Hugo Winner--I Finally Picked the Winning “Horse” !!

I fell in love with Among Others when I read it last year, never dreaming that it would be nominated for the Hugo Award, let along win it. Congratulations to Jo Walton!

Among Others (Book)

I don’t think I am like other people. I mean on some deep fundamental level. It’s not just being half a twin and reading a lot and seeing fairies…I think there’s a way I stand aside and look backwards at things when they’re happening which isn’t normal. It’s a thing you need to do for doing magic.

I have gone through periods of my life when reading books has been the only force that has kept me from totally unraveling. Released earlier this year, Among Others by Jo Walton speaks to those of us who love science fiction books. The novel is part fantasy, part coming-of-age story, and part annotated reading list. It is introspective, gentle, and beautiful.

The novel, set in late 1979 and early 1980, is arranged as a series of diary entries. After running away from her mother’s house, fifteen year-old Mori is sent to live with her father, who abandoned her family when she was very young. He and his sisters immediately send her off to boarding school. Missing her recently dead sister, walking with a cane because of injuries, new to a school where the other girls have known one another for years, Mori is an outsider. She takes solace in her science fiction books and the fairies. As the story unfolds, she finds kindred spirits, her karass, and comes into her own as a young woman.

Among Others is a gem I found in the new book section of our library. The story is touching and in some ways reminds me of my younger self. I also had fun seeing books that I had read described in the story.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Book)

The Darren language has a word for the attraction one feels to danger: esui. It is esui that makes warriors charge into hopeless battles and die laughing. Esui is also what draws women to lovers who are bad for them—men who would make poor fathers, women of the enemy….It is glory, it is folly. It is everything not sensible, not rational, not safe at all—but without esui, there is no point in living.

I continue my reading of the 2011 Hugo Award nominees with N.K. Jesmisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a dark fantasy that was also nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award. The book is the first in the Inheritance Trilogy. The story centers on a fascinating cosmology, based loosely on the Hindu idea of Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer. It is somewhat reminiscent of Gaiman’s American Gods, the 2002 Hugo Award winning novel.

The story is told by Yeine, a young woman from Darr, a minor kingdom. After the death of her mother, Yeine is summoned to Sky, the capital of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by Dakarta, who is her maternal grandfather and the king. While plans are being made for her to be declared Dakarta’s heir, she realizes that she is a really only a pawn, a convenient sacrifice. As the plot unfolds she learns more about the gods and godlets, who are the servants and weapons of the ruling class. She finds also uncovers the truth about her mother and the deal her mother made with the gods.

Because I am not a great fan of dark, twisty tales, I did not actually enjoy the book. I was, however, fascinated by it. I liked the tone of the narration, including all the digressions. I was curious to see how the story would unfold, to the point of being riveted in the last 50 pages. I admire Jesmisin’s ability to create an original and convincing world. I am not sure what this says about the book’s chances of winning the Hugo Award. We will see.

The Demolished Man (Book)

Murder. Nightmares. The Man with No Face. Peepers & Espers. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun. Id & Super-ego. Motive. Demolition.

Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man won the 1953 Hugo Award, the first Hugo Award ever given out. The novel is a classic and has a tone that reminds me of the old Twilight Zone TV Series.  The book is relatively timeless; although, it does contain some of the 50’s attitudes toward women. Also, 1950’s readers probably would have been more familiar with the psychological concepts and references to extra sensory perception than current readers. Otherwise, if I had never heard of the book and someone had torn out the copyright page, I might have mistaken the book for a much more current novel.

Briefly, in a society where there have been no murders in 79 years, Ben Reich murders Craye D'Courtney. Lincoln Powell, the head of police, is a telepath—called a “peeper” or “Esper”—and knows that Reich committed the murder, but that is not enough for a conviction. Lincoln must find conventional proof. Much of the story consists of a cat and mouse game between the two. Bester also has the reader wondering. “Who is the man with no face?” “What is demolition?” “What is Reich’s motive for the murder?” “Who is trying to harm Reich?”

The Demolished Man is one of the books that helped create the foundation for current Science Fiction. I almost feel that reading it was a rite of passage for me.

Double Star (Book)

Brother, until you’ve been in politics you haven’t been alive….It’s rough and sometimes it’s dirty and it’s always hard work and tedious details. But it’s the only sport for grownups. All other games are for kids. All of ‘em.

Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein is both timeless and a wonderful relic. Something about it just makes me smile, conjuring up in my mind some of the current retro trends in fashion. This winner of the 1956 Hugo Award--the third Hugo Award for a novel ever given out--is a short, simple book, full of slang from the 1950’s. Yet, the basic theme can easily be applied to our current time.

Briefly, a somewhat down on his luck actor sees an astronaut in a bar on Earth. The actor decides to make friends, thinking the astronaut might be a source of a little money. The astronaut offers the actor an unspecified acting gig. In time the reader finds out the acting gig is to impersonate a major political figure, who has been kidnapped, for a one-time political appearance on Mars. The plot goes in some interesting directions from there.

This is not a particularly deep book, but it has a meaningful message. It speaks to some of the social issues of the 1950’s as well as the basic disillusionment many of us feel toward politics. The description of humankind’s expansion into the solar system and the aliens from Mars is interesting because of the way it reflects on the 1950’s. While this isn’t a “must read,” it is definitely worth reading.

A Fire Upon the Deep (Book)

What I most admire about Vernor Vinge is his ability to create interesting worlds—planets and galaxies—and alien species. In A Deepness in the Sky he describes the Spiders. In the 1993 Hugo Award winner, A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor describes a number of interesting species, including the Tines. For me they are what make the book worth reading. The Tines look like odd shaped dogs, but each pack shares one consciousness. They can’t function as singletons, and at times may need to add new members in order to be fully functional. The consciousness of one individual, the Woodcarver, has survived for over 500 years, despite losing individual members. When a human and Tine interacts, Vinge not only has to describe what the Tine is saying, but also what various members are doing. Despite the Tines being doglike, Vinge stays away from anything that is cutesy or cartoonish.

Briefly, a human colony experimenting with ancient technology accidentally releases an entity, the Blight. Before the Blight destroys the colony, one spaceship escapes. It carries a family, over a hundred children in deep-sleep, and a countermeasure that may possibly destroy the Blight. The spaceship crash-lands on Tines, a medieval planet inhabited by the Tines, a dog-like species. The two parents are murdered. Their two children are rescued/captured by opposite factions in a war. In the meantime the Blight begins to wipe out thousands of worlds. A group of two humans and two plant-like aliens tries to find the ship with the countermeasure and rescue the children.

I admit that I again got bogged down in reading A Fire Upon the Deep as I did with A Deepness in the Sky. I am not sure whether I wasn’t emotionally invested enough in the characters or if the plot's peaks and valleys don’t match the rhythm I like in a book. Intellectually I found it very interesting. The book is highly rated on a number of websites.

This book marks my completion of reading the Hugo Award winners from 1958 through 2010. Yeah!!! I still plan to read two more Hugo Award winners, books published before the Hugo awards were given out annually. I also plan to read this year’s nominees, which requires that I catch up on Bujold’s Vorkosigan series. After that, I want to choose my reading-list a little bit more organically. I enjoy quirky books with warm characters and interesting science or, sometimes, history.

I Need Somebody to Love (Reflections)

I need somebody to love when I read a novel. As I finish up reading the Hugo Winners from 1958 to the present, I have been reflecting on my experience. I enjoy and feel rewarded by novels where I can learn more about science. I appreciate and admire an original setting. Quick pacing or witty narrative can make a book more fun. But the deal breaker for me is character development. Looking at the ratings on Worlds Without End, my local library’s website, and the listing of awards, I can see that is not true for all science fiction and fantasy readers.

I need characters for whom I can feel significantly empathetic in order to feel motivated to keep reading a book. Otherwise finishing the book is more of a chore for me and less of a pleasure. I like my characters fully fleshed out and four-dimensional. I want to know their quirks and flaws, their aspirations, and their fears. I like to know a little bit about their back-stories. The Civil War veteran Enoch Wallace in Way Station by Clifford D. Simak and Ender in Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card especially moved me. The novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell created a unique experience for me. A number of times while reading the book I caught myself wondering whether Mr. Norrell was a good, likeable person. In retrospect, I think that he is so much of a curmudgeon that he gets a free pass.

I enjoy books where I relate so much to the characters that I begin to experience my own world from their viewpoints. When I was walking to my local library a few days ago, after I finished reading Paladin of Souls, I noticed black smoke coming from the local funeral home; obviously someone was being cremated. What fascinated me was that I saw the scene out of Ista’s eyes. I felt her feelings. I heard in my heart words that seemed like they would have come from her. Bujold’s writing, when it is at its best, does that to me. Similar experiences have happened to me after reading numerous other Hugo Winners. Sometimes this gets a bit weird. After reading the books in The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer—Hominids won a Hugo Award—I experienced my world from the viewpoint of an evolved Neanderthal. Similarly after reading David Brin’s Startide Rising and Uplift War, I experienced the world from the viewpoints of a neo-dolphin and a new-chimpanzee.

All the Hugo Award winners—with perhaps an exception or two—are good or great books. But, for me, they were not all enjoyable books. Orson Scott Card, in the introduction to Ender's Game, talks about what we as readers bring to the experience of reading a book. I realize I bring a longing to have someone take me by the hand and share their world and life experiences with me. Each reader of a book, including a Hugo Award winning novel, will bring a different set of desires and experiences.

Paladin of Souls (Book)

Tch, tch, tch, look at yourself, bittersweet Ista. Saint, sorceress, dowager royina of all Chalion-Ibra, converses with gods, when not cursing them…

I believe that the reason Paladin of Souls won the 2004 Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Fantasy awards goes beyond Lois McMaster Bujold’s usual masterful storytelling. The story resonates with something deep inside many readers. It is an example of the hero’s journey, an archetypal experience that leads to wholeness. The book speaks to our internal questioning about our purpose in life, as well as our struggles to communicate with the Divine—in the world of Chalion, the five gods. Don’t get me wrong, this is also a fun, relatively fast-paced adventure.

Bujold first introduces Ista, in The Curse of Chalion, as Teidez and Iselle mother, a woman made mad by a curse put on the kingdom and by the guilt of accidentally murdering her husband’s male lover. By the time Paladin of Souls takes place, Ista has recovered, but her family and servants are still overprotective of her. Ista runs away from home in the guise of taking a spiritual pilgrimage, accompanied by a spiritual adviser and a minimum of servants. (Her lady-in-waiting is a courier who knows more about horses than royal ladies.) After being attacked by raiders, Ista is rescued by a patrol from Castle Porifors. But, something more sinister is going on than just an expected attack from a rival kingdom. In addition, at Castle Porifors Ista comes to realize that she is the answer to someone else’s prayers. As the plot unfolds, she slowly becomes a paladin—a champion or hero—to souls.

Paladin of Souls is the second book of the three book Chalion Series. My guess is that many people could easily read it as a stand-alone novel. It is one of my favorite Hugo Award winning novels.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Book)

Theoretical, Practical, & Street Magicians. Fairies. Prophecies. Enchantment. Kings. Servants. Rogues. Napoleon.

The winner of the 2005 Hugo and British Fantasy Society awards, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, is a (somewhat) grown-up fairy tale. Although it is a rather long book, the wry humor of the narration and the plot twists and turns make it a fun read.

In the early 1800s, when the people of England think magic is a thing of the past, Mr. Norrell presents himself as a practicing magician. Early on in the story he brings back a woman from the dead, partially as a way of proving his abilities. Unfortunately he uses the services of a fairy, which leads to some unexpected and unpleasant consequences as the story unfolds. Norrell soon finds that he is not the only practicing magician. The young man Jonathan Strange also decides to take up magic and finds that he is quite good at it. Norrell is proud and bases everything on information from his huge library of books, which he tries to keep from aspiring magicians. Strange is much more free and experiential. Their relationship threads its way throughout the book. At different times within the story they are student and teacher, rivals, friends, and colleagues. Also winding its way throughout the book is a prophecy given by a supposed huckster and street magician foretelling the fates of the magicians and a “nameless slave.”

While Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is primarily good entertainment, Clarke is also mindful of the issues of classism, racism, and sexism, which were even more prevalent in the early 1800s. Clarke also seems to allude to other ideas, using magic as a metaphor. In one exchange Arabella, Strange’s wife tells him, “I thought you meant to be a magician not an explorer!” Strange answers, “It is the same thing. An explorer cannot stay at home reading maps other men have made. A magician cannot increase the stock of magic by reading other men’s books.” In my opinion, the world needs more well-read explorers.

A Deepness in the Sky (Book)

A sun that turns on and off. A spider race. Folk heroes in disguise. Brilliant slaves. People in cold sleep. Nanotechnology. Deceptions. Exploitation.

I found the 2000 Hugo award and Campbell award winning novel, Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, brilliant and thought provoking, but I did not enjoy reading it. For me it was too long, too dark, didn’t have enough warm, and didn’t have enough science to keep my attention. Perhaps the bad guys were just too evil for me. Yet, the premise is fascinating.

An inhabited planet encircles a sun that goes on and off—almost like a furnace—every two hundred and fifty years. The planet has a very hot period, an inhabitable period, and a frigid period when the inhabitants must be in a type of hibernation underground: in the deepness. The inhabitants are a spider-like species. During each inhabitable period, the Spiders must rebuild what has been lost to the cold and relighting of the sun and then further their technology with the time they have left. Two human races go to the planet just before the relighting the sun. One is a merchant race, the Qeng Ho. The other is an opportunist race, the Emergents. The Emergents have found that by using a virus and magnetic wave technology they can create a group of slaves so focused that they are almost machinelike—think someone with Asperger syndrome but many times more focused. The Qeng Ho and Emergents briefly go to war, and the Emergents come out the winner, but their resources are seriously depleted. Along with the captured Qeng Ho, they wait for the Spiders to achieve enough technological knowledge so that they can help rebuild the Emergent ships. The Emergents monitor the Spider technology and then infiltrate and corrupt it.

I was fascinated by the concept that all civilizations rise and fall, gaining and then losing technological ability. Another interesting idea—not explored enough—was human’s ability to relate to a totally alien species. A third concept was the right to control one's own destiny.

A Deepness in the Sky is the prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep, the 1993 Hugo award winner.

American Gods (Book)

Forgotten Gods. New Gods. Con Games. Coin Tricks. Road Trips. The Coming Storm.

The winner of the 2002 Hugo, Locus Science Fiction, and Nebula awards can be easily described by its title, American Gods. The story is about the gods and myths that the immigrants brought to America as well as the new ones later created. At times, Neil Gaiman’s story is gross, horrifying, and perhaps sacrilegious. Yet, it is also warm, thought-provoking, and brilliant.

Shadow is a big, loveable lug, who at the beginning of the story is just about to be paroled after serving three years of a six year sentence for assaulting two men. He wants nothing more than to be reunited with his wife and work in the job that his best friend has offered him. Just before the release, he finds out that this wife has been killed in a car accident. Soon after the release, he discovers that his best friend was also killed in the accident, while engaging in a compromising act with Shadow’s wife. With no wife and no job, Shadow is ripe for the advances of Mr. Wednesday, who offers him a mysterious job. Shadow goes on to meet bizarre individuals and have strange experiences.

This would be a great book for an English class, a writing group, or a book group. Gaiman takes a premise, American gods, and builds an original story around it. While not a great fan of dead people coughing up maggots, I have to admit that I enjoyed the book and admire Gaiman. I am not sure I would have picked it up on my own and am grateful that the Hugo Award list led me to it.

2011 Hugo Award Nominees Announced

• Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
• Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
• Feed by Mira Grant
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

I am not sure whether I am obsessed or merely passionate. Yesterday, the Hugo Award nominees were to be announced after 2pm PDT. I went on-line around 2:15 and checked the list of nominated novels against the books in our county library system. I found we didn’t have The Dervish House. By 2:30, I already had e-mailed the library requesting it buy the book. I have not read any of these books yet.

Blackout is also nominated for a Nebula Award. Blackout and All Clear is/are essentially one novel divided into two books. I enjoyed Willis’ previous two Hugo Award winning time-travel books and am looking forward to reading this/these one/two.

Cryoburn is the fourteenth book in the Vorkosigan Saga. I left off at the ninth. I guess I will be busy reading this series for awhile.

The Dervish House recently won The British Science Fiction Award and is nominated for the Clarke award.

Feed is written by Seanan McGuire under the pen name Mira Grant. I am not familiar with the author. This looks likes it is the first in a series.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is also nominated for a Nebula Award. This is the first book in a trilogy.

I still have six—some very long—books to go before I have finished reading the Hugo Award winning novels from 1958 to the present. Hopefully I will begin to read the 2011 nominees late in May.

To Say Nothing of the Dog (Book)

History was indeed controlled by blind forces, as well as character and courage and treachery and love.

Dogs & Cats. Séances. Church Restorations. Bird Stumps. Jumble Sales. The Space-Time Continuum. The 1999 Hugo and Locus Science Fiction award winning novel, To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, is part time-travel, part mystery, and all fun. Poor Ned Henry has a bad case of time-lag after traveling to the 1940’s too many times in search of information—particularly about a bird stump—for Lady Schrapnell, who is rebuilding Coventry Cathedral. To hide from Lady Schrapnell, Ned is sent to 1888 for some much needed rest and to return something that was mistakenly brought back by Verity, another time traveler. At the center of the mystery is Lady Schrapnell’s great-great-great-great-grandmother. A diary says that she is supposed to fall in love with and marry a mysterious Mr. C., but instead she becomes engaged to a young man Ned meets when he first arrives. In going back in time, has Ned accidentally altered the space-time continuum and history? Has Verity? Who is Mr. C.? Can Ned and Verity set everything right?

I want more! I loved Willis’s Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Forever Peace (Book)

Nanotechnology. Universal Welfare State. Humanization. The End of the World. In Forever Peace—winner of the 1998 Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards—Joe Haldeman once again explores the subject of war. As part of the draft, Julian, who in civilian job life is a physicist, is required to spend ten days a month jacked to a remote controlled soldierboy. The jack implanted in his skull not only allows him to operate the robot, but also connects him to the other members of his military unit. For those ten days he is intimately connected to all their physical and emotional feelings, their memories, and even their knowledge.

In a raid gone wrong, Julian accidentally kills a boy with his soldierboy, causing Julian’s emotional health to deteriorate. About this same time, his girlfriend discovers that the particle accelerator project that she has been involved with might trigger a new Big Bang, ending the world as we know it. In addition, one of Julian’s other friends, decides that he can use the brain jacks to bring peace to earth.

The book is relatively fast moving and has plenty of action. Some of the social issues are thought-provoking. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Maybe, it is just more of a guy’s book.

The Diamond Age (Book)

Confucius. Nanotechnology. Neo-Victorians. Ractors. Tribes. Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer.

Reading the 1996 Hugo Award and Locus Science Fiction Award winning novel, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, was a refreshing experience for me. While I see it categorized on-line as Cyberpunk, I don’t feel comfortable putting it into any one box. I was drawn into the story from the very beginning and found myself carried along by my curiosity about how the story would unfold.

I would have titled the book, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, because much of the novel centers on the primer. A nanotechnological engineer creates a primer for a wealthy client to give to his granddaughter in order to ensure that she will grow up to be an exceptional woman. The primer tells “stories to a young person, tailoring them for the child’s needs and interests—even teaching them to read if need be.” The engineer, who has a daughter about the same age as the granddaughter, makes an illegal copy of the book. Unfortunately, he is mugged by a gang and his copy of the primer stolen by one of the boys. The boy gives it to his four year old sister, Nell, who immediately bonds with the book. It tells hers stories that incorporate what is going on in her life. This includes Nell’s attachment to her four dolls/stuffed animals as well as the physical abuse and neglect she experiences. Many of the stories are in the style of Grimm’s fairytales. The stories also have an anonymous human element to them, ractors—think actors who help create animated movies and games. Nell interacts with the primer well into her teenage years.

The Diamond Age is just a good over all story. As a reader, I felt the love that an older brother or father has for a little sister/daughter, yet the book was not in the least bit sentimental. It contained a few moments of humor. In a few places, I found some profound wisdom, yet I would not describe the book as especially philosophical.--Stephenson brings up some interesting points in regard to the topics of belonging to a tribe, discipline and intelligence.--The neo-Victorian subculture presented in the book isn’t just an affectation, but adds to the story. The book contains some sex and violence, but it also contains moments of childlike innocence. It is an odd book, but a very pleasing one to read.

Stupid vs. Intelligent People (Quote)

I found this quote in The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson and needed to share it:

…the difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people—and this is true whether or not they are well-educated—is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations—in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward.

Hyperion (Book)

Parasitic Cruciforms. Ghost Lovers. Daughters Aging In Reverse. Murderous Monsters. Cybrid Lovers. John Keats. Reading Dan Simmons’ novel Hyperion, the winner of the 1990 Hugo and Locus Science Fiction awards, is a little bit like opening a box filled with puzzle pieces and not knowing what the puzzle is supposed to look like. Read as a stand-alone book, it is a series of short stories, woven together by a central plot. Each story describes what has driven one of the characters to go on a pilgrimage to the Time Tombs, where they risk being killed by the Shrike. Based on what I have read on the internet, the almost five hundred page novel is the first half of a longer story that is completed in Fall of Hyperion.

My first reaction was that I didn’t like the book. It was too coarse and violent for me.—I like science fiction books with a lot of science and sympathetic characters—Yet, the book is unusual and very original. Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion combined won a total of four major awards and were even mentioned in one of the books in the Mars Series by Kim Stanley. Why? Out of sheer curiosity I am going to read Fall of Hyperion.

Blue Mars (Book)

When many of us, as little kids, thought about the future, this is the world that we dreamed of living in. Millions of people are living on Mars. Earth has begun to colonize planets around other stars. People can expect to live well into their two hundreds.

Blue Mars, the winner of both the 1997 Hugo and Locus Science Fiction awards, completes Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. Like the previous two book, Red Mars and Green Mars, the scope in Blue Mars is incredible. Robinson continues to describe the experiences of the First Hundred, as well as those of some other major characters. At times, the story is intimate, describing a character’s innermost thoughts. At other times, the story can be highly scientific, describing complex theories. At times, the story is highly philosophical, describing how Mars changes the psyche of the settlers. At other times, the story is highly sociological, describing how the new government is set up and how the different political parties maneuver for power. In addition, the timeframe of the combined trilogy encompasses almost two hundred years.

Briefly, Blue Mars begins after the second revolution on Mars. The original Hundred Colonists are now out of hiding, terraforming continues to make the surface more and more livable, and the Martians begin to set up their own government. However, they are not totally free from the influence of Earth, which has undergone a serious of major challenges. In Green Mars, half of the Antarctic icecap had melted, raising sea level seven meters, and the introduction of the longevity drug had compounded the problems of overpopulation. In Blue Mars, these continue to affect the lives of the characters. In addition, as the years progress the first people to take the longevity drug are now beginning to have neurological problems, most of which involve memory. Then, there are the implications of just expecting to live a long life. Threads begun in Red and Green Mars continue to weave their way through Blue Mars on both small and large scales.

The Mars Series deserves to be savored. When I read it again, as I hope to do some time in the future, I would like to read just a few pages at a time, enjoying the descriptions. For example, in one scene of Blue Mars, Sax and Maya are discussing the colors of the Martian sky, which from the very beginning of Red Mars is described as having colors, particularly shades of purple, that there are no words for in Earth languages. In addition, the series contains levels of meaning that I don’t think are apparent on a quick read. For example, much of Blue Mars describes the search for Hiroko, the illusive matriarch of the first generations born on Mars. After over 1600 pages, I feel almost disloyal moving onto another book, but more Hugo winning novels await.

Green Mars (Book)

Revolution meant shattering one structure and creating another one, but shattering was easier than creating, and so the two parts of the act were not necessarily fated to be equally successful. In that sense, building a revolution was like building an arch; until both columns were there, and the keystone in place, practically any disruption could bring the whole thing crashing down.

Green Mars, the winner of the 1994 Hugo and Locus Science Fiction awards, continues where Red Mars left off. In the beginning of the story, the major characters are dealing with the aftermath of their failed revolution against the Transnats and Earth’s control. The characters are hiding in the underground and trying to live meaningful lives. Slowly, they attempt to live above ground and have an influence on the future shape of Mars, both physically and socially. At the end of the book, they are again engaged in a revolution. Throughout the book, Mars is being terraformed by both biological and artificial means.

In Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson continues to tell the story of the first 100 colonists, who thanks to the longevity treatments are now in their hundreds. He also adds some new characters: the natives, who were born on Mars and are the biological children of some of the original colonists; and some people from Praxis, a sympathetic transnational company.

I am having problems putting the Mars Series down, despite my best intentions to pace myself. Like Red Mars, Green Mars felt very real to me, almost like watching a PBS special. Robinson does an excellent job of describing the terraforming. His descriptions of the biology, geology, ecology, and engineering seem very plausible to me. He includes issues related to psychology, religion, economics, and politics. His description of the Transnats taking over whole countries on Earth gave me pause because it seems like such a logical next step. The characters are multi-dimensional and, for the most part, sympathetic. Robinson includes enough action to prevent the story from getting bogged down. Blue Mars, which I am about to start reading, completes the Mars Series.

Speaker for the Dead (Book)

Understanding the Other...Uncovering the Whole Story…Redeeming the Past. The 1987 Hugo Award, 1987 Locus Science Fiction Award and 1986 Nebula Award winning novel, Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card is one of the most deeply philosophical and fascinating science fiction novels I have ever read. Based on all the many awards that it received, I gather that I am not the only one that felt changed by reading the book.

The concept of the speaker of the dead is an interesting one, easily applicable to my life. In the book, the speakers of the dead tell the story of people’s lives, both the good and the bad. The speakers tell not only what the deceased did, but also what they intended to do and why they did what they did. The speakers are a combination of researcher/detective, storyteller, and an almost religious figure. In the book, the speaker may only do the speaking on the request of the decedent or someone close to the decedent. The First Speaker was Ender—of Ender’s Game—who anonymously wrote a book about the victims of his xenocide. As I grow up, I find myself talking more honestly—and compassionately—about people who have passed away.

The second interesting concept is based on the writing of Ender’s sister, Valentine, who writes as Demosthenes. From what I can figure out these ideas come partially from Nordic language and partially from Card. Strangers are described on a continuum, using four terms: Utlanning, the human of our world; Framling, the human of another world; Raman, the human of another species; Varelse, those with whom no conversation is possible. The implication and extrapolations of these concepts could easily fill several weeks’ worth of blogs. I encounter this idea of stranger almost every day in the news. Recently when I was watching a local politician, I realized that he didn’t see those who disagreed with him as fully human; they were very other to him. In the United States some people don’t recognize gays, Hispanics, Union members, Democrats/Republicans as Utlanning. [I just read that Card was against gay marriage, so I am not sure he would agree with all my thoughts about his book.] One could surmise that more people in the US recognize the Japanese as Utlanning than they do people in the Middle East. In Speaker of the Dead, Card introduces the reader to a very revealing concept that permeates out lives.

Ah yes, I suppose I need to give a quick overview of the plot. Ender is now biologically 35, but chronologically over 3000 years old due to the relativity of time travel. Traveling from planet to planet with his sister Valentine, Ender speaks for the dead; no one knows that he is the First Speaker and the person who committed xenocide. Ender receives a request from a young woman whose mentor has been murdered on an experimental colony by the piggies, only the second alien species to be encountered. By the time that Ender arrives—22 years chronologically but only weeks for Ender biologically—the woman has withdrawn her request, but two more requests have been made for a speaker based on the deaths of two other individuals. One of the new deaths is again attributed to the piggies. Ender works as part detective and part confessor. His presence and his uncovering of the truth radically change the lives of everyone on the planet.

While the book is primarily about people, the science and politics are also interesting. Card describes how a single event shapes the lives of a whole family. Card also shows how Ender changes those he meets. The very otherness of the biology that shapes the planet is fascinating. The questioning of basic premises behind scientific and political decisions is eye opening.

Ender’s Game and Speaker of the Dead have a tremendous potential to truly change reader’s lives, because they cause many people to question the way they think and their basic assumptions. Now, I am off to reading more Hugo Award winning novels and having my thinking changed even more.