Michael CobleyRezensionen

I wanted to like this more than I did, but all I can honestly give it is two stars. The first book was better, though still not great; the writing there was clunky, here in the second book it is grinding the gears.

Now I'm two books in and I know I'm going to read the third, just to finish. I have a weakness for hard sci-fi and space opera and the like... so fingers crossed.

Finished this because I wanted to finish the series.

It's one of those series of books where, yeah, I guess it was a distraction/entertainment to read... but, ehh.

This was good, but by no means great. The writing could have been... I dunno what to call it exactly. Everything is written in a fairly simple form; declarative sentences, everything described. Characters and their relationships are very thin. Periodically, you'll hear or read of writing described as being written at a "college level" or "high school level." I'd say that this book could comfortably be enjoyed by someone in middle school.

That said, I like the story arc. And it is good pop sci-fi! Good summer reading, or reading between more serious stuff. Not everything has to be a timeless classic :)

Three/five stars.

I'm not really certain why I had trouble following this book. It wasn't really holding me -- but that could have been external circumstances as much as the book.

Insofar as the book itself goes -- it's got the elements of really epic space opera that I truly enjoy converging on a single point, and I'm thinking I may end up enjoying book two even more than book one. Slow burn, yes -- but I think it'll be a good one.

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I received an electronic copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review.


Curating an anthology is an exhilarating and demanding task for a new editor. To start, you are expected to be widely read in both the form and the genre you are curating. From this experience comes an idea that you must turn into submissions and selected stories. Then, you must cultivate a relationship with each author that allows you to probe deeply into their work so you can represent each of their unique voices. Then comes the revision of grammar and the like. In addition to these many hats, you must also work within the constraints of your editing experience and your publisher’s time and budget. And finally, if you’ve done your job well, all of this labour will be nearly invisible behind the stories it is meant to highlight.


Night, Rain, and Neon: All New Cyberpunk Stories is Michael Cobley’s first work as an editor. He is most well known as a science fiction and fantasy novelist, though his collection Mosaic Iron contains all but two of his own dark-fantasy and cyberpunk short stories. He is clearly well established and connected in the genre; Night, Rain, and Neon offers eighteen unpublished stories from as many seasoned and award-winning authors. It pays homage to cyberpunk legend, William Gibson on the 40th anniversary of the release of his novel Neuromancer.


I will start with what Cobley did well.


The good


The first decision you must make as an editor assembling an anthology is whether you would like to unify the stories with a theme or let them stand on their own. While cyberpunk is a fairly small genre and could serve effectively as a theme, I think Cobley’s choice to honour Neuromancer must have been exactly what the authors needed to hear. The cohesiveness of the big question themes classic to cyberpunk supported by the gritty tone across the stories made transitioning between them easy and reading multiple pieces in a sitting, possible.


The not so good


Despite Cobley’s ability to attract experienced writers, I think his own lack of experience as an editor was the downfall of this book.


The writing ranges from very weak to nearly flawless, which left unedited, undermines his successful execution of theme. Of course, the nature of selecting a large number of stories is that some will be weaker than others. Typically, you want to start with a story that masterfully draws the reader into the book and provides a thematic foundation for the remaining stories to build upon. Cobley started with a middle-of-the-road story and followed with two that got progressively worse. If I wasn’t reviewing this book, I would have closed it a couple of pages into the third story. I am glad I didn’t, because Night, Rain, and Neon did end up offering some powerful pieces, but a boring beginning doesn’t bode well for the average reader.


The reason for this range in writing quality is twofold. First, the strongest stories were written by Callum McSorely, Tim Maughan, Louise Carey, and TR Napper, authors who have numerous short story credits and/or spend a lot of time story writing for D&D. Almost all of the other authors are primarily novelists, and while their world-building might be strong, they are lacking not only the brevity and articulation required of a short story, but in many cases, a story with a strong beginning, middle and end.


This leads to my second point: there are multiple phases in editing—developmental, structural, stylistic, and copyedit—and just as in an excellent novel, a well-edited anthology will go through the rigours of each. There are times when budget or time constraints only allow for a light style edit for cohesiveness, then the copyedit, and a final proofread. The result is less consistency of short story mastery across the book, but if the writers are experienced short storyists, it can work. In the case of Night, Rain, and Neon, an editor with a strong handle on the short story development and structure is fundamental in closing the gap between the writers’ skill sets and creating a cohesive final copy. The fact that the stories by experienced short story writers are so much stronger than those that aren’t, leads me to believe that Cobley is not familiar enough with the form to see what is missing.


Setting aside the challenges of wide-ranging writing quality, budget and time constraints, an editor’s final job is to make sure what is written doesn’t distract the reader any further. Frankly, the sentence mechanics errors, grammar faults, and typos in this text could have been cleaned up by the free version of Grammarly—there are far too many to be blamed on a botched proofread. The final editing of this book wasn’t a series of inexperienced choices, it simply wasn’t done.


TL; DR


There could be many reasons why this book was published in such a raw state: inexperience, time constraints, or lack of funding. But it’s unfortunate to see a project with so much potential not get the reviews it could have. The ideas are strong, the images are vivid, and there is an interesting variety of characters and plot lines. If you can hold on through the weaker storylines, longer exposition, and the missing edit, there are some gems to be found. I give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.


Here are my story-by-story synopses, reviews, and ratings:


“Hello, Goodbye” Steward Hotston Itsay is satisfied that he has worked hard enough to be digitally transferred to another body when the virus finally takes him, but unfortunately, success isn’t as simple as that. Without an adequate buildup of tension at the beginning of the story, the following action feels somewhat directionless. I didn’t mind the ending though. (2.5/5 stars)


“Four Green Fields, and Fair” by Ian McDonald Corporate sponsorship, rebranding, and agents are just a part of Ciara’s superhero life—strut, battle, pose, repeat. I like stories with a realistic take on something we romanticize. The fast pace keeps it immersive but there isn’t a lot to invest in. (3/5 stars)


“All the Precious Years” by Al Robertson Laurent battles multinational hackers as a contract neurotech operative, but he can’t save his mother from dementia. Robertson’s imagery and worldbuilding are compelling but depend too heavily on coincidence. Could use an edit for clarity. (2.5/5 stars)


“Forever in Scotland” by Callum McSorley Dana desperately needs the cashish to get her and her maw out of Scotland, a sum only possible by confronting the mogul grandfather she’s never really known. A compelling story told in the present tense. (4/5 stars)


“Assets” by Keith Brooke and Eric Brown On their reckless quest for novelty, the consciousness inhabiting Eli Dakane sees the perfect opportunity in an unexpected encounter with an old friend. The premise is interesting but the writing is inconsistent and cliché. (2.5/5 stars)


“The Still Small Voice” by Louise Carey John is late again, and if a “quick chat” with Amanda isn’t punishment enough, listening to her lap dog Brian evangelize an artificial stimulant-free life might be enough to push him over the edge. I love the image of what all our fancy tech does when a subscription runs out. Also, the ending. (4/5 stars)


“Mindstrings” by Jeremy Szal Jyn connects to social media greater than anything we can imagine and loses his ability to think—to be—without it. The central character going from straight edge to full-blown addict in the span of the introduction was a little too cautionary tale for me. (2.5/5 stars)


“Tabula Rasa” by Danie Ware With an implant and directives she doesn’t trust, a woman is fighting for memories and consciousness. I’m not a huge fan of “confused MC equals confused reader” stories, but I like this one. Solid ending. (3.5/5 stars)


“Collision Detection” by Tim Maughan A man can finally be there for his partner, half a world away, thanks to the best tech their positions can afford them. One of the strongest stories in the book—excellent premise, perfect ending. (4/5 stars)


“We Appreciate Power” by Gavin Smith A contract extractor realizes he’s been duped into kidnapping a child mastermind for conspiracy theorists. For a non-farcical satire to be clever, it must make sense as a satire and a straight narrative. There were too many moments where this felt like the satire was being pushed for me. (2.5/5 stars)


“A Game of Clones” by Justina Robson The story of two space-travelling entities who keep biologically dynamic human-world terrariums, after they realize that the survival of both depends on the humans inside. I love the premise and the resolution of this story but the climax didn’t quite satisfy. (3/5 stars)


“Accumulated Damage” by Simon Morden Maké is a hired gun who is growing ever more desperate to give in to temptation. This piece seems like the inciting incident and middle build are the precursor to a longer story that just ends after the protagonist meets their first obstacle. (2.5/5 stars)


“The Thirteenth Clone of Casimir Ivanovitch” by John Courtenay Grimwood A boy finds a pod with a live clone and is unable to leave it to die alone. Classic cyberpunk worldbuilding (though I can’t speak for the accuracy of the Japanese references), but I never felt the central character was truly in danger. (3/5 stars)


“Elijah of the Thousand Faces” by Gary Gibson Rather than pay the extortionist, Elijah pays to inhabit a proxy on the outside in hopes of finding out who’s trying to take him down. I loved this story until the resolution. Not that it was bad, it just had the potential to be really good. (3.5/5 stars)


“VR Enclave” by DA Xiaolin Spires A gamer is coaxed from the depths of a near VR overdose by a random older woman and claims she wasn’t trying to escape, but maybe she was. A cute little number with all the pieces of a fine story. (3/5 stars)


“Digital Salt” by Corey J White Harper’s hopes are limited to a promotion with worse hours at the same pay until they meet Rayna. An interesting take on the epistolary form. I like the genre-bending between a cyberpunk love story and literary fiction. (3.5/5 stars)


“Terms and Conditions: A Decayed London Story” by Joseph Elliott-Coleman Ursula is back from the front lines and is ready to confront her past. I really like the premise of this story but the lack of obstacles for the protagonist just didn’t satisfy me. (2.5/5 stars)


“The Goruden-Mairu Job” by TR Napper Toshiro Sanada submits to the questioning of Lieutenant Sato to honour Suzy, according to the version he remembers anyway. The deeper into Toshi’s mind we went, the more lost in the story I became. By the end, I was devastated. (5/5 stars)½

While I was reading this book, I eventually found out why I don't like cyberpunk. It's easy: many authors believe that it is sufficient to add nanobots, post-apocalyptic environments, warped lexicon and all that jazz to create a story. Well, with that stuff you may fill pages but you do not go anywhere. Just to say, I even abandoned "Tabula Rasa" by Danie Ware, which is something I never do. There are some interesting ideas: "Assets" by Keith Brooke and Eric Brown", "The Still Small Voice" by Louise Carey", "A Game Of Clones" by Justina Robson, which however could have benefited by some more depth. All in all, I could have done without it.

A pretty good collection of cyber punk stories. Thematically there's a very strong focus on technology such as body modifications, AI integration or mind transfers to other bodies, but there is plenty of variety within those parameters. Many of the stories are action-driven, though they are diverse in settings and styles. I found the average quality of the stories quite high, with very few standing out as being either brilliant or very poor. An enjoyable collection, but it misses one or two truly great stories to make it memorable.

Ratings per story:

Introduction by Michael Cobley (-)
Hello, Goodbye - Stewart Hotston (***)
Four Green Fields - Ian McDonald (**)
All The Precious Years - Al Robertson (****)
Forever in Scotland - Callum McSorley (***)
Assets - Keith Brooke & Eric Brown (*****)
The Still Small Voice - Louise Carey (***)
Mindstrings - Jeremy Szal (**)
Tabula Rasa - Danie Ware (*****)
Collision Detection - Tim Maughan (***)
We Appreciate Power - Gavin Smith (***)
A Game Of Clones - Justina Robson (*)
Accumulated Damage - Simon Morden (***)
The Thirteenth Clone Of Casimir Ivanovitch - Jon Courtenay Grimwood (***)
Elijah Of The 1000 Faces - Gary Gibson (***)
VR Enclave - DA Xiaolin Spires (***)
Digital Salt - Corey J White (****)
Terms And Conditions - Joseph Elliott-Coleman (***)
The Goruden-Mairu Job - T.R. Napper (****)½

A multi-author anthology of modern cyberpunk tales. As usual, as a multi-author anthology, some stories I disliked very much, others I liked a lot, and the rest I read and enjoyed without any marked degree of liking and disliking. Some of the stories were quite traditional cyber-run stories, focussing on the virtual reality aspect. Others focussed on the body mod aspects. Most were set in the traditional dystopian future with the usual bleak outlook. It's been a while since I read much in the way of cyberpunk; in fact, I stalled on Pat Cadigan's Synners, so I suspect time has passed the traditional story by. I think it would be difficult to capture the cyberpunk vibe in a novel nowadays as the setting is now part of the techno-thriller arc. As short stories, they work - especially when projected further into the future to become more SF. A fun read which included authors new to me. A couple of authors I probably won't seek out any more, but others I wouldn't mind reading more of their work.

In Night, Rain, and Neon Michale Cobley has assembled a collection of 18 cyberpunk stories by 18 different authors and you, if you are anything like me, are going to want to thank him for his choice. The cyberpunk genre is currently very vital and very varied and this collection is well worth your attention because Cobley clearly knows his onions. Some of these short stories are truly excellent and to be frank all of them will hold your interest until the end. The writers each have their own way of going about the telling and the variety of voices, styles and imaginations on show here is something of a showcase for the genre.

A good collection of SF short stories all themed vaguely along the lines of transference - uploading minds, downloading into new bodies, reusing bodies and the like.

A variety of authors famous and unknown to me, it wasn't obvious which was which! and none o f the stories particularly felt like they were extracts from larger novels. I wan't blown away by any of them, but also didn't think any were particularly bad. Probably a fair introduction to each author's writing styles.

Distance and bad memory lured me to the second book on a used bookstore binge trip - I'd forgotten that I didn't enjoy the first one that much. In that ranking scale, I enjoyed this book much more, though I was still reminded of the Seven Suns Saga a lot.

A bold, galaxy sweeping story where you're even willing to overlook how central humanity can be to Solving Everything(tm) - if only it wasn't underwhelmed by poor writing and execution. To be fair, I have the same opinion of other popular space operatic series, bringing to question my tastes and opinions, but between the constant info dump and poor writing technique, I was left bored and unintrigued for most of the book.

‘Ascendant Stars’ is part three of a big trilogy, ‘Humanity’s Fire’, which can be a problem. The book opens with a pretty efficient summary of what has gone before from author Michael Cobley. Unfortunately, so much has gone before it was hard to get my head around. Deciding the best thing to do was carry on regardless, I kept reading and presently it made sense, mostly.

The centre of the action is Darien, a planet occupied by humans sent forth in an emergency centuries ago. They lost contact with home. There are two other colony worlds in the same condition for three were sent forth when Earth was threatened at that time. Earthsphere found Darien in book one, ‘Seeds Of Earth’, but the main human worlds are under the sway of the Sendrukan Hegemony, a not very nice empire. Darien also seems to be a holding ground for ancient forces that fought a titanic war long ago and are reviving for another go at it. Nasty types from all over the galaxy and even the depths of Hyperspace are now converging on a slightly bucolic settlement of rough-hewn frontier type boys and girls for whom it may all be too much.

There are quite a few characters to follow and they usually get a chapter each, one after the other. Greg has chapter one. He is moping about on Nivyesta, Darien’s moon, because his girl-friend, Catriona, has become one with the forest. Catriona is next up, then Julia, an enhanced type who is being held prisoner and forced to design weapons of mass destruction for an evil terrorist with an unknown agenda. Kuros has a chapter, too. He’s the Sendrukan ambassador to Darien but has been taken over by his AI. Kao Chih is from another lost human colony and has had an exciting time getting near Darien. Greg and Theo are from the target planet, as is Chel, one of the native Uvovo. Robert Horst is the Earth ambassador to Darien and there are copies of him running around to complicate things.

As well as numerous characters, there are numerous landscapes, many of them odd. Julia spends some time as a fractalised sentience inside the Datastream, the ‘internet’ which stretches across the galaxy, more or less, full of virtual realities, codes, AIs, security systems and so forth. Robert goes through a warp and ends up in the subconscious of the Godhead, an ancient sentience of unknown origin. Cobley is endlessly inventive in describing these backgrounds, inevitably in human terms. They are very fluid and change quickly though, unlike real landscapes of trees and hills.

Thankfully, there are some real landscapes of trees and hills still around and real humans with arms and legs to occupy them, mostly on Darien. The key points are frequently occupied by enemy powers, so sieges and battles form a large part of the story. Space, that final frontier, is another important battleground and Cobley does a good job of describing combat among the stars. Some of it has an inevitable ring of familiarity. Beam weapons and torpedoes are deployed against shields which flicker and glow under the assault. Sneaky use is made of fighters and shuttles and the enemy computer systems can be fiddled with at times.

All in all, this is an excellent space opera, full of imagination and invention. The human characters are mostly likeable and the inhuman ones send a shiver down the spine, especially the ones with machine parts and the parasites. There is a pleasing familiarity to much of it for those well-read in the genre and even for those who only do their Science Fiction on film and television. The writing is crisp and clear throughout and it all leads beautifully to a glorious conclusion. If I lost the plot occasionally it is because I am old and the little grey cells are fading away, not through any fault of the author. Even you young people must have trouble at times with the third parts of complex trilogies when you read part two more than a year ago. If you are lucky enough not to have read part one and two yet, then I highly recommend the series. Michael Cobley has added a fine piece of work to a grand tradition and I think old E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith is lying tranquil in his grave.

Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/

Ancestral Machines is a stand alone book that fits into the Humanity's Fire universe and has some of the elaborate background from that series. Even so, it can be read by itself.

It's a space opera on the gigantic scale. Millions of years ago, in the Greater Shining Galaxy, a number of worlds got together to hook planets together in a geometrical shape with a sun at the centre to form a kind of spaceship that could wander about. Over time, it turned into a permanent war zone and eventually a ruling elite dedicated to non-stop combat took over. Now it has arrived in the Milky Way and a number of disparate groups go to investigate, including Captain Brandon Pike, a free trader, and his ragtag crew of misfits.

The story rolls along nicely and there is plenty of invention for SF fans to wallow in. The characters are pretty standard types and it's a rollicking adventure yarn. Don't look for any depth but go along for the ride and you'll enjoy it.

Mike is a friend of many years – I believe we first met at the first convention I ever attended, Mexicon 3 in Nottingham in 1989. So, on the one hand, that’s a long enough friendship to survive a negative review; but on the other, it feels somewhat off to tell a mate he’s written a bad book. In fact, most people I know won’t review books by friends – but, seriously, your friendship must be pretty fragile if it can’t survive someone’s opinion over a piece of fiction, FFS. Which is by no means a cunning lead-in to saying that Ancestral Machines is a bad book. Mike can write – he’s especially good at writing descriptive prose, which is unusual in genre writers – but Ancestral Machines definitely suffers from too much Banks and not enough Cobley. I mean, it was obvious from the first book of the Humanity’s Fire trilogy, Seeds of Earth, that Mike was ploughing a Banks furrow, but he made it enough of his own it didn’t matter. Unfortunately, Ancestral Machines reads like he tried a bit too hard. The book opens with two AIs, very much like Minds, discussing what will become the plot. Then you have the crew of a tramp spaceship, who are either the most inept or the unluckiest ever, because everything they do fails. They get dragged into the story when their ship is stolen. There’s a BDO in the form of an artificial planetary system of two hundred worlds, which can travel between galaxies and whose inhabitants are in thrall to a handful of evil alien overlords called Gun-Lords, who are actually sentient alien weapons who have taken over host bodies. The whole BDO is set up as the arena for brutal wargames, often with death tolls in the millions, and a league table of the victors. The AIs and the freighter crew end up involved with an attempted rebellion against the Gun-Lords, who are set to steal lots of worlds to put in their BDO. It’s all a bit of madcap dash from one set-piece to the next, and the plot seems to teeter on the edge of falling over for much of the book’s length. The banter didn’t always work for me, and the characters seemed a tad generic, but there’s some good space opera invention, and if the ending is a bit pat, it’s not an easy one. I’d sooner space operas didn’t feel the need for mega-bodycounts, but at least in Ancestral Machines the evil bastards get their just desserts.

“Seeds of Earth” by Michael Cobley. I enjoyed this story very much. It is great Space Opera with empires in space and different levels of technology. The bio-tech is most interesting too. This is book one of Humanity’s Fire and it left me wanting to read more.

In another 'let's finish the trilogy' maneuver I read the finale of Michael Cobley's 'Humanity's Fire' series, a middling quality space opera (The Ascendant Stars). The action around the planet Darien continues as the horribly be-weaponed battle fleets of evil alien empires gather to win the prize. The plot is well wrapped up at the end, with perhaps a little too convenient 'hand of god' moments assisting the conclusion. The main problem I had with this volume is it's slow start, particularly the character fragmentations of 2 of the main characters, Julia Blake & Robert Horst as they transition between embodied and disembodied or physical and virtual states of being. The other POVs are simple by comparison. it does eventually get going, and the pace builds toward the climax.

yeah... OK... had higher hopes since it had Iain Banks making comments about it on the cover, but it was just OK. Couldn't get into any of the characters particularly, and got a bit lost in the numerous sides in the war/stand-off...

Seeds of Earth is not for the faint of heart, let's give SF a try, kinda read. This IS science fiction. It will slam you with detail, spin you around while throwing alien races at you faster than you can successfully imagine them, all to weave you into a political plot involving half the universe while keeping the story intimate. I can't wait to read books 2 and 3.

For my full looney review: http://girlsguidetoscifi.blogspot.ca/2014/12/seeking-clarity-of-mind-review-of-s...

Adequate, decent ideas, pop feel, weak execution.

Ersatz Banksian "Culture" sans humour and wild imagination. I didn't finish.

Disappointing. Too long and drags a bit especially in the middle. If i didn't already have the next book I doubt I would be reading it.