Book Review: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Pros: some interesting world-building/science

Cons: unsympathetic characters

Gulliver Foyle has spent months trapped in a room on a destroyed space ship. When the Vorga passes by and fails to pick him up, he’s filled with rage and determined to survive, if only to find and punish the Vorga for what it’s done.

Originally titled Tiger! Tiger!, after the William Blake poem, “The Tyger” this is a science fiction rewrite of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. There’s some interesting world-building going on, with people becoming able to teleport, or ‘jaunt’, and how that affects humanity. There’s also trouble brewing between the inner and outer planets (tired of being taken advantage of and seeing an economic downturn due to the ability to jaunt, which has reduced the need for the resources they mine).

For the most part I found Gully an unsympathetic and horrifying character. He’s so hell bent on his revenge that he ignores the fact that he’s survived horrors (in part because their ‘betrayal’ galvanized him into saving himself). In many ways he throws away years of his life and several opportunities he’s given to live for the future, in order to get his revenge. There’s no personal enmity towards Gully by the crew of the Vorga, so his quest feels excessive and unreasonable, especially when you learn what happened on the Vorga, and why they didn’t pick him up.

The female characters aren’t the greatest. There’s a bit of variety, though none of them felt particularly fleshed out. They all fall in love (and out of love) quickly and act in somewhat bizarre ways at times. Jisbella’s love/hate relationship with him annoyed me because she waffled so much I was never sure where she stood, and I was horrified by how he manipulates Robin into helping him, considering what he did to her. And for some reason, despite what he does to them, the women forgive him in the end. There’s also an off page rape that factors into the story later on.

I enjoyed the ending in that Gully finally seems to snap out of his mindless revenge kick and actually says a few profound things with regards to the potential war. But aside from his stint in prison (which was for the wrong reasons), he never seems to get any punishment for his actions beyond what he does to punish himself, which seemed unequal to what he did. On the whole I found reading this a bit of a slog, and as it’s not a long book, that’s saying something.

Audiobook Review: War of the World by H. G. Wells

Read by: Christopher Hurt

This review requires a preface.  I listened to this on vacation in the Dominican Republic, where it was very hot and sunny.  I also wasn't sleeping well.  As a result of listening, rather than reading, I often closed my eyes to avoid the glare of the sun on the beach and, would subsequently, fall asleep.  So I got through this book rather sporadically, having to rewind and listen to things twice because I wasn't paying attention the first time and making a general mess of the experience.  Please keep that in mind as you read this review.

Pros: lively narrative (audiobook version), pseudo-science, lots of detail

Cons: disjointed reading made it hard to remember the numerous details Wells peppered the novel with, pseudo-science

A professor & writer of philosophy details what he witnessed during the Martian attack of London and its environs.

As with other books of the period, The War of the Worlds is presented as the narrator's account of true events.  The book tries to make the science plausible, explaining what the Martians must have been thinking, why they attacked and how they got their ships to Earth.  The story pauses at times to explain what the Martians look like, how their machines work and how quickly the red weed they brought with them grows.  While Wells tries to get his science right he ultimately fails since there was so much he didn't understand about space travel, etc.

The ending of the book, which always seemed so strange given the obvious advanced knowledge of the Martians makes sense here, given their evolution and difficulty in examining the Earth at close range (based on the science of the time).  In other words, if, like me, you've only seen the film (and I mean the 1953 version), then you don't know the real story.  In fact, much that happens in the film is not in the book and vice versa, particularly the love story (in the book the protagonist spends most of his time trying to rejoin his wife, whom he fears has died in his absence).  Similarly, the book has only minor religious overtones, much less than the film.

The book includes a lot of details about the Martians, their looks, actions, etc. but there are few details about their feeding, which is presented as a horror and then ignored.  I'd have liked to know more about that, as it played a large role in their invasion.

I highly recommend the audiobook.  I've found from reading other Wells novels (Invisible Man, Island of Dr. Moreau) that his narrative style is rather dry and hard to read at times.  But listening to the book, well, that was an experience.  The narrator really made this come alive (my fatigue notwithstanding).

Book Review: American Science Fiction Edited by Gary K. Wolfe

The American Science Fiction collection, volume one, consists of 4 classic novels written from 1953 to 1956:

The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett

The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson

Pros: original book versions of the stories; biographical information, note on the texts and end notes for each story, diverse sub-genres represented, influencial stories and authors

Cons: some of the novels contain parts that modern readers may find boring

This is the first of a two book American Science Fiction collection.  It's a hard bound book set of books that match others in the series.  The four novels reprinted here are all by authors who have greatly impacted science fiction as we know it today.  The novels themselves represent different subgenres: dystopic, evolutionary, post-apocalyptic and fantastical.  [OK, I'm making some of these categories up, but each novel here has a different feel and used science fiction in a different way.]

The back of the collection has a number of good, short resources.  There are biographical notes on each author, a note on the texts (what versions are printed here (as most of them first appeared in magazines)), and end notes.  In addition to textual notes, the end notes also print an additional 3 chapters of Gravy Planet (renamed The Space Merchants) for its syndication in Galaxy magazine.  They come after the events of The Space Merchants as printed in book form.  There is also an introduction to The Shrinking Man writen by Richard Matheson for a 2001 printing of the book that explains where he got the idea for the story, where he wrote it and how it was turned into a movie.

If you're interested in the history of science fiction, this is a good collection, even if parts of the stories may be boring to those with modern sensibilities.

Also, check out the collection's website: loa.org/sciencefiction for commentary on all of the stories by modern SF writers, a cover gallery, an explanation of SF in the 50s and more.

Book Review: The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson

The final classic SF novel reprinted by the first volume of the American Science Fiction collection, is The Shrinking Man.

Pros: interesting premise, intense, sympathetic protagonist

Cons: no time for the reader to take in what's happening, the shrinking is offhandedly explained 

Scott Carey fights for his life against a giant spider in the cellar of his house, imprisoned by his ever shrinking size.  Between trying to find food and water in his dangerous world, he remembers the difficult road that brought him here, losing 1/7th of an inch each day.

Scott is an angry man.  From the time his shrinking began he's raged against his ultimate fate, denying the reality of his situation, yelling at his wife and ignoring their daughter.  He's also a scared man, dealing with the reality of his situation even as work becomes harder, medical bills mount and supporting his family becomes impossible.  

He's a highly sympathetic character.  While it's hard to like how he treats his wife in the flashbacks, it's also hard to deny that anyone would feel the same in similar circumstances.  The novel explores his continuing sexual urges as well as his desire to be 'a man' in a world that increasingly views him as a kid, then a doll, then nothing at all.

It's a pulse pounding novel.  Whenever you think he's caught a break something goes wrong.  Then several more things go wrong and you wonder how he keeps going on.  Both the present scenes and back story are fraught with new perils he must face and, generally, escape.  The intensity rarely lets up, as everything becomes a danger to him.

Having said that, there's no time for the reader to do more than hang on for the ride.  A few times the author brings up more philosophical questions, but it's hard to contemplate life the universe and everything when you're running for your life, so the questions are asked and quickly forgotten as Scott gets on with living.

Readers who like solid science will be disappointed by the haphazard explanation of why Scott is shrinking.  

At just over 200 pages, it's also a fairly short read, but detailed enough to give you insight into the characters and a wild ride.

It's a fantastic conclusion for this collection and an interesting read.

Book Review: The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett

The third of the four books included in the first volume of the American Science Fiction collection edited by Gary Wolfe is The Long Tomorrow.

Pros: good writing, realistic extrapolation of the aftermath of a nuclear war

Cons: boring at times, Len becomes increasingly hard to relate to

Len and Esau are cousins growing up in the New Mennonite Community of Piper's Run a hundred years after the atomic war that destroyed the United States.  The Thirtieth Ammendment states that no cities beyond a certain size are allowed to be built and the country has splintered into a variety of religious farmers and traders.

After witnessing a stoning, the boys realize their curiosity is peaked and they start dreaming of going to Bartorstown, a mythical city where old technology is still used.

Brackett is a good writer.  Her descriptions are solid and her plotting is direct.  The idea that a nuclear war would find religious zealots banning cities, in the hopes of avoiding such a thing in the future, is realistic (even more so for the early post-WWII world Brackett wrote this in, when fear of nuclear bombs was very high), as is the idea that many people would become Amish or Mennonite, learning from people who have always eschewed technology.

Having said that, if you like your post-apocalyptic fiction more Mad Max than Little House on the Prairie, like me, you'll find this book fairly boring.  What technology there is, is obviously patterned off of 50s understanding.  But it's so limited that it doesn't detract from the story.

Len's story arc, however, does.  I liked him in the first two sections.  He's young, idealistic, and unwilling to let go of his dreams regardless of how he's beaten and shamed.  By the third segment I realized that he's also the kind of person who's always chasing a dream.  He's never satisfied with where he is in life, because he's always sure it's better somewhere else.  Only at the very end, when he finally decides as an adult what he wants out of life and what he believes in, does he stop waffling and settle.

This is the first thing by Beckett I've read.  I wouldn't mind picking up something else by her, given the writing chops she shows in this book, but The Long Tomorrow isn't a book I'd read again.

Book Review: More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

This is the second book in the new American Science Fiction Collection, volume one, edited by Gary Wolfe.

Pros: parts 2 & 3 are brilliantly written with an interesting message, very diverse cast of characters 

Cons: part 1 has several purposely obscure but important pieces of information, 1950s racial situations/terminology

Normally I write my own synopsis for books I review, but this book's quite complex so I've decided to grab one from the Indigo website instead:

From one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction comes a genre-bending novel that is as affectingly humane as it is speculatively daring.

There's Lone, who can make a man blow his own brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and the unique power of the teleporting twins. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world -- except for a conscience. Separately, they are talented freaks. Together they compose a single organism that may represent the next step in evolution. As the protagonist of More Than Human struggle to find out whether they are meant to help humanity or destroy it, Theodore Sturgeon explores the questions of power and morality, individuality and belonging, with sophistication and lyricism rarely seen in science fiction.

This is the kind of book that makes me question my 'if I'm not enjoying it, stop reading it' policy.  The book is split into 3 parts, and I actively disliked part 1 while finding parts 2 and 3 brilliant.  Had this not been a review book, I would have stopped reading in part 1, which would have been a shame.  Part 1 introduces the decently large cast of very diverse characters including a mentally handicapped man, a baby that won't grow, two black girls, etc.  It does this by jumping from person to person, often giving descriptions via characters who see the world... differently.  Lone, for example, is mentally challenged and only towards the end of the section does he develop speech and anything close to a 'normal' understanding of events.  But his scenes are still written in an understandable way.  

The author, however, purposefully obscured certain events in this part of the book making the reader guess what's going on.  By the time you understand the situation, you have to go back and reevaluate what's happened.  For example, there's a father who has secluded himself and his two daughters on a piece of land.  It's easy to assume from things in the text that he's sexually abusing his oldest daughter.  Or maybe he's just beating her to drive out her sexual awakening.  Or maybe nothing abusive is happening at all besides the girls being locked up.  Even after finishing the book I'm not sure which it was, though later events make me assume it's the second scenario.

The first section is set-up for the rest of the book, and the characters the author spends so much time introducing aren't as active in the other two parts (they're mentioned and shown in flashbacks in part 2 and only one of them shows up for any length of time in part 3, with the others having bit parts). 

Modern readers will find a few scenes uncomfortable as 1950s racial prejudice is portrayed, including period terminology.

Parts 2 and 3 have a lot more suspense and drive behind them.  While I felt like putting part 1 down and not picking it back up, parts 2 and 3 had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next.  The writing was clear, linear and the author tantilized you with bits of the answer at a time.

The ending was great and worth pushing through the first section to get to. 

Book Review: The Space Merchants by Fredrick Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth

The first of the 4 novels published in the American Science Fiction two volume collection, The Space Merchants was originally published in 1953.  This is the original version (rather than the recent updated edition) of the book.

Pros: creepy future, interesting politics/worldbuilding, great plot twists

Cons: protagonist is unlikable (as are most of the supporting characters), protagonist can't think past himself  

Mitchell Courtenay is assigned as head of Fowler Schocken's new Venus Section: making the planet look appealing for colonization and subsequent subversion by their company.  But this is a tough sell, not the least because of Venus's harsh atmosphere.  To help, he gets on retainer the only man who's ever been there, Jack O'Shea, little person pilot and new to fame and fortune.  The future overcrowded corporate run world has one main enemy - Consies (Conservationalists), whom Mitchell must deal with.  Finally, he must convince his not quite wife to take him back.

This book details a very scary future, and given that it was written in 1953, a surprisingly relavent one.  Corporations have nigh absolute power, and what little remains to governments can be easily bought.  Advertisers like Fowler Schocken cash in on the art of persuasion, with a touch of a mildly addictive substance added to their products that force consumers to keep buying them.

The novel is told mostly from the priviledged POV of Mitchell, though we eventually learn how others live and are treated by the corporations that come to own them (in a form of indentured slavery).

The plot has several fantastic ups and downs to keep readers on their toes.

I wasn't a fan of Mitchell.  He's fairly out of touch with the rest of the world (and how 'consumers' live) to be sympathetic.  Even at the end, when he's started to understand the larger picture, he's not particularly likable.  Having said that, I did want to see him succeed at the end, his enemies being even more dispicable (if characters wore hats he'd be in gray while most of the others would be wearing black).  

The supporting characters aren't that sympathetic either.  Jack starts out as a great guy but quickly descends into - and is destroyed by - debauchery.  Mitchell's not quite wife, a surgeon, has her own negative aspects that are revealed later in the book.

St Martin's Press recently published a revised 21st century edition of this book.  Having read the original, it doesn't seem necessary to have updated it.  The story still has relevance in its original form and packs quite a punch with regards to where humanity is potentially heading.

Public Domain Short Story Reviews

I started reading these stories months ago and keep forgetting to post the reviews.  All of these stories are public domain, so free to read on the internet.  I found them in several places, but the best concentration is Gutenberg.org, followed by Many Books.net.  If you have an Apple device, there's a great book reader called 'Free Books'.  It's all public domain stuff and if you don't mind the ads, it's free.

Unlike my novel reviews, I decided to go with a star rating on the stories, as there isn't enough plot to do a pro/con for each one.  Five stars means the story was excellent in every way.  Four means it was very good.  Three is good, two is ok and one is mediocre.  I've dated the stories, then give a very short synopsis and my, rather condensed, thoughts on the story.

Some of the links are to the stories themselves, others are to where you can download the stories in multiple formats.

**** "Most Dangerous Game" - Richard Connell (1924)

Very creepy story about a hunter who washes up on a Caribbean island owned by a Russian aristocrat, who has discovered the best thing to hunt.

Even knowing what's coming, the story is creepy.  The actual hunt is less detailed than I'd have liked, given the fantastic set-up.

***** "Keep Out" - Fredric Brown (1954)

Altered humans form a new colony on Mars.

Chilling story.  It's short but carries a very forceful message.

*** "The Ultimate Experiment" - Thornton DeKy (1941)

A robot achieves what the last humans on Earth couldn't: creating new homo sapiens

A interesting premise narrated by the robot.

**** "2+2 Makes Crazy" by Walter Sheldon (1954)

A public liaison officer gives a man from the Information Department a tour around Computer City, showing him the computer that's increasingly running their world.

A plausible look both at the importance of computers in the world, and the paranoia of humans when dealing with the unknown/misunderstood.

***** "This World Must Die!" by Horace Brown Fyfe (1951)

Four convicts, individuals who have murdered, or tried to commit murder, are asked to do what no others in normal society are capable of: destroy a ship full of plague victims before it can reach the inhabited Mars.

A complex story that explores many angles of morality.  The convicts have no knowledge beside what they're told, have seen no plague victims and have dubious histories (not all of which are violent).  This one will make you think.

***** "Time and Time Again" by Henry Beam Piper (1947)

43 year old Allen Hartley is sedated after being injured in World War III.  He wakes up in his 12 year old body in 1945.

A time travel story that questions whether the past can - or should - be changed.

**** "The Prize of Peril" by Robert Sheckley (1960) [the site I got this story doesn't exist anymore, so I have removed the link]

A man slowly rises in the reality game show circuit to the top: trying to stay alive for a week while being hunted by a gang of thugs.

This is the last few hours of the Prize of Peril game show, and Jim Raeder is convinced he's a walking dead man, because for every 'good samaritan' who's willing to help him, there's another person screaming his location to the thugs he's trying to avoid.

It's an interesting look at what people are willing to risk in the hopes of earning a quick buck.  Reality TV didn't exist when this was written and yet you can see how even the man betting his life is so far removed from reality that it's only in the last few hours of the game that he questions what made him decide to play in the first place.  And what kind of society allowed this show to flourish.

Given the debate around The Hunger Games and Battle Royale recently, this is an interesting story to look at.  These premises - of humans killing humans for sport - are obviously not new.  And we're not as far from the gladiatorial arenas of ancient Rome as we'd like to think.

** "The Dunwich Horror" by H. P. Lovecraft (1929)

A small rural village has some bizarre goings on as a boy is born who grows up remarkably fast and who has a malignant aura, unleashes a horror on the locals.

Originally serialized, this story is a lot longer than it needs to be.  Narrated by a character who faces the horror, the story tells of Wilbur Whateley's birth and youth, and the odd things that happen at the farm where he lives with his mother and grandfather.  There's a lot of build up towards a dual climax, one dealing with the boy, the other with the horror he's conjured.  The plot is interesting but there's so much unnecessary description that reading it was fairly boring.  The horror elements are also subtle (as the creatures mentioned are only haphazardly described).

**** "The Call of Cthulhu" by H. P. Lovecraft (1928)

Written as an account by an unnamed man who discovers the existence of a terrifying creature living underwater after going through his great-uncle's papers and researching the matter himself.

This story was quite scary, both in its attempts to be scholarly and realistic, and in it's slow build up of evidence to support the existence of the Cthulhu Cult and the monster itself.  If you're interested in trying H. P. Lovecraft, start here.