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What's New
Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Linda Nagata |
| Author Information |
Reviewed Books |
Other Books |
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Vast
Deception Well |
Tech Haven
The Bohr Maker
Limit of Vision |
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 Our
Ranking Vast is the powerful followup novel to
Nagata's Deception Well. I actually read Vast first and while it is written under
the assumption that you already know the characters (therefore their development
is fairly limited) the book manages to stand on its own as a novel. After going
back and reading Deception Well, I was glad I read Vast first, since I probably
would never have bothered to read it. DW is an OK novel, but no where near as
complete as Vast. Basically, 4 crew members and their ship Null Boundaries, are
the last survivors of a dead world they barely escaped from in DW. They are being
followed by a silent enemy ship through space as they race towards are unknown
world. Nagata does a very impressive job of keeping the story interesting even
with the very limited amount of characters. Including the ship (which is alive)
there are only five characters throughout most of the book. The interaction of
the characters is very strong as well as the tenseness they share from being followed
by a far superior enemy. However, what really steals the book are the body altering/nanotechnolgy
concepts that Nagata fits in like it is as natural as your own body. The imagination
she displays is incredible. The four characters are all human, but each has been
genetically altered in various ways. Nagata does a wonderful job resisting the
temptation to just state their changes but rather fits it into the plotline naturally.
It is much more powerful and truly brings the tale to the next level. The plot
is strong, but it comes apart slightly at the end. This is a terrific book and
should be read by any fan of science fiction. |
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 Our
Ranking Deception Well is the the first novel
of which Vast is the follow-up to. I actually read this one after I had read Vast,
not realizing at the time Vast was a sequel. To be honest, I'm glad I read it
in that order. Vast was a terrific novel, and while Deception Well was not terrible,
there was not enough there to have convinced me to followup on it and read a sequel.
First off, Deception Well just didn't seem to be too tightly woven. The characters,
the plot, the motivations, even the setting just seemed to be all over the board.
The book is centered around Lot, the main character from Vast. It mostly deals
with him when he is younger, dealing with the problems of his heritage and the
mistrust of the colony around him and his kind. Most of the characters are young,
childhood friends of Lot. Lot's father had been a carrier of a nano virus, that
spreads to nearly anyone around him, infecting them with a cultlike religious
insanity, leaving them willing to do anything for Lot and his cause. Obviously
the ruling body at the time is deathly afraid of this and eyes Lot with extreme
caution in case he is also a carrier. The problem I had though, is Nagata describes
the reason for this fear, and the explanation pretty well, but then allows the
characters to be unreasonable lax with Lot. The characters and plots were full
of inconsistencies such as this. Even Lot's character flip flops several times
in what he wants from following his father's footsteps to shunning his father
to just trying to get down to the planet below. The plot itself is fairly interesting,
but you really have to ignore some of the holes. The one thing that really saves
the novel from being a bad book is the science around it. Deception Well is truly
the precursor of the mind blowing Vast that is to come. She delves heavily into
nanotech (compared to Vast though this is just a tease) and the setting itself,
the colony orbiting the supposed dead world below adds for some very interesting
twists. All in all, I don't regret reading this, but it certainly was nothing
special. Vast is a far better book, simply tighter and better written. |
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