Goodreads' Problem With Trolls and Extortion

I just learned about this today. In a nutshell, indie authors with a high visibility on social media—particularly those with progressive politics—are being targetted by extortionists. Typical message:

"EITHER YOU TAKE CARE OF OUR NEEDS AND REQUIREMENTS WITH YOUR WALLET OR WE'LL RUIN YOUR AUTHOR CAREER. PAY US OR DISAPPEAR FROM GOODREADS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD."

Failure to comply with these demands results in authors getting slammed with hundreds of one-star reviews on Goodreads. The company is typically slow in its corrective actions.

All indie authors know how difficult it is to get readers to check out their work. It means putting yourself out there on social media (the introvert's equivalent of smelling sweaty socks) to get the public's attention. Many authors choose to discuss topics of personal interest to them. And if there's anything we've learned over the last few years, doing so puts a target on your back. As their audience grows, the trolls take notice.

Amazon used to have a sock puppet problem, but then it found ways to restrict reviews to verified accounts by simply making use of data it already had (verified contact info, purchasing history, etc.). Since Amazon owns Goodreads and offers potential readers easy to access links to buy said book, you would think that they would make every effort to ensure that the number one social media site for books was free of crippling attacks on their revenue stream.

Thanks to Monica for bringing this to my attention.

\_/
DED

Titan by John Varley

The first manned expedition to Saturn discovers a new moon, but closer examination reveals it to be a huge space station.

Wait. What?

All kidding aside, the station is in the shape of a Stanford torus, albeit a thousand times larger. Attempts to dock with the station go horribly wrong for Captain Cirocco Jones and her crew. Stranded on the station, they have no choice but to find who's in charge in hopes of finding a way back to Earth.

Titan was published in 1979 and is the first book in John Varley's Gaea trilogy. I didn't find out that this was a series until after I'd read the third book, Demon. During the 80s, I'd joined a science fiction book club that sold hardcovers for paperback prices. Demon was one of the books I bought along with Varley's standalone Millennium. I enjoyed both, but I didn't find my way back to this series until recently when I'd heard that Varley was having heart surgery. But I digress.

At first blush, Varley's space station comes across as another Big Dumb Object (BDO). I admit to being a sucker for this type of story. Ringworld, Rama, the Halo videogame, etc. In BDO stories, exploration of the BDO is often the story itself. Cirocco's search for her crew runs parallel to her exploration of this strange new, and manufactured, world. But Varley's BDO has more going on that just a bunch of humans poking around in a sterile alien vessel or the ruins of an advanced civilization. Fantastic alien creatures are met. The sentient ones have a unique culture and speak of Gaea, the entity in charge. And so, Cirocco sets off on a quest to find Gaea, whether Gaea is an alien, a committee, or computer.

Varley was one of the few men in sci-fi that wrote strong female protagonists in the 70s. Cirocco Jones is the first woman to command a NASA mission, and the pressure of it weighs on her, though I wish that it had been explored a bit further. Instead, Varley explores sexual freedom among his characters. Bearing in mind that this was written in the 70s, Varley imagines that on long space missions, the crew will likely pursue sexual relationships because that's what people do. Details are light, just enough to give the reader an idea of what's going on. Once on the space station, Varely takes things a step further, not just among the crew but the aliens as well. With regards to the crew, non-binary relationships are explored. Among the aliens, the titanides have multiple sex organs, so keeping their genders sorted out would probably require a spreadsheet.

Personal transformation is another theme explored by Varley. Each of the crew go through some sort of change once they're on the station. While some changes are benign, like suddenly knowing how to communicate with the various alien species, others are darker. Certain aspects of one's personality are magnified. A loner finds herself transformed into one of the alien species who lead a solitary, predatory existence. Another finds his toxic masculinity magnified, leading him to become a rapist (again details are fortunately kept brief). No one in the crew is untouched, and how they respond to adversity under these circumstances is itself a transformative event.

Titan is all about discovery: a new world to explore, new life forms to interact with, self-discovery among the characters. I'll admit that sometimes the story bogs down in the space station details. I felt that Varley had to satisfy the gearheads by throwing out specifications about the place to justify how and why it works. While the place is wondrous, sometimes the wonder wore off with the minutiae. And the quest itself seemed rather long with rather little to offer the reader between momentous encounters. But the payoff in the end was worth it. What Jones discovers about Gaea is far from expected for just a BDO.

3.5 stars

\_/
DED

Book Review: Lost Kin

After the events in Liberated Harry Kaspar has been relocated to Munich. As he enters the final weeks of service as an administrator for the military government, his life is good. He resides in a nice house with cushy amenities, has a former WAC girlfriend, and the locals appreciate his efforts to restore some semblance of pre-war normalcy. And then a cop shows up on his doorstep one night informing him that there's been an incident and his brother may be involved. Having not seen nor heard from his brother for several years, Harry's interest is piqued, though for a German-American, he knows this could be a scam, or worse. What follows is an investigation into a murder, black market sales of the spoils of war, and old scores that demand to be settled in blood.

There are elements of noir in this story. Harry's girlfriend has a bit of femme fatale to her which both excites and worries him. Meetings with informants take place in dark alleys and secluded rooms, forcing Harry to always be alert for the double cross. The atmosphere of downtrodden Munich is leaden with cold autumnal rain and early snow. And the American military government is seen through a lens of world weary cynicism.

She knew so many majors, colonels, and generals, all rearguard types who'd never seen combat but rode desks like gladiator chariots except their shields were their puffed-up chests done up with medals of every color, the swords their sharp tongues and stern memos, the feints and thrust their back-room whispers and leaks applied with extreme prejudice. Opponents cowered, colleagues awed, and mistresses swooned.

As with Liberated, Anderson has done the research. The deal that FDR and Churchhill made with Stalin in Yalta would soon turn out to be a Faustian bargain. I don't want to spoil it, but Anderson explores an aspect of that here as a way for the two brothers' paths to cross again.

Lost Kin is a strong finish to the Kaspar Brothers trilogy. The noir elements spice up the intriguing plot, and Anderson's characters are well-developed. I got caught up in their predicament as Anderson entwined their fates with historical events. I'd recommend the series as a whole for WW2 historical fiction fans looking for something different from that time period.

4 stars.

\_/
DED

Book Review: The Wrong Stars

A ragtag crew of humans and posthumans discover alien technology that could change the fate of humanity... or awaken an ancient evil and destroy all life in the galaxy.

The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system. They discover the wreck of a centuries-old exploration vessel floating light years away from its intended destination and revive its sole occupant, who wakes with news of First Alien Contact. When the crew break it to her that humanity has alien allies already, she reveals that these are very different extra-terrestrials... and the gifts they bestowed on her could kill all humanity, or take it out to the most distant stars.

This was a fun read. Likable characters trading quips and jovial banter. There was action, but the peril didn't seem all that perilous in that the crew always seemed to have a workable solution at hand. Dare I say that it was almost too easy?

Pratt writes an all-inclusive character ensemble with regards to gender, but didn't make it the focus of the story. People just were who they were. With a monstrous evil alien race lurking about, no one gave a shit about what made their motor hum, if you catch my drift. While that works for me, if you're unsure, you'll be relieved to know that there were no details on "engine maintenance."

Having said that, the main romance in the story is a bit over the top. They were like two hormone addled teenagers. Actually, that might be an insult to teenagers. More like what TV execs think teenagers are like. Some of the conversations were just too cheezy. Plenty of eyeroll moments.

If you go into this looking for a beach read, you'll be fine. The science is light, and many things are handwaved away. It's best if you don't look too closely (It's about as far as you can get from Stoss, Reynolds, and Watts as you can get and still be sci-fi). The point is that it's a light-hearted, fun, sci-fi adventure with a cheezy romance.

3.5 stars.

\_/
DED

Book Review: Liberated

In the early days of post-war Germany, Captain Harry Kaspar has been assigned by the US military government to oversee recovery efforts in the town of Heimgau. Unfortunately, the post is already occupied by Major Membre. It seems that the office that assigned Membre supersedes the one that picked Kaspar, and obviously the major outranks the captain.

Kaspar and Membre butt heads from the start. Besides smarting from missing out on the position that Kaspar feels should've been his—he trained for it after all—Membre comes across as a self-serving opportunist, more interested in personal gain than helping this Bavarian town start over. Kaspar heads off in a huff to survey the town when he discovers three German men lying in the road, evidentially tortured and murdered. He now has a mystery to solve.

With the aid of Katarina, a former German actress, Kaspar navigates black markets, systemic corruption, the aftermath of the Holocaust, and a disgruntled conquered populace in an effort to solve the murders and right some wrongs, all while trying to avoid getting killed.

Anderson's story was born out of research he did in Munich to get his master's in history. Besides touching on prejudice towards German-Americans stateside, the book calls attention to Allied looting in post-war Europe. While it might be dismissed as stealing from Nazis, it should be noted that the Nazis stole it from innocents. Be sure to check out the afterword to get an idea as to the extent of the theft.

While the story was intriguing and rooting for Harry was easy, Liberated didn't resonate with me quite as much as the previous work—The Losing Role, a story about Harry's brother Max who fought for the Germans—did. I feel that certain characters weren't as developed as I think they could've been. Still, I liked it and plan on reading the next book in the series.

3.5 stars

\_/
DED

Book Review: Blindsight

It's been two months since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since - until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us. Who to send to meet the alien, when the alien doesn't want to meet? Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder, and a biologist so spliced to machinery he can't feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior, and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find - but you'd give anything for that to be true, if you knew what was waiting for them.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Siri Keeton, who went through a hemispherectomy as a child to correct his epileptic seizures. While successful, it also rendered him emotionally detached, perfect for a job as a synthesist, a type of observer whose job it is to "integrate traits, attitudes, and impulses to create a total personality." His job here is to observe the crew, a bunch of transhumanist misfits, as they try to figure out the aliens and then translate their findings into something comprehensible for mere mortals back home.

But Siri isn't really a reliable narrator. I wasn't convinced he knew what he was doing or what was going on. The crew didn't trust him, thinking of him as a spy for mission control, despite the fact that the ship was literally over a half a light year from home. We get flashbacks to Siri's time before the mission, showing his emotionally reprehensible behavior towards his ex-girlfriend which only underlines his incompetence towards relating to people. He blames the surgery for his shortcomings, but as it his job to read people, he fails to understand himself and what it means to be human.

The third most egregious offense is the addition of the vampire character. In this series, vampires co-existed with humans in paleolithic times but went extinct. Someone thought it would be a good idea to dig through our junk DNA to genetically engineer them back to life, complete with superhuman capabilities. I can't confirm it, but it seems that Watts—who earned a Ph.D from the University of British Columbia's Department of Zoology and Resource Ecology—got the idea from human bones that showed evidence of cannibalism. To me, that's too much of a stretch.

The second most egregious offense pertains to the aliens themselves. They have a certain ability that literally had me say "bullshit" out loud. It shattered my suspension of disbelief. After burying me in mounds of psychology, physics, and neuroscience, he finally went too far. To delve further into this would be to invoke spoilers, so I'm going to leave it at that. Since I lack the education to debate him on this matter or the existence of paleolithic vampires, I can't possibly win the argument.

This is probably the oddest first contact story that I've ever read. But it really isn't about first contact; it's a debate over intelligence vs. sentience. The characters argued over what the latest discovery about the aliens meant in this debate. Honestly, considering their behavior and the stakes involved, I felt it was a moot point. I didn't particularly care for how the crew interacted with one another, how contact with the aliens was handled, or the way the investigation was conducted. The methodologies the crew employed when studying the aliens went to such extremes that I felt like they were digging their own grave.

Complaints aside, this isn't a bad novel. It won prestigious awards. And Watts bleak worldview on humanity isn't lost on me. I certainly wouldn't argue with him on that. There is so much going on in here (the science, the debates, the unique aliens in an otherwise well trod storyline), and the fact that I've had such a visceral reaction to it demonstrates that I was engaged in the story. But Watts' most egregious offense, and the one that I will not yield on, is that he didn't give us a protagonist worth rooting for. By the time the Siri confesses his sins and the epilogue fades, I can't help but feel that the price for the reader to get there was too high.

3 stars

\_/
DED

Book Review: Nemesis Games

A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land-rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.

Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.

And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.

The plot to this one takes a backseat to character development. That's not to say that there's no plot. It's just that events happen here and there, and the focus is on how the crew of the Rocinante, separated by millions of miles, deal with these events and find their way back to each other.

James Holden has been the consistent POV character through this series. In this installment, we get the POV of Naomi, Amos, and Alex as well. So it was nice to see how they think and get their take on each other. The Rocinante is not just a job, it's family. Bobbie Draper, Chrisjen Avasarala, Fred Johnson, and Clarissa Mao are also present, and each adds to the story.

I read this after watching the latest season of The Expanse. Once again, I think the TV show did a better job handling the material, amping up the drama and focusing on important character moments which were glossed over in the book. We got to see more of the relationships Naomi had with Filip, Marcos, and her old crew. The book came up short here. It was almost as if Filip and Marcos were too busy, so why make the effort at all?

The whole Martian corruption storyline, which the TV show started exploring in season four, was far more intriguing than Alex's sad attempt at reconciling with his ex-wife. Fortunately, this yielded to his assisting Bobbie rather than dragging on any further.

Amos's storyline was pretty close to a match (book vs. TV show). The TV show did a better job of humanizing him though. It touched more on his past and emotional development points that were lacking in the book (I understand that "The Churn" provided a good deal of that background). He also saw something in Clarissa way back in Abaddon's Gate, and his visit to her here can be seen as an attempt by the writers to rehabilitate a character that I thought was lackluster.

Holden's storyline wasn't much to write home about. Except for the attack on Tycho Station, he spends most of his time pining for his friends. Admirable, but not all that entertaining.

This must sound like I didn't like the book, but I did. It's just that the TV show was so much better. I'd give the show 5 stars and the book 3.5 stars. I'm hoping to read the next book before the next season comes out.

\_/
DED