read full post >

Lucy Waring is an aspiring actress on the London stage, whose latest play has just folded. So, she comes to the Greek isle of Corfu for an idyllic holiday with her sister, who happens to be married to a wealthy Roman lawyer, and owns some property on the island. But, of course, this is Mary Stewart, so the idyllic vacation is quickly swallowed up by mystery and adventure. It is almost inevitable that our intelligent and brave heroine will meet two men, both handsome, and that one will be a villain, and the other will become a villain. Can you guess which?

The book's title, of course, is from The Tempest, near the end of the play when Prospero is calling an end to his own magic-making:

But this rough magic
I here abjure, and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.

There are plenty of references to Shakespeare's play throughout the text. Each chapter begins with an appropriate line or two as epigraph. One of the characters staying on the island is a famous actor, Julian Gale, now living in seclusion. The last role he played was Prospero, and he believes Corfu is the "real" island of the Tempest. There is even a certain conflation with Prospero and the patron saint of the island, St. Spiridion. Many of the boys on the island are named after this saint, and the shortened version of the name, Spiro, sounds even more like Prospero. There is a rather delightful moment when a character thinks that her boyfriend has found proof that Prospero really was on the island, because they have found something that looks like a book hidden underwater, but it is actually proof of the misdeeds of the book's villain. I was a little disappointed that there was no real conclusion to this idea of Corfu being Prospero's isle, no huge connection to the world of the tempest or to the "rough magic" of the title. Stewart does bring those words in near the end, as if to justify the title:

"You've seen the other face of the enchanted isle tonight, haven't you, my poor child? It's a rough sort of magic for such as we are-a mere musician, and a couple of players."

There is also a dolphin in the book, who is mostly present to service the plot, but he gives a few moments of delight. When Lucy first sees him, she notices that someone is shooting at the dolphin with a silencer, and after scaring the dolphin away, she charges up to yell at the only person she can see nearby (who, of course, turns out to be innocent-- although Lucy stubbornly refuses to believe this for some time). Later on, the dolphin strands himself on the beach at night, and Lucy, with a little bit of help, manages to get him back into the water before he dehydrates and dies. Still later, the dolphin returns the favor, and in his turn saves Lucy. It seems a little bit unrealistic, and romantic-- but perhaps also a bit like a friendly spirit such as Ariel, helping out those who are shipwrecked on Prospero's isle.

I was a bit surprised to read on Amazon that several reviewers counted This Rough Magic as one of their favorite Mary Stewart novels, along with Nine Coaches Waiting. Perhaps it is only because I have read enough of Mary Stewart, but I found the plot rather predictable. I guessed fairly early on that the man Lucy was initially most resistant to and suspicious of would be the one she would eventually fall in love with; I suspected the villain's actions had something to do with the political turmoil in Albania, when it was mentioned, although I'm not familiar enough with this kind of illegal maneuvering to guess what the specific crime might be. I was also a little troubled by the portrayal of the natives; Stewart's portrayal of the Greeks seemed a bit racist. She stereotypes them all as delighting to serve, and when it is a matter of one man's word against another, the Greek police are inclined to believe an educated European man rather than a Corfiote boy. This Rough Magic is certainly well-written and entertaining, but I don't feel that it is on quite the same level as Stewart's best work (including the superb and rightly praised Nine Coaches Waiting).

Title:	This Rough Magic
Author:	Mary Stewart
Date published:	1964
Genre:	Mystery / Romance
Number of pages:	254

Read more...

read full post >

The latest (and last?) book in the second series set in the world we first met through Ender's Game. When described like that, it sounds complicated and maybe even that the author is trying to make more money out of material he's already used. But, in actuality, this is a good book, and the Ender's Shadow series is quite interesting-- we get to know the children from Battle School more as they grow up, we get to see some of the process of Earth becoming unified under the Hegemon (something that is only glimpsed briefly at the end of Ender's Game), and we get to see a bit more of the fascinating personage of that shadow-caster himself, Bean.

As in Shadow of the Hegemon, in places reading this book feels almost like watching a full-scale game of Risk or Diplomacy-- only with all the details and idiosyncrasies of the particular strengths certain countries and communities bring to any fight. This is not a bad thing; it's actually quite fascinating, to watch the battles and politics unfold, and both the military and political strategies are quite convincing-- with now and then a nod to familiar Earth history, both military and political.

It's been quite a while since I read Shadow Puppets (the book immediately before this one in the Bean series), and a much longer time since I last read Ender's Game, so it's hard for me to remember the characters from Battle School, and what they were like as children there. I felt like I didn't quite recognize them, like there might be slight discontinuities in their personalities-- but feel unfit to judge that, since I can't remember so well. When the kids are all at Battle School, their different nationalities are just one aspect among other particularities to make each of them unique-- but here, the nationality of the members of Ender's "jeesh" comes into prominence, as many of them are thrust into leadership roles and empire-building within their home country.

One of the major components of this book is Peter's attempt to build a one-world government, what he calls the "Free People of Earth", or FPE. His vision is that all nations (and also people-groups not currently recognized as nations) would be similar to what states are now in the U.S.-- each would retain its own autonomy, to some degree, and would still be individual and unique, but would also be part of the larger whole. To some extent, the portrayal of this is quite believable-- it makes perfect sense that the smaller and more oppressed nations (and those not recognized as nations) would be most willing to join the FPE. However, it is a little more difficult to swallow the idea that war-mongering empire-building nations would simply give in and join up when their leadership changes up a bit, or after a few military set-backs. And once all the nations join up, who is to say that no one would later rebel or try to take over the government? Or that the government would not become corrupt? It's a nice idea, but I find it hard to completely buy into.

As a side-note, I find it both interesting and slightly disturbing the way the U.S. is portrayed (as I imagine Card intended). At this point in time, the U.S. has basically withdrawn from the rest of the world-- the borders are closed, and the U.S. no longer takes any interest in what is going on elsewhere (having given up on attempting to be the world police, as had been attempted in prior centuries). At the end of the book, the U.S. is the only country who has not yet joined the FPE. This is an interesting portrayal of America's future-- but I can't see it happening, for several reasons. One of the major reasons is economy: it's already clear how interconnected the economies of different nations are, and I doubt that is going to change in the future (except that things will grow more connected and not less). But it's also hard to imagine the U.S. closing its borders and showing no interest in the rest of the world-- particularly when the U.S. is made up of people from all over the world, even if they have been here for several generations. I imagine there will always be americans interested in and connected to different areas of the world-- and that seems like something likely only to increase, and not decrease. However, perhaps Card intends it more as a wake-up call, rather than a prediction.

The book ends with poetic closure, returning to its beginnings-- Peter Wiggin finally speaks by ansible to his brother Ender, and asks him to write for him as Speaker for the Dead, like he did in the Hive Queen. Here we get Peter's side of the interview that eventually led to the second work by the Speaker for the Dead, the Hegemon. It's a beautiful way to end the book and the series. However, Card has left a small door open for other stories to be told, and I wonder if he will stop here or return us later to Ender's universe. There is one story that we only get a few pieces of its beginnings, and Bean's story is not completely finished-- but, as Peter Wiggin notes, that is not his story to tell.

Title:	Shadow of the Giant
Author:	Orson Scott Card
Date published:	2005
Genre:	Science Fiction
Series:	Ender
Number of pages:	367

Read more...

read full post >

A woman named Sandra studies fads, and she 'happens' to meet a man named Bennett who is a chaos theorist. They 'happen' to share a mail clerk / communications assistant / chaos creator who is named Flip, who 'happens' to do crazy things and think mainly of herself and not of others at all. Makes for interesting situations and attempts at explanations.

I appreciate connie willis – her unique writing and ideas. There is so much foreshadowing that just fits into the story – very fun if you can see it. Each chapter begins with a fad, and many snippets about rivers and their inexplicable beginnings, to mirror how fads and chaos are also inexplicable. Add to this 'Management' (always treated as one powerful and dumb man) and his desire to make science happen more efficiently and more managably, which makes things much more difficult all around.Sandy and Bennett happen to end up working together with sheep, and things get funnier from there. Sheep actually help them to figure out their work, as well as get many unexpected wonderful surprises. I really like this book, and would definitely read it again.

Title:	Bellwether
Author:	Connie Willis
Date published:	1997
Genre:	Science Fiction
Number of pages:	247 pages
Notes:	2nd reading

Read more...

read full post >

I picked up this book to read just for some fun, light reading-- because I enjoy Connie Willis' work, and her other collaboration with Cynthia Felice that I have read (Promised Land) is an entertaining, quick read-- but it turns out, in a way, that it is [slightly] relevant to our current events, with hurricane Katrina. The main character, Ariadne, is a teenager who has been evacuated to Victoria because of the dangers of war between Quebec and the Western States-- and when I read about her fears and frustrations with being evacuated, I thought about all the people displaced by hurricane Katrina. The title comes from the main form of attack used: laser beams from satellites, which cut through anything and reduce houses to rubble (presumably based on the term "air raid", but upgraded for the future). Of course, most of the cultural relevance quickly disappears as the (of course) clever and beautiful Ariadne escapes evac and treks back home, out of concern for her parents' safety, and the novel quickly turns into something of a cloak-and-dagger story: where Ariadne is continually uncertain who she can trust, including her parents and the dashingly handsome ladies' man, Prince Miles Essex, and his "nice-looking" assistant Joss Liddell, who seems to be something more than a servant.

There's a delightful sort of Dickensian character in the early part of the book. Mrs. Ponsonsby has taken in to her home many of the poor children orphaned or evacuated because of the war. But, of course, this is only because of the money the Red Cross will pay her for taking care of the children, and she is delighted to have Ariadne (however briefly), who is old enough to take care of the babies. I don't know if it was the name or the behavior or both, but it seemed like the kind of character Dickens might create (particularly if he were writing speculative cloak-and-dagger war fiction).

One thing that bothered me a bit about this book was the slang-- some of it took me a while to figure out (they start you right in with "diping" as a verb-- to put a diaper on a baby), and some seemed a bit silly, such as "batellite", for a battle satelllite (those that cause the light raids, of course). In general, I think slang usually makes a fictional place feel more realistic and lived in-- but, when it is jarring, or just sounds like something people wouldn't actually say, it is distracting.

Also interesting was the use of Greek names. Ariadne's full name is Hellene Ariadne, her father is named Dares, and her mother is Medea. They work for a company called Hydra corp, and the powerful, intuitive supercomputer that runs behind everything at the company is called Minerva. The book suggests (although I think it never explicitly says) that the societal structure is based around companies that operate more like families, and this particular one is Hellenic.

I enjoyed reading Light Raid quite a bit. There are enough twists and turns to keep things unpredictable (although the romance is rather predictable). This is a better book than Promised Land, and makes me think that I really ought to check out some of Cynthia Felice's work sometime.

Title:	Light Raid
Author:	Connie Willis & Cynthia Felice
Date published:	1989
Genre:	Science Fiction
Number of pages:	263

Read more...

read full post >

This novella paints an interesting picture of a highly advanced interplanetary society which is backward in a few specific ways: most notably, the very hierarchical class structure, and the importance of hunting. Because this society is so interested in wealth and physical appearance, they nearly destroyed the initially mysterious coelura of the title-- lovely, colorful, joyful creatures who are able to spin a wonderful fabric, which is beautiful and mood responsive, personalized to its wearer. In the time of the book, these coelura have been mostly forgotten, and the lands where they live have been interdicted and cut off from the rest of society on the planet and elsewhere. The main character, Lady Caissa, is a "body-heir" torn between her duty to her sire, an attraction to the mysterious stranger she rescues, Murell, and her delight in the beautiful coelura, which she fears her father will destroy in his greed to control them and re-establish the trade of coelura-spun fabric.

A lot of action is condensed into very few pages, which means that you get a little taste of this interesting society, but you don't get all the details; and you don't really have enough to be able to completely understand all the political machinations until the end. Some of the details of this story are very appealing and appropriate. For instance, when Caissa first meets Murell, he has been injured and has healed poorly because he has been stranded; in a society with advanced medicine, where a child can only be declared a body-heir once they are determined to be "physically perfect", Murell's imperfections are strange to Caissa-- but she is attracted to him in spite of his physical imperfections. Also, I like the way McCaffrey ties the abuse of the Coelura to their near extinction: each coelura has a limited amount of spinning it can do in its lifetime, and this is included in the mating net they must spin to mate and continue their species. Murell is introduced in such a way that we are supposed to be attraced to him and think highly of him, as Caissa does, but it must be admitted that he is both clever and wise in his plan to protect and preserve the coelura.

The plot is not too sophisticated, and is fairly predictable (you know that Caissa and Murell will end up together, and it is obvious that he is a person of some importance in this hierarchical society); however, I still found it fairly entertaining to follow the story to its conclusion. Because of the brevity and simplicity of this book (I read it in just one evening), I wondered if this book should be classified as Young Adult material, but the slightly risquée illustrations and the romantic encounter between Caissa and Murell suggests that it might not be completely appropriate for youngsters. The illustrations in the book are interesting, although unfortunately the jacket cover for this edition is not consistent with them.

Title:	The Coelura
Author:	Anne McCaffrey
Date published:	1983
Genre:	Science Fiction
Number of pages:	156
Notes:	This edition is illustrated by Ned Dameron.

Read more...

read full post >

Coraline-- not Caroline, as several of the well-meaning but mistaken adults in the book call her-- is a young girl who loves to explore, and this is both her weakness and her strength. When a strange door in her family's new apartment opens, it is nearly impossible for her to resist going through it-- but when she realizes she is in trouble, she manages to turn her exploration into a strength, and along with some cleverness and bravery, she manages to escape into the real world again. This book bears some resemblance to Alice in Wonderland, but the world that Coraline ventures into is much more sinister and dangerous than we usually imagine Wonderland to be.

One of the things I like about Coraline is that she seems like such a real child. She loves to explore and has quite an imagination, and can say crazy things with a straight face-- and sometimes, because this is a fantasy, they are true, even though the adults may not believe her; for instance, when she calls the police to tell them, "My parents have been stolen away into a world on the other side of the mirror in our hall." The other characters are all quite delightful, too, particularly the strange adults that populate Coraline's world.

Before I read this book, I'd come across little bits of news referring to a possible movie version of Coraline, which I find intriguing. One of the things that is so disturbing about the "other" versions of the people in Coraline's world is their little black button eyes, and the way they gradually grow less and less like themselves as Coraline learns to see through the deception, and Coraline's other mother focuses less and less of her energy on the illusion that was meant to entrap Coraline. This other-mother character is particularly disturbing-- like a spider in a fantastic web, only she seems to feed on the souls of children. It is an interesting moment when Coraline realizes that her other mother does love her, but that it is a greedy, possessive, selfish love, like that of a miser for his gold.

The only other Neil Gaiman book I've read is Neverwhere, and it was fascinating. My verdict: I need to read more books by Neil Gaiman.

Title:	Coraline
Author:	Neil Gaiman
Date published:	2002
Genre:	Young Adult / Fantasy
Number of pages:	162
Notes:	First section was read aloud with Sapphire and A.

Read more...

read full post >

Flatland has only two dimensions, and they have no idea there are more dimensions which exist. Because of this, there are many elaborate rules and societal parameters (like any society), which help to make the setting believable. Very interesting connections to be made with our lives and dimensions that we are unaware of.

I have been trying to read this book for a few years, and finally realized that it is a story and then it became interesting enough to get through the first half of the book, which is largely explanation. Flatlanders see only lines, but have ways of feeling angles and seeing angles as well (due to fog helping so lines look like they are receding). The narrator receives a visit from a 3 dimensional sphere, but can only perceive him as a circle which can diminish and increase in size. The visitor can see hidden things and enter closed areas, and knows things he shouldn't know because of his multi-dimensionality. Finally, since the 2d narrator will not believe him, the visitor takes him into 3d spaceland.

The narrator grasps a large amount of truth, and takes it beyond what his teacher did – saying there must be many more dimensions if there are 1d and 0d places. (1d people have good hearing but cannot imagine life as more than sounds, while there is a being in 0d who loves himself and can imagine nothing outside himself, and worships himself because he knows nothing else.) There are some very interesting connections to be made with Christ entering our world and teaching us things we can't imagine possible. This is a wonderful book – worth ingesting slowly and processing well.

Title:		Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Author:		Abbot, Edwin A.
Date published:		1992 (originally published 1884)
Genre:		Science Fiction
Number of pages:		96
Notes:

Read more...

read full post >

Reading Annie Dillard is like keeping good company. Her writing is so beautiful and thoughtful; she is incredibly well-read, and always brings in interesting details or stories from a variety of sources; and she can also be both funny and deeply moving (although not usually both at once). She relates how she had to lose her self-consciousness and stop worrying about looking silly as she stalked shy animals like the muskrats-- and she is willing to do that with her readers, too: she is willing to be make a fool of herself, or be wrong about something and figure it out later, and that makes her writing all the more real and human.

This is one of those books that is pretty well-known in literary circles. I've read parts of it before (sometimes single chapters are included in essay collections), but never the whole thing. I bought a used copy of the book several years ago, and it's taken me until now to finally read it. It also took me quite a while to finish it as well, because this book requires a fair bit of concentration-- you have to pay attention to Annie Dillard's prose, much the way that she pays attention to creation around her that she writes about. But it is definitely worth the effort to read.

One of the things that impressed me about Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is that Dillard has a substantial knowledge of science, but still manages to retain her sense of wonder about the world-- even as she is repelled by certain aspects of nature, she is fascinated by others. There are several points where she struggles with the tension between the world as it is and the idea of a creator-- what kind of creator would make nature that is like this?

Dillard is incredibly well-read, and borrows from many different authors and traditions, but I was interested to find quite a few references to the Bible. The chapter of one title refers specifically to ancient Hebrew sacrifices described in the Old Testament, and Dillard suggests that the wind and nature are offering a "wave offering" of praise. There also are many smaller Biblical references, that people not familiar with the Bible might not notice; this suggests to me that, whatever Dillard's beliefs, she is familiar with the Bible that it is part of her thinking and her language.

I firmly believe that titles matter, so I find it interesting that Dillard calls herself a "pilgrim", which usually denotes some kind of travel to a holy location. It seems that Dillard's pilgrimage is one of standing still and noticing what is around her. In the chapter "Northing", when she writes about all the birds migrating, so much of creation straining northwards, and she suggests that her own northing travel is accomplished by staying still. It seems to work the same way with the travelling part of her pilgrimage. Also, pilgrimage is almost always a spiritual endeavour, which is also relevant here, because Dillard's time at Tinker Creek is also clearly spiritual.

Title:	Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Author:	Annie Dillard
Date published:	1974
Genre:	Essay
Number of pages:	271

Read more...