Review: Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

Published: Hodder & Stoughten (2014), Saga Press (2015)

Awards Nominated: BSFA, Tiptree, and Red Tentacle (Kitschie) Awards

The Book:

“When a massive object crashes into the ocean off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous and legendary city, three people wandering along Bar Beach (Adaora, the marine biologist- Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa- Agu, the troubled soldier) find themselves running a race against time to save the country they love and the world itself… from itself.” ~goodreads.com

This is the second book I’ve read by Okorafor, and I’ve also read her novella Binti recently.  She wrote in the afterword that this novel was inspired by her irritation with District 9.  It is definitely an unusually fantastical take on a first contact story.

My Thoughts:

I think I’m starting to get a sense of the general style of fiction Okorafor seems to prefer writing, violent and chaotic stories that mix science fiction and fantasy.  The premise of Lagoon is first contact with an alien species in Lagos, Nigeria, but things start to get weird very quickly.  At first, there’s the extreme alien technology that seems quite a lot like magic (excessive control over matter and energy), but that’s nothing too out of the ordinary for science fiction.  Soon, though, one realizes that the three central characters have unexplained superpowers, and that the aliens have begun waking up mythological creatures from the subconscious of the land and people. The increasingly bizarre situation is grounded in seriousness by the violent consequences for the humans caught up in the change.  Aside from the impact of aliens or mythological creatures, Lagoon does not shy away from showing the brutality of the darker side of human nature.

The chaotic aspect of the story makes it unpredictable, but a little frustrating as well.  The viewpoint is not restricted to the three protagonists, but instead leaps around wildly to many minor characters--some of whom are only around for a single scene.  A few of the one-off viewpoints are pretty neat, such as the perspective of a swordfish or a tarantula.  However, the jumping around sometimes seems to slow the central plot’s momentum down to a crawl, and to give each of the individual viewpoint characters very little time to develop beyond first impressions. All of this makes the novel feel overloaded with too many different stories, some of which receive little or no resolution. For example, there is a subplot about a secret LGBT support group trying to go public alongside the alien arrival, but it seems to be dropped partway through the novel with little resolution.  I think the intention of this approach is to show how the aliens’ arrival affects a wide variety of people in different ways, but the end result just felt a little too fractured for me.

Within the story, I was a little bothered by the inconsistency of the alien’s morality.  The aliens arrive first in the lagoon, and commune with the sea creatures.  When they meet humans, they are shocked by the violence we do to one another.  However, we later see that the sea creatures consciously kill for malice, so I’m not really sure why the aliens are so horrified only by human behavior.  For that matter, the aliens seem to regard sea creatures as people, but then do not show the same regret for killing them as they do for human beings.  I think it was primarily because of these concerns that the (somewhat) happy ending felt unconvincing to me.

On a final positive note, it was interesting to see a science fiction story set in Lagos, a place I have never been.  The story felt very grounded in location, and the many references I did not understand led me to do a lot of reading about the city online.  The Pidgin English was a little hard to follow at first, but the glossary helped.  I also got the impression that Okorafor might be using a restricted Pidgin vocabulary and grammar, in order to make things a bit easier on her readers, but I have no idea whether or not this is true.  Anyway, it’s always fun to be inspired by fiction to learn more about the world!

My Rating: 3/5

Lagoon is a science fantasy novel about first contact with aliens in Lagos, Nigeria.  The inclusion of superpowers and Nigerian mythology makes it a very unusual kind of science fiction story, and I enjoyed how entwined the Lagos setting was with the story.  The perspective jumps wildly between the protagonists and many minor characters, showing the impact of the alien arrival on a wide variety of living things.  However, I felt that the constantly shifting perspectives slowed down the plot and kept many of the characters one-dimensional.  I was also not completely convinced of the coherence of the aliens’ morality, and that led me to be unsatisfied with the way the main plot was eventually resolved. Despite my complaints, it was definitely an original book, and I have never read a first contact story quite like it!  

Review: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Published: Ballantine Books, 1968

Series: Space Odyssey Book 1

The Book:

“After the discovery of a mysterious alien artifact on the moon, a manned mission is sent out deep into the solar system.  Their mission is so secret that not even the astronauts themselves know their true purpose. The ship carries danger with it into the void, and no one knows what the astronauts might encounter at their journey’s end.” ~Allie

I meant for this to be a part of my Sci-Fi Month participation, but November ended up being extremely busy this year (especially near the end).  Hopefully, I can be a bit more active next year!  On to 2001, I was surprised that HAL didn’t play a larger role in the story, since that was mostly what I remember from a long-ago movie viewing. Also, just a note on Clarke adaptations, Childhood’s End will be airing on Syfy in just a few weeks!

My Thoughts:

I find it kind of hard to talk at length about Arthur C. Clarke’s older works, because they are generally such pure and simple expressions of scientific and/or extraterrestrial wonder.  2001: A Space Odyssey is no different in this regard, a story of first contact and the value of sentience in a wide universe.  This novel in particular has had a massive impact on science fiction culture, partially due to Kubrick’s film adaptation.  I barely remember the movie, and I’d never read the book, and still much of the story felt familiar.  I remembered the monolith and its uplift of proto-humans, the space journey in the ship with the dangerous AI, and the astronaut’s eventual destination.  All of the journey is carefully told in Clarke’s usual dry, meticulous style, which I have always enjoyed. HAL provided some conflict and excitement along the way, but I was also drawn in by the awe in the descriptions of approaching massive planets.  

Also usual of my experience with Clarke’s writing, the characters are secondary to the story’s ideas, which are what stay with you after the closing scene.  On top of the first contact and uplift ideas, the future Clarke imagines deviates from our own recent history and present in some interesting ways.  In particular, I was very intrigued by his solutions for the difficulties of space travel--including eating and eliminating in microgravity--and how they differ from the solutions used by today’s space agencies.  However, he also seems to have missed a lot of social progress in his extrapolation to the future.  Given how the story ends, I was surprised to read that Clarke originally intended 2001 as a standalone work.  It seems perfectly set up to show more of humanity’s future, though the sequel didn’t follow until over a decade later.  Clarke seems to have had a way of writing novels that leave people eager to know what might happen next in the universe he has imagined.

My Rating: 4 /5  

2001: A Space Odyssey is another classic by Arthur C. Clarke that deserves its enduring popularity.  As a fan of science fiction and Arthur C. Clarke, it was high time I finally got around to reading it.  2001: A Space Odyssey covers the wonder of space travel and first contact with an alien species, and it has a fair amount of conflict with the untrustworthy ship AI.  The novel also provided a view from 1968 of an imagined future of space travel.  We’re clearly far behind Clarke’s imagined manned space program, but it was really interesting to compare his dreams of the future to our recent past.

Review: The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Translated by Ken Liu)

English Publication: Tor, 2014

Series: Book 1 of the Three-Body Trilogy

Awards Nominated: Nebula, Campbell, Locus SF and Prometheus Awards

Awards Won: Hugo Award

The Book:

“Ye Wenjie lived through China’s Cultural Revolution, and the acts she witnessed have destroyed her faith in humanity.  She found political safety in a secret military project, but it was also there that she committed her ultimate act of betrayal.

Years later, the world is involved in a secret war, and some of the first casualties are scientists who have taken their own lives.  Nanomaterials engineer Wang Miao is pulled into the command center, but is initially provided with very little information about their enemies or even their methods of attack.  The truth may be found through a strange game, known as Three Body, which immerses the player in a world where the usual patterns of day and night are seemingly unpredictable and deadly.” ~Allie  

The Three Body Problem is the first book I’ve read by Cixin Liu, and I believe it is his first work translated into English.  I don’t seem to be capable of talking about The Three Body Problem without including lots of spoilers, so the review below will be full of them. If you don’t want spoilers, skip to the summary paragraph.

My Thoughts:

The Three Body Problem is an interesting take on a classic science fiction story, that of first contact with an alien civilization.  The build-up to revealing the first contact, though, makes up a large portion of the book.  Instead of focusing on the aliens themselves, the novel examines more closely the effect their existence would have on humanity.  For instance, Ye Wenjie no longer has faith in humanity, so she chooses to have faith instead in an unknown alien race.  She is not the only one who does so. While the aliens are not present, the characters are able to gain some understanding of them through the enigmatic Three Body game, which presents how life and civilization might develop in a chaotic (tri-solar) system. I enjoyed all of the scientific and philosophical discussions that arose from these ideas, and I was also intrigued by the apparent breakdown of fundamental physics that made up the central mystery of the novel.

As you might guess, the story is more idea-driven than character- or plot-driven.  There were long stretches, especially within the game, which primarily exist for the introduction and explanation of various ideas about society and physics. Even when the resolution of the novel arrives, the information is given to the characters through documents, discussion, and lecture.  The information could sometimes be a little dry, and the sense of distance I felt from the characters did not help.  The main protagonist, Wang Miao, is mostly a passive observer, existing to witness events and contemplate them.  Ye Wenjie was much more complicated, and I was shocked by some of her actions.  Even with Wenjie, though, I felt like I was watching the characters from the outside.  Still, I was sufficiently interested in the ideas presented that I was always eager to return to reading.

When the secret behind the central mystery was revealed, it was a bit of a letdown for me. While a few of the scientific ideas are pretty farfetched, I enjoyed that most of the novel seemed to have a pretty reasonable idea of the process of science. The early hints in the story led me to believe that the problem leading scientists to suicide was going to be one of fundamental science.  Instead, the story moves into a fever dream of particle physics, and the final conclusion is basically “near-omniscient, near-omnipotent beings did it”.  I was expecting an answer a little more grounded in science, and instead it felt like everything was laid at the feet of an essentially supernatural external influence. Despite this, I am curious to see where the story will go from here.

My Rating: 3.5/5

The Three Body Problem takes an interesting perspective on a familiar science fiction story, with an interesting focus on science and philosophy.  The involvement with China’s Cultural Revolution brought to life a period of Chinese history with which I am only passing familiar, and I was fascinated by the look into such a different social and political landscape. I also enjoyed the focus on physics, particularly on the attempts to solve the three body problem itself, and the way the implications of that problem were wound through the novel. Though I thought that the main characters seemed a little distant and the conclusion was somewhat disappointing, I am curious to see where the trilogy will go next.

Review: Permutation City by Greg Egan

Permutation City by Greg Egan

Published: Millenium, 1994

Awards Won: John W. Campbell Award

Awards Nominated: Philip K. Dick & British Science Fantasy Association Award

The Book:

“When it becomes possible to make an electronic copy of a human mind, the practice is initially the domain of the eccentric rich who want to cheat death. Over time, though, the reasons people have for copying themselves have begun to change. For instance, Maria is neither rich nor in fear of her own death. After grieving over the death of her father, she’s determined that she’s going to make enough money to copy her mother before it’s too late.

Maria’s interest in the Autoverse, a software environment with simplified natural laws, leads her to contract with a man whose motives are even stranger.  He claims to offer his electronic-copy clients true immortality--free of the fear of loss of computing power--in a universe that can offer all the joys of our physical world, even up to the possibility of alien life.  He is either wrong, a charlatan, or a man who is about to learn the meaning of eternity.” ~Allie

This is the first book I’ve read by Greg Egan, but I plan to seek out more of his work in the future.  I listened to this one on audiobook, and was not really a fan of the voice patterns of the narrator, which seemed too monotonous to me.  Once the story got going, though, I was so interested that my personal dislike of the narration style didn’t matter.

My Thoughts:

This was basically everything I wanted in a book about mind uploading.  It addresses the hardware problems of the copies, the idea of whether they represent a continuation of self, what motivates different people to copy themselves, how it might affect them to exist while knowing they are not a physical entity, how the existence of copies is dealt with in the physical world, and much more.  It’s clear that a lot of thought went into exploring all the implications of this kind of technology, and that is exactly the kind of speculation that I most enjoy reading about.  One point I especially enjoyed was the exploration of flexibility of one’s sense of self. For instance, if you can directly modify the way that you think and feel, does your choice to do so change who you are?  If not, then what is it that defines your core self?  Maria once pointed out that a single person at two random points in their life might seem like two different people, but their lived experience gives a sense of continuity of identity.

On the tech side, Permutation City has a few pretty accurate predictions of the future, and further entertaining speculation.  For instance, this was published just a year after WWW was declared a public asset, but Egan already predicted grid computing and trading of processing power.  I think Egan also accurately concluded that accurately modeling humans would not be a reasonable feat in terms of computing power, and the story acknowledges that many ‘short-cuts’ are required to make copies a reality. Even with the shortcuts, minds can only be run at a maximum ratio of 17:1 real time to subjective experience.  For software environments, I also thought the idea of the Autoverse was really interesting.  It kind of reminds me of the appeal Minecraft seems to have (I may be wrong, I’ve never played it), providing the user with tools, resources, and defined rules for how this specific version of ‘reality’ works.

The second part of the novel takes a turn towards the weird side, and I think that how readers will respond to that will largely depend on how they feel about the “Dust Theory”.  I thought it was a very fun idea, and I liked the direction that it allowed the novel to go.  I don’t want to explain the theory here, since I don’t want to give away any major plot details.  In general, the first part of the novel is embedded in a pretty believable near-future world with some speculative technology, while the second half launches confidently into complete ‘what-if’ territory.  Many of the ideas introduced earlier in the story are allowed to run to their extremes, and the result was fascinating.

My Rating: 5/5     

I think this is the best novel I’ve read about mind uploading thus far.  It addressed pretty much all the aspects of the technology that I find interesting, including the hardware limitations, the social implications, the effects on those involved, and how the it could stretch the idea of a sense of self.  A variety of perspectives and reactions to mind uploading are presented through the handful of viewpoint characters.  The second part of the story veers off wildly from the ordered near-future world, into the idea of the “dust theory” and the potentially eternal lives of electronic copies.  Permutation City was an engaging story from start to finish, and I am looking forward to reading more of Greg Egan’s work!

Review: The Many-Colored Land by Julian May

The Many-Colored Land by Julian May

Published: Houghton Mifflen, 1981

Series: Book 1 of the Saga of the Pliocene Exile

Awards Won: Locus SF

Awards Nominated: Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Mythopoeic Award, Prometheus Award

The Book:

“In the year 2034, Theo Guderian, a French physicist, made an amusing but impractical discovery: the means to use a one-way, fixed-focus time warp that opened into a place in the Rhone River valley during the idyllic Pliocene Epoch, six million years ago. But, as time went on, a certain usefulness developed. The misfits and mavericks of the future—many of them brilliant people—began to seek this exit door to a mysterious past. In 2110, a particularly strange and interesting group was preparing to make the journey—a starship captain, a girl athlete, a paleontologist, a woman priest, and others who had reason to flee the technological perfection of twenty-second-century life.

The group that passes through the time-portal finds an unforeseen strangeness on the other side. Far from being uninhabited, Pliocene Europe is the home of two warring races from another planet...” ~barnesandnoble.com

My Thoughts:

From the beginning, I thought this was a really fun idea.  The story of colonization is a familiar one, where misfits take off on a risky one-way journey to found a society that is hopefully more to their liking.  The twist in this case is that they are colonizing the Earth’s past.  I enjoyed the ideas of how a future civilization would prepare its pioneers, and seeing what sorts of people would want to leave a spacefaring future for a distant past.  I especially liked the training camp, and the way people were organized to learn various useful trades.  Of course, once they got to the Pliocene, things changed dramatically from a tale of survival and building a society to fighting against their new alien masters.  I think it would have been a pretty fun premise without the aliens, but switching the course to a power struggle against powerful aliens also made for a lot of excitement and drama.   

The novel is split between the viewpoints of a large number of main characters that travel together through the time portal.  The group is divided in two, and the handling of the two groups makes it very clear that this novel is a small part of a larger series.  One of the groups has a pretty dramatic arc, while the other seems relegated a to background, as if it will come into more prominence in later books.  Since there are so many characters, and since the story is plot-driven and full of Pliocene scenery descriptions, there isn’t very much time to develop each character individually.  They each have characteristics that make them distinct, but they are not yet particularly complex.  They seem to fit various archetypes, or perhaps mythological types, since the story also echoes a number of myths.  A few characters do achieve some personal growth, but they are primarily just the players through which the reader experiences the adventures of the Pliocene.  

Out of the large case, I enjoyed reading about some of them, though I found others a little exasperating.  Some of my favorites would have to be the priest, Amerie, and her friend, an elderly widowed archeologist named Claude.  They both seemed to have the healthiest attitude about their goals in their destination, and I think they have the strength of character to make something worthwhile out of their circumstances.  On the other end of the spectrum are people like Bryan, an anthropologist who took a one-way ticket to the Pliocene based on an unrequited crush.  Finally, the novel has a character that everyone seems to instinctively dislike and distrust for no discernable reason, an aggressive and powerful young woman named Felice.  I’ve seen how these things usually go, so I’m pretty sure the rest of the saga will not go well for Felice.  I had a lot of fun reading this first novel of the series, but I’m not sure I’m interested to see what happens next.  

My Rating: 3.5/5

If the idea of a bunch of future misfits taking a one-way ticket into the Earth’s distant past to fight aliens sounds like fun to you, then The Many-Colored Land is probably a book to check out. The story features a large cast of differing viewpoint characters, each with their own background, personality, and clash with future-modern life. The descriptions of the Earth’s Pliocene Epoch are vivid and interesting, and the struggle against the alien interlopers makes for an exciting story.  I’m not sure if I was engaged enough to read the rest of the series, but The Many-Colored land was a pretty fun adventure.

Review: Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Published: Atlantic Monthly Press/William Morrow & Co. (2008)

Awards Nominated: British Science Fiction Association, Campbell Memorial, Arthur C. Clarke, and Hugo Awards

Awards: Won: Locus SF Award

The Book:

“On the unusual but strangely familiar planet of Arbre, those who study science and math generally live in monastery-like communities that are isolated from the saecular world. Every year, decade, century, and millennium, gates open to allow different groups of these scholars to mingle with the outside world for ten days. Fraa Erasmas is a member of the Decenarian math, whose gates open once each decade. 

During the first opening since he was collected as a child, Erasmas and his peers notice certain hints that something unusual is on the horizon.  Though their information is limited, they begin to apply their reasoning skills to determine what truth lies behind the things that they are capable of observing.  It soon becomes clear that their world is at the cusp of a cataclysmic change, and that he and his friends are going to be pulled right into the center of it all.” ~Allie

I bought Anathem because the e-book was on sale, and because I usually enjoy Neal Stephenson’s novels.  I had also decided that this would be a good choice for the “I just HAVE to read more of that author” Challenge, in which I am participating. It’s also the first book I’ve read for Stainless Steel Droppings’s Sci-Fi Experience.  When I first started reading, I thought I might have picked a little too ambitious a book for a holiday season in which I was already exhausted.  However, I’m really glad I stuck with this one to the end!   

My Thoughts:

Arbre is a really immersive world, and I especially loved the details about life in the concents, the monastery-like communities where the scientists live.  There were a lot of little interesting touches, such as multi-plant-species ‘tangle’ agriculture and library grapes, which contain the gene sequences for all varietals.  Of course, with the existence of grapes and wine, you can see that there are a lot of similarities between Arbre and our world.  There are actually story-related reasons for this, but I appreciated how it gave the reader a kind of handle to understand the world and its history.  Earth languages (especially French) are also used as a basis for creating a lot of the new vocabulary used by the characters, and I thought this really helped to keep the meanings clear. I enjoyed how Arbre was unusual enough to be intriguing but familiar enough to not be confusing.

I also loved that the story was basically about people in academia, and that it featured an average academic (i.e. not a genius).  The story followed Fraa Erasmas and his fellow fraas and suurs from the Concent of Saunt Edhar. Erasmas has a pretty apolitical view of the world, and generally refers to the ‘Saecular Power’ as a monolith. I enjoyed the focus on the communities and relationships within the ‘mathic world’, and most especially that between Erasmas, his closest friends, and his mentor Orolo.  I found it refreshing that the concents were co-ed, and that they did not forbid romantic relationships.  There is a bit of romance in the story for Erasmas, but relationships (and, honestly, characterization) have a lower priority in the story than the events and discussions that are changing their world.

While the story follows Erasmas’s adventures across Arbre and beyond, I think the core of the story revolves around two opposing philosophical ideas. In general, it is the argument of whether words have inherent meaning, or whether they are only symbols that we assign meaning. The first position leads to the idea that words refer to an ideal form, which exists in an idealized universe (see Platonic Ideal/Form). This ties in to the more physical idea of multiple universes (‘polycosmic’ theory), where (in the simplest case) each cosmos could be closer to or farther from the ideal universe.  There are also pretty interesting explanations for the nature of consciousness, if you take interference from multiple cosmos into account. I think it’s pretty impressive that Stephenson has managed to craft a story around this clash of ideas, and one that I felt was really engaging.

I was quickly drawn in by Erasmas’s journey from his small concent to the center of a dramatic change to the infrastructure of his entire world.  There were many exciting events along the way, such as his dangerous crossing of the pole and the events at Ecba.  However, a lot of the story also involves Erasmas discussing ideas and information with his peers and mentors, and constructing their picture of what is happening. I really enjoyed seeing how much they could figure out from just a little information.  Of course, there are also a lot of dialogues about ideal forms, the nature of consciousness, and polycosmic theory. These conversations are pretty long and frequent, so I think that a reader who doesn’t enjoy them would have a hard time getting into the story.  I thought that all the discussions helped to build up the foundation for the conclusion to make sense, and I enjoyed seeing how things might change for Arbre in the future.

My Rating: 5/5

I think Anathem may be my new favorite novel by Neal Stephenson.  The planet of Arbre was fascinating, and its similarities to our world kept it easily accessible.  I enjoyed the wordplay vocabulary and small creative touches that made the world unique.  The characters may not have been a major focus of the story, but I thought they were well enough developed to be emotionally engaging.  The real heart of the story is in philosophical ideas pertaining to ideal forms, the nature of consciousness, and multiple universes, and how these ideas would be involved in a very unusual first contact scenario.  I felt like there was enough action to move the story along, though the novel was also definitely heavy on interesting discussions and explanations.  I loved this book, and am happily anticipating reading more Stephenson in the future! 

Review: A Case of Conscience by James Blish

A Case of Conscience by James Blish

Published: Ballantine Books (1958), Gollancz(2000)

Awards Won: Hugo Award

The Book:

“Father Ruiz-Sanchez is a dedicated man--a priest who is also a scientist, and a scientist who is also a human being. He has found no insoluble conflicts in his beliefs or his ethics... until he is sent to Lithia. There he comes upon a race of aliens who are admirable in every way, except for their total reliance on cold reason; they are incapable of faith or belief.

Confronted with a profound scientific riddle and ethical quandary, Father Ruiz-Sanchez soon finds himself torn between the teachings of his faith, the teachings of his science, and the inner promptings of his humanity. There is only one solution: He must accept an ancient and unforgivable heresy--and risk the futures of both worlds...”~WWEnd.com

I mostly grabbed A Case of Conscience due to its Hugo win—I’m almost finished reading all the Hugo winners (just less than 10 to go)!  However, I was also interested in reading another science fiction first contact story involving religion.

My Thoughts:

A Case of Conscience is a novel that is cleanly split into two halves, one of which takes place on Lithia and the other mostly back on Earth.  It seems quite clear that the two halves were written separately, in terms of the tone and general focus of the story. In fact, the first half was published as a novella in 1953, and the second half was added when the story was extended to novel length.  The first half focuses on the human investigative team’s views on the planet of Lithia and its sentient inhabitants, while the second features the effects of the expedition to Lithia on an Earth.

While many of the ideas brought up in the course of the story were interesting, the characters seemed very flat and pretty unconvincing. In general, I think most of the characters existed in order to hold particular views, and to see how those views fared against circumstances and one another.  For instance, in the first half of the novel, the major conflicts are due to the different expedition members’ views on Lithia, and the Catholic Father Ruiz-Sanchez’s attempts to reconcile the reality of the Lithians with his religious ideology.  The story begins near the end of the expedition, and most of the information about the planet and its inhabitants is simply told to the reader, with very little plot to break up the information.  The story is dominated by the conversation between the scientists about what they had concluded about Lithia, and of how the planet should be treated by human civilization.  While I wasn’t really engaged by the characters, I enjoyed reading about their opposing views.

The second half of the novel did not really grab me.  The story jumped from the peaceful Lithia to a decadent Earth with social structures and problems shaped by the fear of nuclear war.  Reading about the details of this future Earth was sometimes entertaining (even though some details seemed unlikely), but the pacing was rather strange.  For instance, there is an excruciatingly long description of a party, which does not seem nearly as important as the time lavished on it might imply.  There is significantly more action than in the first half, involving the effects of a parting gift from the Lithians, potential societal breakdown, and Ruiz-Sanchez’s confrontation of his heresy.  However, given the little investment I had in the characters, this was less engaging than the conversation of the first half.  I appreciated the ambiguity of the conclusion, but I felt that it, as well as much of the plot, was a little too overdramatic. 

My Rating: 2.5/5

A Case of Conscience is not one of my favorite Hugo Award winners. Some of the ideas presented were interesting, such as the consideration of how a non-religious, seemingly perfect alien species might be understood in the context of a certain view of Christianity.  However, the characters were bland, and the pace of the story was pretty uneven.  The first half was almost entirely based on information and conversation, and, due to my lack of interest in the characters, the relatively action-packed second half often bored me.  This is a novel that has endured for many decades, but I think I would have found the story more effective in its original novella form.