Simon Clark
The Night of the Triffids
469 pages
published in 2001
It's been twenty-five years since Bill Masen with his family and others escaped the triffids by fleeing to the Isle of Wight, just off the coast of England. It was a wise move, for the triffids could not cross over to mount any sort of large scale attack. Bill's son, David, has grown up and is now a pilot of the few aircraft available to them.
This novel begins much like Wyndham's novel, with a celestial catastrophe. Only instead of bright lights in the night which blinds all who see them, David and the others now face a day of complete darkness. It is darker now this morning that it would ever be at night, for there is no sun, no moon, and no stars. Only the Blind can function normally; the Sighted need lights. In addition, some triffids have made it to the island, a rare occurrence, but still possible. Is it a coincidence or is there a link there?
David is ordered to make a reconnaissance flight to determine if this darkness is caused by some sort of strange cloud. At one point during the flight, he loses radio contact and becomes lost. Forced to land, he finds himself threatened by triffids. But he is rescued by a ship from New York City. Initially they had promised to take him back to his island, but upon receiving a radio message, they head for their base, Manhattan Island to be exact.
He is not a prisoner and is treated well. Of course he is trapped on Manhattan for the triffids are everywhere. But, then so is everybody else. He is amazed at how well the people of NY live; it's almost as though the triffid invasion and the Blinding never happened. But there is a dark side to the life these people lead.
Shortly after David arrives, he is kidnapped by the Foresters, those who live outside NYC in small communities. They lead a precarious existence for they are always under attack by the triffids. At first David does not understand why they live out in the wilderness and not in NYC. Shortly after he arrives, he learns that the triffids are not the only threat and that the communities are threatened not only by the triffids but also by the military might of NYC. It is from them that David learns of the suffering and misery that underlies the apparent prosperity of NYC and the threat they present to those who oppose them.
One point that wasn't resolved in the first novel was that of the intelligence of the triffids. And, were they conscious? David becomes increasingly convinced that the triffids are capable of planning and working together in their attacks on humans, especially on human settlements. Another question still remains unanswered: what, if any, is the relationship between the triffids and the blinding lights?
The Night of the Triffids has a different feel to it. While it was interesting, I thought The Day of the Triffids was a better book. But, then again, it's been years since I read it, so I might see it differently now.
Showing posts with label SF novels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SF novels. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Frank Herbert: The Exploits of Jorj X. McKie, Saboteur Extraordinary
Frank Herbert
Whipping Star a novel
Once, long centuries past, con-sentients with a psychological compulsion to "do good" had captured the government. Unaware of the the writhing complexities, the mingled guilts end self-punishments, beneath their compulsion, they had eliminated virtually all delays and red tape from government. The great machine with its blundering power over sentient life had slipped into high gear, had moved faster and faster. laws had been conceived and passed in the same hour. Appropriations had flashed into being and were spent in a fortnight. New bureaus for the mos improbable purposes had leaped int existence and proliferated like some insane fungus.
Government had become a great destructive wheel without a governor, whirling with such frantic speed that it spread chaos wherever it touched.
In desperation, a handful of sentients had conceived the Sabotage Corps to slow that wheel. There had been bloodshed and other degrees of violence, but the wheel had been slowed. In time, the Corps had become a Bureau, and the Bureau was whatever it was today--a organization headed into its own corridors of entropy, a group of sentients who preferred subtle diversion to violence. . . but were prepared for violence when the need arose.
This, of course, goes against conventional wisdom which insists that slow, inefficient governments, those that are bound up with red tape, are bad governments. It even suggests that slow and inefficient governments provide more freedom for its citizens than do fast and efficient governments. It's an interesting question to meditate on.
So what keeps the BuSab from turning into a juggernaut? Their promotion policy. The way you get promoted is to sabotage your boss. The Bureau of Sabotage therefore slows itself down and makes itself more inefficient by regularly replacing its management.
The Whipping Star is one of two novels that feature the exploits of Jorj X. McKie, Saboteur Extraordinary. The other novel is The Dosadi Experiment, one of my favorite novels by Frank Herbert, second only to Dune. In addition, there are two short stories: "A Matter of Traces" and "The Tactful Saboteur." While none of the stories are sequels, they are all set in Herbert's ConSentiency Universe, which include a galactic government in which humans and aliens are equal, something a bit unusual for a story first published in the late 50s and early 60s.
Jorj X. McKie is the protagonist in all four stories, and he clearly is not the typical handsome heroic Anglo-Saxon hero found in most SF at that time.He is described as a "squat little man, angry red hair, face like a disgruntled frog." If a film were to be made of one of these stories, I wonder who would play McKie.
The sentient races of the ConSentiency Universe have been blessed by the appearance of the Calebans, an alien race that apparently looks like or possibly inhabits something like a beach ball. Yet, this race provides the sentient races with a means of travel, the jump doors, that ignores the limitations posed by the speed of light. What is most surprising is that, as best as anyone can figure, there are only 83 of them. Well, there were 83 when they were first encountered, but they have disappeared lately so that now only one remains. McKie's assignment is to track down the last one and find out why the others have disappeared.
This sounds simple except for several minor details. The last Caleban has signed a contract with Mliss Abnethe, a woman who has an obsession with whipping things. Since she is one of the richest people in the galaxy, she was able to escape imprisonment for capturing and whipping other humans, but she had to agree to sin no more. She took that to mean that she couldn't go around whipping humans, but there was no mention of aliens. So, she decided to practice her obsession on a Caleban.
The other minor detail is that Calebans can't communicate too well with other sentients. In fact, nobody is certain that there's any communication at all. The parts I enjoyed most in the novel occurs when McKie meets up with the remaining Caleban and attempts to question him? her? it? about the fate of the other 82 Calebans. When the Caleban speaks, I can't help but wonder if those really are coherent rational statements or words that were just randomly assembled.
When McKie finally locates the last Caleban, he learns that the situation is much worse than he thought. The whipping in some way reduces the Caleban's life force. In fact, another five to ten whippings will destroy it, the last Caleban. When that happens every being who has ever used the Caleban's jump doors will die. Since everybody uses the jump doors regularly, including McKie, this means the end of sentient life in the Galaxy, or perhaps the Universe.
What I enjoyed also was something that didn't appear. Herbert didn't spend several chapters going into Mliss Abnethe's obsession, in other words a long-winded treatise how this obsession related to certain traumatic events in her childhood, something many contemporary writers find it necessary in order to expand the length of the story. Nor did he provide us with pages of excruciating detail on why McKie had racked up over 50 divorces so far. These were givens. This is an SF novel and not a psychoanalytical case study.
I think you might enjoy the story as long as you don't spend too much time trying to understand the pseudoscience.
Whipping Star a novel
Once, long centuries past, con-sentients with a psychological compulsion to "do good" had captured the government. Unaware of the the writhing complexities, the mingled guilts end self-punishments, beneath their compulsion, they had eliminated virtually all delays and red tape from government. The great machine with its blundering power over sentient life had slipped into high gear, had moved faster and faster. laws had been conceived and passed in the same hour. Appropriations had flashed into being and were spent in a fortnight. New bureaus for the mos improbable purposes had leaped int existence and proliferated like some insane fungus.
Government had become a great destructive wheel without a governor, whirling with such frantic speed that it spread chaos wherever it touched.
In desperation, a handful of sentients had conceived the Sabotage Corps to slow that wheel. There had been bloodshed and other degrees of violence, but the wheel had been slowed. In time, the Corps had become a Bureau, and the Bureau was whatever it was today--a organization headed into its own corridors of entropy, a group of sentients who preferred subtle diversion to violence. . . but were prepared for violence when the need arose.
This, of course, goes against conventional wisdom which insists that slow, inefficient governments, those that are bound up with red tape, are bad governments. It even suggests that slow and inefficient governments provide more freedom for its citizens than do fast and efficient governments. It's an interesting question to meditate on.
So what keeps the BuSab from turning into a juggernaut? Their promotion policy. The way you get promoted is to sabotage your boss. The Bureau of Sabotage therefore slows itself down and makes itself more inefficient by regularly replacing its management.
The Whipping Star is one of two novels that feature the exploits of Jorj X. McKie, Saboteur Extraordinary. The other novel is The Dosadi Experiment, one of my favorite novels by Frank Herbert, second only to Dune. In addition, there are two short stories: "A Matter of Traces" and "The Tactful Saboteur." While none of the stories are sequels, they are all set in Herbert's ConSentiency Universe, which include a galactic government in which humans and aliens are equal, something a bit unusual for a story first published in the late 50s and early 60s.
Jorj X. McKie is the protagonist in all four stories, and he clearly is not the typical handsome heroic Anglo-Saxon hero found in most SF at that time.He is described as a "squat little man, angry red hair, face like a disgruntled frog." If a film were to be made of one of these stories, I wonder who would play McKie.
The sentient races of the ConSentiency Universe have been blessed by the appearance of the Calebans, an alien race that apparently looks like or possibly inhabits something like a beach ball. Yet, this race provides the sentient races with a means of travel, the jump doors, that ignores the limitations posed by the speed of light. What is most surprising is that, as best as anyone can figure, there are only 83 of them. Well, there were 83 when they were first encountered, but they have disappeared lately so that now only one remains. McKie's assignment is to track down the last one and find out why the others have disappeared.
This sounds simple except for several minor details. The last Caleban has signed a contract with Mliss Abnethe, a woman who has an obsession with whipping things. Since she is one of the richest people in the galaxy, she was able to escape imprisonment for capturing and whipping other humans, but she had to agree to sin no more. She took that to mean that she couldn't go around whipping humans, but there was no mention of aliens. So, she decided to practice her obsession on a Caleban.
The other minor detail is that Calebans can't communicate too well with other sentients. In fact, nobody is certain that there's any communication at all. The parts I enjoyed most in the novel occurs when McKie meets up with the remaining Caleban and attempts to question him? her? it? about the fate of the other 82 Calebans. When the Caleban speaks, I can't help but wonder if those really are coherent rational statements or words that were just randomly assembled.
When McKie finally locates the last Caleban, he learns that the situation is much worse than he thought. The whipping in some way reduces the Caleban's life force. In fact, another five to ten whippings will destroy it, the last Caleban. When that happens every being who has ever used the Caleban's jump doors will die. Since everybody uses the jump doors regularly, including McKie, this means the end of sentient life in the Galaxy, or perhaps the Universe.
What I enjoyed also was something that didn't appear. Herbert didn't spend several chapters going into Mliss Abnethe's obsession, in other words a long-winded treatise how this obsession related to certain traumatic events in her childhood, something many contemporary writers find it necessary in order to expand the length of the story. Nor did he provide us with pages of excruciating detail on why McKie had racked up over 50 divorces so far. These were givens. This is an SF novel and not a psychoanalytical case study.
I think you might enjoy the story as long as you don't spend too much time trying to understand the pseudoscience.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Alfred Bester's Masterpiece: The Stars My Destination, Pt. 1
Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination
It's been often said that character development is rather weak in SF, as science and technology and problem-solving tend to be the central focus. One very early exception to this is Gully Foyle, the main character in The Stars My Destination (TSMD). When I first read TSMD, I was amazed to find someone who emerged from the crowd. He is now my No. 1 Most Unforgettable SF Character. As an early discarded title suggests, he can best be described as a predator. There are also several other characters who could carry a novel of their own. Some of which are mentioned later.
It's a classic whose literary roots now go back almost two centuries: the revenge tale of Edmund Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo. Both Dantes and Foyle were trapped, and both manage to escape with considerable wealth which they use to remake themselves--from a fishing boat captain to a Count and from a lowly merchant seaman to one of the elite, Foyle of Foyle. And, both have the same goal, revenge on those who trapped them and, ironically, enriched them.
But, before Gully became a revenge-driven predator, he was a cypher, mostly just existing. The following is a picture of his character as reflected "in the official Merchant Marine records.
---------------------------------------------------------
"FOYLE, GULLIVER------AS-128/127:006
EDUCATION: NONE
SKILLS NONE
MERITS NONE
RECOMMENDATIONS NONE
(PERSONNEL COMMENTS)
A man of physical strength and intellectual potential stunted by lack of ambition. Energies at minimum. The stereotype Common Man. Some unexpected shock might possibly awaken him, but Psych cannot find the key. Not recommended for promotion. Has reached a dead end."
------------------------------------------------------------
In the beginning Foyle was a non-entity, barely conscious of himself as a human being. The psychological profile said it would take a shock to awaken Foyle to be able to function at somewhere near his potential. The shock appeared--being abandoned to die by the sister-ship Vorga. Whatever else was missing in Foyle's personality, self preservation was obviously functioning. Once he manages to escape, he changes from a non-entity to a brutal but
intelligent individual driven solely by revenge.
Significant characters in the novel;
Peter Yang-Yeovil (Yin-Yang?): the Spy master who is a direct ancestor of Mencius (a real historical person who was the most famous follower of Confucius--confusion about dates, but could be as early as 385 BC and lived as late as 289 BC).
Saul Dagenham: the radioactive security chief
Robin: the jaunte and social graces teacher, who refuses to become his Romance Instructor
Jiz: frustrated by the restrictions placed on women and turns to crime to gain her freedom, a precursor of numerous female thieves, assassins, and bodyguards found in later cyberpunk novels.
Olivia: the Ice Princess, bored by her luxurious but restricted life who engages in various illegal business ventures.
I found it frustrating to encounter these people so seldom.
I think the creation of Gully Foyle is TSMD's greatest strength. Encountering him back in the 50s was a shock in comparison to the relatively bland and cardboard characters usually found in most SF stories, and in spite of the past 60 years of development of characterization in SF, I consider Gully to still be one of the strongest characters in SF.
Probably the weakest aspect of the novel would be the culture created by jaunting--I think it's a bit thin--it reminds me of many rock-and-roll performances--lots of bright lights, smoke, noise, but a bit thin on substance or quality. While his world isn't as fully developed as Dune, for example, it still comes alive as an hectic, neon-lit, flashing world. My copy is around 250 pages and it would take a lot larger work to really develop the culture to some depth. However, it is fun to read and Bester's satiric eye has nailed the future aristocracy quite well.
Bester has included a number of mythic elements in this work. Gully can be seen as a dying and resurrecting god in one sense, for he does come back after being marooned in space and left to die by another ship, even though it belonged to the same company. He then engages on a quest, not for a Holy Grail but for a far more human reason--revenge.
To be continued
The Stars My Destination
It's been often said that character development is rather weak in SF, as science and technology and problem-solving tend to be the central focus. One very early exception to this is Gully Foyle, the main character in The Stars My Destination (TSMD). When I first read TSMD, I was amazed to find someone who emerged from the crowd. He is now my No. 1 Most Unforgettable SF Character. As an early discarded title suggests, he can best be described as a predator. There are also several other characters who could carry a novel of their own. Some of which are mentioned later.
It's a classic whose literary roots now go back almost two centuries: the revenge tale of Edmund Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo. Both Dantes and Foyle were trapped, and both manage to escape with considerable wealth which they use to remake themselves--from a fishing boat captain to a Count and from a lowly merchant seaman to one of the elite, Foyle of Foyle. And, both have the same goal, revenge on those who trapped them and, ironically, enriched them.
But, before Gully became a revenge-driven predator, he was a cypher, mostly just existing. The following is a picture of his character as reflected "in the official Merchant Marine records.
---------------------------------------------------------
"FOYLE, GULLIVER------AS-128/127:006
EDUCATION: NONE
SKILLS NONE
MERITS NONE
RECOMMENDATIONS NONE
(PERSONNEL COMMENTS)
A man of physical strength and intellectual potential stunted by lack of ambition. Energies at minimum. The stereotype Common Man. Some unexpected shock might possibly awaken him, but Psych cannot find the key. Not recommended for promotion. Has reached a dead end."
------------------------------------------------------------
Significant characters in the novel;
Peter Yang-Yeovil (Yin-Yang?): the Spy master who is a direct ancestor of Mencius (a real historical person who was the most famous follower of Confucius--confusion about dates, but could be as early as 385 BC and lived as late as 289 BC).
Saul Dagenham: the radioactive security chief
Robin: the jaunte and social graces teacher, who refuses to become his Romance Instructor
Jiz: frustrated by the restrictions placed on women and turns to crime to gain her freedom, a precursor of numerous female thieves, assassins, and bodyguards found in later cyberpunk novels.
Olivia: the Ice Princess, bored by her luxurious but restricted life who engages in various illegal business ventures.
I found it frustrating to encounter these people so seldom.
I think the creation of Gully Foyle is TSMD's greatest strength. Encountering him back in the 50s was a shock in comparison to the relatively bland and cardboard characters usually found in most SF stories, and in spite of the past 60 years of development of characterization in SF, I consider Gully to still be one of the strongest characters in SF.
Probably the weakest aspect of the novel would be the culture created by jaunting--I think it's a bit thin--it reminds me of many rock-and-roll performances--lots of bright lights, smoke, noise, but a bit thin on substance or quality. While his world isn't as fully developed as Dune, for example, it still comes alive as an hectic, neon-lit, flashing world. My copy is around 250 pages and it would take a lot larger work to really develop the culture to some depth. However, it is fun to read and Bester's satiric eye has nailed the future aristocracy quite well.
Bester has included a number of mythic elements in this work. Gully can be seen as a dying and resurrecting god in one sense, for he does come back after being marooned in space and left to die by another ship, even though it belonged to the same company. He then engages on a quest, not for a Holy Grail but for a far more human reason--revenge.
To be continued
Monday, February 9, 2015
Some Great Books Read in 2014
The following are books that I really enjoyed reading during the past year, and, if granted time, there's a good chance I will read them again.
Anthony Powell: A Dance to the Music of Time, Movements 1 and 2.
--We start with Nick Jenkins as a school boy just after WWI and follow him and his friends and acquaintances up to just before the outbreak of WWII. A fascinating look at English life between the two world wars.
--Movements 3 and 4 will probably cover WWII and after. I've got them and they're just waiting for some free time.
--Link to post
http://tinyurl.com/lbyystr
Adrian McKinty: The Cold Cold Ground and I Hear the Sirens in the Streets
--the first two of McKinty's four mysteries set in the Time of the Troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Books 3 and 4 are on my TBR list. It's 1981, and Sean Duffy is one of the few Roman Catholics in the predominantly Protestant police force in Belfast and is viewed with suspicion by both Catholics and Protestants. Complex plots and local color set against a background of a city at war with itself in an undeclared civil war make this a must read series.
--the first two of McKinty's four mysteries set in the Time of the Troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Books 3 and 4 are on my TBR list. It's 1981, and Sean Duffy is one of the few Roman Catholics in the predominantly Protestant police force in Belfast and is viewed with suspicion by both Catholics and Protestants. Complex plots and local color set against a background of a city at war with itself in an undeclared civil war make this a must read series.
M John Harrison: Light, Nova Swing, and Empty Space: A Haunting, the Kefahuchi trilogy
--a space adventure that ranges from the late 20th century to the 25th century. Strange things happen, and some of them never get explained, especially those involving aliens.
--The three novels are relatively independent of each other, but I would recommend reading them in the published order.
--Humans in space, in Harrison's trilogy (in fact in most of his novels), encounter aliens that are truly alien, not just humans in Halloween costumes, as are so many in other works involving aliens. Some are harmless, some helpful, some dangerous (some deliberately and some ??), and many inexplicable.
If you're looking for something different, try this series.
.
Michael Stanley: Death of the Mantis and Deadly Harvest.
--Books 3 and 4 of the cases of Detective "Kubu" of the Botswana Police. Good mysteries, good plots, interesting characters, and fascinating lore about the people of Botswana and southern Africa in general. Waiting now for Book 5. The novels are independent of each other, so they can be read out of order. If you can read only one, then choose Death of the Mantis.
--Books 3 and 4 of the cases of Detective "Kubu" of the Botswana Police. Good mysteries, good plots, interesting characters, and fascinating lore about the people of Botswana and southern Africa in general. Waiting now for Book 5. The novels are independent of each other, so they can be read out of order. If you can read only one, then choose Death of the Mantis.
Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House
--the best haunted house novel I have ever read.
--see post on Oct. 31, 2010, made the first time I read it. The post also contains some comments about the 1963 film.
http://tinyurl.com/mkoy6qj
Gregory Benford: Anomalies
--a great collection of short stories, covering a wide variety of topics: adventures involving time travel, black holes, cryogenics, high tech warfare, a mix of science and religion, and several cosmological theories.
Link to a number of posts about the stories.
http://tinyurl.com/nf3tjja
David Brin: Existence
--Brin's most recent novel. A new look at the First Contact theme and its possible threats.
--he uses multiple narrators to provide a variety of viewpoints responding to the first contact.
--link to post
http://tinyurl.com/on9w5vq
Loren Eiseley: The Night Country
--I joined the Time Reading Program after seeing an ad about the program which featured one paragraph from another of his books. After reading that one, The Immense Journey, I searched for everything and anything written by him.
--See link to various posts about this work.
http://tinyurl.com/k4g9muh
--he uses multiple narrators to provide a variety of viewpoints responding to the first contact.
--link to post
http://tinyurl.com/on9w5vq
Loren Eiseley: The Night Country
--I joined the Time Reading Program after seeing an ad about the program which featured one paragraph from another of his books. After reading that one, The Immense Journey, I searched for everything and anything written by him.
--See link to various posts about this work.
http://tinyurl.com/k4g9muh
Kobo Abe': The Face of Another
--a man whose face is terribly scarred from an industrial accident creates a lifelike mask, that seems to take on a life of its own when he wears it.
--a man whose face is terribly scarred from an industrial accident creates a lifelike mask, that seems to take on a life of its own when he wears it.
The following link leads to posts about the novel and the film
http://tinyurl.com/pvdmbjt
Franz Werfel: Star of the Unborn
--little known and mostly ignored SF novel about a man who dies and is resurrected 100.000 years in the future and presented as a wedding gift.
--fascinating picture of future humans and their culture
--stuffy and somewhat pompous narrator adds to the fun. He reminds me of the narrator in Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus.
--link to posts about the novel
http://tinyurl.com/o3dr7vdhttp://tinyurl.com/pvdmbjt
Franz Werfel: Star of the Unborn
--little known and mostly ignored SF novel about a man who dies and is resurrected 100.000 years in the future and presented as a wedding gift.
--fascinating picture of future humans and their culture
--stuffy and somewhat pompous narrator adds to the fun. He reminds me of the narrator in Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus.
--link to posts about the novel
Friday, February 7, 2014
Some great books I read in 2013
As I had mentioned in my previous post, I lost considerable information regarding books I had read. This will therefore be a partial list of some interesting books I had read during 2013 and some I might read again.
Nevada Barr: Track of the Cat
This is actually the second book I had read by Nevada Barr. The first was The Rope, the prequel that was published in 2013, which I read for a f-2-f mystery group. It wasn't bad, just highly improbable I thought, but other members assured me that many of her other works were much better. So, I grabbed this one which had been the first in the series. I found it to be a much more enjoyable read and consequently I will go on to read others in the series. I also found that being familiar with the park the book is set in just adds to the fun.
Harry Beston: The Outermost House
This is from my post last year about this book: "Beston had had a cabin built on Cape Cod, not far from the Atlantic shore of the peninsula. In September of 1924 he went to the cabin, planning on spending only a few weeks there. Instead he found himself reluctant to leave. His two-week stay eventually lasted a full year, in which he took copious notes about the seasonal changes occurring there to the beach, the weather, and the birds, plants, and animals that were his neighbors. The Outermost House is the result of that unplanned year on Cape Cod." This was my second reading of The Outermost House, and I doubt very much that it will be the last.
Giles Blunt: Until the Night
Until the Night is the sixth in the Canadian police procedurals in his series featuring Detective John Cardinal. It's hard to find Blunt now in the US, so I have to check his website and hit the internet to buy his books. Blunt is one of those few whose books I always buy, if I can't get them in the library. He does include some issues that involve Cardinal away from his job, but he doesn't let them intrude into the main flow of the work, which is a police procedural. His plots tend to be complex. Occasionally we are told the identity of the killer(s) early on, and the focus is then on Cardinal and his fellow officers' attempt to solve the crime and the killers who are trying to remain hidden. If we don't know who the killer is, then the plots are complex, and I don't remember guessing correctly until later on near the end.
Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent
Contrary to many of Conrad's earlier works, The Secret Agent is set in London England. A foreign government, which appears to be Russia, attempts to influence the English government to rescind its policy of being a safe haven for those suspected of terrorist acts against other governments. One of the foreign government's tactics is the use of an agent provocateur to encourage the terrorists to become active in England and thereby eliminate England's tolerance of them. Verloc is one of those employed by the foreign governments, but they are unaware that he is a double agent, for he is spying on the local anarchist group for the London Police. It all goes wrong when he is persuaded to blow up the Greenwich Observatory. (The novel is based on a true incident.)
Joseph Conrad: Mirror of the Sea
One of two autobiographical memoirs by Conrad that relates to his years as a seaman, officer, and captain. He talks of various ports, captains, storms, and perils of the sea. In Conrad's own words, "I have attempt here. . . to lay bare with the unreserve of a last hour's confession the terms of my relation with the sea, which beginning mysteriously, like any great passion the inscrutable Gods send to mortals, went on unreasoning and invincible, surviving the test of disillusion, defying the disenchantment that lurks in every day of a strenuous life; went on full of love's delight and lover's anguish, facing them in open-eyed exultation without bitterness and without repining, from the first hour to the last." He writes for us landlubbers, with little technical terminology. It's an eye-opener from a seaman's point of view.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: The Demons or The Devils (aka The Possessed)
This novel is Dostoyevsky's satire of various political ideologies and specifically of Turgenev's earlier novel Fathers and Sons. Turgenev is satirized by Dostoyevsky in the character of the writer Karmazinov, who attempts to win the favor of the Russian Western/European-leaning social critics. The novel, published in 1872, is almost prophetic as it depicts the revolutionaries as favoring the use of terror to cow the population and the creation of three person cells to protect themselves from government infiltrators. The contrast of conflicting ideologies of social democracy and radical totalitarianism is depicted in the differences between Stepan Verkhovensky, the idealistic social democratic reformer, and his son Pyotr Verkhovensky, the nihilist terrorist (the descendents of the social reformers), and therefore Dostoyevsky's version of Fathers and Sons.
Karin Fossum: The Caller
A disturbed boy plays mischevious and sometimes malicious tricks on his neighbors. For example, he sneaks into a neighbor's house and spills blood on a sleeping infant. The parents, of course, are panic-stricken until they learn it was a hoax. Now, they are angry. The boy commits a number of these acts as a self-appointed messenger attempting to disturb their complacency. However, some of his victims are determined not to let it pass, once his identity is known. This is where Inspector Sejer gets involved. Again, a great novel from a author whose works I get without even thinking about it. It's automatic.
Hermann Hesse: Magister Ludi
Hesse, who, in his previous novels, argued for the superiority of the spirit, the mind, the intellect, creates a small province in which certain inhabitants are able to live the life of the mind, the intellect, without concern for the necessity of earning a living. They are supported by a government subsidy and the only requirement is that they provide teachers for the rest of the country. But, here in what should have been the Eden that characters in his previous novels had searched for, Hesse turns his back on his previous beliefs and argues that the life of the intellect must be meshed with the material world, the world of striving and getting, of achieving and earning, and of greed and power.
Drew Magary: The Postmortal
The following is from my post last year about The Postmortal: "Drew Magary's The Postmortal is probably the best SF novel that explores the theme of an extended life span that I've read in decades, if not ever. It attempts to realistically depict the effects of the development of an anti-aging medical treatment on society. A researcher accidentally discovers a gene that controls aging and eventually comes up with a treatment that shuts down the gene. Those given the cure (as it is popularly known) immediately stop aging and remain at whatever physical state they were in when given the treatment. It is not immortality. They can still die from accidents, disease, etc., but they will remain physically the same for an unknown length of time. I read it twice last year and will read it again.
Walter M. Miller, Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz
This is another reread and one of my favorite post-holocaust novels. It is really three novellas, which focus on a religious order of monks who initially were followers of Leibowitz, a scientist. Leibowitz gave his followers the task of preserving whatever scientific knowledge they could find. Like the monks of the Middle Ages, they spent their lives copying out whatever written materials they could find. The three novellas take place several hundred years apart, going from a subsistence level of existence in the first part, to a society that is now rich enough to permit some of its members to do something other than bring in food in the second section, to a society that has developed science once again to the point that they now have nuclear weapons.
Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
A very complex telling of an adulterous relationshipA: the initial stages, the emergence of the relationship into the open, and the gradual disintegration resulting from the characters of the two people, and the effect on them of the responses of the people about them. This is my third reading, and it well repays the time spent.
Nevada Barr: Track of the Cat
This is actually the second book I had read by Nevada Barr. The first was The Rope, the prequel that was published in 2013, which I read for a f-2-f mystery group. It wasn't bad, just highly improbable I thought, but other members assured me that many of her other works were much better. So, I grabbed this one which had been the first in the series. I found it to be a much more enjoyable read and consequently I will go on to read others in the series. I also found that being familiar with the park the book is set in just adds to the fun.
Harry Beston: The Outermost House
This is from my post last year about this book: "Beston had had a cabin built on Cape Cod, not far from the Atlantic shore of the peninsula. In September of 1924 he went to the cabin, planning on spending only a few weeks there. Instead he found himself reluctant to leave. His two-week stay eventually lasted a full year, in which he took copious notes about the seasonal changes occurring there to the beach, the weather, and the birds, plants, and animals that were his neighbors. The Outermost House is the result of that unplanned year on Cape Cod." This was my second reading of The Outermost House, and I doubt very much that it will be the last.
Giles Blunt: Until the Night
Until the Night is the sixth in the Canadian police procedurals in his series featuring Detective John Cardinal. It's hard to find Blunt now in the US, so I have to check his website and hit the internet to buy his books. Blunt is one of those few whose books I always buy, if I can't get them in the library. He does include some issues that involve Cardinal away from his job, but he doesn't let them intrude into the main flow of the work, which is a police procedural. His plots tend to be complex. Occasionally we are told the identity of the killer(s) early on, and the focus is then on Cardinal and his fellow officers' attempt to solve the crime and the killers who are trying to remain hidden. If we don't know who the killer is, then the plots are complex, and I don't remember guessing correctly until later on near the end.
Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent
Contrary to many of Conrad's earlier works, The Secret Agent is set in London England. A foreign government, which appears to be Russia, attempts to influence the English government to rescind its policy of being a safe haven for those suspected of terrorist acts against other governments. One of the foreign government's tactics is the use of an agent provocateur to encourage the terrorists to become active in England and thereby eliminate England's tolerance of them. Verloc is one of those employed by the foreign governments, but they are unaware that he is a double agent, for he is spying on the local anarchist group for the London Police. It all goes wrong when he is persuaded to blow up the Greenwich Observatory. (The novel is based on a true incident.)
Joseph Conrad: Mirror of the Sea
One of two autobiographical memoirs by Conrad that relates to his years as a seaman, officer, and captain. He talks of various ports, captains, storms, and perils of the sea. In Conrad's own words, "I have attempt here. . . to lay bare with the unreserve of a last hour's confession the terms of my relation with the sea, which beginning mysteriously, like any great passion the inscrutable Gods send to mortals, went on unreasoning and invincible, surviving the test of disillusion, defying the disenchantment that lurks in every day of a strenuous life; went on full of love's delight and lover's anguish, facing them in open-eyed exultation without bitterness and without repining, from the first hour to the last." He writes for us landlubbers, with little technical terminology. It's an eye-opener from a seaman's point of view.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: The Demons or The Devils (aka The Possessed)
This novel is Dostoyevsky's satire of various political ideologies and specifically of Turgenev's earlier novel Fathers and Sons. Turgenev is satirized by Dostoyevsky in the character of the writer Karmazinov, who attempts to win the favor of the Russian Western/European-leaning social critics. The novel, published in 1872, is almost prophetic as it depicts the revolutionaries as favoring the use of terror to cow the population and the creation of three person cells to protect themselves from government infiltrators. The contrast of conflicting ideologies of social democracy and radical totalitarianism is depicted in the differences between Stepan Verkhovensky, the idealistic social democratic reformer, and his son Pyotr Verkhovensky, the nihilist terrorist (the descendents of the social reformers), and therefore Dostoyevsky's version of Fathers and Sons.
Karin Fossum: The Caller
A disturbed boy plays mischevious and sometimes malicious tricks on his neighbors. For example, he sneaks into a neighbor's house and spills blood on a sleeping infant. The parents, of course, are panic-stricken until they learn it was a hoax. Now, they are angry. The boy commits a number of these acts as a self-appointed messenger attempting to disturb their complacency. However, some of his victims are determined not to let it pass, once his identity is known. This is where Inspector Sejer gets involved. Again, a great novel from a author whose works I get without even thinking about it. It's automatic.
Hermann Hesse: Magister Ludi
Hesse, who, in his previous novels, argued for the superiority of the spirit, the mind, the intellect, creates a small province in which certain inhabitants are able to live the life of the mind, the intellect, without concern for the necessity of earning a living. They are supported by a government subsidy and the only requirement is that they provide teachers for the rest of the country. But, here in what should have been the Eden that characters in his previous novels had searched for, Hesse turns his back on his previous beliefs and argues that the life of the intellect must be meshed with the material world, the world of striving and getting, of achieving and earning, and of greed and power.
Drew Magary: The Postmortal
The following is from my post last year about The Postmortal: "Drew Magary's The Postmortal is probably the best SF novel that explores the theme of an extended life span that I've read in decades, if not ever. It attempts to realistically depict the effects of the development of an anti-aging medical treatment on society. A researcher accidentally discovers a gene that controls aging and eventually comes up with a treatment that shuts down the gene. Those given the cure (as it is popularly known) immediately stop aging and remain at whatever physical state they were in when given the treatment. It is not immortality. They can still die from accidents, disease, etc., but they will remain physically the same for an unknown length of time. I read it twice last year and will read it again.
Walter M. Miller, Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz
This is another reread and one of my favorite post-holocaust novels. It is really three novellas, which focus on a religious order of monks who initially were followers of Leibowitz, a scientist. Leibowitz gave his followers the task of preserving whatever scientific knowledge they could find. Like the monks of the Middle Ages, they spent their lives copying out whatever written materials they could find. The three novellas take place several hundred years apart, going from a subsistence level of existence in the first part, to a society that is now rich enough to permit some of its members to do something other than bring in food in the second section, to a society that has developed science once again to the point that they now have nuclear weapons.
Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
A very complex telling of an adulterous relationshipA: the initial stages, the emergence of the relationship into the open, and the gradual disintegration resulting from the characters of the two people, and the effect on them of the responses of the people about them. This is my third reading, and it well repays the time spent.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
IN MEMORIAM Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury: August 22, 1920 to June 5, 2012
We shall not see his like again.
Novels
The Martian Chronicles
Fahrenheit 451
Dandelion Wine
The Illustrated Man
Some Short Stories
"The Fog Horn"
"There Will Come Soft Rains"
"A Sound of Thunder"
"All Summer in a Day"
"Kaleidoscope"
"The Pedestrian"
"The Crowd"
"The Playground"
"The Veldt"
"The Murderer"
Poet nightingale . . .
Will I hear your later verses
In the vale of death?
-- Anon --
We shall not see his like again.
Novels
The Martian Chronicles
Fahrenheit 451
Dandelion Wine
The Illustrated Man
Some Short Stories
"The Fog Horn"
"There Will Come Soft Rains"
"A Sound of Thunder"
"All Summer in a Day"
"Kaleidoscope"
"The Pedestrian"
"The Crowd"
"The Playground"
"The Veldt"
"The Murderer"
Poet nightingale . . .
Will I hear your later verses
In the vale of death?
-- Anon --
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias (California Troika)
While Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias occupy differing universes, there still are some interesting links drawing them together. A brief reminder: Wild Shore (WS) is the post-holocaust novel about life in what was once Orange County; The Gold Coast (GC) tells of life in a Orange County which has become completely covered over with expressways, condos, and shopping malls; and Pacific Edge (PE) relates of life in a world that takes the future of humanity, the environment, and our fellow creature into account.
All three novels open with a similar event or adventure, depending upon the novel--digging up the past. In WS, Henry and his friends engage in a midnight raid on a graveyard located in one of the mostly deserted urban areas in the vicinity. They are looking for the silver trimmings (silver is especially valuable as a trade item at the swap meets) from the caskets. The problem is that these are considered to be their property by the scavengers who live there and have been known to kill trespassers. They find that the silver trimmings are not really silver and barely escape the scavengers who have come across them..
The past again becomes important in GC for Jim has persuaded his friends to dig up a parking lot which has paved over an old school, according to maps that Jim has found. He hopes to find a souvenir of that past time before the auto took over the county. In this case, the police take a dim view of the destruction of the parking lot and Jim and his friends barely escape them. One of his friends does manage to escape with a piece of wood.
In PE, Kevin and others in his town are engaged in town work. All residents must donate ten hours a week to doing work needed by the town, which has very few employees, part of the new legislation setting maximum levels of number of employees. Aside from this which is a distinct break from our world, is another even more startling: all governments must obey the same rules. They are busy digging up an old part of the town and putting aside for future use all the items made of metal with copper wiring and actually anything that can be reused.
Digging up the past is obviously an important element in all three novels, but this serves a different purpose in each. In WS it's for something that could be valuable as a bargaining/trading item, in GC, it's for a souvenir of the long ago dead past, while in PE, it's for recyclable items.
A second link uniting the three is the main character's love life, and the course is unfortunately consistent across the three universes. Henry, in WS, falls in love with the sexy daughter of a man who lives on the outskirts of the tiny settlement. He is viewed with suspicion by the others for he seems to have considerable wealth, but from where no one can say. It's a short brief but passionate affair (at least on Henry's side) that ends when Henry discovers the truth behind her sudden passion for him.
In GC, Jim has a short, brief passionate affair with a woman who has just broken up with her boyfriend, or perhaps he has dumped her. In any case, Jim is the lucky recipient of her affection, for a short time, that is.
Kevin, in PE, has been going with a woman for several years now, but it's clearly not going anywhere, and he's losing interest. Then he discovers that his long ago secret love has broken up with her boyfriend after living together for more than a decade. He finds that she suddenly discovers him, and he is ecstatic, until the sad end. He then decides that his old girlfriend is his true love but soon learns that in the interim she has found a new boyfriend.
The path of true love does not run smoothly, regardless of the universe.
The third link is the supposed author of the works, two of which are written by the main character in each work--Henry in WS and Jim in GC. In both cases we are shown just when Henry and Jim get the idea to write down their experiences of the past months which were highly significant for them, their families, and friends. We also hear from the author of PE, but the identify of that person is not clear. The authorial intrusions soon make it difficult to see him as Kevin. They live in two different universes. Comments made by the author also suggest that this is a work of fiction, and not autobiographical in any way. Perhaps this is Robinson's way of suggesting that this world could never exist. Sadly, I have to agree with Robinson that a post holocaust world is far more likely than a world that comes to realize that sheer greed and exploitation must be at least controlled, for eliminating greed and exploitation is impossible.
The last and most intriguing link is also the most direct. In each of the three novels, there is an old man called Tom. In WS, he is called Tom Barnard, and he is one of the few survivors from the pre-holocaust world. He is a valuable member of the small community, for his memories of the past are highly useful. Moreover, he is a teacher who conducts a school for the young people in the community. Literacy among the people of his community may be his greatest contribution. He is also a myth maker, not only telling about the pre-holocaust days but exaggerating the accomplishments of the Old Americans. For example, Shakespeare was an American. At one point, he becomes seriously ill and the entire community is concerned. Existence without Tom Barnard would be unthinkable.
In PE, the old man is also called Tom Barnard. He also lives on the outskirts of the community but is isolated from the community. This is his choice. He had been closely involved in the legislation that created the world as it is today in PE, and he now appears to be taking Voltaire's admonition to "tend to your own garden" quite seriously. He is Kevin's grandfather, and Kevin attempts to get him involved in the struggle to defeat Alfredo's plans. Tom's experience and knowledge would be very useful to those opposing Alfredo.
We find a very different situation in GC. The old man is Jim's uncle. I can't find any mention of him other than Uncle Tom, so I have no idea of what his last name is. He is in a nursing home, with moments of lucidness and times of confusion; He is mostly ignored by Jim, and by society in general, a too typical situation for many older people in our society as well. Jim has to be nagged at by his parents to visit him once in a while. On one visit, Tom is lucid and Jim finally realizes, much too late, that Tom has a storehouse of memories of the way Orange County was before progress took over.
In WS, the post-holocaust novel, and PE, the fantasy universe that has gone green, Tom is a valued member of the community with close ties to both Henry and Kevin. In GC, the universe that is closest to ours, Tom, for the most part, is ignored by Jim and of no value to society.
Highly Recommended (naturally)
All three novels open with a similar event or adventure, depending upon the novel--digging up the past. In WS, Henry and his friends engage in a midnight raid on a graveyard located in one of the mostly deserted urban areas in the vicinity. They are looking for the silver trimmings (silver is especially valuable as a trade item at the swap meets) from the caskets. The problem is that these are considered to be their property by the scavengers who live there and have been known to kill trespassers. They find that the silver trimmings are not really silver and barely escape the scavengers who have come across them..
The past again becomes important in GC for Jim has persuaded his friends to dig up a parking lot which has paved over an old school, according to maps that Jim has found. He hopes to find a souvenir of that past time before the auto took over the county. In this case, the police take a dim view of the destruction of the parking lot and Jim and his friends barely escape them. One of his friends does manage to escape with a piece of wood.
In PE, Kevin and others in his town are engaged in town work. All residents must donate ten hours a week to doing work needed by the town, which has very few employees, part of the new legislation setting maximum levels of number of employees. Aside from this which is a distinct break from our world, is another even more startling: all governments must obey the same rules. They are busy digging up an old part of the town and putting aside for future use all the items made of metal with copper wiring and actually anything that can be reused.
Digging up the past is obviously an important element in all three novels, but this serves a different purpose in each. In WS it's for something that could be valuable as a bargaining/trading item, in GC, it's for a souvenir of the long ago dead past, while in PE, it's for recyclable items.
A second link uniting the three is the main character's love life, and the course is unfortunately consistent across the three universes. Henry, in WS, falls in love with the sexy daughter of a man who lives on the outskirts of the tiny settlement. He is viewed with suspicion by the others for he seems to have considerable wealth, but from where no one can say. It's a short brief but passionate affair (at least on Henry's side) that ends when Henry discovers the truth behind her sudden passion for him.
In GC, Jim has a short, brief passionate affair with a woman who has just broken up with her boyfriend, or perhaps he has dumped her. In any case, Jim is the lucky recipient of her affection, for a short time, that is.
Kevin, in PE, has been going with a woman for several years now, but it's clearly not going anywhere, and he's losing interest. Then he discovers that his long ago secret love has broken up with her boyfriend after living together for more than a decade. He finds that she suddenly discovers him, and he is ecstatic, until the sad end. He then decides that his old girlfriend is his true love but soon learns that in the interim she has found a new boyfriend.
The path of true love does not run smoothly, regardless of the universe.
The third link is the supposed author of the works, two of which are written by the main character in each work--Henry in WS and Jim in GC. In both cases we are shown just when Henry and Jim get the idea to write down their experiences of the past months which were highly significant for them, their families, and friends. We also hear from the author of PE, but the identify of that person is not clear. The authorial intrusions soon make it difficult to see him as Kevin. They live in two different universes. Comments made by the author also suggest that this is a work of fiction, and not autobiographical in any way. Perhaps this is Robinson's way of suggesting that this world could never exist. Sadly, I have to agree with Robinson that a post holocaust world is far more likely than a world that comes to realize that sheer greed and exploitation must be at least controlled, for eliminating greed and exploitation is impossible.
The last and most intriguing link is also the most direct. In each of the three novels, there is an old man called Tom. In WS, he is called Tom Barnard, and he is one of the few survivors from the pre-holocaust world. He is a valuable member of the small community, for his memories of the past are highly useful. Moreover, he is a teacher who conducts a school for the young people in the community. Literacy among the people of his community may be his greatest contribution. He is also a myth maker, not only telling about the pre-holocaust days but exaggerating the accomplishments of the Old Americans. For example, Shakespeare was an American. At one point, he becomes seriously ill and the entire community is concerned. Existence without Tom Barnard would be unthinkable.
In PE, the old man is also called Tom Barnard. He also lives on the outskirts of the community but is isolated from the community. This is his choice. He had been closely involved in the legislation that created the world as it is today in PE, and he now appears to be taking Voltaire's admonition to "tend to your own garden" quite seriously. He is Kevin's grandfather, and Kevin attempts to get him involved in the struggle to defeat Alfredo's plans. Tom's experience and knowledge would be very useful to those opposing Alfredo.
We find a very different situation in GC. The old man is Jim's uncle. I can't find any mention of him other than Uncle Tom, so I have no idea of what his last name is. He is in a nursing home, with moments of lucidness and times of confusion; He is mostly ignored by Jim, and by society in general, a too typical situation for many older people in our society as well. Jim has to be nagged at by his parents to visit him once in a while. On one visit, Tom is lucid and Jim finally realizes, much too late, that Tom has a storehouse of memories of the way Orange County was before progress took over.
In WS, the post-holocaust novel, and PE, the fantasy universe that has gone green, Tom is a valued member of the community with close ties to both Henry and Kevin. In GC, the universe that is closest to ours, Tom, for the most part, is ignored by Jim and of no value to society.
Highly Recommended (naturally)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Kim Stanley Robinson: The California Troika
When Kim Stanley Robinson published these three novels--The Wild Shore (1984), The Gold Coast (1988), and Pacific Edge (1990)-- they were known collectively as "The Orange County Trilogy." In 1995, the three were reissued in trade paperback editions and were then called "The Three Californias." This probably represents the recognition that these three works do not constitute a trilogy, at least not in the accepted sense of the word. Calling them three Californias does suggest that they are related but not as tightly as a trilogy would be.
I think a better descriptive would be the Russian term "troika," which is a sled or carriage drawn by three horses that are harnessed side-by-side. The three horses therefore move forward into space side-by-side and are equals in that sense--no lead or trailing horse. The same is true of Robinson's three novels, for they move forward side-by-side into time. There is no first or last novel. All three are independent, and it makes no difference in which order the three are read. I read them over twenty years ago in the order of publication, and for this second visit, I will read them in the same order.
I never learned the reason for the change from Orange County to California, but my guess would be a marketing decision--more readers might go for a series set in California than in Orange County, because California is a more recognizable locale than Orange County.
These three novels are inhabitants of my TBR bookcase (To Be Reread in this case). I won't read all three back-to-back but hope to be able to move them eventually during the year out of the TBR bookcase. I shall start within the next week or two with The Wild Shore.
The Wild Shore is a post-holocaust novel and belongs in the "what if" SF category. "What if the US was suddenly attacked, and it was the only country attacked." No other country came to the aid of the US for fear of retaliation. The novel begins in 2047, several decades after the war, if a one-sided attack can be called a war. The POV character, Hank Fletcher, is a young man who lives with his father in a small community made up of others who struggle to survive on the California coast in what was once known as Orange County. He can see ships from Japan and other countries as they maintain a blockade along the Pacific Coast. They will prevent any ships from entering or leaving the coastal waters.
The people survive by farming and trading surplus goods and pre-destruction artifacts with other small communities in the area. Not surprisingly, barter is now the dominant economic system. These people's lives are not characterized as part of that idyllic pastoral romance that shows up in so many post-holocaust fantasies. It is a hard, difficult life, and there is little in the way of significant change until several strangers arrive, who claim to be from San Diego, and they have some ideas about disrupting the status quo.
The Gold Coast belongs to the "if this goes on" category of SF. It is Robinson's extrapolation of what life would be like in Orange County, California, if some existing trends continued. It is set in 2027 and the back page description says it better than I could:
Southern California is a developer's dream gone mad, an endless sprawl of condos, freeways, and malls. Jim McPherson, the affluent son of a defense contractor, is a young man lost in a world of fast cars, casual sex, and designer drugs. But his descent into the shadowy underground of industrial terrorism brings him into a shattering confrontation with his family, his goals, and his ideals.
Pacific Edge, the third novel in the troika, is set also in the same area in 2065, but again in a very different universe. It belongs to the "what if" category, and frankly I consider it to be closer to fantasy than the other two works. I, anyway, believe this universe to be the one that is least likely to happen because the question answered by Pacific Edge is this: "What if the whole world suddenly goes green?"
Big is bad, small is good. Air and water pollution are not to be permitted for any reason. No company can have more than a certain number of employees. Growth, unless it is demonstrably necessary for survival, is forbidden; increasing profits has nothing to do with survival and therefore is not considered an adequate reason for expansion. A new set of three "Rs" has been added to the traditional "Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmatic": "Reuse, Recycle, and Repair."
From the back cover description: "Kevin Claiborne, a young builder who has grown up in this 'green' world, now finds himself caught up in the struggle to preserve his community's idyllic way of life from the resurgent forces of greed and exploitation." I suspect this book is on or would be on every Chamber of Commerce's black list.
While there are no links among the novels--all three are independent and occupy separate universes--there are some commonalities among them. Locale, of course, is one of them. Another commonality is that the main character in each is a young male. A third is that shortly after the novels begin, the young male is involved in digging up something from the past. A fourth is the presence of the old man, who provides a type of historical commentary or perhaps even continuity with the past in each of the three novels.
What Robinson has created is a work that provides three different futures for Orange County or California, if you prefer, each of which takes place roughly during the middle third of the 21st century. Robinson thus gives readers an opportunity to select and discuss which is the preferable one and which is the most likely one.
I don't know of any other author who has created a similar series. If there is one, I would certainly like to hear about it.
I think a better descriptive would be the Russian term "troika," which is a sled or carriage drawn by three horses that are harnessed side-by-side. The three horses therefore move forward into space side-by-side and are equals in that sense--no lead or trailing horse. The same is true of Robinson's three novels, for they move forward side-by-side into time. There is no first or last novel. All three are independent, and it makes no difference in which order the three are read. I read them over twenty years ago in the order of publication, and for this second visit, I will read them in the same order.
I never learned the reason for the change from Orange County to California, but my guess would be a marketing decision--more readers might go for a series set in California than in Orange County, because California is a more recognizable locale than Orange County.
These three novels are inhabitants of my TBR bookcase (To Be Reread in this case). I won't read all three back-to-back but hope to be able to move them eventually during the year out of the TBR bookcase. I shall start within the next week or two with The Wild Shore.
The Wild Shore is a post-holocaust novel and belongs in the "what if" SF category. "What if the US was suddenly attacked, and it was the only country attacked." No other country came to the aid of the US for fear of retaliation. The novel begins in 2047, several decades after the war, if a one-sided attack can be called a war. The POV character, Hank Fletcher, is a young man who lives with his father in a small community made up of others who struggle to survive on the California coast in what was once known as Orange County. He can see ships from Japan and other countries as they maintain a blockade along the Pacific Coast. They will prevent any ships from entering or leaving the coastal waters.
The people survive by farming and trading surplus goods and pre-destruction artifacts with other small communities in the area. Not surprisingly, barter is now the dominant economic system. These people's lives are not characterized as part of that idyllic pastoral romance that shows up in so many post-holocaust fantasies. It is a hard, difficult life, and there is little in the way of significant change until several strangers arrive, who claim to be from San Diego, and they have some ideas about disrupting the status quo.
The Gold Coast belongs to the "if this goes on" category of SF. It is Robinson's extrapolation of what life would be like in Orange County, California, if some existing trends continued. It is set in 2027 and the back page description says it better than I could:
Southern California is a developer's dream gone mad, an endless sprawl of condos, freeways, and malls. Jim McPherson, the affluent son of a defense contractor, is a young man lost in a world of fast cars, casual sex, and designer drugs. But his descent into the shadowy underground of industrial terrorism brings him into a shattering confrontation with his family, his goals, and his ideals.
Pacific Edge, the third novel in the troika, is set also in the same area in 2065, but again in a very different universe. It belongs to the "what if" category, and frankly I consider it to be closer to fantasy than the other two works. I, anyway, believe this universe to be the one that is least likely to happen because the question answered by Pacific Edge is this: "What if the whole world suddenly goes green?"
Big is bad, small is good. Air and water pollution are not to be permitted for any reason. No company can have more than a certain number of employees. Growth, unless it is demonstrably necessary for survival, is forbidden; increasing profits has nothing to do with survival and therefore is not considered an adequate reason for expansion. A new set of three "Rs" has been added to the traditional "Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmatic": "Reuse, Recycle, and Repair."
From the back cover description: "Kevin Claiborne, a young builder who has grown up in this 'green' world, now finds himself caught up in the struggle to preserve his community's idyllic way of life from the resurgent forces of greed and exploitation." I suspect this book is on or would be on every Chamber of Commerce's black list.
While there are no links among the novels--all three are independent and occupy separate universes--there are some commonalities among them. Locale, of course, is one of them. Another commonality is that the main character in each is a young male. A third is that shortly after the novels begin, the young male is involved in digging up something from the past. A fourth is the presence of the old man, who provides a type of historical commentary or perhaps even continuity with the past in each of the three novels.
What Robinson has created is a work that provides three different futures for Orange County or California, if you prefer, each of which takes place roughly during the middle third of the 21st century. Robinson thus gives readers an opportunity to select and discuss which is the preferable one and which is the most likely one.
I don't know of any other author who has created a similar series. If there is one, I would certainly like to hear about it.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Alfred Bester, a brief look at two novels
Alfred Bester, is probably best known for two novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination.
While many SF writers are able to come up with ideas or concepts or technology that equal those of Bester, his strength, which is shared by very few, is his ability to take that idea and make it an integral part of the culture that it is embedded in and also an integral part of the story. Removing that SF element from a novel by Bester results in a culture with inexplicable elements and a story that makes little or no sense at all. Many stories that claim to be SF, yet, upon close examination are stories that could be set anywhere, anytime, anyplace. That's not to say that these are bad stories; it's just that they aren't true SF tales at their core but simply stories with a few SF trappings.
In Bester's stories, we find just the opposite. Many writers have employed telepathy or other ESP powers in tales, but for the most part, the telepathy/ESP aspects could be removed with little difficulty, and the tale would remain the same. However, in Bester's The Demolished Man, the telepathy is such an integral part of the work, that removing it leaves little that makes much sense.
A man plans the death of a business rival. Rather than risk blackmail, he decides to do it himself. In this culture, the potential murderer must not only take into consideration the usual problems of committing the crime at a time and place so that there are no witnesses nor leave any evidence that he was at the scene, but he must also come to grips with the situation that the police employ telepaths who would quickly be able to detect his guilt simply by reading his mind. Lacking any psychic powers of his own, he can not prevent this. Since most people have secrets they would not want to become general knowledge, those who are rich will hire their own telepaths to warn them when other telepaths are approaching and therefore take steps to protect themselves. Consequently, in addition to the police, the murderer now has to contend with the problem that other telepaths will be around who would be able to quickly detect his intentions even before he committed the murder. Much of the novel depicts his activities prior to the crime as he works to counter the problems caused by telepathy. The reader also is confronted by a variety of cultural responses to the awareness that now even one's thoughts are no longer safe.
In The Stars My Destination Bester plays again with ESP, but this time with the ability to teleport oneself from one place to another. Teleportation is simply the power to move oneself by power of mind itself. One does not have to get in a car to go across town; one simply imagines ones' destination and one is there. Considering the high price of gas today, this means of transportation looks better every time I think about it.
This is not a story in which teleportation or jaunting, as it is called, is simply tacked onto the society in which it was developed. Bester has gone to considerable lengths to work out the possible effects that this power, which can be taught and is possessed by the majority of people in that society, might have upon that society. One of the most significant effects of this power is the threat to privacy, anywhere and everywhere.
Fortunately juanting has its limitations. One of most significant is that one must be familiar with and be able form a picture of the destination that one wishes to jaunt to. This means that people can jaunt only to places that they have already visited. As the narrator points out, this gives new meaning to the Grand Tour. Moreover, those with superior ability to form an image of a destination can go more places and also farther at one jump than those with a lesser ability to form a mental image of their destination.
Because of jaunting's threat to privacy, the rich and powerful and famous take extraordinary precautions to protect their homes. Each mansion or estate now has a central core that no one but family members are able to enter. Women's bedrooms have no doors or windows; one must jaunt to enter and one can jaunt only to places one has been and therefore can visualize. Bodyguards are selected for their jaunting abilities as well as their ability to react quickly to immediate threats. Speed and flexibility are now all important: the strong but dumb bodyguard is gone.
As with any human ability, jaunting develops its own hierarchy At some levels of society, one's skill level can raise or lower one's status. However, at the upper levels of society, the reverse becomes true; it becomes a reverse status symbol. Prestign of Prestign, one of the wealthiest men on earth, if not the wealthiest, looks down with scorn on jaunting to such an extent that he hasn't jaunted in years. He hires people who jaunt for him.
Cultures have effects upon the elements which are a part of it, and those elements also influence the culture it is embedded within. The automobile in the US is a classic example of the interrelationship between a culture and the elements within that culture. What would our culture be like without the auto, and how has our culture, which believes in that bigger is better, that speed is all important, and that competition is a major part of life, influenced the auto? More recent examples would be the computer and probably today one would have to consider the mobile phone (cell phone). Ask yourself, as you read this text on the Internet, whether life would be different today without the computer or that little phone. Bester's novels show an awareness of this, and this awareness makes his novels what they are--some of the best SF novels ever written.
The next time you are reading an SF novel, ask yourself the following question: is the gizmo or the gadget or whatever the SF component consists of really embedded in the story and the culture so as to be an integral part of it, or is it simply a post-it note that's there temporarily and won't be missed if it is removed.
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