Mining the Genre Asteroid–Brave New World
“Oh, Brave New World, that has such people in it”–Miranda, The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1 Published in 1932, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a seminal dystopian novel. The time is the 26th century, although the A.D. calendar is no longer used. Instead, the year is 632 After Ford, for Henry Ford is the model, the hero, the prophet for this seeming paradise of infantile games and recreation, uncomplicated work, and of course, drug-inspired holidays from reality. Happiness is the greatest good. Into this ‘Eden’, inadvertently, comes a serpent in the form of John, a ‘savage’ from a reservation isolated from modern society, whose fateful encounter with the society of this Brave New World provides much of the dramatic tension of the novel.
Book Review: The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
The Lives of Tao centers on an alien named Tao and his new host. Tao, like all those of his race, lives as a symbiote with humans. Living from human life to human life, a bad situation kills the body of his longtime human teammate. In order to survive, Tao must find another host and bond with him, or her. Quickly. With his enemies closing in, he cannot chose a pre-ordained host, someone who knows of Tao’s race and what it means to bond with him. Instead, an out of shape and overweight slacker of an IT professional, Roen Tan, is his improbable and desperate choice. The action sequences in The Lives of Tao, from start to finish, sing. The beats feel authentic and well scripted, especially when Roen is in no shape to deal with trained opponents. The author’s personal knowledge of martial arts (especially Tai Chi) comes in handy, but it is presented as anything but infodumping. The culminating conflict is well put together and is an excellent capstone to a series of lesser and smaller sequences scattered throughout the book. The novel is infused with a geeky sense of humor that flows from its protagonist and enriches the book. It ranges from the banter between Tao and Roen, to much more physical comedy, especially in the fumbling attempts Roen makes at first at change and getting in shape. I laughed out loud at many points, and the overall light tone of the novel makes the reading flow quickly. That light tone humor, though, is not a one trick pony. An opening sequence shows that the author is capable of writing scenes, action scenes, that are straight up the middle and are much more serious in tone and execution than many of the later ones. Also, the backstory that Tao relates to Roen in chunks at chapter breaks is thoughtful and reflective. Overall, the writing, for the most part, is extremely polished for a debut novel, a credit to author and editor. The text has been lavished with love and attention and it has a wonderful tone and voice. The story that The Lives of Tao seemed to remind me of and invoke is the TV series Chuck, and I can’t believe that to be a coincidence. Slacker IT guy underperforming to his abilities and capabilities. He’s given a gift that he can’t get rid, and can’t help but heed the call to adventure, whether he likes it or not . Add in a friend to whom he can’t tell his secret, a hot agent of the opposite sex who trains and babysits him, add in montages of training and baby missions, and an overarching secret organization to fight. Sound familiar? In the end both Charles Bartowski and Roen Tan rise to the occasion. But its never easy for either of them to become a hero. Angry Robot has had excellent success in picking debut novelists lately, and The Lives of Tao sits firmly on the positive side of that scorecard. It’s funny, entertaining, thought provoking, and reads quickly and well. The author, like his protagonist, clearly has talent and skills that are only now coming to our attention. I look forward to more stories of Roen and Tao, and what else the author has up his sleeve.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Time Out of Joint by Philip K Dick
Mining the Genre Asteroid is Paul Weimer’s look at the history of the science fiction and fantasy field, bringing to light important, interesting and entertaining books from science fiction and fantasy’s past to you. A seemingly ordinary 1950’s slice of Suburbia. Ragle Gumm spends his days working on the “Where will the Little Man be Next” puzzle for the local paper. As the reigning champion of solving the daily puzzle, it is practically a full time job for him. But, then, when a soft drink stand disappears before Ragle’s eyes, to have a piece of paper with the words “soft drink stand” fall to the ground, things are clearly not what they appear. Especially since, judging from the drawerful of paper slips, it becomes clear that this has happened to Gumm before…
Mining the Genre Asteroid: The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Mining the Genre Asteroid is Paul Weimer’s look at the history of the science fiction and fantasy field, bringing to light important, interesting and entertaining books from science fiction and fantasy’s past to you. The Snakes and the Spiders continually alter and change history in an unclear conflict in order to control the flow of human history. Soldiers from ghostly timelines that have been destroyed are recruited to change history again and again until they make the history where one of these two forces will be triumphant. Russian soldiers from a Czarist American Empire can fight alongside warriors from the Khanate of Spain and Confederate soldiers from World War II. All of them were snatched up at the time of their death, and now fight for a new purpose. Help the Russians defeat Napoleon’s Grand Army. Aid the Persians at Marathon to defeat those perfidious Greeks. Push the results of a battle between the Indian Malwa Empire and the Chinese Sui Dynasty. Change the timeline again and again, everywhere, to win once and for all and with the mass of humanity none the wiser. And other species, too, far-future Venusians and far-past inhabitants of the Moon also play roles in changing history. Between battles in The Change War, though, soldiers need a location outside of space and time, unaffected by what the War does, to recuperate and prepare themselves for the next conflict. The Place is such a location for soldiers on the side of The Spiders. A motley set of warriors from very different original backgrounds are currently recovering there. There’s drink, there’s companionship of the opposite sex, there is healing, there is brief rest. However, all is not placid in The Place. These very different warriors do not always get along very well. Old grudges from now destroyed countries and timelines put those in The Place at odds with each other. There may be one of those sneaky Snake spies among the staff or the warriors in The Place. Add in a locked room mystery and (most ironically) a race against time before The Place and all in it is destroyed. I present to you The Big Time. I could and eventually will spend a month of columns on Fritz Leiber’s wide oeuvre of work. While best known and best remembered for his sword and sorcery in Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, his reach extends much farther. Leiber’s influence ranges from literary criticism of H.P. Lovecraft, to proto-urban fantasy, and his science fiction stories. The influence of Leiber on multiple strands of science fiction and fantasy cannot be underestimated. Fritz Leiber was the child of two Shakespearean actors. One can think of The Big Time as his attempt to do a Shakespeare play as a novel. While the subject matter does not sound immediately Shakespearean, the setup and style definitely are. The Place is an enclosed, closed space, containing a limited set of characters, allusions and references that sketch out and imply a world far beyond the space that we actually see. One can think of it as a large theater (and the dimensions of the Place are, roughly, that of a large theater house). The novel is heavy on dialogue and a lot of wordplay, and short on action. There is even a character from the ancient past who only speaks in meter. Another character is a contemporary of Shakespeare’s, and knew him. I am not aware of a theatrical adaptation of The Big Time, but I would not be surprised if someone tried it. And what characters these are. Drawn from timelines and worlds long gone, the characters are complicated, damaged, broken, and conflicted. The narrator, Greta, killed in a Nazi invasion of Chicago in one timeline falls into a fraught, violent, complicated relationship with a Nazi officer who died in a battle in Norway in a different timeline. Or at least this version of him, saved by the Spiders for The Change War, died there. Doppelgangers and doubles of the soldiers and staff might and do exist out there. There is plenty of alternate history and time travel stories written since Leiber’s of course. The Big Time. But even today, it’s an alternate history and time travel novel that few have dared to imitate (I can think of only a bare handful of examples). I first read The Big Time at the height of my fascination with alternate history and found it to be sui generis. Leiber thought about writing a sequel, but sadly did not do so before his death. However, there are a few Change War short stories out there I have not yet managed to track down and read. Having entered the Public Domain, The Big Time is widely available, including most recently in the Gary K Wolfe edited LOA (Library of America) American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s box set. If the aforementioned box set is too expensive, Project Gutenberg has a decently edited free edition for you to download and read. If you have any interest in Leiber’s work, or Alternate History, I encourage you to do so.
Mining The Genre Asteroid: Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Mining the Genre Asteroid is Paul Weimer’s look at the history of the science fiction and fantasy field, bringing to light important, interesting and entertaining books from science fiction and fantasy’s past to you. Runaway technological singularities destroy worlds with no warning. A convict, with the status of a serf, is an unlikely survivor of one. By chance, he comes to the attention of a interstellar diplomat who is strongly attracted to him. Their affair is a prism through which to view aliens and alien humans on a set of worlds where gender is fluid, where two competing ideologies struggle for the souls of humanity, and where the threat of another singularity hangs like a sword of Damocles over every world. To say nothing of the emancipation of that former serf, who finds his place in the universe. Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand (1984) is a novel by Grandmaster Samuel R. Delany. While anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in the field has heard of Delany, fewer have read him, and with his literary output low in the last two decades, readers new to the field may not have any good way to get a handle on him, or his work, or even know where to begin. So let me offer Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand as an entry point. When I read it in the ’80s, it was my first encounter with Delany’s work. Describing the plot of the book more than I already have is probably besides the point. Of Plot, Character, Setting, Language, and Theme, plot is usually the aspect of a book that Delany cares the absolute least about. Language and Theme are his Kung-fu and they are strong. Like much of his work, sex, politics, freedom of action, gender and multiculturalism are themes that Delany explores heavily throughout Stars. Alien-human relations, the variety of cultures and the diversity of thousands of worlds hinted and glimpsed at, the sociological struggle between the conservative Family and the libertine Sygn. The ultimate fate of Karga as he rises out of his former state of serfdom (and the perverted “happiness” promised him in that state) and the ultimate implications when he is confronted with his perfect partner in matters of sexual desire. In addition to ideas and themes, readers come to terms with Delany for another reason, and that is his prose techniques. Entire papers have been written on the techniques he uses, so I can only give you the roughest idea of some of the things that await you when you pick up a Delany novel like Stars. Sexuality, gender and sex, as mentioned above, are commonly encountered in his fiction. In Stars he extends the considerations of this down to the language used. Female pronouns are used as the default as male pronouns are used here and now. When male pronouns are used, it is an indicator by the speaker of indicating sexual desire in the subject by the person talking. I missed this completely the first time I read it, and so when that desire became explicit, I was surprised as a reader. Delany makes his aliens feel alien by making their gender fluid, yes, but also by changing the “default” sense. For humans, sight is our primary sense, this is something that you can see drilled down into nearly every language. Even the phrase, “you see what I mean” indicates how much it infuses our culture and our outlook (there you go again). One of the alien races in the novel, though, has taste as their primary sense, and they, as well as the humans that live with them (mixed alien/human worlds are the norm in this universe) use taste metaphors much more frequently. Its a clever bit of world-building that also helps put the reader in this far future alien environment. And in general the prose is beautifully written, above and beyond all this. It’s immersive, enchanting, and transporting. It’s full of mythology, allusions, and most importantly the very wonder of science fiction and fantastika. For example, when the main character finally gets a chance to read, and read for the first time, it is so vividly described, the waterfall of him falling into one book after another, that he is transported by the experience, and we, the reader, are, too. The heroine of Jo Walton’s Among Others has this book in her future, and I can imagine Mor reacting to this passage as strongly as I did. And did I mention the novel has what might be the most memorable dinner party in genre fiction as well as one of its more memorable hunting expeditions? Reflecting on the novel, I can easily see the influence of the themes of this novel on Ann Leckie’s new debut novel Ancillary Justice, on Karen Lord, on Zachary Jernigan, and a host of other writers. None of these writers dare the rocks of the lighthouse upon which his works stand, but they do navigate the seas with the aid of the light he casts out with novels like Stars. There are a few writers who seem to be writing in a parallel field of science fiction, a parallel world of high literary, experimental science fiction that literary critics pretend SF can never be. Samuel Delany is one of those writers. Although he has even more experimental works, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand was my introduction to Delany, and may well suit you as well in that role. Sadly, while Delany has promised a sequel, that sequel has yet to appear. Perhaps, someday, he will write it.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Jirel of Joiry
Mining the Genre Asteroid is Paul Weimer’s look at the history of the science fiction and fantasy field, bringing to light important, interesting and entertaining books from science fiction and fantasy’s past to you. France during the dark ages. The ruler of a feudal holding stands to protect the people and realm against usurpers and rivals, wizards and witches, dark crossovers from eldritch dimensions and haunted castles. Possessed of indomitable will, a strong emotional core that erupts in violent love and hatred, and not inconsiderable skill with sword and the leading of men into battle, this feudal lord is the central character of six early sword and sorcery stories. Meet the lady Jirel of Joiry.
