{"id":651,"date":"2012-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T22:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=651"},"modified":"2024-12-31T16:51:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T03:51:10","slug":"burnt-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/05\/05\/burnt-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnt Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong>Steve Wheeler<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><em>Voyager<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Otago Daily Times, May 5th 2012<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">It is not often that I come across sci fi from a New Zealand author, and I picked up Steve Wheeler\u2019s debut novel, <em>Burnt Ice<\/em> with great anticipation.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The story is set at some undefined time in the future when humans have spread throughout the near reaches of space.\u00a0 Advances in all aspects of science from bioengineering to nanotechnology mean that people are virtually immortal, able to regenerate limbs or entire bodies, to choose a range of physical and physiological augmentations or even upload themselves to electronic entities ranging from augmented intelligences (AIs) to starships that explore the furthest reaches of the stars.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Some things have changed very little however. Three organizations control and regulate human space (political and military control is exerted by the Administration, the Gjomvik Corporation represents the interests business and trade, and a media conglomerate known as The Games Board arranges \u2018sanctioned conflicts\u2019 for the entertainment of the masses), and the first intelligent non-human species encountered is immediately bombed out of existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">When a vast library compiled by the newly exterminated aliens is discovered on a distant moon, a team of army engineers is despatched to investigate.\u00a0The story focuses on the members of the team and their adventures with both the artefact and the occasional Games-Board initiated action.\u00a0 It soon becomes apparent that this is no ordinary unit and there are larger forces controlling events, the nature of which will no doubt become apparent in future books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Burnt Ice<\/em> is a well realised and written novel with echoes from a variety of sources, from Charles Stross to the Culture novels of Ian M Banks.&nbsp; My main problem is that because every character can upload their memories before every conflict, ready to be placed in a new body if necessary, or synthesise almost any component of their spaceship or weaponry as needed, there is no sense that they are ever really in peril.&nbsp; It is tantalising to see where Wheeler takes the wider story, and I will probably give the next in the series a try, but his debut left me a little disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/entertainment\/books\/nz-sci-fi-novel-little-disappointing\">https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/entertainment\/books\/nz-sci-fi-novel-little-disappointing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Wheeler<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOtago Daily Times review May 5th 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[153,370,18,407,157],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-153","tag-fiction","tag-odt","tag-speculative-sci-fi","tag-steve-wheeler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}