The Vang: A Review

                                                             

Christopher Rowley's The Vang was cited as the inspiration for the Flood in Halo. I was incredibly excited to dig into this one, especially since I really enjoyed the first book in the series, Starhammer.

The Vang follows a wide cast of characters on the planet Saskatch, a remote colony filled with logging communities, drug runners, and a very corrupt capital city. In the local star system is a ship with two families trying to strike a fortune in mining. They discovered a floating alien object and well... that's how the Vang attempts to take over Saskatch. 

The Vang are a parasitic life from introduced at the end of Starhammer. They are sentient beings that can infect and take over other species as hosts. Their appearance mimics very close to how the Flood were eventually created:

Around the corner and into the passage sprang a bipedal being, barely recognizable as human. Sheaths of a shiny pink and gray material coated the arms, the chest, and lower body. The material was heavily ridged and wattled on the chest and torso.

The head was an obscenely distorted version of humanity. Orange flower things waved in front of a face like that of a man mixed with a greyhound. Under the chin hung a beard of pink polyps.

And here is some concept art for Halo of the Flood (human combat form):

Artist: Robert McLees

The book was a pretty fun read, although I wasn't a fan of the head hopping and the character names got confusing at times. For example, there's a scene where there's two characters with the same last name and their dialogue tags made it difficult to distinguish who was who. There was also some other parts that didn't sit with me well (without giving spoilers away, the lobster thing...). I honestly wished this book was longer so certain scenes got more developed. The beginning of the story was the strongest part of the novel and as the story progressed, things felt more rushed.

But, overall, this was a fun classic parasitic alien invasion lifeforms. It's violent, fast paced, and creepy.  This is one I'll definitely return to for inspiration in the future.

Foundation: A Review

I've had this series on my to-read list for a hot minute. Isaac Asimov is such an influential author in the sci-fi genre that I'd be doing myself a disservice to not read his works. 

Asimov originally wrote the Foundation series as individual pieces during the 40s. So the first book isn't one singular story, rather it details the history of "The Foundation" through the eyes of various influential characters. The work was written to mirror the fall of the Roman Empire. 

Foundation

What a book. 

The story starts with Gaal Dornick (the first of many view point characters) arriving on Trantor, the capital planet of the Imperial Empire. Think Coruscant from Star Wars. Dornick is a doctor joining the team of renowned mathematician Hari Seldon. Immediately, Dornick finds out that the job he signed up for isn't exactly what he thought it was. 

Without giving away spoilers, Seldon has predetermined the fall of the Galactic Empire through a science called "psychohistory." He has predicted that a dark age will take place and essentially wipe out human history (not humanity itself, just the civilized part). To combat that, he has started the "Encyclopedia Foundation" to create a massive repository of human arts, history, and science. The Foundation secures a remote planet called Terminus where they are charged with preserving the Empire's knowledge.

The book follows the Foundation through history as it faces a series of crises that threaten to destroy it. Each event has been predetermined by Seldon—to an extant—and the reader views how certain influential characters respond to each event.

My Thoughts

I loved it. My favorite part of the book is the world building. I really enjoyed exploring the idea of turning science into a religion in order to control potential rivaling "kingdoms" and the parallels with the Roman Empire.

I also really enjoyed the structure of the book and the different viewpoints. I felt that it made for a fun read by trying to figure out what the next crises was and how the characters were going to respond (although it became somewhat predictable).

On the flip side of that were the characters themselves. I felt this was a weak point. Because each viewpoint is constrained to specific time in history, we don't get fully fleshed arcs. But the characters aren't the point of the story, it's world. The idea of what the Galactic Empire and the Foundation represents is the focal point. And we have to remember that this book was written as standalone short stories. 

Some of the dialogue might come across as dry, but I didn't mind it. It's the idea of what the Foundation is that is engaging, and because of that, there aren't big action scenes (there's a couple). So if you're looking for a Star Wars-type story, you might be disappointed.

I gave the book a 5/5 which I reserve for really influential pieces of work. I really found the idea of this book fascinating and can't wait to continue the series. 

Starhammer: A Review

I've thought about doing book reviews and I'm torn on the idea. One, I don't think very many of you will read these (and that's okay... I get it), and two, I don't want to spend an insane amount of time drafting a full blown book review. That takes time away from the real work.

So instead, I think I'll do something like this when I finish a book worth reading. Christopher Rowley's Starhammer was a hell of read. And you should try to get your hands on a copy. You'll be a little hard pressed to find one, however. The book was first published in 1986 and is out of print. You'll have to snag a copy on Amazon. 

Why should you read it?

Well, other than this being a direct inspiration for Halo: Combat Evolved (the direct inspiration for my book), this is fun, pulpy Sci-Fi that'll take you out of this world. 

Starhammer

Thousands of years in the future, humanity ran into another space faring race called the laowon. The laowon are far more advanced than humans and decided to enslave a large portion of them. Both races live in their corners of the galaxy, but the laowon used humans to breed their own slave population and created new human breeds to fill certain needs (like pinheaded guards). 

Jon Iehard is the protagonist and is from one of the slave populations in laowon controlled space. He escapes the Laowon Imperium, settles on a human space hub, and eventually finds work in the police—specifically work in the Murder Squads, who eliminate serial killer terrorists. 

Iehard is tasked with finding a wanted man in the Laowon Imperium. A man who is linked to a religious terrorist group. It's this job that sends Iehard on the run and on a journey to uncover an ancient super weapon known as Starhammer.

The Connection to Halo

Without giving too much of the plot away, the inspirations from Rowley's work is evident. The main protagonist named Jon to John in Halo, the floating mote named Rhapsodical Stardimple to 343 Guilty Spark, the super weapon Starhammer to Halo, the ancient race of batrachians to the Forerunner. 

The biggest draw, however, is the Vang: a parasitic life form that Starhammer was created to destroy. Much like the Flood in Halo and how Halo is used to kill the Flood's food source (ie. life). 

The Vang is more fully fleshed out in the follow on books, but they make an appearance here. And man, are they good. The way that Rowley introduces their history and lore sent chills and when you eventually do encounter the Vang, you want more. 

My Thoughts

The book itself is solid. I gave it a 4/5 stars on Goodreads. At times, it felt like it was a 3.5 star book. The pacing of the plot is solid, although at times it can feel a bit too fast (which I'll take over a slow book anyway). The world building is phenomenal and clearly the strength of this book. Because this was written in the '80s some of the Sci-Fi tech might seem dated, but that adds to the charm of this book.

Where the book struggles is character development. Most of the characters aren't fully fleshed out, some I wish were explored more but are literally just tacked onto the plot. There's a lot of names to keep track of. Anything laowon was difficult to follow since there's always new laowon characters introduced inside a complex political structure. 

The ending also felt a bit rushed. The climax is fine, but then it just sort of... ends? The questions raised at the beginning of the book are answered, but some of those answers felt rushed.