Review of Burn by James Patrick Kelly

Beyond math, physics, chemistry, etc., there remain numerous philosophies and ideologies underpinning science fiction: existentialism to Cartesian dualism, the eternal return to metaphysics, and many others.  But the transcendentalist ‘manifestos’ of Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and others of the Club in Concord are something I’ve never seen utilized in science fiction.  That is, until I read James Patrick Kelly’s 2005 Burn.  Fully in dialogue with Thoreau, the novella intelligently examines the juxtaposition of naturalist vs. progressive societies via a thought experiment, sci-fi style.  Though occasionally lacking subtlety, the novella challenges utopian thinking about nature, as well as nihilism that civilization is dying.

An interesting dichotomy, the setting of Burn is the planet Walden.  Initially colonized by a people called the pukpuks, the aggressive usage of resources and impractical implementation of economic and social programs caused their civilization to collapse.  Seeing the potential for a natural utopia, Jack Winter purchased the planet in the aftermath and converted it into the Transcendental State.  Strictly interpreting Thoreau’s views, the Transcendentalists disturb nature as little as possible, keeping their farming to a minimum while allowing the forest to retake the planet.  The problem is, the forests have regrown to the point they encroach upon the land of the remaining pukpuks.  Desiring a return to the ways of their technologically enhanced ancestors, the pukpuks resort to terrorist activity.  They intentionally start fires that re-open land for development and allow them contact with upsiders—people from other planets who have the technology they want to trade for.  Such clearing of land against the principles of the Transcendentalists, not to mention potentially deadly, conflict ensues.

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

The dystopian novel has become a tradition in science fiction.  And it’s easy to see why: the facets which separate the genre from the rest of literature are conducive to manifesting societies and ideologies at odds with whatever the current social reality is.  Brave New World presents a society in which nearly all humanity has been drained from humanity; Fahrenheit 451 takes books away from society; Nineteen Eighty-four envisions a world wherein personal freedom is lost to government control; We presents a scenario in which individualism is crushed beneath the sterility of conformity; and John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar, The Jagged Orbit, and The Sheep Look Up present different facets of allowing corporate influence to usurp political and social concerns.  Stanislaw Lem's The Futurological Congress sees a society stymied by chemicals, reality always one hallucination away.  Unheralded yet fitting perfectly amongst these novels, C.M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl’s 1952 The Space Merchants is a dystopian novel that sees commercialism play out in a frightening scenario that stratifies society unhealthily.  Gaining prescience rather than losing it with time, the ideas of the novel are hurt only by poor plotting.  Otherwise, they ring loud and clear to this day.

The society Kornbluth and Pohl imagine is indeed all too realistic.  Set nominally in the 22 nd century, corporations have gained enough power to force political bounds to shift from the geographical to the commercial.  States no longer represented in government, business conglomerations and mega-corps instead compete and lobby fiercely on the highest stage to ensure products are consumed and profits high.  Playing the largest role in this are the advertizing agencies.  Able to use whatever methods they desire, the five senses are appealed to in commercials, billboards, etc., while the products themselves often carry addictive elements.  Wealth channeled to the top, the lower class grows while the rich prosper.  All services privatized, even a person’s ability to receive civil protection stems from their ability to pay—anything from Burn’s Detectives to Star Alliance Security available.  The poor having to subside on low quality nutrients, third world countries supplying labor for the wealthy, and many people wearing mouth filters on city streets, the world of The Space Merchants is exactly like ours in many ways.

Review of The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard

Lucius Shepard is a writer of science fiction and fantasy that usually gets discovered only after the reader has spent enough time in the genre to explore all of its formats.  Not one of the ‘big names’ of novel land, he has quietly staked himself out as one of the tip-top writers of short fiction the past three decades.  Winning and being nominated for innumerable awards in the short story, novelette, and novella categories, his trademarks are a keen feel for the craft of writing, vividly drawn characters, sustained narrative tension, and a desire to explore all areas of spec-fic.  Shepard’s first published collection, The Jaguar Hunter (1987), presents all these elements near fully formed—a sign of the waterfall of quality short fiction that was to follow.

A varied collection of stories, the title The Jaguar Hunter covers the majority.  Seven are indeed set in Latin America, and for this the collection exudes an exotic flavor of sweaty jungles, snakes, jungle cats, guerrilla armies, and banana plantations.  But there are also stories set in Nepal, the US, Afghanistan, Spain, and one not of this Earth—at least ostensibly.  That the stories never reuse the same motif—alien visitation, near-future sci-fi, thriller, character study, magic realism, horror—also speaks to the diversity.  A mix of formats as well, the collection features two short stories, six novelettes and three novellas.  About the only constant is Shepard’s voice.  Patient, evocative, visceral, and practiced, the remainder is all any fan of speculative fiction could ask for in a collection.

Review of The Traveler's Tale by Lucius Shepard

The Traveler’s Tale (1984) by Lucius Shepard is a science fiction/horror story set on the fictional island Guanoja Menor off the coast of Honduras.  One of several stories Shepard has set in the region, he brings to bear his familiarity with Central America in telling this voodoo-esque tale of alien proportions.

The Traveler’s Tales is told through the eyes of Frank Winship, a retired American who recently bought a piece of land on a remote corner of Guanoja Menor, met a younger woman, and is ready to settle into his twilight years.  The locals full of color, Frank spends his days at the area chicken shack, eating meals, and having beer over gossip.  A few tourists travel through the area, and Frank strikes up a short friendship with one, a great storyteller named Ray Milliken.  Milliken disappears a short time later and Frank thinks nothing more of it until, having chicken one evening, he hears a rumor that Milliken has returned and intends to develop an unused, snake-infested point of land into a town.  Visiting the large parcel, a place the locals call the Burying Ground based on old pirate legends, Frank learns firsthand that indeed Milliken intends to develop the overgrown jungle into a community and has brought along a cadre of like-minded young travelers to help.  But when the travelers begin straggling out of the jungle at odd hours, knocking on Frank’s door seeking assistance, things take decided a turn for the strange, and Frank begins fearing for his life.

Review of R&R by Lucius Shepard

The late 60s/early 70s was a time of international and civil strife.  The Vietnam War one of the major touch points, things in the US only quieted down in the late 70s with the election of Jimmy Carter.  But with the induction of Ronald Reagan into office a few years later, a new round of unpopular military action was begun.  Learning their lesson, the government operated mostly out of the public eye, inserting small strike forces in Latin America to assist guerrilla armies here and broken governments there, all with an eye to economic rather than human interests.  Aware of what was happening in the region, Lucius Shepard penned R&R in 1983.  Bringing awareness to a situation that to this day does not receive the same recognition as Vietnam or Iraq, the near-future story of a US soldier fighting in Guatemala offers anti-war sentiment in mature fashion, and in turn adds itself to the ranks of anti-war stories told in highly human terms.

R&R is the story of David Mingolla, an army soldier fighting in the jungles of Guatemala against whatever enemies spring before him.  Cubans, local rebels, and even renegade U.S. Army units on the attack, things are far from black and white in Mingolla’s life.  Preferring to relax and walk the rural villages while his buddies whore, take drugs, pit fight, and carouse in the neon madness that springs up outside army barracks, he spends his r&r time thinking of going AWOL to Panama—an idea his morals prevent him from acting on time and again.  Meeting a partially psychic woman in a village one evening changes things, however, and Mingolla’s world begins to spin ever faster.

Review of The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie

The 1980s were a tumultuous time in Central America.  Though late Cold War, the Reagan administration was still sticking its nose into the region to attempt to prevent communism from spreading—which is an underhanded way of saying keeping a handle on its own economic interests.  Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and numerous other countries, including Nicaragua, were caught up in the resulting mess of violence and social turbulence—memories that haunt to this day.  Secret armies formed and disbanded, attacks taking cities and even the sleepiest villages by surprise, and revolutions a dime a dozen, about the only constant for the people was the uncertainty of life—aka war.  Invited by the then government of Nicaragua to see the country and hear the political ideology under discussion, The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey is Salman Rushdie’s account of three weeks in the country in July 1986.

A very well-written piece of journalism, The Jaguar Smile holds more in common with Orwell and Steinbeck’s international accounts of war, than say, Bruce Chatwin or Paul Theroux’s travelogues.  Rushdie forever keeping an eye to the interaction of politics, religion, society, theory, and practice, the relatively short book (170 pages) is packed with the ideologies at stake, lives of the people, political concepts attempting to be implemented and implemented intentionally or otherwise, and just enough background history to contextualize events.  The writing style a mix of Rushdie’s prosaic leanings with a concise journalistic approach, the book is both informative and a pleasure to read.

Review of The Night We Buried Road Dog by Jack Cady

If there is any universal trigger of nostalgia in the United States, it is the Golden Years of the 1950s.  Glamorized to this day, the innocence of youth, the music on the radio, and of course, the tons of steel molded into cars are some of the most common visuals associated with the period.  DeSotos, Hudsons, Chryslers, Lincolns, and all other manner of road behemoths piloted the burgeoning highways of America, guzzling gas and fueling the joy the driving every mile of the way.  Simply a beautifully written novella, Jack Cady’s 1993 The Night We Buried Road Dog reflects back upon the era to evoke a similar nostalgia, and in the process touches upon aspects more intrinsic to the motion and direction of the human spirit.

The Night We Buried Road Dog is the story of Jed and his life in small town Montana circa 1961.  He and his friend Jesse both car junkies, the hammer of pistons on the open road is their religion.  So in love with automobiles, when Jesse’s decrepit Hudson gets too old, they bury it in his front yard, complete with a tombstone and epitaph.  But Jesse does not spend long without a car, a giant Lincoln is soon burning rubber beneath his feet.  The highways of the night forever calling their name, mile after mile is racked up by the pair.  But everywhere they go, they see markers and signs left by the mysterious Road Dog—a man some think is real, and others just a legend of heartland USA’s open highways.  One night driving home, an even more mysterious thing happens: a ghost car flashes past, and in its wake the mystery of the Road Dog deepens. 

Review of Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Hindsight is a unique perspective; it makes predilection seem easy.  But based on The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, who would have thought that Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books would begin appearing with such regularity and increasing popularity?  Probably the same number who said it wouldn’t.  (I’d be curious what Sir Terry thought.)  Regardless, looking back we can see that for as fun and funny as the first two novels are, Equal Rites, the third Discworld book, is where the series really starts to gain traction.  Pratchett seeming to realize the potential of the Disc, the novel’s exploration of a social theme (in this case, gender) through a sustained and humorous (and sustainably humorous) narrative became the trademark of the series.

Equal Rites is the story of Eskarina Smith.  Eighth son—err, daughter—to an eighth son, her births sees a visitor, the aged wizard Drum Billet, come knocking to pass on his staff of magic before dying.  Without a care to the sex of the child, he enchants the staff to obey only the newborn child before DEATH takes him peacefully away.  Beyond the power of Esk’s father and local witch Granny Weatherwax to tame, the rune-covered staff cannot be destroyed.  So they hide it.  But by the time Esk has reached her eighth year, it’s obvious there is something special about her.   So her father sends her to study with Weatherwax to become a witch.  Eventually the staff intervenes, and before Esk knows it, she and Granny Weatherwax are off on a perilous journey to Ankh-Morpork to see she receives a proper wizard’s education.  Trouble is, there have only ever been male students at the Unseen University…  

Review of The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas Disch

Thomas Disch’s most famous books—On the Wings of Song, 334, and Camp Concentration—are all works of literary speculative fiction.  Possessing quality prose, classical references, and of course, a certain gravitas, they force The Brave Little Toaster (1980) to stick out like a tree in a field in Disch’s oeuvre.   In the tradition of Stanislaw Lem’s Fables for Robots and Cyberiad, the novella tells the story of household appliances who go on a quest to find their lost master.  At times playful and at others profound, the novella is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale of sci-fi proportions.

A vacuum cleaner, alarm clock, electric blanket (a yellow one), tensor lamp, and the titular toaster are living in a cottage in the countryside at the beginning of The Brave Little Toaster. The master away for more than 2 years, the appliances are starting to get antsy that he will never return.  Concocting a plan to escape their confines and find him, the group soon finds themselves on the adventure of a lifetime—at least as far as appliances go.  Encountering all manner of friends and foes, obstacles and rescues, Disch confirms it’s not the destination but the journey which matters.

Review of Breathmoss by Ian R. Macleod

Reading Ian R. Macleod’s 2002 Breathmoss has brought to a head my thoughts regarding Ursula Le Guin’s influence on speculative fiction.  The number of times her name appears in my notes (Macleod’s novella included) has built to the point I’m even introducing this review with the idea.  A bucolic coming of age in a sci-fi setting, the author’s style and the story’s outcome are (thankfully) his own, but the mindset behind it walks a path pioneered by Le Guin, all to positive effect.

Breathmoss is the story of Jalila, a girl living on the planet Habara.  Her family moving their home in the highlands to a town by the sea at the beginning of the story, Al Janb is a wildly different place than the pastureland and open plains where her formative years were spent.  Living in an all female society, her parents (in fact three women) are optimistic the change will bring benefits to their lives. But Jalila is less sure; every new and odd thing appears in an unfavorable light compared to the highlands.  She sees rocket ships launching, aliens wandering the streets, and, an even stranger thing one day: a man.  Life swirling ever faster, Jalila must find a way through her new reality toward her future.