One thought on “Look outside!”

1. I kind of wish Bujold had written more books like Falling Free (and like Ethan of Athos with interesting sociological speculation) and less of the crowd-pleasing space-aristocrats.

   C. J. Cherryh has a style of writing which uses a very tight focus on events as seen by a viewpoint character who is usually confused, ignorant, emotional, or all three. Sometimes this creates fantastic levels of suspense and tension amid the fog of war (The Paladin, the Chanur books, The Faded Sun, Voyager in Night) and sometimes it’s just confusing and annoying (Heavy Time, Merchanter’s Luck).

   Cyteen is one of her best, I think—it has insightful speculation on how cloning might inform the nature-versus-nurture debate, and a compelling murder mystery. Some of the futurism has dated (the ubiquitous “computer tapes”) but most sf readers are probably capable of doing the necessary mental translations.

Comments are closed.