Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

[Let me give a brief preface in case such is required. I know there are those among my friends who strongly dislike this author because of his opinions on matters unrelated to literature. For an answer to that, please read John Scalzi's post (language warning), because he states the facts very clearly - essentially, somebody's views do not preclude them from writing well, and it is possible to divorce the art from the artist.]

I read Ender's Game last year and very much enjoyed the buildup of tensions and the bombshell ending. So I am excited about the movie and want to see it sometime soon. Discovering the existence of Ender's Shadow, a parallel novel, I wanted to read it to get me in the mood. Besides, I love parallelity.

It's the same story, but from another viewpoint: that of Bean, a very small child who is very, very clever. Impossibly so - seeing right through most situations and strategies immediately. So clever that he figures most things out in advance with hardly an effort. Yet his size is a disadvantage when his brains bring him superiority over boys much bigger than him. The smart ones learn to respect his skills.

Remember that bombshell ending in Ender's Game? It's no surprise to Bean. He knew what was happening all along.

Anyway, the movie effects look great - time to check it out soon, I think.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Asked to describe this story, my one-word reaction is “disturbing”. I suppose dystopia always is, but the sense of foreboding and captivity here is so oppressive that it overpowers everything else.

I was very annoyed with the author because she basically doesn’t tell us anything at all. I’ve heard that too much backstory is bad, of course, but none at all really made me mad. There is simply this highly regimented life where everything is controlled: from the clothes you must wear for your status in society, to the tasks assigned to that status, and especially everything surrounding the act of breeding, which one gathers has become rare and sacrosanct, but without being told the hows or whys.

At the same time there are hints of flashbacks that begin very vague and become progressively more specific as the book goes on. This is all a reader has to go on to figure out what has happened in apparently just a few years to shift the normal-sounding society, in the flashbacks, into the horrible yet whitewashed existence of the story’s present day.

It’s all very surreal. The tale of one woman only, with not a clue as to the bigger picture or the inciting incident for the societal transformation. Making it even more surreal is the epilogue, a transcribed speech by a professor some hundred years later, speaking about the story itself. And this is where you find all that elusive background information that actually explains what’s going on.

Perhaps it was more creepy to leave all of that unsaid before the epilogue. It certainly creeped me out; I dreamed about the story twice in the days after reading it. I admire an author being able to do that, even though I can’t say I enjoyed the reading of it very much. I can see why this won a Hugo – such a completely haunting story is rare.

Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey

Right, so I liked what I saw when I dipped into the world of Pern a couple of times previously. So I wanted to go to the beginning of the story and find out how it all began. Now I realise this is not the book she wrote first, it came much later, and some readers caution against beginning here. Ah well. It certainly makes a great introduction.

It begins aboard a spaceship in its final weeks of travel to a new home. There are plenty of personal threads and wider political issues as the cram-packed ship prepares to land. Chronicles follow of the first years of settling in, of new discoveries and homemaking on a brand new planet.

Then comes a threat from space: a deadly dangerous bacterial life form that destroys everything organic it falls on. Witness the battle as the people fight for their settlements and find ways to stay safe – including the daring genetic engineering of a local lizard into what we know as dragons.

Many of the cultural practices seen in later books are shown here at their birth. Names of first colonists become names of settlements. I loved following the journey of Irish Sean and Sorka in particular, from their childhood to becoming the first Dragonriders.

Great read. I’ll be returning to Pern again soon.

Reading - Just After Sunset by Stephen King

I think this is as good a place as any to begin a foray into King's work. Many of these tales are nail-biters, making me skim so fast (to find out what happens) that I barely recall anything about the language use or the writing itself. Others are less so, just creepingly creepy, and there's even a couple in there I would call sweet.

King explores his own fears and in doing so, banishes them from his mind and possibly into his readers'. He never shies away from the gritty side of life, whether it be someone's ignominious sexual memories, the texture of decomposing excrement, or the obscenities and prayers that factually would occur in such situations.

He does have a particular gift for depicting what goes through people's minds when they think they are about to die. It's a very human thing.

Although these are horror and thriller stories, many with a paranormal element, there is a thread of triumph running through the collection. The protagonist doesn't always get through unscathed, but there are plenty of positive outcomes - and plenty of ambiguous ones as well, where things have changed forever and the character now faces a different future that may not have been wished for.

Of this bunch, my favourites were Stationary Bike and The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates. And it has a cool cover. While it was on my couch, two different people wanted to know if it was printed in 3D - but no, that's all in the ordinary 2D effect.

More Book Loot

These are the books I've picked up secondhand in the past few weeks. All were just a couple of bucks except for the Star Wars one, and that's okay, because that's one I've wanted a copy of for a while. I borrowed it from the library in Balbriggan the first time I read it.

Of these, the Handmaid's Tale and Neuromancer come from the Hugo winners' list. McCaffrey of course was a winner with other titles, and I am getting to like her work a lot so I was pleased to find this one. The Time Traveller's Wife and the Whale Rider could possibly be seen as part of my genre in the widest sense; and the Austen, McCall and Binchy are just plain delightful and very good for my language development.

Reading: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

I did not think I had read this book. Imagine my surprise, then, when I went onto Goodreads to find this cover image, and it appeared with a big green tick. I think this must have been in Balbriggan, where I raided the science fiction shelves all the months of my stay.

Anyway, it did not seem familiar as I read it. Of course I've seen the movie by the same name, but that is completely unrelated to the stories in this book.

These are linked stories, various narratives from one woman's lifetime as she worked with robots from her youth to old age. So they span a goodly number of years in order to show the development of robot capabilities, and the settings vary from laboratories to family homes to space stations and other planets.

This, then, was a spark that ignited the imaginations of many as regards robots. Really, it just seems like the very tip of the iceberg, a bare touch of the subject matter. Asimov went into much greater depth in many other robot books to follow, I see.

Reading: More McCaffrey

This book includes two novellas: Nerilka's Story and The Coelura. It's a small book and that was what I needed last night as the gale raged around my attic. My second McCaffrey, and I think I'm going to like her quite a lot.

The first tale is supposed to be backstory to another Pern novel, which I haven't read - but no harm in that. It has a very useful introduction that explains everything about Pern's history and illuminates why this is science fiction and not fantasy.

The second is very different, and very clearly SF. I assumed it to be part of the wider history of the star system in which Pern is located; this does seem to be the case, though some reviewers say it's not. Sentient clothes? What an imagination.

Reading: Friday, by Robert Heinlein

Okay. This one was a wild ride. It pretty much starts out with a horrendous torture scene which the victim seems none too concerned about. Then it changes location, seemingly several times within the first half hour of reading. Space. The Midwest. New Zealand. Canada. And on it goes, a merry chase around North America in search of...what?

Friday Jones is an artificial person and has never felt quite human. This is used to explain her resilience in the face of torture, and also her propensity for leaping into bed with everything that moves. I don't think she quite believes that herself, even though she appears to view sex as a sort of sport.

So it's a search for identity, which she does eventually find. Her route to peace is brazen and twisted, full of betrayals and losses and then compensated by a number of incredible coincidences that come together at the end to give her everything she ever wanted.

I did not like the victim mentality and the perceived cheapness in which she held herself, reinforced by the fact that she ended up marrying one of the dudes who tortured her in that early scene. I mean, really?

What I did like was the speed of global travel. Anywhere on the planet by semi-ballistic rocket in 45 minutes? Yes please! As usual, Heinlein has crammed the setting with every possible futuristic invention.

I got through it sure enough, but every time she met someone new and bedded them it was like "here we go again..." Still, I can see why people like it.

Reading: The Masterharper of Pern

This is my first time reading Anne McCaffrey, and I guess it's about what I expected. Epic fantasy isn't necessarily my first choice for leisure reading - and the ones I publish have to be truly outstandingly exceptional - still, she kept my interest to the end. In some ways it is an extended coming-of-age tale, from Robinton's birth to the prime of his authority.

Doused in music from the first page to the last, there are many other threads too. My musical learning is long past, but the way it's described here, the making of it, the building of instruments, the training of voices and hands, it almost makes me feel like I've done it in just that way.

Of course Pern is a gigantic storyworld and any one book can only skim the surface, or so it seems after my first go. This is certainly an accessible entry point, following the life of one man, his loves and tragedies, and his particular ability to hear dragonspeech.

I must interrupt myself to express surprise at the fact that the second book in this series, Dragonquest, although famous in its own right and extant since 1971, was shamelessly copied in title by a Christian YA book released in 2005. Not sure what that publisher thought they were doing - maybe they believed it would help sales? Or, more likely, that their target market had never heard - would never hear of the first Dragonquest. That's probable enough, sad though it is. Or even...did they not know of the other? In any case, I find it just a bit cheeky.

Anyway, back to this book - I found it worth reading for the sustained story threads that run throughout, for the deft depiction of humanity, and for some gems of words such as "bruited" and concepts of dragon bonding at hatching, and so on. Decent read.

Reading Challenge #1 - Embassytown by China Mieville

Well, I got through it. It was a bit of a hard slog, but I persisted because of the linguistic and existential nature of the story. The concept is so high-flying that it is largely opaque to begin with and for me, not a whole lot better at the end. The author uses a lot of invented words, or repurposed, so that until I got used to it, it was like reading a foreign language, which I suppose is one intended effect.

The alien Hosts on the planet Arieke have a language that cannot be spoken; they also are unable to learn other languages. It has to do with the essence of the world and of words that cannot be separated from reality, hence there is no lying in that society. Cloned doppelgangers eventually enable communication, but then comes a new pair whose speech is like a drug for the locals, and chaos breaks out.

Did I enjoy it? In places, yes, the sheer randomness of the words flung together and the strangeness of the situation. Here is a pretty passage spoken by the alien Host nicknamed Spanish Dancer after he has learned to speak metaphor:

"Before the humans came we didn't speak. We've been like countless things, we've been like all things, we've been like the animals over Embassytown in the direction of which I raise my giftwing, which is a speaking you'll come to understand. We didn't speak, we were mute, we only dropped the stones we carried in our mouths and had the birds we described fly out, we were vectors, we were the birds eating in mindlessness, we were the girl in darkness, only knowing it when we weren't anymore."

Home Again - Library Swag

The weary traveller returns home. I am particularly glad to do so this time - it's been a rough week. Suffice it to say that a bout of food poisoning along with sunburn and a couple dozen mozzie bites are still making themselves felt. Of course I will post soon about Rarotonga, too. Very interesting place.

Yesterday I got out to the library and picked up the above collection. I had intended to look for stuff from the Top 100 list, but nothing was to be had in my local branch. I placed a number of requests so they will be brought in from elsewhere in the city by next month or thereabouts. In the meantime, I did find these items by the same authors. I do like Larry Niven, have read a few by Heinlein before and a bit of Stephen King, but Anne McCaffrey and China Mieville are new to me. No, the Doctor Who book isn't a classic, I just happened upon it by accident and, well, you know...

A bit sad that they had nothing by Clarke or Bradbury at all. Well, with 55 libraries connected to the city's circulatory system, I suppose the chances are pretty high that the handful of copies will be elsewhere at any given moment. These here will do me until the requests start coming in, anyway. I'll be posting wee comments here as I get through them - I've started with Embassytown.

The Science Fiction Reading Challenge

I write science fiction. Everyone who knows me knows that. It’s also very true that in order to write well, one must also read well. So I’m always really interested when I come across those “Top 100” lists around the web. Some of them seem a bit dodgy, like when they name a book at one position and then its entire series at another. But there are other lists. Some voted by tens of thousands of readers. Some listing the Hugo Award winners since itsinception. I think I should pay attention to those lists. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve only read about 20% of both the Hugo list and the Top 100 SF.  So I’m going to do something about that, and I’ll take you along for the ride if you stick around. I want to take note of my impressions, the things I notice as a writer, the things I can learn from them—and who knows, maybe I’ll come across common concept types, themes and qualities. Crack the Hugo Code. Yeah, sounds good.