It was a bit of slog to get through, but I finished NEPTUNE’S BROOD by Charles Stross (Orbit). The numerous
data-dumps about banking and debt made it a chore, as space opera, but in the
ledger’s plus column of witty amusements there are talking-squid communists and
the accountant-heroine is turned into a mermaid.
This book is never as
enjoyable as SATURN’S CHILDREN, and its SF content doesn’t compare to fix-up novel
ACCELERANDO, but I liked its ‘jubilee’ ending as the interstellar empire
emerges from its wholly dystopian state.
From that otherworldly life aquatic (without Steve Zissou!),
to something that’s even stranger... Adam Roberts’ bizarre TWENTY TRILLION LEAGUES
UNDER THE SEA (Gollancz), nicely illustrated in a traditional style.
It’s been half a lifetime since I first read Jules
Verne's submarine saga, but I still have the Bancroft hardcover that I got for Xmas when I was
eight years old. Roberts pays due tribute with a fabulous adventure set partly
in the late 1950s, aboard a French experimental
sub, and partly in the
weird cosmic depths of a watery universe, that's ruled by a crystalised
entity with god-like powers, found via the mysterious portal at the
bottom of Earth’s oceans.
