Uncovering Writing

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A fun re-read of a childhood sci-fi favorite. I think I liked it better today as I could enjoy the psychological drama as opposed to simply the moments of hard sci-fi. I won’t re-read Startide Rising or venture into his other books in this series, but I’m glad I had the chance to enjoy Sundiver again.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A quick read, a definite page-turner. As with several of the last few books I’ve read, I’d already seen the movie version and was intrigued. I was in an independent book store in Colorado when I saw it and decided to grab it. This book actually encompasses both movies: Night Watch and Day Watch. It is confusing since there is a second book in the tetralogy entitled Day Watch that is separate. Night Watch, the novel, is pretty significantly different from Night Watch, the movie. I knew that in advance, so I wanted to see how it was originally plotted.

The book, as always, was much better than the movie. As I started off saying, it’s a quick read and it’s not difficult to follow what’s going on. I felt the ending was a little rushed, especially after reading through three parts to get to an ending that concluding in a few pages, seemingly wrapping up everything very quickly and cleanly. Perhaps the other three books in the series would help flesh it out and make for a much longer story arc.

One thought that ran through my head was whether this book might be like a modern reworking of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, at least exploring some of the same themes and still set in Moscow. There are some surface similarities, but I’d recommend reading Bulgakov over Lukyanenko. But, I still must say that I enjoyed reading Night Watch.

Machine Man by Max Barry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m a big fan of Max Barry’s works, with Company being one of the funniest and snarkiest books I’ve read. I remember when Barry started Machine Man. He wrote then published one page at a time on his website. It was an experimental approach to novel writing. I read for awhile then but got a little bored. I wanted to read more in one sitting and felt the story was too fragmented. Then he put up a pay-wall and I lost interest. Now that it was out in print, I decided to return to it. Indeed, I made it the first book I read on my new Kindle (basic edition).

The book is a fast read and has some funny lines. It’s especially fun for computer people and geeks who get some of the inside jokes and moods. Unfortunately, the way the novel was originally created overshadows the story. It feels disjointed and without a even flow. It does seem as if he reedited the ending of the story, which is seamless and quick moving.

Overall, a quick read and if you’ve read other Barry works, you’ll find some of his voice here. Though, it’s more of a twitter feed than a story telling.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’d known the story and seen several adaptations, but I realized I never read the novella. It’s really quick to read, once you get used to the vernacular and copious amounts of exposition. The language was particularly difficult since my dictionaries often didn’t include the archaic words. Perhaps having an OED by one’s side while reading would be good.

Overall, the book was okay. The story didn’t flow well, likely due to the action being described rather than experienced. This could be emblematic of stories from this time (1895). I did enjoy the descriptions of the stars and the sun, especially as he advanced even further into the future.

I loved his poking fun at writers, and human knowledge in general, as he describes the decayed books in a library in the far future. What he thought were simply tattered brown rags, he “presently recognized as the decaying vestiges of books … Had I been a literary man I might, perhaps, have moralized upon the futility of all ambition. But as it was, the thing that struck me with keenest force was the enormous waste of labour to which this sombre wilderness of rotting paper testified.”

I also like his comments on the Haves and Have Nots, seen through a Darwinian lens, where workers become underground dwellers while the rich, who owned much of the land already, secured the upper world for themselves. It’s funny that I scribbled down this comment then a few sentences later, saw it almost verbatim in the text Wells wrote.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wish I had read this book back in the 80s or early 90s. So much of what is created here is now mainstream for action and sci-fi works of today. The Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic, Dollhouse, etc. It came after Blade Runner (he supposedly saw the film while he was writing the novel), but some of the themes had to have been independently developed.

At the time, it was revolutionary, presaging the interconnected world we live in. Reading it today, it’s a little hard to see it as unique and any of the tech suspense is ruined in that the technology that would have blown my mind in ‘84 is now commonplace or replaced. Also, I’ve lost most of my interest in pure science fiction, looking more for character studies and emotional journeys.

Needless to say, this is a book you should have on your shelf, and you should get around to reading it someday.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, I’d seen the movie version of On the Beach (1959) before I read this book. As usual, the book is better than the movie.

The premise is really intriguing. What happens after a nuclear war, especially to those in areas not even remotely targeted? The book chronicles that last few months of people’s lives in southern Australia. A nuclear war, which lasted only about a month, devastated the northern hemisphere. Radiation makes living there impossible. What’s worse is that a cloud of nuclear fallout is spreading southward, into the southern hemisphere and killing all in its path. The novel addresses how people react to the news that the end of the world is not just near but has a target date.

Suicide, dangerous lifestyle choices and denial are explored at a top-level. Shute doesn’t develop his characters much beyond two-dimensions and he often avoids any outright emotional expressions by his characters. It’s almost as if they are all queuing up for death, in a nice orderly fashion. Some people expect the end, others deny it, and still others drift back and forth, but it’s done in a very calm, collected fashion, as if they were just deciding on whether to have a whiskey or a brandy. The treatment of the female characters as weak, in ridiculous denial or in desperate need of a man to save them is sexist, but in keeping with a book written by a man in the 1950s.

I enjoyed the psychology of the premise, but not so much as how Shute develops the story. There’s no chance to delve into the inner thinking of the characters, such as how they internally struggle (or don’t) with the impending end of not just all human life, but their own specific life.

Given all that, I still think it’s worth a read in order to open up thought avenues. Many of the themes are still present today (weapons of mass destruction and nations willing to use them). While not a perfect tool to explore these theme, it is a useful starting point. I’d suggesting reading both On the Beach and John Hershey’s nonfiction work, Hiroshima, to being exploring these issues.