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dsrtao_Undertow_, Elizabeth Bear
_Shadow Unit S01E02 "Knock on Coffins"_, Elizabeth Bear
I think I'll have to mark myself down as an Elizabeth Bear fan now.
_Undertow_ is a cyberpunk novel, because it features a small group of outlaws, some of whom use direct neural interfaces to computers, who destroy a fascist corporate government. It is a sympathetic misunderstood aliens novel, because we get to see the poor froggies and their point of view; they are abused by the corporation and rise up in rebellion. It is a swamp-magic novel, because there is magic (with a quantum handwave) and it happens in swamps as much as anywhere else. It is not much of a mystery novel, because every time Bear does something spooky and unexpected, she explains it through one or another character within a few pages. That is not a complaint, nor is it a defect.
_Shadow Unit_ is what the X-Files should have been, written one episode at a time by some of my favorite authors, all available online at http://www.shadowunit.org -- episodes 1 and 2 are now up, both self-contained but clearly starting out a story arc. I've always maintained that the problem with television was the writing, and this confirms it.
_Shadow Unit S01E02 "Knock on Coffins"_, Elizabeth Bear
I think I'll have to mark myself down as an Elizabeth Bear fan now.
_Undertow_ is a cyberpunk novel, because it features a small group of outlaws, some of whom use direct neural interfaces to computers, who destroy a fascist corporate government. It is a sympathetic misunderstood aliens novel, because we get to see the poor froggies and their point of view; they are abused by the corporation and rise up in rebellion. It is a swamp-magic novel, because there is magic (with a quantum handwave) and it happens in swamps as much as anywhere else. It is not much of a mystery novel, because every time Bear does something spooky and unexpected, she explains it through one or another character within a few pages. That is not a complaint, nor is it a defect.
_Shadow Unit_ is what the X-Files should have been, written one episode at a time by some of my favorite authors, all available online at http://www.shadowunit.org -- episodes 1 and 2 are now up, both self-contained but clearly starting out a story arc. I've always maintained that the problem with television was the writing, and this confirms it.
