Books Considered: Marsbound, by Joe Haldeman; Kitty and the Silver Bullet, by Carrie Vaughn;

Again, just some capsules of the very few recent books I've read not for review. (Indeed, I am very far behind on my novel reading because I've been reading so much short fiction. 2008 is going to feature a true bumper crop of original anthologies.)

Joe Haldeman is one of my favorite writers, because he really never fails to entertain. His novels, it must be said, do tend to be short, and sometimes (but by no means always!) that can imply a certain slightness. That was the case with last year's The Accidental Time Machine, and it's the case again with this year's Marsbound. But for all that the book is just plain fun to read (as was The Accidental Time Machine). Now let me caveat this -- I've just read Marsbound in its Analog serialization. The hardcover is due in August. And the serial shows definite signs of cutting, though not terribly harmful cutting. (The serial is about 80,000 words. The full novel, at a pure guess, is between 90,000 and 100,000 words.)

Marsbound is the story of Carmen Dula, a young woman whose family wins a lottery to be among the first colonists on Mars. Carmen's story begins with the trip to Mars -- first a long ride up the space elevator (it seems only recently that SF has acknowledge how long it will reasonably take to traverse space elevators -- though probably I am simply forgetting details of The Fountains of Paradise and of The Web Between the Worlds), then a long trip to Mars. This is all interesting and engaging -- Carmen is a nice character, and so is the rest of her family. Carmen gains a love interest, one of the pilots, which gets them in trouble, because she's 19 and he's 30 or so.

On Mars Carmen finds herself with an enemy in the colony administrator, a sneering Bad Guy (except it's a Bad Gal) who could have come straight from an Elizabeth Moon novel, who seems to resent Carmen's looks, sex life, and youth. This drives Carmen to a rather foolish act of defiance -- a trek on the surface of Mars which ends up with her falling into a crevasse and out of range of help. Luckily for her, she attracts the attentions of Martians, who use their advanced medical tech to save her life. Around this time, a novel which had, to be honest, seemed composed of familiar bits anyway, started to seem REALLY familiar. It took me a while to remember that this second section of the book had been published already (in somewhat different form, no doubt) as "The Mars Girl", in the 2006 anthology Escape From Earth. Anyway, the rest of the book unravels the mystery of these implausible Martians, and gives Carmen a pretty important job in what could be rather a crisis time for humanity.

It's, as I said, a very enjoyable novel. It's not really terribly original, nor does it strike me as terribly deep. But I had lots of fun reading it.

I've also had lots of fun reading Carrie Vaughn's series about Kitty Norville, late night DJ and also werewolf. The books so far have introduced Kitty and her condition, and have also revealed that there are lots of magical beings out there -- werefolk of many types, vampires, skinwalkers, and more. Kitty has become a celebrity, and the world has become aware of the other humans among them.

In this latest volume Kitty is back in her hometown, Denver. As things open she has a miscarriage, and learns that a nasty side effect of being a werewolf is that you can't carry a child to term. Even more pressingly, her mother has been diagnosed with cancer -- and she isn't interested in Kitty's idea for a cure -- turning her mother into a werewolf. In the wider world, there is a serious threat to the stability of the paranormal folk in Denver -- the ruling vampire is under challenge, and Kitty's former pack leader, who she hates, has been embroiled in vampire politics. Kitty also is pressured to get involved, which is the last thing she wants ... but of course she can't stay out.

It's nice work -- a fairly typical entry in a template series, advancing the overall plot arc nicely while also setting up and resolving a single-book plot quite well. These remain good fun books.