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Debatable Space
Debatable Space
Flanagan (who is, for want of a better word, a pirate) has a plan. It seems relatively kidnap Lena, the Cheo's daughter, demand a vast ransom for her safe return, sit back and wait.
Only the Cheo, despotic ruler of the known universe, isn't playing ball. Flanagan and his crew have seen this before, of course, but since they've learned a few tricks from the bad old days and since they know something about Lena that should make the plan foolproof, the Cheo's defiance is a major setback. It is a situation that calls for extreme measures.
Luckily, Flanagan has considerable experience in this area . . .
Only the Cheo, despotic ruler of the known universe, isn't playing ball. Flanagan and his crew have seen this before, of course, but since they've learned a few tricks from the bad old days and since they know something about Lena that should make the plan foolproof, the Cheo's defiance is a major setback. It is a situation that calls for extreme measures.
Luckily, Flanagan has considerable experience in this area . . .
488 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
11 people are currently reading
420 people want to read
About the author
Philip Palmer
48 books54 followersI started writing when I was 14 and wrote a short story for the school magazine about a bank robber who is killed during a heist and goes to Heaven - can't get through the Pearly Gates, and has to break in. Nicely synthesising all the genres I still love to mash up...!
I wrote five 'widescreen' high-octane high concept SF novels for Orbit Books, including DEBATABLE SPACE and VERSION 43 - blending satire with action with lashings of dark humour.
Now I am writing for film and television as well as writing prose. My recent books include MORPHO, published by NewCon Press and HELL ON EARTH, a fantasy epic about demons and cops.
My most recent book is THE GREAT WEST WOOD, a fantasy set in the fictional suburb of Westood - an urban village which is full of magic . There's crime, there's murder, and there's even a floating boy - because in Westwood, anything is possible...
I wrote five 'widescreen' high-octane high concept SF novels for Orbit Books, including DEBATABLE SPACE and VERSION 43 - blending satire with action with lashings of dark humour.
Now I am writing for film and television as well as writing prose. My recent books include MORPHO, published by NewCon Press and HELL ON EARTH, a fantasy epic about demons and cops.
My most recent book is THE GREAT WEST WOOD, a fantasy set in the fictional suburb of Westood - an urban village which is full of magic . There's crime, there's murder, and there's even a floating boy - because in Westwood, anything is possible...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
April 1, 2010
Every once in a while, when I am in a bookstore, I find myself needing to leave, but I have nothing in my hands. Sometimes it's because I am wandering around while the kids are in ballet and I need to get back to pick them up; sometimes it's because I came for something specific and it isn't there; and sometimes it's because I am in the middle of an indecisive phase.
But I have an answer for all this. With time ticking away, I pick a section -- Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery, History, Biography, Fiction, whatever -- and I look for the first name or cover that captures my attention. If it is by an author I don't know I buy it.
I've found this method can turn up some gems, and Philip Palmer's debut novel, Debatable Space, is a particularly shiny example of my spontaneous luck. It sat on my to-read stack for over a year (and when I started reading Debatable Space it was only supposed to give me something to do while I brushed my teeth), but now I wish that I'd read it sooner.
Palmer writes in the classic space opera mode: alien races, bloody battles, interstellar travel, big ideas, even bigger technologies, hot sex, and an epic scope. And he does it with a joy I have seldom witnessed. It's one thing for me to enjoy a book and enjoy my time reading it, but it is quite another to actually feel the author enjoying the writing. I felt Palmer doing just that all the way through Debatable Space.
Palmer really loved writing this book. He loved his version of the universe, of course, and his imaginary technologies. But mostly he loved his characters, and that passion for Lena, Flanagan, the Cheo, Alby and the others makes Debatable Space one hell of a fun read.
Some reviewers have complained about Debatable Space's first person narrative and the way it shifts from character to character (sort of As I Lay Dying on speed), writing that it doesn't really work, but I think most of that frustration comes from their dislike of Palmer's characters. The biggest complaint seems to be that his characters are universally unlikable, which makes me cringe a little because I found them universally the reverse. Flawed, violent, occasionally nasty, but infinitely likable (I imagine that says something about me and the way I see the world)
Setting aside Palmer's love for his characters, though, if a reader doesn't connect with them, I can see how Debatable Space could be difficult to enjoy. Luckily, I didn't have that problem and, while there were some times early on when the characters' voices seemed too alike, I found the first person narrative and multiple viewpoints refreshing.
I was annoyed, though, by some of Palmer's more gimmicky moments -- such as a hang gliding sequence that used two otherwise blank pages to go "up up up" and "down down down" -- and I am not so sure this book will hold up to repeated readings. Still, I have great hope for his future works, one of which, Red Claw, is already out there.
I genuinely loved the time I spent in Palmer's universe.
I also love that if I hadn't been in such a hurry to get home that day all those months ago, I never would have found myself reading about Earth's next thousand years. Spontaneity is good. Try it sometime.
But I have an answer for all this. With time ticking away, I pick a section -- Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery, History, Biography, Fiction, whatever -- and I look for the first name or cover that captures my attention. If it is by an author I don't know I buy it.
I've found this method can turn up some gems, and Philip Palmer's debut novel, Debatable Space, is a particularly shiny example of my spontaneous luck. It sat on my to-read stack for over a year (and when I started reading Debatable Space it was only supposed to give me something to do while I brushed my teeth), but now I wish that I'd read it sooner.
Palmer writes in the classic space opera mode: alien races, bloody battles, interstellar travel, big ideas, even bigger technologies, hot sex, and an epic scope. And he does it with a joy I have seldom witnessed. It's one thing for me to enjoy a book and enjoy my time reading it, but it is quite another to actually feel the author enjoying the writing. I felt Palmer doing just that all the way through Debatable Space.
Palmer really loved writing this book. He loved his version of the universe, of course, and his imaginary technologies. But mostly he loved his characters, and that passion for Lena, Flanagan, the Cheo, Alby and the others makes Debatable Space one hell of a fun read.
Some reviewers have complained about Debatable Space's first person narrative and the way it shifts from character to character (sort of As I Lay Dying on speed), writing that it doesn't really work, but I think most of that frustration comes from their dislike of Palmer's characters. The biggest complaint seems to be that his characters are universally unlikable, which makes me cringe a little because I found them universally the reverse. Flawed, violent, occasionally nasty, but infinitely likable (I imagine that says something about me and the way I see the world)
Setting aside Palmer's love for his characters, though, if a reader doesn't connect with them, I can see how Debatable Space could be difficult to enjoy. Luckily, I didn't have that problem and, while there were some times early on when the characters' voices seemed too alike, I found the first person narrative and multiple viewpoints refreshing.
I was annoyed, though, by some of Palmer's more gimmicky moments -- such as a hang gliding sequence that used two otherwise blank pages to go "up up up" and "down down down" -- and I am not so sure this book will hold up to repeated readings. Still, I have great hope for his future works, one of which, Red Claw, is already out there.
I genuinely loved the time I spent in Palmer's universe.
I also love that if I hadn't been in such a hurry to get home that day all those months ago, I never would have found myself reading about Earth's next thousand years. Spontaneity is good. Try it sometime.
July 5, 2012
Randomly selected in the library. the narrative is annoying -- very fragmentary, many different narrators and time periods, rapid POV switching -- and the typography makes me roll my eyes (I don't need a page of the letters d o o o o o w n dripping down the page to get that she's falling). The characters are universally unlikeable; the main female character egotistical and self-justifying, the main male character smug and unprincipled. There's a lot of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll. None of this is my thing.
And yet. I loved it. I gulped it down practically whole. I was on the edge of my seat. The book has an undeniable energy and joy which swept me up despite myself. It made me root for the characters despite the fact that they are all incredibly flawed. There are sciency infodumps and I do not mind. There's a deus ex machina and it just made me whoop.
I'm sure it has other flaws, but while reading it, I couldn't care less. That, in my view, is a good book -- and I'm very glad I picked up two more books by Philip Palmer on the same whim.
And yet. I loved it. I gulped it down practically whole. I was on the edge of my seat. The book has an undeniable energy and joy which swept me up despite myself. It made me root for the characters despite the fact that they are all incredibly flawed. There are sciency infodumps and I do not mind. There's a deus ex machina and it just made me whoop.
I'm sure it has other flaws, but while reading it, I couldn't care less. That, in my view, is a good book -- and I'm very glad I picked up two more books by Philip Palmer on the same whim.
August 27, 2010
“But I have an answer for all this. With time ticking away, I pick a section -- Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery, History, Biography, Fiction, whatever -- and I look for the first name or cover that captures my attention. If it is by an author I don't know I buy it.”
This quote from Brad’s review of Debatable Space decided me on reading this novel as I’m familiar with the phenomenon of which he speaks. I don’t follow his method exactly but there are several authors I’ve discovered by similar means, including Eluki Bes Shahar (Butterfly and Hellflower) and Iain M. Banks (Consider Phlebas, et al.).
In this case the result was between 2.5 and 3 stars, and I’ll round up in this case because I was swept along for the weekend I voyaged in Palmer’s “debatable space” by the writing’s enthusiastic pace and verve.
My difficulties with the novel are two-fold:
(1) I felt like I had read this story before, and there was nothing that I found fresh about it. This isn’t a bad thing – a familiar but well told tale with interesting characters can be a satisfying read but that brings me to my second problem.
(2) I wasn’t interested in any of the characters in the book. Lena, the millennium-old mother of the Cheo, dictator of humanity, was the most interesting – at least potentially – but everyone else felt too “stock,” taken down from the shelves to fulfill a designated role.
That said, I did find the tale “well told,” and I think Palmer has the potential to write some interesting stuff. For Debatable Space, however, the experience was like a brief summer shower – refreshing and fun while it lasts but soon forgotten.
February 16, 2009
This book felt like a first novel.
It tackles an epic scope with a cast of millions (or billions or trillions) of extras who act in ignorable unison without variation nor dissent.
A central character is woven through history like Forest Gump, except the future history chosen is lurching and inconsistent. The character is racked with ennui and the inability to choose even the most trivial aspects of her personal life, but simultaneously able to make political accomplishments on the scale of Julius Caesar. It often feels like a novel written in the world of a slacker's delusion of grandeur.
The deus ex machina ending is unsatisfying, and begs the question of why anyone capable of the trick of the last few dozen pages would have bothered with the intricacies of the first few hundred pages that seem made retroactively useless, save for a subtle side effect that could have been accomplished much more simply.
In all, the book bit off more than it could chew.
It tackles an epic scope with a cast of millions (or billions or trillions) of extras who act in ignorable unison without variation nor dissent.
A central character is woven through history like Forest Gump, except the future history chosen is lurching and inconsistent. The character is racked with ennui and the inability to choose even the most trivial aspects of her personal life, but simultaneously able to make political accomplishments on the scale of Julius Caesar. It often feels like a novel written in the world of a slacker's delusion of grandeur.
The deus ex machina ending is unsatisfying, and begs the question of why anyone capable of the trick of the last few dozen pages would have bothered with the intricacies of the first few hundred pages that seem made retroactively useless, save for a subtle side effect that could have been accomplished much more simply.
In all, the book bit off more than it could chew.
April 8, 2008
I had a bad feeling when I started reading this book that I was going to hate it. It had a sort of self-published air about it that filled me with dread.
But I persevered, and I'm glad I did, because this was just an excellent book. Filled with Big Ideas and fun characters. I'm not sure I could this book justice by trying to describe it.
It takes place over millenia, and although the science is outlandish, it's also plausible. And the aliens are cool.
It's structured unlike anything you're likely to read any time soon ... which I suppose might put people off as trying too hard, but I really liked it.
So there you have it, another lame non-review.
But I persevered, and I'm glad I did, because this was just an excellent book. Filled with Big Ideas and fun characters. I'm not sure I could this book justice by trying to describe it.
It takes place over millenia, and although the science is outlandish, it's also plausible. And the aliens are cool.
It's structured unlike anything you're likely to read any time soon ... which I suppose might put people off as trying too hard, but I really liked it.
So there you have it, another lame non-review.
January 16, 2018
"I once slept for two and a half minutes during one of his sentences, though of course, I masked it well and he never knew."
That sentence describes a meeting with a genius whose invention is going to change human galactic history, but who is not much respected by our POV character, as you can see. This is a small example of the irreverent wit that drives much of the narration of this novel. It's difficult to describe what the novel is, because it's very much a kitchen sink novel: it throws a surprising Universe at the reader (though it also throws the reader bones of understanding), and it indulges in humor, social satire, cultural satire, withering historic criticism, while giving us engaging characters who strive against terrible odds, while also making you wonder why humans have been allowed to survive, if this is the best we can do.
I love that kind of Science Fiction novel, which takes itself as a romp, an exaggerated charade; and the reading experience reminds me of the times I discovered Out on Blue Six and Perdido Street Station. Yes, I own all of Palmer's novels, and I look forward to reading them.
[For those geeks who pay attention to my "progress report" on this book, I should explain. I originally started it in 2015, got almost a hundred pages in, and realized that I'd need to Really Pay Attention to this one. Alas, I got hit with a ton of student manuscripts, so I had to put it aside. Whenever I would think about restarting, some other Major Distraction was looming. So recently I finally had a mostly open period in front of me, and I started the book again from the beginning. So, no, it didn't take me two and a half years to get through this. And yes, I'm sorry I waited.]
The character arc for Lena, the central human personage, is somewhat amazing, and very clever. She's essentially from our own time, but manages to live long enough for semi-immortality treatments to be introduced (she's an early adopter), and she will make herself President of Humanity for quite a stretch, and then will venture out into Space. She will undergo many, many transformations and reinventions (and the novel is a satire on self-reinvention, among other things) in her centuries of existence, but in her own narration her self-image is:
"Secretly, though, I consider myself to be a monster, a horror---a flayed beast. Nothing will ever persuade me otherwise. But I have an inner cesspool, where all my bad thoughts and fears go. There dwells the monster. There my hate broods and simmers."
Later on that same page she will ask, rhetorically, the mother's question which is her personal dilemma: "Is it really all my fault that my oh so beautiful baby turned into the most evil human being who has ever lived?"
I note that one of the clever tactics of this novel is that Lena remembers our era, and in telling her story in the future, her main points of reference are sufficiently familiar to the reader to reduce the future shock.
Another amusement, for this reader, is that the book plays with the concerns of writers, in relation to the audience. We have a brief scientific explanation at one point, and Lena parenthetically addresses the reader:
(Fell free to skip ahead, by the way, if this section is boring you. I know it's complicated and hard. So if you have one of those sad grasshopper minds which can't sustain abstract thought for more than a few seconds, or if you're a child of MTV with a channel-hopping finger and no stamina, then please, just skip! Move on to the exciting sections later in which I battle with master criminals and put my life in danger on a daily basis. Go on---I won't be offended---see if I care---skip!)
We also get a lot of homage to classic SF works, and there is a one-paragraph description of a serious Problem, that manages to nod to Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle and Crichton all in one go:
"It was, after all, a plague. A plague of intelligent Bugs that could possess and annihilate a human being in instants. These were Bugs that could learn the English language in a matter of days. They could eat a spaceship. They could build a new spaceship out of particles so small the human eye could not perceive them. They were tiny, they were evil, and we were their prey."
For my students and clients, be warned. This is a three-grimace novel.
Otherwise, recommended.
That sentence describes a meeting with a genius whose invention is going to change human galactic history, but who is not much respected by our POV character, as you can see. This is a small example of the irreverent wit that drives much of the narration of this novel. It's difficult to describe what the novel is, because it's very much a kitchen sink novel: it throws a surprising Universe at the reader (though it also throws the reader bones of understanding), and it indulges in humor, social satire, cultural satire, withering historic criticism, while giving us engaging characters who strive against terrible odds, while also making you wonder why humans have been allowed to survive, if this is the best we can do.
I love that kind of Science Fiction novel, which takes itself as a romp, an exaggerated charade; and the reading experience reminds me of the times I discovered Out on Blue Six and Perdido Street Station. Yes, I own all of Palmer's novels, and I look forward to reading them.
[For those geeks who pay attention to my "progress report" on this book, I should explain. I originally started it in 2015, got almost a hundred pages in, and realized that I'd need to Really Pay Attention to this one. Alas, I got hit with a ton of student manuscripts, so I had to put it aside. Whenever I would think about restarting, some other Major Distraction was looming. So recently I finally had a mostly open period in front of me, and I started the book again from the beginning. So, no, it didn't take me two and a half years to get through this. And yes, I'm sorry I waited.]
The character arc for Lena, the central human personage, is somewhat amazing, and very clever. She's essentially from our own time, but manages to live long enough for semi-immortality treatments to be introduced (she's an early adopter), and she will make herself President of Humanity for quite a stretch, and then will venture out into Space. She will undergo many, many transformations and reinventions (and the novel is a satire on self-reinvention, among other things) in her centuries of existence, but in her own narration her self-image is:
"Secretly, though, I consider myself to be a monster, a horror---a flayed beast. Nothing will ever persuade me otherwise. But I have an inner cesspool, where all my bad thoughts and fears go. There dwells the monster. There my hate broods and simmers."
Later on that same page she will ask, rhetorically, the mother's question which is her personal dilemma: "Is it really all my fault that my oh so beautiful baby turned into the most evil human being who has ever lived?"
I note that one of the clever tactics of this novel is that Lena remembers our era, and in telling her story in the future, her main points of reference are sufficiently familiar to the reader to reduce the future shock.
Another amusement, for this reader, is that the book plays with the concerns of writers, in relation to the audience. We have a brief scientific explanation at one point, and Lena parenthetically addresses the reader:
(Fell free to skip ahead, by the way, if this section is boring you. I know it's complicated and hard. So if you have one of those sad grasshopper minds which can't sustain abstract thought for more than a few seconds, or if you're a child of MTV with a channel-hopping finger and no stamina, then please, just skip! Move on to the exciting sections later in which I battle with master criminals and put my life in danger on a daily basis. Go on---I won't be offended---see if I care---skip!)
We also get a lot of homage to classic SF works, and there is a one-paragraph description of a serious Problem, that manages to nod to Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle and Crichton all in one go:
"It was, after all, a plague. A plague of intelligent Bugs that could possess and annihilate a human being in instants. These were Bugs that could learn the English language in a matter of days. They could eat a spaceship. They could build a new spaceship out of particles so small the human eye could not perceive them. They were tiny, they were evil, and we were their prey."
For my students and clients, be warned. This is a three-grimace novel.
Otherwise, recommended.
July 29, 2012
Some people are giving this book 2 stars for the same reason I'm giving it 4 and a half. Sure, the plot felt fragmented but that created a real frenetic energy. Healthy characters might suddenly be dead in a sentence, battles were chock full of hyperbole, and I had a strong suspicion that absolutely everyone in the entire universe was out of their mind. But aren't those the very things that make Palmer's universe believable? It all fits together; there wasn't a single moment/character/scene that felt inauthentic or out of place.
And some reviewers seemed displeased with Palmer's use of the somewhat gimmicky letters/words strewn up and down the page. dooooooooown, etc. I guess the idea being that only a first-time author would stoop to such gimmicks? But meh, I was okay with stylistic choices like that because the book kept me entertained. If I was ever bored and had to trudge through "creative typography" at the same time, I'm sure I'd have a different opinion. But those stylistic choices fit the quirky plot/characters well. I can honestly say the 479 pages went quickly, it was a fun read.
Oh, and I love SF that spotlights scientific theories as much as characters. A lot of my favorite books get me feeling AND thinking. This book might turn off some people but for many others it is a worthwhile read.
And some reviewers seemed displeased with Palmer's use of the somewhat gimmicky letters/words strewn up and down the page. dooooooooown, etc. I guess the idea being that only a first-time author would stoop to such gimmicks? But meh, I was okay with stylistic choices like that because the book kept me entertained. If I was ever bored and had to trudge through "creative typography" at the same time, I'm sure I'd have a different opinion. But those stylistic choices fit the quirky plot/characters well. I can honestly say the 479 pages went quickly, it was a fun read.
Oh, and I love SF that spotlights scientific theories as much as characters. A lot of my favorite books get me feeling AND thinking. This book might turn off some people but for many others it is a worthwhile read.
December 26, 2022
Debatable quality.
October 18, 2011
Like your space opera with plenty of action? What about some science fiction technology thrown in for good measure? Oh – and a band of violent but likeable pirates – how does that sound? There’s more… How’d you feel about a sexy, powerful heroine whose voyage of self-discovery runs parallel to the epic battle scenes and power struggles that litter this story? Palmer delivers all this in his impressive debut novel.
Engrossed in devising rhapsodic phrases about a newly discovered sun, Lena is far too slow to respond to the threat of pirate invaders – until they board her yacht and take her hostage. Flanagan, their captain, explains that they will hold her ransom to extort money from the brutally ruthless ruler of Humankind, the Cheo. As Lena is one of the Cheo’s daughters, he’s bound to pay up. Only he doesn’t. Because, as we discover, nothing is exactly at is initially seems. Not the Cheo, not Flanagan – and certainly not Lena.
As her imprisonment with the pirate band continues, Lena re-examines her life. And we are treated to a fascinating insight into a complex, believable posthuman character, warts and all. The episodes she recounts take us on a journey from moments of true poignancy to high farce, while exploring the options open to a driven, insecure character on finding herself immortal. However, living alongside the pirate band means that she now has to accommodate the needs and wishes of others – something she hasn’t had to do for a very long time.
Generally, male authors in the genre don’t write wholly convincing female characters. Palmer’s magnificent exception to that rule is all the more impressive, when Lena’s introspection intersperses a rollicking adventure with plenty of epic battles and fight scenes to satisfy the most ardent space opera fan. Think of Simon Green’s Deathstalker series to get an idea of the scale he is working on.
Palmer’s world is convincingly depicted with plenty of hard science to support his detailed universe. In fact, my only major quibble with this book is that Lena’s descriptions of the technological changes throughout her lifetime, at times, holds up the narrative. But this is a personal preference. Other sci-fi fans will probably fall upon these particular passages as solid proof that Palmer is a master of his craft.
Other than his deft handling of his heroine, the other standout feature of this book is Philip’s punchy writing style and the wry humour that permeates the story. It leavens the violent backdrop and helps us identify with Lena. I cared about her – despite her opinionated, vain and selfish character. The fact that Palmer manages to pull off such a trick in his first novel marks him as a talent to watch.
Engrossed in devising rhapsodic phrases about a newly discovered sun, Lena is far too slow to respond to the threat of pirate invaders – until they board her yacht and take her hostage. Flanagan, their captain, explains that they will hold her ransom to extort money from the brutally ruthless ruler of Humankind, the Cheo. As Lena is one of the Cheo’s daughters, he’s bound to pay up. Only he doesn’t. Because, as we discover, nothing is exactly at is initially seems. Not the Cheo, not Flanagan – and certainly not Lena.
As her imprisonment with the pirate band continues, Lena re-examines her life. And we are treated to a fascinating insight into a complex, believable posthuman character, warts and all. The episodes she recounts take us on a journey from moments of true poignancy to high farce, while exploring the options open to a driven, insecure character on finding herself immortal. However, living alongside the pirate band means that she now has to accommodate the needs and wishes of others – something she hasn’t had to do for a very long time.
Generally, male authors in the genre don’t write wholly convincing female characters. Palmer’s magnificent exception to that rule is all the more impressive, when Lena’s introspection intersperses a rollicking adventure with plenty of epic battles and fight scenes to satisfy the most ardent space opera fan. Think of Simon Green’s Deathstalker series to get an idea of the scale he is working on.
Palmer’s world is convincingly depicted with plenty of hard science to support his detailed universe. In fact, my only major quibble with this book is that Lena’s descriptions of the technological changes throughout her lifetime, at times, holds up the narrative. But this is a personal preference. Other sci-fi fans will probably fall upon these particular passages as solid proof that Palmer is a master of his craft.
Other than his deft handling of his heroine, the other standout feature of this book is Philip’s punchy writing style and the wry humour that permeates the story. It leavens the violent backdrop and helps us identify with Lena. I cared about her – despite her opinionated, vain and selfish character. The fact that Palmer manages to pull off such a trick in his first novel marks him as a talent to watch.
August 15, 2023
review of
Philip Palmer's Debatable Space
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 10-15, 2023
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticP...
After I read this, I thought that I felt about it similarly to the way I felt about William Barton & Michael Capobianco's Iris. SO I decided to revisit my review of that & discovered that it's one of the many reviews whose full-length version is no longer available b/c of Goodreads deleting the Goodreads author's "Writing" section. SOO, I found my long review on one of my EHDs in order to partially reread it. Woah! It's a bit harsh, definitely harsher than I feel about Palmer's Debatable Space. Here's a sample of my Iris review harshness:
"To anyone out there who pays attn to my reviewing. my not having reviewed a single bk in 2020 until now, during the 3rd mnth of the yr, might seem like unprecedented sloth. In actuality, a member of my family died at the end of 2019 & I've been occupied w/ my role of 'responsible adult' ever since. Added to this that I've been reading 4 other bks, at least 2 of wch I've found exceptionally tedious but I'm nonetheless determined to finish them, & the reader may find that I place the reading of Iris in a particularly trying time. In short, it's hard for me to not just dismiss the bk by saying that I hated it — but, no, that wd be too oversimplifying. There were ideas in it that I found interesting enuf.. but, still, I felt like I was in the presence of the gentrification of science fiction."
[..]
"I love the writing of Mack Reynolds. He wrote from 1950 to 1983. The "About the Author" section in his Commune 2000 A.D. informs the reader that:
""A true adventurer, he once crossed the Sahara to Timbuktu and on the way was captured by the Tuareg (The Forgotten of Allah, and the so-called Apaches of the Sahara). Another time in the tropical jungles of Mexico he was bitten by a vampire bat and had to be treated for rabies. During his travels, Mack Reynolds has been in more than half a dozen wars, revolutions and military revolts, ranging from being shot at by the Huks in the Philippines to being bombed by anti-Castro Cubans." (Commune 2000 A.D., p 182)
"Now cf that to the bios of Barton & Capobianco:
""William Barton is the information systems manager for Health Sciences Consortium, a nonprofit medical/educational publisher."
"[..]
""Michael Capobianco is a founding partner and C.E.O. of Not-Polyoptics, a software company specializing in orphan computers." - p 403
"Ok, my bad attitude is showing: I'm a bigot, a bigot against C.E.O.s. So what do the authors do to put a little wild world spice into their privileged authors story? Lots of sex. LOTS of sex. So much SEX that, for me, it became quickly very tedious. Again, maybe I'm just not getting enuf. Instead, tho, I feel like I wandered into a Nxivm (pronounced "Nexium") Wonderland, 50 Shades of Greys [plural intended]."
- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Now, I shd ameliorate this harshness in its carry-over to Palmer's Debatable Space by saying that I usually admire the accomplishments of people who do things that I haven't, or, possibly, cdn't. This is Palmer's 1st novel (I've never written a novel) & it's a somewhat epic space opera (I've never written space opera). He deserves plenty of credit for that alone. Alas, these days I feel like writers whose work I don't admire much have to fall back on melodrama in order to such in their readers - maybe a transexual wanting to fuck his dad (w/o knowing that that's who he is) or a mother deciding that her son must be killed. In the back of the bk the reader is informed that Palmer has "written for radio, televison, and film" & I have to wonder whether some of what I consider to be the downsides of TV are present as irritants for me in this novel.
I have a signed copy of this. It's written: "To Ann Best Wishes Philip Palmer =". I reckon the author gets some sympathy from me for this. When I see a bk of mine on sale online that's signed I usually know that I GAVE the bk to someone who probably didn't give a shit about it. The signing in this case is too generic for that scenario to be likely but, still, my sympathies are stirred.
The main character, Lena, is an extraordinary person who's had her life extended in a way that approaches immortality. The bk begins w/ her traveling on outer space by herself & w/ her in-brain computer warning her of approaching danger:
"Lena, I think this ship is unregistered, it may be a rogue, we're in trouble, Lena, please help me. I can't cope on my own, Lena, please, I'm begging you, cut the connection, return to the bridge, Lena, I'm scared.
"Just fucking deal with it, tinbrain, okay?" - p 4
You betcha, it's outer-space pirates out to kidnap Lena who just happens to be, so they think?, the daughter of the galactis dictator - or is it the mother?
""Hello, Alby," I say. I hold out my hand imperiously. The flames whorl and a tendril of fire extends towards me. I feel the heat through my exoarmour. I am unflapped.
""Brandon."
""Brandom Bisby, forty-five years of age, astrophysicist by training, his parents were killed by the Cheo's shock troops, on suspicion of being Terrorist. They were later exonerated." - p 16
Oh, well.. I already gave this away but here's the skivvy anyway:
""Xabar, the Cheo will pay to have you back, but not because you're his daughter. Because you are his mother." - p 36
As I write this review, I realize that I liked this more than I've given the impression so far. Take this language play:
"gn, bn, call it, b, r, o," Jamie says to me. This is his "good news/bad news" spiel.
""Lay it on me mf dude, w,a,n,k,e,r," I reply, brushing my nose with my thumb, galactic bodylanguage for "Someone get this geek out of my face!"
"Jamie giggles. To him this is banter. "gn is, we have achieved max shittiest scenario, thing cannot get worse."" - p 37
The idea of "emergence" was one of the more satisfying elements of the novel for me.
"And I was smart enough also to realize that the most important area of modern scientific and philosophical thought was not computing or string theory or postmodernism or chaos theory, but the new science of emergence.
"Emergence, put simply, is the study of how systems of simple organisms tend to organize themselves into more complex structures." - p 86
"Emergence is, essentially, the study of self-organization; it is how, i specific terms, order emerges from chaos." - p 87
That interests me, partially, b/c it's a passable description of how I structure what I call "Usic" (or "(M)Usic") created by a lage number of players. I.E.: I (& other participants) present simple units to actualize & then slot them into a much more complex meta-structure.
We come to learning that Lena is close to immortal:
"I was put on a life-support machine. The ventilator kept my brain alive, as my heart shuddered and spasmed. I had died, but now I was reborn."
"And so began the next phase of my long long life." - p 105
"I never wanted to live forever." - p 106
"But there's a good chance that I will." - p 107
Another idea of interest to me is that of the principle of entanglement:
"Which means that whenever two systems have at some previous moment interacted (or entangled), their description is tied together no matter how far apart they may subsequently be. And a datum that is true of the one system, will be true of the other system also.
"But since all the universe originated in a single near-infinitesimal singularity—in its pre-Big Bang golden idyll—every part of the Universe was at this very earliest moment entangled with every other part. And that connection persists, despite the subsequent expansion of the Universe. It's like twins separated at birth and raised in different countries, who remain empathetically or even telepathically connected." - p 115
"And so, once you have your two quantum state controllers in place . . . distances vanish. An email sent in Australia will reach Africa the very instant it is sent. It won't be quick, it won't be fast; there won't even be a millisecond of time elapsing. It will be instant. And so it becomes as easy to send an email from Australia to Africa as it is to send one from London to the other end of the galaxy." - p 116
Unfortunately, people have become so stupid by this point that it hardly matters. Uh, what? That's not in the bk.
"And, all those years ago, actual control of the first space colonies was literally in my hands, and in my eyes. With the help of a virtual bodysuit connected to robot bodies on the colony planets. I could walk on alien soil, I could move tractors across arid plains, I could choose the music that played on the colony's intercom, I could devise menus for the children who I was growing there. I could do anything!" - p 118
Flanagan, the pirate captain, has his inner thoughts about his captive, Lena, revealed.
"She is, in short, old. Everything about her, aside from her sleek and sexual body and her shimmeringly wonderful face, exudes withered and arid age. She's selfish, self-contained, cautious, cowardly, bigoted, small-minded, self-pitying, spoiled, self-indulgent, arrogant, uninterested in the feelings of others." - p 137
Well, as we all know, money can't buy me love &..
"Life begins at a hundred and forty . . ." - p 194
"As HIV/AIDS was cured, it was replaced with contagious osteoporosis, and that in turn was replaced by the deadliest disease of all, the Immuno-Suppresant Plague that killed literally tens upon tens of millions of Africans in the most appalling manner possible." - p 202
"The IS Plague was not in fact a natural mutation, it was lab-generated . Furthermore, it was patented. I hacked into an entire directory in the US Patents website where under the innocuous title New Millenial Infective Agents I found patents for genetic creations which included the Plague and a wide variety of biological weapons sufficient to end all life on Earth." - p 203
"in Europe alone €9 billion to "save Africa from this deadly scourge". This money didn't go to Africans to spend or eat, it wasn't used to buy land or equipment, it was spent on expensive medication to save African children from a disease bioengineered and patented by teh same company that made the medicines we bought at such vast expense." - p 204
I've got a better idea! Let's make a 'vaccine' that claims, w/o proof, it'll prevent vast numbers of deaths & then have this vaccine produce 'rare' immuno-deficiency 'side-effects' like encephalitis, myasthenia gravis, & ALS & make as many people as possible 'willingly' inject this 'vaccine' directly into their bloodstream - causing large numbers of deniable deaths that'll help reduce the population at the same time that it makes the survivors more docile AND makes them pay for it.
"There is no law in Debateable Space. It is a wild place. It is the place of final escape for pirates and outlaws." - p 305
"We are headed for Kornbluth, which is eighteen lightyears from our sanctuary in Debateable Space" - p 339
There're a few references to other SF writers in Debateable Space. C. M. Kornbluth is the only one whose work I know (& enjoy). Jerry Pournelle ("I had a simple philosophy of power, which I called the Pournelle Doctrine, after one of my favorite writers. The doctrine is this: Problems have solutions." (p 396)) & Larry Niven are 2 others he refers to that I've never had any interest in. I've had the impression, perhaps unfounded, that Niven, at least, is pro-authoritarian, pro-military - & that's contributed to my lack of interest. Perhaps Palmer's liking of Niven is a clue to why I found it hard to be enthusiastic about this novel. Wikipedia makes the following claims about Niven's politics:
"According to author Michael Moorcock, in 1967, Niven, despite being a staunch conservative, voiced opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1968 Niven signed an advertisement in Galaxy Science Fiction in support for continued US involvement in the Vietnam War.
"Niven was an adviser to Ronald Reagan on the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative antimissile policy, as part of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy—as covered in the BBC documentary Pandora's Box by Adam Curtis.
"In 2007, Niven, in conjunction with a think tank of science fiction writers known as SIGMA, founded and led by Arlan Andrews, began advising the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as to future trends affecting terror policy and other topics. Among those topics was reducing costs for hospitals to which Niven offered the solution to spread rumors in Latino communities that organs were being harvested illegally in hospitals."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_N...
Maybe that's just character assassination. At any rate, Niven's politics (as portrayed above) don't seem to be Palmer's.
Lena, in appearance at least, becomes the leader of most or all of the pirates.
"And every day, I make a point of addressing the entire fleet via the intercom with one of my poems, reflecting some vital point or another about our mortal existence. These go down very well, I am frequently congratulated for my day's i;;uminating broadcast. "Keep up the good work, Lena!" I am told by ugly cut-throats. "We love devastating use of litotes!"" - p 350
litotes: "understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary (as in "not a bad singer" or "not unhappy")" - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti...
"I have been drunk, drugged, lazy, stupefied, and just plain idle. Like Samuel Beckett, I once spent a year in bed. Like Winnie the Pooh, I have gorged myself until my stomach has bulged." - p 392
Did Samuel Beckett spend a year in bed?
I don't know or I wdn't've asked.
Lena's fantastic long life is gradually revealed.
"And within seven years, I became Deputy Vice President of the UN during a time of great political upheaval.
"In my first year in this nw job, I wrote a definitive paper on the new world order, in which I tried to analyze with scientific precision the problems facing mankind—and also the solutions." - p 395
Note that "new world order" (or, as I prefer "New World Odor" b/c it stinks) is written all lower-case. Does that signify a euphemistic downplaying as if it were just "taking out the trash" or some other mundane thing?
"You could watch Death Star live in concert at the Hammersmith Dance Emporium, even though the band themselves died of electroshock overdoses long ago." - p 430
That's a little bit tttoooooo realistic, eh?! & what about this?!:
"Then Peter's ships rained fire on the planet Earth, from their position of space superiority. Napalm and acid derivatives were housed in rocket shells which shattered in the upper atmosphere and left the skies denuded of birds for days. Forests boiled and bubbled, and the oceans were coated with an eerie slime that was fatal to the touch." - p 437
Such fantasies on the part of the author are quite different from the warnings issued by John Brunner in The Sheep Look Up. It's a little hard for me to not just see Palmer's imagination as sensationalist apocalypse morbidity w/o profundity. Then again, maybe I'm not giving him enuf credit:
"Except, that is, for the contractual requirement to pay weekly licensing fees to the Corporation, which owns the sun's radiation, and has copyrighted all the energy pumps, and leases all the computer software which makes human civilisation possible." - p 442
"This was a civilisation where there was no poverty, where education was available to all, where the average intelligence was genius level, thanks to superior training and the benefits of brain-chip implants. And it was a civilisation where no one aged, and where beauty was a prerequisite. There were no flat-chested women, there were no small-dicked men." - p 446
There you have it, somebody's idea of paradise. You might think that I'd be offended by that last sentence but, nnnooooooo, it's the spelling of "civilisation" that really rubs my small dick the wrong way: Oxford spells "organize", Cambridge spells "organise", my spell-check sides w/ Oxford. Does the same "z" vs "s" apply to "civiliz/sation"?! I won't get any zzzzzzzzzzzsss until CIVILIZATION wins out. Take that, Palmer.
Heck, you're probably thinking this is a bad review.. but I like some of the charcterizations:
"His name was Martin. He was a collector of antique toys. He carried in his luggage a virtual model of the solar system complete with orbiting spaceships, which he used to show to anyone who would stay to watch. He was also a world authority on words beginning with "w", a unique specialty. He loved prime numbers, and could count in them up to beyond the million mark. He was a sad, lonely, emotionally dysfunctional man.
"And he was also a nano-scientist. One of the greatest and most gifted men in the field. Though he was, tragically, unemployable, because people found him so damned annoying." - p 464
If he were a woman he'd be my kind of guy!
"I am convinced that after watching this film, the citizens of Earth will be informed enough, and humble enough, to make better choices next time.
"Or, perhaps, not. I marvel at the motiveless self-destructive malignancy of human kind. With all the resources that we have, with all out power and freedom, why oppress? Why persecute? Why bully?
"Because, I guess, it's fun?" - p 510
It wdn't be fun for me - but, then, I don't do it. In the author's postulated world of "geniuses" there still seems to be a lack of sensitivity toward others. Perhaps it's 'natural' to want one's DNA to dominate, to annihilate competitor genes. If one accepts that as a viable premise then it might be implied that the DNA itself doen't evolve past a certain point of raw competition.
The author states in a postscript:
"And at the heart of the whole science fiction enterprise is a desire to play games with the audience's willing suspension of disbelief. The SF writer asks "What if?", and then very often will offer a detailed and believable explanation as to "How?"." - p 540
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticP...
Philip Palmer's Debatable Space
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 10-15, 2023
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticP...
After I read this, I thought that I felt about it similarly to the way I felt about William Barton & Michael Capobianco's Iris. SO I decided to revisit my review of that & discovered that it's one of the many reviews whose full-length version is no longer available b/c of Goodreads deleting the Goodreads author's "Writing" section. SOO, I found my long review on one of my EHDs in order to partially reread it. Woah! It's a bit harsh, definitely harsher than I feel about Palmer's Debatable Space. Here's a sample of my Iris review harshness:
"To anyone out there who pays attn to my reviewing. my not having reviewed a single bk in 2020 until now, during the 3rd mnth of the yr, might seem like unprecedented sloth. In actuality, a member of my family died at the end of 2019 & I've been occupied w/ my role of 'responsible adult' ever since. Added to this that I've been reading 4 other bks, at least 2 of wch I've found exceptionally tedious but I'm nonetheless determined to finish them, & the reader may find that I place the reading of Iris in a particularly trying time. In short, it's hard for me to not just dismiss the bk by saying that I hated it — but, no, that wd be too oversimplifying. There were ideas in it that I found interesting enuf.. but, still, I felt like I was in the presence of the gentrification of science fiction."
[..]
"I love the writing of Mack Reynolds. He wrote from 1950 to 1983. The "About the Author" section in his Commune 2000 A.D. informs the reader that:
""A true adventurer, he once crossed the Sahara to Timbuktu and on the way was captured by the Tuareg (The Forgotten of Allah, and the so-called Apaches of the Sahara). Another time in the tropical jungles of Mexico he was bitten by a vampire bat and had to be treated for rabies. During his travels, Mack Reynolds has been in more than half a dozen wars, revolutions and military revolts, ranging from being shot at by the Huks in the Philippines to being bombed by anti-Castro Cubans." (Commune 2000 A.D., p 182)
"Now cf that to the bios of Barton & Capobianco:
""William Barton is the information systems manager for Health Sciences Consortium, a nonprofit medical/educational publisher."
"[..]
""Michael Capobianco is a founding partner and C.E.O. of Not-Polyoptics, a software company specializing in orphan computers." - p 403
"Ok, my bad attitude is showing: I'm a bigot, a bigot against C.E.O.s. So what do the authors do to put a little wild world spice into their privileged authors story? Lots of sex. LOTS of sex. So much SEX that, for me, it became quickly very tedious. Again, maybe I'm just not getting enuf. Instead, tho, I feel like I wandered into a Nxivm (pronounced "Nexium") Wonderland, 50 Shades of Greys [plural intended]."
- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Now, I shd ameliorate this harshness in its carry-over to Palmer's Debatable Space by saying that I usually admire the accomplishments of people who do things that I haven't, or, possibly, cdn't. This is Palmer's 1st novel (I've never written a novel) & it's a somewhat epic space opera (I've never written space opera). He deserves plenty of credit for that alone. Alas, these days I feel like writers whose work I don't admire much have to fall back on melodrama in order to such in their readers - maybe a transexual wanting to fuck his dad (w/o knowing that that's who he is) or a mother deciding that her son must be killed. In the back of the bk the reader is informed that Palmer has "written for radio, televison, and film" & I have to wonder whether some of what I consider to be the downsides of TV are present as irritants for me in this novel.
I have a signed copy of this. It's written: "To Ann Best Wishes Philip Palmer =". I reckon the author gets some sympathy from me for this. When I see a bk of mine on sale online that's signed I usually know that I GAVE the bk to someone who probably didn't give a shit about it. The signing in this case is too generic for that scenario to be likely but, still, my sympathies are stirred.
The main character, Lena, is an extraordinary person who's had her life extended in a way that approaches immortality. The bk begins w/ her traveling on outer space by herself & w/ her in-brain computer warning her of approaching danger:
"Lena, I think this ship is unregistered, it may be a rogue, we're in trouble, Lena, please help me. I can't cope on my own, Lena, please, I'm begging you, cut the connection, return to the bridge, Lena, I'm scared.
"Just fucking deal with it, tinbrain, okay?" - p 4
You betcha, it's outer-space pirates out to kidnap Lena who just happens to be, so they think?, the daughter of the galactis dictator - or is it the mother?
""Hello, Alby," I say. I hold out my hand imperiously. The flames whorl and a tendril of fire extends towards me. I feel the heat through my exoarmour. I am unflapped.
""Brandon."
""Brandom Bisby, forty-five years of age, astrophysicist by training, his parents were killed by the Cheo's shock troops, on suspicion of being Terrorist. They were later exonerated." - p 16
Oh, well.. I already gave this away but here's the skivvy anyway:
""Xabar, the Cheo will pay to have you back, but not because you're his daughter. Because you are his mother." - p 36
As I write this review, I realize that I liked this more than I've given the impression so far. Take this language play:
"gn, bn, call it, b, r, o," Jamie says to me. This is his "good news/bad news" spiel.
""Lay it on me mf dude, w,a,n,k,e,r," I reply, brushing my nose with my thumb, galactic bodylanguage for "Someone get this geek out of my face!"
"Jamie giggles. To him this is banter. "gn is, we have achieved max shittiest scenario, thing cannot get worse."" - p 37
The idea of "emergence" was one of the more satisfying elements of the novel for me.
"And I was smart enough also to realize that the most important area of modern scientific and philosophical thought was not computing or string theory or postmodernism or chaos theory, but the new science of emergence.
"Emergence, put simply, is the study of how systems of simple organisms tend to organize themselves into more complex structures." - p 86
"Emergence is, essentially, the study of self-organization; it is how, i specific terms, order emerges from chaos." - p 87
That interests me, partially, b/c it's a passable description of how I structure what I call "Usic" (or "(M)Usic") created by a lage number of players. I.E.: I (& other participants) present simple units to actualize & then slot them into a much more complex meta-structure.
We come to learning that Lena is close to immortal:
"I was put on a life-support machine. The ventilator kept my brain alive, as my heart shuddered and spasmed. I had died, but now I was reborn."
"And so began the next phase of my long long life." - p 105
"I never wanted to live forever." - p 106
"But there's a good chance that I will." - p 107
Another idea of interest to me is that of the principle of entanglement:
"Which means that whenever two systems have at some previous moment interacted (or entangled), their description is tied together no matter how far apart they may subsequently be. And a datum that is true of the one system, will be true of the other system also.
"But since all the universe originated in a single near-infinitesimal singularity—in its pre-Big Bang golden idyll—every part of the Universe was at this very earliest moment entangled with every other part. And that connection persists, despite the subsequent expansion of the Universe. It's like twins separated at birth and raised in different countries, who remain empathetically or even telepathically connected." - p 115
"And so, once you have your two quantum state controllers in place . . . distances vanish. An email sent in Australia will reach Africa the very instant it is sent. It won't be quick, it won't be fast; there won't even be a millisecond of time elapsing. It will be instant. And so it becomes as easy to send an email from Australia to Africa as it is to send one from London to the other end of the galaxy." - p 116
Unfortunately, people have become so stupid by this point that it hardly matters. Uh, what? That's not in the bk.
"And, all those years ago, actual control of the first space colonies was literally in my hands, and in my eyes. With the help of a virtual bodysuit connected to robot bodies on the colony planets. I could walk on alien soil, I could move tractors across arid plains, I could choose the music that played on the colony's intercom, I could devise menus for the children who I was growing there. I could do anything!" - p 118
Flanagan, the pirate captain, has his inner thoughts about his captive, Lena, revealed.
"She is, in short, old. Everything about her, aside from her sleek and sexual body and her shimmeringly wonderful face, exudes withered and arid age. She's selfish, self-contained, cautious, cowardly, bigoted, small-minded, self-pitying, spoiled, self-indulgent, arrogant, uninterested in the feelings of others." - p 137
Well, as we all know, money can't buy me love &..
"Life begins at a hundred and forty . . ." - p 194
"As HIV/AIDS was cured, it was replaced with contagious osteoporosis, and that in turn was replaced by the deadliest disease of all, the Immuno-Suppresant Plague that killed literally tens upon tens of millions of Africans in the most appalling manner possible." - p 202
"The IS Plague was not in fact a natural mutation, it was lab-generated . Furthermore, it was patented. I hacked into an entire directory in the US Patents website where under the innocuous title New Millenial Infective Agents I found patents for genetic creations which included the Plague and a wide variety of biological weapons sufficient to end all life on Earth." - p 203
"in Europe alone €9 billion to "save Africa from this deadly scourge". This money didn't go to Africans to spend or eat, it wasn't used to buy land or equipment, it was spent on expensive medication to save African children from a disease bioengineered and patented by teh same company that made the medicines we bought at such vast expense." - p 204
I've got a better idea! Let's make a 'vaccine' that claims, w/o proof, it'll prevent vast numbers of deaths & then have this vaccine produce 'rare' immuno-deficiency 'side-effects' like encephalitis, myasthenia gravis, & ALS & make as many people as possible 'willingly' inject this 'vaccine' directly into their bloodstream - causing large numbers of deniable deaths that'll help reduce the population at the same time that it makes the survivors more docile AND makes them pay for it.
"There is no law in Debateable Space. It is a wild place. It is the place of final escape for pirates and outlaws." - p 305
"We are headed for Kornbluth, which is eighteen lightyears from our sanctuary in Debateable Space" - p 339
There're a few references to other SF writers in Debateable Space. C. M. Kornbluth is the only one whose work I know (& enjoy). Jerry Pournelle ("I had a simple philosophy of power, which I called the Pournelle Doctrine, after one of my favorite writers. The doctrine is this: Problems have solutions." (p 396)) & Larry Niven are 2 others he refers to that I've never had any interest in. I've had the impression, perhaps unfounded, that Niven, at least, is pro-authoritarian, pro-military - & that's contributed to my lack of interest. Perhaps Palmer's liking of Niven is a clue to why I found it hard to be enthusiastic about this novel. Wikipedia makes the following claims about Niven's politics:
"According to author Michael Moorcock, in 1967, Niven, despite being a staunch conservative, voiced opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1968 Niven signed an advertisement in Galaxy Science Fiction in support for continued US involvement in the Vietnam War.
"Niven was an adviser to Ronald Reagan on the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative antimissile policy, as part of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy—as covered in the BBC documentary Pandora's Box by Adam Curtis.
"In 2007, Niven, in conjunction with a think tank of science fiction writers known as SIGMA, founded and led by Arlan Andrews, began advising the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as to future trends affecting terror policy and other topics. Among those topics was reducing costs for hospitals to which Niven offered the solution to spread rumors in Latino communities that organs were being harvested illegally in hospitals."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_N...
Maybe that's just character assassination. At any rate, Niven's politics (as portrayed above) don't seem to be Palmer's.
Lena, in appearance at least, becomes the leader of most or all of the pirates.
"And every day, I make a point of addressing the entire fleet via the intercom with one of my poems, reflecting some vital point or another about our mortal existence. These go down very well, I am frequently congratulated for my day's i;;uminating broadcast. "Keep up the good work, Lena!" I am told by ugly cut-throats. "We love devastating use of litotes!"" - p 350
litotes: "understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary (as in "not a bad singer" or "not unhappy")" - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti...
"I have been drunk, drugged, lazy, stupefied, and just plain idle. Like Samuel Beckett, I once spent a year in bed. Like Winnie the Pooh, I have gorged myself until my stomach has bulged." - p 392
Did Samuel Beckett spend a year in bed?
I don't know or I wdn't've asked.
Lena's fantastic long life is gradually revealed.
"And within seven years, I became Deputy Vice President of the UN during a time of great political upheaval.
"In my first year in this nw job, I wrote a definitive paper on the new world order, in which I tried to analyze with scientific precision the problems facing mankind—and also the solutions." - p 395
Note that "new world order" (or, as I prefer "New World Odor" b/c it stinks) is written all lower-case. Does that signify a euphemistic downplaying as if it were just "taking out the trash" or some other mundane thing?
"You could watch Death Star live in concert at the Hammersmith Dance Emporium, even though the band themselves died of electroshock overdoses long ago." - p 430
That's a little bit tttoooooo realistic, eh?! & what about this?!:
"Then Peter's ships rained fire on the planet Earth, from their position of space superiority. Napalm and acid derivatives were housed in rocket shells which shattered in the upper atmosphere and left the skies denuded of birds for days. Forests boiled and bubbled, and the oceans were coated with an eerie slime that was fatal to the touch." - p 437
Such fantasies on the part of the author are quite different from the warnings issued by John Brunner in The Sheep Look Up. It's a little hard for me to not just see Palmer's imagination as sensationalist apocalypse morbidity w/o profundity. Then again, maybe I'm not giving him enuf credit:
"Except, that is, for the contractual requirement to pay weekly licensing fees to the Corporation, which owns the sun's radiation, and has copyrighted all the energy pumps, and leases all the computer software which makes human civilisation possible." - p 442
"This was a civilisation where there was no poverty, where education was available to all, where the average intelligence was genius level, thanks to superior training and the benefits of brain-chip implants. And it was a civilisation where no one aged, and where beauty was a prerequisite. There were no flat-chested women, there were no small-dicked men." - p 446
There you have it, somebody's idea of paradise. You might think that I'd be offended by that last sentence but, nnnooooooo, it's the spelling of "civilisation" that really rubs my small dick the wrong way: Oxford spells "organize", Cambridge spells "organise", my spell-check sides w/ Oxford. Does the same "z" vs "s" apply to "civiliz/sation"?! I won't get any zzzzzzzzzzzsss until CIVILIZATION wins out. Take that, Palmer.
Heck, you're probably thinking this is a bad review.. but I like some of the charcterizations:
"His name was Martin. He was a collector of antique toys. He carried in his luggage a virtual model of the solar system complete with orbiting spaceships, which he used to show to anyone who would stay to watch. He was also a world authority on words beginning with "w", a unique specialty. He loved prime numbers, and could count in them up to beyond the million mark. He was a sad, lonely, emotionally dysfunctional man.
"And he was also a nano-scientist. One of the greatest and most gifted men in the field. Though he was, tragically, unemployable, because people found him so damned annoying." - p 464
If he were a woman he'd be my kind of guy!
"I am convinced that after watching this film, the citizens of Earth will be informed enough, and humble enough, to make better choices next time.
"Or, perhaps, not. I marvel at the motiveless self-destructive malignancy of human kind. With all the resources that we have, with all out power and freedom, why oppress? Why persecute? Why bully?
"Because, I guess, it's fun?" - p 510
It wdn't be fun for me - but, then, I don't do it. In the author's postulated world of "geniuses" there still seems to be a lack of sensitivity toward others. Perhaps it's 'natural' to want one's DNA to dominate, to annihilate competitor genes. If one accepts that as a viable premise then it might be implied that the DNA itself doen't evolve past a certain point of raw competition.
The author states in a postscript:
"And at the heart of the whole science fiction enterprise is a desire to play games with the audience's willing suspension of disbelief. The SF writer asks "What if?", and then very often will offer a detailed and believable explanation as to "How?"." - p 540
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticP...
March 16, 2017
Despite the comments that this was a mediocre book, I enjoyed it!
It was a fun, fantastic first novel. It deals with pirates (a fave of mine), real ScFi,
probable scenarios, a list of fun and lovable, albeit it egotistical, characters, and a trip into what is happening on planet Earth today. Corporations running the galaxy and a few rogues who want to
put an end to it. It really was fun to read and I am actually going to read his second novel "Ketos".
It was a fun, fantastic first novel. It deals with pirates (a fave of mine), real ScFi,
probable scenarios, a list of fun and lovable, albeit it egotistical, characters, and a trip into what is happening on planet Earth today. Corporations running the galaxy and a few rogues who want to
put an end to it. It really was fun to read and I am actually going to read his second novel "Ketos".
Read
December 20, 2022A band of pirates kidnaps the daughter of the ruler of the universe and holds her for ransom. The trouble is ruler of the universe Cheo isn’t that receptive to their demands and their prisoner, Lena, isn’t what she first appears.
But this isn’t just a pirate story. It’s an exploration of 1000 years of human history. And what has happened? Human have travelled, colonised, enslaved, and turned into dolphins (well some of them have).
For a first novel it’s a big challenge and a bit of a balancing act. Palmer presents his story from multiple viewpoints. We delve into the minds of Lena, the pirate crew, occasionally others, but we get most of our information from Lena.
And this is where the balancing act comes in. How time do you spend with each character and how they appear will depend on their part of the story. As Lena is a big part of the story we spend a lot of time with her. As a main character she is a fascinating and a worthy companion. The problem is she goes on a bit.
Palmer through her retells how the current state of humanity came about. He does occasionally retell too much. This is slightly frustrating especially as events speed to a conclusion when we’re presented with a large chunk of history. It is relevant but maybe isn’t as vital or as enjoyable as Lena, or perhaps Palmer, thinks.
This is strange as I enjoyed most of the other tales and the asides and presentation of history. It’s probably because it takes too much time out of the current action at a point where it should be sprinting towards the finish.
This isn’t though a fatal flaw. The characters are varied and well formed; the story is well planned and interesting. And most of the time it works. When it doesn’t I’d put down to over enthusiasm on Palmers part to share the universe and history he’s created.
For a first novel and a story on such a wide scale Palmer keeps a good grip on the reins and where it does get away he pulls it back in. I look forward to seeing what tale Palmer tells next
But this isn’t just a pirate story. It’s an exploration of 1000 years of human history. And what has happened? Human have travelled, colonised, enslaved, and turned into dolphins (well some of them have).
For a first novel it’s a big challenge and a bit of a balancing act. Palmer presents his story from multiple viewpoints. We delve into the minds of Lena, the pirate crew, occasionally others, but we get most of our information from Lena.
And this is where the balancing act comes in. How time do you spend with each character and how they appear will depend on their part of the story. As Lena is a big part of the story we spend a lot of time with her. As a main character she is a fascinating and a worthy companion. The problem is she goes on a bit.
Palmer through her retells how the current state of humanity came about. He does occasionally retell too much. This is slightly frustrating especially as events speed to a conclusion when we’re presented with a large chunk of history. It is relevant but maybe isn’t as vital or as enjoyable as Lena, or perhaps Palmer, thinks.
This is strange as I enjoyed most of the other tales and the asides and presentation of history. It’s probably because it takes too much time out of the current action at a point where it should be sprinting towards the finish.
This isn’t though a fatal flaw. The characters are varied and well formed; the story is well planned and interesting. And most of the time it works. When it doesn’t I’d put down to over enthusiasm on Palmers part to share the universe and history he’s created.
For a first novel and a story on such a wide scale Palmer keeps a good grip on the reins and where it does get away he pulls it back in. I look forward to seeing what tale Palmer tells next
November 20, 2012
This is a space opera about a band of pirates, led by an old man named Flanagan, who abducts Lena, the daughter of the ruler of the known universe and intends to hold her for a massive ransom.
The Cheo, the ruler, isn't fussed by this at all. No ransom for you! Numerous space battles and attempts at revolution ensue. Lena, due to the part she's played in the Cheo's cruel dictatorship, begins to sympathize with the pirates and even fall in love with Flanagan.
Pure space opera. It's action-packed and fast-moving, but I felt it to be without tension. This is over a thousand years in the future, and Flanagan seems able to pull almost anything out of his ship's arse to help them win the battle, or at least escape. And the fact that any injury including beheading can be fixed up in the medlab makes hand-to-hand combat much less exciting as well. They don't even seem to react much to their injuries, which should still be agonizingly painful.
The story rambles a bit, and alternates with sections of Lena recounting her long history, but it was entertaining enough for the most part. I enjoyed the creative typography (don't worry, it isn't House of Leaves); some of it cutesy, but most of it works, particularly the chilling phrase hidden in the back cover teaser text.
The Cheo, the ruler, isn't fussed by this at all. No ransom for you! Numerous space battles and attempts at revolution ensue. Lena, due to the part she's played in the Cheo's cruel dictatorship, begins to sympathize with the pirates and even fall in love with Flanagan.
Pure space opera. It's action-packed and fast-moving, but I felt it to be without tension. This is over a thousand years in the future, and Flanagan seems able to pull almost anything out of his ship's arse to help them win the battle, or at least escape. And the fact that any injury including beheading can be fixed up in the medlab makes hand-to-hand combat much less exciting as well. They don't even seem to react much to their injuries, which should still be agonizingly painful.
The story rambles a bit, and alternates with sections of Lena recounting her long history, but it was entertaining enough for the most part. I enjoyed the creative typography (don't worry, it isn't House of Leaves); some of it cutesy, but most of it works, particularly the chilling phrase hidden in the back cover teaser text.
September 6, 2010
Space opera. Good space opera--a little repetitive and too many data dumps--but a space opera nonetheless.
May 15, 2013
If this book was primarily about Flanagan, I could probably endure it. However, I find Lena tedious, and the sex element has become unbearable. Therefore, I'm putting this book aside.
July 7, 2022
Space pirates kidnap the daughter of the Emperor of Earth and hold her for ransom. Then they plot to overthrow the Galactic Government. Along the way they fight a lot, get killed on occasion, and sing the Blues.
Somewhat juvenile storytelling, with each chapter being told from a different person's point of view, except for huge swathes of the book which cover the entirety of kidnap victim Lena's life. Which is long since she's over a thousand years old. All the characters are over 100 but act like teenagers most of the time. They get into battles where apparently they are able to dodge bullets and survive tremendous explosions without effort. If they do get hurt it's like "Hey, do you want to see the scar where they sewed my head back on?" The pirates continuously enter battles where they are outnumbered and then win by inventing new areas of physics. Every plan is revealed to be just a feint to divert from the real plan. After awhile that gets to be a little too clever.
Lena, the smartest woman in the Galaxy, sends colonists to a star she names Asgard, after the home of Norse gods. She then invents a way to communicate instantly with Asgard, a sort of communication bridge, which she names Heimdall after the rainbow bridge which connects Asgard to Earth. At which point I almost threw the book against a wall. The name of the bridge in Norse mythology is Bifrost! Heimdall is the guard who stands their and keeps watch. AAARGH! Moron! A bunch of other silliness is also to be found. There is no FTL in Debatable Space so everyone travels at sublight speed. Yet somehow they manage trips that take only month, at other times decades. Maybe some of these star systems are really close together, I dunno.
Maybe it's supposed to be some kind of psychological thriller, because basically everyone in the book is a murderous psychopath. It had good world building but all of the characters are damaged and deranged. And you automatically get a star deducted for misnaming one of the most important plot elements in the book. Heimdall my ass.
Somewhat juvenile storytelling, with each chapter being told from a different person's point of view, except for huge swathes of the book which cover the entirety of kidnap victim Lena's life. Which is long since she's over a thousand years old. All the characters are over 100 but act like teenagers most of the time. They get into battles where apparently they are able to dodge bullets and survive tremendous explosions without effort. If they do get hurt it's like "Hey, do you want to see the scar where they sewed my head back on?" The pirates continuously enter battles where they are outnumbered and then win by inventing new areas of physics. Every plan is revealed to be just a feint to divert from the real plan. After awhile that gets to be a little too clever.
Lena, the smartest woman in the Galaxy, sends colonists to a star she names Asgard, after the home of Norse gods. She then invents a way to communicate instantly with Asgard, a sort of communication bridge, which she names Heimdall after the rainbow bridge which connects Asgard to Earth. At which point I almost threw the book against a wall. The name of the bridge in Norse mythology is Bifrost! Heimdall is the guard who stands their and keeps watch. AAARGH! Moron! A bunch of other silliness is also to be found. There is no FTL in Debatable Space so everyone travels at sublight speed. Yet somehow they manage trips that take only month, at other times decades. Maybe some of these star systems are really close together, I dunno.
Maybe it's supposed to be some kind of psychological thriller, because basically everyone in the book is a murderous psychopath. It had good world building but all of the characters are damaged and deranged. And you automatically get a star deducted for misnaming one of the most important plot elements in the book. Heimdall my ass.
November 28, 2019
This is a book about the way that people don't so much live life but inhabit their life. It's possible just to let life be the River that carries you to death but it's also possible to hoist a sail and navigate or attach a jet-pack and fly up into the sky.
The heroes are large and yet they are compelled to act by their small concerns. Sure, things happen to them but they do not let these things define them. They make plans and carry those plans through to fruition, even if they involve changing the entire known galaxy.
I read in the interview in the back that the author started with a couple of seeds; a couple of ideas and preconditions and then he opened up the throttle and gave those ideas and his characters vast leeway to yaw freely back and forth through more than half a thousand pages. And it worked. There are twists and turns and we fly up into the sky with the author, his characters and this irrepressible novel.
Read this if you like free-ranging adventure. Forget that this is science fiction, just take it as an opening-up of the jets and just go with it. Just fly!
The heroes are large and yet they are compelled to act by their small concerns. Sure, things happen to them but they do not let these things define them. They make plans and carry those plans through to fruition, even if they involve changing the entire known galaxy.
I read in the interview in the back that the author started with a couple of seeds; a couple of ideas and preconditions and then he opened up the throttle and gave those ideas and his characters vast leeway to yaw freely back and forth through more than half a thousand pages. And it worked. There are twists and turns and we fly up into the sky with the author, his characters and this irrepressible novel.
Read this if you like free-ranging adventure. Forget that this is science fiction, just take it as an opening-up of the jets and just go with it. Just fly!
April 1, 2020
Interesting, ambitious bit of comedic sci-fi writing. It's an energetic, literary approach to telling a pretty simple story in fits and starts. Halfway thru and I decided to bail - not really able to connect to the characters in any meaningful way, zany as they are.
At its core is Lena, the 1000-year-old existentially bored matriarch of the contemporary human-esque galactic empire. Her son is the Cheo, present ruler of the galaxy. Their choices have caused a lot of human suffering, and they are suffering as well. After all, when you're 1000-years-old and you've done it all, what's left to live for?
High concept, low-brow, intentionally fragmented and glib with the extreme violence. In short, it's the story every "woke" male Western author tries to tell at least once.
At its core is Lena, the 1000-year-old existentially bored matriarch of the contemporary human-esque galactic empire. Her son is the Cheo, present ruler of the galaxy. Their choices have caused a lot of human suffering, and they are suffering as well. After all, when you're 1000-years-old and you've done it all, what's left to live for?
High concept, low-brow, intentionally fragmented and glib with the extreme violence. In short, it's the story every "woke" male Western author tries to tell at least once.
April 8, 2022
A lot of imagination has gone into this science-fiction novel. It consists of a band of space pirates who kidnap the daughter of the galactic Cheo (or the supreme leader.) The apparent reason for the kidnap is ransom money, but there are some good twists in the tale along the way. I liked the various characters that play a part in this adventure. It has many colorfully imagined alien creatures, like Alby, a sentient flame being from the solar system C40333. The narrative style was quite good, taking the point of view of a different character at a time. But I must say it was rambling at many parts. Worth a read, if you are interested in science-fiction mixed with some wry humor.
February 5, 2021
This blew my socks off. Where to even begin?
This is an author that has many strings to his bow. Sci-fi, sex and sauce. Even writing this review is igniting a fire in my pants. It's life changing - read it now. You won't regret it. Lots of love to Philip Palmer. I hope to meet you one day.
This is an author that has many strings to his bow. Sci-fi, sex and sauce. Even writing this review is igniting a fire in my pants. It's life changing - read it now. You won't regret it. Lots of love to Philip Palmer. I hope to meet you one day.
November 15, 2017
don't waste your time. I'm sorry I did.
put more gently, this book just was not for me.
put more gently, this book just was not for me.
November 20, 2017
Awesome and quite original.
April 15, 2019
Pretty mediocre. Unlike able characters, patchy plotting, way, way too many deus ex machina secret weapons. Meh.
June 2, 2020
Listened to the audiobook. Difficult to follow but an interesting universe.
March 26, 2021
I can no longer read with pleasure any book that invites the reader to laugh at the suffering of sentient beings.
May 3, 2021
Basically a smut novel
July 7, 2021
It plays with type face in a fun way. What it isn't is a story about epic space things. It's a character based story, so go into it knowing that.
May 12, 2024
Generally an easy read with some interesting ideas. Dragged a bit.
November 1, 2021
My first book from Palmer it was quite the ride.
A bizarre future filled despots
A monstrous hedonistic Royal Class
And at the foundation of our story a group of pirates out for revenge.
Equal parts :
exciting space pirate fun
grandiose space opera
social critique
and a story of heart breaking humanity
A bizarre future filled despots
A monstrous hedonistic Royal Class
And at the foundation of our story a group of pirates out for revenge.
Equal parts :
exciting space pirate fun
grandiose space opera
social critique
and a story of heart breaking humanity
February 6, 2015
After years of writing for television and radio, Philip Palmer has switched to novel writing and has landed himself in the science fiction genre for his debut release, "Debatable Space". Being such a popular genre, it's difficult to find anything new to say, so to stand out any new writer has to have something different. Palmer has managed that, but only in part.
Firstly, he manages to surprise by making a hero out of a space pirate. This isn't a unique idea, as it's something that Ben Bova has done and the central character in Piers Anthony's "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series started off as a space pirate. But whereas Anthony's pirate turned to politics, Palmer's remains a pirate throughout.
It's a fun idea, following Flanagan as he prepares to kidnap Lena, the daughter of the Cheo, who just happens to be the ruler of the galaxy. His plan is to ransom her for lots of money, using the secrets he knows about Lena to persuade the Cheo to pay. Unfortunately, the Cheo has other plans and so we follow Lena, Flanagan and his crew as they try to come up with and pull off a Plan B.
The other surprise we get from Palmer is in the way he tells the story. He uses the first person and tells the story from the point of view of the central characters. The story is mostly told from Lena and Flanagan's perspective, but all of the crew get their turn. Again, this isn't an entirely unique idea, but it is a technique more commonly associated with chick- or bloke-lit than with science fiction.
As unusual as it is, though, it's only an effective technique when things are happening and you get to see it all from the different viewpoints. When there is less action going on, Palmer has the characters, especially Lena, going through their back story. This is where he stops being quite so original, although there are still some nice touches.
The major problem he has given himself that Lena has lived a very long time and so there needs to be a huge amount of back story for her. Rather than fill this in by going into detail or giving her years of doing the same thing, Palmer has her skip over lots of different events which can be difficult to keep in the right order, given that her story is told in parts and isn't entirely chronological. There are a couple of parts which are intriguing and I would have liked more detail on, but all too often Palmer's vision of the future seems familiar from other science fiction writers and it feels as if he had too many ideas and insisted on getting them all in rather than going into more detail with some of them.
Palmer is a decent writer and parts of the book, particularly when the pirates are in action, are an enjoyable read and keep moving along pretty quickly. Flanagan has a devious mind, which allows for some fiendish plans and twists that I didn't see coming, but which I thoroughly enjoyed. Sadly, the back story is unable to keep up the same pace, which does make "Debatable Space" a slightly patchy experience.
This really is the essence of the novel; when Palmer is good he can be very good, with some wonderful ideas taking their place in a well plotted and exciting adventure story. But when he's not writing that, he seems to either have too many ideas falling over each other and getting in the way of the story until they are all on the page. Had Palmer concentrated on the action, this would have been a much shorter, but much more entertaining book. As it is, there is room for improvement, but the basics are certainly there and make Philip Palmer a writer worth watching out for.
I would tend to recommend this book as one to borrow rather than to buy, as whilst it's a decent read, it is one you're only likely to read the once, thanks to a slight lack of depth, even allowing for the novelty of some of the ideas.
This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
Firstly, he manages to surprise by making a hero out of a space pirate. This isn't a unique idea, as it's something that Ben Bova has done and the central character in Piers Anthony's "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series started off as a space pirate. But whereas Anthony's pirate turned to politics, Palmer's remains a pirate throughout.
It's a fun idea, following Flanagan as he prepares to kidnap Lena, the daughter of the Cheo, who just happens to be the ruler of the galaxy. His plan is to ransom her for lots of money, using the secrets he knows about Lena to persuade the Cheo to pay. Unfortunately, the Cheo has other plans and so we follow Lena, Flanagan and his crew as they try to come up with and pull off a Plan B.
The other surprise we get from Palmer is in the way he tells the story. He uses the first person and tells the story from the point of view of the central characters. The story is mostly told from Lena and Flanagan's perspective, but all of the crew get their turn. Again, this isn't an entirely unique idea, but it is a technique more commonly associated with chick- or bloke-lit than with science fiction.
As unusual as it is, though, it's only an effective technique when things are happening and you get to see it all from the different viewpoints. When there is less action going on, Palmer has the characters, especially Lena, going through their back story. This is where he stops being quite so original, although there are still some nice touches.
The major problem he has given himself that Lena has lived a very long time and so there needs to be a huge amount of back story for her. Rather than fill this in by going into detail or giving her years of doing the same thing, Palmer has her skip over lots of different events which can be difficult to keep in the right order, given that her story is told in parts and isn't entirely chronological. There are a couple of parts which are intriguing and I would have liked more detail on, but all too often Palmer's vision of the future seems familiar from other science fiction writers and it feels as if he had too many ideas and insisted on getting them all in rather than going into more detail with some of them.
Palmer is a decent writer and parts of the book, particularly when the pirates are in action, are an enjoyable read and keep moving along pretty quickly. Flanagan has a devious mind, which allows for some fiendish plans and twists that I didn't see coming, but which I thoroughly enjoyed. Sadly, the back story is unable to keep up the same pace, which does make "Debatable Space" a slightly patchy experience.
This really is the essence of the novel; when Palmer is good he can be very good, with some wonderful ideas taking their place in a well plotted and exciting adventure story. But when he's not writing that, he seems to either have too many ideas falling over each other and getting in the way of the story until they are all on the page. Had Palmer concentrated on the action, this would have been a much shorter, but much more entertaining book. As it is, there is room for improvement, but the basics are certainly there and make Philip Palmer a writer worth watching out for.
I would tend to recommend this book as one to borrow rather than to buy, as whilst it's a decent read, it is one you're only likely to read the once, thanks to a slight lack of depth, even allowing for the novelty of some of the ideas.
This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
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