Cat's Cradle - Vonnegut

A dark, satirical, humourous middle finger extended to everyone in Capitalist Christian and Science Loving America for about 250 rapid-fire pages that takes us through the post-war United States and the defilement of social structure which we felt necessary to sacrifice for peace, and ends up in a completely dystopian, end-of-world, doomsday moment of Zen on a deserted island. What could be more fun?

I read this book in order to become more familiar with the works of Mr. Vonnegut. I'm not too huge a fan of his work, if you can believe it. The only book I had read prior to this that he has written was Slaughterhouse V. And even though it makes nearly everyone's list of American books from the last century that are must reads, I just was not too impressed by it. It was simple, and whilst trying to come of as sad, almost seemed to come of as pathetic. To make matters worse, I just really did not understand why it has such a religious following. Honestly, if I never met a guy with a tattoo of a quote from that book on his arm, I may have been able to enjoy it more.

I think another part of the problem was that I felt I was missing something. Like there was a truly epic experience that the book offered that I just missed out on, probably due to the fact that I skipped out on reading Slaughterhouses I through IV. "This tends to happen when you pick up Book V and start there," I thought. "Surely someone did the same with 'Heretics of Dune' or 'Harry Potter and the Fifth Book of the Franchise.'"

Anyway, you don't need a fanatic loyalty pledged to Kurt Vonnegut to be able to enjoy this book. It just is, on its own, very enjoyable, fast, and darkly funny. Its statement on religion, philosophy, and science is tremendous and, if you are quite the cynic, accurate. Celebrating a genius like Albert Einstein for giving us the power of atomic energy, probably not the best idea. Let alone thinking about that power and knowledge in the wrong hands. Really made me want to go jam to O.M.D’s popular 80’s hit, and one of the best songs of 80’s electronica bar none, Enola Gay. 

This book has indeed inspired me to go for more in terms of Vonnegut literature, even though I maintain I am not a devout follower, nor even yet a fellow traveller. Which reminds me, you can claim loyalty not to him but to fun phrases and terms he makes up: like Bokononism, wampeters, granfalloons (people pretending to be a part of a made-up cause), so it goes (death), and, thanks to the next Vonnegut book I've started:  chrono-synclastic infundibulum.

Red Prophet - Alvin Maker: Book Two

Continuing from Seventh Son, Orson Scott Card picks up the story with an entirely new plotline, which sees a whiskey runner coming to visit William Henry Harrison in Fort Dekane. This runner's knack is that he is a spark, in that he can focus his energy somewhere to create a heat source. Of course it's difficult to burn a forest this way, but something highly flammable/explosive is easy for him to ignite. And since this is a bit more of a sinister knack, it's best he keeps knowledge of it to himself and use it as a defense. All sorts of double crossing is going on, and we are introduced to Tenskwa-Tawa and Tecumsaw, a couple of badass natives from the Shawnee tribe that are influential throughout this book and I’m guessing throughout the rest of this series. It ends up that Tenskwa-Tawa meets Alvin and we get a replay of the vision he shows him when he appeared in Alvin’s room to teach him about his powers. He is only able to do this as he quits drinking whiskey, and from there on goes to lead a movement that teach all of the reds to refrain from consuming alcohol, much to the dealer AND Bill Harrison’s dismay.

But we also meet another figure in the beginning, when we are being introduced to the natives and Mr. Harrison, a rude southern man from Tennessee nicknamed Old Hickory. For those of you not up on your southern American history, that’s Andrew Jackson. Nobody hates the reds quite like him, both historically and in Card’s second Alvin Maker book. Except of course, maybe Bill Harrison. Who is a real SOB.

In fact, Harrison and Jackson have such a hatred for the reds that it scared Tenskwa-Tawa straight. He is a noted drunk and constant dependent on the whisky which he uses to drown out the horrors of watching Harrison murder his father when he was just a boy. Well thanks to his brother Tecumsaw he sees the light and weens himself off of it, becoming a wise man, or shaman, or whatever.

There are other chapters up front that bring in the French, who are operating out of Ft. Detroit (DETROIT Represent!) and are paying money to the reds for scalps of white Americans to help manufacture some majour conflict between American settlers and native Americans. In this French campaign, being led by General de Lafayette, we meet a young Napoleon Bonaparte, whose knack is the ability to get anyone to fall head over heels in love with him. Too bad Lafayette has a charm that acts as a shield from his knack. Lafayette also despises the French King, Louis XVI (at least I think that’s the number) and would rather the loyal, fiery yet ambitious Napoleon break away from servitude to the French King and begin a new world and a new order. So there's another agenda.

There is enough American folk magic and historical fiction to be really great in this book, even if the premise is a bit weak in places. William Blake, better known as Tailswapper in this series, is still a phenomenal character, even if the guy doing his voice in the audiobook is really annoying. He still understands enough about visions from his always wanting to have one, to recognise Alvin's. He also takes part in an adventure/vision that requires him and Tecumsaw as they battle fate and their own understanding of what humanity requires with their own stubbornness. They must unite to escape with their lives, but they can’t stand each others' ideals and are even more appalled at the glimpse of each other’s destiny.

I guess it is an adventure story of sorts from the moment Measure and Alvin are kidnapped in the woods until the very end, and that makes it quite a bit different from what I was expecting after finishing Book One. But not necessarily in a bad way, I was just hoping for mystery and freaky unexplained characters and their conspiracies than an adventure story solved with a series of visions. But since things are somewhat reset after a brutal massacre of thousands of Indians and some failed wars, I bet Book Three gets to be more to my style. Looking forward to that one.

Seventh Son – Alvin Maker: Book One

Alternate History: it is a subgenre of fiction that I am getting in to more and more as I evolve my taste of Sci-fi/fantasy. JonathanStrange & Mr. Norrell had some of it, but what better way to really dive into it than from a book written by one of the modern masters of Science Fiction? And I feel like I need to include that this alternate history is primarily American History. How much fun would it have been to have Thomas Jefferson as a revered witch, Benjamin Franklin as a magician, George Washington as a martyr? I cannot think of a more masterful take on American alternate history with folklore tied into it.

The tale of Alvin Maker begins like any good, kickass Orson Scott Card sci-fi story: a child with a unique talent that he/she does not quite understand and is punished unmercifully for it. In this case, it is the torch, young Peggy Guester. She is the first person we are introduced to and though she plays a majour part in the protagonist’s role, she is mentioned very little.

The untimely death of the eldest son happens just as Alvin is making his impromptu appearance into this world, being born only with the help of the little girl whose knack is that of torch. She foresees his powers, and is able to realize that he is the seventh son of a seventh son.

The Seventh Son is also my introduction to this particular bit of folklore; that magical superstitious sensation of seventh son and better yet, seventh son of a seventh son. Turns out Orson Scott Card did a bit of research on that.

As a devout Mormon, he also has a majour Christian influence in this story. But because it is during that pre-Mormon-anti-gay-Extremist part of his life, it is actually not the sort of Christian influence you might expect. Preachers in league with the devil, atheist protagonists, highly religious figures who unknowingly succumb and submit to the powers of knacks, hex and spells, and perhaps best of all, this quote from Armour-of-God Weaver when discussing an equally awesome character:

                

“They say he knew that wizard Ben Franklin. And that atheist from Apalachee Tom Jefferson.”

Two of my favourite historical figures. And made all the more badass in this alternate history. Not all Christians in this book are crazy, but for the most part, there is a clear, often hostile line drawn between the Christians and the practice that the others have for an active, powerful working spirit world.

Oh and the other great part about the above mentioned quote by Armor-of-God, the man he is talking about is a lonesome, vagrant story teller who walks around the American frontier with two goals: 1 – to have a vision (which never happens, no matter how hard he tries); 2 – to exchange honest labour for food/shelter and the ability to swap stories. His name is Taleswapper, and though he is a great character, really the best in the book, he lets it slip that his real name is William Blake. What a fantastic (fictional) historical twist!

Alvin experiences pain through his own evil doings, cheats death and learns to defeat it, but what everyone suspects is that he has to actually use special powers to cheat death. Meaning that he both possesses special powers and is being hunted, rather creatively, by some evil force. We learn to call this force The Unmaker, thanks to Bill Blake’s eloquence. The Unmaker and some devilish being have it out for him, and ironically, so do the hardcore Christians of early America. Through his power, the will and spiritual/philosophical goodness of the natives (called reds in this story), and Taleswapper’s cleverness, he is able to learn some balance between his unique gift and the evil that is both hunting him, and working its way inside of him. For a relatively short novel, it is magnificent with typical Orson Scott Card torture towards an unknowingly powerful child. 

Whether or not Book Two and all the others slow down, Seventh Son is absolutely fantastic and a refreshing jolt of creative fantasy that doesn’t just rely on children’s love of monsters and spells (no offense Harry Potter fans) nor does it require goblins, trolls or elves to be truly engaging (again, no offense to my Lord of the Rings readers).