Immersion - Aliette de Bodard

Anticipating the 2013 awards season Aliette de Bodard has made the short story Immersion available in a number of e-book formats at her website. It was originally published in de June 2012 edition of Clarke's world, where it can still be read or listened to. I've been a fan of de Bodard's writing ever since I read The Lost Xuyan Bride a few years back so obviously I picked it up. It turns out the story is linked to Scattered Along the Rivers of Heaven but set on another space station. I think it is also related to the recently published novella On a Red Station, Drifting, which I hope to read soon. You don't need to have read that story to enjoy Immersion however. I think this one of those stories I read as just the right time in my life. Of course that poses a problem for this review. One might argue that all reviews are more about the reviewer than the work discussed but for this one it is going to be a bit more true than usual. Not the first time this has happened when reading one of de Bodard's stories.

Dreadfully spoilerish, I recommend you read the story first.

House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds

A new year so time for an Alastair Reynolds review, albeit a bit later than usual. House of Suns is another one of Alastair Reynolds' standalone novels. There is short fiction loosely related to this universe but the novel reads just fine without having read that. As with just about everything Reynolds wrote he doesn't rule out doing another work in this universe but for now it seems his new Poseidon's Children trilogy and an upcoming Dr. Who novel are keeping him occupied. Like the other novels by Reynolds I've read it is a science fiction on a massive scale. In terms of showing us how large and strange the universe is, he takes his readers to new extremes in this novel and then ends it by showing us he's barely begun. The novel is stuffed with wonder of the galaxy and nearly unbelievable technology. In a way, it proves Arthur C. Clarke's overused statement that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Six million years in the future mankind has spread across the galaxy. Civilizations have risen and fallen and humanity is now a species with a very varied appearance. One of the very few stable factors in this constantly changing universe are the lines. Gentian Line is one of them, founded by Abigail Gentian who sent a thousand clones, or shatterlings, of herself into space to explore the galaxy. One every two hundred thousand years they meet to exchange their experiences. The shatterlings Purslane and Champion are on their way to the next reunion. Late and knowing they will be disciplined for 'consorting', something the Line frowns upon, they try to find a way to limit the damage. When they stop in a solar system no Gentian has visited in aeons, they stumble across Hesperus, one of the Machine People. He might just be their ticket out of this mess but as they approach the reunion system a distress call reaches them that will turn their universe upside down. After six million years, someone has decided to take Gentian Line down a peg.

This novel is not the first in which Reynolds explore the implications of the speed of light as a fundamental constant for human space travel. In the Revelation Space novels for instance, relativistic speeds, time dilation and story lines that stretch across decades are an important part of the plot. Here, he takes it just about as far as things will go. Shatterlings travel the universe just below the speed of light, spending a lot of their time in suspension. They may not have experienced the full six million years of their life, but they are old enough to have seen civilizations rise and fall many times over. They speak of years as we would of days and think nothing of not seeing each other for millennia. It's hard to wrap your head around sometimes.

The time scale of the story isn't the only think epic about it. Reynolds describes technologies to refuel suns running our of hydrogen, stardams capable of containing the energies released by a supernova and space ships capable of accelerations in excess of a thousand gees and still able to keep their human cargo alive. There are clones and artificial intelligences, humans in every conceivable shape and size. Humanity is capable of manipulating the galaxy on a huge scale. If you are a reader looking for that sense of wonder that characterized some of the best of the best of the golden age novels, then this will probably be to your liking. Fans of Reynolds' usually strong scientific underpinnings may find it contains a bit too much handwavium though.

The structure of the story is a bit more straightforward than some of his other novels. There is a limited number of points of view and the plot is focussed on unravelling the reasons behind Gentian Line's misfortune. It contains plenty of twists but nothing that distracts from the business at hand. The book read pretty quickly compared to some of Reynold's denser Revelation Space novels. Surprisingly quickly for a five hundred page novel even. It wasn't quite what I was expecting but it was definitely a fun read. The previous novel I'd read by Reynolds, Pushing Ice, published in 2007, was marred by an unlikely plot and characters that generally made very little sense. This story may be equally unlikely but manages to keep my suspension of disbelief intact.

I do think that Reynolds packed perhaps a bit too much ideas into this volume though. The implications of most things we see are usually only glimpsed at. He simply doesn't have enough space in this book to properly explore them. The pace of the story simply won't allow it. I find myself torn between the sheer enjoyment on being dragged along with the story and the nagging voice telling me Reynolds is glossing over the details. It is a much smoother read than some of his earlier novels but in the process, it has lost some of what I liked about those as well. It is an intriguing novel and a thoroughly absorbing read, but when you get right down to it, there is quite a bit of unfulfilled potential in the book as well. Personally, I can't entirely shake that feeling and completely lose myself in the book. House of Suns is entertaining, thrilling even, but not all it might have been. For the fan of space opera, it is still a very fine read however. One I would definitely recommend to fans of the sub genre.

Book Details
Title: House of Suns
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 502
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-575-08237-3
First published: 2008

Wrapping up 2012

My blogging over the last six weeks are obviously not everything I would have hoped for. I found a apartment last month, which is something of a miracle all things considered. Unfortunately I couldn't get any time off work in December or January so I've been forced to pour all my free time into this project. It is almost inhabitable, I expect to move in in January, joined a few weeks later by my girlfriend. That does mean I will be without internet for a while in January so I don't expect great things next month either.

Accounting
Despite the poor finish I did review 60 works in 2012. They break down into 41 novels, 5 short stories, 7 novellas and 7 collections and anthologies. I had hoped for more, but realistically that is a decent total. One of the goals was to read more works by women and I certainly did better than last year. Of the 60 works I've read, 26 were written by women, 31 by men and the remaining 3 contained work by both men and women. I hope to do a little better still in 2013. Next year's challenge over at Worlds Without End might help in that respect.

Which brings me to the 2012 Grand Master Reading Challenge. I managed to read all 12 books and review 11 of them. Ten of them were posted on the Worlds Without End blog as well. The rules only required me to write 6 so that is another goal achieved. The complete list:

1. Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
2. Prelude to Space - Arthur C. Clarke
3. Forerunner - Andre Norton
4. I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
5. The Wind's Twelve Quarters  - Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
7. Beyond the Blue Event Horizon - Frederik Pohl
8. White Mars - Brian Aldiss
9. Dragonsdawn - Anne McCaffrey
10. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
11. The Listeners - James E. Gunn
12. All About Emily - Connie Willis (not reviewed)

Books I've read but not reviewed in 2012 (some of them might still get a review later on) are What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank by Krista D. Ball, The Wurms of Blearmouth by Steven Erikson, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm and the aforementioned All About Emily by Connie Wills. I don't have a page total for 2012 handy right now but it should be around 17,000. Significantly down form last year.

Best of 2012
I'll limit myself to five books this year, ten seems too many on a total of 60. The best books I've read this year (not necessarily in that order) are:

1. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. I'm very impressed by this first volume in Bear's Eternal Sky trilogy. She tackles Epic Fantasy in her own unique way.
2. Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm. Somewhere between urban fantasy (sans sparkling vampires) and magical realism, this is probably her most underrated novel.
3. Crack'd Pot Trail by Steven Erikson. Not what you'd expect from a Korbal Broach and Bauchelain. You'll think it either dreadful of brilliant.
4. The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu. This novella should have won some of the awards it was nominated for.
5. Moxyland by Lauren Beukes. Complex and chillingly plausible, this novel is one hell of a début. I prefer it over Zoo City.

Interesting list now that I look at it.

Traffic
My traffic this year has grown considerably compared to 2011 but not as much as last year. I think it could have been a little better if I had continued posting. I've had a couple of very popular reviews this year, mostly tied to movie or TV releases. The most popular reviews this year are:

1. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
2. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
3. Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
4. A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin
5. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
6. Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
7. The Ice Dragon - George R.R. Martin
8. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
9. Reaper's Gale - Steven Erikson
10. The Valley of the Horses - Jean M. Auel

Four reviews showed up on last year's list as well. I wonder if any of them can keep going. The Hunger Games book reviews are way more popular than anything else I've written. Despite being up less than a year they are way ahead of any other reviews in number of pageviews. The Hunger Games has almost five times as many hits as Roadside Picnic got in 2012 and Catching Fire isn't far behind. What is more interesting is that Mockingjay didn't catch on. Nor did A Clash of Kings. Still, generally speaking making it to TV or the big screen does wonders for your sales (and traffic). I'd hate to think what would happen if I reviewed Fifty Shades of Grey :P

Plans
I don't dare make too many given the current circumstances. I want to take part in the reading challenge over at Worlds Without End again and make progress on my Frank Herbert and Kim Stanley Robinson projects (I did manage a few of those last year). Other than that it will be a challenge to keep this blog going. If I manage that I'll be happy.

That wraps up 2012. I wish you all a happy 2013 and I hope to see you on Random Comments again.

Busy Writing Jury Reports This Weekend

Got twenty-six to write and I'd like to do at least ten of them this weekend. Otherwise I'll never make the deadline. I have read all of them by now and it's an interesting mix ranging from absolute beginner to publishable with some minor tweaking.

I was expecting more classic fantasy, since that is all that can be found in the F&SF sections of most book stores here. Most of them are contemporary though. Some leaning towards the surreal, some more urban fantasy-like. I think publishers would be wise to rethink what they choose to publish/translate if I see this selection. Not many 2012 end of the Maya calendar apocalypse tales either. I was more or less expecting that. My view might a bit skewed though. I'm reading twenty-six stories in this first round, out of ninety-one submissions.

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you not to expect a new review this weekend, I'm otherwise engaged ;)

De Eerste God - Adrian Stone

My attention for Dutch language has been sorely lacking this year. The last time I reviewed one is a year ago, almost to the day. I am reading lots of short storied for the Fantastels contest at the moment but a full novel was a while ago. De Eerste God, final book in the Rune duology by Adrian Stone came out in September fortunately. I hate to leave series unfinished so this one was on my to read list. De Eerste God (literally: The First God) is his fifth novel, all set in the same universe. It is not necessary to have read Stone's trilogy centred around the monk Marak, but without having read De Achtste Rune, the novel makes no sense. It is a direct sequel. In fact, I think it could have been written as a single (admittedly pretty large) novel. This concluding volume is definitely lighter on social issues, I got the impression Stone had quite a bit of trouble tying up all the story lines he started in the first novel.

In Kadish, the God-Emperor Danobe has acquired the eighth rune, making him more powerful than any of his predecessors since the cataclysm that rocked the continent ages ago. This power has a price however. Danobe hears voices that drive him slowly insane. The only thing that can hold them at bay is the healing magic of Serina, enslaved priestess of Viguru. Danobe needs to stay focussed. He has a rival eighth after all. Ghelan has survived the trap set for him and has come out as powerful as the God-Emperor himself. These two men are the only ones who can stop the looming disaster created by the pair of them in the previous book. The dimension of the gods is still leaking into the world though the rift created by Ghelan. It must be stopped before it overwhelms the world. Only the eighths can do it, if they don't destroy each other first.

Stone spend much of the first novel laying out the stresses on Kadish society and showing the reader the nation was on the brink of collapse. In this novel, the inevitable happens and things come crashing down. It doesn't quite happen in the way the previous novel seemed to suggest though. Stone used his characters to show the various cracks and stresses in society in the first novel. This book is much more focussed on their personal challenges. The novel leaves very little space for what is going on outside the line of sight of the main characters. I thought this was pretty strange given all the rebellious talk, clashing interests and general discontent displayed in the first novel.

During his tyrannical rule Danobe is not concerned with the wellbeing of his subjects. His reign is one of unpredictability and ruthless action, the consequences of which can be felt far outside Kadish' borders. Stone captures the chaos and terror among his subjects very well. Even characters used to being in his presence fear his unpredictable temper. As a seventh rune magician he was already the most powerful magician in the nation. Now the eight rune distances him even more from ordinary mortals. The mad king is a figure that shows up in fantasy quite often, it is perhaps not the most original element in this novel but Danobe made me nervous so I guess it works to an extend.

His fellow eighth and adversary Ghelan faces the same challenge but deals with it in a different way. You could say Ghelan is a bit of an anti-hero. Where Danobe sought the power of the eighth rune, Ghelan had it trust upon him. It doesn't make a difference to the encroaching madness but where Danobe denies the connection and revels in the power it gives him, Ghelan would do anything to get rid of the rune altogether. He is haunted by guilt over his part in Danobe's rise and the rift between dimension he created. It makes him easily the most annoying character in the book. He is indecisive, stubborn and at times wallowing in self pity. For most of the novel I thought what he needed was a good kick in the backside to get him moving. When he finally does make a major decision, it is mostly driven by his own needs rather than the clean up the mess he got himself in.

The character the story revolved about in the first book, the priestess Serina is less prominent here. She is still being held but the God-Emperor in a strange mixture of enslavement and affection for her captor. Given the level of force being used and the mistreatment Serina is subjected to, this part of the story remains problematic. Her feelings towards the God-Emperor are hopelessly and unrealistically mixed. She does become a bit more calculating though, making sure that the child she carries will be the only one Danobe will ever have. In the novel, Serina's story line explored sexism and racism in Kadish. Something that moves to the background considerably in this book. Her healing skills are met with a kind of grudging respect but what more freedom might do for the nation is no longer of any concern to the other characters. In fact, the finale of the novel hints at a continuation of the suppression of women. I consider Serina's story line something of a missed opportunity.

In the end, the story  left we with mixed feelings. Stone delivers another competently written fantasy novel with De Eerste God but I don't think it lives up the the promise of De Achtste Rune. I got the impression he was struggling tying up all the loose ends and lost track of the implications of of what he showed the reader in the first novel. The Rune duology hides the bones of a larger, more complex tale than Stone ends up delivering. There is plenty to enjoy, De Eerste God is a decent, fast-paced read but I think it could have been more.

Book Details
Title: De Eerste God
Author: Adrian Stone
Publisher: Luitingh Fantasy
Pages: 363
Year: 2012
Language: Dutch
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-90-245-5120-0
First published: 2012

The Listeners - James Gunn

I haven't been very adventurous in my reading for the Damon Knight Grand Master reading challenge. Seven of the ten books I've read so far have been by authors I have read other works of, while two others were acknowledged science fiction classics. For the eleventh read I decided to pick a book by someone I knew very little of. James Gunn doesn't have as long a bibliography as some of his contemporaries and quite a lot is short fiction. He made quite an impact on the genre nevertheless. Besides writing, Gunn is a noted critic and teacher as well as the director of the Center for Study of Science Fiction. The Listeners (1972) is a fix-up novel, various parts of it appeared in Galaxy Magazine and Fantasy and Science Fiction between 1968 and 1972. It is probably its best known novel, but apparently not one instantly recognized as a masterwork. Gunn missed out on all awards and nominations save one for the Campbell award in 1973. There have been a whole bunch of editions of this book with different forewords, introductions and afterwords. The copy I've read is a 2004  edition which features an introduction by H. Paul Shuch, an American physicist heavily involved with SETI, a foreword by Thomas Pierson, founder of the SETI institute, and and afterword by the late Freeman J. Dyson, British-American mathematician and physicist. I guess this book is still well loved in scientific circles.

In 2028, the SETI's search for extraterrestrial life is still ongoing without ever having picked up a single signal that indicates intelligent life. Director Robert McDonald, a staunch believer in the project, is facing ever more difficulties keeping SETI funded. McDonald himself is beginning to wonder if the project is worth the personal sacrifices he has to make. Then, a signal is received that is unmistakably of alien origin. A broadcast is received from a the direction of the star Capella, 45 light years distant. It changes everything. The project, the world, our place in the universe. Humanity is about to enter into a conversation with a ninety year time lag.

I like science fiction a lot but in my mind at least, it doesn't tend to get really interesting until the late 1960s. A time when writers started to incorporate more social sciences into their works, pay greater attention to their characters and move towards more literary forms of writing. The Listeners is a novel that tries to do some of these things. It is in essence a first contact story, which are a dime a dozen in the genre. With a lot of attention dedicated to radio telescopes, it is also firmly rooted in hard sciences. I've been to an installation in Westerbork, the Netherlands many years ago and it is an impressive sight. It is also not the exciting kind of science one might expect in a science fiction novel. It is painstakingly clearing up and deciphering signals, it passive, it is what the title suggest, listening. When you think about it, it isn't an obvious choice of subject for a science fiction novel.

Because of the fairly slow pace of events, Gunn as a lot of time to delve into the psyche of his characters. The story is very introspective. McDonald in particular thinks a lot about what he is doing and why it is worthwhile, but also if it isn't taking too much of a toll on his family. Other characters reflect at length about the changes in society over the course of the novel which spans almost a century. As the novel progressed and society gained more and more utopian characteristics, I kept wondering if Gunn thinks that contact with extraterrestrials will change our look at the universe in such a way that the world's problems become fixable or that it would have happened anyway. Fear would have seemed an equally likely reaction to me, even if realistically the aliens were too far away to be a threat.

Limited but the power of With radio waves taking ninety years for a round trip, it is essential to pack as much information as possible into one broadcast. The message received is deceptively simple, even if it takes the best minds and an enormous amount of computer power quite a while to decipher it. The process of understanding it, the debates and speculation, the attempts at suppressing the find, efforts to fit it into existing religious frameworks and of course the question how to respond all make for fascinating reading. It is not as flashy as an alien invasion but a lot more realistic description of how first contact might happen.

Structurally it is an interesting novel as well. Gunn litters the McDonald sections in particular with quotes from literary greats, usually in the original Spanish, Italian, German, Latin and French. Quite unusual for an English Language novel. The Listeners is divided in five sections, four of which are followed but what Gunn calls a computer run. These are snippets of all manner of news sources, quotes from scientists (Carl Sagan and Frank D. Drake and Guiseppe Cocconi to name a few), philosophers and science fiction writers. They add a lot of detail to the reader's understanding of the SETI project although it appears to have expanded and changed beyond what Gunn envisioned in 1972. One might say his selection is a bit one sided. Quite a lot of it is very supportive of the project and its goals. There has been quite a bit of criticism of the project for as long as it has existed. Ranging from people who consider it dangerous to alert aliens to our presence, to those who SETI is unscientific to begin with. Most of the characters have links with the organization, Gunn might have used the computer runs to balance it a bit.

In the end I thought The Listeners featured a little bit too much promotional material for the SETI project but it is a fascinating read nonetheless. Gunn picked a subject that isn't particularly sexy and yields very little in the way of visible or easy to understand results and turned it into a good story anyway. It is a bit melancholic at times, some readers will not particularly care for the characters. I guess I can see why it didn't sweep the awards or turns up in lists of must read classics. After having read it, I think it does deserve more recognition than it has received. This novel is definitely one of the pleasant surprises encountered in my Grand Master Reading Challenge reading. I may have to check out some of Gunn's short fiction in the future.

Book Details
Title: The Listeners
Author: James Gunn
Publisher: BebBella Books
Pages: 195
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-932100-12-9
First published: 1972

You May Have Noticed...

...that I didn't post a new review this weekend. I had hoped to write two, but unfortunately I seem to have developed bronchitis, which left me in a zombie-like state for most of the weekend. I have a lot of others stuff to do this week, looking for a new apartment for instance, and there is always work of course, so I very much doubt I'll be able to catch up before the weekend.

To make matters even more interesting the first batch of stories I have to read for the Fantastels 2012 short story competition. Twenty-six in total. I just had a look at the first one, which pushes the 12,000 word limit. I figure this is going to keep me busy for a while. In other words, November is going to be quiet on Random Comments. Maybe I should get an intern, or a house elf.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, book one in the Inheritance trilogy, is one of the most discussed releases of 2009. It has launched Jemisin's writing career and since it's release four more books have appeared. I missed this novel at the time and only really noticed it once the nominations for the Hugo and Nebula awards came in for that year.  The reviews I've read about this novel have been mostly positive so I figured it was about time I caught up. Jemisin's approach to fantasy in this novel turns out to be very much oriented towards religion. I must admit I am a bit puzzled by the great number of positive reviews and award nominations. I liked this book well enough but it is certainly not everybody's cup of tea. For a début it is a very interesting work though.

Yeine has been raised in one of the barbaric nations of the north. After her civilized mother's death, she is summoned to the world's centre of power; the magical city of Sky. All nations of the world are controlled from this one miraculous place. With the power of a god behind them the rulers of Sky reign supreme. On arrival, Yeine finds her maternal heritage to be very distasteful. Her huge family is strictly hierarchical and although some safeguards have been put in place by the god they serve, decadence, cruelty and pettiness are rampant. What is worse, Yeine finds out she has been named one of the three possible successors to the current, ageing ruler. Yeine is not interested in taking on the burden of leadership but to her rivals, she is a threat. Staying alive long enough to figure out what drives her family and how she can survive in this lethal environment is going to be a challenge.

The story is told from the first person point of view, for which I always have something of a weakness. In this case, Jemisin does something very interesting with it by plainly stating that the narrator is dead. So far for the much heard criticism that using a first person perspective is a spoiler of sorts. It also allows Jemisin to seamlessly introduce a whole lot of worldbuilding into the tale. Yeine is from a backward province and has never been to Sky. Her mother didn't think it was necessary to teach her much about the city. Yenie is very naive during the opening stages of the novel and that allows the reader to take in a lot of the details that would have been obvious to a long time resident. It does make Yeine a very typical fantasy protagonist though. Girl from an out of the way part of the realm finds out she is heir to a kingdom. Fortunately, Jemisin is smart enough not to make this the centre of the novel.

The question that really interests Yeine is what happened to her mother. She suspects her mother was killed as part of the political machinations in Sky but finding out the truth in an environment here deception is a second nature to most, turns out to be very hard. Soon she is lost in a political game of which she understands neither the rules nor the stakes. As she reveals layer after layer of power struggles the stakes prove to be high indeed. Behind the Lord of Sky, the god Itempas is in complete control. After the the killing of one companions and the enslavement of the other he rules the universe as he sees fit, even forcing his defeated offspring into human shape, their powers at the disposal of his human ruler. This struggle between the gods is where Jemisin takes a different turn from most other fantasy series. These chained divine creatures play an important role in the plot.

Jemisin portrays them as larger than life beings, with dramatic powers and equally dramatic flaws. Yeine walks among them, bargains with them and to a point sympathizes with them. The theological underpinnings of this novel are complex. The gods remind me of those described by Homer in temperament, although the story of creation and cosmology seem more hinduistic, with a force of creation, a maintaining force and a destructive force (or Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). With one of the three most important deities in complete control, the universe is out of balance. I guess we can see where this is going in the rest of the trilogy. Again, Jemisin doesn't take the obvious choice. She uses destructive god, imprisoned in human form, to inject sexual tension and romance into the story. He is dark, dangerous, unpredictable and apparently irresistible. This might not be everybody's favourite but personally I think it isn't overdone and adds something to the story.

The entire novel is set in just a couple of weeks, Yeine never gets the time to find her balance in Sky. Things move more rapidly than she can keep up with making it a very fast paced read. As fantasy novels go, it is not a huge book but still a substantial read. I read it in a few days, during a week where my reading time was severely restricted. I wonder if a bit more measured pace might have done more credit to some of the more technical aspects of the novel. Jemisin does a number of interesting things with point of view and playing with genre conventions and it is very easy to ignore those in favour of the plot. 

All in all I thought The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was a very good read but not quite as original as it has been made out to be. It is still firmly rooted in traditional fantasy, and the story of a youngster from a backward part of the world discovering her heritage is not exactly unheard of in the genre, the twists in the plot don't really change that. Still, Jemisin is obviously talented and clearly willing to challenge genre conventions. That is a very interesting combination, something fantasy needs more of. It may be a while before I get around to it, but I will be reading the rest of this trilogy.

Book Details
Title: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Publisher: Orbit
Pages: 425
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-316-04392-2
First published: 2009

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

There is absolutely no point in reviewing The Hobbit (1937) of course. Like Tolkien's Magnun Opus The Lord of the Rings, it has been analysed to death and then some. I very much doubt I'll have something to add. The first movie in a trilogy based on The Hobbit is expected in December so I wanted to reread the book anyway. Jackson will no doubt do a fine job, even if I don't see why he'd want to stretch it to three movies, but his images will change the story forever. Cinema has such a wide audience that even popular novels like The Hobbit run the risk of being relegated to the book behind the movie. Of course Tolkien has been very popular for decades. Maybe that will mitigate the effect some. Anyway, I have a date in December with my girlfriend to go see this movie, now is the last chance to read the book without being affected by Peter Jackson's version.

Poor Bilbo Baggins, a respectable Hobbit very much enjoying his comfortable life at Bag End. It is rudely interrupted when the wizard Gandalf shows up. Before Bilbo knows what is happening, his home is being invaded by a party of thirteen Dwarves. The plan a journey to the far off Lonely Mountain, where the dragon Smaugh has been hoarding a Dwarven treasure. They mean to take it and re-establish the Lonely Mountain as the Dwarven stronghold it once was. Thirteen is an unlucky number however and besides, the Dwaves expect to need a burglar to gain entry into the halls Smaugh now occupies. According to Gandalf, Blilbo is just the man for the job.

Tolkien has been something of a blessing and a curse for the Fantasy genre. Almost forty years after his death Fantasy that can be considered Tolkien clones is being published. Although the popularity of Epic Fantasy in the vein of The Lord of the Rings seems to be receding at the moment in the English Language word, it is still going strong over here in the Netherlands. In Germany as well, stories about Dwarves, Elves and epic struggles between good and evil continue to sell well. Whether we like it or not, Tolkien has made a lasting impression of Fantasy and literature as a whole. And it started with this little novel, which against Tolkien's expectations, became a huge success.

Unlike The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is a children's book. The language is probably a bit dated but it is not nearly as flowery and verbose a text as The Lord of the Rings. I would say it is still very readable for today's children. The Hobbit has a kind of light-heartedness about it that makes it much less dense and much more plain fun that Tolkien's work for adults. I've often wondered what could have driven Tolkien to write two such completely different works, but still part of the same history. Tolkien was always tinkering with his work, even long after it had been published. There have been countless revisions of the texts of The Lord of the Rings over the years. The Hobbit didn't entirely escape this. Some revision was done, especially to Gollum's part of the tale. Apparently he tried to bring The Hobbit more in line the The Lord of the Rings stylistically as well but fortunately his beta readers (or whatever it was they called these folks back then) told him it wouldn't work.

I guess the book shows it age in other ways too. The total absence of female characters is one. I think Bilbo's mother is mentioned once but that is just about the best I can come up with. At least Tolkien improved on that marginally in The Lord of the Rings. That being said, Tolkien does present a pretty fast paced story. Once Bilbo leaves his comfortable home, he rolls from one adventure into another. Each more distressing than the next. Bilbo is at the same time the humorous note in the novel and the voice of reason. Tolkien's Dwarves are stubborn and not entirely free of greed. It also contains less that flattering accounts of human and Elvish actions. Most of the text might be lighthearted, it hides some pretty ugly scenes. Tolkien more or less does the same thing in situations where Bilbo is in mortal ganger. For instance by Gandalf tricking the Trolls and having the Goblins sing silly songs.

My favourite part of the book is the invisible Bilbo facing Smaugh. He is a traditional western dragon. Evil, clever, dangerous, hoarding a treasure and to be killed by a hero. I guess the outcome is a little predictable but I enjoyed Bilbo having fun with the dragon and getting his tail feathers singed when he is being too clever. What always struck me as a little odd about the book was that Smaugh's demise is not actually the climax of the tale. Along the way, the Dwarves seem to have stirred up a hornets' nest and a big battle with Goblins ensues. The Lord of the Rings and its appendices shed some light on the background of these evens but in The Hobbit they aren't very well explained. It is one of those battles that Tolkien would go on to write more of, full of unlikely heroics and tragic deaths. It is what one expects from a man who has such an influence on modern Fantasy I suppose.

While there are many hints of the dark days to come for Middle-Earth I still mostly see The Hobbit as a fun adventure. Tolkien is not yet dragged down by the weight of all the mythology he created or the countless unpronounceable names that complicate his later works. Perhaps it is not a very surprising story for the the more experienced Fantasy reader but I can still see why I enjoyed this book when I first read it in my early teens and why it encouraged me to read more Fantasy. Genre readers may be a bit tired of Tolkien's influence on the genre but that simply isn't an excuse to skip this book. It really is a must read for fans of Fantasy and literature in general.

Book Details
Title: The Hobbit
Author: J.J.R. Tolkien
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 285
Year: 1993
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 0-261-10221-4
First published: 1937

Be My Enemy - Ian McDonald

Be My Enemy is Ian McDonald's second book in the Young Adult Everness series. I read the first novel, Planesrunner, last year and it turned out to be a fun and very geeky read, full of science fiction elements, cool gadgets and airships. McDonald is clearly aiming at boys in their early teens, a demographic that is currently not very well served. He may be on to something. As far as I know, McDonald has sold three of these novels to Pyr but he clearly set it up to be a much longer series if there is demand for more. I would not be surprised if more novels will be written in the future. Granted, I am not the target audience but I have been enjoying these two novels an awful lot. In fact, I wish there was something like this around when I was the right age for these books.

Warning: spoilers.