Anne and I went to bed about 3am as I was nursing a toothache on the lower left side of my mouth. It was uncomfortable to say the least. However I still had time to pamper my wife and that ended in argument. She didn’t know I had a toothache. I ignored it and tried to let the sleeping pill I took let it do it’s job. I woke up with no pain around noon and I fixed a coffee and still feel no pain. Anne’s still sleeping away.

I finally finished “Undertow” by Elizabeth Bear. This was my first EB book I’ve read from her. So here’s a bit of a review:

The skinny: “Undertow” the tide is turning is about various people caught up in an unfolding drama and competition between two factions: The Core and the Rim. The Core is of course (from what I gather) is the center of the Galaxy. The Rim is an offshoot portion of a Galactic arm that includes Earth but this story doesn’t take place on Earth. It takes place on a mostly water planet called “Green’s world.” A company called “Charter Trade Company” is mining a rare mineral. This story has an assassin, a floating city, a bayou and Ranids. This is a hard SF novel and moves along at a pretty good pace.

Pros: Very detailed world building that captures a sense of place and setting with believable characters.

Cons: The use of the Ranids kind of slowed things down for me, otherwise not many.

Bottom line: I enjoyed this book. Elizabeth Bear is a master story teller that draws the reader in through her wonderful gift of detailed prose and breath of characters. This is one of the fastest novels of its size I have ever read because it was so interesting. It took me 13 days to read it. I’d categorize this novel as hard science fiction and she handles the subject matter very well. I’m giving Undertow this rating because even though I enjoyed the book immensely, it deserves a place in my top 100 books of all time. Whenever I get around to it

8 e.Jim’s out of /10.

Now it’s onto Peter F. Hamilton’s “Pandora’s Star.”

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.

e. Jim