Unusual Words Rendered in Bold Graphics by Maria Popova
Unusual Words Rendered in Bold Graphics by Maria Popova
Intrusion. Ken Mclead. Publ 2012
Generally, I prefer KM’s space operas to his techno-thriller type novels but this one really hits the nail on the head. Generally, I hate books that make me frustrated and angry but this one does it for a purpose that justifies the agro. A deep insight into the relationship between government and the public, and KM makes you experience the issues, and feel them.
Truly brilliant ending which puts a new focus on all the preceding events in the novel. I also like how seemingly disparate characters and events are all part of the same trap — and how the characters appear to react differently, but actually have the same response. (It’s a bit like Catch 22, only the trap isn’t Catch 22.) This should be enforced reading for all politicians and should be on the reading list of all politics courses.
Grass. Sheri S. Tepper. Publ 1989
Now this is what I call SF.
- * Strange cool planets
- * Strange lifeforms
- * Weird procreation
- * Aliens that don’t think like humans
- * Good debates on religion
- * Lovecraftian / horror story vibes
- * Plausibility (apart from the ftl travel, but we can allow that)
- * Logical working out of behaviours and implications
- * Complex characters
One of the things I enjoyed was that the novel is sooo girlie. It’s all about horses and brooding incomprehensible husbands and the duties of wives and men falling hopelessly in love. Of course, none of this exactly treated in the traditional manner.
Entertaining, exciting, gripping, interesting.
Wonder Boys: Michael Chabon. 1995
A picture says a thousand words…
I realise this is the last thing one is supposed to say about the Pullitzer Prize, genre supporting, American Academy of Arts and Sciences member, but I wasn’t that taken with Wonder Boys. Two reasons basically:
1. I couldn’t give a damn about what happens to the main characters
2. The ‘Vidal Arthur Miller problem’.
1. All the blokes are complete wankers, all the women are angels. The young writer James Leer is a completely selfish, self-centered c**t who needs good kick up the backside. The hero Grady Tripp is selflessly kindly, but so incompetent as to lose all sympathy. Despite actually caring about his students, it is evident he is no benefit to them and in several cases is probably detrimental. What is Tripp for? Why does he exist? Why would I care? The perils of the story are Tripp could lose his job (well, he deserves to) and in the end does, and so what? It doesn’t matter to him. Despite his best intentions he is obviously a leech on women and one pities Sara, his final conquest/ victim. Nothing matters: he can take drugs — it doesn’t matter, he can prevaricate about revealing the news of deaths and theft to the police — it doesn’t matter, his wife leaves him — it doesn’t matter.
I suppose we are to see this as semi-subconscious self-destruction. A necessary introduction of chaos to feed the writer’s imagination. I suppose we are to take this a the writer’s excuse for bad behaviour. Or it’s both. Or, yawn…
Really, you just want the subprime mortgage crisis to foreclose their homes and put them all out in the street. But of course it won’t, as they are all established rentier class. What are these leeches for?
2 The other problem is Tripp’s mysterious attractiveness. Women — including a young, sexy student — throw themselves at him. It’s hard to see why. It reminded me of Gore Vidal’s criticism of a Henry Miller novel: if it was all so true, why don’t we come across the passage where somebody says “Henry, you’re full of bullshit.” Why not “Grady, you’re a wanker: just fuck off”?
The book is meant to be funny but really isn’t for the first 200 pages, and after that only sporadically. Probably this is because I couldn’t get over points 1 and 2. Perhaps I’m in a grumpy mood? Maybe the recession is killing comedy? Or more likely, comedy of a certain kind.
The Warshaw family are charming, funny, complex and delightful. Alas, they are a minor part. (They are the Wonder Boys that Tripp is trying to invent, I guess.)
Winter Song: Colin Harvey. 2009
Angry Robot thoughtfully(?) provide a little ‘file under’ code of:
- Starship crash
- Abandoned colony
- Alien genocide
- Comet death
They could have also added:
- nanomachines
- bio-cyborg
- Icelandic sagas
- Environmental disaster
Actually, the AR list is slightly misleading (no surprise, I guess, that 8 words doesn’t describe a novel) in that is doesn’t capture the tone and thoughtful feel of the book. I think the climate/ environmental aspects were the most interesting for me. On the level of detail though, an SF book set on a planet that looks like ours but is cold, seems a bit of a waste of opportunity. On the other hand, it’s tricky to come up with environments that humans can believably prosper in.
Colin’s early death is a loss still felt in the UK SF community.
Ursula LeGuin. The Left Hand of Darkness. 1968
Highly famous. And rightly so. The title alone is brilliant. And doubly brilliant in context: “Light is the left hand of darkness” the poem goes.
Yes it is SF — of the anthropological kind that I guess ULG virtually invented — and of the alternative sex-pattern/ gender kind. Which I guess ULG virtually invented.
An arctic roadtrip.
But really it’s the ultimate bromance. And a moving and deep one. I can’t imagine for the life of me why they haven’t got the appropriate cool and young actors and cashed in on the current fashion.
Martin Freeman as the Envoy, AI. But who would play Lord Estraven? Not Cumberbatch: too cerebral, I think. Jude Law might do it.
Put a couple of David Beckham lookalikes on the front cover of the book and sell by the shed load. And why not?
If Death Ever Slept. Rex Stout. 1957
Quite strange. The hero detective never leaves the house, for starters. But there’s something children’s novelish about the food, Daddy Nero’s routines, the same characters living in the big boarding school of Nero’s house. In the 50’s was it normal to have these extended families living together? (such as Jarell’s). Maybe it was.
I have no idea was Susan wasn’t ‘a snake’ in the opinion of Nero and Archie. There must be some subtle terminology I’m missing.
I read the book through quickly enough but it left no taste at all. The ‘wisecracks’ were very poor. Instantly forgettable. I’m not rushing out to get others.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 1969. Alan Moore & Kevin O’ Neill. 2011
Flavours:
- Sex and drugs and rock and roll
- Andy Cap, Garth, On the Buses, Richard Burton, Lovejoy (pre-antique dealer years), Jack Carter, Lonely, John Alderton, Edna Everage and Barry McKenzie, porr Bunty and Twinkle, Barbara Windsor (Krays), Kenneth, Sid, etc, Dr Who, Quentin Crisp, Garth, Marty Feldman, Alf Garnet?, Parker, Lady P, the headless man, World Cup Willie.
- The horror and sadness when you realise who John Thomas is, and where. A slow burning horror carried over from the 1910 chapter.
Break into Screenwriting: Ray Frensham
Excellent. A good summary of most of the current approaches. Clear. Good examples and stories. Excellent sample documents.
