Moving Mars by Greg Bear

Moving Mars is my introduction to Mr. Greg Bear. And if you're a fan of the Science Fiction genre, you'll like this book. I'm hoping to read more of him, but I enjoyed the novelty and sciencey-fiction and fictionalized science to this one. And what sci-fi nerd doesn't like a story of an oppressed Martian society bullied by a more powerful Earth establishment with corporate lobbyists and pure capitalist interests; only to begin a technologically unbeatable uprising to prove independence and prosper with fun Martian quasi-Utopian ideals?

Personally, that's sci-fi at its finest. Ever wonder what would happen if a Martian extremist teenager tried to prove a point in a demonstration by removing the helmet on her space suit in an act of defiance? The very blood vessels of her eyeballs bursting in the extreme low-pressure of Martian atmosphere, only to be burnt by a dry-ice sort of cold in the unEarthly sub-zero temperatures...Yes, things like this grab my attention. But it is what the scientists do to prove their point to Earth and defeat the power hungry machine. Sure, they're clever and can use their tools in ways others can't, but because this book is a creative in the genre to which it belongs, it is those tools are that give the book its quality.

What tools? Well, without giving away too much the team of Martian scientists have found away to alter the smallest known particles, subatomic in size, in their identity to those of particles nearby. But due to conservation of energy, mass, et cetera, nothing is created only substituted and replaced. The particles have a sort of binary data set to their descriptors, and changing these descriptors between 2 known points can act as a sort of teleportation mechanism. 2 particles next to each other, AB&CD, can be re-written if their descriptors are known, to CD&AB, in other words. Meaning they can move known objects of mass up to a certain size. They do this to displace the Martian moon Phobos near Earth in a show of muscle power (or brain power) and scare tactics. Earth calls their bluff and many lives are lost in the revolution but, never despair, scientists have this shit locked down.

Life on Mars highlighted this book for me, but so did the characters. Even though it is a very socio-politically charged novel with clear political ideology favouring representation from smaller parties who suffer from corporate lobbyists and large scale, high income "best interest" groups, it still is an interesting take on living in a totally alien world to us and is made enjoyable by some pretty factual and horrifying realities about living on our red neighbor.

Looking forward to more of Mr. Bear and I'd say this Nebula winning sci-fi book from '93 comes recommend, although not highly recommended, it is a solid story that well represents the genre though.

Obligatory Bookstore/Paradigm Shift Post

I'm not sure I covered this in the opening article, but this is a blog about reading. Which means, other than talking books, I reserve the right to talk about things that relate to books.

Like this.

It's a shame, but whatever is better for the war on Anti-Intellectualism in my country, by Bog, I support it!

All Hail Queer Kings!

Vladimir Nabokov's masterpiece (get used to reading that on this site) Pale Fire is the latest installment of one of my bookclubs (which just may happen to be the only book club to which I belong, but I can allude to being well-rounded).

In short, it is a book I quickly disliked (during the introduction given by the narrator), seemingly just as quickly appreciated (during the read of the great poem), and slowly, after much battling through the fragmented, non-linear recap in the narrator's analysis and explanation to particular stanzas in the poem, loved.

For a lengthier analysis, I'll proceed with just about everything I want to say. Even before it was all over I marveled at the skill with which Nabokov weaves a complex web to tell a relatively simple plot. It's not a difficult concept: Soviet Russia takes over a fictitious empire, the exiled King escapes to the United States, living in hiding he chooses to pick an alias and a profession that is most likely to allow him to meet his favourite poet, the venerable John Shade. Whilst living near shade, he befriends him and regales him about a “King of Zembla” and his exploits, and spies as much as possible on John Shade's writing of a no-doubt crowning-achievement-worthy poem. But before the Gay King can finish his story and confide to Shade his secret and why he has chosen this name, this profession and this life, Shade is murdered.

The exile, now living as Charles Kinbote, Zemblan language professor at Wordsmith University in New Wye – which, as a bit of Googling might indicate, are artistic interpretations of Cornell in Ithaca – has the good fortune of editing John Shade's final poem. The poem is written in four cantos: the first regarding a brush with death and his brief time in the afterlife; the second regarding his family and his daughter's untimely yet not-so-mysterious unfortunate death; the third on his quest for more regarding his experience of the afterlife and the irony that produces; and finally concluding with a brilliant fourth canto about artistry and the tricks of writing and what an author does to hone his craft and what it all means to him. Really more of a take on Nabokov's artistry, one presumes.

Even though it seems I've given away every detail of the plot in “spoiler” like fashion, it must be said that this novel is too Nabokov to be spoiled by anyone merely telling you what it is about. The beauty of it is in how Nabokov weaves his webs, in how sarcastically he compliments people's noble quests, in how much he really dislikes those of the anti-intellectual variety.

He truly is a master of witty, sarcastic humour, and this book not only puts it on proud display, but works in some creative magic we didn't know we'd enjoy; such as fictitious but somehow accurate regions and cultures. We know that Zembla, as in King Charles II's empire, does not exist. Nor does his US destinations. But the way he works his escape, so daring and so similar to the Nabokov family's own escape, his friend's death so similar to Nabokov's father's death, and the idea that his crown, orb, scepter and jewels are still about and the location still known, makes it all seem as though we can consult a library's broad knowledge of world history to find out if this indeed mirrors what actually happened to the last King of Zembla (note: that's not the name of a shitty movie starring Forest Whitaker).

The magic is indeed not in the plot, but elsewhere. I honestly had no idea how fun it would be to read a book where the King, forced into an escape through an underground tunnel behind his wardrobe, forced to leave his crown, scepter, orb and jewels behind, forced to trudge through the forests without much more than a cloak and a farmer's daughter as his guide, only to eventually catch a plane to New York and begin his snobbish quest to impose his will to have a bona-fide writer tell his story. It's almost a mixing of genres, really, that gives this story its charm.

I can't find any other way to describe it other than to tell every one to try it out, and stick with it even after it seems like a pompous ass trying to narrate a poem that doesn't relate to him nearly as much as he believes and is likely outside his understanding.

And if you have read it, then cheers. To Gay Kings!

Nineteen Eighty-Four

This is a benchmark in fiction writing that represents a fear-filled oligarchic police state ruling through the use of extreme militaristic war-communism and controlled entirely by The Party. The Party preaches fear and hate and controls every aspect of people’s lives, including what they believe and even what they thought they knew…this accomplished by the continuous changing of history. That is the department in which our unfortunate antagonist, Winston Smith, works.

 For me, I was actually one of the last people on Earth to have read this book. Many people have read it in high school on some assigned reading (deemed fit for the feeble minds of the masses by head Party members, no doubt) and pretty much everyone else has reached that point in their lives where they said “I need to read this.” I hadn’t, or maybe I finally had and I’m just a late bloomer. Either way, I’ve always entertained the idea but I never knew what it was about, because people just talk about what the book means and how important it is but I never knew if I’d like it. Neglecting what the plot is about, I wondered if there was going to be anything I like in it; mutated dinosaurs raised from the dead hunting cyborg interplanetary exiles in an unnamed, Amazonian Earth-like environment? No, just a really angry communist government in a dystopian future in which George Orwell pulls no punches in relating how awful they are.

It didn’t take long to figure out why nobody talks about what the book is about…because it’s that good. Books like Twilight and just about every Stephen King book are talked about in terms of what happens in the book. But not what it means. The opposite is true for 1984. You decide which I prefer. It stands alone in its genre as being not only one of the first dystopian future/political commentaries acting as a warning, but is quite possibly the best (see also: Brave New World post, out later this month)

Many stories offer little more than the actual plot, which most of us can appreciate, and say nothing about life, love, science, truth and knowledge. 1984 says much about all of it by completely banning all of these things in this society, and even torturing people wickedly for seeking them. A truly awful message to people who want to feel secure by forgoing basic civil liberties and empowering their government.

I still can barely wrap my mind around all of the concern this society brings about to the human race, but I think that was Orwell’s goal. To use an extreme case to show how terrible things someday might be. But, to make myself feel better, I think back to what an extremely unintellectual co-worker said to me during a discussion of 1984 fans in the office: “But if you have nothing to hide, what’s the problem with the government watching you’re every move?”

Absolutely the mindset that inspired this piece of literature. Thank you and kindly go fuck yourself before  you damn the human race. Anyway, if you haven’t read this one yet, or even lately, it is also highly recommended.

The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein

This is my first review of a Heinlein book, one of my top tier Sci-Fi authors and one of the best of all time. I have artwork that honors him in the living room, a portion of my library dedicated to him, and revert all political and sci-fi nerd conversations back to him.

Robert Anson Heinlein was a hard-headed Libertarian, and knew much about how society and government worked in his time and held very controversial opinions about it all. For the most part, he felt people could govern themselves just fine, necessitating certain liberties, and that love, freedom and science flourish in a society in which people are given the opportunity to make informed decisions on their own and don’t have too many personal liberties infringed upon.  He was always within reason though, clearly laying down the need for a stable government and why a system such as ours is a successful one, and why authoritarian dictatorships and communist regimes don’t have the strength to rule successfully for very long.

Puppet Masters is an interesting book that highlights many of these views and others, and from what I’ve read thus far of the man, probably his best effort at conveying his ideals whilst still being a very enjoyable sci-fi thriller. It has the furious pace and light-reading-style similar to a Crichton novel, but don’t forget this was written in 1951 and relates to the fear tactics of our Cold War counterparts.

A UFO crash lands in Iowa, and a special branch of the government similar to what many kids from our generation might compare to the Men in Black are dispatched to check it out. Their findings: Nothing. There was no crash and everything is a hoax, “thanks for coming though and check out this tourist trap of a  man-made saucer,” the strange Iowans all say.

Only problem is that it really couldn’t have been a hoax, not with what this group knows. Also, a member of the unit is a super attractive and stacked brunette (in typical Heinlein fashion) who can tell when men “aren’t right” because they don’t treat her as men normally would. So she surmises they may be possessed.

Turns out, she’s right. The alien creatures attach themselves to your spine and use you, still knowing what you know and speaking as you speak, the use your manpower and human nature to gather up a fierce fighting force.

Only the agency knows the truth, which is so out there that the President has trouble buying into it. But when he does, declaring a state of emergency takes, as you may be able to guess, an Act of Congress. This leads to Heinlein wonderfully relaying the problems with bureaucracy, lobbyists and special needs groups with strict (in this case conservative) agendas. It takes brute force to use common sense but once everyone’s on board with beating the aliens, they run into another problem.

So many aliens are in control of such large areas, breaking through how they run the media is next to impossible. Small tricks with the camera and what gets displayed on TV in these regions is easy to control, and difficult to overthrow and reach the public from the outside. Not at all unlike our own media’s love affair with Barack Obama, their absolute refusal to acknowledge Ron Paul and even more scarily similar to the near-brain-washing that went on in communist Soviet Union.

The resolution is met through downright unique science fiction, involving mobile infantry, shooting possessed charing zoo animals, alien abductions, colonists on other planets, hypnosis and controlled alien experiments.

Things to love about this novel include Heinlein’s use of sexy females and the powers of their charm, his rant of how government and media works, the frustrations of improper military action, far out but accurate comparisons to Soviet society, and the great closer in which the narrator says “Death and destruction!” to put an exclamation on the hunt to eradicate an enemy so humanity (specifically Americans) can live peacefully.

And in case you had any other questions on how much I love Robert Heinlein, the name of the blog is taken from the first thought in the first intermission of Time Enough for Love.

All Hallow's Read

Crazy Awesome (yet still crazy) author Neil Gaiman's "All Hallow's Read" program wasn't beyond this fan. I celebrated the event by lending my copy of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Fatal Eggs (I've linked that title to the book that includes "Other Soviet Satire," because Mikhail Bulgakov's short story was more than just a commentary on Soviet society, it was a part of a larger literary revolution that didn't surface until most of its authors were dead) to a loved one, and in turn recieved the young adult Sci-Fi psychological Mindfuck of House of Stairs. Thanks, dear.

House of Stairs is a young-adult sci-fi about five 16-yr-old orphans who wake up after being bound and gagged in a large room, in which the cielings, walls and floor are unreachable. It is a bigger room than the children can comprehend, and its perimeter is unreachable, at least with their short attention spans it is, so they climb, drop, cross and clamber the stairs-with-no-balustrades and small landings until they meet up with others. And, eventually, a device.

The device delivers food, and is pretty much the source of the rest of the plot as they are put through Pavlovian Conditioning. The problem is, you can sort of see where they're going with this plot from miles away. Yeah, it's wrong to condition kids into committing acts of cruelty, we know that. So there isn't much to gain, but the punchline is fairly funny, because it answers your questions with a "yes, they will do that."

Other than that, I thought the book was mediocre. But then again, I'm not a young adult, and reading young-adult as a "semi-developed-but-self-proclaimed-adult" is not grounds for disqualifying it as a significant novel of its class, so I will go ahead and score this one as a a "good novel," all things considered.

First Post(overdue and underthought)

So this is my other outlet. Reading. I'm a die hard fan of the sporting teams I follow (typically zero connexion geographically, but Go Teams That Have Captured My Love of their Honest, Hard-working-ethic, Purist-Approach and Excellent contributions to the overall well-being of the games you play!)