Bear, Elizabeth - Hammered
Sun, Jan. 30th, 2005 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI admit that I originally was not going to pick up this book until much, much later. I tend to be a little leery about reading the books written by people I know via LJ (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala in this case) because, well, a significant percentage of this LJ is spent talking about books and logging books, and I am perpetually afraid that I will read someone's book and despise it. And then there will come the inevitable conflict concerning what I should write about it.
But then, I've been sort of hunting around for Elizabeth Bear's books in bookstores just to see if it is out (and how well it is shelved, and seeing if I can move it somewhere more prominent), and I happened across Hammered and read the back. It is rather embarrassing that I read Bear's LJ and didn't really know what the book is about. But hook! Heroine who is turning fifty and has had life experiences, good and bad, and is world-weary. Not enough of them, imho. So I succumbed and bought it and ended up reading the whole thing in two days.
Jenny Casey is living on the fringes of society, weighed down with old war wounds and an artificially reconstructed body, when suddenly, all the pieces from her past start surfacing again and doing really bad things. The world feels very cyberpunk to me, although I am probably just saying that with no idea what cyberpunk is, given that I have only read one William Gibson book. But the world (as well as Jenny's life) is going to hell. I particularly like Bear's dystopic world in 2062 AD, how the reader only gets hints and clues dropped as to what has happened, to why Jenny was in the army, why she is in the streets now. I read this and felt the old thrill of reading really good sci-fi -- it's the thrill of figuring things out, of piecing together an entire world and how it happened to be that way. I wonder if that's how anthropologists feel.
There were some things that were a little jarring. Jenny's POV is narrated in first-person present tense, and everyone's else's sections are in third-person-limited past tense, which is a little hard to get used to while reading through the book. There are some characters that I don't quite care for as much as others (I got a little bored during the Razorface storyline), but I have already fallen quite hard for several characters, which is a good sign for the first book of a trilogy. And, strong women! Tough women! Not just Jenny, but others! Also, a Chinese woman ronin person, OMG so cool! Ok, she wasn't really a main character, but she was Chinese! I don't read about Asian people in genre fiction very often at all. And I was particularly happy with the way one romantic triangle was neatly sidestepped, without making me wanting to bash anyone over the head (I am not good with romantic triangles, and I liked all the characters involved, so I was quite relieved when I could continue liking them).
Slight spoilers ahead:
I am particularly delighted in the fact that one female character has no intention or desire to have a long-term relationship and instead just wants a whole bunch of one-night stands. And I particulary like her scene with Jenny later on in the book ^_^.
Also, even if the plot and the world hadn't been fascinating, the book would have been totally and completely worth reading for just one character -- the AI. Maybe this is mildly spoilery, but only because I was so absolutely delighted when the AI showed up and I realized what was going on.
Richard Feynman! As an AI! With processing power, and Tuva and the postage stamps and Los Alamos and the lock picking and the hacking into intranets and OMG it makes so much sense and I will love this book forever just because of the presence of Richard Feynman. Part of me is a little weirded out by the fact that it has a dead scientist as a character and wonders what his family thinks and goes into extreme meta-mode concerning Real People Fic, but most of me just goes into the "EEEEEEE SO COOL!" mode when I get to a Feynman chapter.
Er. Yes. I only read his books two years ago, but Feynman is very definitely one of my heroes.
So, uh, now I am sort of annoyed that I bought the book so early because the second book doesn't come out until June, and my god, have I not learned from George R. R. Martin to always read trilogies after everything is out? Must find out what happens next.
ETA:
coffeeandink's review
matociquala in this case) because, well, a significant percentage of this LJ is spent talking about books and logging books, and I am perpetually afraid that I will read someone's book and despise it. And then there will come the inevitable conflict concerning what I should write about it. But then, I've been sort of hunting around for Elizabeth Bear's books in bookstores just to see if it is out (and how well it is shelved, and seeing if I can move it somewhere more prominent), and I happened across Hammered and read the back. It is rather embarrassing that I read Bear's LJ and didn't really know what the book is about. But hook! Heroine who is turning fifty and has had life experiences, good and bad, and is world-weary. Not enough of them, imho. So I succumbed and bought it and ended up reading the whole thing in two days.
Jenny Casey is living on the fringes of society, weighed down with old war wounds and an artificially reconstructed body, when suddenly, all the pieces from her past start surfacing again and doing really bad things. The world feels very cyberpunk to me, although I am probably just saying that with no idea what cyberpunk is, given that I have only read one William Gibson book. But the world (as well as Jenny's life) is going to hell. I particularly like Bear's dystopic world in 2062 AD, how the reader only gets hints and clues dropped as to what has happened, to why Jenny was in the army, why she is in the streets now. I read this and felt the old thrill of reading really good sci-fi -- it's the thrill of figuring things out, of piecing together an entire world and how it happened to be that way. I wonder if that's how anthropologists feel.
There were some things that were a little jarring. Jenny's POV is narrated in first-person present tense, and everyone's else's sections are in third-person-limited past tense, which is a little hard to get used to while reading through the book. There are some characters that I don't quite care for as much as others (I got a little bored during the Razorface storyline), but I have already fallen quite hard for several characters, which is a good sign for the first book of a trilogy. And, strong women! Tough women! Not just Jenny, but others! Also, a Chinese woman ronin person, OMG so cool! Ok, she wasn't really a main character, but she was Chinese! I don't read about Asian people in genre fiction very often at all. And I was particularly happy with the way one romantic triangle was neatly sidestepped, without making me wanting to bash anyone over the head (I am not good with romantic triangles, and I liked all the characters involved, so I was quite relieved when I could continue liking them).
Slight spoilers ahead:
I am particularly delighted in the fact that one female character has no intention or desire to have a long-term relationship and instead just wants a whole bunch of one-night stands. And I particulary like her scene with Jenny later on in the book ^_^.
Also, even if the plot and the world hadn't been fascinating, the book would have been totally and completely worth reading for just one character -- the AI. Maybe this is mildly spoilery, but only because I was so absolutely delighted when the AI showed up and I realized what was going on.
Richard Feynman! As an AI! With processing power, and Tuva and the postage stamps and Los Alamos and the lock picking and the hacking into intranets and OMG it makes so much sense and I will love this book forever just because of the presence of Richard Feynman. Part of me is a little weirded out by the fact that it has a dead scientist as a character and wonders what his family thinks and goes into extreme meta-mode concerning Real People Fic, but most of me just goes into the "EEEEEEE SO COOL!" mode when I get to a Feynman chapter.
Er. Yes. I only read his books two years ago, but Feynman is very definitely one of my heroes.
So, uh, now I am sort of annoyed that I bought the book so early because the second book doesn't come out until June, and my god, have I not learned from George R. R. Martin to always read trilogies after everything is out? Must find out what happens next.
ETA:
coffeeandink's review
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 31st, 2005 09:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 31st, 2005 11:25 pm (UTC)