James L. CambiasReseñas

Not what was expected

Thought that this was a collection of monster tales... Nope. It's mostly a review / critique of the remake of Kong movie, with one lame story after it.

Corsair... this book was thrilling. The author really made what is in real life not very exciting a great depiction of near-future fictional space battles with satellites. The controversy among the characters definitely made for an exciting story. A lot of strong colorful personalities intermingle with satisfying sci-fi. This was a real journey and I was excited to know what happened next.

Corsair... this book was thrilling. The author really made what is in real life not very exciting a great depiction of near-future fictional space battles with satellites. The controversy among the characters definitely made for an exciting story. A lot of strong colorful personalities intermingle with satisfying sci-fi. This was a real journey and I was excited to know what happened next.

This novel of first contact and inter-species conflict was done from all angles, and it really grabbed me. I know giving the alien perspective as well as the human has been done before, but Cambias did a great job creating two distinct alien cultures. It wasn't just a story of humans meeting aliens; it was humans meeting aliens even though they've agreed with another race of aliens not to make contact. The ethical questions brought up by the resulting conflict makes for a thought-provoking read.

It's not a page-turner because it's action-packed from start to finish. It's a page-turner because it's just so darn interesting. It's not my normal fare, but I'm glad I gave it a whirl.

This was entertaining. While the plot was predictable, it was still fun especially with the world building. I rather liked the Itooti people.

A rating of 4.85. Excellent novel of first contact.

This book began with a great hook - an office bet on who can find the most interesting and unique ways to kill media darling, showman, and all around jerk to be around, Henri Kerlerec. Nobody foresaw the agency of his death (less than a dozen pages into the book) at the claws of the native Ilmatar, who naively dissect him thinking him an unintelligent animal.


And then the book trips over itself for a while. Cambias becomes lost in setting the stage, something he could have forgone without any loss to the story. Not helping the story is that our other space faring species, the Sholan, read more like a foreign culture than a foreign species. While there are some physiological differences noted, they feel like TV aliens with pointed ears and green blood - different, but only in culture. Otherwise they are just humans with rubber suits, bent on protecting us from repeating their own mistakes.


What really saves this book - from the portraying an alien species perspective - are the natives of the ocean depths themselves, the Ilmataran. It's not a fair analogy, but reading their POV is like being in the head of a sonar wielding lobster. I was reminded of Vinge's Spiders from A Deepness in the Sky, especially with the ease with which Cambias relates the world of a blind, ocean vent dwelling creature. Cambias really shines when dealing with the Ilmataran, and you get a sense of the potential here. As a first novel, it was good, and I look forward to seeing what else Cambias writes in the future.


The ARC of this novel was provided for review by Tor.

A bit of a slow start, but nicely picked up speed. Really effective creation of an alien species -- I envisioned the Ilmatarians as giant, eyeless lobsters. The Sholens were a bit harder to "see," but I love how Cambias described them, especially their bonobo-like custom of engaging in sex to show subserviance or to calm each other. Very good read!

"... the closest we can come to Star Trek without paying royalties."

Indeed.

So we've got a three way that includes intelligent fish, six-legged cultural purists, and... yeah, you got it... upstart humans. No conflict to start with, mostly just a fact-finding mission trying to get to know the locals without interfering, just like the Prime Directive says, and then we've got COMPLICATIONS.

You know. A bit of curious murder by a people who don't know it's murder. They're just curious. No biggie. I can barely hear the screams. After all, he's just a cameraman. Decent start. Reminds me of a blast-from the past homage to old SF. To me, it seemed like a direct homage to Brin's [b:Startide Rising|234501|Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2)|David Brin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435151135s/234501.jpg|251634], although, to be perfectly honest, I preferred Brin's Dolphins. There was a lot going on under the surface, there, unlike the wide, but less deep, look at the locals. Cool worldbuilding, for all that. I like the attempt to bring a world to life from under so much ice, but I do complain that it still seems like a direct analogue of "regular people". Really? Just a society of shopkeepers and cultural mores closer to the Greeks or Arabs, in that guests under one's roof is considered inviolate?

Because of that, I want to read this novel like an indictment of our culture, but no, it tries too hard to be a deep and complex society meeting and interacting with two alien species and navigating through THEIR conflict. Damn the humans and their meddling. They never know when to butt the hell out, do they?

It's not a bad novel, but it feels like it ought to belong in the 60's or 70's set of SF novels, and NOT the New Wave set.

It's really, ultimately, only a First Contact novel, and it's fairly entertaining. Not extremely original or surprising, though. I kept expecting the glorious "Gun" to show up and prove that the yokel locals "have the power" to resist the invaders. *sigh*

Well, I can give props to the author for being a long-respected group of GURPs authors known for some really excellent worldbuilding props. I can't say they're fantastic at actual STORYTELLING, but this attempt wasn't exactly bad. Perhaps it was a bit old-hat, but it certainly wasn't bad. I felt like I was taking a dip in an old-style pool.

Perhaps I would have liked this more had I figured I was actually reading a Past Master's Old Script. I just wanted to see a higher dedication to originality and excitement. You know, not just a repelling of invaders and a subtext that right must always pursue might.

This book is best-suited to a 'young reader' who does not expect much from a novel.

On the icy moon Ilmatar, a group of human researchers is studying the intelligent lifeforms that live at the bottom of its sea. When a tragic misunderstanding results in the death of one of the humans, they draw the attention of the Sholen, a previously-encountered race driven by a code of non-interference. They demand the humans withdraw from Ilmatar, and all traces of their presence be erased...

A Darkling Sea is a fairly light, quick-moving tale of first contact in which none of the three conflicting factions (apart from a few rogue members) can strictly be called villains. The Ilmatarans and humans only want to learn from each other, while the Sholen are trying to preserve the natural integrity of a civilization.

The best thing about the book is the portrayal of the Ilmatarans. They are large, lobster-like creatures that communicate by taps and clicks, and see their surroundings via sonar pings. The narrative rotates more or less evenly among the three races, so roughly a third of it is from the Ilmatarans' perspective. Their communication is "translated" for the reader, but this makes them seem no less alien. It's rather like watching a subtitled film. You get a complete feel for what it might be like to live as one of these beings, and it is fascinating. And these crustaceans have more personality each than all of the characters in the last bloated epic fantasy I tried to read.

Recomended musical accompaniment: Aqua by Edgar Froese, Substrata by Biosphere.

You know how astronauts train underwater to simulate the atmospheric dangers of space?

Here you get that and an adventure, and a first contact story gone wildly awry - imagine [a:Jacques-Yves Cousteau|86119|Jacques-Yves Cousteau|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254868354p2/86119.jpg] , [a:Louis Leakey|387037|Louis Leakey|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] and [a:Mary Leakey|433196|Mary Leakey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1391710665p2/433196.jpg] in a Family Guy episode gone horribly wrong with [a:David Brin|14078|David Brin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1352956147p2/14078.jpg] style [b:Sundiver|96472|Sundiver (The Uplift Saga, #1)|David Brin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388176548s/96472.jpg|461555] aquatic sentient lifeforms, plus some good ship Orville hijinks and you're pretty close to what you'll get here. If I haven't lost you yet, you'd enjoy this more than well enough to sit down with it for the time it'll take for you to read it through! Or - TRIGGER ALERT - if the idea of being in cold, cold water trapped under miles of ice where it's so deep you might as well be blind totally overwhelms you, yeah this is the place that happens too. brrrrr.

Loved the insight into a truly alien society and world. There were a few too many miraculous escapes and some questionable underwater physics. The characters were engaging and the world was fascinating.

The multiple POVs were not different enough to hold my interest.

The final third of this book saved this from being a 1-star read.

My first book read by this author and I was not disappointed. This was a fun near future sci-fi thriller about space piracy of a new energy source being mined on the moon. It was a quick thrill ride that I really enjoyed. Looking forward to reading more by this author.

4 stars for a fun read. Recommended for fans of near future sci-fi novels.

Very fun, quick read.

I loved the exploration of a Ganymede-like world and it's potential inhabitants. So, this was pure imagination candy for me.

Do you want to read about the most badass space pirate ever?
If so, then read this book.
It's current hard sci-fi. Close future. Hypothesizes plausible space piracy once we start mining the Moon for Helium-3. One more reminder that I need to start learning code... Also, look into offshore living - could be fun.

Quick read @ 288 pages. Should take you a night or two. Tor makes their books well. Can't really go wrong there. Don't lose the jacket though or your book will be denuded as there's almost nothing printed on the hardcover outside.

I keep reading references to this book as "hard science fiction," which makes me think that I don't actually know what hard sci-fi is. I assumed it was sci-fi with a strong technology focus- but this book uses technology really only to support the social and moral questions that are the heart of the book.

This was a quick read for me, which is also a surprise. Every time I read "hard sci-fi" I expect to have to pull my way through the novel, wade through thousands of words of technical mumbo-jumbo (I respect others' enjoyment of this kind of storytelling, but I have a low tolerance threshold for technicality), and force myself to read enough pages a day to have this done before Book Group.

Instead, the pages just flew by. I enjoyed the story a lot, and was intrigued by the misunderstandings that perspectives that form the triangle of this novel. Humans are pretty much like humans now; as a near-future novel, people were pretty much people, for all their goods and bads. The Sholen are an interesting species, though I admit it seemed to me that there was a horrible lack of understanding about how the two cultures think for there to be anything resembling inter-stellar cooperation between the two. Arguably, there wasn't actually cooperation - but even so, it seems like two societies would have a little better understanding of how each other thinks.... this glitch bugged me a big, but I suppose it was necessary since this misunderstanding forms the major impasse of the novel.

The Ilmaterans are very interesting, and I enjoyed discovering them. I think aliens must be terribly hard to create (at least somewhat believably....), and I enjoyed these. They managed to be just different enough from humans to be intriguing, but not so different that they aren't relatable.

Yup, I enjoyed this novel quite a bit.

Hm, not so good, thinking of DNF-ing it.

I DNF'ed this one at page 122, about 35% through. I thought the premise and the planet were really cool, but at 35% I still wasn't really invested in whatever the plot was going to be and was rather disturbed by the portrayal of the third alien species. The lobster-looking species was cool and the narration from their perspective was interesting. The interaction (or lack thereof) between humans and the lobster-aliens was realistic and interesting. However, the other aliens were only vaguely described as otter-like, still not sure how many limbs they have, but mostly I know that they are dark grey with brightly-colored genitals and their social system involves a kind of creepy combination of dominance/leadership requiring sexual relations in which the follower becomes female and has to respond to advances from the leader. I personally was not really comfortable with any of the sections involving the two aliens from this species, and since I am only meh about the plot in general, I just don't feel up to continuing.

Pros: great world-building, fascinating alien species, diverse characters, interesting plot, stand-alone novel

Cons:

An accident occurs among the humans observing the native intelligent life forms deep in the oceans under the ice of the distant planet Ilmatar. An alien race older than humans, the Sholen, have decreed that no contact be made with the natives for fear of human colonization. They send a ship to the planet to verify that no rules have been broken, but their inner politics dictate that the humans’ mission be shut down, regardless.

Meanwhile, Broadtail 38 Sandyslope, along with a group of likeminded Ilmataran scientists, makes a strange discovery that changes the course of his life.

I love it when the first paragraph of a book sucks you in and doesn't let you go. And this book has an awesome one:

By the end of his second month at Hitode Station, Rob Freeman had already come up with 85 ways to murder Henry Kerlerec. That put him third in the station’s rankings — Joseph Palashnik was first with 143, followed by Nadia Kyle with 97. In general, the number and sheer viciousness of the suggested methods was in proportion to the amount of time each one spent with Henri.

Rob Freeman is the research station’s underwater photographer and drone operator and the first, and only human, viewpoint character. Through him we see how the humans get along and how they react when the Sholen show up.

Our Showlen point of view comes from one of their two scientists, Tizhos, the subordinate in a race that focuses on consensus and achieves it via sexual contact. Through her we see signs of how their society works, using pheromones to calm and attract, as well as trying to subdue natural reactions, like anger and frustration, to maintain peace.

We’re given two Ilmataran points of view, one through Broadtail, a scientist and landowner, and the other through Strongpincer, a bandit. This, and Broadtail’s adventures, allows the reader to get a wider idea of the Ilmataran society.

The alien societies are quite fascinating, and distinct. Ironically, many of the problems that occur in the book are because each group expects that the aliens think and act the way they do - even when the person making this assumption knows better. So, for example, the humans’ passive aggressive screaming and handcuffing tactic isn’t understood by the Sholen, despite the humans thinking it’s a universal form of protest.

While I didn’t like all of the characters, I’m looking at you Richard Graves, there was a good variety of personalities and temperaments represented. Every character had their own motivations for what they did, and reacted differently to the various crises that occur.

The story was very interesting, with a lot going on all the time. And it's a stand-alone novel.

This is a fantastic debut.

ABR's full Corsair audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

It is approximately fifteen years in the future and the moon is being mined for its helium to fuel the world’s fusion reactors. The payloads coming back to earth are worth billions; attracting the interest of pirates who try to intercept them. David Schwartz , AKA Captain Black, the space pirate, is a computer genius and hacker, using his skills and lack of morals to hijack these flying treasure chests. He is brilliant, elusive, charming in an annoying way, equally wanted by the police for his crimes and by the crime syndicates for his skills.

That’s the basic plot/theme, straight forward and linear. Though predictable, it doesn’t really matter, this story is about the many quirky characters, and most importantly, Captain Black, the space pirate. The author uses his full moniker over and over, “Captain Black, the space pirate; Captain Black, the space pirate,” which at first annoys the listener, then numbs him, then reveals the actual intent – humor. And if you go into this book with a sense of humor, you will be OK, if not, you will want to rip your eardrums out. There is no middle ground.

The characters are more like caricatures: Captain Black is a genius nerd, brilliant, sarcastic and supremely annoying; yet he somehow always gets the babe, whether she is the dumb blonde or the smart scientist. Elizabeth, the military scientist, is also brilliant with everything going for her, including a skyrocketing career; yet is strangely attracted to the destructive David Schwartz (Captain Black), then hates him. The corporate eunuchs, on the other hand, shrug as their billion dollar payloads disappear, far more worried about a lawsuit than the money they should be making. Equally impotent are the military and police forces of the world, unwilling or unable to do much more than watch as the world’s power supply gets hijacked over and over. In one scene, a single police officer on a bicycle (yes, plastic helmet and bike shorts) attempts to intercept a vicious assassin in a cafe shootout.

If taken as a kind of super nerd, spy satire, it’s pretty funny and will hold your interest throughout. The science is well researched and rings true. Many of the scenes are inventive and painted realistically enough for your imagination to take over. The several chase and action scenes should hold your attention too. There is some violence, but it is superficial, without gruesome details.

Victor Bevine reads the story well, moving quickly during the action and slowing down during the descriptive scenes. His voice is clear and his characters are generally easy to discern. Overall, Bevine is competent and skillful without ever getting in the way of the story.

If you know what you are going into (humorous high tech satire) you should enjoy the story. It is also recommended for young adults and older teens who like computer hacking adventures. Don’t get caught up in the obvious contradictions and unlikely character interactions and you should have a fun and light read/listen.

Audiobook provided for for review by the publisher.

Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2015/05/19/audiobook-review-corsair-by-james-camb...

Corsair is a thrilling and fun adventure full of space pirates and hackers, the kind of book that grabs you and holds you down (willingly) until it is all told. This book is pretty short, but it’s an addictive “page turner” that finished before I knew it. I say “page turner” in quotes because in actuality, I listened to this one as an audiobook so there were no actual pages involved. But I am really happy I did. There are some books that are just very well suited for audiobooks, and this was certainly one of them. The story and names are all very easy to follow while listening and the narration was very good, relaying the story clearly without ever becoming the focus of the listener (meaning, I heard the story well told). The style of Corsair reminds me a bit of Scalzi or Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon, but with this book, most (if not just about all) of the story is set here on earth rather than in space.

David Schwartz and Elizabeth Santiago meet while taking classes at MIT in the not so distant future. They are both incredibly bright, but incredibly different. David is a bit “creative” or “generous” with his moral compass, and Elizabeth is pretty much a straight shooter. So not surprisingly, their courses in life diverge soon after meeting.

Fast forward 10 years, we find Elizabeth entered the military and is now working to fight space piracy and David has continued his less than legal approach to life. And it appears he has done quite well for himself. Their paths meet again as they both get pulled in to a nefarious plot for the ultimate space piracy. I knew it would happen, based on the initial meeting (and the blurb), but I really enjoyed seeing how they were brought together again in different ways (form different sides) by this plot.

I like David, he’s just a fun, care-free type of guy. The kind of character that just amuses me and is hard for me to not like. He’s certainly not perfect, as any law enforcement official could tell you, and he could stand to give other people a bit more consideration instead of always thinking of himself. But I can’t help it, I still like him, as egotistical as he may be. Elizabeth is set on doing the “right” thing, even when that may not match procedure (she wound up working for the military with a focus on fighting space piracy). There’s an interesting look into the politics involved, and how sometimes the procedurally correct thing may not be the “right” thing overall. I know that’s not a new idea, but I still enjoy it and the conflict it can create. As different as these two characters are, I found myself rooting for both of them, which can be fun when they may or may not want the same thing.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read, full of action and suspense with touches of humor.

I’m actually surprised at all middling ratings I’ve seen for Corsair, because I personally had a really good time with it. Maybe this is just one of those books that work better as an audiobook, the format I reviewed. I do seem to have much better luck listening to rather than reading science fiction novels that have a lot of technical jargon (an example I can think of is Andy Weir’s The Martian, which I ended up loving) so that might be a factor.

Still, all the same I found Corsair and its story of hackers, pirates, and space travel to be a hell lot of fun and relentlessly addictive.

Because, come on. SPACE PIRATES.

Our story follows the lives of two former friends who first crossed paths at MIT in the early 2020s. Elizabeth has a penchant for all things related to technology and space travel, studying to pursue her dreams of one day joining the Air Force after graduation. David Schwartz on the other hand is a brilliant hacker, whose transgressions gradually escalate from harmless pranks to more serious crimes. Too different to remain together, the two of them eventually part ways.

Skip forward to ten years later. One has become a high level intelligence officer, monitoring the activity of shipments to and from the moon to prevent space piracy and theft of the precious Helium3 mined there. The other has made a name for himself too by adopting his new cyber alias of Captain Black, Space Pirate to hack into military and mining operations systems, resulting in billions lost from stolen cargo. Elizabeth and David are locked in a battle of wits, and though neither of them can be sure of the other’s identity, both have their suspicions. Very soon, they will have their confrontation and ultimately might even end up on the same side again.

Fast, thrilling and entertaining, I’ve heard that Corsair is a lighter and more high-spirited offering from James L. Cambias compared to his previous work. This is my first book by him so I can’t judge, but certainly there were several points in here, particularly in the dialogue, which made me laugh out loud. I don’t know why, but I was surprised to see a bit of humor in this, and yet I can’t deny these little spikes of levity worked very well especially when they relieved the pressure in very tense moments.

The characters’ personalities also feel very genuine, and here perhaps the narrator deserves some kudos too. Victor Bevine injects the required charisma in his voice to bring them to life, making each person sound natural and like themselves. Elizabeth comes across as very straight-laced and technical, but easy to be around. David on the other hand is bombastic and bizarre, slightly tinged with that social awkwardness we’ve been led us to associate with genius. At the same time, the two of them are not static protagonists, even after both of them set off on their expected career paths. Ten years is a long time for people to change, and I love how Cambias decided to tackle Elizabeth and David’s Criminal vs. Law Enforcer dynamic, which is definitely not typical. It’s difficult to go into this without revealing more details and possible spoilers for the story, but suffice to say both character experience significant life changes that motivate them to see and do certain things differently than you’d expect, and the author makes it all sufficiently convincing.

Too much hard sci-fi generally turns me off so I was glad Corsair wasn’t too heavy on these elements, and yet neither was the story a cheap, throwaway experience. Simply put, I found this book to be just the right balance of sophisticated science fiction mixed with healthy dose of campiness and full-on thrills. After some of the reviews I’ve seen for this, I had my reservations, but I ended up liking this more than I expected. I’d like to check out the author’s other book now; even if it doesn’t strike the same tone, I would be curious to see if The Darkling Sea will grab me the same way.