Hugely Influential Planetary Romance from 1912 - A Pulpy Swashbuckling Tale This book may not be great literature, and the author was not ashamed to adHugely Influential Planetary Romance from 1912 - A Pulpy Swashbuckling Tale This book may not be great literature, and the author was not ashamed to admit he wasn't aiming for that, but he know he could write a pulp romance better than much of the pulp being published at the time, and made good use of his varied job experiences in mining, as a cowboy, training for the military, and having a Civil War Confederate veteran father.
The story is full of bravado, fighting again impossible odds, preposterous plot, simplistic good vs bad characters, a beautiful princess who is constantly being captured and fought over, and an absurdly handsome, strapping, manly fighting here who has superhuman strength on Mars thanks to being used to the stronger gravity of Earth. It's pretty ridiculous stuff, but if you were a young impressionable reader back in those days, it must have been incredibly exciting to read. Famous scientist Carl Sagan took inspiration, and giants of the SF Golden Age as well, particularly Jack Vance, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein.
One of the best aspects of the book is really the dying world and barbaric civilizations of Mars, which he does evoke with panache. It is a massive influence on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1950), the Bradbury's writing skills put Burroughs to shame. The influence on Jack Vance's Dying Earth books is equally obvious, so we must give credit for that.
There is also a lot about racial ideas of character, bravery, empathy, cruelty, intelligence, etc, as Burroughs was a major believer in eugenics and the racial superiority of White Europeans. Because of the science fantasy tropes the non-white races are often aliens (except for the Red Martians), which masks some of the racism, but that unpleasant streak is far more evident in his even more iconic Tarzan of the Apes series....more
Completely incomprehensible - either a work of genius, madness, or an overly-fertile imagination I've had this in paperback since WAAAAY back in the miCompletely incomprehensible - either a work of genius, madness, or an overly-fertile imagination I've had this in paperback since WAAAAY back in the mid 1980s when I was a teen, and for some reason I was always on the cusp of reading it and never got it. It was also because the audiobook was available cheaply that I gave it a go. Would love to say it was an incredible work of genius, and that I deeply regret not reading it much earlier - but that would be a lie.
It starts out as a post-apocalyptic far-future Earth survival tale, but from 1/3rd in it dives off the deep end, plunges into talk of wild and wooly cosmological god-minds, alien extra-dimensional beings, ancestral human consciousness, enhanced mental state mutations caused by out of control radiation, and THEN it gets more weird. The words started to flow across my ears in an unintelligible flow that I never recovered from.
I remember thinking that Philip K. Dick's Exegesis was some pretty out-there crazy-ass shit, but this book takes that and dumps it in the kiddie pool. You want the deep end, this is it....more
The Temporal Void: An Action-Packed, Mind-Bending Final Volume Much like the Commonwealth Saga,this is a very long, detailed, imaginative, and sprawlinThe Temporal Void: An Action-Packed, Mind-Bending Final Volume Much like the Commonwealth Saga,this is a very long, detailed, imaginative, and sprawling epic space opera that involves dozens of characters, plots, advanced technologies, alien races, ancient galactic mysteries, nefarious plots and counterplots, all told in an engaging narrative that doesn't get bogged down in exposition like a lot of other hard SF stories. It's far more entertaining than the more grim future vision of Alastair Reynolds, to which Peter Hamilton is often compared to. The human characters here remain far more human than the cold post-humans of Reynolds, which sometimes strains credulity, as they regularly make contemporary cultural references and seem not so different from us, despite being set in a galactic society set in the 31st century, but that largely lies in how you would imagine future humans will be like.
The story is split into two main storylines, a fantasy-like coming of age story about Edeard, a young man coming into his own powerful telepathic powers in a medieval society, and another far more complex future narrative about the search for a Second Dreamer broadcasting dreams of a utopian world within the Void, a giant black hole that is steadily consuming the galaxy from the center outward.
Fortunately, this book makes up for the self-indulgent and juvenile power fantasies of the middle book with a vengeance, packing enough action, mind-bending speculation, and galaxy-busting events that I decided to give the overall series a 4-star rating for the wealth of ideas even if it lacked a tight focus and much of the characterization was a bit two-dimensional, as he seems to go for cramming as many characters and storylines into his epic, though he does go in-depth on his main protagonists. Overall, it's a very ambitious and entertaining series if you can forgive some of its excesses....more
This is an excellent follow-up to the genre-mixing City of Stairs, this time focusing on the legacy of war and violence in both the victims and perpetThis is an excellent follow-up to the genre-mixing City of Stairs, this time focusing on the legacy of war and violence in both the victims and perpetrators, from the perspective of generals, rank-and-file soldiers, spies, commoners, rebels, and then centering its mystery plot on Voortyashtan, the city formerly ruled by the goddess of war, Voorya, whose Sentinels are armored killing machines that guard a divine afterlife open only to soldiers who have slain enough enemies in battle to be worthy.
Once again the setting is a city in the conquered land of the Continent, its Saypuri occupiers, and this time it is foul-mouthed and embittered General Turyin Mulagesh, who is dragged out of retirement to investigate the disappearance of a Saypuri operative, some mysterious murders, a strange mining operation, and rumors that some of the divine objects of the dead goddess Voorya still seem to retain some power.
This time Bennett delves even more into the difficult territory of why humanity seems so intent on repeating the legacy of past violence and subjugation, with or without divine assistance, and so the story is far more emotionally raw than the first book, and the final third of the book is filled with pain, tragedy, and death. But it done is such a gripping way that it is hard to not be carried on by the relentless momentum of the various parties involved. It is hard to identify the "good" and "bad" characters, as all of them have their light and dark elements.
And unlike "grim dark fantasy", they are not mostly just ruthless and cynically-motivated, this is rather the book that questions that mindset and puts a spotlight on how even when we try to do right, our military actions inevitably result in victims, including those just carrying out orders. Its a tough perspective to embrace, even in a fantasy context, but it flows naturally from the world that Bennett has created in such vivid and careful detail. He has put a great deal of thought into making this world believable, and is not afraid to tackle difficult subjects and put his characters, whom we come to care for, through some very harrowing experiences that will leave them scarred forever afterward.
So while it was quite a challenging book, it raises intriguing possibilities for the final book in the trilogy, City of Miracles, as it is clear that Bennett is not afraid to challenge both genre conventions and limitations in both his characters' emotional depths and the socio-political worlds they inhabit. I might a bit a of a break first, but I am looking forward to the final installment in his Divine Cities series....more
An amazing and fresh mix of genres and themes, I loved the murder investigation, political scheming, and competing divinities in a fantasy about the cAn amazing and fresh mix of genres and themes, I loved the murder investigation, political scheming, and competing divinities in a fantasy about the city of Bulakov in the conquered land of the Continent, its Saypuri occupiers, the tough-as-nails investigator Shara, her Nordic bodyguard Sigurd, the various administrators of Bulikov, and the incredibly-detailed and exotic world-building that evoked China Mieville's The City and The City with its impoverished Eastern European Soviet-bloc political background, and much more fantastical latter half filled with not-so-dead divinities, iron flying ships, powerful magic, and bizarre sea monsters. In terms of tone, the story reminded me of N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series, with its strong female characters, complex and exotic societies, dark emotional undercurrents, and exploration of dominance and submission, the weight of history that divides peoples, all the prejudices that come with competing religions, and some very unique magic systems as well. All in all, it's a unique and enticing world and well worth continuing to the next two books in the series, City of Blades and City of Miracles....more
The Library of Mount Char: Way Better than American Gods Originally posted at Fantasy Literature The Library of Mount Char has gotten heaps of praise foThe Library of Mount Char: Way Better than American Gods Originally posted at Fantasy Literature The Library of Mount Char has gotten heaps of praise for from a vast number readers and reviewers, and the plot has been discussed in detail by many already (too much, in some cases). This is exactly the type of book where the enjoyment comes from the careful reveals that make you think back to earlier, seemingly-innocuous details. So when I hear so much praise for a SFF book (or movie, for that matter), the first thing I do is try to avoid finding out anything else about the book and try to read it without any spoilers sneaking past my defenses. It’s a lot like when I record the Super Bowl here in Japan on Monday morning and try to get through the whole day without finding out the score so I can watch that evening without knowing the result.
I was able to do this with The Library of Mount Char, and I’m glad I pulled it off. All I knew was that it was about some powerful beings, a library of mysterious knowledge, a sinister character named Father who was missing, and a lot of creepy stuff that happens to them. Perfect! Because Scott Hawkins has thought through this book carefully and lays out his breadcrumbs very carefully, with great glee. You can imagine him smiling as he sets out scene after shocking scene, laced with both blood, guts, and ironic humor.
Because both the powerful super-humans and regular people caught up in the events are generally in the dark as all sorts of lethal enemies come after them. I like it best when both readers are characters are kept in suspense, it makes for a much more enjoyable read. Have you ever read a story (or seen a horror movie) thinking, “How could that character be so colossally thick-headed as to not realize who’s behind…”. Well, this book is structured as a series of flashbacks with the various powerful beings growing up with the frighteningly-unpredictable Father and his bizarre love of his BBQ grill shaped like a giant bull. He is truly inscrutable, at times kindly and nurturing, then suddenly turning cruel and vindictive in the blink of an eye.
As promised, I will reveal no further details of the story so you can enjoy it as I did, with an open mind (though some scenes may well may you cringe - it’s not for the faint of heart). I did repeatedly think to myself that the overarching storyline has many parallels with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, but I was frankly unimpressed with that book despite all the awards and popularity. The Library of Mount Char is a much better book, both in pacing, characters, intensity, and mystery. In particular, the ending ties things up elegantly but also prompts the reader to reinterpret the events of the story to the point where I’m sure some will be eager to re-read it with foreknowledge of what will happen. It’s that kind of book. I have high expectations for Mr. Hawkins’ future work....more
The Lathe of Heaven: An early 1970s classic of reality-altering dreams with Taoist undercurrents Originally posted at Fantasy Literature I love Ursula KThe Lathe of Heaven: An early 1970s classic of reality-altering dreams with Taoist undercurrents Originally posted at Fantasy Literature I love Ursula K. Le Guin’s novels from the late 1960s and early 70s. She just couldn’t go wrong during this period. Although The Lathe of Heaven may not be the first book that comes to mind as one of her masterpieces (that honor would likely go to The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, or the EARTHSEA TRILOGY), it was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards and won the Locus Award in 1972. It’s what I consider one of her smaller books, but still one of her best.
What makes The Lathe of Heaven great is that it can tackle some of the biggest issues of the time — overpopulation, environmental destruction, war, racism, the lost soul of the modern world, exploration of the dreaming mind, alternate realities, and the urge to shape society for the better — all in under 200 pages. I really feel that is a lost art in this day of massive doorstoppers, multi-book mega-series, and self-indulgent info-dumps.
The story is also simple in concept, with a very small cast of characters, so it could easily be a stage play and has been made into a film twice, once as a PBS production in 1980 and later as an A&E Network film in 2002. It centers on George Orr, an unremarkable man who happens to have “effective” dreams which alter reality. Horrified by this, he tries to suppress his dreams with drugs, but runs afoul of the law and is given the choice between therapy or a mental asylum. He chooses therapy, and is assigned Dr. William Haber.
The early parts of the story detail the therapy sessions of George and Dr. Haber. George is a very passive, almost timid man. He doesn’t want to be in this situation, and certainly doesn’t want to be altering reality with his unconscious dreams. Dr. Haber is the polar opposite, a confident, brash, and aggressive man who quickly recognizes the potential to harness George’s dreams to shape reality in the ways he wants.
Although he makes repeated and valid arguments as to why he should utilize this unique ability to do good and improve society and the world, each time he inserts suggestions to George such as “let’s imagine a world without overpopulation, war, pollution, racism, etc.,” the outcomes invariably are not what he expected and include some serious unforeseen side-effects. Notably, with each new iteration, Dr. Haber’s status and career seem to also improve.
The middle portion of The Lathe of Heaven then explores a serious of alternate realities dreamed up by George’s unconscious with prompting from Dr. Haber. The ways in which things go wrong are quite ingenious, and it’s clear that Le Guin does not subscribe to the power fantasy that someone with the means has the right to shape society and reality to their liking without consultation, even with the best of intentions. As the worlds get stranger and more distorted, Dr. Haber hatches an idea that if he can replicate the process on himself, he can cut the reluctant George out of the equation and dream the world himself exactly to his specifications. This forms the climactic final events of the story.
What adds interest to The Lathe of Heaven and places it firmly in the late 60s & early 70s is not just the political issues of the time, but also the underlying elements of Eastern philosophy, specifically the Taoist quotes at the beginnings of chapters from Chuang Tzu, as well as Tao Te Ching, The Book of the Way and Its Virtue by Lao Tzu, along with western philosophers such as H.G. Wells, Victor Hugo, and even Lafcadio Hearn. You can see how well-read Le Guin is and how much Eastern philosophy was gaining prominence and popularity in the West as an alternative to traditional Western philosophy, especially on college campuses and in intellectual circles. This is similar to the profound influence of the I Ching, The Book of Changes, in Philip K. Dick’s dystopian masterpiece of alternate reality, The Man in the High Castle.
Taoist thinking can be found in the character of George. From many perspectives, this protagonist is very frustrating due to his passivity, reluctance to take any action to change the world around him, and instinctual distrust of authoritarian behavior. Whereas some people might seek to harness their powers to shape reality through dreams, George is repelled by this. Taoism is one of those slippery, non-dogmatic philosophies that espouses the pursuit of The Way though natural, uncontrived living. Disciples seek to discard the ills of civilization and material desires and pursue the simple, unadorned joys of a basic agrarian existence. One key concept is called Wu Wei, which is defined as “effortless action,” “non-action,” much as the planets orbit the sun without any effort, just following the natural rhythms of the universe.
So while from a Western perspective George is a spineless man, afraid and reluctant to do anything with his powers of dreaming, from a Taoist perspective he might be a very dedicated individual trying to avoid doing harm to the natural order of the world around him. Of course this becomes an interesting point of debate in the story — if Taoists look to the ancient past of a simple existence as the ideal, does this principle still apply in the dystopian future society of George and Dr. Haber, living in massive towers packed with millions of people living on minimal rations due to overpopulation, a deteriorating environment, wars throughout Europe and the Middle East, and a general spiritual malaise? Faced with such conditions, is it wrong for Dr. Haber to want to change that? And is it right for George to resist any such manipulations? As always, it is the questions that Le Guin raises that are more important than the answers. The Lathe of Heaven is a concise, though-provoking journey into multiple realities and the dreaming unconscious, but is in no way an escape from reality....more
Patternmaster: Clearly a first novel - Wild Seed is much better Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Patternmaster (1976) was written first in OctaviPatternmaster: Clearly a first novel - Wild Seed is much better Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Patternmaster (1976) was written first in Octavia Butler’s 4-book PATTERNIST series, but comes last in chronology. It takes place several hundred years after Clay’s Ark (1984), back in the Forsythe, CA territory where the Patternists settled down earlier. Society remains scattered and non-industrial, and power is divided between the Patternists, a network of linked human telepaths who can kill at a distance, and the Clayarks, now completely transformed into intelligent, sphinx-like animals with extreme strength, speed, and agility but no special mental powers. The losers in this future world are the mutes, non-pyschic humans who are treated more like pets or servants by the Patternists.
The story centers around Teray, a young Patternist who is one of the many sons of aging Patternmaster Rayal, and Coransee, an older Patternist who is also a son of Rayal and a powerful Housemaster in his own right. As Rayal is aging, sick, and losing his grip on power, various Housemasters are waiting for their chance to seize power and control the Pattern. Coransee sees the raw untrained power of Teray and offers him his own House in exchange for agreeing not to vie for succession. However, Teray knows he does not want to submit to anyone’s authority and refuses Coransee’s offer. This sets up an inevitable battle between the two.
However, what’s interesting about this book is not so much the outcome, but rather the general bleakness and cold-blooded behavior of its characters. It seems to be a pervasive theme of the Patternist series that telepathic powers or physical gifts do not impart happiness, peace of mind, or freedom from oppression. In fact, these powers ensures that Patternist society will form itself into a strict hierarchy based on the ability to dominate weaker telepaths, and the most chilling aspect is that at the very bottom of this social pyramid are human mutes, who serve menial functions within Patternist Households, and are routinely abused by Patternists because they cannot fight back.
Essentially standard humans occupy the position that slaves did in the US. It is upsetting to see how casually they are treated by their overlords. So what message is Butler trying to convey? That any society, whether of standard humans or telepaths, is doomed to be ruled by force, domination by the strong, and oppression of the weak? Teray does seek to be free of the oppression of Coransee and is sympathetic to the abuse that mutes are subjected to by other Patternists. Eventually he seeks the alliance of a strong female healer named Amber, but his ultimate goal remains to seize control of the Pattern, and when he tastes the feel of power from other telepaths linked to him, he savors it.
It’s actually the Clayarks that are the most unusual aspect of the book. While the Patternists view them merely as highly-organized animals like dog or wolf packs, and don’t hesitate to kill them on sight without question, we know from Clay’s Ark that they are in fact quite intelligent and have the power of speech. Teray briefly speculates on why the Patternists and Clayarks must be implacable enemies, but when it comes down to it he quickly learns how to exterminate Clayarks in the most efficient way with his mental powers, the way you might fumigate a house for vermin. One of the failings of this book is that we are never shown the world of the Clayarks, and this is likely because this book was written first, meaning they would only get full attention in their origin story Clay’s Ark, written eight years later. It’s a wasted opportunity, and I think if Butler could have rewritten this book, that is something she would definitely have addressed.
In the end, it’s undeniable that both Patternmaster and Mind of My Mind suffer a bit from being Butler’s earliest novels. They feel underdeveloped, with some intriguing ideas about power and domination, but not fully exploring it. The books are very short, and while I really appreciate the lack of bloat, their spare stories don’t allow her to really explore the themes she more successfully did in Wild Seed. So if you want to sample this series, Wild Seed is the best place to start. It will be interesting to compare this series with her later XENOGENESIS and PARABLE books.
Patternmaster is narrated by Eugene H. Russell IV, and he handled this harsh story appropriately. Like Neal Ghant in Clay’s Ark, he captures the bleak tone and struggle for survival and dominance among the characters. It would be nice if he was given the opportunity to explore some more gentle moments, but it’s not that type of story....more
Clay's Ark: An alien disease transforms a portion of humanity Originally published at Fantasy Literature Clay’s Ark (1984) was written last in Octavia BClay's Ark: An alien disease transforms a portion of humanity Originally published at Fantasy Literature Clay’s Ark (1984) was written last in Octavia Butler’s 4-book PATTERNIST series, but comes third in chronology. It takes place after Wild Seed (1980) and Mind of My Mind (1977), in the post-apocalyptic California desert. Society has collapsed into armed enclaves, marauding ‘car families’, organ hunters, and isolated towns. It’s along the lines of Mad Max, with fuel sources depleted and social infrastructure nonexistent, violent death lurking at any moment, and little room for anything more than survival.
This world is gradually revealed via two storylines, one set in the past and the other in the present. The past story arc is centered on an astronaut named Eli, the only survivor of a spaceship called Clay’s Ark that went on an exploratory mission to Proxima Centauri. The mission encountered an alien microbe that affected and transformed their DNA for it’s own purposes. Eli survives the return to Earth, but is infected with this microbe, which imparts on its host increased strength, endurance, healing ability, and appetite.
However, it also enslaves humans by forcing them to spread the disease. Namely, the men feel an overwhelming urge to infect unaffected females and mate with them, and infected women also feel the same compulsion. Infected men also feel intense aggression towards other males, which leads to a lion’s pride type social structure, with the strongest males taking as many females as possible and fighting off competing males. The most disturbing aspect of this book is that infected people are fully aware of these compulsions and rebel against them, but cannot resist. So they are both slaves and puppets to this alien microbe that drives them to animal-like behavior.
In the current timeline we meet Blake, a physician who still remembers pre-collapse society, and his twin daughters Rane and Keira. Rane is healthy and confident, while Keira suffers from an incurable form of leukemia. The story wastes no time in throwing them into trouble, as their car is stopped by two men who force them at gunpoint to return with them to a remote enclave in the desert.
As the story progresses, we learn that this community is led by former astronaut Eli and consists of people infected by the sinister alien microbe brought back from Proxima Centauri. They are no longer in control of their actions, as the disease transforms both their bodies and social relations. The classic Butler themes of domination, enslavement, power, and strange sexual relations are on full display here. It’s not an easy reading experience, and I’m sure that’s one reason that Butler’s books are not more widely read, but they are certainly challenging and force the reader outside their comfort zone. We have no choice but to go along with the difficult decisions the characters face in whether to submit to an alien virus that will transform them.
Butler seems fixated on the idea of humans being transformed into something alien, both more and less than human. The process of transformation is always difficult, painful and invasive, and people often don’t survive. Butler seems to revel in throwing readers and her characters into uncomfortable situations. This was also the case in the previous books Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind, though the transformation was psychic in nature. So thematically Clay’s Ark delves into the same territory, but does not feature any of the telepaths from the previous books.
It’s an interesting choice to group this book into the PATTERNIST series, but if we consider the order of publication then the reasons are clear. Patternmaster was Butler’s first book written in 1976, and features both Patternists and Clayarks in a far-future society, so she was been filling in the backstory of that initial book over the next 8 years. With the exception of Kindred in 1979, all of Butler’s earlier books are set in the PATTERNIST universe. Her subsequent major series were the XENOGENESIS trilogy and Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents (Parable of the Trickster was never finished), and I think her writing met with greater critical acclaim as her ideas gained in sophistication. Her untimely death was a great loss to the SF community.
Clay’s Ark is narrated by Neal Ghant, and I liked his strong voice and spare style. This is a harsh story and his delivery is equally harsh. He imbues the characters with the appropriate level of desperation as they face death and fight for survival in this unforgiving world. In particular, he does a good job of depicting the struggle against the Clayark disease, and the horror of being compelled by an alien microbe. This book would make an intense if bleak post-apocalyptic action film, and Denzel Washington would make a great leading man...hold on, that was already done by the Hughes Brothers in Book of Eli~...more
Mind of My Mind: The rise of the first Pattermaster Originally published at Fantasy Literature Mind of My Mind (1977) was written second in Octavia ButlMind of My Mind: The rise of the first Pattermaster Originally published at Fantasy Literature Mind of My Mind (1977) was written second in Octavia Butler’s 4-book PATTERNIST series, and comes second in chronology. However, I think it is less polished than Wild Seed (1980), which comes earlier in chronology but was written later after she had more fully developed her ideas about psionic powers, power/control, and telepaths vs. mutes. It’s tough to decide whether readers should approach this series in the order it was written, in order to see Butler’s development as a writer, or by internal chronology, to follow the PATTERNIST story at the expense of uneven writing style/quality.
Mind of My Mind takes place about a century after the events of Wild Seed. Doro, the immortal being from the first book, has continued to cultivate a huge number of active telepaths throughout the US. Anyanwu, the centuries-old shape-shifting healer, now goes by Emma and occupies a much smaller role in this book. Instead, the story is centered on a young teenaged girl named Mary. Doro recognizes great potential in her, and though she has a troubled upbringing like many other latent telepaths, he brings her through the difficult transition to active psionic abilities.
At this point Doro and Mary realize that she has a unique ability to link together other telepaths under her control in a Pattern of psychic bonds. The story follows a number of psychics who find themselves drawn to Forsyth, California, not understanding why. When they are gathered under one roof with Mary, it is revealed that Doro wants them to submit to Mary’s control in the hopes of forming a telepathic bond among them. They are extremely resistant to this proposal, and consider trying to kill Mary to avoid this outcome. However, Doro is an ever-present threat, and they are afraid to cross him. However, when they do link their minds, it is Doro who questions whether this outcome is truly the goal of his psychic breeding program over millennia, or whether Mary and the others in her Pattern represent a greater threat to him than anyone before.
All the books in the PATTERNIST series are short and told in a concise, somewhat clinical tone that is at odds with the themes of emotional bonds, struggles for control, manipulation, and internal conflict. The development of latents into actives is always a painful process, one that frequently results in death or injury, and does not always make that person happier. Unlike other writers, Butler does not assume that psychic powers gives a person a free ticket to do as they wish, controlling normals and bending them to their will. Instead, we see latents constantly battling internally with their powers, most often because they do not realize what the problem is, and frequently lashing out violently at the people around them, including family members. In fact, this struggle is posited as the reason behind a lot of mental illness cases, frequently in poverty-stricken or troubled homes. In fact, most of the latents that Mary eventually identifies and brings into the Pattern are suffering beforehand, so allowing them to joint a psychic family provides much-needed support and understanding. This eventually leads to a climactic confrontation between Doro and Mary, which will have lasting repercussions for centuries afterward.
In the end, it would be hard to say that Mind of My Mind is an easy or enjoyable read. Butler excels at depicting mental and physical hardship and torment. The characters are almost universally unhappy for much of the time, often because of their powers, and it is only the Pattern that eases this somewhat. Though there are many secondary characters in the story, they are not particularly memorable, so the focus is on Doro and Mary. Doro we know well from Wild Seed, and while he is a complex and powerful being, he is not likeable. Mary is more of a compassionate figure than Doro, but she is not averse to the power gained from controlling other psychics, similar to Doro, except she does not need to kill and feed on people to survive. The book does not make either character appealing – we are left to choose whom to sympathize with.
It’s fairly clear that Butler was still perfecting her craft and ideas about psychic powers, so Mind of My Mind feels more rushed and less polished than Wild Seed. At the same time, knowing that the next books Clay’s Ark and Patternmaster move further into the future, it makes sense to follow the internal chronology rather than the publication order. But I can’t help thinking that Butler would have wanted to brush up this book, and that’s probably why later books like Parable of the Sower have garnered more acclaim than her earlier works. Still, as a fascinating and unsettling look at what the development of a telepathic group-mind might actually feel like, Mind of My Mind is a very worthy effort.
Mind of My Mind is narrated by Christie Clarke, and she does a solid job. I imagine a woman narrator was chosen because Mary is the main character of the story, though it’s debatable whether the narrator and main character need to be matched gender-wise. Wild Seed was narrated by Dion Graham and Kindred was narrated by Kim Staunton, and I feel like they were more powerful voice actors (they certainly have impressive credentials), but I always hesitate to pass final judgment on a narrator because the book itself has such a huge role in forming our impressions, and I thought those books were superior to Mind of My Mind....more
Imago: Finally, we see the Ooloi perspective Originally published at Fantasy Literature Imago (1988) is the third book in Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS tImago: Finally, we see the Ooloi perspective Originally published at Fantasy Literature Imago (1988) is the third book in Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS trilogy. It concludes the story begun with the human woman Lilith in Dawn (1987) and continued with her Oankali-human ‘construct’ son Akin in Adulthood Rites (1988). Imago takes the bold but logical next step by shifting the perspective to Jodahs, an Ooloi-human construct. The Ooloi are the third, gender-less sex of the Oankali, the alien race of ‘gene traders’ that saved the remnants of humanity on the condition that humanity share its DNA with them and be forever transformed in the process.
Once again Butler doesn’t hesitate to plunge us into the unknown, this time exploring the strangest aspect of the Oankali, the psychically-powerful Ooloi who can manipulate the DNA of living creatures directly, serving to help the Oankali continuously evolve as they combine with new lifeforms throughout the galaxy. Until now we have had the perspective on Lilith in Dawn, a human woman forced to come to grips with the Oankali and try to convince other humans that accepting their offer is the only viable option for humanity. Subsequently in Adulthood Rites we shifted to the story of Akin, a human-Oankali construct sympathetic to both sides, though he struggled to reach this understanding.
In Imago we go far beyond this, for to see the world as an Ooloi is to experience directly the feelings, emotions, and genetic structures of both Oankali and humans. Though conventional Ooloi shape the genetic material of their male and female Oankali mates to create children, Jodahs has human DNA as well, so it finds itself not fully suited to Oankali society, and wants to avoid the fate of being forcibly returned to the Oankali ship to find mates there. Instead, as Lilith’s children Jodahs and Aaor are truly something new, and once again face the struggles of not fitting into any group fully.
Moreover, the Ooloi themselves wield great power to genetically alter living things around them, and before they learn to control this they can be a danger to everyone around them, causing random mutations in themselves and others. Because of this, even other Ooloi shun their company. As a result, both Jodahs and Aaor isolate themselves in the jungle. When Jodahs encounters two human siblings, Jesusa and Tomas, it is attracted to them sexually. These humans are from a hidden human settlement that escaped the sterilization program imposed on human resisters that refused to merge with the Oankali.
Much of Imago centers on the evolving relationships of Jodahs, Aaor, the human siblings, and this remote human community that has evaded the notice of the Oankali. As in the previous two books, the sexual and emotional ties are complicated, unsettling, and very alien. This is particularly so in Imago, since we see things as an Ooloi does, where physical and emotional attraction takes the form of irresistible scents, and the almost uncontrollable urge to find a compatible mate.
Once again, the issues of consent, coercion, enslavement, and power are explored unflinchingly. It has been very difficult to pin down exactly what Butler thinks of these subjects, because she consistently refuses to clearly moralize or tip her hand overtly. It can be somewhat frustrating not to be given any clear cues as to which side she thinks is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, whether it be the forced enslavement of humanity by the Oankali, the repeated sexual coercions that occur between and among both species, or the eventual human-0ankali hybrid race that is bound to emerge. Is humanity better off in the end? Did the end justify the means? How many parallels about colonialism and cultural domination are we meant to draw, if any?
The Oankali are driven by the biological imperative to mate with other races and create new DNA combinations to further themselves, so morality as humans understand it is not really their concern, though they always claim it is for the benefit of mankind. But that assertion is questionable when we understand that no real choice is being offered, only the illusion of choice. Can the Oankali offer truly be benevolent when ‘conventional’ humanity is sterilized, essentially a protracted death sentence? Why cannot humans remain on the Earth as they were before? What are the ultimate plans of the Oankali, whose gift of survival has so many strings attached?
I won’t reveal the ending of this series, but it wasn’t what I was expecting based on the hints scattered throughout the series. In fact, I felt Butler pulled her punch at the end, as though she was leading up to a Childhood’s End-like denouement. I felt this final volume was more difficult to follow than the first two books, but that largely has to do with the fact that it is told from the perspective of a genderless Ooloi, utterly different from humans and yet desperately needing them at the same time. Because it is such as alien viewpoint, it was hard at times to connect with its emotions, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Overall, the XENOGENESIS trilogy has been a uniquely unsettling and challenging piece of SF storytelling. There are few stories that plunge you into such unfamiliar and morally ambiguous territory, not to mention many unpleasant situations involving sexual coercion and control, which means that some readers will definitely not find it to their liking. But if you are willing to forge ahead, you will find that Octavia Butler was one of the most unique and uncompromising writers in the genre, continually exploring gender, power and dominance, physical and cultural coercion, and frequently taking a pessimistic view of human nature, but always leaving it to the reader to draw their own conclusions....more
Adulthood Rites: A human-Oankali child is torn between two species Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Adulthood Rites (1988) is the second book in Adulthood Rites: A human-Oankali child is torn between two species Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Adulthood Rites (1988) is the second book in Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS trilogy. It continues the story of Lilith in Dawn (1987), a human woman revived by the alien Oankali centuries after humanity has mostly destroyed itself with nuclear weapons. The Oankali offered humanity a second chance, but at a price — to merge its genes with the Oankali, who are ‘gene traders’ driven to continuously seek new species in the galaxy to combine their DNA with, transforming both sides in the process.
10 years after the events of Dawn, Lilith has given birth to a son named Akin, the first male ‘construct’ to be born to a human woman. There are number of distinct groups in this newly reborn Earth – Oankali who do not merge with humans and remain on their spaceship above the earth, Oankali sent down to the Earth to mate with humans in ‘trade villages,’ ‘construct’ children that share both human and Oankali genes, and human resisters who refuse to accept the Oankali offer and resent both Oankali and ‘traitor’ humans alike.
Akin is unique in that until now the Oankali have not allowed human males to be born to other humans, in order to avoid what they perceive as the aggressive nature of males. Of all the ‘constructs’ born to date, he is the most human. Nevertheless, his Oankali DNA imparts special traits like rapid mental development, healing ability, and sensory organs that allow him to communicate with both humans and Oankali at a more instinctual level. This is the normal mode of exchange for the Oankali, who have only adopted speech to be more accessible to humans. Akin is intended by the Oankali to be a bridge to understanding humans better and furthering the integration process.
However, when Akin is kidnapped by resisters, who have been made sterile by the Oankali and therefore yearn for the children they cannot have, he gets first-hand exposure to the human side that is opposed to the Oankalis’ plan. He learns all the faults of humanity, particularly what the Oankali call the ‘human contradiction,’ namely the inherent conflict between intelligence and hierarchical behavior, which inevitably (in the Oankalis’ minds) leads to conflict, aggression, suppression, and eventually self-destruction. This is why the Oankali do not believe that humans can be allowed to revive their society without any modification of this ‘flaw.’
Much of Adulthood Rites details just how ALIEN the Oankali really are, especially their genderless adolescence and metamorphosis into either male, female or Ooloi, the third gender that forms a triumvirate and serves as the gene manipulator to create children, a more hands-on approach than the random DNA recombination of humans. They communicate constantly by means of sensory tentacles, exchanging feelings, sensations, and thoughts between family units and larger groupings.
Although they supposedly shun ‘hierarchical’ behavior, there is a clear hierarchy among the Oankali. The events that surround Akin, his Oankali siblings, the Ooloi in his ‘family’, and the humans in his life are complicated. More importantly, the biology and sexual practices of the Oankali are bizarre, unsettling, and downright creepy. Once again, Butler never shies away from making the reader uncomfortable by testing our comfort zones. I’m quite pleased by this — why read science fiction if not to be exposed to the truly alien, while also using this as a mirror to better understanding ourselves?
Just as in Dawn, humanity seems primitive, distrusting, and brutish in comparison to the Oankali. Again and again, resisters prove that they will quickly resort to violence when faced with difficult situations, attacking both Oankali and human collaborators. In return, the Oankali will subdue them but try to avoid killing other than as a last resort. After reading Dawn, my initial impression was that Butler really had a dim view of humanity and that the far more advanced and evolved Oankali were a benevolent race intent on fixing the flaws of humanity out of both biological imperative and a desire to improve their lot.
However, based on a discussion on my review of Dawn and after reading excellent reviews of the series by Tor.com’s Erika Nelson, I reassessed what was going on in Butler’s story because I know full well that she never writes a story with a simple dichotomy of good/bad, benevolent/exploitive, etc. The themes she is most concerned with include colonialism, slavery, power, cultural imperialism, and all the moral conundrums they entail. If the Oankali are so benevolent, why do they only offer humanity the option of cooperating or being left to die off due to sterilization? They have already judged human civilization as unworthy of continued existence, and while they abhor outright violence, the Oankali essentially hold complete power over humans. Still, for a potential oppressor, they are far from being the worst. So there are no easy moral conclusions to be drawn, but plenty to think about.
Incidentally, I’m always cautious about reading into a text overly direct parallels with current social issues. There’s no question that Octavia Butler, a black female author in a field previously dominated by white men, has an interest in issues of race and cultural dominance. However, first and foremost she is a science fiction writer, and the XENOGENESIS series is a story about all of humanity, faced with its own self-destructive behavior, and given a choice to be saved but utterly transformed by an alien race. So I don’t think her story can be reduced to merely an allegory of colonialism, cultural imperialism, or racism in alien guise, even though these play an important role. If I had to choose one key theme for this series, it would be ‘transformation,’ with all the implications it has for both sides.
In both Dawn and Adulthood Rites, we gradually come to see through the experiences of Akin that both humans and Oankali are less than perfect, and their motivations are not completely altruistic. In the first book I felt that Butler strongly leaned towards the Oankali, and though we certainly learn a great deal more about their biology and social structure in Adulthood Rites, we also see that they treat humans with a certain contempt and lack of understanding. It is only through the eyes of Akin that the flaws and mistake of both sides become more apparent. I’ll have to read the final installment, Imago, to discover where this story will lead to, but any science fiction book that can explore such serious themes, without simplistic moralizing or becoming just a vehicle for political or social views, will get five stars from me whether the final outcome favors humanity, the Oankali, or a combination thereof....more
Dawn: Aliens grant humans a second chance — at a price Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Dawn (1987) is the first book in Octavia Butler’s XENOGENDawn: Aliens grant humans a second chance — at a price Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Dawn (1987) is the first book in Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS trilogy, written after her PATTERNIST series. By this point she had been writing challenging science fiction novels for a decade, and her writing craft and ideas had reached a high level. Dawn is a very impressive book. Imagine that mankind has largely destroyed itself and the planet — it’s a fairly common doomsday scenario.
But instead of the survivors scrabbling for survival, what if they were saved and kept in storage for centuries by an alien race, the Oankali? And what if one were awakened first, as Lilith Iyabo was, by these strange and frightening alien beings, covered in sensory tentacles? And what if one were told that humanity had been saved and would be repopulating the planet Earth, together with the Oankali? And with only one condition — but one that would transform human beings forever.
Octavia Butler doesn’t write comfortable science fiction stories. She wants to challenge the reader with truly alien beings, and then present them in a surprisingly benign and benevolent light, while making humans look ignorant and brutish. Lilith is a fairly tough and independent-minded woman, and that is why they think she can tolerate the extreme psychological dislocation of being awoken aboard an organic alien spaceship.
The early portion of the book deals with her trying to understand the sheer strangeness of the Oankali. They have three genders: male, female, and Ooloi, the latter of which can manipulate genetic material directly. They can adjust their own DNA as well as that of humans. Throughout the book, we are presented with scenes of transformation. The line between human and alien is blurred. Human and alien sexuality is also put under the microscope.
Finally, the venality of the humans selected for repopulating the earth is explored. Butler seems to have a profound skepticism of humanity. The Oankali may be opaque in their true intentions for humanity, but they are certainly more advanced, patient, benign, and intelligent than people. They seek to make an exchange with humanity, but when Lilith begins to awaken other people, she discovers their reaction to the Oankali is much more xenophobic and violent than she or the Oankali could ever have anticipated. Lilith finds herself caught between two sides, and drawn more to the alien than her fellow humans. And yet her designated role is to lead this group of surviving humans to rebuilt civilization on Earth.
A full assessment will have to wait until I’ve read the two sequels, Adulthood Rites and Imago, but Dawn is unnerving and compelling reading. If science fiction is supposed to confront readers with the truly alien, then Butler has succeeded marvelously. The Oankali are intriguing and frightening at the same time, but her depiction of humanity is even more alien in many ways. It is their prejudices, insecurities, brutish instincts, and predilection to violence and conflict that stand out compared to the peaceful and contemplative Oankali. There is clearly a strong element of implicit social criticism here, and I expect to see this expanded in the coming volumes....more
Wild Seed: Two African immortals battle for supremacy in early America Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Wild Seed (1980) was written last in OctaWild Seed: Two African immortals battle for supremacy in early America Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Wild Seed (1980) was written last in Octavia Butler’s 5-book PATTERNIST series, but comes first in chronology. The next books by internal chronology are Mind of My Mind (1977), Clay’s Ark (1984), and Patternmaster (1976). Butler was later unsatisfied with Survivor (1978) and elected to not have it reprinted, so I will focus on the main 4 volumes. Wild Seed is an origin story set well before later books and can stand on its own. It’s one of those books whose basic plot could be described in just a few paragraphs, but the themes it explores are deep, challenging, and thought-provoking. I’ve read a lot of academic discussion of the book, but my approach is always on whether the book is engaging as a SFF story.
It’s the story of Doro, a being who inhabits and discards human bodies at will, who first arose in the time of the Pharaohs in Egypt. Initially he was a just the sickly youngest child of 12 siblings, but when he was dying he accidentally took over his mother and father’s bodies to survive. After that he spent millennia continually switching bodies and creating seed colonies in West Africa where to attempts to breed people with psychic abilities, creating more and more powerful beings. However, if they ever become a threat to him, he destroys them without hesitation. For reasons unknown even to himself, he takes the greatest pleasure in taking the bodies of such psychic beings.
One day Doro detects the presence of Anyanwu, a powerful black female shape-shifter and healer. She can heal her own body and change into the shape of any animal or person, and has lived for over 300 years. Doro knows her genetic abilities could be tremendous if he breeds her with the right partners. Because Doro thinks of humans as merely livestock intended to further his psychic breeding projects. She is a proud creature, but she recognizes that his power is even greater and more lethal, so eventually she agrees to be taken to the New World on a slaver ship, taking the Middle Passage that so many slaves from Africa travelled. But because Doro rules the crew, who are mostly his ‘people’, including his white son Isaac, they don’t make the trip in chains. During the trip Anyanwu, who knows no English or Western customs, is slowly taught the ways of the New World.
Upon reaching the New World, Doro mates with Anyanwu but then decides that she should marry his son Isaac, as he thinks this union will produce the most promising offspring. Initially she is unhappy with this situation, but as she learns that Isaac is a decent man and nothing like his ruthless immortal father, she settles into this new life in the town of Wheatley. It turns out that Doro has numerous seed communities, and they revere and fear him as a god-like being who can take their lives at his whim. But he also provides them protection from Indian attacks and sometimes from White racism. Sometimes he takes white bodies, other times black bodies, but his freedom of movement is better with the former. So he comes and goes, checking on each place, mating with the most promising women, and then moving on.
The relationship of Doro and Anyanwu is an uneasy one – he knows that she does not love him and resents his ruthless killing and domination of his people. Yet he recognizes her value as a breeder. She is also a strong-willed woman who does not easily submit to him, a situation unthinkable for an all-powerful being like himself. One day fateful events involving Isaac and their daughter Nweke drive her to turn into an animal and run away, since Doro cannot track her in that form.
A hundred years later, Doro discovers Anyanwu in a Southern plantation colony, where she has been conducting her own version of a seed village, one lacking the fear of death and oppression of Doro. When he tries to force himself into this community, Anyanwu threatens to kill herself, the only viable threat for Doro. He agrees to back off and be less contemptuous of his seed people, but it is an ambiguous victory.
There are so many themes and dichotomies to explore here: master vs slave, man vs woman, white vs black, killer vs healer, Africa vs New World, African tribal networks vs modern Western communities, Colonialism vs Autonomy, Coercion vs Cooperation, etc. The genius about Butler’s books is that they dive into these complicated themes without resorting to convenient moralizing or stereotypes. The book is almost exclusively focused on the relationship of Doro and Anyanwu, but it is a constantly-shifting one. Certainly Doro is a capricious killer and parasite, treating his people like livestock that exist for his convenience only. But once he encounters the strong female presence of Anyanwu, whose powers manifest as a healer and protector of families and communities, he has to reassess his millennia of cruel behavior. And despite Anyanwu finding herself in the slave position initially, she does everything in her power to resist in a peaceful and reasoning way.
Their relationship is all about the struggle for control. Whether this plays itself out in gender, skin color, master vs slave, Old vs New World, we are constantly confronted with this dualism. And while Doro could be easily categorized as the dominant male, slaver and killer, he also has a paternalistic attitude towards his peoples. He also has a conflicted connection with race, taking over both black and white bodies, and understanding the New World ways of America but having millennia of experience in Africa and the Old World. Meanwhile, Anyanwu is in many ways like Dana, the protagonist of Butler’s Kindred, a strong woman forced into submission by a cruel and paternalistic master, but still retaining her resilience and strength, fighting to protect her family and children from harm. It is part of the centuries-long struggle that black women have fought against slavery and domination. This is a book that demands repeat readings, analysis, and reflection, but also remains a compulsive reading experience, a tight story focused on the complicated entwined fates of these immortal African beings.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Dion Graham, a gifted voice actor who has appeared in a number of films and dramas including The Wire. He is given a very difficult assignment here, which he pulls off magnificently. He needs to give a strong African identity to his two lead characters, Doro and Anyanwu, and also convey their immortal perspective. But once they reach America, they encounter various settlers and communities, and Doro himself is constantly switching bodies, so I was very impressed that Dion also switched accents accordingly....more
Dying Inside is likely the most powerful SF tale of a telepath losing his powers that has ever been written, and is required reading for anyone wantinDying Inside is likely the most powerful SF tale of a telepath losing his powers that has ever been written, and is required reading for anyone wanting a taste of the best of New-Wave SF from the early 1970s (much better than Daniel Keyes' Flowers of Algernon, in my opionion). It is also extremely personal and autobiographical, since Silverberg’s prodigious output of the late 1960s was starting to slow down. Regardless of how far we should read into protagonist David Selig’s brilliant, lonely, frustrated, and troubled psyche, it is undeniable that Silverberg has presented one of the most unflinchingly honest portrayals of someone losing their creative powers.
I also loved the detailed depiction of the social and academic scene of New York in the 1960-70s, which must overlap with Silverberg’s real life to some extent. It’s amazing how much sex and mind-altering drugs people did during that period – was it really like that? Or perhaps nobody wants to own up to it? Either way, this book is easily one of the most impressive novels to come from Silverberg’s most creative phase, and well worth your time. ...more
Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Downton Abbey crossed with Monty Python This book has a special place in the SF/Horror genre and popular consciousInvasion of the Body Snatchers meets Downton Abbey crossed with Monty Python This book has a special place in the SF/Horror genre and popular consciousness, thanks to the two film adaptations titled Village of the Damned, in 1960 and remade in 1995 by John Carpenter. We all have an imagine of creepy children with glowing golden eyes in a sleepy English village, born after all the women were mysteriously impregnated in single day, coinciding with some UFO sightings.
But what you wouldn't know about the story if you haven't read the book is that it's nothing like the films. This is actually an extremely amusing philosophical discussion of some important themes: 1) the rights of mothers to control their own wombs 2) how much do men have the right to control women's childbearing 3) that nature of individual identity and consciousness 4) the right of a specious to protect itself from a potential threat by any means
The reason it's so amusing is that the entire book is told largely via a number of stuffy, absurdly polite and indirect armchair discussions of older middle-class British men, who speak in such prevaricating and round-about ways that it seems to be a spoof of them. And with the audiobook narrated by the incomparable Stephen Fry, it truly takes on hilarious dimensions. Despite the entire plot being about women being violated and impregnated by mysterious alien forces and being forced to raise some terrifying telepathic alien cuckoos, the women barely have a voice in matters, other than to mostly act hysterical and irrational, whereas the men are so busy chatting about how to handle the women they almost lose track of the fact that the village has been taken over by the cuckoos.
It's impossible to imagine that John Wyndham was not deliberately poking fun at the very British approach to a stealth alien invasion, but then again maybe it was meant in all seriousness, it hard to tell. All I can say is the story is largely devoid of both horror or dramatic tension (no shocking moments at all) - instead its the ideas that are creepy as hell, and the way things play out is quite slow but sinister. This book more than The Day Of the Triffids is worth of Brian M. Aldiss' disparaging label of Wyndam's books as "cosy catastrophes", but when you think about the events more carefully, they're no laughing matter at all....more
A Classic Tale of Alienation, Superpowers, Carnies, and Evil Genius Scientists This was Theodore Sturgeon's first published novel in 1950, and back theA Classic Tale of Alienation, Superpowers, Carnies, and Evil Genius Scientists This was Theodore Sturgeon's first published novel in 1950, and back then he was one of the most popularly anthologized SF short story writers of the day, along with Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein, but his work had a very notable slant towards more in-depth character studies and less spaceships and alien planets. This was the case for him most well-known novel More Than Human (1953), which was an extension of his earlier novella Baby is Three (1952), and won the International Fantasy Award in 1954.
It still holds up remarkably well despite being 70 years old thanks to the skillful writing, sensitive emotional portrait of young Horty Bluett, an orphan ill-treated by a cruel foster father, who is friendless and bullied at school, and who runs away and falls in with a group of "strange folk" ("freaks" already being a taboo term) in a traveling circus run by a sinister misanthrope nicknamed The Maneater, who has a hidden past as...you guessed it...a disaffected geneticist!
Horty has some very strange powers, and is unusually attached to an old toy jack in the box with two glowing jewel eyes, and while he is carefully sheltered by his dwarf carnie friends, when the secret gets out the story gets going. It's a taught, well-told tale with none of the bloat now standard in most genre fiction, and I recommend it along with More than Human. Next on my list is Venus Plus X (1960)....more
More Than Human: Introducing the “Homo Gestalt” (Also posted at Fantasy Literature) This book must have been quite an eye-opener back in 1953 in the GolMore Than Human: Introducing the “Homo Gestalt” (Also posted at Fantasy Literature) This book must have been quite an eye-opener back in 1953 in the Golden Age of Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke, where robots, rocket ships, future societies and aliens ruled the roost. For one thing, it hardly features any credible science at all, and in tone and atmosphere owes more to magic realism and adult fantasy. In fact, the writing reminds me most of Ray Bradbury, full of poetry and powerful images. Try reading just the opening paragraph for instance:
“THE IDIOT LIVED IN a black and gray world, punctuated by the white lightning of hunger and the flickering of fear. His clothes were old and many-windowed. Here peeped a shinbone, sharp as a cold chisel, and there in the torn coat were ribs like the fingers of a fist. He was tall and flat. His eyes were calm and his face was dead.”
The story involves the forming of a "homo gestalt" group organism assembled from various misfit and mistreated children, and the book is broken into three parts, "The Fabulous Idiot", "Baby is Three", and "Morality". Apparently "Baby is Three" was written first as a novella, and I wonder if anyone has picked up on the idea that the book itself is a cobbled together construct that, in my mind at least, adds up to less than the sum of its parts. What would that make it, then? I don't know the antonym of "gestalt" in German or English.
I found the first section "The Fabulous Idiot" to be the best written and most involving, and while the next two sections became interesting midway through, they both involved the main characters spending dozens of pages lost in their own identities, painstakingly trying to piece together who they were. As a result, this reader at least felt equally disoriented. And there were many times when I had to re-read a passage several times to tease out who was saying what. Although I imagine this was the effect that Sturgeon was going for, I found it a bit difficult to read at times.
I did like the ending, despite some heavy exposition about morality (at least it was concise), and overall the story does not read like something written in the fifties. So I give it props for pushing the envelope of the times with its heavy focus on psychology, ethics, and abuse of children, but it didn't add up as a fully developed novel, which is so often the case for something expanded from a shorter novella....more
Loading...
