Dream Snippet #1: Zombies and Smart Paint

(Had this one about a week ago, but been too sick to feel like posting.)

Dream protagonist is a young boy named Phil (and his sister, Sara). They live in the suburbs, but are visiting the big city to go to the library. A zombie apocalypse happens. Luckily, these are old-school slow shambling zombies, so our plucky heroes can not only escape, but have time to pick up some books that they feel will be useful.

The kids make it home, but mom doesn't believe them about the zombies. Mom sends them to their room (inside, upstairs). From his window, Phil looks down at mom, who is standing near the gate of their (literally) gated community.

Mom is also peeved because Phil sprayed the fence with a can of SmartPaint(TM) that he picked up in the city. SmartPaint is sort of like sprayable e-ink; it has a one-color display that can show images uploaded to it by nearby wireless devices. Phil apparently got his can from Target, because its default display is the Target logo. You can also manipulate the image by hand, sort of like a paint program. As Phil looks down, he sees his mom squinching the red pigment around, trying to understand this new technology.

On the other side of the gate, a zombie shambles forward. Phil is worried about his mom, but is also worried that she'll just yell at him some more if he cries out.

Suddenly, the SmartPaint shifts, forming bold red letters: "PHIL, GET SARA AND RUN". Phil (being a science-fiction reader) immediately intuits several things from this:
* SmartPaint has an undocumented (and possibly undiscovered until now) feature: it can receive messages sent through *time*, somehow.
* He probably sent this message to himself from the future.
* Mom is probably toast.
* He and Sara are guaranteed to survive, as long as he gets her and runs, NOW.

Dream Snippet #2: Archeology and Mythology

(from a few nights ago)

I'm part of an archeological expedition (more Indiana Jones than realistic). There's a big hole in the ground, through which we can see ancient ruins. Shining in a light, we can see thatthe floor is about 50 feet down. There are some golden vases or bowls on pedestals, and part of the floor also shines golden. "It shines like a dragon's hoard..."

The head of the expedition is worried about safety issues, but I volunteer to go down. Accompanying me (for no obvious reason) is my friend E (43duckies). We look around the big chamber for a bit. E spots an opening in one corner. We go look, and see multiple passageways, including one that slopes down deeper into the earth. I get a strong feeling of recognition (like this was somewhere I visited in a game?), and tell E that I am quite sure there are Bad Things down there, and that we had better retreat at once. E starts heading back, and I follow.

Not wanting to leave completely empty-handed, I grab one of the golden vase/bowl thingies on the way out. As I reach the surface, I am stricken by a horrible realization, and begin apologizing incoherently to the other members of the team. They don't understand why I'm so upset.

I'm upset, because I've just realized that I'm inside a myth of a particular sort. I've stolen the golden cup from the dragon. That means that I, personally, will survive the story -- but a lot of innocent people will die due to my actions, including the head of my expedition.

_Deep State_, by Walter Jon Williams

This is a followup to _This Is Not a Game_, with the same protagonist, Dagmar Shaw, ARG-designer extraordinaire. It's mostly set in a tumultuous Middle East nation, undergoing a revolution to throw off their oppressive government, so couldn't be more timely.

Like the earlier book, this would be hard to call SF, since all the tech in it is either currently-existing, or likely to within a year or so. So, more of a techno-thriller. Sadly (from my POV), it has progressed further away from SF than the first volume, especially in the final quarter of the book. In the late stages, the action becomes very much like a typical spy thriller. It's still an exciting story, well told, but the plot elements that (earlier) made this book stand out as unique (ARGs, competitive social engineering, using ancient networking tech to get around a shutdown of the internet) all fell by the wayside.

Even if the end is a bit disappointing, the ride up until then is well worth it. Recommended.

_The Quantum Thief_, by Hannu Rajaniemi

Charlie Stross has been highly recommending this book (by a friend of his) for some time now. I picked up a copy at Boskone, and was not disappointed.

It's set in a seriously post-human solar system. There are enclaves of characters who are still within spitting distance of human understanding, including our protagonists, but these are working under the shadow of beings of vastly greater power and complexity -- gods, for all intents and purposes.

The fantastical setting is grounded by a set of characters and plot devices that would be familiar to a 19th century audience. The greatest thief ever is broken out of prison by a mysterious woman whose employers need him to do a special job. The woman is, herself, very moral, and has been coerced unwillingly into working with the thief; they develop a fairly classic love/hate relationship. And then they are inevitably drawn into contact with the Great Detective, whose love of justice propels him to oppose them. Which is not to say that the story (or characters) are simple or trite. Rather, they are approachable, and reveal their complications and depths gradually over the course of the novel.

On the flip side, this is the sort of novel that demands a lot of faith and attention from the reader. The author uses a lot of specialized invented vocabulary, and tends to use a word for a few chapters before getting around to explaining what it actually means. He does have a good feel (in my opinion) for when to do his incluing, but it wouldn't surprise me if some readers found it a turn-off. He also uses a lot of real-world jargon for actual (or at least hypothetical) high end physics stuff. But if you just treat it all as 'sufficiently-advanced' to be effectively magic, you won't be far off.

Structurally, this is one of the most satisfying novels I've read in a long time. The author carefully sets up shotguns on walls, then takes them down and shoots them, in the proper order; developments are surprising, but obvious in hindsight. The novel turns out to be about far more than the McGuffin, but only slowly eases into that. Everything wraps up into a very satisfying emotional closure. ...And then there's one more chapter, which reminds you that the gods are still out there, and that *they* aren't done with our heroes.

I'm not sure if I want a sequel or not. The door is clearly open for one, but I have difficulty imagining that a sequel could be as satisfying without the slow character revelation that powered so much of this novel. On the other hand, the author has earned enough good will with me that I'd definitely buy it.

[Side note: I think fans of the classic computer game Planescape: Torment will particularly enjoy this book. There are some unexpected structural similarities.]

Highly Recommended.