Vigilant by James Alan Gardner

Twenty-seven years ago a plague swept the planet Demoth. It struck the gentle Oolom race, and had a 100% fatality rate. Humanity stood helplessly by, caring for the dying Ooloms and trying to find a cure. When a solution was found, only a small portion of the Ooloms were left. It was a traumatic experience for both the humans and the remaining Ooloms.

Faye Smallwood is the daughter of the man who found the cure, and died shortly afterward in a freak accident. She spent years struggling with her own demons, making many mistakes along the way. When she finally got herself straightened out she decided to join the Vigil, the organization which tries very hard to fight government corruption and stupidity. She goes through seven years of training and gets implants in her brain to give her better access to data. And then she goes on her first investigation, and is nearly killed.

Her new supervisor, Tic, is a very old and eccentric Monitor, and he is determined to find out what happened. He points Faye in the right direction, then sets her loose. It turns out that everything is much more complicated that it initially appeared, and the fate of humanity is at stake.

I enjoyed this book. I was a little uneasy at first with Faye, because she a highly unstable, risk-taking head case. But she stabilizes as the book continues, and I very much enjoyed her interaction with Tic. It is a mystery/adventure novel with a science fiction setting, and I'm a sucker for a good mystery in my SF novels. I like it when the characters are trying to figure out what the hell is going on. In many ways it reminded me of Gardner's novel Trapped, which I reviewed here earlier this year. I see, however, that this book came out first, so I suppose it would be more accurate to say that he visits some of the same themes in that book.

The Ooloms are a very likable race, and I was struck, at least early on, by how benevolent the planet seems to be. There aren't really many dangerous or poisonous critters--even the bugs don't like the taste of human flesh. It seems a fairly pleasant and safe planet, sparsely populated and widely forested. I appreciated the fact that the geology and climate vary from place to place (as they should), and that he describes winter realistically. Gardner is a Canadian, and he obviously understands winter, unlike some writers.

I was a little bit put off by the presence of Festina Ramos, superwoman offworlder who just happens to be passing by to help out. Festina was the hero of another of his books, Expendable, and he's obviously still interested in the character. I could have done without her. But, overall, I thought it was a good read.

Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse is a typical Rankin novel: slight, random, only faintly humorous. I finished this book two days ago, and I'm already having trouble remembering it. That's probably all I need to say, but my reviews are never that brief, so here goes: Jack is a young man seeking his fortune in the city. When he arrives, he is startled to discover that it's a toy city (that is: most of the peopole are toys). He had previously believed such things to be impossible. He soon teams up with Eddie Bear as a private investigator, and his first case is the murder of Humpty Dumpty. (Last summer Jasper Fforde came out with a book about Jack Spratt, who is a detective trying to solve the murder of Humpty Dumpty. Sound familiar? I thought so. Rankin's book came out about 3 years ago, so I know who got inspiration from whom) Humpty has been killed through an ingenious booby trap, and the only clue left at the scene is a hollow chocolate bunny.

Immediately after they leave Humpty's, they proceed on to the murder scene of Little Boy Blue. Someone is killing the characters from the nursery rhymes, and Jack and Eddie are determined to find out why. They are also searching for Eddie's former partner, Bill (Wee Willy) Winkie, who is missing. I think it would not be unfair to say that the whole plot is utterly stupid. I wouldn't mind if it were funny or entertaining, but it isn't, really. It's probably better than Fforde's book, which I found unreadable, but it's not very good.