I thought Halting State was brilliant so I had pretty high expectations on Rule 34. What I found was a good and entertaining read.

This time Detective Inspector Liz Kavanaugh of the Edinburgh Police stumbles on a murder case that connects to the world of internet spam. This is some five years after the events in Halting State and her involvement there benched her career. She now leads the Rule 34 squad (Rule 34 of the Internet, a meme stating that “If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions”). The fetishist murder connects to similar murders bringing in Euro-cop Kemal Aslan (Halting State) with more details. Liz life is complicated further when an old lover shows up.

The story reads like a police procedural with science fiction parts but there is a great surprise waiting behind the scenes. Stross does a good job in peeling the onion and keeping up the suspense.

There are multiple point of view characters beside Liz just like in the previous novel. They are all presenting their piece of the puzzle. The way he presents the characters in constant second person present tense made it hard for me to really connect to them. This is not so much about characterization as it is about ideas and technology though. Stross has his own take on the future of internet banking and crime.

There is some nifty world building here with an independent Scotland, auto-fabbers, pervasive government surveillance and complicated search engine based laws that sound oh so plausible.

Rule 34 is a standalone sequel to Halting State. I liked Halting State better because it talked to me as an IT professional and former gamer. If you were disappointed with that in Halting State you will find Rule 34 much more accessible.

The ending is fairly conclusive but with an opening for another sequel I would love to read.

Book Information

Rule 34 (Halting State book 2) by Charles Stross (Ace 2011) – Amazon US | UK

DI Liz Kavanaugh: You realise policing internet porn is your life and your career went down the pan five years ago. But when a fetishist dies on your watch, the Rule 34 Squad moves from low priority to worryingly high profile.

Anwar: As an ex-con, you’d like to think your identity fraud days are over. Especially as you’ve landed a legit job (through a shady mate). Although now that you’re Consul for a shiny new Eastern European Republic, you’ve no idea what comes next.

The Toymaker: Your meds are wearing off and people are stalking you through Edinburgh’s undergrowth. But that’s ok, because as a distraction, you’re project manager of a sophisticated criminal operation. But who’s killing off potential recruits?

So how do bizarre domestic fatalities, dodgy downloads and a European spamming network fit together? The more DI Kavanaugh learns, the less she wants to find out.

The Black Geary story continues Beyond the Frontier …

We know and love Jack Campbell from The Lost Fleet series and now he are starting at least one new series this year; Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier is first out in April with Dreadnaught that continues the story about Black Jack Geary and the fight against the alien threat; This will be some fun reading. I have been wondering about those aliens for the whole previous series.

He is also under contract for a second series set in the same universe called Phoenix Stars that have not been scheduled yet. It is set in a formerly Syndic star system as the people there struggles to cope with the ongoing collapse.

I have read the whole series but only written about the two last books Relentless and Victorious.

Title: Dreadnaught
Series: Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier book 1
Author: Jack Campbell (John G. Hemry)
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: ACE (April 2011)
Order from Amazon US | UK

The New York Times bestselling series that delivers “edge-of- your-seat combat” (Elizabeth Moon, author of the Vatta’s War series).

The Alliance woke Captain John “Black Jack” Geary from cryogenic sleep to take command of the fleet in the century-long conflict against the Syndicate Worlds. Now Fleet Admiral Geary’s victory has earned him the adoration of the people-and the enmity of politicians convinced that a living hero can be a very inconvenient thing.

Geary knows that members of the military high command and the government question his loyalty to the Alliance and fear his staging a coup-so he can’t help but wonder if the newly christened First Fleet is being deliberately sent to the far side of space on a suicide mission.

I prefer female protagonists and this series of posts is homage to some of the most formidable female main characters in science fiction novels or series. This weeks formidable females contains some new favorites like Mearana, Briar, Caitlin and some old.

1. Mearana - The Harper (Michael Flynn)
2. Sparta – Venus Prime (Paul Preuss)
3. Briar Wilkes – Persistent Mother (Cherie Priest)
4. Caitlin Decter – Best Friend of the Web (Robert J. Sawyer)
5. Ilia Volyova – Triumvir Ultra (Alastair Reynolds)

Mearana - The Harper

Books: The January Dancer (2008), Up John River (2010)
Series: The January Dancer
Universe: Firestar
Author: Michael Flynn
Genre: Gaelic Space Opera
Publisher: Tor | Tantor Media

My reviews: The January Dancer | Up Jim River

In the beginning of the January Dancer a beautiful redheaded Harper walks into a bar in search for histories to sing. She approach the Scarred man that tells her the story of The January Dancer. In Up Jim River she and the scarred man goes looking for her disappeared mother. It reads like an epic gaelic saga with beautiful prose. I can recommend the audio version of The January Dancer it is just awesome, it blew my mind.

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Sparta – Venus Prime

Books: Breaking Strain (1987), Maelstrom (1988), Hide & Seek (1989), The Medusa Encounter (1990), The Diamond Moon (1990), The Shining Ones (1991)
Series: Arthur’s C. Clark’s Venus Prime
Author: Paul Preuss
Genre: YA | Science Fiction
Publisher: Avon | Pan | iBooks

I remember these books from my youth. Sparta is a beautiful and mysterious woman with advanced abilities due to her bioengineering. But she don’t remember the last three years and tries to recover her past and save her future. Beautiful description and adventures on the planets of the solar system based on short stories by Aurthur C. Clark.

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Briar Wilkes – Persistent Mother

Books: Boneshaker (2009)
Series: Clockwork Century
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Tor

Briar Wilkes name used to be Briar Blue before her husband poisoned downtown Seattle with a gas that turned humans into Zombies with his infernal digging machine – The Boneshaker. Now her son is lost inside the walls erected to keep the gas out and she would do anything to save him. Much steampunk fun with airships and zombies.

A second book, Dreadnought in the same universe will be out in September 2010, but it has a different protagonist.

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Caitlin Decter – Best Friend of the Web

Title: Wake (2009), Watch (2010), Wonder (2011)
Series: WWW
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Genre: Science Fiction | First Contact | Emerging AI
Publisher: ACE | Gollancz

My reviews: Wake, Watch

Caitlin Decter is a feisty young blind girl that is quite ordinary besides being a mathematical genius and after an experimental treatment to make her see again she starts to see the world wide web. Out there in the web she encounters an emerging intelligence and befriends it.

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Ilia Volyova – Triumvir Ultra

Books: Revelation Space (2000), Redemption Ark (2002)
Universe: Revalation Space
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Genre: Space Opera
Publisher: Gollancz | ACE | Tantor Media

Triumvir Ilia Volyova of Nostalgia for Infinity is an implant-free Ultra, and a major character in both Revelation Space and Redemption Ark. At the beginning of Revelation Space, Volyova is the keeper of the Cache Weapons. It is during her search for a means to control these weapons that she enlists Ana Khouri (who was planted in the role by the Mademoiselle), thus setting off a chain of events that continues throughout the novels. She maintains a long friendship with Captain Brannigan, a man melded with with his ship. When I am reading this I realize I have read these books a long time ago, it makes me want to go back and reread them.

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Read part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | index | afterword

New this month is the publishing house link, where you can buy the book. If you want to check out the publishing houses yourself and maybe create your own list, please use my Links page it has direct links to upcoming releases by the publishers I like.

Books On Order

A Mighty Fortress
Safehold 3
by David Weber
Published by Tor Books

This is one of the books of 2010 that I am most eager to read, I am a big fan of David Weber and you have seen the snippet spam I have been doing here on the site.

Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He’s smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. Cayleb and Sharleyan have created the Charisian Empire, the greatest naval power in the history of Safehold, and they’ve turned Charis into a place of refuge for all who treasure freedom.

Their success may prove short-lived. The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed their destruction. Mother Church’s entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.

But there are still matters about which the Church knows nothing, including Cayleb and Sharleyan’s adviser, friend, and guardian— the mystic warrior-monk named Merlin Athrawes. Merlin knows all about battles against impossible odds, because he is in fact the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died a thousand years before. As Nimue, Merlin saw the entire Terran Federation go down in fire and slaughter at the hands of a foe it could not defeat. He knows that Safehold is the last human planet in existence, and that the stasis the Church was created to enforce will be the human race’s death sentence if it is allowed to stand.

The juggernaut is rumbling down on Charis, but Merlin Athrawes and a handful of extraordinary human beings stand in its path. The Church is about to discover just how potent the power of human freedom truly is.

The Orphaned Worlds
Humanity’s Fire 2
by Michael Cobley
Published by Orbit UK

I really liked the first book in the series so I am looking forward to read this one.

Darien is no longer a lost outpost of humanity, but the prize in an intergalactic power struggle. Hegemony forces have a stranglehold over the planet and crack troops patrol its hotspots while Earth watches, passive, rendered impotent by galactic politics. But its Darien ambassador will soon become a player in a greater conflict. There is more at stake than a turf war on a newly discovered world.

An ancient Uvovo temple hides access to a hyperspace prison, housing the greatest threat sentient life has ever known. Millennia ago, malignant intelligences were caged there following an apocalyptic war. And their servants work on their release.

However, Darien’s guardians have not been idle, gathering resistance on the planet’s forest moon. Knowledge has been lost since great races battled in eons past, and now time is short. The galaxy will depend on the Uvovo reclaiming their past – and humanity must look to its future. For a new war is coming.

The Lotus Eaters
Carrera 3
by Tom Krateman
Baen Books

Tom likes to be controversial (my opinion) but if you can overlook that his Carrera Series is quite decent military science fiction.

Sometimes paranoia is just a heightened state of awareness. Carrera’s won his war, and inflicted a horrific revenge upon his enemies. But there are wars after wars. The Tauran Union is planning an attack. The criminals of neighboring states are already attacking, and threatening to embroil him in a war with the planet’s premier power. His only living son is under fire among the windswept mountains of Pashtia. An enemy fleet is hunting his submarines. His organization has been infiltrated by spies. One of the two governments of his adopted country, Balboa, is trying to destroy everything he’s built and reinstitute rule by a corrupt oligarchy. Worst of all, perhaps, he, himself, bearing a crushing burden of guilt, isn’t quite the man he once was. Fortunately, the man he once was, was lucky enough to marry the right woman…. The Lotus Eaters is the direct sequel to A Desert Called Peace and Carnifex.

Victorious
The Lost Fleet 6
by Jack Campbell (John G. Hemry)
Published by Ace

Last book in the Lost Fleet Series but don’t worry there are two more series ordered in the same universe according to the authors homepage.

I like this series it is honest to god uncomplicated military space opera.

As war continues to rage between the Alliance and Syndicate Worlds, Captain “Black Jack” Geary is promoted to admiral-even though the ruling council fears he may stage a military coup. His new rank gives him the authority to negotiate with the Syndics, who have suffered tremendous losses and may finally be willing to end the war. But an even greater alien threat lurks on the far side of the Syndic occupied space.

WWW: Watch
WWW Trilogy 2
by Robert J. Sawyer
Published by ACE

I am was so tempted by this book and it’s prequel WWW: Wake about a girl that was born blind and then given an experimental treatment that fails but let her see the web and the sentient born out of it, that I ordered both after the mid March list.

Webmind is an emerging consciousness that has befriended Caitlin Decter and grown eager to learn about her world. But Webmind has also come to the attention of WATCH-the secret government agency that monitors the Internet for any threat to the United States-and they’re fully aware of Caitlin’s involvement in its awakening.

WATCH is convinced that Webmind represents a risk to national security and wants it purged from cyberspace. But Caitlin believes in Webmind’s capacity for compassion-and she will do anything and everything necessary to protect her friend.

Other books of interest

Conflicts
Published by NewConPress

Looks spiffy, I consider getting this one too.

– A spaceship hurtles into the unknown carrying humanity’s last hope, but does it also carry the seeds of its own doom? – The galaxy’s ultimate facilitator finds himself pursued by relentless enemies, while, of greater importance, there’s a puzzle to be solved – A rescue mission to a hostile alien world turns out to be far more than it seems – The Celtic nation has reclaimed its homeland, forcing the English into impoverished enclaves, but hot-headed English youth isn’t about to take that lying down – A trivial disagreement between two off-duty super soldiers out for some R&R escalates and escalates, eventually endangering an entire world –

Thirteen tales of human striving, of ingenuity, brilliance, desperate action, violence, and resolution. Thirteen tales of Conflict, of Science Fiction at its absolute best.

Full contents:
1. Introduction – Ian Whates
2. Psi.Copath – Andy Remic
3. The Maker’s Mark – Michael Cobley
4. Sussed – Keith Brooke
5. The Cuisinart Effect – Neal Asher
6. Harmony in My Head – Rosanne Rabinowitz
7. Our Land – Chris Beckett
8. Fallout – Gareth L. Powell
9. Proper Little Soldier – Martin McGrath
10. War Without End – Una McCormack
11. Dissimulation Procedure – Eric Brown
12. In the Long Run – David L. Clements
13. Last Orders – Jim Mortimore
14. Songbirds – Martin Sketchley

Feed
Newsflash 1
by Mira Grant
Published by Orbit

I am tempted with this one to, but I think I’ll wait on a review.

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

Nebula Awards Showcase 2010
Edited by Bill Fawcett
Published by Roc

The year’s best science fiction and fantasy in one essential volume.

An annual commemoration, the Nebula Awards are presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to those members whose imaginations refine and re-define the infinite storytelling possibilities found within the genre. The Nebula Awards Showcase represents the best of the best in fantasy in one indispensible collection.

This year’s compilation includes stories by: Ursula K. LeGuin, Catherine Asaro , John Kessel, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Harry Harrison, this year’s Grandmaster.

Damage Time
by Colin Harvey
Published by Angry Robot

Another temptation, I like hard SF and this one looks right down my alley.

Rock-hard SF Thriller from the author of Winter Song: no-one here gets out alive. It’s 2050 and sea-levels have swamped today’s coastal regions. New York City is protected by tidal barriers and the USA is bankrupt. Detective Pervez (Pete) Shah serves with the NYPD’s Web Crimes Division as a Memory Association Specialist. When he’s accused of murdering a glamorous woman in a bar, he must find the killer, save himself … and the world.

Saltation
Liaden 10
by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Published by Baen

Theo Waitley is a Nexus of Violence. Thrust mid-year into a school for pilots far from the safe haven of her birth home on scholarly Delgado, young Theo Waitley excels in hands-on flying while finding that she’s behind the curve in social intricacies as well as in math. Her mentors try to guide her studies and training into the channels best suited to her special abilities and inclinations, including suggesting that she should join in the off-world studenty association, a plan resulting in mixed success. After a series of confrontations, fights, and ultimately a riot after which she is thanked for not killing anyone, Theo is named a “nexus of violence” by the school’s administration. Facing suspension and carrying little more than a hastily procured guild card, a pistol taken from an attacker, and the contents of her pants pockets, Theo must quickly decide if she’s ready to return to Delgado in disgrace, or launch herself into the universe as a freelance pilot with credentials she’s already earned.

Up Jim River
by Michael Flynn
Published by Tor Books

Hugo Award finalist and Robert A. Heinlein Award-winning SF writer Michael Flynn returns to space opera with Up Jim River. There is a river on Dangchao Waypoint, a small world out beyond Die Bold. It is a longish river as such things go, with a multitude of bayous and rapids and waterfalls, and it runs through many a strange and hostile country. Going up it, you can lose everything.

Going up it, you can find anything. The Hound Bridget ban has vanished and her employer, the Kennel (the mysterious superspy agency of the League) has given up the search. But her daughter, the harper Mearana, has not. She enlists the scarred man, Donovan, to aid her in her search. With the reluctant assent and financial aid of the Kennel, they set forth. Bridget ban was following hints of an artifact that would “protect the League from the Confederacy for aye.” Mearana is eager to follow that trail, but Donovan is reluctant, because whatever is at the end of it made a Hound disappear. What it would do to a harper and a drunk is far too easy to imagine.

Donovan’s mind had been shattered by Those of Name, the rulers of the Confederacy, and no fewer than seven quarreling personalities now inhabit his skull. How can he hope to see her through safely? Together, they follow Bridget ban’s trail to the raw worlds of the frontier, edging ever closer to the uncivilized and barbarian planets of the Wild.

What’s on your list?

Those are the ones I picked so far, do you have anyone I might be interested in? or for anyone else reading this list? Please write a comment here with your pick or a link to your pick.