Category Archives: Reading

The Left Hand of Darkness

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The Left Hand of Darkness

By: Ursula K. LeGuin

Type: Science Fiction

Setting: Gethen, an ice world

Description:

Genly Ai, envoy of an eighty world organizational council known as the Ekumen, visits Gethen to offer the people there membership in his organization. Mired in a complex system of two-faced politics, he travels between two of Gethen’s major civilizations trying to garner support for his offer. All of the inhabitants of this world are human, though a significantly different strain from Ai’s; they are all ambisexual, changing (or rather gaining) sex randomly in a monthly cycle of procreation. 

Comments:

It is easy to see why this novel won the Hugo and Nebula awards when it came out. LeGuin writes in a grand style, focusing on the philosophy, social mores and fascinating sexuality of the Gethenians. At times, the dialog seems almost Shakespearean in nature, fitting the social structure of the people. Often they engage in a face-saving tit-for-tat word game known as shifgrethor, in which the goal seems to be keeping one’s own prestige while reducing the other’s without directly attacking their position. Shakespeare would have loved it, and it fuels the politics of all the major civilizations on Gethen.

LeGuin handles the ambisexuality issue admirably, especially in terms of how these people, who spontaneously “grow” one or the other set of genitalia at certain times of the month, react to Ai. To them, he seems to be permanently in the sexual state known as kemmer and this makes for some fascinating dilemmas, especially during an eighty-day trip across a giant glacier with one of the inhabitants of the world. LeGuin extrapolates the effects that ambisexuality would have on a world of people, as well. On Gethen, there is no war, rape, gender-based succession or any other kind of dominance/submission duality, but this is not to say that violence or seduction do not or can not exist. The Gethenians simply have not needed to conceive of the idea of killing more than a few of each other at a time, and then only in very extreme circumstances. Rape is a non-issue because people in kemmer go to kemmerhouses and mate with others there, and sexual urges do not manifest at all when they are not in that part of their cycle. When seduction or violence exist, they do so only as means to achieve political goals. Competition does exist on Gethen, but only in the political arena, and only against people who are considered to be equals.

Honor, integrity and mysticism play a big part in the book, as well. Ai’s main contact and ally on Gethen, a Prime Minister named Estraven, believes so strongly that what Ai proposes is right that he sacrifices his position and freedom to argue for it. He is banished from the Domains he once served, and throughout his exile his mystic faith sustains him. At one point, Ai compares Estraven to the yin/yang symbol, saying that it is a portrait of his balance and all-encompassing nature. Symbols of unity run throughout the novel, and are even alluded to in the title: (Light is) the left hand of darkness. LeGuin makes the point well that much of what we see as two opposites can more realistically be seen as two aspects of the same entity — two ends of the same stick. This is a central idea in eastern and some western mysticism, most notably Zen Buddhism and the ancient Hermetic tradition. 

Recommendations:

This book is excellent, and well deserving of the awards and reputation it has received. It is entertaining but also plants the seeds to make us think about the meaning of true unity, something we rarely understand in our dualistic society.

Jonathon Livingston Seagull

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Jonathon Livingston Seagull

By: Richard Bach

Type: Extended Parable

Setting: An unknown coast, home of a large flock of seagulls

Description:

The book follows the exploits of Jonathon, a seagull determined to fly faster than any seagull has flown before. In his attempts, he is alienated from the flock and eventually kicked out to make a life of his own on another cost. Although this is seemingly disastrous, it becomes exactly what Jonathon needed, and he then has the freedom to experiment and devise new methods of flight control with no one to tell him he is wrong. 

Comments:

This is far more than just a book about a gull. It is obviously (and beautifully) a parable for the way Richard Bach feels we should live our lives. Everyone, regardless of profession or abilities, should be able to get something positive out of this short book. The main theme teaches us to do the best we possibly can at whatever we attempt, despite what the flock may say. In fact, Jonathon didn’t realize how much the flock was holding him back until he was away from it. Because he was no longer exposed to constant negative criticism, he was able to reach all of his goals and discover that he had new ones to strive for. 

Recommendations:

This book won’t be news to the kind of person who does his or her best at everything already, but it will be an excellent reading experience and a positive reinforcement to that lifestyle. For a person afraid to break away from an easy, comfortable lifestyle, this book may provide the incentive to do so. I know of no thinking being that would not be able to find something of worth inJonathon Livingston Seagull.

 

Idoru

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Idoru

By: William Gibson

Type: Novel

Setting: Tokyo, when not in cyberspace

Description:

Idoru follows the actions of an intuitive ‘net surfer who is hired to investigate claims that one of the world’s fading rock stars is courting a Japanese virtual entertainer – the Idoru. The Idoru is an AI construct, and this gets some members of the rock star’s fan club in an uproar. 

Comments:

Soft, soft, soft. The idea presented here has incredible potential, but Gibson treats it as if he were writing for Tiger Beat magazine. Instead of exploring the nuances of a romance between a human being and an AI construct, we see the story from the viewpoint of a disinterested ‘net mercenary and a teeny-bopper fan of Lo/Rez, the fading international rock duo. It is interesting how the two main characters don’t meet until almost the end of the book, but instead of creating an all encompassing dual storyline, it feels like Gibson had two separate storylines and couldn’t decide which one to run with.

The book, like much of Gibson’s recent work, doesn’t carry the trademark acid rain style he made famous in Neuromancer and other innovative cyberpunk works. It seems like he is pulling back from that genre of science fiction and concentrating on lighter stories. Also, it could be that he has spawned so many cyberpunk clones (like Neal Stephenson) that his work just doesn’t seem as edgy as it used to.

To his credit, Gibson still does not make concessions to technophobes; if you do not have at least some familiarity with the internet and especially virtual worlds, parts of this book may not make much sense. 

Recommendations:

If you were turned off by Gibson’s early, darker work, you might consider giving him another chance with Idoru. If you read Gibson for the dark futures, the striking chiarscuro metaphors, the visionary insights, you may be disappointed.

The Green Hills of Earth

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The Green Hills of Earth

By: Robert A. Heinlein

Type: Short Story Collection

Setting: Various

Description:

This book consists of several classic Heinlein science fiction stories, including “Delilah and the Space-Rigger,” “Space Jockey,” “The Long Watch,” “Gentlemen, Be Seated,” “The Black Pits of Luna,” “‘It’s Great to Be Back!'” “‘–We Also Walk Dogs’,” “Ordeal in Space,” “The Green Hills of Earth,” and “Logic of Empire.” 

Comments:

In this collection of classic science fiction stories, we see a few glimpses of Heinlein’s future history future history series and the military and social philosphies that Heinlein used to build such works as Starship Troopers and Time Enough for Love. The language is much simpler and the characterizations are more shallow, but the stories provide a wonderful backdrop to the later works. These stories are not intended for juveniles, as Red Planet is, but they also don’t tax your brain as much as some other Heinlein works like “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathon Hoag” or “The House that Jack Built.” Also, they fit nicely into a spare hour or lunch break. 

Recommendations:

Good light reading from the end of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

The Gap Cycle

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The Gap Cycle

By: Stephen R. Donaldson

Type: Series, 5 books:

  • The Real Story
  • Forbidden Knowledge
  • A Dark and Hungry God Arises
  • Chaos & Order
  • This Day All Gods Die

Setting: The limits of known Human and Amnion space

Description:

Through the course of five books, we follow the sick and twisted lives of a spacefaring police officer (Morn Hyland) and the two pirates who become obsessed with her beauty and personality (Angus Thermopyle and Nick Succorso.) Weaving in and out of the law and the limits of acceptable behavior, the three become inextricably entangled in a power struggle between the richest man in the universe and his immediate successor. 

Comments:

This series fulfills Donaldson’s wish to branch out after establishing himself with The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever and the Second Chronicles of same. In it, he takes on a much harsher and bleak style that put off many readers who were expecting more of the fantasy style of Covenant. Indeed, the first book in the series, which serves as an introduction to the three main characters, was nearly dark enough to make me give up on the series, but I’m glad I didn’t. By the third book, I was as inextricably caught up in the storyline as the characters were!

Donaldson weaves a phenomenally complex storyline of changing loyalties and situations. He claims to have received the inspiration for the story from the Ring operas, in which the characters change places in a cycle. Somehow, he creates situations in which we are rooting for the same character who we wanted to see dead for their actions two hundred pages before. And we begin to have doubts about the character that we thought was worth something back then. The three main characters cycle from Victim to Villain to Rescuer, all the while being pawns in a greater game without realizing it. The harsh language and actions of the characters, though tough to stomach at first, are necessary to the plot as tools to make us feel contempt for certain characters and compassion for others. In effect, they serve as a barometer in addition to being crucial to plot advancement in some circumstances. The complexity of the political struggle in the series rivals the original Dune trilogy, without the sometimes droll exposition that Herbert often used.

For me, the writing seemed to burn like a slow fuse until the beginning of the third book, at which point it immediately attained magnesium intensity and sustained that level through the explosive climax. At the flare point, the images seemed to become crisper, the metaphors more evocative. To give the reader a break from the intensity (and to satisfy the techno-nerds like me) Donaldson occasionally inserts a brief essay in the form of a historical entry about some aspect of the science or political setup of his universe. Even these read well; Donaldson definitely knows his science.

The sales of these books were disappointing. I’m sure that many of the people who were expecting “more of the same” when they picked up The Real Story were put off by the abrupt change in direction from the fantasy world. The dark, manipulative universe in which The Gap Cycle unfolds is not a fun place; neither was the Land, from Covenant, but at least you knew who was good and who was evil back then. In these books, that is not so clear.

And that is brilliant. Donaldson accomplished exactly what he wanted to do: write a hard science fiction saga with a challenging subject matter. I hope the low sales of the series don’t force him to avoid risks like this in the future. 

Recommendations:

I liked this series immensely after I got into it. Don’t let the first book fool you; it serves mainly as character introduction. The plot doesn’t really start to thicken until the second book. If you can get past the violence and vulgarity, this series will be very hard to put down by the fourth book. Donaldson undertook a risky endeavor, and the craftsmanship he shows may not be immediately visible. The more you reflect on the series, though, the tighter it becomes. He deals with sensitive issues from child abuse to emotional dominance, the rights of an individual versus the benefits of the greater good, and the high wire balance of self-interest and integrity. Give the books a shot; if you can’t stomach them, pass them along. The more people who read the series, the greater the chances that Donaldson will take risks like this in the future.