Fotografía de autor
41+ Obras 113 Miembros 13 Reseñas

Series

Obras de R. J. Astruc

Obras relacionadas

Tales for Canterbury: Survival, Hope, Future (2011) — Contribuidor — 19 copias
Worlds next door (2010) — Contribuidor — 13 copias
The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010 (2011) — Contribuidor — 10 copias
The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2012 (2013) — Contribuidor — 7 copias
Masques (2009) — Contribuidor — 6 copias

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Género
female
Lugares de residencia
Wellington, New Zealand

Miembros

Reseñas

I picked up the e-version of this book on a whim, when I was loading up my iPhone to go on vacation. What a great choice! The book is definitely quirky, but fun, involving, and a great mystery as well. It held a (somewhat dark) echo of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, without being the least bit derivative (and from me, that's high praise indeed). I'd never heard of this author before but will definitely look for more.
 
Denunciada
sdramsey | Dec 14, 2020 |
I have always loved RJ Astruc's writing. She has the ability to draw me into stories that sit outside my usual reading tastes and to make me enjoy the kind of characters that normally I'd barely acknowledge. Her fiction combines an elegant and distinctive writing style with an ever-present sense of humour, which informs Harmonica and Gig's characters and universe. Although not a comedy, the novel displays a similar grasp of the quirks of human nature. Astruc is not afraid to give her characters flaws and, in doing so, allows them to break free of the usual sci-fi archetypes.

The qverse of Harmonica and Gig is well-imagined and described in such a way that its constant presence in the book's universe feels natural from the very beginning. At times, the technological concepts discussed made my head spin a little, but this was likely due to their nature rather than any fault with their depiction. Indeed, this is a very tech-heavy novel, as the storyline would imply. Set in the near(ish) future, it combines new technology with the familiar in a surprisingly comfortable manner.

Although Harmonica and Gig employs a third person perspective, the chapters are split between Astruc's two protagonists. Each has a distinctive personality, although this is demonstrated more through their thoughts and actions than the voice of their respective sections, allowing the writing to remain uniform throughout.

Harmonica is a fantastic character. She is strong, bold and unapologetic. Her actions are occasionally rash and she has one hell of a commitment phobia, but such characteristics are what make her so likeable. Harry's a little bit larger than life, but she is not a caricature. And books need more female characters who are portrayed as being sexy (and sexual) beyond their twenties.

In contrast, Gig appears quite weak at first. He is young and pretty and seems out of his depth in comparison to Harry and Talobos. I, personally, didn't find him as gripping a character as Harmonica, but grew to appreciate his different approach to the situation and to life in general. He is the perfect foil for Harry and his relative vulnerability is important in a book that deals largely in powerful and seemingly-invincible characters.

Harmonica and Gig is a wonderful sci-fi thriller but, for me, the absolute highlight of the novel is its universe. Astruc melds cultures and societies into a believable mid-twenty-first century world. Australia has become SouthAsia – a melding of Anglo and Asian peoples and cultures. The novel's characters reflect the new racial landscape and offer an unforced glimpse into the social changes that have taken place alongside the technological changes described in the book. But Harmonica and Gig does not moralise. Indeed, its universe is refreshingly matter-of-fact.

Harmonica and Gig is an excellent novel that goes beyond its genre in presenting a storyline that is accessible to all but the most hardened of speculative fiction despisers. For those who consider themselves science fiction aficionados, it's a must-read.
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Denunciada
Tara_Calaby | Jun 22, 2020 |
What a truly fascinating story! Set in the future and a time when AI (artificial intelligences) are a lot more powerful than they are today, this story asks the question of “what makes us human” in a slightly different way than comparing us to aliens or the robots of Isaac Asimov. They would also have had to be AIs, but back when he wrote his amazing novels in the 1950s, human science wasn’t advanced enough to ask the question in those terms. But the topic is the same. And with chess programs already able to outwit the human brain, it really only is a matter of time before we face the kind of problem Michel faces in this story: what is the difference between an AI that has gained self-awareness and has developed feelings using circuits and software and a human, who does the same thing using a brain and chemicals/hormones?

Michel is a fairly normal fifteen-year-old. Not in the way he lives his life as an Interpol kid, perpetually moving from country to the next, wherever his parents’ skills in fighting terrorists are needed. But in the way he looks for friends, companionship, and, very specifically, a boyfriend. Now, he has been told by his parents not to talk to strangers on the feeds (read: online), but what does he do? Exactly. He is curious, and when he meets this boy called Benny in a chat room and they start talking about pets, things develop quickly, and suddenly they are dating. Never having physically met, of course. And once they do meet, well, sort of, since Benny isn’t real? All hell breaks lose, of course.

Michel realizes that Benny isn’t real in the sense that Michel is physically real. But the way he thinks, asks questions, and learns is very real. He may be a powerful AI, but who says that self-awareness is unique to humans? And aren’t feelings a logical consequences of consciousness? They are in humans, so Michel begins to see how they might be just as real for software originally developed by humans. All of these questions are asked, and some answered, in this amazing story that will probably make you think about AI and “intelligent computers” in a very different way.

If you like your science fiction a little on the speculative side while still founded in “real” science, if you enjoy reading stories that try to define what makes us human and a machine a machine, and if you’re looking for an entertaining, yet thoughtful, way to imagine what might happen if software development continues to advance the way it has so far, then you will probably like this story. Teenagers of today may end up having to grapple with issues like the ones in ‘Binary Boy” when they are adults in thirty years or so… maybe earlier.


NOTE: This book was provided by Harmony Ink Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
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Denunciada
SerenaYates | Oct 14, 2017 |
Esta reseña ha sido escrita por los Primeros Reseñadores de LibraryThing.
Signs Over the Pacific and Other Stories
By RJ Astruc
Publisher: Upper Rubber Boot Books
Published In: Nashville, TN, USA
Date: 2013
Pgs: 135

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
The intersecting life tales of an engineer, a thief, a terrorist, and a superpowerful artificial intelligence makes up the series of stories in this collection. Throw in blimps, Interpol, genetics, mutants, holograms, and runaway virus laden computer intelligences and the stories live on the edge of the new Pacific tomorrow. The Pacific Century is dawning. Will Man survive the experience?

Genre:
fiction, science fiction, cyberpunk, computer

Why this book:
The descriptions of the stories drew me in.

This Story is About:
survival of the fittest, techno cannibalism,

courage, working hard, doing the right thing, greed, friends, jealousy, love, caring, happiness, sadness, family

Propagation:
Favorite Character:
VINK2, the vagabond, virus AI, comes across as much more likable than the AI RESYS who is chasing her...him...it.

Least Favorite Character:
RESYS is an ass and a cannibal.

Character I Most Identified With:
I thought I was identifitying with RESYS and then realized that it was VINK2 who was the most...human character in the bunch.

The Feel:
The power behind our connectivity is watching us and acting in its own interests.

Favorite Scene:
When VINK2 blows through the Hong Kong intraweb and is raising hell all across the island.

Pacing:
The pace of this story is excellent. A real page turner.

Hmm Moments:
When RESYS describes Hong Kong as a wired rats nest, cyberwise. Hunting in the Hong Kong interweb was like playing Pacman due to how it was/is connected. A world where wireless signals are being choked out by the volume of other traffic forcing the AIs to chase one another wire to wire through a interlocking board of nodes.

Story made me think that we’ve all been engaged in techno cannibalism for awhile. Ever since the internet became as all invasive as it is, we’ve been devouring each others intellects at a more and more precipitate manner.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Maybe this could make a Metal Hurlant Chronicle episode. And I’m sure someone could turn it into a feature length presentation. But with all of the exposition, this seems like it would play better in a short format in visual media.

Casting call:
I often hear computers in stories speak in Terrence Stamp’s voice. Kneel before RESYS!

Signs Over the Pacific:
Favorite Character:
Val. He is the narrator. The whole story is from his perspective. It’s all happening to him.

Least Favorite Character:

Character I Most Identified With:
Val. Does what needs to be done.

The Feel:
This felt quick. Val’s confrontation with destiny whipped at him quickly and he charged in to meet it.

Favorite Scene:
Chubby guy dancing on the deck of a broken down airship short of the hangar at the sky city, trying to get the attention of passersby to catch a ride or a tow into the hangar.

Pacing:
The pace was great. Though it swept me through the short story at a fast clip. Could have easily been a much longer story.

Hmm Moments:
The scene with the Angel and the Devil costumed MILFs picking up Val and his sister from their broken down...up...dirigibile could have easily been a...uhm...bigger scene.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This story would make a cool entrant into The Metal Hurlant Chronicles on Syfy.

Casting call:
Jonah Hill could have been Val in the years immediately following when he did Superbad.

Faceless in Halukan:
Favorite Character:
Bink Ottoman. Bink is a tragic character just trying to survive.

Least Favorite Character:
Sutchi is a shark using everyone and everything to feed his appetites.

Character I Most Identified With:
Bink Ottoman forced into acting against his own best interest by circumstances beyond his control.

The Feel:
There is a sharp feeling of sadness in all things Bink, especially in his interactions with Laan Ve.

Favorite Scene:
Holoworld sounds both awesome and superficial at the same time.

The identity theft of Laan Ve comes across as very sad. The way its done. The way it is forced on them. The way that Bink sees something human in the artist and di-hydra addict that could save him before being the scorpion that he is and stinging the frog.

Pacing:
This story moves along at a good pace.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
It’s never said in the text, but I’m almost certain that Sutchi set Bink up. Set him up for getting robbed by the dude hiding inside the cute blonde holo and for being duped in the holo artist’s lounge and, then, offered up as a free sample of his true face for the sundry populace to parade around the terraces and bridges of Halukan in.

Hmm Moments:
The cute blonde being revealed in the mirror that under her holos is a fat middled aged perv with man boobs, moobs, and cold sores. The holographs that people wear isn’t just a masquerade, it’s also camouflage. The description of the guy under the cute blonde artifice is so gross, down to the tufts of black hair.

The holo identity theft routine is awesome...and horrible.

The way that the interlocking stories of the book seem to take place in and around airships and skyhouses makes me wonder what the problem with the ground is far below and worlds away.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Spun into a screenplay, this would be a tragedy. But it could be lengthened into a feature.

Casting call:
With the holos playing such a large part in this, many actors could play the same character over the course of the movie.

Ma-Ma:
Favorite Character:
Katya Sushi, the carrier

The Feel:
This one feels close and on the edge. The main character is all in and then not. She has that invincible edge to her to start with and you can feel it wear off over the course of the story as her true situation is revealed.

Favorite Scene:
When Katya has her dawning in the customs office in India, as she stands on solid ground, a rarity in this world of high houses and floating cities, as she realizes what kind of carrier she truly is.

Pacing:
The pace of this one is awesome.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
We’re left to ponder whether Bouboucar had Katya watched the entire way or not. The only agent of his that we are sure of is Lucian when he confronts Katya in the lobby-lounge on Ma-Ma 2

Hmm Moments:
When the customs officials throw the Genku C plague ridden woman out the door of the transport to her death in the waters far below even though she claims that it is non transmissible.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This one with it’s tenor and subject matter could totally play in a Metal Hurlant, Twilight Zone, or Heavy Metal context.

Casting call:
Lucy Liu as Bouboucar, the big bad terrorist who doesn’t get her hands dirty.

Nemutaph:
Favorite Character:
Del aka Delphine Desangua

Least Favorite Character:
Nemutaph, the opera singer who made himself into a castrati after spending time in an insane asylum and beginning to cut and bit off his appendages.

The Feel:
This one feels like a CSI episode...a bit...in a through the looking glass kind of way.

Favorite Scene:
When Del hits on the solution.

Pacing:
Well paced.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
The bones of this could be adapted for CSI, NCIS, et al.

Katya in Quarantine:
Favorite Character:
Katya Sushi

Favorite Scene:
Messing with the witch doctor.

Hmm Moments:
Katya is an evil creature of circumstance. She is an ultimate bio weapon. Infected with whatever her employers want her to carry, either to infect the local populace or to get a pathogen passed customs and bio filters, she can get it there...regardless of the consequences. Her seeing herself in brotherhood with the Angel of Death walking London at the time of the Bubonic Plague is a telling bit. Her feeling pride in the fear that she is fomenting among the populace is more telling. She is as big a monster as Bouboucar, her employer and used to be a more famous terrorist than she is.

I find it interesting that in the earlier story in which Katya appeared, I was thinking of her as an antihero. Now, I can only consider her a villain. She has gone over to the darkside, assuredly. Though with the type of work she was wanting to do, how I saw her in that other light. Shrug. Sympathy for her condition and the feeling that she was being left high and dry, I guess. That’s all gone. She is a monster.

She may be a monster, but she isn’t very smart. Revealing herself and what she is to the “dream girl” and, then, going out and getting into the middle of that voodoo parade was just stupid for someone trying to lie low.

Course how smart is someone who allows themselves to be infected with all kinds of plague and virus to transport it and trusting that the criminals that you work for and the criminals that they do business with are going to give you the medicine to fix you up on the other end of the journey or the job. Just not smart.

The Future of Lole San Paulo:
Favorite Character:
Bink Ottoman, though I’m not sure if this is the same Bink Ottoman from the earlier story or if this is a clone of that Bink Ottoman. The origin of this one is fascinating. The other version seemed older.

Least Favorite Character:
You just knew that there was betrayal in the works here. But until the end you can’t be sure if Bink is going to betray Lole or the other way around or if they are both going to end up afoul of Mr. Sutchi.

The Feel:
This has a great sci fi, gladiator pit feel to it.

Favorite Scene:
The monster fight reminds me of Return of the Jedi. Although, Lole doesn’t have any love for his creations.

Pacing:
The pace of this was excellent.

Hmm Moments:
The regrowing limbs and organs of the clone is a great touch.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This could make a full length feature.

Casting call:
Love to see Hugo Weaving as Lole.

Maybe Chandler Riggs as this version of Bink Ottoman.

How You Make the Straight:
Favorite Character:
Mink is a good character. The ability to look into the minds of those around you when their guards are down would be cool. Though there are probably some things that you wouldn’t want to know.

Favorite Scene:
The rat hunt at the poker game in the floating, hi-town, pirate haven, airship casino.

Pacing:
Best paced story of the collection through this point.

Hmm Moments:
Okay. Ottoman isn’t a family name. It’s the Ottoman sky pirates clan or whatever they call their gang. Jean is a pirate king. Bink is a thief and a organ bank

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This one could make a movie as well. The elements here could lend themselves to a longer form easily.

Mother and Daughter:
Least Favorite Character:
Bouboucar. She is something else. This whole series of stories was largely her story. She was a facilitator and a terrorist and evil. You learn more about her and her daughter in the moment that she realizes that her daughter had pushed the little girl off the boardwalk of the floating city.

The Feel:
This was too short. But I guess it’s purpose was to show us that Bouboucar was a mother and that her daughter was a chip off the old block.

Last Page Sound:
Hmpf! These aren’t as interconnected as advertised. The stories feature many of the same characters, but what happens in one story doesn’t necessarily have any continutity with another. The only one that really seemed to have cross continuity was the ones featuring Katya Sushi.

Author Assessment:
I’m digging the prose and style of RJ Astruc. Nice flow and action mixed with just the right amount of exposition. Might take a look at more stuff by this author.

Editorial Assessment:
The quality between the stories is very wide. Some good, some horrible. Author should have been pushed on some of these shorts to either rewrite them or dump them from the story and if they plot points of the story were necessary to figure out a way to include them in one of the others.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
meh!

Disposition of Book:
e-Book

Would recommend to:
no one
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Denunciada
texascheeseman | 9 reseñas más. | May 31, 2014 |

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Miembros
113
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