Snow Crash: Neal Stephenson

My first impression of this book is that it reads like something a teenager would write about his kooky adventures as an unsung hero, I don’t mean that in a negative way, by any means, because I think it was intended to be read sort of like that. I think it gives off that vibe because of the severe lack of pronouns and also the fact that the protagonist of the story, “the deliverator” is amped up to be this superb hero despite the fact that pizza delivery boy isn’t the most lucrative of job descriptions. I think the fact that it’s written like that made the book all the more interesting to me. For one, it was grounded in a reality I semi understood and it was mildly humorous and so it caught my attention, whereas most sci-fi novels don’t typically do that for me. So the story plays out with Hiro, the protagonist and so called “Deliverator” who is a former pizza deliverator for the mafia, freelance spy, hacker and concert promoter, meanwhile the US government has collapsed with the NSA and the library of congress, as it’s only remnants. The responsibilities of government have now been taken on by different franchises causing there to be a weird overlap between business and government. During the telling of the story Hiro discovers a new drug called snow crash thanks to the help of a newfound friend Y.T.  The story continues on with Hiro using his computer hacking skills and superior abilities with swords to unravel the mysteries of this new narcotic. I found the story rather interesting, I enjoyed traipsing through this new found world and exploring the decline of cultures and societies and seeing how they rebuilt themselves, for instance Kong bucks because the inflation of the dollar was so profound. I think it was an interesting take on the world if businesses were allowed to be on the same footing as government. All in all I would say it was a very clever novelization.  

Dune: Frank Herbert

This week for literature of horror, fantasy and sci-f I read Dune by Frank Herbert. Dune, as it turns out, is a complex piece of literary work dealing with a time period in the not so distant future in which the story of Paul Atreides, the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides, is told. The story revolves around the family’s control over Arrakis a desert planet which happens to be the only known place to obtain Melange, a type of spice that is the most important, valuable substance in the entire universe. The story explores a lot of fascinating themes like religion and power and the ability for humans to have control over the environment. I thought it was an intriguing notion that “Dune” addressed religion in a way that it was such a prominent feature within the novel. Thinking about it more, I realize how little other things within the sci-fi genre touch on religion. Looking more into it I realized that Herbert actually held a different outlook on religion as an institution, as opposed to his contemporaries. Hebert’s outlook on the future and religion’s place within it has religion and politics heavily intertwined whereas other science fiction writers took the approach of religion being an outdated institution that would lose all functionality when the future approached. I think it’s fascinating that Herbert took such a different approach when it came to religion; I think in part that’s why  he’s such a critically acclaimed author because he wasn’t afraid to point out that religion wasn’t just a faint or new idea and that years in the future it could very well still be a crucial player in our day to day affairs. I also think it’s brilliant how the his story seems to be making observations about life even though it’s told through the efforts of a futuristic story. For instance the idea of the Fremen being controlled by religion seems to be a good way of highlighting the way cults work and how charismatic religious leaders can sometimes exploit the religious for their own ends. Herbert’s outlook on religion, as implied by Dune, is that when mixed with power and greed it could be the most detrimental thing to a person’s way of life. A leader like that really seems to be unstoppable to his followers and it’s that belief that makes the leader all the more powerful.

 Another interesting concept that Herbert addresses within “Dune” is the idea of humanity having power over the environment. Within the novel an ecologist by the name of Kynes is determined to altar the harsh desert climate of Arrakis into a more lush tropical one, a dream that Paul is more than happy to continue with after Kyne’s death. No one seems to question whether it is right to completely altar the eco-system and typical planetary conditions, that have kept numerous animal lives alive on the planet. This brings to mind the way we, as a whole, treat the planet we live on today. Herbert seems to be trying to point out that things like the damaging of the rain forest and the ozone layer for our own benefit in the here and now, will only hurt us  in the future. Although the repercussions are blind to us presently we mustn’t take it upon ourselves to completely altar the ecological makeup of our environment because we will surely pay for them later.

It’s themes like these that I think propelled Herbert’s book far above it’s time and is why it has gained the reputation as one of the greatest sci-fi writers. He addressed ideologies that I don’t think a lot of science fiction writers were thinking about at the time.

The Stars my Destination: Alfred Bester

The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester is a novel that stars an unambitious, sluggish caricature of the common man, Gully Foyle.  The novel starts with an explanation of “jaunting” a form of personal teleportation discovered accidentally by scientists, and how that ability had become so common place that it upset the balance of world order, disrupting dwelling patterns, security patterns and the hierarchy of social classes to the point where there is an all out inter planetary war between the inner planets and the outer satellites, with the outer satellites maintaining the upper hand. Gully Foyle was the victim of one of the many battles that occurred during the war, leaving him the sole survivor on his space ship stranded in the middle of the vast beyond.  One of the biggest transformation points for him in this novel comes when the “Vorga” space ship sails past his own ship. Excited to finally be rescued, Foyle shot off a flare, which was then ignored by the Vorga space ship. It was at this point that Foyle, previously described as a character lacking ambition, became consumed by vengeance and rage at his blatant abandonment, and using his want to exact revenge upon the captain and crew of the Vorga as reason to live, Foyle crudely repairs his own ship. The rest of the novel plays out following Foyle on his mission for vengeance against those who wronged him.

He is soon picked up by a cult of people who are descendants of an abandoned science team from the 24^th century; these people give him a wife, Moira, and also a hideous tiger tattoo on his face. The facial mask seems to be a physical representation of how brutish and savage Foyle’s inner turmoil has become. Foyle makes his escape from the “Scientific Race” ripping a hole in the side of their space colony as he does so. The story picks up with Foyle going through jaunt rehabilitation. At this point in the novel we start learning about how society has formed around jaunting, if you wanted any sort of career, jaunting was a necessity, with non-jaunters labeled as unemployable with the bacteria mines being the only exception (only place they could work). (This reminds me of the movie Gattaca actually with the idea of your biological makeup determining your job capabilities, I find that aspect of it to be very fascinating that science fiction movies really display the involvement of science in determining the roles of people’s lives. ) The story picks back up with Foyle’s jaunt rehabilitation teacher discovering that he wasn’t in need of rehab and was only there in an attempt to find out information on Vargos, thanks to that Foyle doesn’t hesitate in threatening to kill and ultimately raping her, this incidence displays how far he would go to get what he thought he deserved.

The story carries on with the ultimate end being Foyle making a last ditch effort to completely break away from his past and start anew.

I found this book to be a very interesting read, it delved into a lot of social and political issues and really explored how far one person would go to exact revenge I found it an interesting notion that up until the point where Foyle was enraptured in retribution he was a common place man with no ambition whatsoever but his embitterment empowered him. It seems like one of those things  where the protagonist needed to find something to draw strength from and although revenge was good fuel at the time, it ended up costing him a lot more than it was worth in the end.

Stardust: Neil Gaiman

Stardust proved to be an interesting read, mostly because I had the pre-existing notion of the movie behind it. Truthfully I watched the movie “Stardust” eons before I realized it was a book, and I loved it! The movie version of Stardust, for me, is the ultimate feel good movie. So naturally when we were given the opportunity to read a Neil Gaiman novel, I jumped at the chance to read the book that inspired the movie that captivated my attention. The book was an excellent read, though very different in major ways from the movie, which for me was a surprise. I think the movie production of the movie did what it could to make it a more movie appropriate story, which I personally don’t mind, but I feel if I had read the novel before the book, it would have irked me more than it did having been introduced to the movie first.

The story starts off with Dunstan Thorn from the village of wall, which is separated from the Fairy world by, what else, a wall. Every nine years a fairy market takes place and villagers from wall are allowed to partake in said market, where he meets the enslaved princess Una.as the story plays out we find out that Dunstan’s one night with Una has procured him a son, which is sent in a basket through the opening in the wall. Years go by and this son, Tristran, falls for Victoria Forester, the most beautiful girl in town, who promises him anything he wants if he could retrieve the fallen star, they both had seen, and bring it to her. This is the call to adventure that sets Tristran off on his quest.

The story follows him on his journey to rescue the fallen start for his ladylove and the reader, much like Tristran soon find out that stars in fairy world are actually in the form of humans, and in this case the star was a petulant woman, by the name of Yvaine. Taking Yvaine back to wall proved difficult and the story basically delves into all the characters they meet and the characters that are trying to resolve their own ends and how they all relate in the grand scheme if things.

Personally I think I prefer the movie to the book. I say this because the movie characters had more weight to them. I was really disappointed as to how one-dimensional some of the characters felt, it was as though they had no purpose for being there. For instance the sky pirates who rescued them, were there, yes, with the intention of finding them a way out of the clouds and taking them part of the way so they could arrive at their destination much sooner, however in the movie the sky pirates did much more than that and instead had them teaching Tristran things like how to fight etc. also that point in the movie was a true turning point in the way Yvaine felt about Tristran. This is another issue that I had with the novel, the relationship that was supposed to happen between Tristran and Yvaine kind of happened as a matter of fact type of thing it didn’t grow and flow naturally. That is probably a personal preference as to how character relationships develop on my part but I really was disappointed by how that panned out. Holistically, it was a decent read, I would suggest reading it if you are a fan of Neil Gaiman. I personally found out lacking in some quality, that I can’t put my figure on but that probably has to do with the fact that I had watched the movie prior to reading this novel.