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#96: The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner

10/19/2014

An unwritten rule of dystopia: Everyone Dies. The protagonists do not meet with merry endings in these stories, not a one. This particular one is environmental dystopia, fresh on the heels of Silent Spring. It made me realize something I probably should have already, that dystopias are “problems writ large,” not necessarily a prediction of what the future may bring. Brunner’s polluted planet that collapses into war and plague seems a bit dire forty years after this book was written, but his concerns are realistic. E. Coli outbreaks, terrorism attacks with airplanes, and an obtuse president (Prexy) who would consider a Nobel Peace Prize a direct affront to the United States?

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

I’ve wanted to read this book since I heard about it. I love the title, from Milton’s Lycidas. When this was written in 1972, he’d already written 70 books, including the Hugo winning Sands of Zanzibar. Jealousy ensues.

So, in jealous pique, I will bring up one of the worst “puh-lease” reactions I’ve ever had to a book in my life. Black man is foully killed in misunderstanding after being found grasping at white woman with torn clothing and bleeding (from menstruation). What’s worse than a reveal? A completely artificial setup only to achieve an effect.

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#95: More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

10/5/2014

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Another great 50's book, another book about hive (or here, gestalt) intellect, and another foundation writer. I do not see how Mr. Sturgeon could not have influenced Stephen King, Peter Straub, Peter S. Beagle, Frank Herbert, John Crowley, and so many other authors. This book addresses telepathy, teleportation, telekinises.

I really enjoyed the story, it was so complete and encapsulated upon itself, it was difficult to tease out a lesson from it. Therefore, I am going to steal from Delaney’s On Writing, which has a section addressing suspense, surprise, drama, and violence. Chip advocates that violence makes the reader shut down, and that suspense, surprise, and drama are better forms for the novel. This book may very well be proof: you never see Lone die, or Janie abused, the twins beaten, but the suspense is flavorful and memorable. It works.

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#94: Blood Music by Greg Bear

10/5/2014

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This one belongs on the list. Fractured, dangerous characters, imaginative science, plot ante-ups. Written in 1985, it covers micro-sentience much more refreshingly than Brain Plague would fifteen years later. Added treats for me were the familiar settings – La Jolla, Livermore, Salinas, Highway 5 south, Irvine, the San Luis Reservoir, Carmel, and even ending up in Wales. I thought the science was wonderful, but I’m not sure how much a novice without a few years of Biology classes under their belts would glean from it. It was book candy for me.

It’s also a book I couldn’t put down, and I read it in a few days. The style of it is a really intoxicating merge of the wistfulness of Gene Wolfe and John Crowley, with the visual, visceral immediacy of Stephen King and Alec Effinger. Smooth and gritty at the same time. How do they do that?

The flaws of the primary character, presented early and clearly, drive this story: Vergil I. Ulum does not understand consequences of action. It is a great lesson, in high relief: it is not the heroic parts of a story that make the fireworks.

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An Aside: Thomas Pinchon

10/5/2014

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When I first embarked on this reading list, I had intended Roger Zelazny to be my last book, a fitting honor. I had intended on reading authors A through Z, roughly four books a letter. But I had not known that there were authors I would have to set aside, books I would have to skip, and letters which are not represented by any authors at all. Besides, I don’t count terribly well.

So, I have seven more books to go to make the titular hundred. This gives me a chance to include Dune and Ender’s Game which surely belong on this list but I had left off because I had read both so many times. And it gives me a chance to add a few more authors whom I have not had the opportunity to sample, and who may, or may not have a place here.

Continuing on, I already knew I would pity the author who would have to follow Roger Zelazny. Let’s see. Who shall it be? I chose Thomas Pynchon.

Thomas Pynchon is considered a writing phenomenon, a writer of real literature, and is honored by all sorts of people. Praise has been liberally dumped on him for several of his books. Gravity’s Rainbow is introduced as a story about a guy who gets erections prior to WWII bombings – pass on that one – and V was nine hundred pages, so I decided the cowardly route: the much lauded 152-page The Crying of Lot 49.

Oh, it sucked. Post Modernism. Bleah. I hated it with Delany, Disch, and Russ, and I hate it here. There is no science fiction here, either; so I finally decided not to include it in my reading list, even though I did sort of finish it. Because it was short and billed as masterful, I skimmed it through, and found nothing even remotely appealing. What were people thinking? Worse, it is billed as satire, but as a dorky precursor to The DaVinci Code, it only comes off as extremely pretentious writing of the“Oh, look how cleverly ditzy and satiric my sentences are!” ilk. Yech.

Okay, I’ve been thinking it for quite a while, but I am now saying it here. You know the quip that Ginger Rogers was a better dancer than Fred Estaire because she did everything he did, but backwards and in heels? Fine science fiction as a genre is better than “literature” because it has to do everything that literature does – build a Story with cadence, timbre, poetry, thematic resonance, everything – and it must also effectively braid in scientific elements to support all of those things. Moreover, those scientific elements have very heavy work to do: in addition to their duties to the story and plot, their effects on human condition and character must not only be anticipated, but prognosticated.

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#96: The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner

#95: More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

#94: Blood Music by Greg Bear

An Aside: Thomas Pinchon

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