A Door into Ocean - Joan Slonczewski

A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski was first published in 1986 and won her a John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1987. I've never read anything by Slonczewski before but her name pops up in science fiction regularly. She is not very prolific, combining a career as microbiologist with writing science fiction, but from what I've seen of it, what she has written is very well received. This novel might well be the one that is most critically acclaimed. Without having read any of the others I can't say if this is justified but I did think it was a very rich and remarkably complex science fiction novel in terms of worldbuilding. So much so in fact, that I doubt I can do it justice in this review. In the end I was less impressed with the treatment of gender in this novel. It divides the genders along sharp lines in ways that I wasn't really expecting from a book that is considered a highlight of feminist science fiction.

On the ocean world of Shora, a nation of women have created a pacifist society, combining highly developed biological sciences with a deep understanding of the world's ecology. After being left alone for ages, they come into conflict with a neighbouring civilization from the planet Valedon that wants to develop the ocean's resources. Their societies are so different that neither of the parties is completely sure that the other meets their definition of human. This gap in understanding needs to be bridged for Shora to survive. Doing so  poses to be a formidable challenge for all those involved.

The novel has been hailed as an example of eco-feminism. I'm not entirely sure that was what Slonczewski set out to write but the male/female is one of the many dichotomies that can be found in the novel. The population of Shora is entirely female, while Valedon has two genders but is essentially a patriarchal society. This difference is striking but the gap between Shora and Valedon runs much deeper. There is a difference in the development of different branches of science, a difference in the structure of their language, a dichotomy between organic and inorganic and one between pacifist and violent. All of these play an important part in the conflict and add to the challenge of the parties to understand each other. Unfortunately these contradictions all seem to run along gender lines and the story makes it quite clear who the author sympathizes with.

Slonczewski has stated that A Door into Ocean is influenced by Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest (1976), both of which I've read. The influence of Dune in this novel is very clear. Shora is, in just about every respect an opposite of Arakis. An ocean instead of a desert, a pacifist people instead of a highly violent one, a people maintaining the web of life instead of a people trying to force the planet's ecology into a different mold. Dune must have been a dissatisfying read for Slonczewski. Herbert was one of the first authors who used ecology as an essential part of his stories but that doesn't mean that the ecology of Dune makes sense. For a trained biologist, some of it must have been grating.

The ecology of Shora is more diverse than the one Herbert describes. The dominant species on the planet are based on earth's cephalopods (squids, nautiluses, octopuses and the like), with this difference that the haemocyanin, a copper bases oxygen carrier in their blood, is exchanged for iron bases haemoglobin. Haemoglobin is more efficient, enabling a higher rate of metabolism. They provide an important source of food for the people of Shora and also make sure the surface of the ocean doesn't get clogged up with plant matter. Where Herbert's Fremen, despite their skill at living in the desert, still seem to survive despite their harsh environment, the Shora are truly part of the web of life. They understand their position in it, regulate their numbers accordingly and accept losses to the the enormous, migrating seaswallowers in exchange for the service they provide. The Sharers are the most environmentally aware people I've come across in science fiction.

The role of violence is an other clear element where Slonczewski takes the opposite direction from Herbert. The language of the Sharers doesn't distinguish between subject and object, something that contributes to the problems of the Valans and the Sharers have understanding each other. Early in the novel Slonczewski draws a parallel between Sharer language and Newton's third law of motion which has very interesting implications. When 'I hurt you' in essence is the same as 'we hurt each other' violence makes very little sense. It is, at best, an expression of immaturity but at various stages in the novel it is also described as a disease or even proof than the Valans are not human. It's a twist to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis I haven't come across before.

The treatment of violence is what ties the novel to Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest, which also includes a seemingly pacifist people not considered quite human by invading humans. That story eventually erupts in quite brutal violence however. Slonczewski takes the Shora idea of passive resistance all the way to the climax of the novel. That is not to say that blood doesn't flow but the war the Valan general wants, never materializes. I must admit that, in the face of the large numbers of casualties, I had my doubts about whether or not a human being, or a society as a whole, could face up to the consequences of this position. It seems a tad unlikely to me but then again, I'm from a society where violence is present in every day life. It must be said that, politically speaking, the effect of the Sharer strategies are just as devastating as a victory on the battlefield.

Slonczewski manages to incorporate a lot of very interesting material in the novel. The ecological part of the story in particular had me captivated. When you sit back and think about he various contrasts in the novel however, it does become apparent that the division of positive and negative traits assigned to each culture results in a picture devoid of grey. The feminine Sharers are associated with peace, life and heath, while the masculine Valans represent death, violence and sickness. Had it been just a clash between a pacifist society and one where a certain level of violence is accepted and power is based on the capacity to inflict damage, it would have worked for me. Putting the divide along gender lines feels like pushing it too far. Especially since the novel suggests that neither party is really capable of understanding the other, limited to what their gender allows them. Ultimately the conflict is not resolved with an understanding, or sharing as the Sharers would put it, and that was a bit of a let down for me.

All things considered, I feel that A Door into Ocean would have been a better book if it had been a bit less political. I love the worldbuilding, emphasis on ecology and the way Slonczewski handles language for instance. In some respects it is a very strong novel so I can see why it was awarded the Campbell. I can't help but detect a bit of irony there, Campbell himself would, given the content and his views on women and science fiction, most likely have detested the novel. Ultimately it's the simplicity of the way genders are portrayed that is the novels undoing however. While I enjoyed parts of it greatly, I found the novel as a whole a bit of a disappointing read.

Book Details
Title: A Door into Ocean
Author: Joan Slonczewski
Publisher: Orb Books
Pages: 403
Year: 2000
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-312-87652-4
First published: 1986

Beyond the Blue Event Horizon - Frederik Pohl

Beyond the Blue Event Horizon is the second book in Pohl's Heechee series, a series that started out with the 1972 novella The Merchants of Venus. This novella was reprinted in Platinum Pohl among other collections. The first Heechee novel, Gateway (1976), is one of his best regarded solo novels and won him a whole shelf full of awards. I guess it is not surprising that after that kind of success, a sequel has a hard time living up to expectations. I've heard a lot of people say this is one of those series you should only read the first book of. Pohl went on to write three more books and a bunch of short fiction, none of which I have read, but personally I didn't think Beyond the Blue Event Horizon a bad book. It is very different from Gateway though, that has to be said.

After successfully facing his successes and failures at Gateway, Robinette Broadhead is now living the life of a very rich man. He has married and has diverse interests in various profitable businesses as well as close ties with the Gateway corporation and even quite a bit of political influence. In other words, he has it made. Still, there is the nagging feeling of guilt that the woman who is the love of his life is stuck in a singularity. In business problems arise as well when an expedition to a distant Heechee installation, which Robinette hopes will help combat the chronic food shortages on Earth, meets with unexpected problems. It takes 25 days for instructions to reach the explorers, and as the situation in the outer solar system gets more and more out of control, Robinette's problems increase. Desperate action is needed.

One of the most striking differences between Gateway and Beyond the Blue Event Horizon is that Pohl employs a lot of different points of view in the second volume. In fact. Robinette doesn't even show up until the fourth chapter, some 50 pages into the novel. A lot of the major players in the novel get a point of view, as well as some of the machine entities, but there are quite a few of them, so we only get to scratch the surface of most of these characters. Where Pohl was very concerned with the psychology of Robinette in the first novel, the plot is obviously more important in the second. That is not to say that Robinette's internal struggle is not an important part of the story, he is still this petty, selfish but basically decent person we meet in Gateway, but Pohl leans quite heavily on events in the previous novel to convey this to the reader.

The Heechee on the other hand, although still very absent, are much more important to the story. The artifact being explored is clearly one of theirs but has been circling the sun since before humanity's ancestors learnt to use tools. It has a history of its own and that history includes other intelligences as well. Pohl reveals that history through these many points of view, gradually revealing a new part of the mystery with each chapter. It is this revealing that may put off some readers. In Gateway, the Heechee are a mystery. With only their incomprehensible artifacts and structures around, very little was actually known for sure about them. It made the story unpredictable in a way. With a Heechee artifact around, you never know what might happen. The increased understanding in Beyond the Blue Event Horizon changes that. Personally I don't think you can reasonably expect the mystery to stay intact for several books, there has to be at least some progress to keep the story moving,  but some readers will no doubt prefer their own questions, answers and guesses over those of Pohl.

Pohl's answers to the riddle the Heechee and their seemingly impossible technology pose, involve a lot of guesswork and quite a bit of cosmology and physics. I must admit some of it was right over my head. Still trying to wrap my head around Mach's principle for instance, an idea that was apparently one of the inspirations to Einstein's general theory of relativity. It also contains a number of references to Stephen Hawking's work on black holes. Where electronic shrink Siegfried is Robinette's discussion partner of choice in the first book, in this one his science program, aptly named Albert, takes over. It must be said, Albert is very good at explaining his guesses, which, especially towards the end of the novel, become more and more important to the plot. One would expect a program modelled on one of the greatest physicists of all time to do a little less guessing, but Robinette often orders him to do so anyway. Some of these guesses are obviously a set up for the next novel. It appears fairly obvious what Robinette's next project will be. This novel, after all, does not solve the issue that is the basis of his ever present guilt.

Pohl's work often have a satirical undertone. Many of his works criticize the excesses of capitalism for instance, or are fairly cynical about the political influence and proper healthcare money can buy. Robinette is not adverse to using his wealth to get things done his way for instance. It is not quite as apparent in this book however. The most notable thing about this novel is that it is drenched in fear. The fear of meeting the unexpected in space, where there is no retreat and very little margin for error. More than a few science fiction novels feature fear, suspicion and paranoia.  Especially the so called big dumb object stories, of which Gateway could be considered a variation, usually contain it in a general measure. I guess it is not as claustrophobic as Gateway, but the knowledge that aliens are near weighs on the characters. Due to the number of point of view characters, it is not as oppressive as in the previous novel, but it is almost always present in the background as each of these characters experiences their own personal flavour of fear.

There is one element in this novel that I absolutely didn't like, and that is the way Robinette's wife is portrayed. She is practically perfect in every way, knowing what is wrong with him before he knows himself and allowing him to go after the love of his life, who according to physics should be out of reach forever. Events in Gateway is more than enough reason to feel guilty but Robinette's treatment of his wife certainly adds to the problem. Siegfried's work doesn't appear to be done. The story is a bit open ended on this point. It looks like Pohl will get back to it in the third volume.

I guess you could say Pohl took a bit more conventional approach in writing Beyond the Blue Events Horizon. It makes the book less groundbreaking than Gateway was and probably is part of the reason why it didn't win any of the awards it was nominated for. The scope of it is obviously much wider too, and the many switches in point of view makes it appear a bit less structured than its predecessor. If you view the story as the unveiling of (part of) a mystery, it makes more than enough sense to me. In the end I guess I agree with many of the critics that it is not quite as good a novel as Gateway was. I also think it would have been nice if it had been a little more self contained; if it were fantasy I'd say this book suffered from the middle book syndrome a bit. That being said, it is a good science fiction novel in the classic sense. Plenty of hard science, scientific speculation and a much larger scope than the first book in this series offer their own attractions. I guess it depend on what you want out of a novel but I thought it was an enjoyable read.

Book Details
Title: Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
Author: Frederik Pohl
Publisher: Orb
Pages: 317
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: paperback
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2177-0
First published: 1980

The Gypsy - Steven Brust and Megan Lindholm

I've been trying to round up the books by Megan Lindholm (perhaps better known under her pseudonym Robin Hobb) still missing in my library. Of the ten novels that appeared under the name Megan Lindholm owned six at the beginning of the year, the four Ki and Vandien books and the duology about Tillu and Kerlew. I found a copy of her excellent science fiction novel Alien Earth earlier this year and I expect to receive a copy of Wizard of the Pigeons later this week. The Gypsy was also still available which means the only one I am still missing is Cloven Hooves. Looks like that one is out of print but I haven't given up hope on finding a copy yet. The Gypsy is, as far as I know, the only collaboration Lindholm has been involved in. She wrote it with Steven Brust, best known for his Vlad Taltos novels. I haven't read anything by him but judging from the other Lindholm books I've read, his influence on this story is very noticeable.

Experienced police man Mike Stepovich ans his green partner Durand apprehend a gypsy suspected of murdering a shopkeeper. Stepovich immediately notices something strange about the gypsy and does something he's never done in his long career. He fails to turn in the knife the gypsy is carrying. Somehow he knows the gypsy is not the murderer and the knife is special. Later that night, the gypsy disappears without a trace from the police cell they are holding him in. Murder investigations are not the territory of an ordinary patrol cop but this case does not let him go, especially when the body of an old gypsy woman turns up. Again, the suspect Stepovich and his partner arrested, seems to be involved and Stepovich is determined to find him. His search will lead him into a supernatural power struggle the existence of which he never suspected.

The Gypsy (1992) is an Urban Fantasy novel from before the hijacking of the sub genre by perky, vampire-slaying, werewolf-dating, power-girls. It is set in the late 1980s and it mixes Hungarian folklore (which I assume to be part of Brust's input) with a small town US setting. From what I can tell, it received some very mixed reviews over the years. I guess it is not an easy book to like. I'm not sure about Brust but it is very different from the other novels that Megan Lindholm wrote for one thing. It is also a multi-layered novel, demanding that the reader pay close attention to what is going on. Both for the police procedural and the fantasy part of the book. Personally I think it is a very interesting piece of writing but al lot of people will probably decide it is not their cup of tea.

The multi-layered aspects of the novel is something I very much liked about The Gypsy. The whole novel is structured to let the reader move between the real world and a fantasy realm, with the emphasis of the story slowly moving from the first to the latter. The characters have different names for both settings (Stepovich is referred to as the Wolf for instance) and the time indications that head the different sections of a chapter are adapted accordingly, from very precise (05 Nov 17:30) to suitably mysterious (Late Autumn, Half Moon, Waxing). Only the chapters names themselves are firmly in the fantasy realm, referring to the fantasy names of the characters. The different names of the characters can be a bit confusion early on in the novel, but the novel contains enough hints to figure out who is who early on.

Apart from an indication of the time, each of the sections is also preceded by a few lines of song lyrics. They form another interesting part of the novel. These lyrics were written by Brust and Adam Temple and later put to music and recorded by a band named Boiled in Lead. The album appeared in 1995 under the title Songs from the Gypsy, I understand it's a mix of rock and folk with Celtic influences. I haven't had a chance to dig for this music yet, but the lyrics make me suspect it could be a very nice album.

The number of characters Brust and Lindholm need to tell this story is probably a bit much for a relatively short novel. The reader barely gets time to get acquainted with them all, let alone be swept away by the romance between Laurie and the Raven, to really dive into the complex relationship between Stepovich, his former partner Ed and his current partner Durand or the history of the Gypsy and the Fair Lady. It's not the characters that reach out the reader in the book but more the elements of the story, the form the authors choose and the fluidity with which reality changes for the characters. If you are a very character oriented reader, then this book is probably not going to work for you. I still think it is a very fine piece of writing.

I have no idea how someone who is familiar with Brust's other novels would experience this but like with the previous Megan Lindholm novel I read, I feel the author has taken a direction she hasn't taken before. The variety in style, voice and theme of the Megan Lindholm novels is a lot greater than her work as Robin Hobb. Some people interpret this as the author looking for her voice, personally I think Lindholm's talent runs a lot deeper than the Hobb books show (and I enjoyed those an awful lot). I'm looking forward to seeing what an Urban Fantasy novel by Lindholm looks like without the input of another author.

Book Details
Title: The Gypsy
Author: Steven Brust and Megan Lindholm
Publisher: Orb Books
Pages: 272
Year: 2005
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-765-31192-4
First published: 1992

Escape from Kathmandu - Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson is primarily known as a science fiction writer. For a number of his works one could question if this is actually the right description. There is the novel A Short, Sharp Shock (1990), which could be called surrealistic or just fantasy for instance and right before he published that novel, Escape from Kathmandu, a collection of four linked novellas set in contemporary Nepal was published. Three of the novella's, Escape from Kathmandu, Mother Goddess of the World and The True Nature of Shangri-La were published in Asimov's in 1986, 1987 and 1989 respectively. The first three can be read independently. The fourth one, The Kingdom Underground, can be read independently as well if you really want to, but it does refer to events in the earlier novellas in several places. I think this story is better if you've read the others.

The novella's share two main characters, George Fergusson and George "Freds" Fredericks. Both Americans who fell in love with the Himalayas and are now semi-permanent residents of Kathmandu. Together (much to Freds' dismay) they explore the mysteries of Nepal. From a captured Yeti to the fate of the Mount Everest expedition of 1924 and from the mysteries of the Nepalese bureaucracy to the true location of mythical Shangri-La, George and Freds stumble across all of them trying to make sense of their strange environment. It's Nepal though a western eye so their (rather laid back) sense of wonder never wears out entirely.

Robinson writes about men who have fallen in love with the country and I suspect he shares something of this affection as well. Nepal in the late 1980s was not in all respects a pretty place. Plagued by poverty, corrupt government and environmental problems, there was much misery to discover once you move outside the touristic part of Kathmandu. My aunt spent some time in Nepal more or less around the time Kim Stanley Robinson visited the country. She was staying in India for a year but had to make a detour to Nepal because her visa to India expired. One of the things she told me about her time there is that the place is unbelievably filthy. The lack of sanitation is one thing that Robinson points out numerous times in the book.

Although he isn't blind to the problems of Nepal, Robinson managed to make Escape from Kathmandu a surprisingly upbeat book. George and Freds are both accustomed to the peculiarities of the country and although it the corruption in the Nepali government sets Freds off at times, especially after it humiliatingly defeats him in The True Nature of Shangri-La, they can just as easily see the good around them as the bad. Part of what they love about the country is the fact that even if the Nepali doesn't always understand the reasons themselves, the place is run very differently from a western country. Mystery is very much accepted as one of the main ingredients of Nepal's allure and should therefore be kept a mystery. Interesting enough, George and Freds discover the nature of these mysteries while trying to keep others from doing so on a number of occasions.

There are a number of elements in these novellas that would make their way in Robinson's later work. There's the trekking and mountaineering of course but also his interest in various forms of Buddhism and the occupation of Tibet. In the Mars trilogy in particular, Robinson develops a style in which descriptions of the (Martian) landscape are very present in the narrative. Although Escape from Kathmandu includes a number of passages where he does something similar, his descriptions of Mount Everest and it's surroundings are particularly vivid, they are much more contained. The harsh conditions of these great altitudes on Earth do bear some resemblance to the conditions on Mars however.

The tone of this novel is rather light. Some passages are comical, especially later on in the book, when Freds wonders what disaster George is luring him into this time. That surprised me a little to be honest. Robinson's works are usually full of quite heavy scientific and sociological themes and while this novel doesn't lack that entirely, it is a much more relaxed read than the previous books he published. Robinson touches on a lot of sociological, religious and political issues in this book but where in most of his novels the characters are deeply involved in these issues, George and Freds pick more limited, immediately pressing causes. As such, it offers the readers more of a choice to about how much to invest in this book. It works very well on the surface, as an at times comical story about two Americans in Nepal, but also as a story that exposes some of the problems the country was facing at the time (and in some cases still is facing). Escape from Kathmandu is a surprising read from people who are familiar with Robinson's work. I also think it is a good place to begin if you haven't read any of his other books. In either case, I highly recommend it.

Book Details
Title: Escape from Kathmandu
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Orb Books
Pages: 320
Year: 2000
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0-312-87499-5
First published: 1989

The Memory of Whiteness - Kim Stanley Robinson

The Memory of Whiteness is Robinson's third novel, after The Wild Shore and Icehenge. It's a very unusual book, to me, it really stands out in Robinson's oeuvre. Much of his work deals with science and many of the characters are scientists. In this novel science plays a large role in this novel as well but this time it is not so much the process and the ways it can change the world but rather the world view that is influence by a scientific theory. The first time I read it, in 2006 I believe, I was very impressed with this somewhat surreal trip though the solar system. A feeling that has not been diminished by this reread.

The novel is set in the thirty-third century, some three centuries after a physicist named Arthur Holywelkin forces a paradigm shift in physic by revealing a theory that is the biggest breakthrough in science since Albert Einstein. In his later years, Holywelkin devotes his time to building a massive musical instrument known as The Orchestra, a complex instrument allowing one man to play the 30th century equivalent of a symphonic orchestra. Three centuries after its creation the debate on whether it is actually a musical instrument or a glorified recording studio is still raging.

Recently, Johannes Wright, the ninth master of The Orchestra, has started preparing for a tour of the solar system. Starting from The Orchestra's home on Pluto the trip will take them down the gravity well towards the sun. Stopping at the various moons and planets for a series of concerts of his music. Compositions based on the physics of Arthur Holywelkin. The eagerly anticipated tour is followed around the solar system by an armada of spaceships. Not all of them turn out to be admirers though. It soon becomes apparent someone wishes Johannes harm.

Music is an aspect of human culture that pops up on a few occasions in Robinson's work. I recall one scene from Antarctica in particular, where the main characters are caught up in the excitement of a really good rock concert. He takes it a lot further than that in this novel. Wright's music is more than just music, it is an expression of the equations that are the basis of Holywelkin's theories. A theory that had a very profound impact on science and society as a whole. The science of Holywelkin and the music that Wright produces are so intertwined that in some parts of the novel you have to pay close attention to figure out which it is the characters are talking about.

To make the mesh of ideas and concepts even more complicated Robinson also hooks up a philosophical debate to Holywelkin's work. From the days of the ancient Greek philosophers to Newton's formulations of classical mechanics, scientists were trying to express everything in exact definition and precise mathematical formulations. Until the twentieth century that is, when words like relative and uncertain showed up in physics. It seems that the rigid determined grid of the universe expressed in Newton's formulas is not the entire truth after all. Still, even with new theories problems remain. Quantum mechanics and theory of gravitation cannot be reconciled with each other. A new layer of physics is needed and Holywelkin comes up with one that seems to work. A system that seems to be able to predict the movement of any particle. A theory that can, given sufficient computational capacity, predict the future. Or, as one small but powerful sect would have us believe, the future is preordained, there is no free will. Is this something you want to believe or do you put your faith in yet another layer of physics, one that again encapsulates all that has gone before in an indeterminate system, yet to be unveiled?

The narrative voice Robinson uses to tell this tale is quite on usual for his work. He addresses the reader directly at times, while in other sections he employs a third person point of view. To give you an example in which Robinson tells us about a particular problem he's faced with in this book:

How does music mean? Not, you can be sure, in words. Music is a language untranslatable, it is too direct, too subtle, too ... other for words. Music moves directly from the inner ear to the lower brain stem, where our emotional lives are generated; and nothing can stimulate the complex response that music does, except music itself.

So Dent sat on his knoll above the amphitheater and listened to Johannes Wright play, as the late afternoon shaded into evening; he listened with all his mind focussed, his flesh quivering slightly in the cooling air. But you dear Reader, cannot be told what Dent heard. Words cannot describe this music.

Chapter 3 - Terra Incognita

Despite this problem of putting music into words Robinson succeeds very well in describing the emotions attached to it. The Orchestra is a strange instrument and a thirteen centuries from now composing has developed beyond what our ear is used to. Nevertheless, the author manages to capture the elation the characters feel when Johannes plays, the rapture they experience when Wright reveals the mysteries of Holywelkin's theories to them. Perhaps music cannot be put into words but Robinson gets his point across.

This unusually heavy dose of music notwithstanding, there is quite a bit in this novel that the reader will recognize from other works. Wright's tour of the solar system takes us to many places we visit in other books as well. The part of this novel set on Mars, Wright plays on the slopes of Olympus Mons, is one of my favourite parts of the book. We also see some elements there that will return in the Mars trilogy. The conflict between Red and Green appears in a slightly different form for instance. The tour also passes a whole range of social experiments on smaller inhabited objects. With so many places in the solar system open to human habitation just about every society you can think of has found a home somewhere. Robinson doesn't go into any of them in detail but some of these ideas do return in later books.

Of all Robinson's early novels I probably like this one best. The unusual approach to the narrative and the connection between art and science make this novel stand out. I think it is a love it or hate it novel though. Some people will be put off by the direct way in which the author addresses the reader, others will think the scientific aspect of the book didn't receive enough attention. With a focus on art and philosophy, there is no guarantee that readers who like the Mars trilogy will enjoying The Memory of Whiteness. I would recommend you try it anyway. It's a great piece of science fiction, I've rarely come across a more intriguing read.

Book Details
Title: The Memory of Whiteness
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Orb
Pages: 351
Year: 1996
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0-312-86143-5
First published: 1985

Icehenge - Kim Stanley Robinson

I'm reading (or in some cases rereading) Kim Stanley Robinson's older novels at the moment. This will probably result in a reread of his famous Mars trilogy in the not too distant future but we're not there yet. Icehenge is Robinson's second published novel. It was published the same year as his first novel The Wild Shore, the first part in his Three Califonias Triptych. The subject of Icehenge is very different from The Wild Shore. It would be selling the book short to say it is a first step towards his popular Mars trilogy, Icehenge is a very good novel in it's own right, but fans of the Mars books will find many themes in this book have returned in the trilogy.

On the north pole of Pluto a mysterious construction of ice is found, reminiscent of Stonehenge. In this book consisting of three linked novellas Robinson explores the origin of this construct. The first two novellas had been published before under the titles On the North Pole of Pluto (1980) and To Leave a Mark (1982). In this book all three novellas are named after the main character. The first novella consists of the diary of Emma Weil. In an age where gerontological treatment has enabled people to live for centuries, memory has been proven the weak link in the system. Many people keep diaries for the day when they will no longer remember the events they witnessed. Emma's diary tells us about her days on a hijacked spaceship, her work as life support engineer and events during the Martian rebellion of 2248.

This rebellion will be brutally crushed, it's very existence swept under the carpet by the powers that be. In 2547 this is not a situation archaeologist and historian Hjalmar Nederland will allow to exist much longer. Not relying on untrustworthy memories he means to organize a dig at the site of one of the battles of the revolution. Physical evidence cannot lie after all. Emma's diary proves to be instrumental for his work but also leads to an even larger discovery, the origin of Icehenge. In 2610 Nederland's theory on the origins of Icehenge is widely accepted but Edmond Doya is not satisfied with that explanation. He means to prove the monument is a hoax and comes up with some convincing arguments.

Robinson uses a number of very interesting themes in this book but the one that, to me, stands out is memory loss in extremely long-lived people. In this book lifespans of up to five centuries are possible. As a result pretty strict measures have been put into place to prevent overpopulation. Emma, who at the time of her diary is 80 years old has realized this is going to be a problem and starts writing things down. Hjalmar, who is 310 by the time he is allowed to pursue his ideas of the Martian revolution has already experienced life as a sequence of several lives. With memory stacked upon memory only the last 'normal' lifespan can be reliably recollected. His life before that may as well have been someone else's. It's a frightening concept in a way. Think for a moment on how we base most of our decisions on previous experience. What if that becomes unreliable? What if someone confronts you with something you may or may not have done a century ago?

The reader gets a taste of this over the course of the novel. After reading Emma's diary you're pretty convinced you know what has happened but Nederland's histories and Edmond's revisions cast doubt upon just about every part of the story. Nederland's science seems solid and Edmond's theories have an air of conspiracy around them that makes it hard to credit his findings. And yet, he may well be on to something. Which in turn casts doubt upon the veracity of the statements in Emma's diary. Who's right? I guess that Robinson leaves that for the reader to figure out. It does put what we think we know about the past in an interesting perspective.

The cover of this reprint edition proclaims this is "The Award-Winning Author's First Martian Novel". When I first read this novel in 2005 I did notice the themes they have in common but the proclaim it the first Mars novel is a bit too much in my opinion. The focus of this novel is not on the colonization of the red planet, many of the ideas Robinson would later use in the Mars books are used as a backdrop in this book. Political struggles on Mars or Mars-Terra relations do not dominate the story. The political realities of 'Icehenge' Mars are, at least initially, more or less accepted by all main characters, making it a darker future than where the planet ends up in Blue Mars. That book leans more towards utopia. Still, together with Pacific Edge and The Memory of Whiteness it clearly shows Mars was on the author's mind.

The book is a bit dated in some aspects. Written before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union is still a major player in this book. Something that returns in many of his early novels. At the moment it looks doubtful the Russians will be able to keep their space exploration going at the rate they have in the past. Then there is the status of Pluto, recently relegated from planet status to Trans-Neptunian object or dwarf planet. In Icehenge the characters see it as the last place to stop before hitting the vast emptiness of interstellar space. Another small but interesting item is the way information is stored. Paper is still important in the 27th century it seems, with characters printing hard copies of electronically stored books. Makes you wonder what the ideas of the author about the current development of e-books are.

I liked this book a lot when I first read it and this second read has probably raised my admiration of the author another notch. It's a very well constructed tale, designed to make the reader doubt, puzzle and think. Icehenge is a good read for people who enjoyed the author's Mars trilogy but it's also a good place to start if you are not sure you're ready for three large volumes of detail on the red planet. Personally I loved the descriptive passages in those books but quite a few readers seem to think it could have done with a little more editing. In Icehenge Robinson keeps that aspect of his writing a bit more in the background. Whatever your preferences Icehenge is a fascinating read and I highly recommend it.

Book Details
Title: Icehenge
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Orb
Pages: 287
Year: 1998
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0-312-86609-7
First published: 1984

Pacific Edge - Kim Stanley Robinson

This book is the last novel by Kim Stanley Robinson I haven't read at least once. Having no other novels left to pursue is not necessarily a bad thing. There is some short fiction I have yet to dive into (I'm very much looking forward to the collection of Robinson's best short fiction that is scheduled for an august 2010 release) and two of his earlier works, Icehenge and The Memory of Whiteness are up for a reread in the not too distant future. In the mean time, let's have a look at Pacific Edge, the third book in the Three Californias trilogy. Where The Wild Shore showed us a post apocalyptic California and The Gold Coast deals with future where urbanisation is out of control, in Pacific Edge the author explores a utopian future. A California where people have learnt to listen to the land and pursue more sustainable population levels and economic activity.

In 2065 the world looks quite different from what we are used to. The unsustainable economic practices of the past have been severely curtailed by putting limits on company size and personal income among other, equally drastic measure. The main character Kevin, an architect judging from the descriptions designing lovely sustainable homes, lives in a part of California where population growth and economic activity are carefully moderated to make sure they don't exceed the carrying capacity of the local environment. Recently Kevin has been talked in to taking a seat in the local council for the Green party. A decision he will come to regret. In his first council meeting the mayor tries to slip a shady deal past the council. He doesn't succeed but it is the beginning for a political struggle for Kevin he did not foresee when taking the job.

The second character the novel focusses on is Kevin's grandfather Tom, the only character appearing in all three books. Since the death of his wife Tom has become something of a recluse, living in the hills out of town. Even Kevin only sees him once in a while. Until he is drawn out of his isolation by an old acquaintance visiting. Tom was something of a political creature in his younger years, part of this we find out from snippets his writings dating back to the year 2012 (the revolution is imminent I guess). He is not eager to be drawn into Kevin's battle but his contacts can be very useful indeed.

Robinson creates a utopia that needs a lot of maintenance. It is clear that the myth of perpetual growth and the lure of expansion have not been permanently vanquished. The way Robinson uses the problematic situation of providing clean water for so many people is very interesting indeed. He cleverly weaves a situation that was already a very recognizable problem when this book was published (1990) into the story. His descriptions of the legal situation in 2065 are fascinating and it generally takes a good bit of skill to make this stuff interesting and even more to make it understandable for someone from a country with quite a different legal tradition.

Kevin pretty soon realizes he is in way over his head, that the issues he is dealing with are on a scale he does not have any experience with. And yet Robinson keeps the story on a small, very local scale. A softball match, Kevin's love affair with his political opponent's girlfriend, a wildfire, the minor issues brought before the council. Seemingly small things hiding major and far-reaching issues. It makes one wonder if we are indeed trying to solve these problems on too high a level. On the other hand, any concentration of power seems to attract people who want it but do not necessarily have the competence or integrity to use it wisely. Looking around me I don't see much difference between local and national politics in that respect.

The way of governing a community described in Pacific Edge is something that shows up in his later novels as well. A lot of the social experiments he describes in his Mars trilogy for instance, are all very small scale with projects needing more resources handled by cooperatives. In some ways it is the direct opposite of what is going on in the world at the moment, where the drive for companies to perpetually expand doesn't seem to slow down in the least. The tipping point in the book is somewhere in the 2010s. So far there is little sign of this prediction coming true. A prediction that seems to be spot on, is the description of the young Tom's struggle with Swiss and US immigration services. There are a number of very vocal political figures advocating practices not unlike the ones described in the book and frankly, I find that very disturbing.

There's quite a bit of Mars in this book if you pay attention to it. Those books must have been on his mind already when he wrote this. Apart from a description of the Mars landing, the social structures he describes, the power and demise of multinational corporations, the increasing pressure on earth's ecosystem, the local initiatives and new modes of government are all themes that will return in this trilogy. In the context of his entire oeuvre this book is more interesting that either The Wild Shore or The Gold Coast. I must admit I thought the ending of the book a little anticlimactic (if entirely in the style of the rest of the novel). The solution to one of Kevin's problems turns out to be deceptively simple.

Jo Walton wrote a piece on this novel for Tor.com recently in which she wonders if there is anybody who likes all three. I didn't. The Gold Coast was not my book, even if I can appreciate the author's skill. I guess I have to say The Wild Shore is my favourite. Pacific Edge is probably a love it or hate it book. Politically it is a lot more provocative than either of the previous books. I guess a die hard supporter of neo-liberal economic policy wouldn't make it past page fifty. That's a shame, this vision of California's future may not be the most likely but it certainly offers some interesting thoughts on the current environmental crisis the world is in. To me this utopia doesn't sound so bad, even if it is a high maintenance one.

Book Details
Title: Pacific Edge
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Orb books
Pages: 326
Year: 1995
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-312-89038-4
First published: 1990

The Gold Coast - Kim Stanley Robinson

The Gold Coast is the second book in Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Califonias series. I read the first part, the Wild Shore during a vacation in the Czech republic in 2007 and ordered the other two books right after I came back. They ended up on my to read stack though, I just didn't get around to reading them. Time to change that. In the Three Californias trilogy Robinson presents three radically different future Californias. Where The Wild Shore showed us a post apocalyptic society, The Gold Coast is more or less a continuation of where most people assume were heading at the moment. California is slowly turning into a gigantic mall, the part that isn't covered by freeways that is.

A synopsis of this book is pretty hard, we get a lot of different points of view in this book. The central character is Jim McPherson though. Jim is the son of a defence contractor. His family is well to do and he moves in fashionable circles but he's not a happy man. For one thing he can't get along with his father. Jim has socialist ideas and they clash with what his father is doing. Professionally Jim is not doing that well. He works two part-time job but doesn't make enough money to support himself. The only place where he is somewhat at ease is among his friends. His life of designer drugs, casual sex and rampant consumerism leaves him empty. Jim is acutely aware of the history of his native Orange County and how much of it has disappeared under the concrete of freeways and apartment blocks. He needs a purpose, a way to strike back at a system he despises and one of his friends is in a position to offer him that. Jim enters the world of industrial terrorism and heads straight for a major crisis in his life.

Where in the previous book California and its society were barely recognizable as such, the picture this books paints is all to familiar. According to the back cover it is set in 2027 and as far as I can tell we're pretty much on track to what Robinson describes. Socially and economically anyway. This book was first published in 1988 and in some respects it shows its age. Video tape is still around and the Soviets are as well The cold war is still driving a huge industrial-military complex, boosting the local economy. Despite the ever present threat of nuclear war, smaller conflicts are breaking out all over the globe, often involving the US. The violence is one of the things that repulses Jim.

The Gold Coast is very cleverly constructed. Though a number of characters we see the events that will have an impact of Jim's life unfold without any of the characters overseeing the whole drama. The novel clearly shows the sometimes disastrous outcome of uninformed decisions. After finishing it, it occurred to me that a lot of what is going on is influenced by the decisions of a man who has something like fifteen lines in the book in total. Robinson portrays him as rational but also very hard. Jim ends the book on a positive note but I am not sure that goes for the reader as well, most of us would like to think we have a little more control over our lives.

Orange County, where most of the novel is set, it the place where Robinson grows up. Throughout the book you sense a kind of melancholia for al the things that were and went away in the region. With little bits of Jim's writing on the history of the region mixed in with the rest of the story we more or less cover it from pre-history to Jim's time. Robinson obviously loves the region he grew up in but the sadness of so many beautiful things disappearing under the ever expanding concrete of suburbia penetrates the entire novel. I'm not entirely sure it is fitting for Jim, it seems to me that you to have at least seen some of those things disappear for it to evoke this kind of feeling. By the time Jim is born, around the turn of the century I think, most of what he describes is gone. Jim goes so far as to look for a bit of tangible evidence of the past to compensate for its absence in twenty first century Orange County. This incident is set in the opening chapters of the book and appears to be the a number of young fellows under the influence of drugs. For Jim it obviously goes deeper than that.

All three novels share one character: Uncle Tom. Like in The Wild Shore he is a very old man in this book, tucked away in a nursing home because of his failing lungs. Where Tom tries to hang on to some little bits of civilization in the previous book, that same civilization is almost torture for him. Sure, he is looked after and kept alive but that is about all. He definitely appears happier in The Wild Shore, it seems an overdose of technology is not going to make people happy either. Given the fact that the third and final book is utopian, that may well be the message Robinson wants the reader to carry along to the next book.

This is probably a very silly thing to say in a review but I haven't quite made up my mind about this book yet. I guess it is one of those novels where you can appreciate the skill it took to write it, identify with the main characters and recognize a lot of what the author is showing you but still not causes you to write a rave review right after you finish it. If anything is leaves the reader a bit melancholic as well. At one point in the novel Jim realized that whatever he decides to do, it will make no difference whatsoever in the long run. The Gold Coast does not portray a happy future but for those of you who are willing to brave it, there is an awful lot to think about in this novel. I suppose I am ready to look at another alternative. Surely we can do better than this future.

Book Details
Title: The Gold Coast
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Orb books
Pages: 389
Year: 1995
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-312-89037-7
First published: 1988

Platinum Pohl - Frederik Pohl

Frederik Pohl turned ninety a couple of months ago, he's one of the last golden age writers still with us. I discovered his blog last year and it is a treasure among author blogs, I've been following it religiously ever since. Until I read The Last Theorem, his collaboration with another of the science fiction greats, Arhtur C. Clarke, I had never actually read anything by him and that of course had to change. Pohl does not appear to have a great many books in print at the moment but among the more recent publications is the collection Platinum Pohl, A career spanning collection of his best short fiction. Almost every collection of short fiction contains weak stories but I was absolutely blown away by editor James Frenkel's selection of Pohl's work. It is one of the best collections of short fiction I have ever read.

Platinum Pohl contains a total of thirty stories, too many to comment on each of them but I'll name a number of the highlights. The opening story is The Merchants of Venus. A novella length work and the first work than mentions the Heechee, which he would later write a number of novels about. The story deals with the dangers of exploring Venus and how to stay alive one a reasonable income in a high cost environment. I thought his description of Venus very interesting, the way Pohl imagines transport in particular. The story also has a very nice twist at the end, as do many of the other stories in this collection. It has made me add the novel Gateway to my to read list.

My Lady in Green Sleeves is set in a world where classes are strictly separated by profession. It has gone so far that one person will not even attempt to do part of another's job in the absence of a worker from that particular class, believing himself or herself too incompetent to even try. They even have trouble understanding each other's jargon. There is one environment where all these classes meet and that is in prison. This explosive mixture of talents is bound to be trouble and Captian of the Guard Liam O'Leary can feel the storm coming. Some very interesting social commentary here. Especially the ending of the story but I am not going to give that away. There are a number of these alternate societies in this collection and each of them makes you think about how different it really is from our own. Or how alike.

The next story I want to mention is The Kindly Isle. The main character is on a touristic island to check out a half built hotel his company considers buying. He is somewhat distracted from this task when he sees a former colleague from his days in a top secret research facility on the island. A colleague who left his job in quite a hurry years ago. This story has a dash of science fiction in it, in a way it deals with biological warfare, but that is not the core of the story. What really makes it a great story is the character development. There are no big explosions or steamy sex even though the author could very well have fitted that in. The story doesn't need it. The gradual realization of what the main character must do and how events unfold after that decision is brilliant. Structurally it is probably the best story in the collection.

Science fiction and horror can go together very well. George R.R. Martin has proven that more than once with his science fiction/horror hybrids. Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair is also a story that could be considered both. What could be better than spending a day with your family at the fair? Well, in this future world I'd think again. The conclusion is chilling, not only because of what happens at the fair, but also because of how it is justified.

Servant of the People is another of my favourites. It is a story dealing with artificial intelligence and if and at what point, the should have the same rights as a human being. In this story they have the right to vote. It deals with the election campaign of a veteran politician. He has beaten all candidates for years but now he has to go up against a non-human opponent. What I particularly liked about this story is that it is not a naked grab for power by evil machines. The sincerity of the robot candidate is so credible that one would not hesitate to vote for him. On the other hand, are we really comfortable with that idea?

The last story is want to mention is Saucery. It's a humoristic story about two men who have done very well for themselves in the time UFOs where vastly popular. They each claim to be in contact with alien entities and are not afraid to make money that way. Now they have fallen on hard times though. A recent expedition to Mars has found life and it bringing back real aliens. Who is going to buy their stories now, when the real thing is about to arrive on earth? Their businessman like attitude in facing the crisis while never quite admitting they are frauds is hilarious. A subtle kind of humour is present in many of the stories in Platinum Pohl but it is most outspoken in this one.

Platinum Pohl is a remarkable collection of stories, especially if you take into account the oldest was published in 1949 and the newest in 1996. The quality remains very high over the years and even the oldest stories have aged well. There is a bit more smoking than we're used to, the USSR shows up once of twice and Pohl has had to make up some interesting details about Mars in absence of scientific data but none of that really bothered me. The author relies on his skill as a writer rather than fast paced plotting or stunning alien settings. Perhaps that has made some of these stories age more gracefully than a lot of other science fiction. It has certainly convinced me to try more of his books. Of course, looking at the to read stack, that may be a while. But I'll get to it sooner or later.

Book Details
Title: Platinum Pohl
Author: Frederik Pohl
Publisher: Orb Books
Pages: 460
Year: 2005
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-765-30145-1
First published: 2005

The Wild Shore - Kim Stanley Robinson

This is another review from the archives. I dug it up polished it a bit and moved it over here because I intend to read the remaining two books in this series some time later this year, or maybe early next year. I wrote the original version of this in August 2007 and after rereading it I must admit it needed a bit of work. Hopefully this version will read a bit better than the 2007 edition does. Enjoy!

The Wild Shore is the first book of the Three Californias trilogy. Each book covers a possible future of Orange County, the place where Robinson grew up. The Wild Shore was first published in 1984 and was his first full length novel. I wasn't sure if the concept would appeal to me, does it get repetitive? I decided to try it at least and give the first one a go anyway. I always liked post apocalyptic settings so this first book probably suits me best. No regrets after reading it. The Wild Shore is a very good read.

The story is set in a California after crippling nuclear strikes against the US have laid the nation to waste. The details of these attacks remain unclear, but we do know that it took place in the mid 1980s and that the US did not retaliate. The technological basis of the US was completely destroyed in the attack. In 2047, the year the novel is set in, scattered, isolated groups of people try to rebuild and scavenge whatever they can from the ruins. The economy has collapsed into a barter system with no currency worth mentioning. For reasons that remain unclear to the Americans, the world has decided to actively keep the US from rebuilding itself to its former glory.

In one such community our main character and the narrator of the story, Henry, grows up. He is about 16 in 2047 and lives in a small settlement on the coast. Some 60 people in all, who get by on fishing, some agriculture and trade with the other communities in the area. They seem to lack the resources to move much beyond that in the short term. Because of the struggle for survival and the relative isolation of his community, Henry is quite ignorant of the wider world. Despite the best effort of a man named Tom, one of the survivors of the nuclear strike, he doesn't believe half of the stories he has heard about the former glory of America. Henry may not believe in his nation's former power but there are people who will not settle for mere survival. South of Henry's community, in San Diego a group is trying to rebuild in earnest. They show up in Henry's village with a request from the mayor of San Diego. A request that spits the community, used to taking decisions democratically, right down the middle. Henry chooses his side and has to face the consequences.

Robinson chooses to focus on the characters and this one small community. That means we don't get to see a lot of the world or even California. A lot of the background remains uncertain. Henry doesn't seem to know a lot about it anyway. But somehow that does make him a very convincing character. He's naive, uneducated. Clever in a way but not really intelligent. Quite an unusual character for Robinson really. Most of characters are scientific minded, often very intelligent, Henry doesn't seem to be wired that way. Henry likes action, he is not one to sit around waiting for something to happen or deeply reflect on the possible consequences of his actions. It makes this novel pretty fast paced. More so than Robinson's later work, that tends to contain a lot of reflection of sociological, environmental and scientific issues.

Although the concept is a bit outdated The Wild Shore is absolutely worth reading. It's definitely not the most likely future for California, even if at one time it was certainly possible. Being published right before the first cracks start to appear (to the outside world at least) in the Soviet Union, the timing of this novel probably was a bit unlucky for Robinson. The prospect of nuclear war would be receding fast in the years after publication. The story itself is interesting and skilfully told, Robinson put a lot of thought into how such a community would work (no surprise there, sociology shows up in a lot of his other novels as well).

All in all I was pleasantly surprised by this novel so I guess I am going to try the others as well. There should some subtle connection between the three. It will be interesting to see if there is any difference in his approach between The Wild Coast and the other two books. The Gold Coast and Pacific Edge represent a rampant capitalist society and a utopian society respectively and were published in 1988. Robinson published two excellent other novels in the years between the first and the second Three Californias novels. In these books, Icehenge (1984) and The Memory of Whiteness (1985), Robinson starts exploring the solar system, a journey that would eventually take him to the much praised Mars trilogy. It makes me wonder if his early works were written in the order they were published in. More on the Three Californias soon.

Book Details
Title: The Wild Shore
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Orb Books
Pages: 377
Year: 1995
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0-312-89036-2
First published: 1984