Ender's Shadow (and series) by Orson Scott Card

A while ago I wrote about the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card. I finally finished reading the companion series begun in Ender's Shadow. I wasn't necessarily looking forward to reading this series, even though I enjoyed Ender's Game so much. You'd have to be a fool not to have some trepidation about a book that is supposed to happen simultaneously with the first one. I usually hate the idea that there's an "untold story" with the same characters that you just didn't hear about the first time. And even in this case where I actually did like the book, I still can't say I approve of the idea. It seems to me that all too often authors who are lacking inspiration return to earlier successes. Be that as it may, as I said I actually did enjoy this book immensely.

I'm going to assume you're familiar with Ender's Game. Ender's Shadow deals with Bean, a well-known and quite important character. He is the one who metaphorically stands in Ender's shadow. The book ends at roughly the same point as Ender's Game, with the characters having gone through pretty much all the same things. There was evidently quite a bit more going on behind the scenes than you would ever guess from the first book. It's well-written and almost captures the magic of the original book. It's definitely Orson Scott Card's best writing since then. As I wrote before, the sequels to Ender's Game do not stand up to the original. This series is different. Card has evidently set aside much of his metaphysical musing in favor of actually telling a story. Bean's story progresses into the world after Ender is banished, dealing with the politics of the world left behind after the end of the war. Bean plays a major role in the new government formed by Peter, Ender's brother, who we meet late on in Ender's Game when he's already Hegemon. The Bean series deals equally with Bean's efforts on Peter's behalf as much as Bean's search for his origins. Both parts of the story are quite interesting, and it seems Card finally returned some of his focus to speculative fiction, a focus that was overwhelmed by his philosophical musings in the later Ender books. The span of this series is quite a few years, from when Bean goes into battle school to when he's a grown adult.

Some of Card's books are pretty good in terms of story, and some aren't so great. The Bean series is solid, and these books aren't overly huge. I'd almost recommend reading Ender's Game, skipping the rest of those, and reading the full Ender's Shadow series. However, Card says that he's going to write another sequel in the Bean series which will unite the two series. That'll be interesting.

Choke (Movie) by Chuck Palahniuk

Choke is one of Chuck Palahniuk's better efforts. It maintains a certain level of humor constantly along the same lines as Fight Club while also connecting with the reader through a sympathetic, although not always likable, main character. It even has a certain poignancy because the story of his efforts to take care of his ailing mother is all too real. But this is no ordinary story, no, Victor's mother is a con artist who can't recognize her own son any more and Victor himself pays for his mother's care with donations he wangles out of people by pretending to choke in front of them. It sounds wacked out and it is. Furthermore, Victor is a med school drop-out sex addict who works at a Colonial theme park. Yeah, it's that kind of book.
Take my word for it though, this book is second only to Fight Club among Chuck Palahniuk's works.

With this source material, you'd think a movie would be too hard to make. Amazingly, it turned out pretty well. Clark Gregg directed the movie starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, and Brad William Henke. The cast was great all around, but that's to be expected from at least 3 of those 4 actors. A lot of the story was preserved in the film, but more importantly, the film remained true to the book's spirit. There were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, as well as a couple of truly touching scenes where Sam Rockwell once again displays his acting flexibility. As far as I'm concerned he played Victor to perfection. Henke as his friend Denny was also good, although he wasn't a major part of the plot at any time. His chronic masturbation was good for a visual gag a few times though (no pun intended). Like all Chuck Palahniuk novels, there are a few times when you have to think "I can't believe anybody would ever actually do that", but of course, all of Palahniuk's stories are gleaned from real people who really did them so it's even more disturbing.

I'm sure I could say more, but to keep it short, I recommend that you read this book and go see the film when it comes out (as of now the release is set for September). Go!

Two Novels

Over the last two weeks I had the time to read two science fiction novels, the well-regarded Farthing by Jo Walton and Jon Scalzi's Hugo-nominated Old Man's War. Actually, it would be inaccurate to call Farthing strictly science fiction, as it occupies that odd genre of "alternative history" which is somehow considered science fiction when written by a science fiction author, but merely fiction when written by a non-science fiction author (Walton falls into the former category.) Farthing describes in careful detail the goings-on of a set of English aristocratic elite who, after the invasion of France by Nazi Germany in 1940, were instrumental in negotiating peace with Hitler (a "peace with honor" as the described by the "Farthing set", the elites for whom the novel is named.) Reading the book I found striking parallels to Phillip Roth's The Plot Against America (reviewed here by myself) and in fact, there is even one passage where a reference is made to "President Lindbergh", perhaps a nod to Roth by Walton herself. The characters of both novels could easily be operating in the same universe, as the heart of the story is a secret plot by members of the Farthing set to subvert the British government and seize power for themselves and the novel is laced with the sort of dark suspicion and paranoia that is so essential to novels of political conspiracies. However, the perspective of the novel differs from Roth's, as in Plot the characters find themselves attempting to live out semi-normal lives against the backdrop of America's drift towards fascism, while the characters in Farthing are central and occupy important places in the dark plot. The novel revolves around two characters, a wealthy young woman and member of the Farthing set who rebels against her family to marry a Jew (none-too welcome in Britain at the time) and a police inspector who is called in to investigate deeply suspicious murder. The resolution of the novel revolves around the choices they make in the face of what appears to be an unstoppable plot. Frankly, I found the end to be dissatisfying. Not for how Walton chose to conclude it, but the manner in which she did so. The ending felt rushed compared to detail with which she portrayed the peculiarities and eccentricities of the members of the Farthing set in the early part of the novel, and I finished feeling as if the book had ended too soon, or that a sequel would necessarily follow in short order (I know of no plans for one.) Nonetheless, I can definitely recommend this novel for anyone who enjoys historical fiction or alternative histories, especially the kind where no one actually takes the field of battle.

Old Man's War was considerably more disappointing. Being a Hugo nominee, I expected from the novel something along the lines of the hard, realistic and grim military science fiction of Joe Halderman and The Forever War. Far from it. Instead, Scalzi follows in the vein of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers; lots of fighting and little character development, but even less political philosophy than Heinlein. In fact, Scalzi recognizes the debt to Heinlein in the acknowledgments, but Scalzi's work is less inspired by Starship Troopers than derivative of it. Scalzi takes an interesting premise-the idea that upon the age of 75, citizens of Earth can trade in their old bodies for new ones in exchange for joining a colonial military charged with defending humankind throughout the known galaxy-and does little with it. The main character is interesting and likeable enough, but I'm not sure Scalzi actually has any sense of what it would be like for Earth's elderly citizens to suddenly become rampaging interstellar warriors. In other words, the idea that people old in spirit but young in body might act differently than people who are simply young in spirit and young in body, seems lost on Scalzi; either he doesn't think they'd be that different, or he didn't know how to convey it. Second, although Scalzi raises the moral dimensions of protracted, unforgiving conflict with sentient alien races that's premised on an amoral "eat or be eaten" mindset that both humans and the aliens share alike, he then quickly dismisses these considerations. At one point when the main character experiences a mental breakdown (following the literal squashing of members of a race who are only a few inches tall) and begins to question the morality of simply killing other sentient beings indiscriminately, he's told that "everyone" goes through it and gets over it. Sure enough he does. Despite the obvious intelligence, compassion and humor the character possesses, he-and everyone else in the novel-come to think nothing of obliterating aliens simply to take their planets away from them for human occupation. I understand that not everyone writes a war novel so that they may opine upon the grim bitterness of war. But our age is far too cynical for war novels to be so dismissive of the immoralities of war, and novels that did so in earlier times were merely covering up an experience that has probably always been central to war; the questioning of a war's premise, or the rejection of war altogether, by those who nonetheless continue to fight it.

So, two reviews for the price of one. If I had to rank them, I'd give Farthing a 6 out of 10, and Old Man's War a 3 out of 10. But you don't have to take my word for it; read them for yourself and let us know what you think.

Some graphic novels

Ok, maybe not everybody is a graphic novel fiend like me (and especially James D), but there are some anyone should be able to enjoy. Let me start with I am Legend (the graphic novel, that is), based on the book by Richard Matheson. Actually I guess I should start with the book version. Here's a short synopsis from Amazon:

A terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive have been transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except, that is, for Robert Neville. He alone appears to be immune to this disease, but the grim irony is that now he is the outsider. He is the legendary monster who must be destroyed because he is different from everyone else. Employing a stark, almost documentary style, Richard Matheson was one of the first writers to convince us that the undead can lurk in a local supermarket freezer as well as a remote Gothic castle.

What's more notable about this book, and what makes it really worth reading, is the close in focus on Robert Neville and his knowledge that the end is coming, and all he's doing is delaying it. He feels alone, trapped, and despondent. This is no Robinson Crusoe tale. Neville survives despite the knowledge that he is doomed, not because he has hope. It's a very dark tale, but still captivating. It's tense and thoughtful (two things that are usually incompatible). It's very much a modern horror classic, and well worth reading.

The graphic novel is truly worthy of this book. The adaptation is written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Elman Brown. I'm not usually a fan of simple black and white art, but perhaps in this case coloration would have detracted from the pure power of the story. My biggest gripe about the art is that I don't like the way he draws some of the characters. They just don't look normal, but that's not enough to really ruin the experience, although it gets annoying once in a while. Steve Niles is the writer of the 30 Days of Night series(the first one of which was recently turned into a movie).

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Niles recently at a signing, and discussing with him some of his books. I asked him how he got involved with I Am Legend, and he said he simply loved the book from his first reading of it when he was younger. A couple of years ago or so, he decided to call Richard Matheson and ask if he could do a graphic novel of the book, and Mr. Matheson said yes. He sold him the license for $100! Simply amazing; that kind of thing should happen more often! Anyway, this is not a collaboration brought about as the bright idea of some publisher or editor, it was done out of a love for the book and author, and the treatment he gives it is respectful.

If you're wondering why you'd read the graphic novel instead of the novel, I can't say one is really better than the other. They're very similar, except one uses words to create imagery and the other uses pictures to tell a story. I like them both, and the art of the book is worth checking out.

Recently I picked up a book called Lucifer, a spin-off from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (which, by the way, is one of the most awesome comic series ever created, and if you don't agree go die). Now usually, spin-off is a bad word in comics. It almost always means a half-assed mini-series about some hero the publisher is trying to hype to sell more comics and make more money. Think of the vast number of X-series spin-offs and you get the picture. I was wary about buying it at first, but when my favorite comic shop started selling them for 50% off, I just had to try it. I don't regret it. Mike Carey does a solid job of distancing this from The Sandman (not relying overly-much on established characters and settings to sell the story based on familiarity with those) but keeps that same sort of mysterious atmosphere, not explaining Lucifer or his motivese through dialog or exposition, but simply letting the story reveal itself. It's very interesting so far, but since I've only read the first volume, I can't say whether the next ten volumes will be as well.