The Sci Fi Guy

Traveling is one of my favorite pasttimes, but almost as much as the destination matters to me, the journey oftentimes provides me the unique time to actually open a novel and relax. Over the last couple years, I’ve realized that perhaps my favorite form of science fiction is actually the short-fiction style. Maybe it’s me being a greedy reader, but I enjoy the fact I can sit down and bounce from universe to universe, storyline to storyline, character to character, without necessarily having to spend hours to get the jist of what the author is trying to say. And more often than not, I catch myself appreciating how the author formulated his or her story in a way to make it compact yet enjoyable.

I wanted to share some impressions from the book that I recently picked up titled, Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 2. This is a completely original anthology of work, featuring a range of topics and writing styles.

The first story is iCity by Paul Di Filippo, an intriguing tale of high-speed, web-enabled urban planning. The most notable part about what Mr. Di Filippo did in this story is that he jumped right in to the story, then backed out with the background process of how a city can actually be upgraded and downgraded on a whim, and also managed to tell a pretty interesting character story as well.

The third story is The Line of Dichotomy by Chris Robertson, which features a war-torn planet on the brink of peace and terraforming. Perhaps I read this too quickly after watching the movie rendition of Screamers (a Philip K. Dick story), but the setup of the setting seemed damned similar. However, that doesn’t make it an interesting read, and the climax at the ending is enough to make you wonder whether or not we’ll ever be wise enough to give up violence for coexistance with each other.

Not to berate any of the other stories in this fine collection, but my favorite so far (and I admit I haven’t finished the book yet), is Sunworld by Eric Brown. This is definitely an author that’s been influenced by Arthur C. Clarke. It begins as one story and then slowly becomes another - with a climax that’s well worth the journey to get there.

I’d also note that Shining Armor by Dominic Green is another worthwhile story, but only if you grew up enjoying Robotech and other mech-related science fiction like I did. Essentially the story revolves around the notion that you should never underestimate someone - not everyone that appears strong is as strong as they appear.

Odds are I’ll finish the last few stories this weekend, and hopefully find some more good gems in this collection. I’ve already been so impressed by this 2nd edition that I went ahead and ordered the 1st volume from Amazon. Once that arrives, I’ll be sure to share those with you too.

I just recently read Niven’s Ringworld for the first time, and was really enthralled by both the concept (a ring-world surrounding a sun that provided everything a planet can provide in absolutely absurd quantities) and the novel itself. Given my great experience with that book, my interest was piqued when I saw Destiny’s Road. The premise of the novel is fairly interesting - a colony world that features a unique “road” that was put in place generations ago by the founders of the colony.

The story follows the character of Jemmy, who throughout the story has to assume numerous names and identities to keep himself safe from the suspecting eyes of the merchants that he fears will have his head if they know his real secret - and his real past. Destiny’s Road is an enthralling tale, featuring a unique planet similar to Earth but with numerous challenges that face those living on the planet Destiny. Fundamentally, it’s a travellers story - Jemmy journeys from one end of the “Crab” (the region populated by the colony settlers) to the other. In between, Jemmy experiences not only the growth from boy to man, but also the discovery that everything is not as it seemed to him as a child growing up in Sprial Town.

The story centers around a few key concepts… A road has been carved in the planet that is essentially impenetrable. There is “settler magic” - energy-based technology that the current survivors on Destiny cannot repair (that is starting to degrade). There is a species of sentient and intelligent creatures that are able to communicate but are unable to take some of the most basic steps outside of their own realm. And most importantly, the humans on the planet are involved in a collosal feud with the planet’s natural ecology. Potassium-withdrawl makes for some intriguing science fiction, I can tell you that much.

Destiny’s Road has some interesting plot twists, but it does take a little time to actually get in to the rhythm of the story. The protagonist is pretty straightforward (Jemmy) but the antagonists - the things he’s running from - are more complicated than meets the eye, and in many situation he actually has to discover that the people he’s surrounded by are less ally than adversary (or vice-versa). At some points, I found myself wondering why Jemmy was making the decisions he was - not because they were bad decisions but because the motivation for his action didn’t seem apparent at the time. The story also spans a significant chunk of time - essentially Jemmy’s entire adult life. If you’re looking for quick resolutions, don’t count on ‘em!

Overall, Destiny’s Road is a great read - fast paced and with a great range of characters, settings, and challenges that Jemmy encounters. Niven is obviously a writer of exceptional talent that has thought through all the aspects of the world he’s creating. I’ve done a little digging and I’m amazed to discover there’s no sequel to Destiny’s Road nor an alternative story (perhaps prequel or same-world, different characters) written. There’s plenty of material inside here to write an entire series of novels.

I’m writing this post to tell you about the posts I’m going to post. Get it?

Anyways, I’ve enjoyed a great couple of weeks of SciFi-ness, and I’ve got plenty of things on the horizon. I can tell you I’ve just broken in to the world of Phillip K. Dick, and I’m amazed. I was given a copy of his 1962 Hugo Award winning novel, The Man in the High Castle, and devoured it within a weekend. I’m such a huge fan of alternative-history stories, and frankly I’m amazed it took me this long to be shown this extraordinary work. I’ll have a full write up soon. I turned right around and purchased a Phillip K. Dick collection of short stories (a “Reader” as the cover leads you to believe) - including numerous short stories that have inspired films such as Total Recall, The Minority Report, and Paycheck. Even the stories that didn’t seem to find their way to Hollywood are great.

I’ve also picked up another Larry Niven book that I haven’t gotten a chance to start - but I was really blown away by Ringworld (which is, alas, another book that I’ve read recently but haven’t had the chance to review). And to top it off, I Am Legend is out on DVD, I just watched Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001, and I still don’t know if I want to bother seeing Jumpers (which I’ll have to wait for on DVD anyways). And just for fun, I also snuck in a re-viewing of Star Trek IV - the one with the whales and San Francisco in the early 90’s. There’s some great comedy mixed in there - proving once again that the best SciFi is the stuff that captures the humanity of the genre. (”Well double-dumb-ass on you!”)

On the TV front, Lost is a brief hiatus which is probably a good thing - this season was going quickly and I think I want a little time to soak it all in. Michael still sucks, and I still can’t figure out what to think of the current Locke persona. Good guy, bad guy? [spoiler] And we’re killing off the French chick? Ouch. She waits 16 years to meet her daughter and then gets caught in some crossfire. The fact that it’s returning in a few short weeks is great news - I’m glad the writers strike has been resolved and things can return to normal… Jericho also wrapped up another short season - I hope CBS decides to hang on to this little underdog.

Well, like I said, there’s plenty of work laid out for me to get to in the days and weeks to come. I hope you’re all enjoying a fine weekend!

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from a company called ChooseCo, which are the publishers of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. They asked that I take a glance at a new book that will be released in April, 2008, titled The Golden Path by Anson Montgomery, so of course I accepted. I can barely describe the joy I experienced when I started flipping the pages, once again, of a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

As a child of the 80’s, Choose Your Own Adventure books were a staple of my youth. They provided a unique and interactive way of reading, and empowered the reader to make decisions and face the consequences of those choices. Of course, the best part about CYOA books probably comes in the fact that they were immensely re-readable, because the different choices can result in vastly different outcomes.

When opening up The Golden Path, I was amazed at the level of sophistication that this story enjoys. The premise is this (hijacked from the back cover):

It starts with a simple call in to the headmaster’s office on a perfect fall day. It turns into a search for your missing parents that takes you and your two best friends on a trip into the hollow Earth. Part thriller, part travelogue, part personal quest, The Golden Path: Volume One weaves a labyrinthine journey as you search for answers to the truth about your past and the clues to your future…

Some aspects of the book deal with some pretty sophisticated issues, such as a changed world order where government agents are on the lookout for anything suspicious, and where things like personal flying vehicles are par for the course. One interesting aspect of The Golden Path has to deal with the fact that this is obviously a book written to today’s youth… Where I grew up in a “Cold War” era, it’s interesting to note that this book deals with issues that might be much closer to home - government oversight, environmental calamity, and the emergence of technology as a standard part of kids’ lives today.

Reading The Golden Path reminded me of the joys of being in middle school and flipping open my first Choose Your Own Adventure novel. The intro-chapter is a little lengthy for my taste (I don’t remember having to go so far to get to a choice!) but it does the job to establish the world these kids live in. Some of the characters seem archetyped from the Harry Potter books (of which I haven’t read), but I think the effect is worthwhile as long as it gives kids something to ground themselves with - and gets them to read!

If you’re looking for a nice bit of nostalga, or you’re looking for a pre-teen “thriller” for a child in your life, I can definitely recommend jumping back in to this unique niche and giving The Golden Path: Volume One a try. Should be in stores on April 25th.

Orson Scott Card is one of my all time favorite science fiction authors, and so when I saw this book on the shelves I was a little taken aback. A contemporary action-thriller novel? With his name on it? Strange. I decided to give it a shot anyways, and it turns out Card is pretty good at writing along the lines of Tom Clancy. It’s not a perfect novel, and I’d venture to say it doesn’t feel as comfortable as his far future stories such as the Ender sagas or his fantasy stories.

The premise goes as this: We follow an elite Army Ranger and his lovable sidekick as they attempt to uncover the nature of a plot to assasinate the President. While the president himself isn’t named, it’s pretty obvious the charater was based on George W. Bush, the despiseable Texan Right-Wing bastard. And of course, what story couldn’t be complete without dozens of references to the insanity of both sides of the extreme right-and-left political bases. Nobody knows if the impending civil war is a right-wing consipracy to make things more right-wing, or a left-wing conspiracy to make things definitively not right-wing and return power that was lost after the 2000 election debacle.

Here’s the thing. Card’s characters are great, as always. Our hero is all-American, and delivers one-two punches to the badguys. His wife is every man’s dream wife; the mother of 5 that could be top aide to the president. Our sidekick is also great. In fact, there’s not the usual dose of Card’s character complexities. Each character is cut from an unusual mold this time around, where the heroes do what heroes do best - kick ass and take names.

Meanwhile, what does detract from the novel is the fact that the premise is so outrageous that even a completely biased reader like myself (biased in the sense that Orson Scott Card can do no wrong) ends up saying, “This seems a tad bit over-the-edge”. Do I doubt that there are militant forces within the US that might try to stage their own version of the civil war? Possibly. But I think unfortunately Card was issued an ultimatuum from a video game manufacturer that said “We need a story that will pit the US in civil war. And we have mechs. And hovercycles.” I’m not making that part up, this book was the premise for a video game.

Card makes some legitimate points that our current fractures in society are along rural and suburban versus urban lines, but it doesn’t justify the fact that it would take a lot more than he gave credit for in order for the states to do what they did in this story. Again, not saying there’s anything fundamentally wrong with Empire, but it doesn’t jibe and it doesn’t feel complete. It feels forced.

Empire is a decent read, and it does read quickly. However, this Scifi Guy will hope that in the future, Card sticks to more extreme futures and pasts. He’s more comfortable there. And, oh yeah. Mr. Card. Please stop taking orders from video game designers. They haven’t had a good movie in forever, it’s not surprising that the novel can’t do it either.

Have you ever seen previews for a movie, heard lots of good things about it, and didn’t wind up seeing it in the theaters. Then it hits the DVD store, and you still didn’t pick it up for years. Finally, you realize that you should rent it, so you do, but it’s been 4 years since the movie came out, and you can’t exactly go in to work tomorrow and say, “Hey, that Karate Kid movie was pretty good, huh?”

Well, Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama is the book equivalent to me. After years of wandering past the Clarke section in the bookstore, I finally decided to see for myself what the big deal was, and picked up the first installment for this series. I have to admit, I was really amazed that I hadn’t caught on to Clarke earlier, and after reading the first few chapters I was absolutely hooked. Fortunately, my coworkers at the water cooler don’t have to hear about this because I’ve got this handy blog here.

In a nutshell, Rendezvous with Rama is the tale of our future in which a giant space ship approaches the solar system. Humans realize it’s en route just in time to throw a last-minute inspection together to dock with this craft and try to understand its secrets. The story further complicates as the interior of this vessel is revealed to be a complete artificial world, filled with “cities”, rivers, and creatures that the humans sent to research this phenomenon can only begin to understand. Within the entire story, one thing is revealed: The Ramans do everything in threes.

I’ll admit I’m already halfway through the third book of the 4 book series, so I’m probably going to post up another article after I wrap the whole series. In the meantime, I’ve also discovered that Rendezvous is in film production as well, starring Morgan Freeman. Hopefully this will be a great film adaptation just like Clarke & Stanley Kubric’s 2001: A Space Odyssey set the bar for realism in space-based movies.

There’s science fiction and then there’s fiction about science. Artifact, by Gregory Benford, is the former. What Mr. Benford (himself a physicist) has tried to do is basically create a story around the concept of a new element and/or set of scientific standards.

The story opens with a young architect, Claire, working feverishly on an archaelogical site in Greece. The story itself is set in a very near future, where Greece has decided to revert to socialism and California somehow decides to chop itself in to two. Claire, meanwhile, is only interested in the unique finds she’s discovering, while simultaneously trying to hold off the Greece site controller (who is also one of the up-and-coming leaders of the social rebellion). Finally she discovers something that just shouldn’t be in the dig site, which sets off a series of events leading to the discovery of a whole new world of science.

I hate to say it - Artifact leaves the reader disappointed. I was eager to chew through an “aliens left something underground” story a-la Michael Crichton’s Sphere, but instead the story of this element is pretty tame. There are really 2 parts of Benford’s writing that are frustrating. For one, the dialogue is contrived and flows horribly. Characters in his story apparently aren’t comfortable conjugating. Secondly, he plays out the “New England versus the South” subplot between two main characters in a rediculous fashion. The setting that he contrives is one where Southern mathematicians and Northeastern archaeologists are from totally different worlds and stunned at the existance of the other. It just didn’t play out right, and left me saying, “Ok, get back to the super weapon!”

At the end of it all is an attempt at climax which, sadly, leaves the obvious nemesis to succumb to his inevitable fate, while the hero and heroine live out a happily ever after.

The story isn’t completely flawed. I give Benford a lot of credit for knowing a LOT more about the periodic table and other scientific stuff than I could ever grasp. But I think that’s sorta the problem - at the end of the story you realize that Benford knows his stuff, but the topic he was trying to convey is just a hair above the average science fiction enthusiast. I read sci-fi to be entertained, not confused and feeling stupid. A great author can take a complex mathematical or physics topic and convey it using ordinary concepts; sadly Benford may need a little more practice to make it worthwhile.

I’m spending a little more time on the Orson Scott Card Ender saga than anything else (well, except maybe for Lost) because honestly his books have really influenced how I read science fiction, and how they shape my opinions of other works within the genre. The first post that I wrote about was regarding the act of speaking, which is essentially like a funeral of truth. Card covers another interesting concept in Speaker for the Dead as well, which is the ability to observe something while trying not to change it.

In Speaker, the humans of Milagre are attempting to maintain an isolated living environment while observing the pequenos (more commonly called the Piggies). What turns out though, is that there’s really no way to get around the observer effect, which is to say that you can’t observe something without interfering with the outcome or the natural state of things before you started observing it.

As can be fairly easily predicted - once humans begin to intervene on the Piggy’s way of life, the social structure and community standards that were previously in place begin to change; but unfortunately the humans don’t exactly see how they’re changing things. Not only that, but the Piggy’s themselves seem to have strange heirarchies in their society that don’t fit human norms, and so the words they use don’t quite make sense (things like “father trees”, “mother trees”, brothers and wives…) The end result is the death of not one but two of the most prominent researchers (xenobiologists, actually) on the planet, which unravels to force the remaining humans to choose between their lives and the success of their mission. In the process, Ender himself is called by Novinha to speak the death of her surrogate father, Pipo. Well - once Ender shows up, you know things get interesting!

One thing that intrigues me about a story like Speaker for the Dead, and in fact many other alien discovery stories, is what would actually happen when we find them (er… if we find them). Another author, Ken Macleod, wrote a trilogy of books about a future where we discover alien creatures that are again fundamentally different - in both form and thought - to humans (and it’s a great series of books, I’ll be sure to cover them in the coming weeks). If we were visited by aliens tomorrow, I’d suggest we put a science fiction writer out front - they’ve thought out a lot of what happens when we finally meet alien kind.

Empry is the third book in the Trigon Disunity triolgy, which features the continuation of a story that begins decades in the relative past of the storyline (in the first book Emprise). The second story, Enigma, changes direction and follows the main character, Merritt Thackery, as he discovers the secrets of the universe while working for the survey department. These stories come full circle in Empry, as Mcdowell pits mankind against an unknown and terrifying enemy - the Mizari. Thanks to Thackery’s travels through both space and time, mankind now understands that the Mizari are the most notable threat to the existance of the human race - and events unfold to destroy the Mizari where they exist.

Empry focuses mostly on two characters dealing with the threat of alien invasion and decimation, the chancellor Sujata and the director of the military forces, Harmack Wells. These two characters have spent their entire lives reaching to positions of power in an effort to protect humanity from invasion and keep the unified worlds together.

What follows is a chase unlike many others in literature - it happens over the course of some forty-odd years, as these two individuals chase each other across the voids of space traveling and superluminous speeds trying to reach the perimiter. Meanwhile, across the universe, Thackery conjurs a plan to intervene and attempt to discover a solution to the Mizari threat by uncovering the secret of their existance. What are the black “stars” that seem to be able to wipe out essentially anything and everything placed in their way?

Interestingly, I read the Trigon Disunity Trilogy almost in tandem to Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Saga (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind), and there are some parallel concepts that each author deals with similarly. One of the interesting and recurring plot concepts for science fiction is what will humans do if and when we meet an alien culture? In the Star Trek sagas, it seemed like every time Kirk or Picard would bump in to an alien they’d already know how to speak with them, and they’d enjoy some Romulan ale and call it a friendship. Star Wars featured seemingly dozens of different species of alien, but again everyone got along. Yet Card and Kube-Mcdowell are faced with the challenge of crafting aliens that truly are alien. They don’t share human values - they don’t even necessarily think or communicate in simliar ways. I’ll actually discuss more of my thoughts of this alien encounter stuff in a later blog post.

Overall, the Trigon Disunity trilogy is a great thrill ride from one end of the universe to the other - spanning generations of time as well. The series flows well together, but I couldn’t imagine reading one of the later books while skipping over the previous ones. These stories don’t stand alone - it’s essentially one long story split in to three books. It’s a fun ride, and ends leaving the reader satisfied in the characters and the potential for mankind.

Whenever I travel, I try to take at least 1 or 2 good novels that I’ve been meaning to read or re-read, but I just took a trip where I wasn’t able to figure out what I wanted to take with me. I’ve cracked open an ancient Arthur C. Clarke book that’s sitting on my nightstand, but I just couldn’t figure out if I wanted to take it with me - so I wandered in to an airport bookstore and perused the shelves. While there, I faced the conundrum that’s faced millions of American travellers… Dean Koontz or Stephen King. Well, this time around, I opted for Stephen King, if only for the fact that the main book represented on the shelves was an anthology of short stories by him, titled Everything’s Eventual. Within this book are “14 Dark Tales”, including 1408, which is being made in to an upcoming movie starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. So, being the type of person that enjoys being able to say “oh… I read the book - and it’s better,” I decided to give it a shot.

The story itself is rather short spanning a mere 54 pages (and essentially 3 chapters), but as per King’s standard: it picks you up and doesn’t let go until you’re scared. The main character, Mike Enslin, is a man seeking supernatural events for his own success. Again, like many of King’s stories, the main character is a writer. I tend to believe that King truly enjoys fictionalizing himself and what he would do when presented with some of his own terrifying events. The character discovers the rumor of the Dolphin hotel in New York, that features a single room that has been home to numerous suicides and unexplainable phenomenon. The maids turn down the room once a month - and most that enter try not to be there for more than a fast turnaround.

When Enslin enters the room, at the sincere opposition of the hotel manager, he first chooses to believe that everything that is attached with the room is superstition. But within minutes he discovers that, while perhaps a ghost itself doesn’t reside in the place - the room itself doesn’t want him to live - to survive the night.

I don’t read much horror - I’m more of a space-travel scifi or post-apoc guy myself, but I will always commend King for his ability to give a reader goosebumps. The only other title of his that I’ve actually read from start-to-finish is Dreamcatcher, and even that I only saw after seeing the movie. Suffice it to say that the hollywood version of the story actually looks pretty good, and I’m also a fan of John Cusack - so that helps. If you’re looking for some great quick reads that can send some shivers down your spine, King’s Everything’s Eventual book of short stories might be worth your time.

Edit: Here’s the trailer for the upcoming movie… Releasing July 13th.