Mark's Reviews
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
My final impression of the Mars trilogy is that Robinson could have used a harsher editor. There is a lot of extra stuff in all three books, and the third is no exception. This 760 page future history could have been cut by at least 30%.
That said, this has the thoroughness of Melville's Moby Dick. You finish this series and you feel like you have visited the Mars personally. You have a complete knowledge of its history, its people, and its politics. Unfortunately Robinson's politics are naive and simplistic - no one ever mistreats women on Mars for example - as if sociopathic behavior could be fixed simply by being transplanted.
Robinson has such a long list of characters it is hard to get inside each of them and truly care for them. The most interesting characters are sometimes not really explored sufficiently. Jackie Boone to me is perhaps the most interesting character of the whole trilogy, but her end is handled rather rapidly and almost completely off stage. Some of the least most interesting characters - in particular Coyote and Art - are given far too much voice and time as if they are interesting - without having been adequately developed to actually be interesting.
Robinson skips about from one scientific fact to another - which is at once interesting and distracting. Hard to decide on that. Clearly a lot of research has gone into this series and he has read widely (if shallowly) in many areas.
The love story of Ann and Sax is a nice way to end the story. Unfortunately it isn't strong enough to hold this third of the series together. There is very little tension in this last book - similar to the latest 3 Star Wars movies. Michel and Maya's story has a little more tension, but even there it is not fully explored. At one point where Maya is attracted to another man, I thought maybe Robinson was ready to really give us something human, but in the end it is his simplicity and naivety that wins out.
Unfortunately I don't recommend the last two books of this series. The first was well done and had potential, but the series doesn't quite fulfill its promise.
Delights and Shadows by Ted Kooser
I have mixed feelings about this collection. Some of it was sparkling, some of it just vanilla. I particularly liked a few near the end of the collection. "Screach Owl" is one - "All night each reedy whinny/from a bird no bigger than a heart". From "On the Road" - "By the toe of my boot,/a pebble of quartz,/one drop of the earth's milk/ dirty and cold."
This is a light collection worth reading for nuggets like that.
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
I enjoyed Red Mars. Robinson's strength is definately his world-building and the application of hard science to a potential future. It's a fascinating description of the initial colonization of Mars, the impact of colonization, and the possible politics of such an effort.
Robinson tells a good tale. I like the narrative movement from character to character, but I didn't sense that there was significance to the movement. Perhaps I didn't see the underlying pattern. Some of the characters were quite rich and believable, some somewhat flat. John Boone, one of the major characters, was flat. I thought the strongest character was Frank Chalmers and his failures to see beyond his own hubris and selfishness. Maya was interesting, but her level of depth fluctuated -- I'm not sure Robinson really knew Maya as well as he knew Frank.
The politics of Mars is interesting, and though he tries to make the political world as deep as his physical world, he failed to present an even perspective of each point of view. He clearly likes his Marxist perspective -- something not particularly surprising to me coming from an author more knowledgable of rocks than rooks. Nonetheless, he does an admirable job. This failing keeps this book from being truly classic, but its strengths clearly outweigh its weaknesses. It's definately worth the read, and I recommend it. I am looking forward to reading Green Mars, the next in the trilogy.
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
This was an interesting and generally well written biography of GW. It is the first biography of GW I have read, so I don't have a comparison, but it's relatively short length (277 pages) does not allow for a signficant amount of original text quotation -- something in retrospect that I really found fleshed out McCullough's John Adams.
So insummary, the book is an easy read, but lacks depth. It's probably enough if you are looking for an introduction that goes beyond the platitudes we grew up with.
Ellis joins McCullough in highlighting the enormous egos of the founding fathers. This is an ugly fact in our egalitarian and self-effacing time -- to have to acknowledge that those who end up in power rarely end up there by accident. Perhaps this has become more apparent to me in recent years as I have become less naive about leaders in my own organization. Those with power have power because of a will to power, not because they are of good character, or have great talent. I suppose it is lucky that we happen to have had enough powerful people of foresight amongst our founding fathers that they established institutions that have continued to guide us so far.
The picture Ellis paints is not particularly flattering -- I am not convinced I would enjoy hours of company with Washington -- but he was a man for his time.
gun, with occasional music by Jonathan Lethem
This is the second book I've read by Jonathan Lethem -- the first was "Motherless in Brooklyn" which was a (more or less) mainstream detective story with the twist that the main character was severely afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome. I have to admit right up front that I think I liked Motherless better than Gun. The characters in both books were well done, and the suspense was well maintained. Fans of Phillip K. Dick would probably find Gun very attractive -- which is why I am bothering to forward this here. Gun is set in a future dystopia where everyone is addicted to snorting a variety of publicly available drugs that have the one common property of being highly addictive. Furthermore, though it is never really explained, there is a "inquisition" going on and it has become socially unacceptable to ask other people questions. People hardly make conversation, and find clever ways of phrasing interrogatives as simple statements of fact. This for me was the highlight of the book. He does a remarkable job of setting the world up, even if he doesn't bother to explain the history that lead up to it.
The fact that he doesn't explain the history of his world is interesting, because so many would-be world builders spend so much time info-dumping all their cleverness on us readers. In fact it reminded me a bit of the inquiry I sent to a writing group I work with not too long ago about the mining station setting I was putting together -- I wanted some logical thing for the mining station to be mining -- and someone came back with something to the effect of "who cares -- just write it". Lethem seems to have taken that advice. The history of the world isn't relevant -- the present is the present. A few people remember a bit of what the world was like before, but not many. And it doesn't really matter. Or maybe it does matter and that's what I'm not getting about this book.
People get "frozen" instead of incarcerated in this book, taken out of time, so maybe time is more significant than I had thought. Some people change, some people don't. The main character seems to be one of the fixed truths. Some people trade places as they change -- this is an interesting point made in the last part of the book, and a truth I have been reflecting on since I've been listening to some criticism of Oedipus.
I think the thing that finally doesn't work for me is the abruptness of the end. I'm not a detective story fan, so maybe that's why it doesn't excite me to have everything wrapped up.
Lethem's writing is very well done, up until what I consider a less than satisfying ending. I really enjoyed Motherless, especially for the sympathy and humor that he applied to the Tourrette's Syndrome (reminded me of the compassion show for autism in The Speed of Dark I mentioned a little while ago).
Mixed review here -- would like to hear from anyone else who has read Lethem's work, especially this one. Not sure how to wrap it up and put a bow on it. I'll have to think about it a bit more. It's a fast paced read, he does action and dialogue very well. Gun also has an interesting, if somewhat depressing world as well. And of course there is a lesson to be had in that you don't have to explain all the history to make a piece worth reading.
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
Just finished "the Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon. This is a brilliant book. Couldn't put it down once I dove into it. Second book I read like that in the last few weeks -- has kept me from some of the harder reading projects I have on my nightstand.
I actually had this book recommended to me by Amazon based on my buying patterns. I read the reviews -- it was compared to "Flowers for Algernon" -- one of my favorite books. Moon tells the story of an autistic man who has the opportunity to receive treatment for his autism and potentially become "normal".
90% of the book is told from the autistic man's perspective in first person. The writing is perfect (from my understanding). She captures and sustains his cadence in a manner that makes sense with his world view. His behaviors are so clearly logical based on his sensory inputs that you have to step back every once in a while to realize that they would appear bizarre to you as a "normal" observer.
One thing that is interesting -- and I think it works, but interesting from a writer's perspective -- is the other 10% of the narration is 3rd person from various other character's perspectives. I haven't actually gone back to review -- I think it is primarily one other character, but may have been more -- but the shift is so infrequent and so stark that it has a profound effect. It's very interesting.
I liked the leit motif of the speed of dark. It kept coming back, haunting the narrator. Moon does a wonderful job of exploring the idea of personality, and it's permanence.
Illium by Dan Simmons
Finished reading this about two weeks ago -- once I got past the first 50 pages or so (it's a 700 page book), I was engrossed. My wife threatened to throw the book away at one point. But I have to admit -- I really like Simmons's writing. His worlds are clever, fresh, and consistent. His characters are well differentiated (unlike, for example, Robert Jordan). The story itself takes place in a far future where humanity has splintered into several groups, and there is a lot of mystery about the exact nature of all the players. I'm pretty sure this is the opening of a series, but I didn't read the dust jacket to verify. The end of the book is almost adequate to close it out, but not quite, so I am hoping it is in fact the first in a trilogy or something.
Simmons mixes into the story his extensive knowledge of English and French literature (I think he has a PHD in literature), Greek Mythology (the whole Greek Pantheon plays in this book), as well as a passable knowledge of physics which exceeds my own (which doesn't say much, but he tells it in a believable manner). Oh, and there are Robots that debate the various strengths and weaknesses of Shakespeare and Proust.
Simmons controls the action well, balancing it against philosophical questions about human nature and fate. It's a great read. I'd rate it slightly lower than Hyperion, but better than the rest of the Hyperion series (which I thought was very well done).
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The core story is about a person growing up in the 60s-70s as a hermaphrodite -- he's technically XY, but his genitalia is "ambiguous" -- so he grows up first as a female, then well, read the book and find out.
This book is about a lot more than just one individual -- it's about families, communities, social mores, assimiliation, immigration, etc. In other words, it's a very rich book. It appealed to me in particular since his family emigrated about the same time as my great grandparents did -- though from another European country.
Eugenides has an easy reading narrative style. He wrote from the main character's perspective, but the narrative voice was a mixture of 1st person limited and first person omniscient -- and he played the switches well. It's worth reading if for no other reason than to study that technique.
This is such a thorough book, it leaves me wondering whether Eugenides has any more stories worth writing -- something like Frank McCourt. I'll read whatever he writes next, but it will be hard for him to develop a completely new family with such elaborate and careful detail.
(Pullitzer Prize Winner)
The Golden Age by John Wright
Just finished the Golden Age by John Wright. Never read anything by him before, but was impressed with the scope of his vision. The world reminds me of Dan Simmons's Hyperion, but with greater emphasis on virtual reality, and less vicious AIs. Nonetheless, there is fairly well developed and internally consistent culture and philosophy that Wright weaves into his technological evolution. I also have a weakness for Greek myth allusions, which he uses throughout. Wright does a nice job of winding the plot -- I'm looking forward to the second book (which is supposedly the conclusion).
***
Addendum: Read the other two books in the Golden Age trilogy -- they were good, but I think Wright showed his best in the first book. He completes most of the most interesting detail of his world in the first book, the rest is just running the story to ground. The philosophy gets a bit much -- and doesn't really hold to rigorous analysis IMHO -- could have done with a bit less.
The Diamond Age, Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
This is a tour de force for the science fiction community. I've read some other Stephenson books, but this is by far the most effective and complex. Stephenson develops a believable future where material poverty can be overcome by nano-technology. What is most interesting to me in this age of transnational terrorism is the idea of transnational organizations (tribes) that dominate Stephenson's future. I think this is a powerful potential reality.
Stephenson still manages to throw in some childish hack-and-slash that will appeal to the adolescent in each of us, and there is a clear reference to Hesse's Stepenwulf which I felt was a bit weak. But beyond that, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of the Nell, and feel he wrote her perceptions at various points in her life almost as well as Frank McCourt (see below).
For SF fans, this is a must-read.
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
Audiocassette - unabridged - read by John LeeI enjoyed this book (on tape) promarily for the rich cultural references and language. Suri does a good job of mixing Indian dialect with more proper English to clarify class separation, and to enhance the setting. The overall language is not as strong as Roy (see below), but none-the-less the book is worth reading (listening to) for the very good dialogue. The characters are strong and have good differentiation, another strong point for Suri.
The structure of the book is based on the Hindu hierarchy, which also was interesting.
Letter's to Wendy's by Joe Wenderoth
The premise of this collection of poems is that they are all written on Wendy's Comment Cards. This book has plenty of vulgarity, which is initially shocking, then becomes just part of the whole bizarre littany.
It's an interesting book in part because you keep stopping and asking yourself what POV you are really reading from -- are you reading this like it's all a joke? Is the narrator supposed to be a twisted individual who is seriously doing all these things?
Some real gems, but unless you have a lot of patience, it would probably be best to pick this up in the library and read a few pages. It almost seems not written to be read cover-to-cover.
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
What makes this book unique, and definitely a must-read, is Frazier's ability to keep his characters continuously referenced to their historical period as well as their environment. One of the criticism's I've leveled at a number of writer's is that they use inappropriate points of reference in their similes. A boy who has grown up on a farm in the mid-1800's, for instance, would not compare a fast train to the speed of light for instance. It doesn't fit with the character's knowledge about the world.
Cold Mountain is a book about a young man who is so disenchanted with the (American) Civil War, that after a brief recovery in a hospital, he abandons the War and heads home. This is an American Odyssey in the spirit of Twain's Huckleberry Fin. He structures the story well, balancing the telling between home (Penelope) and the striving to return (Odysseus).
(National Book Award Winner)
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
A.R. has two powerful things going for her in this book. The first is that she is a poet. The words she chooses do not just capture the images, they sound and resonate in your mouth and mind as you say them. The second is she breaks every rule of prose I can think of, having the characters think in lists, pictures, and all sorts of variations. She uses onomatopoeia especially effectively.
A.R. tells the story of a two twins who are separated after a tragic event. I won't go any farther than that in the plot, which is remarkably complex and rich with place and characters. This is a beautiful piece of work, though the end was difficult for me to accept and resolve.
(Winner of the Booker Prize)
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
I enjoyed C.M.'s book for his sense of place and time. This is a great adventure that is at once filled with gritty realism and characters that are powerfully symbolic. McCarthy deletes the use of quotation marks and standard punctuation amongst other abuses in his book, which at various times challenged me, but upon reflection, the effect seems to magnify the rawness of the land and the characters.
The book is starts in Texas and travels down to Mexico and back again in another American Odyssey. Cold Mountain is a truer reflection of the Odyssey's format, but it is hard for me to come up with another phrase that does All the Pretty Horses justice.
Despite the wimpy title, there is nothing weak about this book. It is a reflection of the land it is set in -- rugged and tough.
(Winner of the National Book Award)
Atticus by Ron Hansen
I'm recommending R.H. because he does an excellent job of setting place and unwinding plot. As you read how Atticus (the main character) experiences his travels, you have an absolute sense of having been there. I've never been to coastal Mexico, but if I woke up one morning and found myself in Resurrecion, I would know how to get to the American Express office. More important than geography, though, is the sense of what the place is about that R.H. manages to convey -- and I am unable to capture that in a cute little quip.
R.H. also does a fine job with plot. The essential plot is inspired from the prodigal son story in the Bible, but it is carried to the next level here. It is a fascinating story of redemption buried in a murder mystery. (I'm not a mystery fan, so this book had to work overtime to keep my interest -- which it did.)
This is another story that jumps the border between Mexico and the US (from Colorado this time), and unlike the other books I've mentioned above, is set in the very recent past. This is interesting because the main character has such a sense of being out of place and time -- like he is something good left over from a fantasy West that never truly existed.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Read this book if you want to learn how to write a truly evil character. Kate Trask is as bad as they get.
Also read this book if you are looking to see exemplary writing. Steinbeck has the awe of a giant, and that put me off reading him since I was in high school. I'm really glad that I took the time to read this piece to be reminded that there is a reason he is part of the 12th grade cannon.
Steinbeck is also a master at creating characters that are individual and unique. Something that many writers fail dismally at (particularly Fantasy writers for some reason). At one point he talks about Genesis as being a story that is so close to the essential truth that it is an ageless experience. I reflected on that comment as I realized that this book was written nearly 50 years ago, but the characters and issues were not at all dulled by time.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
This is the only speculative fiction recommendation I have up right now, but D.S. fully belongs in the ranks of these exceptional writers.
I mention Simmons because this book is remarkable in structure, and its characters are distinct. The story is told alternately from each of the main characters' points of view. Each chapter in effect is from a different character's point of view. The stories gradually intertwine, and the purpose of each becomes apparent. The characters' voices are remarkable in that Simmons is able to make them so distinct.
Simmons is versed in Keats, so if you really hate this Romantic, then you're in for a dull read. Either way, it's not a casual read. It is fun, but be prepared to ponder and to puzzle through.
(Hugo Award winner)
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
F.M. is worth reading for his use of voice. If he doesn't speak with an Irish brogue, I'd be stunned. I'm tempted to get the audio edition of this book just to hear his voice. I say this because I periodically found myself reading the book in an Irish brogue (or as good a facsimile as I could generate).
Like McCarthy (see above), he takes liberties with standard rules of grammar and comes out ahead because of it. I don't think I'm prepared to do this myself, but it is interesting to see others who can do it successfully.
The story (which is ostensibly an autobiography -- though I would imagine it is a tale that has grown larger with the telling) is remarkable. It is at once tragic and heroic, it will make you laugh out loud and tear up in the same page.
(Pulitzer Prize winner)
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Isaac Asimov |
Foundation Trilogy (Starts with Foundation) |
Classic SF. Series is based on mathematical modeling to predict the future. |
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Roger Zelazny |
Chronicles of Amber (starts with Nine Princes in Amber) |
The first five of this series are some of my favorite books for story telling and fantasy. Zelazny is considered the father of the “New Age” science fiction which started in the 70s – focus shifts from technology to characters. |
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Daniel Keyes |
Flowers for Algernon |
Classic SF – one of the great, character-based SF novels. |
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John Wright |
Golden Age |
SF – far future. Very interesting vision of how humans and technology will interface and merge. Deals with nano-tech, Ais, networks, etc. |
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Dan Simmons |
Hyperion |
1st and best of a series. The book is told from 13 (I think) different characters’ perspectives. This is at times a challenging read because the author is a bit of a literary snob, but the world he creates is fascinating – similar line of thinking to Wright’s Golden Age, but with different results – and he does an excellent job creating believable, differentiated characters – something most SF authors struggle with. |
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Margaret Atwood |
Oryx and Crake |
SF – bio-tech/genetic engineering and the possible future it may bring about. Remeniscent of Hamlet and Prayer for Owen Meany |
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Neal Stephenson |
Snow Crash |
SF – one of the original “cyberpunk” novels. Future of the internet and society. |
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Neal Stephenson |
Diamond Age |
SF – nano-tech and the possible future it may bring about. This one is heavier than Snow Crash. |
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Herman Hesse |
Siddhartha |
Fictional Western perspective on Eastern philosophy |
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Herman Hesse |
Narcissus and Goldimund |
Philosophical fiction exploring the outcomes of life choices – conformity vs. individualism |
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Thomas Friedman |
The World is Flat |
A study of globalization, especially focused on the impact of technology (internet especially) on chaning the economic and social structure of the world. |
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Jared Diamond |
Guns, Germs, and Steal |
A geography-based history of civilization, explaining why the West has ascended to its current pinnacle of power. |
Trade recommendations with me. These are a few of the books I have read recently.