Worldwired (Jenny Casey)

A brilliant finish to the Jenny trilogy, and definitely my favorite out of all three. Elizabeth Bear shines during action scenes where she grips the reader with intense action and immediacy. The science and technology woven into this are intriguing and really absorbed me. From start to finish she created a wonderful tale. The characters are deep and complex. I will admit that the jumpy POVs are hard to get used to to begin with, and some will find her style of writing hard to digest. Also, there were points where I grew impatient with the slow sense of deliberation in everything, but those were few and far between. Worst part: The static pace towards the middle of the book. Best part: fight scenes (particularly between the AIs) and explanations of alien technology

Big rock blast sacrifice aftermath. In the wake of a large object being dropped on Canada from a very great height, the problems of the planet still remain, evne with the sacrifice of one of Jenny's pilot proteges to help ameliorate the damage. Space exploration is still vital, and Jenny Casey is considering her own expedition given her current position and materiel. Luckily for the meat-based population of the planet, Richard Feynman is happy to use his basically now planet-sized brain resources to help with the rebuilding effort on the surface of the planet. Political enemies who want things to stay as they are would really like to stop any successes Casey and her allies might be able to manage. Not all of them are human. Again, a book that is tricky to sum up in a phrase, and well worth a look. It is perhaps even a bit better than the last two.

"Worldwired" goes off, yet again in new direction. The three-part saga that in the author's "Hammered" seemed to be establishing itself as a cyberpunky "band of outlaws up against globalism and the corporations," but turned into an international thriller cum space opera in "Scardown," now adds a first-contact puzzle thread to the proceedings. (And a spectacular scene at the United Nations.) This time out Jenny Casey takes more of a supporting role (although she gets plenty of action) as Richard, the super-intelligent artificial intelligence, moves front and center here. Certainly, he is the one who keeps all the plotlines together. But Jenny herself gets plenty of chapters in which to tell her part of the story in her wisecracky first-person-present style. The author brings back the characters who survived the first two tales, and tosses in a few more (she puts a few of the returnees essentially on hold for a while, but do not fret, because she plugs them in when they're needed again), and once again uses her jagged multiple pov style. There's plenty of action here, but you have to resist the temptation to gobble down the pages, because if you do, you won't have the time to relish Ms. Bear's fine-honed prose style. I hope that Ms. Bear will return to this "universe" she's created, although advertisements at the back of the book would seem to indicate that in her next novel she intends to go in another direction. No matter. I'll travel that road with her.

The end of the trilogy is by far the best book of the series, in contrast to most multi book novels, which typically start strong, and limp to an end. Not that the first two books are at all weak. The first book "Hammered" is very strong, with many absorbing characters, but the second, "Scarsdown" is, perhaps due to the extigicies of editing, a little compacted for easy reading. This work could easily have been expanded to four books, but that's the publisher's decision, not Ms. Bear's Totally worthwhile and expansive read, with quite a bit of moral and social commentary between the lines. A very dense but readable debut into Scienece Fiction, and i cant wait for her next work. Anybody who thinks SF is not a mature field is urged to read Elizabeth Bear.

Watching Jenny grow and change from "Maker" in the first book, to a starship pilot in the second, to a complicated 50 year old combat veteran and reluctant hero in this book has been a fascinating journey. Bear's characters: heroes, villains, and bystanders, are all clearly lit and sympathetic (even when you know they are on the wrong side). If you liked "Patriot Games" or "Hunt for Red October" for Jack Ryan and the rest of the characters, I think you'll like this story, too. Gritty writing with an involved plot that keeps you guessing. It also has an AI (artificial intelligence) patterned after Richard Feynman, famous physicist and drummer and a personal hero of mine. Marvellous.