Kicking it Old School: The Dispossessed

I've been traipsing around in the annals of old school SF again, this time around I decided to explore the fertile ground that is the works published list of Ursula K. Le Guin.  I picked out The Dispossessed based on the back blurb, and a staff recommendation from my favorite local bookstore.

A few generations ago, the moon Anarres, with its bleak desert-like landscape, was settled by an anarchic utopian civilization.  Urras, the mother planet, is a planet much like our own. It has a capitalist system with extreme wealth and severe poverty, as well as it's fair share of warring nations, and savage inequalities.  On the surface, the two planets seem like night and day, and that discrepancy has led to hatred and misunderstanding between the two planets for years.

Shevek, a brilliant physicist from Anarres is underappreciated and underutilized on his own planet. So he decides to undertake a most unheard of mission, and travels to Urras in hopes of pursuing his physics career, learning about this unknown world, to share his knowledge, and reunite the two planets.

The Dispossessed has a unique narrative style that I enjoyed quite a lot.  The chapters alternate between focusing on Shevek's time on Urras, and his time on Anarres.  The cool part is that the Urras chapters deal with the events of Shevek's time on the foreign planet, and the Anarres chapters deal with the events of Shevek's life that lead up to his departure from Anarres.  I enjoyed this quality of the book as it made me feel like I was having to put together a mental jigsaw puzzle so that I could understand the book.

There was a bit of a drawback however, as it makes the reader wait a long time for an explanation as to why Shevek decided to leave his home planet behind.  This long development worked as a double-edged sword as it kept me on the hook... to an extent, because for a large portion of the book I didn't understand Shevek's motives, and that led to some frustration on my part.

For me, the most impressive part of this novel is that Le Guin had to create and make real not one world but two, and she did it incredibly well. There were plenty of parallels between Urras and our own, which was a deliberate part of the plot, but Le Guin also made Urras different enough so that it was fun to explore alongside Shevek.  It was interesting to see how further exploration of each planet brought about more highlights and inadequacies of each. The exploration of these two disparate societies reminded me a bit of books like Brave New World, but The Dispossessed explores both the Utopian and Dystopian side by side which I found much more interesting.

In the past, I have had a hard time getting fully into SF books where the focus is on a political exploration/message.  I've often felt like the politics often overtake the narrative and don't leave any space for an interesting story.  For two thirds of The Dispossessed, I felt the same way. However, once the back story kicked in and gave meaning to the current events of the novel, I found myself enjoying it a lot more, and felt rewarded for sticking with it.  It might take a while the whole picture to become clear, but I was glad I hung in there.

I didn't enjoy The Dispossessed as much as my previous Le Guin read, The Lathe of Heaven, but I still enjoyed what this book has to offer.  Despite being published before I was born, it still is a book that can have relevance today.  That should say a lot.  It's not too bad of a read either.

Grade: 7.5 Fanny Packs

Kicking it Old School: Babel-17

I've got another read here that falls into the Kicking it Old School category of things.  This time around, I went for Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17.  I've been wanting to read something by Delany for a while now, but Dhalgren seems too intimidating and Triton seemed less accessible as a first read for an author who is new to me.  So I settled on Babel-17.

In Babel-17 there's a very basic plot dilemma going on;  The good guys, also known as the Earth People's Alliance, are losing a war to alien invaders.  The tricky part is that the aliens are capable of communicating in a language that only they can understand, which makes it really tough for the good guys to defend themselves and plan for their enemy's next moves.  Enter cosmic poetess, aikido blackbelt, star captain, and master of languages, Rydra Wong.  The Earthpeople's Alliance enlists Wong in hopes that she can learn the alien language, and thus help her people win the war.

In order to do so,  Wong puts together a crew to man a starship, and travels the stars dig up bits of the language and piece together meaning in hopes of helping in the war efforts. Along the way, she discovers that Babel-17 can actually alter the way a person thinks, thus making those who hear it engage in acts of sabotage and destruction.

It was pretty interesting to read Babel-17, after reading China Mieville's Embassytown, as they are both novels that explore language and how language makes people think and act.  It was also interesting to see how each author took very different approaches to exploring language.  It was also interesting to see how each author, despite taking separate approaches to exploring language, failed to capture my interest in the topic at hand.

I guess I'm just not all that into reading about language.

Though most of the best qualities of this book were overshadowed by the dullness of the subject matter, Delany did have some cool ideas.  Wong wasn't my favorite character ever, not by a long shot.  She was just too damn good at everything.  It was kinda annoying.  Perfection isn't really something I find all that interesting.  Delany's vision of an intergalactic future was pretty cool though.  Many of the humans all had significant body enhancements, which made them resemble human-animal hybrids, which I though was pretty cool, and body enhancements are probably a few logical steps away from tattoos and piercings.

Wong and her crew also got caught in some sort of space-time slipstream where they traveled on the edge of reality, which I found absolutely fascinating...it was sorta a hard concept to understand though and, if you couldn't tell from my description, hard to describe.  But still, I enjoyed trying to wrap my brain around the concept.  Delany also wrote some pretty well orchestrated action scenes, and delivered some tense moments, so even though I didn't totally enjoy this book, I have a good feeling I might click with one of his other works.

I think I'm done reading books that explore language for a while though.

Before I wrap this one up, I just want to point out that ridiculous cover.  How awesomely bad is that?  I'm pretty sure that his meant to Wong, and one of her crew members, but Wong wasn't a blonde-haired white woman, and I didn't really picture the altered humans looking that goofy.  Anyway, this was one of my least successful Kicking it Old School reads, but I'm up for some more Delany in the future.

Grade:  6.5 Teddy Ruxpins

Kicking it Old School: The Guns of Avalon

Welcome to Kicking it Old School, your go-to spot for reviews of old-ass Sci-Fi and Fantasy books from the days of yore.  For my purposes, anything written before I could read, the year 1986, is considered "Old School". This is the latest in my Kicking it Old School series of reviews.  

I know I've been slipping lately, the blog hasn't been receiving as many updates as it should, and while all areas of the blog have suffered a bit, the Kicking it Old School feature has been sidelined for over a month, which is a god damned travesty. 

Though my posting regularity has slipped up, my reading hasn't. So when I found myself craving and oldie-but-a-goodie to read for this feature, I found myself drawn back to the world of Amber, and the adventures of Corwin of House Amber.  

For a quick recap: The throne of Amber, long sat upon by Oberon, the father of Corwin, and a bunch of other siblings, has been mysteriously vacated for centuries. While the old man is AWOL, the kids have been fighting over the rule of Amber.  Amber is the one true world, and all other worlds, there appears to be an infinite amount of them, (ours included) are mere shadows of Amber.  As things currently stand, Corwin's bro, Eric, an epic prick from what I've seen of him so far, is the big dog, and has taken the throne of Amber through sheer force of will and martial strength.  When we last saw Corwin, our "Hero", and narrator of these tales, he had failed in an attempt to seize Amber from Eric, and been blinded and chucked in a deep dark dungeon by Eric for the effort.  

Well, it is tough to keep a true son of Amber down. While imprisoned, and healing from his wounds, Corwin meets the long imprisoned, and widely regarded as hella-crazy court wizard Dworkin.  Dworkin works some magics and frees Corwin who instantly begins his plans to make another attempt at claiming the throne of Amber for his own.  The plan is to gather a substance called Jeweler's Rouge, which can be used as gunpowder in Amber, to create an army of gun-toting troops to take over Amber.  

Corwin's journey leads him to Lorraine where he meets up with an his former right-hand man, Ganelon, who appears to have no memory of Corwin.  The two dudes rekindle their long-lost bro ties and join forces to repel a horde of demonic creatures who have been threatening Ganelon's realm.  It turns out these dark forces come from the Courts of Chaos, a place that is, from what I can ascertain, the antithesis of Amber.  

Corwin and Ganelon defeat this dark force, and journey to Avalon where they discover more forces from Chaos. This time around, the forces have already been defeated by one of Corwin's brothers, Benedict.  Benedict lost his arm in the conflict, and while he leads his troops in a mopping up of the enemy, he sends Corwin off to his home to await his return.  

While there, Corwin meets, and sexes up Dara, a young woman claiming to be Benedict's great grand-daughter...kinda gross.  Thanks to her bloodline, Dara is anxious to learn about the pattern of Amber, which will allow her to travel through shadow.  Corwin tells her all about it in return for information. He then gathers his much needed Jeweler's Rouge and heads off to fuck shit up in Amber.  However, when he arrives on the scene, things aren't as he anticipated, and Dara has a surprising role to play in how things shake out.  

Whew, epic plot break-down...

As you can see, The Guns of Avalon is one busy little book, as a lot of things happen in the course of 213 pages.  It felt to me like this is a big set-up book as Zelazny introduces a major threat to Amber, and delivers some interesting twists that appear to have pretty severe ramifications down the road.  I was always a little bored with Corwin's quest to become the ruler of Amber, as I'm not totally convinced he's the right guy for the job.  Even though he is the "hero" of these books, and the narrator of the events, I can't really say I'm a huge fan of the guy.  He's basically an entitled prick...which makes him hard guy to root for.  His squabbles and sibling rivalries seem kinda trivial, however he's very willing to essentially commit genocide in order get what he wants.  The qualities of a Grade-A dick.  

Regardless of how I feel about Corwin, I'm glad the focus appears to be shifting away from Corwin's quest towards something more interesting. 

I get the sense all of this business with Corwin and his personality was deliberate on the part of Zelazny, sort of a "be careful what you wish for" type warning, as Corwin's actions certainly appear to have firmly backfired right in his face. It will be very interesting to see how things play out from here on out.  

Overall, I was quite impressed with The Guns of Avalon.  Zelazny has essentially created a fantasy multiverse where anything can go.  Want demonic goat-headed beasts? Machine gun wielding armies? Tarot card teleportation?  Yup, this series has it all.  It is a crazy, mixed up world that Zelazny has chosen to play around in and he has set things up to be incredibly unpredictable.  So far I really enjoy this unpredictability, and the fact that it leaves the door open to basically all types of craziness.

After reading The Guns of Avalon I'm further convinced that this is a series that should be on everyone fantasy reader's radar.  Zelazny is one creative and inventive writer, and I've been very impressed with the variety of cool and unique fantasy ideas he comes up with.  Needless to say, I am on board for more, and will be sure to get my old-school fix from this series before too long.  

Grade: 9 Cassette Singles

Kicking it Old School: Nine Princes in Amber

Welcome to Kicking it Old School, your go-to spot for reviews of old-ass Sci-Fi and Fantasy books from the days of yore.  For my purposes, anything written before I could read, the year 1986, is considered "Old School". This is the latest in my Kicking it Old School series of reviews.  


Up for review this time I've got the first in Roger Zelazny's epic Amber series, Nine Princes in Amber.

Maybe it's because he's well respected, or maybe it's because he's like, always the last name you see on the fantasy shelf at the bookstores, but Zelazny has always been on my radar, and I've always been intrigued by his Amber series.  A big turnoff for me though, is the sheer SIZE of the collected omnibus edition, which is practically the size of a phone book.

It wasn't until I moved to Seattle, the land of great used bookstores, that I discovered all the small pocket sized individual volumes that make up that great, epic sized Amber omnibus. There's ten dime sized books that make up the one ginormous omnibus, and they all have sweet old school cover art.  I saw them and knew I had to have them all.  The trouble was tracking down all ten, as each book store never had a complete set.  However, being the book bounty hunter that I am, I eventually completed the set.

Anyway, Nine Princes in Amber is where the whole dealie starts.  Right off the bat we meet Corwin, a guy who wakes up in a hospital with no memory of how he got there, or who he is.  However, from his narration of events, it is plain to see that there's something special about him.  Corwin seems to possess some supernatural healing abilities, and before too long he's making a daring escape from the hospital, and tracking down a woman who may know who he is.  Before too long, alongside Corwin, we discover some tid-bits about his past, who he is, and where he's from...which turns out to be a place called Amber, a parallel universe to our own, which is the one true universe.

Also, while investigating his own past, Corwin discovers a special tarot-like deck of cards, called the Trumps, which feature fully rendered paintings of his siblings, about whom details rush back into Corwin's head as he inspects the deck. As it turns out he and his eight other brothers are all princes of Amber, and they've all been struggling for the throne of that realm for quite some time.  Corwin's major injury and exile to our Earth were the result of an ill fated encounter with one of the other Princes.  Corwin hopes to return to Amber and make a push for the throne, but in order to do so, he needs the help of at least one of his many untrustworthy brothers.

I gotta say, I was pretty damn impressed with this one.  Zelazny is a pretty slick writer, as he describes both the mundane and fantastic well.  There's a lot of really cool fantasy elements at play here, mystical beasts, and underwater world, magical jewels, and more but for me the coolest of them all was the Trumps.  With the Trumps, the princes and their sisters can communicate with one another, attempt to force their will on, or control the mind of another, and also travel to where someone else is.  All these elements make the trumps an interesting and potentially dangerous element, and Zelazny uses that element of danger well.

As far as characters go, Zelazny does a pretty solid job.  Not every family member is introduced, but he gives the reader a sense of what each person is like, and how they factor into the strange family struggle for the throne.  While reading this, my gripe with the character development was that, outside of the nine princes and four princesses, the world/worlds, seemed pretty devoid of people.  Anyone else who gets mentioned is just sorta an empty husk that serves is basically an extra. There's random doctors, nurses, guards, soldiers, and what have you, but they don't seem all that real in comparison.  This serves to make Amber kinda feel like it's an empty place that is really beautiful that the family squabbles over.

However, looking back, I've realized that maybe I've just read too much epic fantasy, where practically every person, no matter how big or how small, gets a name and some character development.  That's probably not what Zelazny is trying to do here. It appears that the focus will stay on the various family members and their internal struggle.  Which, I guess is fine by me, since there seems to be some interesting folk in this family.  At the very least, the series will challenge my modern fantasy reading tendencies.

With the first of ten books under my belt, I can say that as far as opening salvos go, Nine Princes in Amber is a promising first volume.  It does the job of introducing the reader to the world, introducing characters, and giving some hints at future events so that the reader gets hooked for more, all while delivering some great fantasy elements, and some sweet sword fightin'.  Definitely worth a read.

Grade: 8.5 Reebok Pumps

Kicking it Old School: Ensign Flandry

I've decided to go ahead and give this series of old timey Sci-Fi and Fantasy reviews an official name: Kicking it Old School. 


What books will fit into that category?  Well, this is up for debate, but for now I'll say: any book written before I  knew how to read, (1986), will be considered fair game for Kicking it Old School. However, I may push that publication date up as far as 1990 if necessary...that may rouse debates among Old School historians out there, and if so, feel free to debate what can and should be considered "Old School" in the comments section. 


My second excursion into the old school annals of science fiction and fantasy didn't pan out as well as my first go 'round.  Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry seemed like it might be a fun read as it appeared to promise a sort of James Bond-style adventure --- in space, and not in a shitty Moonraker sort of way.

Well, truth be told, Ensign Flandry does have a very James Bondian feel to it.  The novel stars young Dominic Flandry, an Ensign in the Terran Empire's navy.

When things kick off, Flandry finds himself waylaid after a crash landing on a backwater neutral planet when he (quite accidentally) becomes the hero of a battle between the planet's two primary sentient species.  Aside from helping him gain the respect of the locals, it helps him get noticed by the local Imperial brass, and Flandry soon finds himself caught up in the greater struggle between his own Terran Empire and their rivals the Mersian Empire.

Before this one is over, Flandry's adventures will take him across the length of a galaxy, under a sea inhabited by sentient sea-folk, into the heart of enemy territory, and into the arms of a lover or three.

Along the way, Flandry relies heavily on luck to defeat his enemies, and uses his wits to help him bed a few intergalactic babes.  Sound familiar?  Though Ensign Flandry wasn't published until 1966, a solid 13 years after Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, it appears Flandry made his debut way back in 1951 in a Poul Anderson short story (if we are to trust Wikipedia).  Either way, the familiarity of the two characters is similar, but there's a lot of characters who are just like other characters out there in the world of fantasy, SF, comics, and what have you, so whatever.

Similarities to pop culture icons aside, the problem I had with this one was that this wasn't all that exciting of a book. Overall, this is a pretty slow read, with the plot unfolding pretty slowly. There's a lot of exposition and discussion of what is going on in the galaxy, but not a lot of showing those things going on.  With the galaxy teetering on the edge of war, and dashing young dude as the main character you'd expect there to be lots of clandestine action, but sadly the bits when people stop talking and start acting are few and far between. When Anderson did deliver an action scene or two, he tended to gloss them over, and describe what happened in retrospect.

Worst of all, the final climactic scene, which is a fairly large space battle, has Flandry more or less on the sidelines as things unfold. Who ever heard of a main character sitting out the climax of a book which has his name on the cover?  I was flummoxed.

As a whole, this book had too many shortcomings to really win me over.  Truth be told, there wasn't really anything all that special about this one at all. Sad but true.  I don't see myself carrying on and reading any more of the Flandry books, but I'm determined to not let this deter me from reading and enjoying some more old school sf/f.

Grade: 6.5 Slap Bracelets

Book Review: The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven takes place in what was, at the time of publication in 1971, the near future, but when read now is just about current day, give or take a few years.  Anyway, the story follows George Orr, a pretty regular guy with a totally unique ability; His dreams can alter the shape of reality.  In order to avoid these reality altering dreams George borrows prescription cards from friends and neighbors in order to stock up on sleep depriving drugs.  He's eventually busted and sent to a psychiatrist, Dr. William Haber, who specializes in dream psychology.

Once the two meet up and Dr. Haber learns about George's strange gift, he quickly learns to harness George's ability through hypnosis and a dream augmentation machine.  Before too long, Dr. Haber is manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.  George must find a way to stop Dr. Haber before the world as they know it is completely altered beyond redemption.

After reading and loving Jo Walton's Among Others I knew I wanted to explore some of the old school science fiction and fantasy works that get mentioned in that novel.  It didn't take me long to realize that The Lathe of Heaven would be something I would enjoy, so I quickly set out to track down a copy and give it a read.

The Lathe of Heaven is one of those unique stories that is a wonderful blend of a little bit of science fiction and a little bit of fantasy. It seems like nowadays we have such clear distinctions between the two genres, but that couldn't be less true here. Le Guin managed to meld the two genres together like an expert metallurgist and create a truly wonderful novel that felt completely unique to me.

Aside from being a story with a plot that completely sucked me in and had me devouring page after page, I was most impressed with the fact that Le Guin was able to pack so much story into a mere 184 pages.  Way more goes on here than in many of the door-stopper sized novels we see on the shelves today, and the characters are a hell of a lot more well developed and interesting as well.  Le Guin's prose was equally impressive, as I got a distinct feel for her voice from the opening lines on page one.

As I mentioned above, the characters in The Lathe of Heaven are impressively written.  George Orr was a fun character to read, as I felt like I could understand him, and I found myself really hoping for things to turn out well for the guy.  Dr. Haber on the other hand is very much the antagonist of the story, but he too was someone I felt a connection with as well.  I felt like I could understand and relate to his motivations even though they weren't always the most ethical.  With primary characters like these two, and secondary characters that stand out as well, this is one of the better character driven stories I've read in recent memory.

The Lathe of Heaven was pretty much the perfect novel to being my excursions into the history of the science fiction/fantasy genres, as this was a great example of a classic that has an incredibly fresh and new feel to it, all while managing to still have the distinct feel of being from another era.  This is an absolutely fantastic book that I loved from beginning to end.  I highly recommend this, as I think it holds appeal to any fan of genre literature, and could be enjoyed by non-genre fanatics as well.  I can only hope all my other "old school" reads are as good as this.

Grade: A