Abdullah Ali's Blog

Okay, Hugh Howey knows how to write.

Before I say anything else… what the hell is wrong with him? Why name this ‘Wool’? It has nothing to do with textiles, and that’s stupid. I’m calling it SILO henceforth.

Now that that’s settled: I read the entire SILO series — all three omnibuses — and I have to say that I’m impressed.

The writing is great, the story is concise, and the character development is amazing. The story describes a dystopia, and yet it feels so full of life. It was odd, and I was so engaged with my reading throughout this, that I once dreamt of that world. It was a crappy dream bordering on nightmare, but Howey’s writing had me there nevertheless, and it drove the point home: what I was reading was affecting me deeply.

Now, this world Howey is describing revolves around people living and dying inside of an underground silo, a self-sustaining contained world in and out of itself.

If you’re an old-school gamer like myself. You’ll instantly be reminded of the Fallout series. I’m not talking Fallout 3 or New Vegas or whatever they’re playing these days. I’m talking origins, I’m talking Fallout 1 and 2. Don’t be offended if you like the new Fallouts, I’ll explain.

In the first two Fallout games, the vaults were much bigger. Due to the isometric nature of the games, the map could be much more compact. Granted, they never used this to give you the massive vaults you expect, but the many inaccessible doors and collapsed corridors gave you the illusion of grandeur.

In the SILO universe, the silo — or the vault for all of you Fallout fans — is a vertical metropolis nestled underground.

The resemblance ends there, however. Because in the silo universe, the silo is something that could house 10,000 occupants, and the whole thing — all hundred and fifty or so floors of it — is connected by a single stairwell massive in scale.

Another difference is that the SILO universe is one where thinking about leaving the silo is a crime punishable only by leaving the silo. Get it?

Spoilers below.

Spoiler

The story follows the life of Juliette Nicholas, the bad-ass mechanic turned sheriff then sentenced to cleaning — going outside, which meant death — and whom escapes that fate through the help of a friend down in mechanical. She decides not to clean the exterior cameras and that leads to an all out war in the silo. She then discovers another silo — silo 17 — and goes to explore it. She makes contact with a character named Solo, who had lived his entire life in solitude, and they help each other out. Long story short: she goes back to her original silo — silo 18 — and becomes mayor. Whereupon she vows to fuck everything up for Silo 1 and the ones running the show.

Now that we’re done with the most massive spoiler in the history of spoilers, let’s move on.

Howey’s attention span is massive; that, I can say for sure. The amount of detail, the overlapping plot lines, and the complex characters; it’s all fascinating, and I’m truly envious to say the least. The character interaction deserves special mention, too. Yet, I feel that some of the other characters deserved more attention in this instalment, especially Solo; but not to worry, he gets his own story told in the sequel from his own point of view.

This is the first solid five from me, and most likely the last. Because finding something so beautifully complete and whole is an unlikely event. Remembering all of this, I’m honestly tempted to go read the whole series again.

I highly recommend reading this. It’s a true master work, and deserves every penny and second you spend reading it.

Title:


Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1-5)




Series:


Silo Saga




Author:



Hugh Howey





Genre:


Science Fiction




Publisher:


Broad Reach Publishing




Release Date:



January 25, 2012





Pages:


550

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

Buy at Amazon

I was originally going to rage, but I wrote this review a couple of times to ensure that it came out level-headed and objective.

Okay, so everybody is a she, that’s cool and refreshing… not.

I don’t even know how I managed to finish this without tearing at my hair in frustration. Talks of a bearded she was what got to me first: I had to stop right there and discover that I’ve been reading this the wrong way from the start, that that I had to make special consideration while reading this book. Then the characters got mixed up and I had to start over. Only this time, paying special attention to details as to whom belongs to what gender, and for the love of god I didn’t succeed. I just gave up and read it as a ‘she’ every time a new name came up.

I still don’t know what Lieutenant Awn’s true gender is. Spoilers below.

This book was painful to read. The fact that this won multiple awards — read: Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, British Science Fiction, Locus and Arthur C. Clarke Awards — is just puzzling and misleading. This wins my award for confusing.

The plot is cool, but the lack of any kind of science, what so ever, was a bit of a put off. I normally like my science fiction to have some science in it, even if pseudo-science. This leads to me having seen no faulty logic to rage at for once.

The flashbacks only add to the confusion, but you have two sub-plots, and both are somewhat interesting.

The imperial house system had a George R.R. Martin feel to it, but only to a certain extent, it was… different. You have many warring houses, competing and consuming each other. Some minor, and some major. People wear insignia to signify their heritage and whom is 1-upping who. You have a junkie character who is displaced out of time due to a freak accident, and an emperor/freak who consists of a set of linked clones and suffers from true dissociative personality disorder, and is plotting against herself.

The concept of religion in the book is interesting as well. An all-encompassing religion that assimilates other gods just as easily you consume doughnuts is an interesting concept. A language that doesn’t differentiate based on gender is another matter, as I was forced to find out.

I also found the character of Anaander Mianaais to be both complex and interesting. A person trying to assassinate their alter egos is always interesting in a way, and a character both fallible and immortal makes for an entertaining story.

I won’t say “I can’t wait for the sequel,” but I will say that I’m looking forward to reading it. I want to see where this goes.

Bring lots of aspirin if you decide to read this.

Title: Ancillary Justice
Series: Imperial Radch
Author: Ann Leckie
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Pages: 416

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance. Buy at Amazon

A two-stars review from me. The only reason it didn’t get three is that I’m an opinionated bastard, and that the book art is anime-themed.

Then again, I’m an ass-hole like that. I don’t have a thing against anime, it’s just not my favourite thing in the world when it comes to literature.

Call me shallow.

Moving on, the book itself was nice. I really enjoyed the action bits, which constitute most of it if you discount the “Oh, I’m too weak. I must grow stronger,” touchy-feely anime shit.

The premise is cool: unrelenting starfish from hell fucking with humanity’s shit all day long, and getting better at it by the second. Then the protagonist kills an Alpha, drowns in its sandy blood and suddenly, every time he is killed he awakes in the past. What’s really happening is that the nanobots in the Alpha’s blood are sending tachyon pulses to the past, communicating what would happen hours from now, creating the illusion of death and a cycle, but wait a moment, I got this.

So the nanobots enter his bloodstream for the first time, and then he dies. They send a message. Great, but what’s there to receive it the first time around?

How in hell do you send the signal to something that isn’t there to begin with?

In the first cycle he shouldn’t wake up at all. The tachyon pulse is sent and there’s nothing there to act upon it. He should have died, or at best got stuck in a millisecond loop where death was inevitable.

Moreover, they’re adapted to starfish anatomy. How do you detect death as a nanobot to begin with? And assuming that you could detect the death of a starfish, how in hell does that translate to detecting death in mammals? And assuming it does, how does a nanobot check if a multi-celled organism is dead when it can barely interact with cells? Cells which — incidentally — die all the time. I won’t even go into how the nervous system and brain cells work, but if you’ve studied biology in high school, you already got it.

Okay, so there’s handwavium involved. I’ll let it fly, but then there’s the Full Metal Bitch.

The American all out bad-ass girl, the deadly soldier from the nether sent to represent death incarnate, who’s also got a soft side with complementary touchy-feely appendages. Wait, what?

Yes, after she coldly killed him for a battery pack at the beginning of the book — a part I enjoyed immensely by the way, — she goes on to cuddle with him later on, then lets him kill her to save the world, and then he says “I love you” as she dies in his arms. That part was what killed the book for me. I was simply in awe at the cliché. I couldn’t believe it. An entertaining book turned to shit in front of my eyes.

Her being the server, or whatever shit justification that led to this point, was not enough. I just hated myself for reading this and Hiroshi Sakurazaka for writing it afterwards.

 

 

Title: All You Need Is Kill
Author: Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Genre: Science Fiction, Military
Publisher: Haikasoru/VIZ Media
Release Date: September 5, 2011
Pages: 230

When the alien Mimics invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor called a Jacket and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to be reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On his 158th iteration, he gets a message from a mysterious ally — the female soldier known as the Full Metal Bitch. Is she the key to Keiji's escape or his final death?

Buy at Amazon

Book: Hollow World
Author: Michael Sullivan
Publisher: Tachyon Publications

So, I read this like two months ago, and I have to say that I was intrigued. I normally don’t stray away from my space operas so much, but I was glad I did.

I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but the book was simply… strange. For instance, Michael Sullivan starts the book by saying that time travel isn’t possible, and yet, it’s the backbone on which this book is founded. Another strange thing is that he used kickstarter for funding.

The book follows the adventure of Ellis Rogers ­— a man on the verge of death — through time. He thought that by inventing his own time machine he could simply travel to a time where a cure for his ailment was available.

He was right.

Again, stop reading right now if you don’t want spoilers, because what I’m about to write next is going to spoil some more for you.

So, he meets a genderless detective. Weird, huh? It gets weirder, everyone is a clone. They all look the same, and their only means of achieving individuality is their manner of clothing.

Then there’s this concept with Makers, too: machines that can make anything, and there’s the magic with teleportation devices, limitless energy, weather control, and true artificial intelligence. It certainly looks like humanity has it all figured out, yet they can’t figure out a simple murder case on their own, and their gullibility is daunting.

In a world with no poverty, no wars, no tension, no killing. It might all make a sense. But genderless… would you dare go on without your naughty bits?

That’s not all, however. He then proceeds to fall in love with said genderless detective. This is where it got weird for me.

I’m not even sure if love can be that pure. I personally have a problem with the concept of love. I mean… yeah, everyone who experienced it talks about it, but some of us never experience it at all.

What would you do if your love couldn’t be consummated sexually? Cuddle some and call it a day?

Maybe there’s something to it. I can’t be sure.

Interesting book, check it out if you have the time.

Here we go with the introductions. My name is Abdullah Ali. I’m an Egyptian writer. I write in English as well as Arabic. I am passionate about science fiction and I also dip into fantasy from time to time.

You’re saying an Egyptian can’t write in English? Preposterous, I know. Just keep in mind that different people evolve in different ways, and some actually do deviate from their environments and the acceptable norm. Look at you. You’re reading my blog, and must be already deviating.

Regardless, I created this site for two reasons.

Firstly, to express myself. I love books and I’m passionate about them.

Secondly, to promote my books. I roll my own when I’m not satisfied with what I’m reading, and that happens more than you think.

I guess another reason just popped up in my head. Maybe I’ll also critique some of what I read. I might have some rants along the way.

Stay in touch, I’ll be posting more here soon.