Modern
This genre includes works set in the modern world, or one with relatively few differences from our own.
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I have never read the novel by Phillip K. Dick. I will at some
point, because the film seemed more a character study of drug addicts
than anything else. It was a visual feast of rotoscoped character
study, but still a character study. Beyond the lovely plot twist
at the end, Scanner doesn't have much to recommend it. This is a
movie about how addictive drugs mess up people's lives. It's not
preachy about it, and it's funny at times, but the basic subject matter
is rather depressing.
Despite what the previews may have lead you to believe, had you not
already read the book, Scanner doesn't fit much in the sci-fi
genre. Aside from the blur suits the agents wear to protect their
identities while in the office, technology takes a back seat in this
one. Even the police-espionage aspect of it is very, very muted.
I'd recommend Trainspotting over Scanner on the subject of drugs, but
you won't find a review of it here, as it is not speculative fiction.
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Nine years after Dies the Fire, an unsteady truce
reigns over western Oregon. Mike Havel's Bearkillers and Juniper
Mackenzie's Wiccan clans, along with some other loose federations, are
strong enough to have prevented the despot Norman Arminger from
overruning them - so far. Occupying the rich farmlands south of
Portland, these groups have quickly adapted to life after the Change,
and have thriving societies with bustling economies.
Their cultures are starting to take root, too - the younger generations
know nothing of gunpowder, electricity, or gasoline beyond stories from
the adults. Most members of the Mackenzies have converted to the
Wiccan religion, even though tolerance is still upheld as valuable
anywhere outside of the Protector's territory. The Bearkillers
are finding more and more of J.R.R. Tolkein's fictional
traditions woven into their lives, even the elven language itself,
thanks to a couple of young die-hard fans.
The Bearkillers and Mackenzies have their share of minor problems, both
internal and external, but they're worried about the threat from
Portland, because Arminger will never leave them in peace. To
spice things up, a ship from Tasmania lands near Portland bearing some
new characters. This book is not aptly named, as it covers events
that are leading up to the showdown that will be the conclusion of the
series, but not the war itself.
Stirling's descriptive writing of the Oregon countryside and the
beautific settlements the main characters have created within it are
nice, but sometimes painfully slow. I appreciate an author taking
the time to describe the setting in detail, but something needs to be
happening during those descriptions. I found myself skimming over
them to get to the meat of the story. Passages about the
technological developments spark interest, and of course the conflicts
between the primary forces in the book are always fascinating.
The Wiccansim and Tolkeinism gets laid on a little thickly - it comes
across as somewhat cheesy at times (imagine a 25-year-old woman
pointing to a hang glider she has just sighted and calling out,
"Nazgul!" as a warning). Flaws aside, this is an entertaining
read, and the sheer speculation involved in a drastically Changed world
will keep you turning pages.
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Micah
According to Amazon, there's a new Anita Blake novel due out Febuary 28th, titled simply Micah (named for one of the prominent characters in the last three novels). There's an interesting twist. Amazon is listing it as a paperback. I presume that means that Ms. Hamilton has been downgraded from the hardcover list due to lackluster sales of her last Blake novel, Incubus Dreams, or the intervening Meredith Gentry novels. I actually think that's a good thing; the Gentry novels were unashamed soft-core pornography and the recent Blake novels weren't much better. I'm much more interested in magic, vampires, werewolves, and murder mysteries than I am in reading a thousand pages of nonstop sexual orgy. Perhaps the declining sales will deliver the point to the publishers and the author in a way that online commentary may not necessarily accomplish.
In paperback, I'll buy it, and I'll have a review here soon after.
UPDATE: Careful reading of the Amazon review indicates that the situation is a little more complex. Micah is a shorter novel (288 pages) intended as an entry point for new readers, another indication of potentially flagging sales -- the publisher is trying to get new readers hooked because the existing reader base isn't buying as much as they would like. It will be followed, in June, with a full-length novel: Danse Macabre .
UPDATE: Micah is out in my local Barnes and Noble. Reporting wirelessly from the scene...
UPDATE: Micah didn't really do much for me. About equal parts sex, relationship angst, and supernatural spook. Nothing really to recommend it especially, though the sex didn't grate nearly so badly as in the last full-length novel.
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The Protector's War
In Dies the Fire, author SM Stirling explores the consequences of an event that alters the fundamental principles of the universe such that modern technology -- particularly firearms, engines, and electricity -- no longer function. In the time between the onset of the event and the first harvest, the characters must face the physical challenge of survival in a changed world, while devising new social and moral structures better adapted to that world. Unsurprisingly, survival without modern technology demands a basically feudal structure -- and not every would-be king has the best interests of his people at heart.
The Protector's War picks up the thread about 8 years later. The chaos and starvation immediately following the event have subsided, and a variety of stable social structures have been formed. The British Isles have reverted to monarchy; America has a number of independent domains in a loose alliance, and a would-be emperor who believes his knowledge of medieval history amounts to manifest destiny. Conflict is inevitable; but can the remnants of modern America learn fast enough to prevail, without losing their souls in the process?
In some ways, this novel is misnamed. The Protector's War does not cover the war itself. Instead, it provides the prelude to an inevitable war between the feudal armies of the Protector (also a misnomer!) and the loose alliance of the free peoples.
An anticipated third volume will presumably complete the saga. That said, there's little room for disappointment. The hints of how the rest of the world has handled the situation are welcome, and provide an interesting perspective to the experiences of the familiar characters. With the immediate threat of starvation averted, and years of time elapsed, there is an opportunity to explore a more mature social response to the changed world, and Stirling takes full advantage of it, depicting how his chosen characters mold the original loose associations they founded into mature and lasting societies capable of responding to external threats.
I highly recommend this series as a thoughtful exploration of the interaction between technology and society. Although there is more than enough material for the traditional fantasy epic, Stirling has consistently avoided the direct appeals to emotion and individual heroism that are the hallmark of such tales. Instead, he keeps his distance and allows the characters to find their own ways to survive and thrive in a relatively non-judgemental fashion. The reader is invited to make judgements, of course, as do the characters themselves; but the author's perspective remains fairly neutral. The focus is clearly on the evolution (or de-evolution) of social structures, including their response to a threatening neighbor, rather than a simple adventure story. And that, ultimately, is what keeps it interesting.
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Dies the Fire
A couple years ago, I started to have an idea for a novel. It
wasn't the first such idea; I have several kicking their way around my
head. I don't have time to write more than a chapter or two in
brief spurts, but I let the ideas percolate and refine.
Eventually, I will have that time, and hopefully the ideas will be
timeless by then. Or something.
But at least one of those ideas is now out of the running, thanks to S. M. Stirling's Dies the Fire; he has simply done it, and done it well enough that I doubt I will follow down that particular path.
What was the idea? Simple: take the modern world as it is today,
or close to it, and postulate some Event that prevents much of modern
technology from functioning. It doesn't matter exactly how it
works; what matters is how humanity copes with the results, which will
effectively revert the world to the middle ages. The important
things that make up modern civilization, for this purpose, are:
electricity (computers, power delivery), explosives (including
gunpowder and gasoline), and steam engines.
My idea was primarily concerned with firearms, and the effects of their
removal: without them, the human race is back in direct competition
with animals and each other by strength and speed. By
removing firearms from the equation, which act as a remarkable
equilizer in allowing smaller, weaker, and relatively untrained human
beings to defend themselves on an equal footing with large trained
soldiers, the world is forced to revert to feudalism. This has
the obvious consequences on the civil rights of women, racial
minorities, and those who simply aren't good at personal violence.
Stirling explores the idea very well, with a number of distinct and
interesting characters he follows from the first moments after the
Change through the formation of new social structures and the first
season's harvest. Psychologists, anthropologists, fantasy
readers, survivalists, SCA members, even wiccans will all find
something interesting in this book.
Kudo's to the author for telling it first, and possibly better.
There's a sequel out, The Protector's War. It's sitting on my to-read shelf right now.
UPDATE: The Smallest Minority also reviews this book briefly.
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Atlas Shrugged
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Atlas Shrugged starts to get repetitive about midway through. Not the plot or characters, but the philosophy. There are only so many ways you can iterate the same idea before the reader starts to feel as if they're being hit repeatedly over the head with a large hammer. I started skimming about 2/3 of the way in anytime someone spoke for more than two paragraphs on the central philosophy, and most readers will want to skip the 100-some-odd page speech towards the end of the book.
Even if you don't agree completely with Rand's philosophy or economic theory (and there are very few who do), the book is still quite enjoyable as the characters have a lot of depth and very robust personalities, and they grow and change as the story progresses.
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This novel is an expression of the fear that haunts gun owners in modern times; the knowledge that their hobby and sometimes their livelihood is something restricted more and more to governments alone. The tradition of American militiamen resisting tyranny is under attack from all sides, and seemingly with every highly-publicized massacre the screws tighten. Speculation that some agency, foreign or domestic, is actively behind all, or at least some, of these conveniently-timed incidents is on the border between conspiracy theories and legitimate speculation.
If you're a member of the "gun culture" and care about these issues, you'll like the book. The prose is servicable rather than sophisticated, and the characters sometimes suffer from having read the script rather than thinking things through on their own. While Unintended Consequences is a peculiar mix of history and fiction, Enemies Foreign and Domestic falls squarely into the fictional; there are none of the informative digressions that make Unintended Consequences accessible to people outside the gun culture who are not familiar with it.
It's a good read if you are in the target market. It's unlikely to convince anyone of anything they don't already believe, though.
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