Dragonsdawn - Anne McCaffrey

As I noted before, the Damon Knight memorial Grand Master Award is seriously short on female authors. Only four out of the twenty-eight winner are women. Since one of the objectives for this year is to read more work written by women I am going to try to read all four for this challenge. I read Forerunner by Andre Norton and The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin earlier this year. Next up is Anne McCaffrey, who was honoured with this award in 2005. Picking a book was a bit of a problem. McCaffrey is best known for her Pern novels, of which I have read exactly one: Dragonflight, published in 1968. I didn't like it very much. I'm sure it was sensational at the time but forty years on, it seemed like a pretty mediocre novel to me. An Australian friend of mine is a bit better acquainted with McCaffrey's oeuvre and she suggested I try Dragonsdawn (1988). Chronologically it is the first of the Pern novels (there are a few shorter pieces in the same era or even set before the novel) but McCaffrey wrote it some twenty years after Dragonflight. I must say, the fact that she had a bunch of novels under her belt by this time shows in the writing.

After a long journey though interstellar space, three ships full of colonists arrive in the Rukbat system where they intend to colonize the third planet. When they bought into the expedition, they knew it would be a one way trip. The ships are nearly out of fuel, they will be cannibalized to provide the colony with materials. Pern, as the third planet is referred to, is a remote place, far away from the busy shipping lanes of the galaxy and has only been surveyed briefly. The planet has developed its own ecology but is without sentient life. There is every possibility to create an utopian society, away from the wars and conflicts of the more densely populated regions of space. The colony is developing rapidly with only minor squabbles along the way when the colonists become aware of a major threat to their existence. Threadfall. Their rapidly declining technological resources will not be enough to save them. Other, more radical options will have to be considered.

McCaffrey made Pern and the colony the central characters really. She uses the third person point of view throughout the novel and she uses a lot of different characters to tell the tale. None of them are central to the narrative. She uses them to show a particular development in the colony, although some characters seem only marginally important to the story. I suppose you could see Sorka and Sean as central as they represent the future of Pern but they don't really get enough screen time to be called the main characters. All this jumping around makes it hard to get really emotionally invested in any of the characters. It really is a chronicle of the first years of human settlement on Pern and should be read as such. Some readers might prefer a more character oriented narrative.

Pern has always been a curious mix of science fictional and fantastic elements. It has been clear form the start that humans are not native to the planet, but society on Pern is mostly low tech and the presence of dragons makes it lean towards fantasy. This novel is primarily science fiction, perhaps even space opera. McCaffrey describes the arrival of the fleet and disembarkation in detail. The logistics of putting thousands of people as well as supplies to establish a colony on the surface are complicated and contain the origins of one of the conflicts that will arise in the new colony. I thought this section slowed the beginning of the book down a bit more than necessary. On the other hand, there is something compelling about beginnings. We are seeing the birth of a world in this novel, the planet is a blank canvas for the colonists to work with.

Throughout the novel we watch the colonists struggle with declining supplies and problems keeping their technological base at an adequate level. The planet has plenty of natural resources but turning these into high tech machinery or even fuel for the remaining shuttles is not an easy matter. It also doesn't appear to be the goal. The colonists long for a simpler rural style of living and the large stretches of unoccupied land provide ample opportunity. From a highly organized group lead among military lines, they quickly evolve into pioneers used to fending for themselves and taking care of their own business. The novel shows us an interesting reversal when the colony is threatened. One that obviously doesn't go without a lot of friction.

Interesting enough, McCaffrey addresses one of my pet peeves when it comes to books including dragons: their ecology. Putting aside quibbles over how to get something as large as a dragon into the air, there is a limit to how large a predator a given ecosystem can support, and dragons, especially in large numbers seem to defy that limit. It i s a problem more fantasy novels struggle with, not only with dragons. You frequently encounter regions with an unlikely number of very dangerous large predators. It shouldn't come as a surprise them that dragons are a species created by a very clever geneticist with a specific purpose in mind. Apart from dragons, the colonists are introducing new species on the planet at a tremendous pace. I don't think any ecologist would even dare to predict what such a injection of invasive species would do to native life but McCaffrey at least makes an attempt to make it sound plausible. Interesting enough the settlers aren't particularly careful in dealing with the ecosystem, sustainable hunting practices for instance, have yet to be developed. McCaffrey gave it a try, clearly thought about the origins of her world, but our understanding of ecosystems would have to improve an awful lot before such confidence in changing a world so dramatically would be justified. I can think of novels that handle ecological themes more successfully.

Dragonsdawn is a prequel of sorts and I guess to an extend is suffers from the problems many of these books almost inevitably run in to. The outcome is known, the solution to the threat the colony faces is obvious, the colonists' loss of their technological base a certainty. I guess that problem is what really tips the scale for me. Compared to Dragonsflight, McCaffrey's writing has matured a lot but with a more or less predictable story and the book's tendency to jump from one character to the next in rapid succession, it is not really a satisfactory read. None of the characters really develop enough depth to draw me into their story or make me feel more that a touch concerned for their wellbeing. I do get the feeling that if you have read more of the Pern novels than I have, some of the names and events mentioned will have more meaning than they have to me. Dragonsdawn can be read on its own just fine but in the end I think it much more enjoyable for the real fan of the series.

Book Details
Title: Dragonsdawn
Author: Anne McCaffrey
Publisher: Corgi Books
Pages: 473
Year: 1988
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-552-13098-1
First published: 1989

The Apex Book of World SF 2 - Lavie Tidhar

Science Fiction is a very Anglo-Saxon affair. Just about all big names in the genre are either from the UK or the US (and most are white men but that is another discussion), with only once in a while an author from another cultural or linguistic background. On top of that, the English speaking world is not overly fond of translations so chances of stumbling across a science fiction novel originally published in, say, Urdu or Swahili is fairly minimal. There is a great deal of Science Fiction being written outside the English speaking world however. I generally try to keep an eye out for these publications but I must admit I only occasionally read one. In 2009 I spotted The Apex Book of World SF, edited by Lavie Tidhar. A collection that promised a look beyond the English speaking world and introduce it to the finest science fiction from across the globe. The collection used a very wide definition of science fiction, including stories that could be considered horror of fantasy and the geographical distribution left something to be desired. Still, it was a clear impulse to the discussion on the topic of diversity in Science Fiction that is still ongoing.

Given the discussion it provoked a second anthology seemed logical and indeed last month The Apex Book of World SF 2, again edited by Tidhar, was released. It contains 26 stories, or 27 if, like me, you acquired the pre-order edition, as well as an introduction by the editor and an essay by Charles Tan, one of the indefatigable advocates for a more diverse genre. The approach is more or less the same as the previous editions. The stories are a mix of original or first time in English publications and reprints. Some have been written in English, some translated by the author, some by translators. One of the criticisms the first volume received was that is was mostly focussed on Europe and Asia. In this volume, the Americas and Africa are well represented too. There are a number of big names in this anthology. Hannu Rajaniemi, Ekaterina Sedia, Nnedi Okorafor, and Andrzej Sapkowski for instance, have made an impact on the genre already, but the majority of names will be less familiar to even the more experienced Science Fiction reader. Diversity is what the anthology aims for and that is certainly what it delivers.

In terms of styles, sub genres and themes the anthology is is just as diverse as the last one. Some stories are fairly traditional science fiction, others veer of into Fantasy, Horror or Surrealism. There is a risk to this approach of course. For the reader looking for a specific brand of story, the anthology has little to offer. It requires the reader to be inquisitive, the want to experience literature from other traditions than the Anglo-Saxon one and to be open to a wide range of interpretations of the genre and cultural peculiarities. This is a lot harder than it seems. Some stories really clicked with me, for others I only got that whooshing sound you hear when something goes right over your head. There is different and too different? It certainly made me reconsider how much I thought I knew about the world. Interpreting these stories can be very tricky indeed.

One of the ones that clicked for me was the opening story. Alternate Girl's Expatriate Life by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz. The author is from the Philippines but currently based in the Netherlands and, if I were to venture a guess, married to one of the locals. The story has a little bit of a Dutch flavour to it, if one knows where to look, but it mostly deals with the stereotype of submissive Asian women. I can't help but wonder how much grief this stereotype has caused her personally. The Philippines do have the reputation as one of the places where middle aged single men can find a young bride easily. Combine that with the racist undertone of Dutch politics at the moment I'm not sure the country is very welcoming to foreigners at the moment.

Malawian author Daliso Chaponda contributed the story Tree of Bones to this collection. It is a dramatic tale set in (probably) 22nd century Burundi, where ethnic tensions once again run high. The courage of one man who has witnessed such atrocities before and his unique talent to allow people to share what he has seen are central to this story. It is an interesting mix of dark elements and optimism in a way. I thought it was a very moving story.

The two stories I mentioned above can be comfortably fitted in Science Fiction. Joyce Chgn's The Sound of Breaking Glass is more fantastic though. It features and eccentric old man making wind chimes out of broken glass bottles. His neighbours obviously see him as crazy but harmless. It is a heartbreaking story, one of those pieces that is all about the mood of the story. She captures the old man's loneliness, indifference to his neighbours' opinion of him and the almost inevitable conclusion very well.

Chng's story is followed by one that only has one speculative element in it. A Single Year by Vietnamese-Hungarian author Csilla Kleinheincz could pass for mainstream fiction if the author chose to market it that way. The story is about the main character struggling with her father's unfailingly correct predictions of the future. What do you do if he tells you the man you intend to share your life with, only has a year to live? The descriptions of the main character's struggle with this knowledge and the unwillingness to accept the future as unchangeable war with each other in this story. The sheer emotional distress of the main character is almost overwhelming. Not a happy story but very well written.

Nira and I by Shweta Narayan, an author who grew up in India and Malaysia, has the air of a folk tale. If it is indeed based on some traditional story I don't know which but that particular bit of knowledge is not necessary to enjoy it. The characters in the story live in a place where perpetual mist is keeping out the sun. The mist is dangerous if you don't know how to live with it. The community is with one foot in the tangible world and another in a land of ghosts. The story is almost minimalistic. There is so much going on between the lines that is never outright mentioned or covered in a very understated way in the text. There are issues of caste and sexuality involved for instance but never very explicit. It is a story that stays with the reader for a while after reading it but I do wonder if it would have been better with a little more flesh on its bones.

The last story I want to mention is A Life Made Possible Behind the Barricades by Brazilian author Jaques Barcia. It is one of those stories that is hard to put in a genre but I guess Steampunk comes closest. It describes the struggles of a couple of which one half is biological and one half mechanical. Their love is not accepted and they have made a run for it to a place where they might be able to be together. Their destination is a battleground though. Behind the barricades they try to build a new life but whether the barricades will hold is questionable. It is a familiar story in a way but Barcia gives it a twist. The revolutionary atmosphere in the story mixes well with the Steampunk elements of the story. It evokes images of early industrial era worker's quarters during a general strike. It's violent, intense and quite strange. One of my favourites in the collection.

The Apex Book of Word SF 2 is bigger, more geographically balanced and, if possible, more diverse than its predecessor. I'm impressed with Lavie's selection and the work it must have taken to collect these stories from all over the planet. In his afterword Charles Tan points out the numerous problems with the term world SF. I guess that if a review wants to, they could have a field day picking this anthology apart based on the difficult to define concept. Personally I don't see the point of doing that. The Apex Book of Word SF 2 aims to show the genre in all its diversity and tries to show that it is much more widespread than the English language world. In that respect it succeeds admirably. Not all stories in this collection work equally well for me but collectively they make a statement. Even in the days of instant communication, the world is larger and stranger than any one of us can possibly imagine. This anthology gives us a taste of it and invites us to explore the world of science fiction in the widest possible sense of the word. Working with such a fuzzy concept as world SF can't have been easy but Lavie has managed to create an anthology that no fan of the genre should ignore. I suggest you go do some exploring of your own.

Book Details
Title: The Apex Book of World SF 2
Author: Lavie Tidhar (ed.)
Publisher: Apex Publications
Pages: 375
Year: 2012
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-937009-04-5
First published: 2012

Adrift on the Sea of Rains - Ian Sales

Adrift on the Sea of Rains is the first novella in a series of four chronicling four alternative histories of the Apollo program. The second novella, with the interesting title The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself is scheduled for some time next month and parts three and four, which as far as I know are still without a title are due to appear in 2013. Adrift on the Sea of Rains was published in April by Whippleshield Books of which Sales is the founder. As of yet, it is their only publication so you might say it was self published. Sales is ambitious though. He means to expand and it looks like he has a very particular taste in science fiction. He believes that "science  fiction does not need implausible gosh-wow special effects and  over-the-top space-operatics in order to be good science fiction" and aims to publish only a very small number of titles a year. A project to keep an eye on. From what I read on their website good stuff that would be very hard to sell in other markets might get a shot here.

Colonel Vance Peterson has been fortunate enough to be on the Moon when the Earth below him, was tearing itself apart in a nuclear war. Now, he and the surviving members of the expedition look at the ruined Earth in the knowledge that nobody is going to show up to take them home. Although the Moon base is equipped to support them for quite a while, food is becoming scarce. In desperation, the men have now turned their hopes to the experimental torsion field generator. This offshoot of a near mythical Nazi Wunderwaffe has recently been transferred to the Moon for further research. It may just be able to get them home, if they can make it work in time.

Sales has taken the Apollo missions as the basis for his story and he has researched them meticulously. The history he describes is obviously not our own but it is very hard to tell the point of divergence. The story is filled with details on previous Apollo missions and technical details on existing materiel, ranging from spacesuits to landers. The Cold War, conflict that in large part drove the US space program in the 1950s and 1960s, is clearly still ongoing. Very little is mentioned about the Soviet achievements in space but Peterson's hostility towards the soviets is quite clear, as is his sense of achievement and technological superiority.

In the novella, hostilities between the Soviets and NATO has moved beyond posturing and proxy wars. Skirmishes are frequent and in the flashback sections of the story we are shown Peterson's involvement in them. He doesn't seem to think so himself but I can't help but wonder how much his actions contributed to the eventual escalation of the conflict. Sales switches from the present tense, in which most of the story is written, to the past tense for these flashbacks. It both helps to develop Peterson's character and explain his attitude to his situation the people who are caught up in this nightmare with and his decisions later on in the story. They also provide a break from the tense and  gloomy atmosphere of the Moon base. Sales may be fascinated by the Apollo program, he is obviously very aware that is was a show of power and a propaganda tool as much as a scientific endeavour.

That is all in the background of the story however, Peterson is more concerned with the situation at the Moon base. Sales describes it in depressing detail. The poor food, the lack of meaningful work to do, the low morale amongst his colleagues. Sales uses a third person perspective for the story creating a bit more distance between the reader and Peterson. He goes though a wide range of emotions during the story and experiences high levels of stress. I started out sympathizing with him to an extend but as the story progresses Peterson becomes increasingly unlikable. We start out with a man who is disillusioned, see him gain hope and accept once more the burden of leadership and end up with a man who can't imagine a geopolitical situation than his own. It may seem to story is pretty straightforward but the real twist is at the end.

The follows the absurd tendency of the US military to insert at least three acronyms into each sentence. The novel is very heavy on them.

     Alden shakes his head. How much does the ascent stage weigh?

10,024 lb, says Curtis from memory. 

     You add a DPS onto that, plus 20,000 lb of fuel, continues Alden, and the APS is not going to reach lunar escape velocity. 

     APS thrust is 3,500 lbf, says Curtis. You can get maybe 12,000 lbs into lunar orbit with that. 

     We don’t need 20,000 lb of fuel, Bartlett points out. We only need enough for the TEI burn. 

     Again, Curtis quotes figures from memory: The CSM is 66,871 lb fully loaded, the SPS has 20,500 lbf thrust. You need a 203 second burn for TEI. 

     See, says Bartlett. Our LM will be maybe one-fifth that. As long as we can get the delta vee for TEI from the DPS— 

     It’s too heavy, Alden repeats.

The crew discussing the technical problems they encounter when trying to get a landing vehicle off the Moon's surface

Nobody not familiar with the US military and the Apollo program can be expected to make sense of such conversations. Sales has included a lengthy appendix explaining the important technical concepts. He also uses it to give an overview of the historical Apollo missions before veering of into his alternative history. The two are mixed up seamlessly making it a perfect excuse to go exploring on the Internet to see what is history and what Sales made up. Some appendices to works of science fiction beg to be ignored, this one is a must read.

The  quote also shows another feature of Sales' writing. He doesn't used quotation marks in the dialogues. It's a style that takes a bit of getting used to. Again, it made me feel a bit more distanced from the characters than I would otherwise have felt. The reader is very much an observer in this story. People who want to be dragged into a tale might find this novella hard to get into.

Just as Sales promised, Adrift on the Sea of Rains does not include implausible special effects or over-the-top space-operatics. A very deliberate choice by the author, the story could easily have contained some big explosions or 'pulse-pounding' action scenes. There is no shortage of such stories in science fiction. Some of the events are quite dramatic but the distance to the characters, Sales' acronym laden prose, and the way in which he writes dialogues makes the drama appear understated. It makes Sales' literary quirks stand out and shifts the reader's attention to some of the more subtle things going on in the background. There is a lot going on in this novella stylistically. It's a piece that needs and deserves to be read carefully. If Sales manages this kind of quality writing in the remaining three parts we'll end up with something special indeed.

Book Details
Title: Adrift on the Sea of Rains
Author: Ian Sales
Publisher: Whippleshield Books
Pages: 68
Year: 2012
Language: English
Format: E-book
ISBN: 978-0-9571883-2-7
First published: 2012

Like Last Year, I Completely Missed Random Comments' Brithday

Which is August 17th :P I think I need to put it on the calendar or something. Anyway, today the blog is exactly 3 years and 8 days old. It is still not much in terms of traffic or any other measure one might think of to express popularity or quality but I am satisfied with the fact that is lasted as long as it did. Pretty sure there is a fourth year of life in this blog too. I think I will celebrate with a review tomorrow ;)

White Mars - Brian W. Aldiss

While rereading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, books I consider to be among the very best in science fiction, I came across various references to White Mars Or, The Mind Set Free by Brian W. Aldiss, written in collaboration with prominent physicists Roger Penrose. Robinson's utopian vision of a terraformed Red Planet is not something everybody would see as ideal or even morally acceptable. In the Mart trilogy Robinson pays a lot of attention to the discussion between what he calls the Reds, a faction opposed to terraforming the planet and convinced of its intrinsic value, and the Green faction who would exploit the planet and make it more hospitable to human life. Aldiss (and Penrose) wrote this novel as a reply to Robinson's vision of utopia portrayed in his Mars novels. The debate about how to set up a utopian society on Mars is the single most important topic in this book. As a nod to his source of inspiration, Robinson even had a street named after him. As far as I can tell White Mars is out of print, I had a hard time tracking down a useful copy without resorting to the countless torrents out there. After having read it, I can't say I am terribly surprised by the relative obscurity of this book. The philosophical argument may be sound, as a work of literature Robinson's novels are far superior.

Since this novel is a reply to Robinson's work I find it very difficult not to see it in the light of the Mars trilogy. In fact, when I first heard about the novel I questioned the wisdom of trying to cover ground Robinson had already so thoroughly explored. No matter how unfair it may be to compare books of different authors to each other, this novel practically begs for it. I'm not sure how much sense this review will make if you have not read Robinson's novels. You have been warned.

A few decades from now, humanity has established a permanent presence on Mars. The harsh environment makes it necessary to hide under domes, always having to be car eful with supplies of air and water. A huge consortium known by the acronym EUPACUS, to which almost all of the economic powers on Earth have contributed, manages the huge undertaking of colonizing the planet and the programs to send a few privileged people up to Mars. Until fraud, corruption and mismanagement on a massive scale are discovered that is. The consortium collapses and the economic crisis that follows, makes sure nobody will be travelling to Mars in the near future. The people already there are stranded. The colony is more or less self sufficient by now, but to most people there, counting on a short stay on the Red Planet, being cut of from Earth is nothing short of a disaster. Others see an opportunity. Under the guidance of the visionary Tom Jefferies, the first steps are being taken towards a utopian society.

The approach to the colonization of Mars present in Red Mars (1992) is quite different from what we find in White Mars. In Robinson's vision the initial stages of colonization are very much oriented towards exploitation of the planet, setting up part of a conflict that will run throughout the trilogy. Aldiss immediately takes a different route:

'All environments are sacrosanct,' Anstruther declared. 'The planet Mars is a sacrosanct environment and must be treated as such. It has not existed untouched for millions of years only to be reduced to one of Earth's tawdry suburbs today. My strong recommendation is that Mars be preserved, as the Antarctic has been preserved for many years, as a place of wonder and meditation, a symbol of our future guardianship of the entire solar system - a planet for science, a White Mars.'

Leo Anstruher addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations - Chapter 1

The speeches made at the General Assembly are not quite as rousing as the debate between Ann Clayborne and Sax Russel if you ask me. Something that turns out to be a problem in much of the novel.

Conceptually, I guess you could say the hand of a master is present in this novel. The collapse of the organisation that organizes space travel to Mars and the financial crisis that follows are eerily familiar to the event surrounding the collapse of Lehman Brothers for instance. An event that took place nine years after this book was published. I guess Aldiss felt that in order for his utopian society to have a chance it needed to develop in isolation. Something that would never happen if Earth had anything to say about the matter. So far at least, he is in agreement with Robinson although the details differ considerably.

Adiss does not just concern himself with what society should look like though. He makes a link with physics where, I assume, is where we can find part of Penrose's input. It is a good thing I had just brushed up on quantum mechanics while reading Ted Kosmatka's Divining Light or a lot of it would have been right over my head. In fact, quite a lot of it still was. The search for what we think of as the Higgs boson, very much in the public eye at the moment given the results of CERN, is still ongoing in the novel. Aldiss and Penrose speculated that the Large Hadron Collider, construction of which started in 1998, would not find a particle in the traditional sense and that the mystery of how particles attain mass would remain. The way things are going now, it looks like CERN will observe, or perhaps already has observed, a Higgs boson. In 1999 this was be no means certain though. In the novel, what we think of as a particle is described as a smudge, the parameters of which can only be more narrowly defined by installations capable of even greater energies than the one unleashed by the Large Hadron Collider under conditions that cannot be found on Earth. Mars is the ideal location, provided humanity does not disturb the planet too much. In effect, this research blocks attempts at terraforming. A second practical obstacle besides the financial one.

The question of the Omega Smudge (or Higgs particle if you will) is linked in the novel with the question of human consciousness. The subtitle of the novel is The Mind Set Free and how to achieve this is the focus of many a discussion. I must admit that although I could follow the speculation on physics for the most part, the connection with conciousness remained nebulous to me. what is clear to me is that there is a direct link between to two. A link that is used in the novel to answer one of the most intriguing questions about Mars: is there life on the Red Planet? As it turns out, the answer is yes, but not in any shape or form ever imagined by scientists. Perhaps the most interesting aspect about this life form is that it appears to be responding to the human presence on the planet. Have they disturbed it's unusual ecology?

The way this lifeform (I won't spoil the story for you by giving too much detail) is described strikes me as a little far fetched. Then again, who knows what alien life might look like. What I didn't like about it element in the story it that Aldiss again uses it to throw up a barrier against the development of the planet. The third major practical obstacle against terraforming, that most likely is not present on Mars. At this point I began to wonder if Adiss had lost faith in the strength his own argument. Still, conceptually it is quite a challenging novel. People who like hard science fiction certainly have something to sink their teeth in here.

Nevertheless, I liked Robinson's books a whole lot better, mostly based on more literary arguments. Many people have trouble with the Mars books because of Robinson's tendency to loose himself in lengthy descriptions of landscapes, science or interior monologues. For me that is part of what makes these novels so good. Robinson makes you experience Mars as if you are standing on the planet yourself. I never felt a single passage was a plain infodump. With Aldiss, I do get that feeling a lot. He even has one of the physicists in the novel lecture the other characters (and by extension the reader) in a rather condescending way about the progress of the search for the Omega smudge. It often feels forced into the narrative and doesn't always contribute to the development of the characters. There is also quite a lot of material that is written in such a way that a reader who isn't all that interested in the subject discussed will have a hard time working their way though these sections. Personally, I wouldn't go so far as to call it boring but I know plenty of readers who wouldn't hesitate to do just that.

There we hit on a second problem with this novel. Most of it is told from the perspective of Tom Jefferies (read: Thomas Jefferson) and his adopted daughter Cang Hai. Adiss fails to give these two characters, or a number of secondary characters their own voice. The entire book is written in a rather monotone, almost formal style that is more suitable to an academical work that a work of fiction. To a point this works for some of the more technical scenes. The debates that take place amongst the stranded humans are quite tame because of it. These debates center on how to best develop their utopian society, touching upon the deepest, most sacred ethics and beliefs of people. Consider also that the people sent to Mars are generally highly educated and accomplished in their field. Not people to let others do their thinking for them. It is not that there isn't disagreement, but not on the scale you'd expect and certainly not as intense. Jefferies way to utopia (mind you, he doesn't always get to do things his way but still more often than not) is apparently the only logical path?

Some of the arguments made, make a lot of sense. They manage to do away with a lot of historical ballast that is holding humanity back on earth. On the other hand there is quite a lot of ivory tower blathering going on in this novel. People engaged in highly philosophical arguments when their very existence on the planet is quite tenuous at best. Somehow I don't really see a groups of human beings reach some sort of consensus quite that easily under such stressful circumstance. Jefferies has neither the authority nor the (military) strength to back up his attempts to form a utopian society. In a true utopian he wouldn't need either of course, but certainly early on in the novel, they are no where near that point yet. It is a far cry from the passionate debates at Dorsa Brevia in Green Mars (1993) and and the constitutional congress covered in the early stages of Blue Mars (1996). To the point even where it made me wonder if Robinson, one of science fiction's most notorious optimists, is actually more cynical about human nature than Aldiss and Penrose.

Adiss and Penrose have delivered a fairly impenetrable counter argument to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Maybe he is right in saying that Robinson dismissed the 'Red' (or I guess Adiss would call in White) argument for humanity's treatment of the planet but he doesn't present it in a particularly engaging way. Without the connection to Robinson's work, I don't think I would have thought it worth my time to be honest. While the novel is certainly intellectually challenging I found the prose rather stiff and incapable of conveying the passion Jefferies must have felt about creating a new society. The characterization is pretty uniform, each of the character delivering their part of the tale in a detached and almost academic style. White Mars is clearly the work of a great intellect (or maybe I should say two great intellects), but, without having read any of his other books, I do get the impression we are not seeing Aldiss at the top of his abilities here.

Book Details
Title: White Mars Or, The Mind Set Free
Author: Brian W. Aldiss
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 323
Year: 2000
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-312-25473-3
First published: 1999

Quartet - Four Tales from the Crossroads - George R.R. Martin

I've been seriously distracted from my reading lately so to tide you all over I have dusted off and partially rewritten an older review. This one was originally written in March 2009. It needed less editing than most pieces I wrote back then but some changes have been made. Hope to be back with fresh material next week.

Published in 2001 Quartet - Four Tales from the Crossroads contains four pieces of fiction from the period between his 1983 novel The Armageddon Rag and the huge success of his A Song of Ice and Fire series in the late 1990s. In this period Martin was mostly occupied by writing screenplays for television shows such as Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast as well as editing the long-running Wild Cards series. With his attention mostly directed elsewhere, his output as a short fiction writer decreased. The year 1986 saw the collection Tuf Voyaging appear but after that new material was scarce. Martin still wrote a number of of very good stories in those years, some of which have been collected in the career spanning collection Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective, which any fan of Martin's work should read. Three of the four works in this collection cannot be found in Dreamsongs, so as a big fan of Martin's writing I gave this book a go.

The first story in the collection is Black and White and Red All Over. It was to be Martin's fifth novel but after The Armageddon Rag turned into a commercial disaster it failed to sell and Martin abandoned the project in favour of Tuf and his projects in Hollywood. Black and White and Red All Over is a historical fiction set in 1890s New York. The idea for the story is based on a comment by superintendent Thomas Bryrnes, who once boasted that if saucy Jack (the Ripper) should try his nonsense in New York he'd be caught within 36 hours. With no chance of Jack actually showing up in New York, this was a safe boast. But what if Jack had taken up the challenge?

Martin obviously did quite a lot of research on this project, both on the setting as well as a number of historical incidents and people that are featured in the story. The fragment in Quartet, about a hundred pages long, reads as the beginning of a very ambitious novel. Frankly, I am astounded that it didn't sell. With A Song of Ice and Fire under his belt, I doubt Martin would have any problems selling it today of course, but even taking into account the state of his career back then, it looks too good to pass up on. It is an absolute waste that he didn't finish the story. As it is, I thought it well worth reading but it does stop, as Martin himself puts it, "virtually in mid-sentence". Just when he had me solidly hooked too. Black and White and Red All Over leaves the reader hanging, something that some readers will find very unsatisfying. Don't try it if you can't stand an unfinished story, given all the projects Martin is involved in, it is unlikely ever to be finished.

The second story in the collection is Skin Trade, a novella written for Night Visions 5. It won him the World Fantasy Award for best novella in 1989. Skin Trade is a bit unusual for Martin. It is an uncut horror story. Martin has written quite a few stories that could be considered horror but he usually mixes it with science fiction, or in the case of his novel Fevre Dream, with historical fiction. This is the only story that I know of, where he tackles a classic horror theme, the werewolf, in a contemporary setting. The story deals with a number of murders in town fallen on hard times. The first victim is a friend of the main character Willie. He calls in a favour with a private investigator to find out more about the case and soon becomes very much involved in the case. With Martin using a classic theme in this story it is not highly original. It is very well written though. Martin does a good job of building suspense, timing the clues he leaves the readers very well. Willie is also one of the great flawed heroes Martin likes the write about. Of the four stories in this collection this is probably the most satisfying read. There are persistent rumours that this novella will be turned into a movie. I think it is very suitable for that, if a movie ever does hit the cinemas I'll go see it.

During his time in Hollywood Martin wrote several teleplays that were never produced. Starport is one of them. The pilot for a new science fiction series which never made the production stage. The draft Martin included was too long fro a two hour pilot of course, but it does give us a good idea what the series might have looked like. From what I read I even might have liked the series, which is high praise since I rarely see anything on television these days that is worth my attention. The story follows the adventures of a police station that happens to be unfortunate enough to be located near a Starport, as the name suggests a place with aliens and humanity meet, and one of only three such places on the planet. The cops face all manner of strange creatures, odd habits, cultural differences and xenophobia in the line of duty. I like the idea but I must admit I don't like reading teleplays. I had the same experience reading the two Martin included in Dreamsongs. A teleplay sketches the bare outlines of the story, just a few words on the setting and the characters, letting the preconceptions of the reader fill in the blanks. The figures and scenes you see in this teleplay are often very stereotypical. No doubt those characters would be fleshed out in the series, but in this pilot they are not. It clearly shows the difference between writing a teleplay and a novel. I guess it also shows something of Martin's versatility as a writer. That is not enough to really make it an enjoyable read though.

The last part of the collection is dedicated to the fourth genre Martin's stories are usually placed in. Blood of the Dragon is a Fantasy novella set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. It was first published in the July 1996 issue of Asimov's and won a Hugo for best novella in 1997. It tells the story of Daenerys and Khal Drogo, a tale the readers of A Game of Thrones will be familiar with. As far as I can tell the Daenerys chapters in that novel are identical to the text in the novella. If you have read A Game of Thrones this novella will not add anything new. Daenerys' story is set apart from the rest of the events in that book so it does make a very good novella. I'm not sure if it is a good introduction to the series though. Danerys' story is set in a very different setting that the more recognizable pseudo medieval England of the Seven Kingdoms. That being said, her chapters in A Game of Thrones are among my favourites in the series. That Hugo was well deserved in my opinion.

So there you have it, Quartet - Four Tales from the Crossroads, four stories in four genres, Martin's writing in a nutshell. Does that make this book worth reading? I'd say only for the real fan. An unfinished novel, a piece of another, a teleplay... they are all worth reading but their still only bits and pieces of Martin's career. Unfinished projects, unrealized ambition and a taste of a far larger project, none of that makes for very satisfying reading. It does give the reader a better understanding of Martin's development as a writer and why he chose to follow the path he did. Martin's career is littered with ideas that did not lead to stories and projects that were eventually abandoned. It takes nerve to publish some of it anyway and in that sense enjoyed reading it. On the other hand, it leaves me wishing he had finished Black and White and Red All Over. Or that he will at some point. The chances of that happening seem remote at best. So think carefully before picking this up, Quartet will leave you hungry for something that hasn't been written yet, and what's worse, something that may never be written.

Book Details
Title: Quartet - Four Tales from the Crossroads
Author: George R.R. Martin
Publisher: NESFA Press
Pages: 429
Year: 2001
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 1-886778-35-3
First published: 2001

I've Been Interviewed!

Normally I am quite happy to share my opinion on a given book without being asked but this time someone actually wanted to know my opinion. Fantastical Librarian Mieneke invited me to take part in her blogger query series, in which she interrogates fellow bookbloggers about their approach to reviewing (among other things).

Mieneke is one of the few Dutchies that I'm aware of running an English language book blog. For the occasion she has slipped in a few questions on how I came to review in English and how I feel about being away from all the action. Just to make you curious:

You're one of the only, if not the only, Dutch book reviewers I know and like me, you blog in English. Did this evolve naturally from the subject matter we review, since the availability of SFF in Dutch is so limited? Or was it a conscious choice?

It wasn't really a concious choice. My Livejournal is in English, mostly because most of the people I tried to stay in touch with do not speak Dutch. Fantasybookspot was a site run by two American guys, so I didn't really have a choice there. After that, I had gotten so used to it, that writing in Dutch didn't really occur to me. I have written a few review in Dutch, but only two of those eventually made it online. Writing in Dutch is still easier for me, but part of that advantage is lost if you read the book in English. My vocabulary in English is limited, but I have gotten to the level where I know words in English that I wouldn't know the Dutch translation of. Especially in genre fiction, which has a pretty peculiar vocabulary of its own, this can be a pain in the backside when you have to write about it in another language. I don't envy translators in this respect.....

What to know more about my motivations and ambitions (or lack thereof)? Head on over to A Fantastical Librarian. Don't forget to check out Mieneke's reviews, they make for excellent reading.

The Divining Light - Ted Kosmatka

I am a little short on time this week so I haven't yet finished the novel I intended to review. To fill the gap I browsed though the pile of unread fiction I have gathered from the web over the past couple of years and came across Divining Light by Ted Kosmatka. Kosmatka has recently published his first novel titled The Games. It is a book I considered reading but didn't find the time for. The rest of his oeuvre consists of short fiction of which I have only read one piece. A story called The N-Word which was published in the John Joseph Adams anthology Seeds of Change (2008). I probably picked up this story after it was nominated for the 2009 Nebula for best novelette, which eventually went to Eugie Foster's Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast. That must have been quite a story to beat Kosmatka's piece. Depressing as it is, I liked Divining Light a lot.

At the opening of the story we meet Eric Argus, a scientist working in quantum mechanics who went through a severe crisis after thinking over some of the implications of his research. He has turned to the bottle and has not produced any publishable work since. His work was of such high quality however, that his is offered a new chance. Eric is convinced he will fail but in the quiet, academic environment he finds himself in, he starts experimenting none the less. Encouraged by some of his colleagues he hits upon an application of quantum mechanics that has even more disturbing implications than his previous work.

Divining Light is a hard science fiction story. Don't bother reading it if you don't as least have a faint interest in physics. Most of it will either go right over your head or bore you to tears. Quantum mechanics, for me at least, always had something very counter-intuitive about it. It makes me have to pay close attention when reading science fiction that involves this branch of physics. The story is centered around a classic experiment known as Feynman's double slit experiment or Young's experiment. It is taught in classrooms all over the word to demonstrate that light can display both characteristics of wave phenomena and particles. The interesting thing about this experiment is that is was first performed in the 1790s, more than a century before the theoretical framework of physics caught up with this phenomenon. In the story the experiment is done with an electron beam rather than light but the effect is the same. The story contains references to such things as Wheeler's delayed choice experiment, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, Schrödinger's cat and the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. In short, it is quite heavy on physics.

There is no denying Divining Light is a story that leans heavily on ideas. Nevertheless, at the core of it, is a very human struggle. When the implications of his research become clear to Eric, he feels he has opened Pandora's box. You can't unlearn things and Eric deals poorly with his new found knowledge. Kosmatka slowly reveals what is bothering Eric while he explains the experiment to his colleagues. It is indeed an idea that seems to defy logic. So radical that it would be deeply upsetting to many people if it was proven correct. Eric struggle is excruciatingly painful at times. Kosmatka manages to show very well how Eric has tied himself into a knot. You can't help but agree with the character who wonders why the brilliant ones are always so screwed up.

Divining Light is not a story that makes the reader feel happy. At some point in the story Kosmatka leaves science and starts to speculate of course, I got the impression he stretches the science pretty far beyond what is currently being discussed in physics, but even keeping that in mind, he says some pretty disturbing things. One particular application of Eric's research that is mentioned in a bit more detail in the story doesn't speak well for humanity in particular. I don't doubt someone would be tempted to try it though. The author manages to connect the science and the effects on the human psyche very well. I haven't read many stories that manage this. In a way it reminded my of Ted Chiang's brilliant Division by Zero. It is clearly one of those stories that stayed on the to read stack too long. I guess I will have to read The Games now.

Story Details
Title: Divining Light
Author: Ted Kosmatka
Originally appeared in: Asimov's 2008
Pages: 29
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: E-book
First published: 2008

Not Accepting Review Copies for the Moment

I'm a bit distracted from my reading right now. The observant reader will guess part of the reason. I don't really want to bother you with the whole of it but for the moment, I don't want to have to read against deadlines so I am closing Random Comments for review copies. The novels still in the queue will of course get reviewed.

I expect I will keep reviewing at a modest pace but mostly to make a dent in the to read pile. I'll also try to finish the Grand Master Reading Challenge and make some progress on other reading projects. I have severely limited the book buying at the moment so don't expect too many 2012 titles.

Hopefully I'll be able to reverse this in October but no promises.

Scattered Among Strange Worlds - Aliette de Bodard

There is plenty of Alliette de Bodard's short fiction scattered about on the web I've paid attention to a couple of those stories in the past, all  linked to the Xuya alternative history. Earlier this month, a short fiction sampler became available on Amazon. It is something of a first for me. The first Kindle file for which I actually paid. Not that I have anything against buying e-books but I don't own a Kindle (my e-reader prefers epub) so I can only read them on the laptop. I spend an awful lot of time looking at this screen, but for reading purposes it is not ideal. Still, 58 pages is manageable and the quality of these stories more than made up for any discomfort. In fact, I was so curious about this work that I didn't bother to look around to see if it was available in other formats too.

Scattered Among Strange Worlds contains two short stories and a sample chapter of de Bodard's debut novel Servant of the Underworld. The fist one is Scattered Along the Rivers of Heaven, first published in the January 2012 issue of Clarkesworld, where it can still be read and listened to for free. It is a far future science fiction story that incorporates a lines of Chinese poetry. I must admit the names de Bodard mentions at the end of the story are completely unfamiliar to me. The future she describes is clearly Asian influenced and the story deals with the fall out of a revolution that alienates a mother and daughter. Many years later, the granddaughter returns to the scene of the revolution to visit the funeral of her grandmother. A funeral her mother won't attend.

I think de Bodard is almost being too ambitious in this story. There is so much packed into it that I scarcely know where to begin. Structurally it is an interesting piece. There are two strands in the narrative. One is set in the past; the time of the revolution and its aftermath. Note that the narrator of that section considers itself to be plural. The second strand, set in the present and told in the present tense, is seen from the point of view of the grand daughter Xu Wen. The two are hardly aware of each other but the contrast wonderfully. Especially once the reader realizes the nature of the plural narrator and Xu Wen's opinion of them.

As I said there is a lot packed into this story but I will limit myself to two elements. One of the things that is very relevant to me personally at the moment is the way language is being discussed. It is language that sets groups apart, language that is used to fuel the revolution and eventually to mark the victors. De Bodard looks at these with a sense of loss, which, given the history of the French language and the aggressive movement to force out regional language in the 19th and early 20th century in France, isn't surprising. Language is an important part of a culture and forcing one to disappear a favourite tactic of oppressors. As some of you may know I have recently started trying to learn some Norwegian.* In this country the struggle between local dialects and a standardized language has taken quite a different path. In the story, language is very politically charged. It isn't the mail focus of the story but it contributes to the mood of the piece.

The second element that hit me pretty hard personally is the climatic scene at the funeral. Xu Wen has made a difficult choice in showing up for the funeral. My father is currently very clearly in the last phase of his life and so his last wishes came up recently. We've had people over coming to say goodbye this week. My family is not one to show a lot of emotion so it is not the dramatic scene you may imagine. He does have very particular ideas on his own funeral though. He has always been very socially active and if he wanted to, the funeral would have attracted hundreds of people. A lot of them, people he hasn't seen in years. He has made it very clear that he wants to keep it more intimate though. His reasoning is that you can't be bothered to show up now that he is obviously going through a very tough time in his life, you have no business at the funeral. I can't say I blame him.

In the story, Xu Wen has some of her choices made for her of course, but the fact remains that she really is too late. My response to this element in the story is much more influenced by things going on in my life than anything de Bodard has written. It is clearly an unintended reaction but it does show what kind of a story this is. I have lifted two elements from it I responded most strongly to but there is plenty more in this story. It is a piece that will draw as many unique reactions as it has readers. I think it is a brilliant story and I fully expect it to show up in awards nominations next year.

The second story is not quite as easily characterized as science fiction. It has a bit of a fantasy atmosphere about it. Exodus Tides. It was first published in Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show April 2011 and can only be read online there if you have a subscription. Even if you don't, you should go check it out anyway, if only to have a look at the wonderful artwork by Anna Repp that accompanies the story. Exodus Tides tells the story of Emilie, a young girl of mixed mermen/human origin, who is trying to come to terms with the half of her heritage her parents won't tell her about. It is told from a first person perspective, making it very intimate but in some respects also limited.

De Bodard doesn't give too many details about what droves the mermaids from the sea but it is depicted as a deadly place. However much her parents want her to be human, her heritage sets her apart at school. There is a clear connection the the situation immigrants find themselves in and that of second generation in particular. Emilie has no connection to her mother's life at sea apart from the few stories she has heard and on top of that, her world is not just distant, it has been destroyed. This search for cultural identity shows up in De Bodard's work more often. It strikes me as a very difficult balancing act, living among the stories of a country that has moved on by the time you hear them and the reality of a country that doesn't always appreciate its new citizens (an increasingly frequent problem in the Netherlands unfortunately). Emilie is looking for her own answers, despite her mother's wishes. It is a painful process in a way. De Bodard leaves the ending unclear. I guess readers gets to decide what her ultimate decision is. I have given it some thought yesterday but I'm not sure I have an answer.

Scattered Among Strange Worlds is a great introduction to de Bodard's writing. These are multi layered stories with a lot of attention paid to which viewpoint the story should be told from and what tense to use. There is also a lot of cultural nuances in these works, exposing the readers to Chinese and Vietnamese culture in a way I haven't come across anywhere else in the genre. I have long since come to the conclusion that I will read anything by de Bodard  I can get hands on and I very much entourage you to seek out her work. Whether it be her short fiction or one of her novels, it will be worth your time.

* I have written a long ramble about my first encounter with Norwegian on my Livejournal. Since I feel the piece very much shows my ignorance of languages and all things Norwegian I have made it a friends only entry.

Book Details
Title: Scattered Among Strange Worlds
Author: Aliette de Bodard
Publisher: Nine Dragons River
Pages: 58
Year: 2012
Language: English
Format: E-book
First published: 2012