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james_davis_nicollWhat is Haikasoru?
Space Opera. Dark Fantasy. Hard Science.
With a small, elite list of award-winners, classics, and new work by the hottest young writers, Haikasoru is the first imprint dedicated to bringing Japanese science fiction to America and beyond. Featuring the action of anime and the thoughtfulness of the best speculative fiction, Haikasoru aims to truly be the “high castle” of science fiction and fantasy.
Added note: these are not manga but novels.
The Ouroboros Wave
Jyouji Hayashi (Trans. Jim Hubbert)
Haikasoru/VIZ Media LLC
267 pages
SRP: $14.99 USA/$19.99 CAN/£9.99
ISBN: 978-1-4215-3645-3
Sadly, hard SF but not quite my thing. I don't if the issue is the original or the translation.
The discovery of a Mars-massed black hole on an (eventual) collision course with the Sun [1] inspires a daring scheme to alter the orbit of the black hole so that it becomes a Uranian satellite, so that its energy generating potential can be exploited for the betterment of humanity or at least that part of it living in space.
Rather than a single unified novel spanning decades, like The Next Continen or Usurper of the Sun, the story of the grand project and the effects its success has is told in six short stories, set as early 2123 and as late as 2171:
The Ouroboros Wave [2123]:
A puzzle story, trying to work out exactly what it was a researcher did that led to his abrupt death.
In general, researchers in this setting seem quite keen on fiddling with important systems without running their ideas by other people. In this case, the reseacher didn't properly think through how the system he was altering "thinks" of its environment, leaving that task to the people who have to fix what he broke before they join him.
The Riddle of Rapushinupurukuru (2144):
Deep space workers have to work out why an automated restructuring of an asteroid into a beamed-power relay station went pear-shaped.
Another puzzle story; this time the problems range from an oversight in assaying to the way separate groups can find themselves working at cross-purposes. I was going to call the assaying error minor but actually it's on par with the mistakes made building the Vaiont Dam; they're just lucky the results weren't as lethal.
Hydra's Ice (2145):
A Terran assassin struggles to carry out her mission despite the fact that she fundamentally doesn't understand the culture of the Artificial Accretion Disk Development Association.
Another puzzle, this time a how is she going to do it, told from both the killer's point of view and the viewpoint of the team tasked with stopping her. I found the resolution a bit questionable but the spacers are supposed to be foreign from a terran point of view.
It's not often someone provides a sketch of the path a bullet needs to follow.
The Dragons of Europa (2149):
Just assume these are all puzzles unless I say otherwise, OK? In this case, a crewed submarine within Europa runs into something unexpected; survival requires comprehension.
I like to think of this as the Case for Remotely Piloted Submersibles.
The Voice of Eingana (2163):
A ship out in the Kuiper, one crewed by both Terrans and AADDAers, loses contact with the inner system immediately after receipt of a message indicating Terran/AADD relations have finally collapsed into violence.
Some evidence is provided for the thesis that Earth is not rational where their rivalry with AADD is concerned but I note that at the same time the AADD tendency to underestimate the Earthers has costs.
The Wings of Caliban (2146-2171):
The collections revisits the world of insufficiently well-monitored scientists and the examples they set for others.
To me, there's an odd mismatch between what happens and how people react to it; the irrevocable misuse of extremely expensive equipment is forgiven rather easily, I thought (which may tie into how AADD treats former assassins).
This collection didn't quite work for me (although I can see it appealing to other hard SF fans). I had several issues, starting with the idea of diverting a Mars-massed body; there's no reason to think the civilization that we see in the early 22nd Century should be able to do that and without accepting that they can, accepting the rest of the book becomes difficult. The characters come across as a bit flat; I have to wonder if that's a translation issue.
I did notice that the issue of stealth in space is raised at one point:
For the record, I don't consider
a particularly impressive riposte.
This goes into the reread in six months pile, to see if I just came at it at the wrong time.
1: I don't think it's ever actually said but the only way the abiguity in when the black hole will hit the Sun makes sense is if the object is in orbit around the Sun rather than being a passer-by in interstellar space.
Space Opera. Dark Fantasy. Hard Science.
With a small, elite list of award-winners, classics, and new work by the hottest young writers, Haikasoru is the first imprint dedicated to bringing Japanese science fiction to America and beyond. Featuring the action of anime and the thoughtfulness of the best speculative fiction, Haikasoru aims to truly be the “high castle” of science fiction and fantasy.
Added note: these are not manga but novels.
The Ouroboros Wave
Jyouji Hayashi (Trans. Jim Hubbert)
Haikasoru/VIZ Media LLC
267 pages
SRP: $14.99 USA/$19.99 CAN/£9.99
ISBN: 978-1-4215-3645-3
Sadly, hard SF but not quite my thing. I don't if the issue is the original or the translation.
The discovery of a Mars-massed black hole on an (eventual) collision course with the Sun [1] inspires a daring scheme to alter the orbit of the black hole so that it becomes a Uranian satellite, so that its energy generating potential can be exploited for the betterment of humanity or at least that part of it living in space.
Rather than a single unified novel spanning decades, like The Next Continen or Usurper of the Sun, the story of the grand project and the effects its success has is told in six short stories, set as early 2123 and as late as 2171:
The Ouroboros Wave [2123]:
A puzzle story, trying to work out exactly what it was a researcher did that led to his abrupt death.
In general, researchers in this setting seem quite keen on fiddling with important systems without running their ideas by other people. In this case, the reseacher didn't properly think through how the system he was altering "thinks" of its environment, leaving that task to the people who have to fix what he broke before they join him.
The Riddle of Rapushinupurukuru (2144):
Deep space workers have to work out why an automated restructuring of an asteroid into a beamed-power relay station went pear-shaped.
Another puzzle story; this time the problems range from an oversight in assaying to the way separate groups can find themselves working at cross-purposes. I was going to call the assaying error minor but actually it's on par with the mistakes made building the Vaiont Dam; they're just lucky the results weren't as lethal.
Hydra's Ice (2145):
A Terran assassin struggles to carry out her mission despite the fact that she fundamentally doesn't understand the culture of the Artificial Accretion Disk Development Association.
Another puzzle, this time a how is she going to do it, told from both the killer's point of view and the viewpoint of the team tasked with stopping her. I found the resolution a bit questionable but the spacers are supposed to be foreign from a terran point of view.
It's not often someone provides a sketch of the path a bullet needs to follow.
The Dragons of Europa (2149):
Just assume these are all puzzles unless I say otherwise, OK? In this case, a crewed submarine within Europa runs into something unexpected; survival requires comprehension.
I like to think of this as the Case for Remotely Piloted Submersibles.
The Voice of Eingana (2163):
A ship out in the Kuiper, one crewed by both Terrans and AADDAers, loses contact with the inner system immediately after receipt of a message indicating Terran/AADD relations have finally collapsed into violence.
Some evidence is provided for the thesis that Earth is not rational where their rivalry with AADD is concerned but I note that at the same time the AADD tendency to underestimate the Earthers has costs.
The Wings of Caliban (2146-2171):
The collections revisits the world of insufficiently well-monitored scientists and the examples they set for others.
To me, there's an odd mismatch between what happens and how people react to it; the irrevocable misuse of extremely expensive equipment is forgiven rather easily, I thought (which may tie into how AADD treats former assassins).
This collection didn't quite work for me (although I can see it appealing to other hard SF fans). I had several issues, starting with the idea of diverting a Mars-massed body; there's no reason to think the civilization that we see in the early 22nd Century should be able to do that and without accepting that they can, accepting the rest of the book becomes difficult. The characters come across as a bit flat; I have to wonder if that's a translation issue.
I did notice that the issue of stealth in space is raised at one point:
"And how are they going to reach Mars undetected, much less Jupiter? There are hundreds of unmanned ships shuttling around the solar system [...]. We can track those ships to within a few meters. DO you really think a Terran ship could conduct offensive operations in that environment?"
For the record, I don't consider
"If they're sufficiently determined there's no telling what an enemy is capable of."
a particularly impressive riposte.
This goes into the reread in six months pile, to see if I just came at it at the wrong time.
1: I don't think it's ever actually said but the only way the abiguity in when the black hole will hit the Sun makes sense is if the object is in orbit around the Sun rather than being a passer-by in interstellar space.
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Date: 2011-06-20 03:14 am (UTC)Im seriously looking forward to reading this novel, just for the nostalgia value of reading something similar in theme and format to the SF collections I read in my youth, like Psi High and The Universe Between.
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Date: 2011-06-20 05:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-25 06:03 am (UTC)I think I liked it more than you did; the characters were no flatter than Clarke's, and the stories reminded me of Clarke in more ways than one. There did seem to be remarkably cavalier attitudes in this world toward geniuses going rogue in creative ways, and putting untested code on the production server.
The fact that a major character had the same name as a Monty Python cast member took me out of the first story a little, but this is probably unfair.
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Date: 2012-11-25 06:05 am (UTC)