Vortex Travelers: Sovereigns and Unwed Sailors by J.L. Holtz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Vortex Travelers: Sovereigns and Unwed Sailors by J.L. Holtz
This is definitely one of those novels that will fall in the love/hate category. I can see a quick division delineating those who forge on to finish the novel and those who fall quickly away from it. The stars could easily be well balance on this one and to that end I chose to place my two cents in the center as the fulcrum to the see-saw of reviews to follow. There are many things I love about this: one being the whole concept behind the plot; another is the sassy main character; and then there is the very fact I had to work to come to love it, which included having to finish it. There are some drawbacks and those tend to be the niggling bits that stand in the way toward possibly having someone throw the whole book down.(Which in this case is self defeating because it damages the kindle.)
The author is up front,
In her early explanations,
That her novel is written with a certain artistic flare: which makes it like a graphic novel; or a movie; or a piece of music. And it might well be that it often looks poetic, though there are certain elements rather lacking in the whole. Though if you look at what I did with this paragraph, you might have a small window into what to expect from what's inside this novel.
Add to that the interesting fact there are somewhere beyond six hundred colons used within and they outnumber the semi-colons but are dwarfed by the hyphens and dashes that are spread throughout. So with that in mind I think that it becomes clear, at least to me, why there might be some people putting this down after a sampling of pages proves that this condition is going to exist throughout. I wouldn't be surprised if some might suggest that this work needed a colon dash hyphen-ectomy.
But if you can get past that and the numerous grammatical problems, some of which one could wonder if they were errors or deliberate, then once settling down to where you know what to expect you have a better chance for enjoying the whole. The next hurdle for me was to sort out what was happening because of the next style choice, which seemed to me to be stream of consciousness writing. And this is not just from one character but primarily from two characters.
The story is part stream and part standard first person narration and the stream of consciousness is mostly present tense though there were some itchy moments in that that felt otherwise; and at first I had thought that the whole was going to be stream with present tense and standard first person narration in past tense; yet the whole thing started crossing boundaries (sometimes with good reason; other times not so much). Still as a whole this assessment might only be from out of my own perception; and I'd suggest when you read it you make your own judgment while possibly being ready for it; and then try to tough it out because the whole piece makes for an interesting literary attempt that poses as Science Fiction.
I do think that, with the right amount of editing, this could become good literary fiction. The problem with that might be that it would drive some editors mad until they began to find the pattern in the prose. For me though, this caused my reading comprehension to become very difficult and I was forced to slow my pace which always made the perceived errors stick out a bit more. But I forged on through and found that once I ignored the majority of the punctuation and the few other oddities I was able to focus on the story itself and though the science mixed with myth within the streams of conscious flowing off the page was often daunting: it often add; more than detracted from the story.
And though the story seems to be one of a teen named Lulu Wu and her struggle to focus while strange things start occurring around her and then moves into a potential for a love story with time travel and dimensional shifting. The real plot seems to be one more of the Universe trying to figure itself out. A universe formed from a big bang, which occurred when a godlike being was killed. And now the present universe faces destruction by a similar means which won't wait for this universe to find itself.
My stars on this one are meaningless-because I really loved most of the novel. But I think that the reader should be warned that it's not the usual novel and anyone wanting to read it should read the sample before purchasing it. I did that and still picked it up and there were moments I felt like putting the whole thing down. In the final analysis I'm glad I didn't.
And though some of the errors I found might be a part of the artsy-ness of the whole, I think there are a justified number of problems evident that this could use at least one good edit to pull it up and into the class of literary fiction where it belongs. There’s a lot of promise here in the future of this author.
I recommend this to all SFF fans (with caveats) and anyone who likes to delve in the literary end of the genre. A challenging read.
J.L. Dobias
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Navel Oranges, Granny Smith and other Genre Beasts
I recently was in a conversation about genre because a book, I had reviewed, was criticized for having claimed to be hard science fiction: although it clearly wasn't. That latter is not my statement although I would agree that there are elements that would cause me to think it leans away from most people's view of what hard science fiction is.
The problem came when someone tried to compare the ease of identifying hard science fiction with how someone might identify a sonnet, which struck me as a somewhat inaccurate comparison as it seemed to be comparing apples to oranges. The reason I say this is that a sonnet might better be compared to perhaps determining if something is a novel or novella or short story; because it's a matter of specifics that must occur to be named such, with some small wiggle room for style as perhaps regarding the scheme of the rhyme in a sonnet, of which it is interesting to note when translating from Italian to English becomes an effort in futility to retain the rhyme scheme.
Whereas: Genre are a bit slipperier than all of that in that there really is yet no industry standard. This means that even within the industry there are differences of opinion as to what constitutes a specific genre and even all the way to identifying the elements of style and content. I would guess that the only real need for specific guidelines beyond this would come to those organizations giving out prestigious awards to authors: they certainly should define the scope as well as possible: to make the judge's job easier. The problem comes when those in contact with such organizations try to turn back upon the system and impose those ideals into a system that has not yet shown a desire to standardized itself.
The lack of standardization means that the publishers definitions might not be the same as the book sellers or librarians. And that from country to country there may be some wide differences. This is likely the source of the fuel to the fire of controversy over what should be hard science fiction. Going into a bookstore I would usually find all of science fiction under the heading of science fiction and sometimes included under the heading of science fiction fantasy which mean that all the sub-genre are mixed willy nilly and the reader has to sort through to discern which is what.
In the discussion mentioned above one complaint was that a self publisher should regulate themselves to be able to discern that they are not hard science fiction thus not proclaiming such and yet in the same breath this person suggested this responsibility to discern might easily be overlooked or not apply to a traditional publisher, which was so many ways wrong and backwards.
The next suggestion I was given was that Hard science fiction would be fiction that limits itself to the law of physics. To this I would have to have added :as we know it, if I were to agree. I don't agree because that is too narrow and again that is why we have the controversy. One problem even with physics is such things as the controversy of quantum entanglement as regards to the possibility of violating the speed of light limitations. The suggestion here is that we lack some understanding of physics to fully explain some observable phenomenon- where do we put such things in our view of hard science fiction, if we dare extrapolate?
If what we have today were actually the sum of all knowledge what physics has to offer I would guess that we'd live in a much different world.
But hard science fiction is not just physics its technology and economy and politics which in some way seems to fly in the face of reason because of the want to put those three into something called soft science fiction.
We have made it to the moon, a fact: unless you subscribe to a fringe element. We haven't gone back recently because of economic factors regarding the cost of current technology to get us there and the political and economic barriers of obtaining the funds: problems which are now being remedied by private concerns finally taking a step into the arena. So, even if a person were to take only what we have now and were to write about a universe where we were in constant motion between here and the moon there would have to be plausible explanations of all the factors to get us there or it would likely fail the test of some definitions of hard science fiction.
Let's consider the work of Arthur C. Clarke whom I always thought of as a hard science fiction writer if any would be. Yet when we look closely at 2001 Space Odyssey we see elements of the monolith and the race that made them and the ending of the book and we see some departure from what many claim hard science fiction must be. Not withstanding the disappointment; that we have a far reach yet to obtain the level of intelligence in AI's that HAL possessed.
Even other favorites such as Issac Asimov and his Foundation series do not fully qualify to some high standards of hard science fiction and it grieves me so.
I recently read a novel that might have taken a lot of its science elements and acronyms right from such accounts as Apollo 13's fateful voyage. The author added some inexplicable parallel universe device creating a novel to which we could always say is of a new genre to avoid the controversy of hard science fiction: since all we do need is a few more sub-genre to place on the steaming heap.
The bottom line seems to be that genre are meant as a means of creating a listing to assist the readers in locating the type of books that they enjoy. Unless or until they standardize, the practice will at best have limited success, but it should serve the purpose it was intended for , which is to get the book placed before the most likely readers of that type of book, or you would expect the industry leaders would have already moved to standardize.
If a writer intends to win an award, though, he may want to begin to consider obsessing about reaching those somewhat elusive standards for hard science fiction. This will likely lead to a lot of sweating of bullets and probably hinder the creative process and I would wish them a lot of luck.
Hard Science Fiction is at best a slippery beast that often gets relegated below Science Fiction which usually contains all of the myriad SF sub-genre if the venue allows. Sometimes I have found SF under Speculative Fiction and sometimes it has its own slot. Sometimes it is mixed not just with fantasy but paranormal, horror, and even suspense thrillers. It all depends on the shelf space and rightly so since the retail usage of genre is meant to exist as a marketing tool.
Perhaps on the day that I discover all those navel oranges in with my Granny Smiths and count them all as one in the same, I will say ah ha and I will have learned what hard science fiction really is.
J.L. Dobias
As a matter of interest I've included these links on the subject. This is not an endorsement, agreement, or refutation: Just a random selection of sources.
Genre Fiction Rules
Genre categories agent query
Genre categories cuebon.com
Genre fiction categories WD
Library of Congress Genre Term List
Genre Category List
Dummies guide to genre lists
Big fat fiction genre lists
Hard vs Soft SF
Hard vs Soft SF@ asimovs.com
Hard sf on wiki
Genre fiction on wiki
Genre fiction vs literature
A Columbus of Space by Garrett P. Serviss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Columbus of Space by Garrett P. Serviss
This is an interesting piece that seems to have been written before Edgar Rice Burroughs and Otis Adebert Kline wrote their famous Venus series. This is a trip to Venus on a craft that can travel a tremendous speed and is powered by something that sounds possibly nuclear. Another interesting thing, since this is written after H. Rider Haggard's She, is that the main female character is described as having a presence that reminds me of Ayesha from She. And though she is not quite as dangerous as Ayesha, Edmunds fixation on Ala and the wonders of Venus might lead the expedition into danger.
Edmund has come up with a process that taps what he calls inter-atomic energy and he applies it to a special car shaped like a boiler, that he has created to take him into space. In a fit of anger at their remarks about his work he takes his friends with him without their consent. It takes about two weeks to get to Venus and there's some neat calculations behind it all though the ship itself has some potential design flaws.
Because of the peculiar rotational aspects of Venus Edmund chooses to land on the darker side where he figures there should be no one living, since it would be too cold. But they find a race of somewhat intelligent ape like hominids whom Edmund is able to communicate with through Telepathy. Because of dense atmosphere speech on the planet is amplified and though the beings do speak, they only do so on rare occasions. Learning about these creatures or people, creates some tension; but the real adventure comes when they traverse to the warmer sunny side of Venus.
On the warmer side there are more human-like hominids who also communicate through telepathy much the same as the apelike beings, though Edmund theorizes these people have tapped some other aspects of the difference in atmospheric pressure and possibly have a strange sensitivity to color and sound that is pretty interesting. Eventually he creates a device that helps them hear as the Venusian's do and they explore the wonderful strange way the Venusian's commune with nature. Here they meet the friendly, intelligent and beautiful Ala; and Ingra, Ala's jealous and dangerous fiance.
Edmund knows that they are in constant danger and they should leave soon, but he puts it off both because of his desire to explore Venus and that he enjoys teaching Ala; who seems to have an insatiable curiosity.
But there is some other portending catastrophe ahead that he ignores.
If I have any qualms about the story it's that of the other characters traveling with Edmund, only Jack and the narrator, Peter, seem to really get involved while Henry seems to mostly be going along for the ride, though every so often he votes they should go home or at least try doing some less dangerous things.
As it turns out this is another Dying World novel and this fact could get our heroes killed. But beyond that there are plenty of other dangers from the inhabitants and our heroes own miss-understanding of customs.
This is once again an interesting Classic in SFF and though the author has credentials that would support his knowledge of the science, there are still some things that might have been questionable back when he wrote this and certainly have a rough time surviving even the most rigorous of suspension of disbelief. Still for those who like to examine the roots of the craft of writing SFF, this is one more steppingstone to add to the genre.
Though I didn't quite get as much enjoyment from this as I have from Edgar Rice Burroughs and Otis Adelbert Kline. there's still enough excitement to get me straight through to the end; and now I wonder if those other authors read any of Garrett Putman Serviss's work before they ventured onto Venus.
J.L. Dobias
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The Outlaws of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If I could put Kline in a bottle.
The Outlaws of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline
Once more this is a book I read way back in my teens; and about the time that I was reading Edgar Rice Burroughs. An interesting story about these is that after Kline wrote his Venus stories, Edgar thought they were imitations of his Mars series and then Edgar wrote his own Venus series and then in retaliation Kline wrote two Mars stories. I'm not sure about that because the timeline of publication looks like Kline wrote his Mars books before Edgar wrote his Venus books. But it still makes for some lively discussion.
Where Burroughs wrote his early mars series in first person Kline chose to use a third person narrator to tell his stories. The stories back then are around 50K to 70K words so they are not long reads. The science once more is a bit dicey and even back when I read it the first time it required a bit of suspension if disbelief. And once again there is this striking love at first sight thing going. But the novel is relatively short and there just isn't the time for those long protracted slow brewing love stories. And the love is integral to these stories. This book is the second of the authors Mars series.
Jerry Morgan is at a crossroad in his life and is out to visit his uncle, Richard Morgan. Back then there were no cell phones and even landlines could be rare so Jerry expects that his visit will be a surprise. What he's not planning on is that he's the one that will be surprised. It doesn't appear that his uncle lives in the house he arrives at. When his uncle finally does arrive it seems as though he doesn't need cell phones because he might be telepathic. This is not too surprising when we later find that the ship that will take Jerry to Mars is powered be telekinetic power. Not only that but somehow it will take Jerry to a Mars of the past.
Jerry doesn't take much convincing, perhaps uncle Richard is taking advantage of his vulnerable condition, and within a short time they are preparing to send Jerry on an expedition to a far away place and time. It's all quite well planed out and the voyage doesn't seem to take much time, but there's a wrinkle when Jerry arrives and the expected person who will meet him is not there.
Jerry manages to stumble into a garden. Gardens are grown on rooftops of palace buildings. He meets the pretty young Martian woman and saves her from the jaws of a vicious beast. When he's taken prisoner for having murdered the Princess Junia's pet that begins the series of blunders he'll manage before his appointed tutor can teach him the language and customs. He takes well to the language, but customs are going to take some getting used to.
When someone tries to poison Jerry, he begins to believe it is Junia's cousin Thoor Novil who has displayed a dislike of him. Thoor's sister Nisha has a different yet still unhealthy interest in Jerry, who by now has fallen deeply in love with Junia and can’t be tempted. And when it is believed that Junia's hot headed brother has been murdered, Jerry becomes a prime suspect. Though Jerry knows who the real killer is he also knows that the knowledge could cause war between the Martians and chooses to keep it to himself. To save himself and keep the secret, he has to go on the run, where he will be taken by the outlaws of Mars and begin the rough road to self preservation and redemption in order to win the heart of Junia, who now believes Jerry killed her brother.
And once again the main plot seems to be that the hero, Jerry, will do anything to win the heart of the woman he's fallen in love with. And though the story could almost be called the Lawrence of Arabia of Mars; this element of a romance between people of diverse cultures driving the story changes the character inner motives enough to make that analogy very thin to nonexistent.
Though I admit I have not revisited this novel as much as all the Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars novels there are some elements of the story that have stuck with me enough that I always have fond memories of the story and when I do reread it I find it just as enjoyable as it was back in the Sixties.
While John Carter of Mars seems often to be a larger than life character, Jerry Morgan seems easier to identify with though if we broke them down further we'd probably see that the two are very much the same based on the final analysis about their motives within the stories.
This is one more of the great Classic SFF with that small window through which we can examine some of the strange cultural notions that were prevalent in the early nineteen hundreds into the first quarter of that century.
Though this time I read this in e-book form I once again recommend those sensitive to grammar and spelling problems should stick to the older hard copies. The e-books seem to be derived from an ocr version that has flaws and any latter attempts to clean erroneous scan problems were ineffective.
Recommended for those SFF fans interested in getting a glimpse of where some of it all started.
J.L. Dobias
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Shockball by S.L. Viehl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Shockball(A Stardoc Novel)by S.L. Viehl
Shockball is the forth in the series and has the most reveals for the ongoing threads. There still seem to be some loose threads and I haven't gotten far enough through the series to say yes or no to the rest being solved. This novel deals with Cherijo's dysfunctional family and probably the reason she has such a strange way of handling her relationships.
In this one; while trying to stay away from her father Duncan and Cherijo end up using the ship that was gifted to them by her father and it, of course, turns out to be a trap. But this is not before Cherijo apparently loses their baby because her body's strange chemistry rejects it. She's made a decision as regards the future of children and tries, throughout the whole book, to keep it a secret from Duncan.
Duncan and Cherijo are brought to Earth where her father tells her his insidious and somewhat creepy incestous plan. Duncan's future is being used as an inducement. But there is a secret underworld (like way underground) movement that breaks into her father's lab and generously help Cherijo and Duncan escape. It comes at a price when they are trapped below the ground and Cherijo becomes doctor to a bunch of hybrid Shockball players; while Duncan is enlisted on the team and continues as the inducement for Cherijo to stay there as a prisoner doing what the leader of these people wants.
Cherijo finds out that there were more children in her family; though most of them were destroyed by her father, as failures. There might be one still alive.
Each of these novels has come out in a similar format. They are all approximately 150k words and almost four hundred pages. I would almost guess that the others in the series might come out the same because it's beginning to look like some sort of pattern.
This novel is a great place to read to get most of the answers to all the burning questions and even a bit more information than one might want, about some few other things. A lot gets resolved and finally leaves the main characters in a better place. Even if there are still some warm questions hanging in the wings.
SSF for fans of the Sci-Fi type and those that like Romance and perhaps a bit twisted family stories.
I'm taking a slight break from them for now; though I do have Blade Dancer, which takes place in the same universe. These are excellent books for someone with a voracious appetite for reading SFF.
J.L. Dobias
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A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
I recall this book as being one of the most read books on my shelf, when I was a teen. Since then I’ve gotten it out every few years to further enjoy it. I've never really sat down to try to understand what it was that I like so much about the book ,or for that matter the whole series of books; so here I am again reading it just to see if I can uncover its secret and ultimately to enjoy it once more.
I have to say that reading Edgar Rice Burroughs is simply something I do for the pleasure of the read. The writing is simple and engaging and the main characters are always the chivalrous gentlemen and though there are some elements of the female characters that display strength; they generally are treated as secondary characters that must be protected by the main character.
These novels are written in that style of writing from way back when there had to be some new peril waiting for the hero: just around the corner. And truthfully that hasn't changed much. Told from an engaging first person point of view A Princess of Mars tells the story of a Virginian gentleman who, after serving in wartime, has tried to make his fortune looking for gold. This story takes place back in the old west in a time when there are still savages about; and when some of those overtake his partner, he comes too late to the rescue but has to do the honorable thing and retrieve his friends body and this leads to his discovery of a cave that contains some mystery.
It's this mystery that transfers him from Earth to Mars where there are fighting men, men of honor, mad men and all types of beasts but most of all there is the one woman in the universe that John Carter might fall in love with; almost at first sight.
The story starts with a prologue that might not work well in today’s market,; though I only say that because you don't see them like this these days. It does serve its purpose even if it starts a bit slow; in that it builds up a sense of mystery about this man John or Jack Carter. He’s a solitary brooding sort. A man: who, in some time past, was known to enjoy the playful company of children and had a playful spirit of his own.
And so one has to wonder at the story of what has changed him so.
The meat of the story is an engaging tale that John tells of his adventures in prospecting that led to his greatest adventure of all and to a place that would forever be stamped upon his heart as his home. John is constantly trying to paint himself as a normal man; yet throughout even the episode of the capture and death of his partner in mining, the reader gets the building impression of a man who doesn't turn from danger when there are other obligations. Regardless of his own admission to usually have the common sense to avoid danger when there is nothing at stake; we always see him as a man of action and honor. These are two things that he will need for his future.
In a way the world of Mars or Barsoom was made for a man like him. He arrives amongst the Tharks and though he is clearly not a red man of mars he otherwise looks like them and the Tharks take him prisoner. In the odd culture they have, though he's a prisoner, his ability to act is not so limited and this will be to his benefit later when the red Barsoomian Princess Dejah Thoris is taken prisoner and he comes to her defense without thought about consequences. But all of this is part of the world building as we will see since John must move up in rank while a prisoner of the Tharks, so that he may earn the respect of Sola, his keeper, and the cheiftain Tars Tarkas, one of the Tharks who captured him. Ultimately these twoTharks are destined to be his friends.
One qualm I might have with the story is the love at first sight between John and Dejah. Well maybe when I was a teen I might have accepted this as a given. But it moves the story along because the primary goal for John is to keep his beloved safe from all the peril around them. The love story does not go without several hitches, often caused by a lack of understanding of customs among the Martian peoples. But even as he blunders through those, John continues to make friends of even some who might be enemies of his friends and this is important to the story because he will use all of this to bring those close to him together in a diplomatic way that might never have occurred without his presence.
At every turn there is more peril and more to push a distance between him and the one he loves while sending him on further adventures that will ultimately lead to his final settlement of everything. Throughout all of this, despite what he does achieve, he makes it clear that his goal has been somewhat selfish, in that it is all designed to break down all barriers that might keep him and Dejah Thoris apart.
Yet in a certain form of creative irony the story moves forward best when Edgar Rice Burroughs thinks of the worst perils and stumbling blocks to place in Johns way, as he goes through the story, and though there are the quiet periods those are always punctuated by bursts of the fervent activity of fighting an uphill battle just to be together. And that is what happens for the first several novels in this series. One comes to feel great empathy for these two lovers and their plight to have a life together.
Overall this still is mostly a novel I read for the entertainment and that is helpful since the science has never been quite the king from the very start. Though there are some interesting concepts; such as the anti-gravity that keep the massive ships floating in air and the notion of a dying Mars whose atmosphere is being produced by a chemical and mechanical apparatus that is subject easily to any form of vandalism or catastrophe, leaving all the races to a slow death through hypoxia.
A Dystopic Dying Earth type of tale that is lightly veiled in a Science Fiction Fantasy adventure that is contemporary to many other such marvelous tales.
A recommended reading both for the pleasure and some nostalgic value with a slight window once again into the thoughts and attitudes of the early 1900s.
Another Classic SFF from one of my all time favorites.
J.L. Dobias
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Darkness and Dawn by George Allan England
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Darkness and Dawn by George Allan England(1877 – 1937)
Darkness and Dawn is a compellation of three novella by G. A. England, written from 1912 to 1914 and tells the story of two survivors of a Dying Earth type event that takes place around 1920 or somewhat eight to six years in the future of their publication. It's a well written story from its time and has the disadvantage of reflecting views and beliefs of that time; but sometimes I think opinion about that tends to be colored by overactive expectation. What I mean by that is there are accusations of it being specifically racist-(which it could well be)-based sometimes on erroneous interpretation (though I too could be erroneously interpreting things myself).
The problem stems from something that might be considered a spoiler; so there's the warning, though I don't think it will spoil the plot itself: only expectations. There are a number of questions that crop up in the story that get bandied about and never really get solved: from the readers point of view.
I love the way the story starts. Beatrice Kendrick, a young woman at work, awakes to find herself within the decimated ruins of her office. The story goes on to explain how even her typewriter has had the keys dissolve to dust. And this beginning almost gets the readers hope up, in that perhaps this is going to be about a strong female character. Don't get me wrong she does often come on strong, but once Allan Stern, her boss, enters the picture it seems to become his story. The point here though is that several mysteries are presented. One is that something catastrophic has happened and everyone else is gone and a long time has passed and somehow these two not only survive the disaster, but have slept through over a thousand years without aging. After this there are more mysteries such as the Horde which are some sort of Hominid aberration. And here is the spoiler: don't expect these mysteries to be solved. They are greatly speculated about by the characters, but the final answers are not really there: unless you want to subscribe to speculation.
The Horde is what often get mislabeled as the Racist part. And in part this is from the constant speculation going on from the admittedly uninformed Allan; at first referring to them as dark and upright walking like men. Later they are referred to as Hominids that, from description, sound closer related to apes with less fur and skin that is bluish gray. The parts I noticed that did seem racist don't get mentioned as often if at all by those reviews; but they are when Allan and the narrator voice keep referring to civilized man as being white. That declaration occurs far too many times to the annoying point of trying to drive something home; though I'm baffled as to what.(Perhaps just helping us get a grasp of the thinking of people in the early nineteen hundreds.)
As to the plot of the story; that seems to hover mostly in the area of the genre of dying earth stories. For me my earliest ventures in that genre might be H.G.Wells Time Machine. And in a way the Horde seem a lot like the Morlocks. But I could go back further to Le Dernier Homme (English: The Last Man) by Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville and even The Last Man by Mary Shelley. We could jump forward to Philip Francis Nowlan and his Armageddon 2419 AD. It seems in all of these there is some catastrophe that ends most of life or at least civilization as we know it. This in a way seems a bit of a conceit in a couple of ways one of those being that we obliterate civilization and then find that it’s a man from the past who can help bring us forward again. Or that somehow the future generations are unable to survive the catastrophe and either all men die or they lose knowledge.
In this story the first novella, at the onset, I'm led to believe that all men have died and been replaced by the aberration that is the Horde; and the only hope for the future of mankind are these two inexplicable survivors. And still, there more mysteries. The Earth has rotated on its axis and there is a second object in the heavens besides the moon that is much closer to the earth and is always describe as being dark. These will be explained to some extent (As in somehow a chunk of the Earth blew into space and is now a satellite while the Earth shifted because of the catastrophe) but how they occur is never more than speculated upon by the survivors. Eventually more people are found; but they have devolved to somewhat primitive warring factions.(Well the technology has devolved.)
It falls upon our two Main Characters to bring civilization back to the Earth; though all things considered coming out of Allan's and the Narrator voice it seems that that civilization can only come out greatly flawed in ways that might be beyond Allan's comprehension. And though both Allan and Beatrice seem to be of high intelligence, they seem to stumble in and out of trouble because of overconfidence and carelessness.
The high adventure in the story is written much similar to the style of Edgar Rice Burrough's A Princess of Mars and Barsoomian novels that run contemporary to these novels. And I could even put those novels in the same genre though technically they are Dying Mars (maybe Dying Planet).
Another Great SFF Classic in the Dying Earth tradition, just be mindful that many of the most intriguing questions are left up for the reader to decide which interpretation or speculation might apply: if any.
George Allan England seems to love long sentences. I'm quite fond of them also; so that's a good thing.
In the first novel he has this one:
For of the room which she remembered, which had been her last sight when (so long, so very long, ago) her eyes had closed with that sudden and unconquerable drowsiness, of that room, I say, remained only walls, ceiling, floor of rust-red steel and crumbling cement.
England, George Allan (2012-05-17). Darkness and Dawn (Kindle Locations 44-46). . Kindle Edition.
:And this does an adequate job of describing conditions
But in the next two there are these at the very beginning:
A thousand years of darkness and decay! A thousand years of blight, brutality, and atavism; of Nature overwhelming all man's work, of crumbling cities and of forgotten civilization, of stupefaction, of death! A thousand years of night!
England, George Allan (2012-05-17). Darkness and Dawn (Kindle Locations 1842-1843). . Kindle Edition
Life! Life again, and light, the sun and the fresh winds of heaven, the perfect azure of a June sky, the perfume of the passionate red blooms along the lips of the chasm, the full-throated song of hidden birds within the wood to eastward--life, beauty, love--such, the sunrise hour when Allan and the girl once more stood side by side in the outer world, delivered from the perils of the black Abyss.
England, George Allan (2012-05-17). Darkness and Dawn (Kindle Locations 4965-4968). . Kindle Edition
:Both are quite flowery, but the first (for the second novella) I found quite compelling; whereas the second (for novella three) seemed almost over the top. And he has many more of these gems.
J.L. Dobias
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People Of The Tiger: USA Edition - Book One of The Rational Future Trilogy by Wayne Edward Clarke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
People Of The Tiger (The Rational Future Series) by Wayne Edward Clarke
I wanted to revisit this work after reading three classic SFF dealing with the Ubermensch and because this book has a very similar theme within it I got to thinking about how I managed to under rate it because of what I felt could well be offensive content. It is not so much that I have changed my mind; but rather I have opened it to the notion that someone of the Ubermensh might not be easily compared to a normal 6 or 8 year old.
Yet some of what I said back then should stand as a warning.
That much said we should address some simple issues.
This book contains erotica, and I have the modified version that might contain less. It's not chock full of erotica, but the erotica seems to puddle in places rather than being strung out. It's not particularly the best erotica I've seen, but perhaps that's because it's been altered because of complaints. On the other hand it is the closest to illegal that I've ever encountered. By illegal I mean that it contains the presence of children within the context and if this were to ever be made into a film it would violate some stringent rules.
To address this issue I'll give the author this much. The premise of the story is that we are in the future where Rationalists have dominated and created a new order. I'm of the impression this new order pervades the globe. In the story we seem to be in India-primarily. These rationalist are apparently not an outgrowth of Rationalism as much as they are perhaps a mix of Pot smoking free love hippies with aboriginal tenancies. Unlike most distopia novels these people seem to be an outgrowth of the former technological society that never lost the advances but have chosen to segment peoples into various classes all of whom have access to the technology but some who eschew it more than others. Hence, the various peoples with names of animals as their tribal designation. The green people, the naturalists have all gone back to nature.
The story begins with Tika and her mother Tira. It is Tika's sixth birthday and she moves from Infant to Training Child. It seems that Infants are brought up to whatever level they might endure in fighting and hunting arts but only become Training Child when they are ready to accept responsibility. Tika is not your average child nor are most of the children of the People of the Tiger. This is never made clear and it weakens much of premise for how the author treats them. My best guess is that at this age they are equal to someone who is roughly thirteen through seventeen in our society. That does not even cover the notion that Tika is genetically above the rest. This seems to be the reason the author wants to treat these children like young adults.
If they were all genetically engineered to be more mature then this would hold well in this story. Unfortunately another premise in this book states that they eschew genetic engineering and whatever was done to Tika is, in fact, considered illegal. These two notions create a moral conflict for at least this reader when the highly explicit sexual situations are brought into the story right into the face of these children. There is a play by play description and narration by an Elder while the scene itself plays out. Though the author attempts to keep it in an almost clinical sense, its this detached sense that is part of what destroys those scenes.(Too mechanical)
The author cleverly tries to tie the erotica into the whole book by way of explaining the rape that led to the birth of Tika, which is revealed in front of the children and then perhaps, trying to diffuse the emotional impact, by giving the children a contrast to the rape through other intimacy.(I'd say true intimacy but there's a problem here.)
There is no real intimacy involved in the erotic scenes,(well I wasn't feeling it) which is detrimental to the character development and the believable nature of the love part of the free love aspect. This all contrasts also to the gruesome nature of these people who will seem so intimate and yet in a similar clinical sense will do great bodily damage to each other in their fighting arena. (These people are the master of the disconnect.)
I loved the story of Tika and where she came from(the mystery) and the en-devour of her friends to find the answer to that question. For me the story and the conflict was the notion that until we know what happened to Tika's father we don't know what will happen to Tika. Tika is the strongest character draw in this novel she is the central character.
The first part of this novel does have some distracting philosophical notions.
[QUOTE]
but enough that over millions of years all people will become a little better because a few fools were killed by their own stupidity before they could breed.
Because we hunt for a living rather than for sport, we tend to make our work easier by hunting the weak and the slow, as other predators do, leaving the swift and the mighty to improve their breed.
and we also allow the tiny chance that the weak and the slow and the stupid among us will be hunted by predators.[/QUOTE]
Clarke, Wayne Edward (2012-02-02). People Of The Tiger - Metric Pro. Edition (The Rational Future Series) (Kindle Locations 259-260). Wayne Edward Clarke Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I don't particularly agree with these but it's primary to the novel that the characters do.
It espouses the back to nature part, but it fails to truly justify the running around naked in the forest full of dangers and predators. Most distopia novels at least try to pretend we lost some civilization and just don't know better.
The book spends a lot of time developing the tier system for honors for the people and basically coming up with the reason that they have to constantly challenge each other to duels.
I had a few troubles with the whole concept of going so backwards in time that they were challenging each other for their land, which technically didn't belong to anyone anyway. There is a portion where our hero and her family displace people for their own selfish purpose and that even leads to the death of a neighbor who eventually we try to justify by painting them in a pale light while they are supposedly expected to honor them.
There's a lot of emphasis on honor and it constantly runs contrary to the need to be truthful and the need to display pride publicly. The characters run through these like they might run through water and I can only think they need a therapist.
All this is building to the lengthy overdrawn out knife and claw and hand to hand fighting that goes with their Olympic like challenges. Again it would work better if these people were genetically altered to be better because no matter how close we bring the medical staff to the fight, these people do serious damage and should be killing each other.
I enjoyed more the pursuit of Tika's past and the building of the potential for some sort of faster than light travel which will possibly help Tika in her search for the truth.
If you like Sci-Fi and Fantasy and don't mind delving into odd sociological restructuring, you might be tempted to test drive this one to decide if you want to purchase the next in the series.
Despite some of my own misgivings in regards to what I felt were shortcomings, I found enough to enjoy with this that I read it completely.
I like a challenge and I don't mind leaving my comfort zone for a minute. So this has offered me some room for thought with People of the Tiger as I try to look at the way all these elements are woven together and decide how much seemed totally necessary to the story.
A person needs to read this to make a proper judgement and this would make a hot topic for someones reading group.
J.L. Dobias
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Odd John by Olaf Stapledon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Odd John by Olaf Stapledon
This is my third offering in super human or Ubermensch. These three seem to point to a theme that’s a keystones to later works. The first was The Hampdenshire Wonder by J.D. Beresford and this is actually the second chronologically and the third was Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human. All three stick with me as three that I encountered in my early reading history. If I were to add more to this I'd add Mary Shelly's Frankenstein which might at least account for a trend that the other three books take.
I read all three when I was in my teens and I think that the negative outlook of Odd John and The Wonder left me at a place where I avoided rereading them. More Than Human has the benefit of some small amount of hope that the Ubermensch might survive. All three still hold the tone set by Frankenstein; in that the super human would look much like a monster to us. To this end there is always some bit of mutation to the physical appearance and some lack of morality in the sense that whatever they might use for morality is something we can't understand.
J.D. Beresford's Wonder was someone who had no peer at the end of his life and he had a lack of a sense of wonder along with his own strange morality. In Odd John we see this at the beginning but John has a longer life and a better chance at coming to terms and perhaps at staving off the sense that there is nothing left to marvel at or be in awe of.
John's physical difficulties are mostly his slow aging process. And we all say, ‘How can that be bad?’ But John is born with an intellect that goes for beyond his age and with the slow growth easily out strips his physical appearance which is doomed to always be well behind his chronological age. At an early age he takes an interest in everything; but specifically politics, and its power and wealth. His physical problems may account for his interest in medicine. And of course he studies theology, philosophy and the sciences.
He eventually saturates and become disenchanted with everything he takes an interest in. He also is becoming aware that there is nothing in modern theology, philosophy and the science that helps explain what he is. Throughout all of this his one anchor is his mother who seems to have some telepathic connection to him and displays some level of understanding of him and his plight.
His eventual conclusion that he'd have to make his own search for others like himself and in turn uncover more about why he exists lead him down a dark path that begins to show the skewed moral sense that he was forming for himself. Once again being the super human with no peer to study and to guide him, John creates his own moral standard based somewhat on the simplest survival characteristics that all humans have. This comes to the forefront while in his teens, when he takes up with a police official named Smithson. He and Smithson become friends and through his usual precocious inquisitiveness John learns much about breaking the law. His intent is to rob from the rich and fund his quest. This works well until Smithson finds him in the act and John has to make a snap decision resulting in the death of his 'friend' Smithson at Johns hand: and knife.
Because the story is told from another friends Point of View this part is told in a frame story from some future time when John finally decides to confide in the narrator as to what was going on at that time in his life. It might not have come up had that friend not thought to mention he had noticed a peculiar change in John at that time. The moral dilemma in this is that John admits that this was mostly a choice of his survival so that he could continue his plan to bring together others like himself in a community that would work for their own betterment. John had at some point given up any notion that they would be able to help present mankind whom he considered to be on the level of an animal such as a pet. This also is a common thread that runs through these types of stories.
This, when compared with the other stories of this nature, might leave the reader wondering if there were not some ingrained fear in man that, given evolution, there would eventually be a higher form of intelligence that might make present man look like a common animal. It seems ironic from there; that the fear is that the higher one would treat us like we treat our pets and then that that carried over to the notion of having a different moral sense that allows them to kill a man under the right circumstances. I had to stop and think about that; is this how we do treat or pets?
Where J.D. Beresford's wonder, Victor Stott, was doomed to be alone and in fact was plagued by another child who looked similar to him but did not have his gift; John has the power of telepathy and through it he finds others like himself and it becomes his life’s ambition to assemble them and found an island colony. Throughout he uses the narrator as his front man for inventions he creates and sells and makes both of them rich. This gives him a great power over the narrator and sometimes it sounds like John abuses him; while at the same time he values the man enough to know that he needs to let him live a somewhat normal life. This probably gives the reader a better picture of John than we have of Victor and the Gestalt of characters in More Than Human.
I think that the Ubermensch in this novel have something that is better than that of J.D. Beresford's Wonder and that is that they never lose that sense of wonder. Yet what makes this particularly dissatisfying is that once again there is no room for both normal man and the super man and a decision has to be made. It's interesting what that decision finally is.
If I have any qualms about this novel it would be the large sections of expository writing that begins to dominate as soon as John reaches that age and stage where he is giving up on mankind. I'd be inclined to believe that he was beginning to reflect the views of Olaf Stapledon; what with the long-windedness of the dissertations.
If you are interested in reading this I'd suggest finding a paper copy. My paper copy from long ago wandered off -long ago; so I used the online e-book, which I think comes from the same source as some gutenburg text that probably was scanned in and only lightly edited. There are numerous obvious problems and some not so obvious that come of that and unless you are a forgiving reader I'd suggest again, find a paper edition.
Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human comes long after this; yet he uses the same notion of telepathy and a few other evident powers shown in this book. He continues the discussion on morality and how that might differ for the super human. What he does differently in the community of the superior’s, is that he makes them dependent upon each other to form an entire gestalt being.(The lesser parts are not so superior.)
This is a great SFF Classic that still stands well when considering the time it was written and is a novel that should be of great interest to those continuing the conversation about Homo Superior and what that looks like and how they might change or endanger the course of mankind.
J.L. Dobias
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[Rock] : [Paper] : [Kindle (Computer)]
It's that old game: rock; paper; scissors. Which beats which? Of course you might have to establish whether you’re talking about reading or writing. I might go into which is best to read some time later; but for now I want to look at how writing has changed. Notice how I didn't say improved.
I was reading about someone’s experience; they spoke about the advice that the speed of creativity in writing with the pencil or pen and notebook are things that go hand in hand; and that this advice worked for them. I think this type of advice is something that's more personal preference than universal truth. I won't even go into the argument that writing the creative content in your head is the most efficient: and saves trees. Writing onto media puts down into words what's rattling around in someone’s head in a form that might be readily available to the author and perhaps shared with colleagues. Throughout history the media has changed. The purpose might range from fear of forgetting something before they get it down or it might be viewed as a way of preserving information over long periods of time to be used by others. We’ve been doing this since near the dawn of time.
Long ago we used rock. Rock lasts longer most of the time and God wrote on rock with his fingers so there is no shame in using rock unless you're pretending to be God. It's murder on the finger. Then there was the quill and parchment of which parchment didn't last as long as rock and I'm sure there was some discussion about which was faster though not much really, because CNC machines would not be invented for quite some time; otherwise rock would still be in favor. Switching to quill had its advantages: such as, if you ran out of ink there was always blood. But for dissemination of work over a wide area either paper or rock required a lot of time with many hands to make a few copies. Then come printing presses, which were great for wide distribution; but for utility and speed it was easier to drag around, pen and paper.
Then we have the lighter weight typewriter. Nimble fingers and typewriters and precision typing skills would argue that the typewriter was faster than paper and quill and much faster than scratching on a rock. But they were heavy, cumbersome, and awkward;until there were light weight portables and electric typewriters, the market for quill and paper still existed for anyone constantly on the go. And then even the light weight portable typewriters were not as easy to carry as a pen and notebook.
The next big step is the computer. The first one of those was about as portable as a printing press and even the first laptop was a bit heavy though you didn't have to carry a ream of paper; as you would with a typewriter. Now with the tablets and phone apps it’s like having the notebook and pencil or pen and yet saving all the paper, ink, and graphite.
But which is faster for the writer? That was the question.
There's a possibility that most writers don't fall in that highly skilled department when it comes to typing skills. Perhaps hunt and peck or using one of those insanely small keyboards on a phone might add time to the equation. So does that make pen and paper faster?
Not for me.
In fact, using pen and paper has always been counter intuitive for someone like me. My handwriting is atrocious; so much so that I used to use a non electric smith corona for everything. Trying to sort through my notes done by hand are similar to deciphering a strange language etched on a rock. You can call it laziness that my penmanship is poor; and a lot of people did and still do. But the bottom line is that the best method for me to use, for written word, is the computer. As for computers: first drafts, for me; I leave the auto spell checker on, to save me from having to backtrack. Since I know I'll redo everything at least five times before I give it to anyone else, this works despite the insistence of the spell checker to incorrectly alter simple words on the fly. All other edits are with spell checker off.
Does this put me to a disadvantage and slow me down when creating? My hand, my pencil, my pen, my paper, my keyboard and my computer don't think. I do that and the only thing that slows me down is the thinking. When I put it all on paper or in electronic form it takes about the same amount of time and except for my poor handwriting, none of those other pieces of the puzzle seem to be any better than the next, in creating a page from my thoughts. But when my heart gets into it, everything begins to flow out and all I worry about is not having anything at all to put it onto before it starts to fade away like last nights dreams.
So I will take what's available at the moment, paper-and-pen or computer, with the caveat that if its pen and paper some parts might get lost in translation.
As for rocks: the neighbors are happy they took those away from me, because finding them in the living-room amidst all the broken glass was getting annoying.
J.L. Dobias
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
This is another of those I read a long time ago and perhaps as much as five years ago someone suggested it as a book that had largely influenced them. I hardly recall it and can only attribute that to the fact I read it over 40 years ago. In rereading it I found some parts of it seemed somewhat disjointed; though maybe just jarred a bit by the change in names for major characters. This might have contributed to my earlier lack recollections of the whole.
Since the novel is three novellas; two of which were written as a sort of sandwich on either side of the original piece 'Baby is Three', that might explain the disjointed feel.
The first part 'The Fabulous Idiot' brings to mind another book I recently read, The Hampdenshire Wonder by J.D. Beresford. The idiot is a 25 year old male who calls himself Lone, who is a street person; because of the telepathic ability he has he is under educated and isolated from others and living well below his potential. This part has another fabulous idiot in the guise of an over protective father who has two daughters. The older daughter has the benefit of having had her mother raise her until the younger was born and at birth the mother died. The insane father has tried to raise both girls in isolation and discourages any close physical contact between them and anyone else. This creates a strange innocence in the youngest, Evelyn; which seems to make her susceptible to Lone’s telepathy, when they manage to stumble across each other. The father eventually finds them together and he beats them both before he ends up killing himself.
After this incident and Lone's long recovery, he isolates himself once more until he meets Janie, a telekinetic, and her two friends Bonnie and Beanie, the teleporters. Eventually they adopt a mongoloid baby who makes the fifth of their curious Gestalt. At this point they are capable of wondrous things; but what Lone does is try to help a friend on his farm by using standard off the shelf parts to create anti-gravity. This is installed on his farmer friends truck just prior to Lone's discovery that his friend has abandoned the farm.
Also of note in this section is the introduction of two other characters Gerry Thompson and Hip Barrows. Gerry is an orphan and Hip is the son of a doctor. Both seem to be gifted.
The Second Part 'Baby is Three' is the original novella that reads like a mystery. Gerry is at a psychiatrists office and is negotiating for therapy with a sizable amount of cash. Based on the previous novella the cash is a big mystery; but considering this from a reader having only this story a larger mystery unfolds as the analysis begins.
Gerry meets Lone who takes him back to his cabin in the woods where he is introduced to the multi-talented Gestalt. Gerry's own talents are similar to Lone's ; but it takes some time to determine this. The real initial crisis of this story is that Lone has died and left specific instructions about what the Gestalt must do for it's continued existence. The larger crisis is that this stipulation has led to Gerry having murdered someone and this therapy is mostly about getting to the center of that.
Yet as the whole unfolds, the real focus is on the way that the Gestalt of five people are so different from the human parts that there is nothing to compare it to and no real reason to believe that all the socio-psychological behavioral patterns of normal humans should regulate them. And possibly when in the Gestalt they have no fair concept of some of the restrictions that regulate humans. No moral compass.
The third story is 'Morality'; taking up after 'Baby is Three' with the notion that the Gestalt is missing something and Hip Barrows shows up as the target of a superhuman being that has no moral compass. This story returns us also to the notion of the Anti-Gravity device that was previously left installed on a truck in the center of an abandoned farm.
This is a great SFF classic that examines once again the notion of evolution and the possibility of a superman. Unlike 'The Hampdenshire Wonder by J.D. Beresford', which is from an outside point of view the reader gets a close up picture of the inner workings of the minds of these characters and that might add to some of the disjointed feel within the story. Where J.D Beresford gives us a rather dark picture and outcome Sturgeon is somewhat more optimistic.
J.L. Dobias
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Endurance by S.L. Viehl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Endurance (A Stardoc Novel)by S.L. Viehl
This is the third offering in the Stardoc Novels and would round out a nice trilogy for those who need to take a break in reading before venturing into the remaining seven. Personally I'd recommend the reader to read the forth book; because some of the major questions that have been lurking in the first three will finally be answered. But probably not all questions.
In the previous book Beyond Varallan our hero Cherijo is stuck between a rock and a hard place and decides the only way to get out of it is to use her connection to the Hsktskt-piratical slavers-to turn the table and pretty much send a whole fleet into slavery. This does not endear her to her own fellows and since she's discovered that almost everyone close to her has betrayed her she's at the furthest end of her rope, while trying to run the slaver's hospital and keep the slaves in good order so they can be sold out to slavery.
This is a novel that digs the furthest into that dark spot where I've defined her relationships as being Schizoid in nature. Despite the torture and near death experiences rife within the story there is still time for romance and Cherijo again finds herself torn between lovers and being pursued by more of those than she cares.
Once again the reader delves into the strange nature of the aliens within this series; but ever more strange is the man known as Reever who is the most perplexing of characters in the series. Yet more perplexing is that Cherijo has such a problem pulling herself away from this horrible person. Even though there might be some justification in Reever's attitude in this story there is a huge stretch of the reader's patience with Cherijo throughout the story. This all works out, somehow, but it becomes quite thin right up to the end.
Lots of surprises in this one and more back-story to take us to the forth novel
Great and Strange SFF for the Fans who like both the Star Wars and Star Trek fiction franchise that is out there. A bit of a stretch often for the purists in SF, but if you do give it a try, you need to read the first four almost as one book to get the full picture of things. Maybe even eventually understand how Cherijo can end up so messed up.
J.L. Dobias
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The Hampdenshire Wonder by J.D. Beresford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Wonder (The Hampdenshire Wonder)by J.D. Beresford
This is billed as Science Fiction and it is; but the reader is required to endure 50 pages of build up to get to it. Not that that's entirely bad, because the writing is fairly engaging; it's just that sometimes it becomes questionable where the whole thing is heading. There is a sort of feel similar to some Mark Twain story telling that left me looking for the humorous turn of events coming up around the bend. But this is more of a serious piece; once you get past the 25% mark.
There is some justification for the long lead-in. The first is to introduce us to the narrator who first sees Victor Stott, as a very remarkable child, on a train. We then digress to the story of Ginger Stott, Victor's father, and his story. The idea, I suppose, is to start with a national pastime, Cricket in this case, and create the character of Ginger: a self taught Cricket prodigy. When a tragic injury takes Ginger out of the game, he tries to train other players; but finds that they all have formed bad habits and are not trainable to his methods. He decides that the only way to train anyone would be to keep them isolated from the game until they were a teen and then train them from the place of having no previously formed habits.
This leads to Ginger getting married. This happens in much of a manner that looks like-Ellen Mary Jakes, a long time spinster, finds out about Gingers plans and offers herself; to which he responds, "Well! I dunno why not". This union results in one offspring when Ellen who is near her fifties gives birth to a possibly hydrocephalic boy. The boy, Victor, is not expected to live; but surprises everyone. Though he lives; Victory will not carry on the family Cricket legacy. Victor's large head seems to be there to house his higher intellect, because he turns out to be a prodigy in his own way; though this will be difficult to determine, because he hardly ever speaks.
Though in part this story delivers a message about what life might be like for someone who can't have that sense of awe (wonder) that we all have from the world around us and all the marvels of science and philosophy, it is also a window into problems with education; that continue to plague us to this day.
It becomes clear early that at age three or four Victor can absorb all the information from the dictionary, the encyclopedia, the bible and a whole library of books; and that the present education system is geared to drag him down because it's made to accommodate a rather average intellect. That doesn't even account for his rather strange social skills, or what looks like a lack of social skills.
Because the story is told from a viewpoint outside of the prodigy, which makes some sense because one wonders what the inside of the prodigies thought process might look like; it gives the reader a story that seems to revolve around and about the reaction to the prodigy rather than any notion about how the prodigy must feel about things. That leads to our narrator using other people’s thoughts and feelings to try to come up with a picture of what it must be like for the prodigy.
Once you read this you will see that the title of The Wonder or The Hampdenshire Wonder can almost have two meanings and that adds just the right touch to the whole piece.
This is definitely for SFF lovers who don't mind watching the kettle boil or paint dry to get to the interesting parts. Still it does stick in the mind as one of the classics that set the pace for others to follow.
J.L. Dobias
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Titans by Edward W. Robertson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Titans by Edward W. Robertson
I picked up this book along with two others off of a suggestion for reading. Of the three this one was by far the most well rounded story. The story is told from the POV of a main character that has lived for over three thousand years. Living forever of course has its good points and then some few bad points, though I know a few people who might argue that it would be whiny to make a big deal about the bad points of this situation.
But there is one kicker, in that Robert Dunbar will only live forever if he can keep from being mortally wounded and that's a difficult task to undertake for so long. There is no guarantee he won’t spend a great portion of his life as a madman, with his long life driving him insane. Not to mention the tediousness of being placed into slavery.
If there were any qualms I might have with the story, it would be the sometimes somewhat banal language that comes from this man who has had three thousand years to develop a most acerbic attitude toward everything.
Robert is just trying to live his life quietly amongst those who have such a short life when he meets Baxter, a man who knows more about Robert than Robert feels is safe. So Robert’s first reaction is that he needs to kill Baxter. This results in both of them plunging toward death from a hi-rise apartment patio. But Baxter has a few tricks up his sleeve and saves them both. It turns out that Roberts new friend is an AI encased in an android body.
Apparently even to Roberts surprise the corporations of Earth have managed to create viable AIs; but they haven't been able to control them very well. The AI's are hiding in space and are concerned about the corporate movements to go further into space while creating a virtual slave labor force. They also are somewhat concerned about the corporations wanting to recapture the AIs, but the novel seems mostly focused on their attempt to negotiate for better circumstances for the future colonists. To that end they have enlisted Robert from whom they intend to tap great knowledge of history.
From there the story becomes doubly interesting as Robert recalls his past life and in some ways his qualifications to the job, while the narrative examines the current politics of the colonies that exist within the solar system. It's quite well written but I'm not a historian so I wouldn't be much use in trying to validate any of the history in the text, though it flows well and helps develop the character.
The theme of long life has some familiar elements that I've seen in other works of fiction, but the main characters insights and outlook are refreshingly different some times and keep the story moving along.
It's a thoroughly entertaining read that should capture the interest of most SFF fans with a small appeal to the historic fiction lovers. It also almost screams for some sort of sequel; so we'll have to wait and see.
J.L. Dobias
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The World of Science Fiction, 1926-76: The History of a Subculture by Lester del Rey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The World of Science Fiction by Lester del Rey
Though I would agree that this is not a good source of in-depth analysis of the writing of science fiction I think that it does do what it set out to do and expecting any more is truly expecting too much. The History of a Subculture does not imply that it means to analyze the books or the work of that history in great depth; and if it had the book would have had to have taken up much more room on the shelve by the time the ten volumes were finished.
This is a generalized history of the first fifty years of science fiction starting with the age of magazines and short stories. I highly recommend this book when I run across people bemoaning the fact that short stories have slipped in quality, because they seem to be abandoned by many of the authors that were the backbone of science fiction.
The close analysis and the author's own participation in much of the process lends to a comprehensive examination of what happened in the industry throughout that fifty years and how it gradually led to the acceptance of more novels in science fiction; which in fact did draw many authors away from the short story venue. But far from outright abandonment, this book helps detail many of the problems and struggles of the magazine industry to try to create a proper demand and retain that demand while the growing industry became a hydra-like creature that then falls upon itself like an Ouroborus. More than anything; the industry itself, with its ups and downs was the largest factor in losing the more skilled and prolific authors.
If I have one disappointment about this book it would be that it may have failed in recognizing some of the most prodigious works that stand out as milestones in the industry. In particular I can cite a novel that did not get a mention in this history. That novel was important enough that I felt the possibility exists that, because of the omission, even some pivotal short stories might have been missed. I might have let the novel slide if the whole work were devoted entirely to short stories; but the second half does go into detail concerning novels.
What was conspicuously missing was Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. This is a book that many say was Philip's greatest achievement and it even garnered a Hugo. Had this been mentioned only, though there were others that had brief summaries and sometimes a limited analysis, I would have been happy. But this wasn't even mentioned despite the mention of Philip K. Dick in the short story section. Because of that I realized there might be several other works by other short story writers that could bear mentioning and were passed up. I'm not sure why that is; but that still makes me wonder about whether all the more important short stories were covered, since short stories are not something I ever read in large amounts.
Still this book, despite that one misgiving, stands well as a window into the industry and the people (editors) who figured prominently in creating the consistent feel and encouraged writers to hone their writing skills. It also shows how in the boom times they had to deal with other less stringent publishers and editors who were trying to get a piece of the pie without the work. It carefully details how these late comers consistently destroyed themselves and often a few of the established magazines in the process before recovery was possible.
This book goes on the shelf right next to my two volumes Robert Heinlein biography.
This is a great reference piece that might even have a few good suggestions in reading for die hard SFF fans.
J.L. Dobias
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The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
I first read this when I was in my teens and it's been over 40 years since that time and this is the first time I've reread it. I've encountered a few critiques that have tried to explain it all and though I might seldom agree to all the assessments I have no intention of disputing them. I'm more inclined to do a review and perhaps tell a bit about what I liked.
I don't seem to have a clear recollection of the story from way back when; except the ending has been one thing that did stick in my mind.
The book is about an alternate reality where Japan and Germany won World War II. It is at least four stories that intersect and converge and diverge throughout the narrative. There is a fifth story that is more like a spin-off as the connection is mostly in the past while there might be a bit of synchronicity to what happens with that character in relationship to the rest: it is really a separate story.
The other stories are destined to converge.
There are several more characters; but I feel safe with four converging stories. One thing I found outstanding in this work is the meticulous detail to character development.
The first story is of Robert Childan who owns a well known shop that sells American antiquities to wealthy Japanese who have taken over rule of Eastern USA. He is soon to find that he may have some forgeries and this will dramatically change his life.
Nobusuke Tagomi is a customer of Robert's and is a minor functionary in the governmental structure; but his interaction with Mr. Baynes of Sweden, who is really Rudolf Wegener of Reich Naval Counter-intelligence: and Mr. Yatabi, who is really General Tedeki a former Imperial Cheif of Staff will begin his descent into a nightmare world.
The Baynes story-line seems important enough to mention as its own; but it mostly intersects with the Tagomi story. The rest is quite interesting character development.
Then we have Frank Frink who is really Frank Fink, a Jew, hiding out and working for a manufacturer who makes counterfeit antiquities, some of which have ended up in Robert Childan's hands. Frank has just lost his job even though the boss considers him one of the best at making the forgeries. Frank has an attitude problem that has one too many times put him at odds with his employer.
The seemingly side story is Franks ex-wife, Juliana, who has long ago left Frank and now seems to lead a somewhat pointless life, as a judo instructor. She takes up with Joe, an Italian truck driver who decides to divert himself long enough to seduce her. It all seems to be fun and games and he introduces her to the novel 'The Grasshopper Lies Heavy by Hawthorne Abensen' it’s a novel that is banned in most places. because it's about an alternate reality where Japan and Germany lost the war. Since Italy was allied with Germany it seems odd that Joe has this book; but there are more things than that making Juliana uncomfortable with Joe.
The Grasshopper Lies Heavy figures prominently throughout the book and even serves as a frame story in several places where the characters read extensive sections.
Frank is convinced by a fellow worker, Ed, to start his own business selling authentic jewelry with Ed, but his friends methods for getting things started will put them in danger and eventually lead to Frank's arrest; where the authorities determine he's a Jew. The business will be called Edfrank Custom Jewelers. (What's most significant throughout the story beyond this is the close examination of all the characters fears and prejudices. Frank finds himself displaying his own prejudice about the blacks when the news that the German Euthanize African blacks, reaches the media; but he quickly recognizes his own hypocrisy.) Their subterfuge leads to Robert Childan's discovery of the forgeries: in their attempt to send a message to their former employer who then pays them off; so they won't sour any more of his market, and that money is used to start the business.
Those events set off a roller-coaster ride of emotion for Robert Childan that manages to re-ignite his own prejudices against the Japanese. There seems to be a large discourse from him about how they don't ever come up with original thoughts and designs but are very good at copying things.(Ironic since Childan and his supplier are the ones operating with counterfeits.) Later Childan takes some of the Edfrank Jewelry on consignment, though he doesn't hold much hope for it. Reaction to the jewelry seems mixed at first; but it ultimately results in something positive for Robert, leading to his own strange awakening.
The reader gets large chunks of The Grasshoper Lies Heavy read to him by numerous characters. Surprisingly almost everyone has a copy despite it being banned. Ironically the first large chunk read is from Reiss, the Reich's Consul to the Japanese territory. It is midst the confusion of the death of the present German leader and Reiss's own ruminations about which of the worst choices will take his place that he attempts to read passages from the banned book; until he becomes disgusted and puts it down thinking that its only a book written by a fiction writer who must be quite gifted at writing. He recalls at that moment that one candidate to replace the leadership is Doctor Goebells; who also was once an author of fiction. The scene then moves to where they are receiving a copy of a speech being given(written) by Goebells(possibly about his taking power); which made this reader wonder if the implication was that Reiss would soon be reading another distasteful bit of fiction.
Tagomi touches twice on the events regarding Frank and Robert; once because he has purchased some items from Childan, one being a Colt Army revolver and later he will acquire a piece of EdFrank jewelry. His complications in life bring him to a crisis that leads to him experiencing some event related to the jewelry that places him momentarily in an alternate reality where Japan lost the war. This strange experience manages to center him; though things do not look well for him, Japan, and the mysterious Mr. Baynes.
During all of this we occasionally shift aside to the story of Joe and Juliana as they embark on a journey that will eventually lead to the Man in the High Castle, so that Juliana might ask the author of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy some questions about the book. Juliana proves to be a stronger character than Joe's narrow view allows him to see; and this will be to his detriment.
As is usual for Philip K. Dick, he embarks on a story that is an alternate future containing another story with an alternate future; which leaves the reader wondering what is reality.
I recently read ‘The world of Science Fiction by Lester Del Rey’. It's a book that goes from the beginning of science fiction magazines and short stories(1926) up until 1976 and mentions many of the major novels. This timeline contains the time that The Man in the High Castle was published. The author mentions Philip K. Dick as an important figure and this book, The Man in the High Castle is often considered Mr. Dick's finest work. Yet somehow ‘The world of Science Fiction by Lester Del Rey’ contains no reference to The Man in the High Castle.
Perhaps it would be presumptuous to conclude that the author excluded it because he felt it was more literary fiction than science fiction. It certainly strikes me that way; but in the same token as I read Mr. Del Rey's work I have to wonder, when examining his own words, just why this book was excluded even with that thin excuse.
J.L. Dobias
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Beyond Varallan by S.L. Viehl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Beyond Varallan(A Stardoc Novel)by S.L. Viehl
This is the second in a series of at least ten books; so far I've gotten to 4 and they have several things in common. One is that they are very close to the same size which is somewhere around 150K words and that's somewhat more than the normal for this type of novel but not too far out of the ball park. Another is that unfortunately the main character does not seem to me to change very much, though lots of things happen to her that should push her in new directions. Also her romances, possibly because of the nature of her existence, are rather strange and as I've said before they seem schizoid in nature.
In the first novel Cherijo escaped her father and Earth, a place that is deliberately prejudiced against aliens: and seems quite xenophobic. She escapes to a planet where the understanding of many aliens is that humans have a distasteful habit: they spit. This made it hard for her to integrate; and it became worse when she bonded with a Jorenian, a race who mate for life; and she became part of her partners clan before her partner died. From there it is evident that these stories become an ongoing struggle of manners and customs between her and the aliens she has to live with and operate upon.
Still on the run from her father while in a Jorenian ship Cherijo finds herself frustrated while trying to find a way to stop all the rapid changes happening around her and possibly because of her. Her father has used his influence to send the League after her, while the Jorenians have removed themselves from the League; and while all this occurs the Hsktskt and League have gone to war with each other and the Jorenians are trying to remain neutral while at the same time being pursued by the League and Cherijo’s father.
This book is a book about the strange love and ultimate betrayal of Cherijo by many that she trusts, while she consistently uses her medical skills to try to keep both friend and enemy alive. I really enjoy the development of many of the cultures and beliefs of the aliens and in many cases the diverse strangeness of many of those. But so often there are aliens that come very close to Human, because of the cross species romance, and that reads a bit like Star Trek.
Throughout the story there is that oddness with Cherijo in her relationships that almost seems inexplicable. Thankfully as the story moves on we get information from her former Nanny, possible stepmother, through some sort of implanted information that begins to unfold, for the reader, the story of how Cherijo was made and possibly why, which all figure into the way she acts: I think.
By now as a reader you either come to appreciate Cherijo and her ongoing story or you might be disappointed since this one ends a bit close to being a cliffhanger.
I'm pretty much into it for the long run as I get to know this quirky character that calls herself Cherijo.
Good solid SFF that has a rather static main character but more than surprising supporting characters that she tries to keep alive despite the fact that many deserve death.
J.L. Dobias
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