Category Archives: Reading

Starquake

By lytspeed Posted in Opinion, Reading, Reviews, Science Leave a reply

Starquake

By: Robert L. Forward

Type: Hard Science Fiction

Setting: A neutron star near the end of the constellation Draco

Description:

This book is a sequel to Dragon’s Egg, a wonderful speculation about life on a neutron star. In this installment, human scientists face the challenge of trying to help and rescue the civilization of Cheela on the surface of the neutron star in the aftermath of a gigantic starquake. The trick is that the Cheela, due to their small size and nucleonic nature, live roughly a million times faster than the humans do. The entire novel spans twenty-four of the human crew’s hours, so Forward spends much of his time describing the goings on with the Cheela. Many of their generations pass in the day that the humans spend on the ship. 

Comments:

Although theoretically and scientifically as brilliant as his previous novel, Starquake lacks some of the good writing and wit present in Dragon’s Egg. Occasionally, the reader catches a pun relating to Earth television shows and history, but for the most part the parallels are too close. In one case, a barbarian Cheela adopts the name Attila and proceeds to dominate the known surface of the star. The Cheela obviously got the idea to use Earth names from the logs of Earth history that they had received from the humans, but Forward shouldn’t have needed to resort to those tactics for characterization. His writing is good enough to allow the Cheela characters their own names. Some of the borrowed names are obviously used for humor (like the Cheela named Otis-Elevator), but these uses are not necessary. They did not happen this much in Dragon’s Egg, and that story was quite gripping. Forward’s readers are not stupid; if they can sit through his detailed explanations of plant and animal life on the star, they can draw their own parallels between the Dark Ages of Earth and the Dark Ages on Egg. 

Recommendations:

This is a good, mostly solid novel that should delight the remaining fans of hard science fiction. I’m not entirely convinced that it needed to be written, however. Dragon’s Egg stood well on its own; I suspect that publishers had a lot to say about the existence of the sequel.

Sophie’s World

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Sophie’s World

By:  Jostein Gaarder

Type:  Philosophical Fiction

Setting:  Norway, 1990

Description:

Fourteen year old Sophie Amundsen receives a mysterious letter in her mailbox, with a simple question:  Who are you?  Later that day, she receives another letter:  Where does the world come from?  These two sentences light the spark of learning in Sophie, and she embarks on a Wonderland-style journey through the history of western philosophy, guided by a mysterious philosopher named Alberto Knox.

The book gives us a survey course in philosophical thought from ancient Greek times through the twentieth century, using letters and conversations between Sophie and Alberto as a framework, much as Gödel, Escher, Bach uses conversations between Achilles and the Tortoise to illustrate points.  However, where Gödel, Escher, Bach relies on expository chapters to explain the conversations, Sophie’s World uses examples from Sophie’s own experiences to keep the story in novel form.

As the novel progresses, strange things start happening to Sophie.  Notes addressed to Hilde Møller Knag begin appearing everywhere, and most implore Sophie to pass on messages to Hilde (whom Sophie doesn’t know) from her father, a U.N. Major stationed in Lebanon.  Neither Sophie nor Alberto can explain the letters, or the other strange occurrences, but Alberto seems to grow an understanding as events happen.  At about the midpoint of the book, we finally get enough clues to really piece the strange happenings together, and the second half seems to be a bit more of a novel and a bit less of a textbook.

Comments:

Comparisons to Alice in Wonderland are inevitable, and Gaarder knows this.  He addresses them directly at the beginning of the book by talking about a white rabbit, then bringing the Mad Hatter into the story briefly in the second half.  His writing is charming, though I must admit it almost felt Victorian in tone.  I’m sure a number of things contribute to this, not the least of which is that the book I read is an English translation.  The Alice comparison might also make it feel as if the language is a bit dated.  As it is, though, when modern topics cropped up, I was jarred out of the story briefly.  For example, when Sophie talks to her mother about philosophy a couple of times, her mother asks her if she’s started taking drugs.  In a modern novel, this shouldn’t be a shock, but it feels alien in this novel.

Another jarring example is the relatively frank depictions of sex, including a bizarre scene in which two young teenagers begin to have sex in front of their parents at a garden party.  To be fair, this scene is in a very surreal part of the novel, but it feels at odds with the formal language.  Also, I can chalk several scenes involving sex or discussion of sexual topics up to my inherent American prudish tendencies.  Most Europeans don’t recognize the stigma that Americans attach to sex — and frankly, I don’t understand it either — but I have to acknowledge that I am affected by it.

One thing did concern me, though, and perhaps this is simply because I’m a father to a young teenager.  When Sophie’s mother finds out that Sophie is “studying philosophy” with a much older man, and is gone for hours at a time without leaving messages, she’s not overly concerned.  She does says some things to Sophie, but not enough, and she takes no action to keep Sophie from seeing this mysterious older philosopher.  Judging by the latter half of the book, however, Gaarder might also be using this as a clue to the reader that not everything in the book is exactly as it seems.  Still, it was a bit bothersome.

Gaarder is not without his philosophical biases, and glosses over some of the most important philosophers of Europe, like Nietzsche and Rousseau, but devotes entire chapters to Freud and Berkeley.  This is partly because the story depends on these philosophical pillars for support.  However, if he didn’t have the biases, the story would probably rest well on other high points of western philosophy.  There is also a strong pro-U.N. bias throughout the book.  I occasionally had to check the spine to make sure I wasn’t reading Dag Hammarskjöld.  I have nothing against the U.N., but the way it’s presented in the book, it is clear that Gaarder has an axe to grind in favor of a world governing body.

Recommendations:

Lest anyone think I disliked the book due to these stylistic concerns and philosophical differences, let me assure you that I did enjoy it.  It is a delightful romp through the history of philosophy, with enough story sprinkled in to give it a pleasant flavor.  I am somewhat surprised that this book is largely unknown in America, especially since, according to a fan website, it sold more copies than any other fiction book in the world in 1995.  This is probably a testament to the thickness of the cultural blinders that many Americans grow up wearing.

Sophie’s World was, for me, a good refresher course in western philosophy, with a fresh approach and a valuable non-English perspective.  I recommend it to anyone interested in philosophy, especially those of us who grew up with particular English or American biases in our college philosophy texts.

The Schrödinger’s Cat Trilogy

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The Schrödinger’s Cat Trilogy

By: Robert Anton Wilson

Type: Series, 3 books:

  • The Universe Next Door
  • The Trick Top Hat
  • The Homing Pigeons

Setting: Various parallel universes

Description:

Bouncing crazily back and forth between parallel universes and different time frames, Wilson scrambles our brains in an attempt to link sex, science, physics, socio-political movements, Kaballistic magic, the Illuminati and James Joyce. 

Comments:

Ow. These books have everything, whether they need it or not. To read and understand everything that is happening in this series, you would need to be a master of many different fields of knowledge, from literature to science to the occult. It reads well, though it is sometimes difficult to keep track of where you are. The characters show up in different universes with the same names and different qualities, and only a couple of them have a clue what is going on. They aren’t particularly inclined to let you know, either.

Wilson throws in a pinch of self reference here and there, a nice touch. In several places, he refers to Illuminatus, a prior work of his, as being difficult literature written with no purpose other than to satisfy the writer’s ego as he laughs at the people who don’t understand it. There are numerous self-comparisons to James Joyce and Finnegan’s Wake; whether they are justified or not is up to you to decide.

The novel reads something like a Tom Robbins science fiction novel might read. I could imagine Bonanza Jellybean and Sissy Hankshaw from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues fitting right in to the storyline. A high humor quotient pervades the work, especially when you realize that Wilson does not take himself too seriously and is willing to throw anything out on the table. 

Recommendations:

Got a spare few months, in which you can read a little each day faithfully and digest it during the next day? Then you might understand the book. I don’t pretend to, but I found it an enjoyable ride, even if I didn’t know where (or when) I was going.

Less Than Zero

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Less Than Zero

By: Bret Easton Ellis

Type: Novel

Setting: The ritzy suburbs of Los Angeles

Description:

If you ever dreamed of the rich life, of the fame and fortune associated with the fast cars and faster lifestyles, you’ll be glad you never had it after reading Less Than Zero. Written beforeBeverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place were stinking up the TV airwaves, this book bleakly describes the stagnant lives of rich kids in the L.A. area. The irresistable societal pressures placed on the kids in the novel by their parents and peers lead them along paths leading nowhere but to destruction. Scandal sheets, drugs, sex, perversion and the chase of the ultimate thrill dictate the actions of potentially intelligent young adults, leaving them no freedom of choice. 

Comments:

This book drags along, with little action or plot. In the important parts of the book, where I normally would expect to feel kinship with the characters involved, I felt revulsion instead. This is, of course, the effect Ellis wished; in order for his readers to feel what the characters are feeling, he had to place the readers in the same dead, non-descriptive place. He does so through the use of flat adjectives and verbs, creating a sort of written Purgatory for us to muddle through — just like the novel’s characters. 

Recommendations:

Though the language in the book lacks life, it is not bad writing when you consider its purpose. It is certainly not enjoyable writing, but I’m not sure it should be in this case. Ellis is trying to teach us a lesson by dragging us through the muck with his characters, much as directors Stanley Kubrick and Oliver Stone have done with their movies. The quality of the work is there, but getting the whole picture may not be a pleasant experience.

The Legend That Was Earth

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The Legend That Was Earth

By:  James P. Hogan

Type:  Science Fiction Novel

Setting:  Earth in the near future

Description:

As we enter the story, a race of aliens known as Hyadeans have already made contact with Earth governments and businesses, and are assisting those governments in improving the quality of products, services and life in general for their citizens.  We focus on Roland Cade, a charismatic California businessman who makes his fortune by acting as a go-between for groups that would not normally intersect but occasionally have need for each other’s services.  Hyadeans pay particularly well for these services, hence Cade’s fortune.

Early in the book, we learn that not everyone thinks the Hyadeans’ involvement in Terran affairs is a good thing.  Cade’s ex-wife, Marie, is one of these people, and seems to be in possession of some information that would implicate the American government in a prominent political assassination involving both Hyadeans and government officials.  Against his will, Cade is drawn into a world of counter-intelligence, intrigue and lies that he had never believed existed, despite his ex-wife’s repeated attempts to point it out.

As the novel progresses, Cade learns that he doesn’t like much of what he sees in the American government, and Marie learns that not all aliens are bent on destroying Earth’s occupants.  Some of the Hyadeans actually thrive in the diversity of Earth’s varied cultures.  Having never lived in a diverse culture themselves, they never realized the importance of the individual, nor the benefits of art, music and religion.  With the help of a few key Hyadean and Terran dissidents, Roland and Marie Cade set about trying to spread the word that all is not as it seems on Earth, and in the United States in particular.

Their efforts spark a civil war in the United States, fueled by pro-government (and pro-Hyadean) sentiments in the east and anti-government sentiments in the west.  The war threatens to spread globally, and Roland is faced with the prospect of saving the world that he is helping to destroy. 

Comments:

This book reads more like a spy adventure novel than a science fiction novel.  To Hogan‘s credit, the integration of the Hyadeans into the world is seamless because we enter the story after First Contact has already been made and resolved peacefully.  However, the book suffers from uninteresting characters.  I found Roland Cade difficult to like, despite his portrayal as a charismatic individual.  His ex-wife, Marie, was equally difficult to identify with because of her fanatical views and her penchant for sharing them.  (Think Sarah Connor in Terminator 2, but without the grit.)  Sparks of romance fly between the two throughout the novel, especially as they come to understand each other’s viewpoints better, but the romance never really feels like it takes off.  Thankfully, though, the romance is not overdone, which would have been worse.

The military portrayals in this book seemed weak to me.  The descriptions of some of the Hyadean weapons were excellent, but the strategies followed by the American commanders on the western side of the civil war seemed childish, particularly when the Hyadeans started using their space-based weapons.  The only Terran military that seemed to have any clues at all about the scope and speed of advanced alien technology were the Chinese, and even they underestimated the Hyadean power.  In a world that had been benefiting from Hyadean technology advancements for several years, I would think any military commanders would have a better idea of what they faced, rather than producing blank stares at the results of the Hyadean strategies.

The bright spots in this novel come in the form of a few characters and the contrast between the Hyadean and Terran modes of life.  The most memorable characters for me are Luke, Cade’s assistant, and Hudro, an enlightened Hyadean military officer who makes a conscious choice to start saving lives, rather than taking them.  Both of these characters tend to take the focus in any passages in which they appear, and Luke does so primarily through his quiet, observant-yet-commanding nature.  Hudro is, in my opinion, the most individual of the Hyadeans, but not because he wears non-conforming colors.  He stands out because he learns how to think for himself, rather than relying on the spoon-fed pabulum that the other Hyadeans have never questioned.  In this way, Hudro is the focus of the book’s big strength:  he illustrates the difference between a society that focuses on the community and a society that focuses on the individual.

On a minor note, I didn’t see how the title related to the book until about fifty pages remained, in which Hogan makes several references to Earth as having a kind of legendary status on the Hyadean home world, Chryse.  This is mentioned a few times throughout the book, though I don’t remember Earth being billed as “legend” until the end.  In any case, I never was convinced that Earth was truly legendary to the Hyadeans (except maybe Hudro and couple of others.) 

Recommendations:

Though I don’t feel the book works well overall, I think it does carry an important message for today’s post-9/11 world.  I often hear people complain about how they don’t understand why the Islamic nations hate the United States so much.  Part of it is that they are raised to have that viewpoint; it is ever present in their media, especially in veiled totalitarian states like Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.  They are taught to see us as a nation of infidels, as Satan’s tool, and they are taught not to question that, much as the Hyadeans are portrayed in Hogan’s novel.  They don’t see us as individuals, but as a group.

In the US, we are taught to be individuals from birth.  Even though we may belong to various ethnic, religious or political groups, we are always reminded of how we are distinct from each other and the world.  When we see television coverage of an al Qaida terrorist act, we see an individual and wonder, “Why would he want to do that?”  Like the Terrans in the novel, we don’t grasp that the other group’s motivations are societal, not individualistic.

If for no other reason, The Legend That Was Earth is worth a read with an ear toward that the illustration of that distinction.