Justin Leiber (1938–2016)

The initial premise of “Beyond Rejection” by Justin Leiber is pretty good. But then, maybe the use of the wrong homophone in the front cover, below-the-title blurb should’ve been a hint that no one put their A game into this novel.

I like the idea of the team of eccentrics who work at restoring or “implanting” a person’s “backup tape” into a fresh body after they die. There were good characters there. It’s a difficult, delicate job, and only people who are a bit weird have the knack for getting it right.

And the idea that in this case, the person being restored is being restored into a body that is far from a match of the original one they were born and raised in, so they really have to come to terms with the change if they’re going to go “beyond rejection” and live.

There’s some good material there.

Most of the second half of the novel, after the operation is done, turns into more of a clumsy, juvenile attempt at James Bond, with the main character and a side kick going on an adventurous investigation. Nothing about this was even remotely believable, and the silly puns on “Moby Dick” just made me groan some more.

The final twist at the end, goes some way towards redeeming the awfully poor adventure portion of the book.

Overall, it was a decent read for a few hours. Leiber could’ve done a better job of the second portion to keep it interesting, and still kept the ending twist.… (mer)

I wavered between giving this three and four stars. Once again, GoodReads' five-star system proves much too limiting. In a fractional scale, this would be a 3.5 at least.

It's really quite a likable book, in no small part because it takes some of the standard tropes of fantasy and fiction in general - going all the way back to The Count of Monte Cristo and, of course, Shakespeare - yet managed to surprise and move me at some points. I value that; when you've read as many books as I have, genuine surprises are rare, and to be cherished.

The language is a bit archaic and Vancian (i.e. reminiscent of Jack Vance, which is to say rather formal and old-fashioned). There are moments when the humor reminds me of Vance too - but nowhere near as chaotic and confusing as Vance can sometimes be.

It's an old story; the hero, cast down from his noble station, finds himself fated to set things right. The characters are the usual fantasy types, albeit with more depth than is usual. In fact, that's where Leiber surprised me; I was more than half-expecting the usual "this ends here" final encounter between the hero and villain, and instead was surprised by...well, I won't spoil it for you.

I'll note that Justin Leiber is the son of the famous Golden Age science fiction writer Fritz Leiber. He's a rare example of literary talent running true in a family (unlike the supremely untalented Brian Herbert, who, I must note, should have had his hands chopped off before he was ever allowed near a keyboard). Leiber (fils has also demonstrated an impressive range of ability, having also written some very good science fiction in a very different "voice". The Sword and the Eye is the next-to-last fiction book he published (so far); there's apparently a sequel (the cover calls it "Book One of the Saga of Eigin"), but that sequel was published in 1986, and there's been nothing more from Leiber since. That's a pity, because writers of his caliber are far too rare in the science fiction and fantasy genres these days!… (mer)

This work is thought experiment. It was assigned reading many years ago for a Science Fiction course I took, but managed to only really skim through it at the time. I'm a terribly slow reader, and as an English Major, History Minor, my reading load was such that I often had to choose to skim works, or skip some readings altogether. (Some day, I'll actually sit and read Hamlet.) It's a very short work, written in the early-mid 1980's. It's a dialogue, a court proceeding where a UN group is trying to determine the fate of the continued existence of two entities. A computer system known as AL (Model Turing 346). Heh. Al Turing. Get it? Yeah, you probably got, but just in case you don't Alan Turing, and his thought experiments (and counter proofs, etc) are all brought up throughout the course of the dialogue. That really shouldn't be surprising when talking about "thinking machines." The famous "Turing Test" is used, as well as the "Chinese Box" and one I was somewhat less familiar with, the "Cast of Millions." Also discussed were Thomas Paine, Mary Shelley, and her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. It presents some interesting arguments. Looking back on it, some thirty years later, you can see how the questions asked within, are ones that humanity has still not answered. Interesting from a science fictional point of view, in regards to what makes something a person. Though by design, no real conclusion is reached, and presumably, you are expected to go forth and make your own conclusions from the arguments presented.… (mer)