Customer Reviews
Under-whelming... 
2008-08-04
Undertow: by Elizabeth Bear
There are many things I like about the book including the depiction of the city on floats which reminded me of Sausalito back in the 60s. I liked how they would change the city to deal with storms, that seemed like a nifty idea, particularly in places like New Orleans where storms will devastate the low country. And most of all I liked the aliens, except where they are written as the racist "noble savage".
This brings me to my several struggles with this book. The characters in the book are a sociopathic murderer, a dissociated hacker, a narcissistic conjure man, and several corporate leader types and other indistinguishably similar unpleasant human types. In some cases there are duplicates of these as well. Then we have the noble savage aliens who actually have legitimate issues based on the story. The problem that I had was that the apparent protagonist is the sociopath and I don't invest well with murderers no matter how pretty you shine them up. The secondary characters are equally off-putting with the exception of the aliens.
As a reader it is incredibly difficult to invest in these violent, oppressive persons' issues. These are the people I dislike intensely in real life, the ones who think they can simply violate the rights of everyone else. Determined to finish this book (the first Bear book I've managed to finish) I decided to slough through these issues for the gems that must exist to explain these choices.
I appreciated that she gave a go at Shrodingers Cat and quantum theory even if I didn't quite believe her conclusions about how things work. I didn't appreciate so much the long expository sections where she explained her theories either. However, I determined and muddled through these sections too.
I was feeling good, however, there were only a few pages of book left and...and...well, she contrived to put the alien in a position to discover the bad corporate guys were going to commit genocide and oh no...the noble savage must save se whole species by killing everyone on board the ship. This was a complete reversal of the alien policy of non-war presented thickly throughout the book. This was the "go to" human answer of violence, murder, death is the "good" answer. And in one fell swoop the aliens became humans in froggy costumes doing evil and suddenly I had no one left to root for turning the book into an airborne object of rejection.
SUMMARY: I don't consider a book well written if it pops me out a lot and I had this problem with this book. I noted the overuse of the word "oily" and it popped me out four times early in the book. I also didn't like the head-hopping quality that kept me from really liking the characters. The selection of unlikable characters coupled to the "special gizmo" one had stashed on the planet and the "special circumstances" where one alien must kill a lot of people to save the world - these are trope fantasy and even though this is positioned as SF - it is, in my opinion, really a dressed up fantasy novel and the slide is magic.
Magical fantasy agglomeration disguised as science fiction 2008-04-21
As is often the case, I wonder at the rave reviews of other readers. Nothing about this book merits five stars. The science in this supposedly sci-fi novel is a joke.
The most important 'technology' is the quantum mechanical alteration of event probabilities by skilled persons and by a strange, newly discovered element. An incredibly low probability event can be made to happen (a plot mechanism used throughout the novel), or games of chance can develop fixed patterns. Any element that could alter event probabilities could not exist within the physical laws of our universe. Which, of course, is why Ms. Bear added a nearly parallel universe that intersects ours at one planet (sounds like Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series and Phazite). In Undertow, Ms. Bear, describes magic, not future science.
A second 'technology' is instantaneous transfer (sliding) of nonliving matter across the galaxy without needing millions of gigawatts of power. However, since humans cannot transport that way, it's hard to understand how mankind managed to establish colonies throughout the entire galaxy. There are no faster-than-light ships, and travel to the galactic rim would take thousands of years even at near light speeds.
Next we have unbelievable nanotechnology that can instantly change a persons appearance, height, fingerprints, retinal vessel pattern, and cellular DNA pattern. This is great for spies and rich criminals.
The technology flaws get better, because Ms. Bear adds the ability to create an exact replica of a person, including memories and personality, through a quantum cloning technique. Quantum mechanics allows for transient existence of a duplicate subatomic particle or even an atom. But, quantum mechanics does not allow for permanent existence of duplicate bodies comprised of zillions of atoms, each in a precise location.
Getting past the ridiculous science, the novel had other flaws. As other reviewers wrote, Ms. Bear skips among multiple points of view. Done well, that technique is acceptable and sometimes even interesting. In this novel, it was annoying because many of the points of view also added different plot lines. With a dozen or so points of view and half a dozen plot lines, there was no flow.
Ms. Bear also used the often annoying technique of pushing the reader into a storyline without providing background. The background gets added in dribs and draps during the first half of the book.
We do not get enough information on the interesting amphibious aliens (referred to as 'froggies' by xenophobes). Their story also is parceled out in small bits throughout the novel.
The governmental/political/economic system is dominated by corporatism: money and power matter most; ethics are nonexistent; and theft and murder are just ways of doing business. This is nothing new for sci-fi novels, and this novel didn't add anything to the sub-genre.
Summation: An average story worsened by ridiculous technology and annoying writing techniques.
Impressive! 
2008-04-01
I had been wondering if hard SF was dead, but it seems alive and kicking into new worlds and futures in this book.
There is a LOT going on, packed into non-stop action. There's Andre who makes a living as an assassin (someone has to do it--it's just a job, no worse than most). There's Cricket, Andre's girlfriend, an archinformist (a data-miner of the ubiquitous headsets and data holds). There are conjures and licensed coincidence engineers, those who can manipulate probabilities by observing them in a certain way, something that runs in Andre's family and something he aspires to rather than his job. There is the instant transmission of matter, but not of living things (since being able to observe it messes up the transmission). There's Earth and the Core worlds and then the wild Rim, where Green's World is located--absolutely ruled by the Charter Trade Company with a vested interest in exporting a resource that is mined by the no-tech (and therefore exploitable by law) natives, the water-based ranids or "froggies." There is the floating city of Novo Haven, with its lashed-together barges and wired inhabitants. There are the wild bayous with the ranids and perhaps some ranid revolutionaries and the Greens and humans who are pro-ranids. There is ranid physiology and communication and society. And there is the situation where the Company wants someone with sensitive information to be killed and Andre figures he should do it since it'll be either him or someone else--even though the target turns out to be his lover Cricket's friend, Lucienne, who is the girlfriend of a conjure who Andre had hoped to convince to teach him...
If that's not enough to begin with, then don't read this book. It just gets crazier from there. Add in explosions and agents and rebels and retaliatory massacres and possible genocide and probability storms... There is not a dull minute in this book.
Keeps your eyeballs popping! 2008-02-12
Elizabeth Bear's Undertow (a Philip K. Dick award finalist) is the book that fulfilled what I want in a book - it crystallized my amorphous ideas about what I wanted and literally showed me - it's eyeball-popping finale really melded the book into a cohesive whole, tied up the loose ends, and gave me the thrill I needed. As an author, she has always satisfied me (her Jenny Casey trilogy), but in this book she was in top form - it's semi-mystical beginnings, unsavory characters, and odd, Louisiana Bayou Company Town setting, plus a very unusual alien species, made the beginning questionable - what have I gotten my self into? Were Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired a fluke - was that all she had? Well, Undertow answered that with a resounding NO!
One thing that stood out was that she used a different type of future - a non-Singularity future, which I enjoyed. So much SF these days, when dealing with the Far Future, uses that. But it is filled with lots of high-tech - wearables, the connex mentioned. Basically everyone, except a few who chose to live "off the grid" so to speak, are completely wired in - they get instant news, houses are responsive and security runs high. And the way the whole city/town can just pick up and move is sooo different. Even the aliens are (the information is dribbled out over the course of the novel) inventive and use all the possible elements that can be done - nothing about them are giant lizards, or talking trees.
There has been some negative comparisons to The Secret, because, as she is not a quantum engineer, her explanations of some of it's aspects used in the book are minimal - but as both a Hard SF nutcase, AND an under science-educated reader, it hit a chord - I loved not being overwhelmed with technical detail, but still be able to "follow" the idea behind the quantum theory, which is one of the reasons I got into Hard SF - Baxter's Manifold: Space was full of mind-boggling stuff, and although I didn't understand it all, I didn't have to - the mere idea that these things exist, or are theorized to exist, is enough to set your world on end.
Some reviews have focused on the use of the probability futures, and it's cursory explanations - they want more detail. I, on the other hand, don't need that - I just need the author to set me on the path, and get me fired up, and off I go. I LIKE not being in a lecture hall, but instead, given ideas that make me THINK, and want to run to my nearest Hawking book, or other QM one, and do some research on my own. Too much detail strays the story off it's path, IMO.
Undertow set the bar quite high for me, which is probably why I've been so hard on A Fire Upon the Deep by Vinge. This book makes the others look amateurish, dull, wordy and unimaginative. Undertow accomplishes in it's short (368) pages, what AFUTD (624) couldn't do in almost twice the length.
I urge you to give it a try - if you've read the Casey trilogy, it's nothing like it. This is NOT your grandmother's book. It's cool, mysterious, shadowy, full of fun, capers, plots and counter-plots, treason and treachery, and all set within an incredibly complex setting, more so as the book goes on, and as I have repeatedly said, the push to the ending is enough to make you think your trippin'.
So, do me and yourself a favor - if you like fresh, new, exciting, genre -bending SF/Fantasy (SFF), then read it. Support your local SF writer! If you prefer your SF to remain in it's cozy, set genre, then don't.
Have a wild ride (and stay on the horse - it might want to buck you off at first, but if you persevere, and are the kind of reader I mentioned, then the ride will be one worth all you've given it).
This is from my blog and stripped off all references to other reviews, and interviews, etc. You can read the whole thing at http://thehouseai.wordpress.com.
Not Free SF Reader 2007-12-03
Best book yet.
At least of her science fiction, anyway, I haven't read the rest. It seems that not content with being the 21st century Gordon R. Dickson with Military SF and Dragons, or the 21st century Randall Garrett with period sorcerer detectives, monster hunters, and animal companions, she is aiming for the 21st century Melissa Scott niche, too.
That is exactly what this book reminded me of, being instantly dumped into a milieu that is both recognisably human and alien, and just different, right from the start. This is something that Scott is great at, and showing the day to day situations of such people in the future and on other planets.
Quantum probabilities is what this is all about, as one particular planetary colony is a source for a very strange substance that facilitates interstellar communication and transport by quantum methods. Naturally, this makes the corporation in control a lot of money.
They use the local amphibious aliens as workers, 'coolies' mostly in fact as well as name to mine this substance, as they work well in the water.
The case of characters includes a hitman, a Scarlet Witchesque probability manipulator, an information broker, a secret agent, and your standard repressive corporate executives, and a few clones.
When one of these people is killed, the dying information burst she sends begins to uncover a lot of secrets, and leads to a complicated conflict involving the aliens, the locals, the governing corporation, and more than one probability storm.
Very well done.
4.5 out of 5
Hard SF with a conscience 2007-10-27
A frontier world on the back end of nowhere is the sort of place people go to get lost. And some of those people have secrets worth hiding, secrets that can change the future–assuming there is one. . . .
André Deschênes is a hired assassin, but he wants to be so much more. If only he can find a teacher who will forgive his murderous past–and train him to manipulate odds and control probability. It’s called the art of conjuring, and it’s André’s only route to freedom. For the world he lives on is run by the ruthless Charter Trade Company, and his floating city, Novo Haven, is little more than a company town where humans and aliens alike either work for one tyrannical family–or are destroyed by it. But beneath Novo Haven’s murky waters, within its tangled bayous, reedy banks, and back alleys, revolution is stirring. And one more death may be all it takes to shift the balance. . . .
Fans will appreciate this watery science fiction thriller 2007-08-11
On the backwater colony and mining planet Greene's world, a mostly oceanic orb, the Charter Trade Company mines petroleum and omelite, a valuable substance controlled by the firm's upper management. Native ranids who are civilized water species are used as forced coolie labor. They live mostly in water so they play a big role in the underwater mining.
Sometimes a secret gets out and the company has to deal with it. Andre Deschenes is an assassin who wants to be a conjurer man so he can scientifically change his world and control to a degree the probable outcome of events. The company assigns him to kill Lucienne, his girlfriend Cricket's friend. Some ranids with humans backing them are calling for a revolution and Cricket has a data dump in her head from Lucienne, given moments before she died that may be the key to getting the company off Greene's World. The ranids know more than humans believe possible and are prepared to do what is necessary to keep their world whole healthy and clean.
The ranids are intelligent amphibians but most humans don't see it because verbal communication between the species is impossible. UNDERTOW would make a great movie as human corporate conspiracies place everyone on or near the planet in danger; human and ranids try to save their destabilizing planet. Fans will appreciate this watery science fiction thriller
Harriet Klausner
