Smashwords and all its affiliates.

In libris libertas!

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