First Blush: Quick Look at ‘All You Need is Kill’ and ‘Distant Early Warnings’

AYNIK by Sakurazaka from Haikasoru and DEW by Sawyer from Robert J Sawyer Books are joys to read right now.

I’ve been wading through some fairly unenjoyable reading assignments and can only say that both of these books are proving to be the proverbial breathes of fresh air.

AYNIK is destined to become a classic, at least in it’s english language translation.? (Despite not quite being finished with it I can already make this prognostication.)

This story will find a place amongst the seminal military science fiction works pantheon – Starship Troopers, The Forever War, Ender’s Game (the latter I’ve only read in original magazine form; I don’t believe it belongs in the pantheon, but that’s probably colored by my distaste for the (fairly recent) political screeds of its author – many others do include it);? it even manages to draw in elements of Gerrold’s War with the Chtorr series (which is itself somewhat of an homage to RAH’s Starship Troopers).

The use of metaphor in the novel is distinctly different and fresh, the point? of view somewhat unique when compared to other contemporary offerings.

Perhaps more than anything else, the novel draws you in and moves you along at quite a brisk pace; the author’s ability to slowly reveal the details of the novel’s world – while still keeping you interested – creates an excellent sense of ‘can’t wait to see what happens next’, and element that has, for me, been sadly missing in most read things of late.

Sawyer’s anthology of the best of Canadian science fiction is an excellent survey of the field and manages to give a distinct voice to authors who are normally lumped in with their US counterparts;? while the lumping may be to their marketing advantage, it must still be annoying sometimes to not have your distinctive national identity (and therefore, unique background) ignored or glossed over.? This is an anthology that should have been put together some time ago, a correction that Sawyer ably corrects.? DEW will become a future? touchstone and reference point and firmly plants the Maple Leaf on the field.? Canadian SF will no longer be just a few snowy provinces somewhere north of the United States.? (Still readiing this one two;? individual story comments coming soon.)