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.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Zenna Henderson
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 stories take place in mid 20th century Arizona. Stranded aliens live in tiny, isolated communities. They’re human-looking-and-acting aside from a few unusual (and often hidden) abilities and powers, and the stories focus on their isolation and the challenges of being strangers in a strange land. Many of the characters are children, or young people, coming to terms with their status as being of The People, as well as the challenges of just growing up and coming to maturity. Some journey to the small communities unaware of their own special heritage, only learning of their forgotten and lost status as being of the People after they arrive. These are poetic, beautiful stories that focus on character, emotion, and a light touch on genre elements. Her voice is strong, clear and unique. Is this the latest work from a slipstream writer? An up and comer that I might meet at Wiscon or Readercon? A teacher at Clarion, perhaps? The newest writer for Angry Robot’s Strange Chemistry line? No, this a writer, a woman writer, no less, who wrote the bulk of her work in the 50’s and 60’s, and not under a pen name, either. Let me introduce you to Zenna Henderson.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Ringworld
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. Welcome to the inaugural installment of Mining the Genre Asteroid. On a recent podcast, a Campbell award winning writer admitted that they had not read our first book, a seminal work of the field, and so I thought that it would be a fine place to begin the column. Imagine a ring of material the size of Earth’s orbit around the sun. A vast structure with a surface area millions of times the size of earth’s continents. Hundreds of different human-like and not so human like species run rampant on it, at all sorts of levels of technology. And yet, the builders of this amazing structure seem to be gone. This ring is not only an enigma, but it’s even unknown to the universe at large, until a powerful alien puts together an expedition of misfits to explore its mystery. I give you RINGWORLD.
Book Review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Revenge and Retribution are hard things. Especially if you were once the A.I. of a spacecraft, helping to run a planet conquered by the Empire, and having dozens of bodies at your command (as well as the ship itself), and now you are stuck in one, fragile, human body. You aren’t in the revenge and retribution business for purely personal reasons–that would be easy. No, there are big problems in the Radch Empire, and not enough people know about them to take action. Of course, the fact that you are going up against the seemingly immortal ruler of the Empire is one of those big problems to deal with. Ancillary Justice is a debut novel from Ann Leckie. The author’s skill and experience in the short fiction world (including a strong early story in her career, and a favorite of mine, “Hesperia and Glory”) serve her well here in her first novel. Breq makes for an interesting protagonist. The novel’s split in its time frame means that while we see the action from her diminished self, we also get to see her in the past, in her full powers and authority, before the event that leads to her diminishment. Although she is implacably driven, Breq is not a one note Javert by any means. It is, in fact, when she deviates from her course that we get to see her grow and develop as a character, as the challenges of being in a single body, and mortal, become all too clear. Likewise, the other characters we met, from the colonial officers in her backstory to Seviarden Vendaai, the lost scion of a minor House found on the ice planet that opens the novel, to the Lord of the Rasch herself, Anaander Mianaai, are all also well drawn and interesting. It occurs to this reviewer that twenty or even ten years ago, most of the characters in the novel would have almost certainly been male. Instead, here, and refreshingly, there are many and varied female characters winningly portrayed in positions of power, authority and agency in the author’s science fictional universe. Although some of the worldbuilding could have been clearer, the world that the author presents here is unbelievably rich, diverse, complicated and interesting. The author shows the world in the large and the small, alike, and the foci of her attention demonstrates the author’s interests well. For example, the use of language and the importance of language is an abiding concern in the novel, as tenses, genders and other language elements garner a lot of attention. The author understands that how a culture uses language and how they develop their language tells you a lot about them, and Leckie plays that card with enthusiasm. The use of religion in the novel is also equally convincingly detailed and explored. The polyglot and polytheistic Empire of the Radch is not even a monolith even so far as that, as we meet people in the Empire who treat faith and religion and their Gods in a spectrum ranging from the devout to the apathetic and points between. And then there is the technology and the culture on the macro scale. Empires are inherently interesting to me, and the dynamics and logic of empire are something the author has a good time playing with. Given the divergent time frames of the novel, we get to see the Radch at two distinct periods in their history; if anything, the author could have pushed this parallax even more than she does in the novel. The nature of colonial administration and politics, how empires expand, stagnate and suffer crisis, and their relations with other powers are all explored through the lens of Breq’s story. Likewise, the technology that the Empire wields, especially ships like The Justice of Toren, is winningly depicted. The narrative lets us see Breq in her two forms. On the one hand we see her in her glory and the full panoply of powers–simultaneously running a massive ship and controlling and experiencing the life of having multiple bodies. And, on the other hand, we see the challenges she faces of living a much more limited, single body, existence. With all this, don’t misunderstand me about the nature of the book. This is also first rate, rollicking space-opera with plenty of action, intrigue and adventure in addition to the deeper thoughts on identity, cultural worldbuilding and agency for female characters. The novel does its antecedents in the genre proud, and I was particularly reminded of Walter Jon Williams’ Dread Empire series. There are some first novel and first series niggles that I can complain about, but nothing major. There is a big story here that the author is dying to tell, and we get a lot of setup for that story. As a result, perhaps. the novel lacks a complete arc of its own. However, Justice is coming to the empire, indeed. I am extremely interested, now that the board is set and the pieces known, where the author goes from here. Its a fabulous debut.
