Blog Archives

#87: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndam

7/26/2014

I love 50's sci fi, I love apocalyptical stories, plus nature gets her revenge. What’s not to love? Again, London meets her demise, this time when the population is struck blind and “Audrey II” style plants of possible extraterrestrial origin start ganging up on the groping survivors. The book is thoughtful, readable, and only suffers a little from the shallow characterizations that I am beginning to suspect are symptomatic of the 50's themselves. The “heroine” is pert and heroic and wants babies; the “hero” works his tail off making sure she is safe. That pretty much defines and explains everything these two characters have to offer. It’s apocalyptical romance, which is why Brian Aldiss sniffingly referred to this tale as a “cozy catastrophe.”

Does Brian Aldiss not play well with other authors? Ian Watson said the two of them were enemies, which seems a weighty word. It also seems to me that the zombie movie 28 Days Later stole shamelessly from this story. Both protagonists wake up in a hospital to find a disaster has taken place; both are drafted by militant survivalists who hole up in country mansions.

Characters also reflect cultural expectations of their times. That’s important to remember.

0 Comments

#86: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe

7/26/2014

0 Comments

A letter from Felice. A very civilized writer’s conference in San Luis Obispo. A trip to Yosemite. A trip to Anaheim. A Friesian horse keurring. An O157:H7 recall. Another letter from Asimov’s, “The Manifestation of Temujim” is rejected. Still I’ve managed to squeeze this book in because it is very, very good.

Within a few pages, I knew I wanted to read everything Mr. Wolfe has ever written. I also knew it would be this way – twenty years ago, I had read The Shadow of the Torturer, back in Clarksville, Tennessee’s precious, tiny little library tucked between the abandoned brick buildings. His stories are beautiful, sad, and rife with secrets that he never feels the need to reveal. The writing style felt similar to John Crowley.

This book is composed of three novellas that mildly overlap in content. First, a cloned child living in a brothel kills his father. Then, a cannibalistic aborigine kills his brother. Then, an anthropologist is imprisoned, suspected of murder. All of them live on a planet where it is suspected the original peoples are clever shapeshifters who have concealed themselves as humans. I loved the first tale, felt lukewarm toward the second, and liked the last half of the last, but together they are much greater than apart.

I am drawn to this world which exists with its secrets beyond what I am reading. A story should be its own world, above and beyond what we read, when we write, we should be peeling back the layers, revealing what is already there.

0 Comments

#85: The Embedding by Ian Watson

7/26/2014

0 Comments

In an amusing vin-dit, the cover of this book announces: “In the brain-blasting tradition of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Robert Heinlein and Samuel R. Delany...”

Ian Watson seems to me a horror writer in his heart. The things that happened in this book are more gruesome than even Steven King would dare to put on paper. Here’s just one: eating a mutant baby-brain. But unlike Steven King, the author seemed incapable (or unwilling) of creating likable characters. I would love a character’s description up until the last sentence, which then made me back away emotionally from the character. Another weird thing: Watson beats an analogy to death. I also never really understood the title concept of “embedding,” and that seems like it should be a priority.

The story is about a linguist experimenting on children to create “embedded languages,” while in the meantime his old partner visits a tribe in the Brazilian jungle with a unique language, while in the meantime aliens arrive on earth who want keys to the very nature of communication.

This was also another first novel with a strong and compelling voice. I did enjoy that the ending – very high energy, emotional, and real. In retrospect though, I found the author’s website story of indentured servitude to Stanley Kubrick more compelling: why is he enemies with Brian Aldiss?

Endings pick up energy; they don’t lose it. It’s also important to make sure reader’s understand key concepts.

0 Comments

#84: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

7/26/2014

0 Comments

I am now a Bokononist. This book has changed my religion. I believe in foma, karass, and wampeters. I feel peaceful and enlightened. I now believe everything Kurt Vonnegut writes, and this is the only book of his that I have read. So far.

This book was put on my list last year when, during a miserably depressed weekend, I watched the entire first season of Dead Like Me. I loved this show about an ungrateful teen who dies and inadvertently joins a rag-tag team of Grim Reapers. In it, a copy of Cat’s Cradle gets tossed around. So, I thought this book would be about death, but it is actually about our relationships to each other and reality, and the innate confusion of it all, which gives me new awe for both the show and this book.

Vonnegut created a vocabulary to explain the tenets of Bokononism with goofy sounding words. He also created a weird, quite incomprehensible accent for his islanders. This makes me wonder if his definitions are mangled island pronunciations of other words. Is granfoolan actually “grand fools?” It may take years for me to figure this out.

Kurt Vonnegut died just this last spring. From his obituaries, he sounded like a sad, complicated man. I think I would have liked him a great deal. I did very much enjoy this wry Dr. Strangelovian, aloofly Zelazny-esque tale of a reporter whose fate pushes him toward becoming the husband of the woman of his dreams, the president of the an inconsequential island kingdom, and destroyer of the world in the space of an afternoon.

In my salute to Bokononism – sadly, I seem unable to pronounce the name of my new religion – I will mention here that I got a great rejection slip from Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov’s Magazine. It read: “Dear Nye, Thanks for letting me see “Chess’s Game.” The idea is interesting and the story is nicely done, but I’m afraid it was too rushed, and a bit too predictable to work for me. Please let me see your next one when you have it. Sincerely, Sheila Williams.”

From this story and my new faith I have learned two things. Nothing is really off-topic in a story, as long as it weaves the story toward its inevitable end. (So too our lives). Also, Vonnegut’s take on writing was “Don’t waste your reader’s time,” so I will amend that lesson to say “Nothing is off-topic as long as it doesn’t waste your reader’s time.” Lastly, I need to learn how not to rush a story (well, that last part is from my rejection slip). I’ll work on it.

0 Comments

#83: The Opiuchi Hotline by John Varley

7/26/2014

0 Comments

I read the first half of this on the private jet flight to and from Yuma. Private jets are much more romantic in description than in practice. Think tube of toilet paper. Think hamster habi-trail. Think sucky air conditioning in muggy 109 degree Yuma. Good thing I had a good book.

This one is stuffed with tight plotting and gobs of delicious science fiction, plus a sixty year old genetic-designer woman named Lilo, plus a passel of “death squad” goons, both male and female versions, all named Vaffa. The Hotline is a stream of technical information that has flowed for 400 years, from an alien race. It was a creative and frightening story up until the end, which was disappointing because the ending made no sense and was not satisfying in any way.

Of course, I know endings are hard to write, and this was Mr. Varley’s first publication...

Background both grounds and deepens a story. I know that seems like a very obvious lesson, but this story elucidated it in two remarkable ways. First, Vaffa started off as a goon, but the revealing of what makes a “death squad goon” tick was fascinating, and actually created a sympathetic character. Second, because the explanation of The Invaders – aliens who kicked humans off all arable planets – was completely lacking despite being pivotal to the plot on several levels, it was hard to get involved in that portion of the story.

0 Comments

#82: Paris in the Twentieth Century by Jules Verne

7/26/2014

0 Comments

I’ve wanted to read this book ever since I heard of it ten years ago. This was a lost manuscript that sat in a safe for 130 years, and it was Jules Verne’s vision of a dystopic, industrial, artless, and heartless 1960. It’s staged in Paris, my favorite city. It seemed the perfect story for this list. The story did not disappoint.

Aside from Jules Verne’s freakishly imaginative insight into the sociology and technology of the future, there was a gift chapter in the middle discussing great French authors, including Stendhal, Hugo, and many others, comparing their works to great generals in the “war against barbarism.” Did Verne guess he would join this pantheon, and that he himself would “astound the age?” It gives me shivers. And who would not delight in Leviathian IV, a gigantic ocean liner with trees and horses on its top deck?

I could not help myself. I had to highlight passages. “I love youth, provided it is young!” “Well, my friend, an army that fights for a financial motive will no longer be composed of soldiers, but of looters and thieves!” “Michel soon identified him as belonging to the genus Number, order Cashier.” “A clock that measures nothing but suffering.” There were many, many others.

All of Verne’s analogies, metaphors, and similes are creative and wonderfully playful. His characters delight in them, as do we, and the camaraderie between his like-minded souls creates in the reader a deep affection for their concerns.

0 Comments

#81: The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. Van Vogt

7/26/2014

0 Comments

There are no “U’s” on my list, since John Updike’s Toward the End of Time failed the “I must like you in twenty pages” rule. Just too thematically f–king precious, in the wise words of Joe Haldeman. And in twenty pages, no science fiction other than setting it in 2020. But I loved the picture of the author on the back page, taken by his wife. I need to keep that, if not the book.

Van Vogt has written a lot, and other books are touted as his best, but I chose this one because I loved the title. As a biology major, every class I took started with a recap of Charles Darwin’s fateful voyage on The Beagle. As the classes progressed, I got the feeling the teachers were bored with the introduction, and added increasing amounts of Darwinian trivia. His wife was a Wedgewood heiress. That’s one I remember.

It seemed a worthy vessel to take into space. I’m not the only one who thought that, either. Did you ever wonder where Star Trek got its officers, decks, communicators, shields, and star dates from? Did you ever wonder where the idea of the monstrous little alien eating its way through its host came from in Alien? This book!

That being said, not much more is offered than very cool ideas. The stories, writing, and characterizations are boring, and sometimes painful. In self-defense, I skimmed the last part of the book, a compilation of five original Space Beagle stories written between 1939 and 1943.

Clever ideas will hold their own over time, but good writing would be an added bonus.

0 Comments

#87: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndam

#86: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe

#85: The Embedding by Ian Watson

#84: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

#83: The Opiuchi Hotline by John Varley

#82: Paris in the Twentieth Century by Jules Verne

#81: The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. Van Vogt

Archives

Categories