The Caledonian Gambit (SF)

The Caledonian Gambit (SF) - Dan Moren ****

This is a novel with a classic science fiction setting - empire versus federation / commonwealth / rebel alliance with roots that stretch back to the likes of Asimov's Foundation series and reach into the science fantasy world of Star Wars. There's even a figure vaguely reminiscent of Luke Skywalker, in the sense that he's a good pilot, an innocent abroad and related to key figures in the rebellion. But it would be unfair to dismiss it as 'more of the same', because its saving grace is that the central group of characters is, in reality, a trio of intelligence operatives - and they really bring the book alive.

The back of the book asks 'can two unlikely heroes keep peace in the galaxy', but the innocent abroad, Eli Brody, seems to spend most of his time feeling sick or cracking bad jokes - he only comes into his own right at the end of the book when a pilot is needed. The other of the pair is a leading Commonwealth intelligence operative Simon Kovalic, accompanied by his team consisting of a ninja-like lieutenant and a solid military sergeant with a penchant for weapons and a good punch-up. Kovalic and friends occupy by far the most interesting sections of the book (for a large part, Kovalik and Brody operate independently). If anything they are bit too good at their jobs - but there is still enough peril to keep it interesting.

Dan Moren's writing style is workmanlike, if lacking panache. Just occasionally it grates a little, but on the whole he keeps the action going well and throws in enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested. It's not great art, or even the best science fiction, but it's an enjoyable romp with elements of a spy thriller in space.

The book probably could have done with a slightly better edit, both to pick up on those slightly clunky bits of writing and an impressively bad bit of arithmetic, when we read:

'How far are we from the defensive perimeter?'
'About twenty-five thousand kilometres. Our speed's fairly steady at around five thousand kilometres per hour.'

'Five minutes.'

Oops. But this isn't the kind of SF you pick up for hard science and mathematical precision. It's a fine, escapist bit of nonsense and I had a good time reading it.

Paperback:
Kindle:
Using these links earns us commission at no cost to you
Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

Comments

The Laws of Thought - Tom Griffiths *****

In giving us a history of attempts to explain our thinking abilities, Tom Griffiths demonstrates an excellent ability to pitch information just right for the informed general reader. We begin with Aristotelian logic and the way Boole and others transformed it into a kind of arithmetic before a first introduction of computing and theories of language. Griffiths covers a surprising amount of ground - we don't just get, for instance, the obvious figures of Turing, von Neumann and Shannon, but the interaction between the computing pioneers and those concerned with trying to understand the way we think - for example in the work of Jerome Bruner, of whom I confess I'd never heard. This would prove to be the case with a whole host of people who have made interesting contributions to the understanding of human thought processes. Sometimes their theories were contradictory - this isn't an easy field to successfully observe - but always they were interesting. But for me, at least, ...

The AI Paradox - Virginia Dignum ****

This is a really important book in the way that Virginia Dignum highlights various ways we can misunderstand AI and its abilities using a series of paradoxes. However, I need to say up front that I'm giving it four stars for the ideas: unfortunately the writing is not great. It reads more like a government report than anything vaguely readable - it really should have co-authored with a professional writer to make it accessible. Even so, I'm recommending it: like some government reports it's significant enough to make it necessary to wade through the bureaucrat speak. Why paradoxes? Dignum identifies two ways we can think about paradoxes (oddly I wrote about paradoxes recently , but with three definitions): a logical paradox such as 'this statement is false', or a paradoxical truth such as 'less is more' - the second of which seems a better to fit to the use here. We are then presented with eight paradoxes, each of which gives some insights into aspects of t...

Einstein's Fridge - Paul Sen ****

In Einstein's Fridge (interesting factoid: this is at least the third popular science book to be named after Einstein's not particularly exciting refrigerator), Paul Sen has taken on a scary challenge. As Jim Al-Khalili made clear in his excellent The World According to Physics , our physical understanding of reality rests on three pillars: relativity, quantum theory and thermodynamics. But there is no doubt that the third of these, the topic of Sen's book, is a hard sell. While it's true that these are the three pillars of physics, from the point of view of making interesting popular science, the first two might be considered pillars of gold and platinum, while the third is a pillar of salt. Relativity and quantum theory are very much of the twentieth century. They are exciting and sometimes downright weird and wonderful. Thermodynamics, by contrast, has a very Victorian feel and, well, is uninspiring. Luckily, though, thermodynamics is important enough, lying behind ...

Search This Blog