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.

The Fall of Hyperion (Book)

Sol realized that he had responded to a force more basic and persuasive than the Shrike’s terror or pain’s dominion. If he was right—and he did not know but felt—then love was as hardwired into the structure of the universe as gravity and matter/antimatter. There was room for some sort of God not in the web between the walls, not in the singularity cracks in the pavement, not somewhere out before and beyond the sphere of things…but in the very warp and woof of things. Evolving as the universe evolved. Learning as the learning-able parts of the universe learned. Loving as humankind loved.

In The Fall of Hyperion, winner of the 1991 British Science Fiction and Locus Science Fiction awards, Dan Simmons concludes the story he began to tell in Hyperion. If reading Hyperion was like opening a box full of puzzle pieces without knowing what the picture looked like, The Fall of Hyperion is like slowly putting the puzzle together, finding an edge here, matching a bit of graphic there.

The Hegemony of Man is at war with the Ousters. Factions of artificial intelligences within the TechnoCore are at war with one another. Humans are at war with the TechnoCore. Both humans and Artificial Intelligences are looking for the Ultimate Intelligence. Page by page we discover that the role of the Time Tomb pilgrims in this larger context is to be the only unpredictable factor in the outcome of events.

I liked The Fall of Hyperion much more than Hyperion. Although The Fall of Hyperion contains more violence and horror than I prefer, I now understand their purpose in the context of the larger plot. The book is philosophical—it referred to Teilhard a number of times—as well as full of action and adventure. While this book brings closure to the tale of the Time Tomb pilgrims, Dan Simmons continued the storyline in two subsequent books, creating the Hyperion Cantos.