Book Review: Safehold by David Weber

It is truly an astonishing sensation to be delivered into the playground of someone's mind.  To watch as the person takes the dough, shapes a world, creates everything in that world, molds it into existence.  In essence, he is emulating God.  I know I've used that idea many times, and it is no more true than reading David Weber's Safehold Series.  The first book is titled Off Armageddon Reef.  I actually purchased the audiobook a few years ago and just sat it on my shelf, never really getting around to it.  It languished there, moving from shelf to shelf just to get it out of the way of other books I collected and haven't read yet.  And then last year, when I needed something to keep me awake as I drove to Dallas, Texas to an interview, to begin a new chapter in my life, I brought along the 25 CD set and immersed myself in the scenery of the interstate, and the scenery of Safehold.

Briefly, Safehold is the last remaining planet that is home to the Human Race. Destroyed by an alien race called the Gbaba, who could detect any technological power sources coming from any planet mankind should try and hide in, the Terran Federation decided that the only way to survive was to create a world where technology would be non-existent.  In other words, mankind would be put back into medieval times.  In order to keep things this way for the centuries needed to make sure the alien race would leave Terran space, the creators of this world made a religion (with themselves as Gods and Archangels) that specifically forbid innovation.  It is to this world that Merlin Athrawes awakes from a 900 year old hibernation.  He becomes, basically, Martin Luther, and challenges the Church of God Awaiting, albeit more subtly. 

As I said, Safehold is David Weber's playground.  He has written many more novels that take place in other worlds, in other universes, with other authors, but this one he's written alone, and I get the feeling that this world is his to become a Clockmaker God.  In other words, he created Safehold, with the rules and religion and people and circumstances, and then he lets it run.  The action comes as he sees it, as would happen naturally.  The conversations and innovations come slowly, over time, and he's done a magnificent job so far.  There are currently 7 books, with book 8 coming out September 8th, 2015. I can't wait for book 8 to arrive, so I can continue the journey through Safehold.

So now that I've gushed about the series, which is great for Sci-fi, Fantasy, Historical, and Military book lovers alike, here are the problems with the series.  First off, the series is *his* playground, so there's no editing of lengthy and sometimes boring conversations about weapon builds, historical and religious descriptions of the character's ancestors, etc... but while reading the books, you must realize that this is *his* world, and that to change it to suit his readers would go against what I feel is almost a work done as a writing exercise.  I think that Weber creates some of his other books to make money, to exercise his craft, to share his worlds with others, but for Safehold, it is Weber's world to tinker with, and we are simply along for the ride.  The main evidence I see of this is in the book structures.  There are no typical climaxes and then resolutions of each book, simply a continuation of the world from one book to the next, as if you could combine the whole saga into one long tome.   Most authors have these worlds, ones where you can exist inside the world if you want, but it's the author's work, and he or she will do whatever it is they want to do.  For Anne McCaffrey, Pern was that realm, although she had others.  Tolkien always had Middle Earth, and that was his sole realm-creation.  Even for fantasy writers, where they might have more than one series, I think there's always one that they feel most at home.  I know I could easily live inside Pern, or Middle Earth, and now Safehold.

The second major problem is that, having seen the inside of the books, I couldn't read them anyway. I say this because David Weber has a very annoying habit in this book of replacing vowels with "y's". For instance, the antagonist of the book is "Zhaspahr Clyntahn" and his second in command, "Wyllym Rayno." The names, only having looked at them in the book, would kill me.  I can't stand reading Fantasy novels where, by the time I've read the jacket and seen all the weird names, my eyes have glossed over and I can't stand to finish reading even that. Thus is it most fortunate that I have "read" all 7 books as Audio Books.  It is good to consult the maps in the books (they are online as well) from time to time, but I've taken to "reading" them on the way to work, or on long trips, or just sitting in my apartment with no television on.  In fact, I've gotten along quite well without cable TV because of my Audio Books.  I can be entertained without paying $100's to the cable company.  So, if I were to go into detail about the characters, I would write them as I have heard them pronounced. "Jaspar Clyntan" (the problem here is that without the Y, you read Clinton, and think of the past president.) and "William Rano"

One other note, if you decide to "read" the books as Audio, which I wholeheartedly recommend.  The narrators change, which, when book 3 came along and the person was different, I had myself a minor conniption. All of them, save one, does a fair job.  The British narrator for book 5 did a fair job, although he muffed the pronunciations somewhat ("Charis," instead of "Karis," as every other speaker had done).  But I could overlook that.  It's book 6 that drove me nuts.  The narrator did a wonderful job with female roles, and children roles, but when he started yelling "FIRE" during the battle scenes, it was funny.  The guy simply couldn't do battle scenes, and it made a war hilarious.  But if you can overlook that one, the rest are magnificently done, and kept me awake all during my travels.

There comes a time in your life when you need Fantasy worlds.  I don't know where I would be today if it hadn't been for J.R.R. Tolkien.  I have lived hours of my life in Pern, and I could go on living there, if I had to.  I would say the same for Safehold, and the times in my life when I could listen to the conversations between Emperor Caleb, Empress Charlean, and Merlin, plus a whole host of other really "good" good guys, were worth every minute.  I rather much like my fantasy stories where the good guys are good and the bad guys are stupid.  And being a Christian, much of the conversations with Archbishop Michael and the others, are as good sermons as you're ever likely to hear on a planet called Earth.  I guess I shall now be Awaiting book 8, and doing so with baited breath.    

Book Reviews: Two X Sci-fi

As much as Science Fiction told of mankind leaving Earth and exploring the universe, most authors spend as much time exploring the inner workings of the soul and consciousness.  The "science" in Sci-fi can relate as much to Psychology as to Physics and Astronomy.  To look at the unknown, the impossible as possible, takes not only a solid science education, but the mind and heart of a poet, the creativeness of the muses along with the empirical senses of the scientist.

For the many readers I have encountered that say, "I don't read science fiction, I can't stand all that "alien" stuff," I would rebuke them, saying that the unknown has always been a part of human literature, from Grendel in Beowulf to the White Whale in Melville's classic tale.  I would argue that science fiction has a direct line from the works of the greatest authors to the exploits of Luke Skywalker.  The same themes prevail throughout, the motifs echo through each work, whether the weapon be a sword or a lightsaber.  It is not beyond argument to say that David standing up to Goliath, with but the faith of God and some rocks, is not the same figure as Luke Skywalker standing up to Vader in Cloud City.

So it is that, needing books to read, and trying to stay away from the mindless babble of talking heads on Television, the dribble of escapist nothingness that espouses Truth but is not but useless trash flowing into the minds of today's people, I find myself drawn to the books filling my library.  I glance through the paperbacks, yellow with time, with sparse drawings of other-worldly beings and scantily clad women on the fronts, those with the "Bethany, Oklahoma Library" stamped on the sides, where my dad brought them home and somehow never took them back.  The science fiction of decades past, where the future times that men were flying to the stars has actually already happened (according to the book I finished, Man should already have a shopping mall on Mars, and a base on Mercury.), has an incredible draw to me now.  For I find that while the setting is futuristic and utopian, the themes are as classic as the works I have bound in leather atop my bookshelves.

I wish to review two books: The Dream Master by Roger Zelazny, and A Place Beyond Man written by Cary Neeper.
***

The Dream Master is the second full length novel written by Zelazny in 1966.  The title page informs the reader that it had been a serialized short story in a magazine.  Unfortunately, it reads like a fleshed out, stretched short story.  It becomes disjointed, a series of scenes seemingly unconnected and written at different times, so much so you can tell which parts are original, and which parts are added.

The main story deals with Render, a psychologist who has become known as a pioneer in the new technology of "Dream Therapy," in which he uses a holodeck type machine to enter people's dreams and control them, constructing and deconstructing (in every sense of the philosophical term) until the underlying causes, as Freudian as they may be, are exposed and can be dealt with outside of the sleep state.  Stepping outside of the boundaries his craft sets, he decides to help a blind woman, a professional psychiatrist in her own right, to "see" using dreams.  But, as things go when man tries to play "God," things rarely turn out well.  This is a book that would go along side Le Guin's Lathe of Heaven, Frank Bonham's The Forever Formula,  or Chayefsky's Altered States.  The latter most definitely, since they both deal with the idea of the collective subconsciousness, the idea that there are certain things we see and know that come from the primal state of our being, as a coding of our "form," embedded into our DNA.

Movie based on The Dream Master

Zelazny writes in spurts, in images, in hallucinatory frames, and I would imagine that, like so many other artists in the 60's (18 and 19), that some sort of stimulation was used to create the muse for these writings.  It would remind someone of Coleridge's 'In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan..." or T.S. Eliot's "Wasteland" (April is the cruelest month).  This is not to denigrate the story at all, rather, it rescues it from being unreadable.  In fact, Zelazny's usage of myths, whether we know them or not, of poetic fits in between sections of plot, is what makes this an actually good book to ruminate upon.  Masterful writing style, deep, thoughtful nuggets that you have to mine from the rocky wording, phrases that are pure gold, it makes the once award winning short story well worth reading, despite its obvious flaws. 

Amongst the flat characters are soliloquies of how technology has so placed us in a state of security, of peace, that we become bored, even to the state of having nothing, verily, to live for. He deals with the usage of stories, of myths, to recreate the heart-rendering sorrows that mankind has lost, and the sub-culture of role-playing that has surfaced so that man can actually face that danger, instead of being lost to banality.  This is a theme also taken on by Simak in A Ring Around the Sun, which was a masterful work. I doubtless will use some of Zelazny's thoughts in some of my future blog postings (giving credit, obviously), as they were truly amazing.    Having never read Zelazny's work before, I will certainly find others in my Dad's sci-fi collection pilfered from the Bethany, OK library so many years ago, and read them as well.
***

Having read Cary Neeper's second book, The Webs of Vorak prior to the first, it allowed me to first see the more mature creation before the beginning.  Tolkien, in his essay "On Fairy Stories" talks about the creation of mankind, the constant need for making something, in emulation of God.  Imagine taking a ball of play-doh, and, realizing that you could make anything you wanted, you set out to create a world.  This, as Tolkien calls it, is Faerie. In The Neverending Story, it is Fantasia, and in the PS3 game LittleBigPlanet, it is the Orb of Dreams.  But whatever the name, it is the molding by which we create our dreams, our novels, our gods (if you look at many of the myths from Greece, Rome, and elsewhere).  So Cary Neeper took the mold of her world and created Ellason and Vorak, and on them, she placed the diametrically opposite Vorakians and Ellls.  In 1975, she wrote A Place Beyond Man, which is the account of the first contact between the two alien species and human beings. You can tell that, in the beginning, the mold is forming, becoming the deep and solid world that Neeper wants us to explore.  Get there, she does, and it becomes a magnificent lesson in the humility man will have to have of himself to save the world he lives in and to venture forth into the universe, as so many sci-fi writers will want to have us do.

The fascinating part of the story is the character studies that each of the three main people present to us.  Conn, the Elll, is the personification of Dionysus, pleasure, enjoyment incarnate.  Orram, the Varok, is the antithesis, the voice of Reason, Apollo, standing firm with stolid emotions, using reason and logic to perceive the world.  (I reject the idea of other reviewers that Orram is simply a Vulcan rehash, even though there are similarities.) Thus, to follow Hagel's philosophy, Tandra, the human, is the Synthesis, the balance of emotion and reason.  But this is only one way to look at it. Another perception to each of the characters lies in the "widening gyre" of William Butler Yates.  Control of Orram's emotional states is only possible when the spiral is tight, compacted, governed by cultural and physical boundaries that are strictly enforced.  The same, remarkably, is the case for the Dionysian character Conn, who must stay grounded within the "school" of his amphibious culture.  Even Tandra, who must handle the first contact situation with a balance of emotion and reason, must keep herself in control of her faculties.   In all cases, the sprial unravels, and they must each help one another to return to the sanity which is inherent in their own species. In the strengths of their own characters, they can survive.

In the end, it is Tandra, and us as well, who must see that the first contact situation calls into question everything that we assume about ourselves as human beings, about our position in the universe, about the superior stance we take in the world, and in our own minds.  Tandra becomes much as Jodie Foster's character was in the movie based on Carl Sagan's Contact. There are few humans, as was seen in the movie, and as was rightly guessed by the Ell-Varokian team, that would have successfully reacted and adapted to finding other sentient species in the world, especially ones without the bi-pedal look of current Earth sentient beings (supposedly).

The original 1975 book, published by Dell (now Random House), is out of print, but was reprinted in 2011 by iUniverse.  Neeper is working on a revised edition of this book, which is scheduled for release in a couple of years.  I do recommend reading this book (before or after The Webs of Varok) instead of waiting, as it was a thoroughly enjoyable read, thought provoking, and great addition to the Science-Fiction cannon.  I only hope that more of the classic sci-fi books can be rescued from the shelves of obscurity and reissued to a public that needs to be reminded of just how amazing mankind is, what his potential is, and how fragile our world is, how dangerous it will be if the "centre cannot hold." 

A Reading List for Thinkers and Dreamers

[Wrote this as a list for a friend needing recommendations for reading. She told me to "overload" her, so I did. Feel free to use any of read any of these yourselves. I could have included pictures, of the book, but I'm not gonna. Better to click on the links of the ISBN numbers.]

Setting up a recommendation list requires a bit of organization.   Because I’m not sure what you’ll like, or what you’ve read in the past, (and because, I’ve read books in other Genres that I don’t usually read and have thoroughly enjoyed them, so sometimes it’s good to read outside the box), I’ll split it up into 5 areas.  Christian, Fiction, Kid’s, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and Other.  Of course, the Kids books are ones that they might be able to read, but that you’ll enjoy, too.  I’m gonna put ISBN links into this document  that will take you to the book on Amazon.  If you have an e-book reader, that might be the way to go, or getting them used would also the economical.

Christian Genre.  Unfortunately, I’m not very good at recommending Non-fiction books of Christian type.  I know what we sell at Lifeway, and what’s popular, but that’s about it.  The only Christian author I’ve read that wasn’t fiction is C.S. Lewis, whose book The Four Loves (9780156329309)was really good.

As far as Christian Fiction, you can’t go wrong with C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, although I would read them in the order the movies have come (or would have come) out (2,4,5,6,1,3,7).  I also highly recommend George MacDonald’s At the Back of the North Wind (9781604594522). I once was sick, and had a rather high fever, and I picked up this book and read it all in one day. George MacDonald’s books are really good, if you can find the other ones edited by Michael Philips (North Wind is good in any form).  Also, I would read the classic Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, at least the first half.  The classic tale of Christian’s journey from home  to the gates of Heaven is one that is centuries ahead of its time, an outstanding read. And one you can get for free as an e-book through Amazon or Gutenberg project. (9781456569334).

Fiction

The Song of Daniel  by Philip Lee Williams. (0345364694) Williams is a retired professor of Creative Writing at UGA, and lives in Oconee County. I so loved this book, but it is quite out of print now, but easy to get. It takes place in Athens, and deals with a young man who takes care of the cemetery and a College Professor.

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon (9780143034902) A mysterious bookstore in Barcelona, Spain, holds all of the worlds forgotten books.  The main character finds a copy of “Shadow of the Wind” in the stacks and, enthralled with the book, searches to find other books, or the author himself.  He finds a stranger who is destroying all the copies of the book, who then threatens Daniel’s life.  A gothic book set in 1900’s Spain.  Continued in two other books.

 

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury (9780553277531) my favorite book!! Lyrical, nostalgic, amazing!!!

I’m sure there are other regular Fiction titles I have stuck in my head someplace, but they aren’t coming out, so I’ll leave this for now.

Science Fiction – Fantasy

Orson Scott Card – Most anything, really. Every time (well most, Pathfinder was a dud) I read his books, I read for hours, then I go to get something to  eat, and I go back to my room wondering what really amazing TV show I had just been watching, and I realize it was in my own head, through the words on the page.  His lesser known works are really good.  Try Homecoming: Harmony (which starts with The Memory of Earth)( 9781568650890)and Songmaster (9780812524864)

Anne McCaffrey – The Dragonriders of Pern (9780345340245) (or Dragonsong, 9780689860089) Dragons, music, and a great storyline through many, many books. What’s not to love!

Arthur C. Clarke – Songs of A Distant Earth (9780345322401) was a great sci-fi book, and I love Clarke as an author.  His Islands in the Sky (9780140305357), written in the 50’s, predicted everything that man has done in space since, and probably will do in the future. And with Stephen Baxter, he wrote The Light of Other Days, (9780812576405) which, while the plot is weak and the ending akin to Spielberg’s A.I. ,unneeded, brings about hypothetics that fundamentally changes the way we think about everything. 

Other books that, looking at my bookshelf in my room (which is where I keep the books I really like), I would recommend:  Steven Warnock’s The Magog Gambit (9781466435438), Vanishing Point (0312852134) by Michaela Roessner. (I love apocalyptic novels, such as this. I loved Dean Koontz’ The Taking (9780553593501) and Pat Frank’s classic Alas,Babylon (9780060741877)). Also check out The Legacy of Heorot by the Sci-fi team Niven, Pournelle, and Barnes (9780722164075). 

As far as Fantasy, I don’t usually read fantasy for fantasy sake, but there is some good stuff out there, now out of print. Dragonworld (9781596872332)was made back in the late 80’s, and the sequel was made as a video game. Riddle of Stars, by Patricia McKillip, was good too (B00005XT24).

One last one, if you’re up for it.  Take Plato and put him in a science-fiction setting, and you get Neal Stephenson’s Anathem.  The book is best when the plot is non-existent. In fact, it’s one of the few books (Clarke & Baxter being another) where the plot gets in the way, but it’s fantastic to sit, read, and contemplate. (978-0061474095) Don’t get the Mass Market though, the print is tiny! Get the hardcover, looks great on your bookshelf.

Kid’s Books (for Adults too!!)

Get these for your kids, and read them yourself! They’re amazing!! Better than most books above!!

Christopher by Richard M. Koff.  Only book he ever wrote, and I absolutely loved it as a child. Now long out of print, but every kid should read it! (0553153633)

Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe (9781421527734) Take any RPG, and put it in book form, and start it in real world Japan. A fabulous book, one I know you’ll love. (He wrote a book novelizing Ico, from the PS2.  I have to have it!!!!)

Under Plum Lake by Lionel Davidson (0394512529) A boy is led underwater to a strata of worlds underneath ours. In a short 100 page book with imagery not unlike a supposed LSD trip, I literally could not put this one down. The only book he ever wrote like this.

The Transall Saga by Gary Paulsen. Most known for writing The Hatchet, this one is survival with a hefty dose of Science-Fiction thrown in. Very good for those who don’t like to read. (0375873236)

As far as series go, I have two suggestions: D.J. Machale wrote a 10 book Pendragon series (having nothing to do with King Arthur) that is amazing! Plot twists that I didn’t see coming, and I actually haven’t read book 9 or 10 yet, cause I don’t want it to end.  The First book, The Merchant Of Death is linked here: (9781416936251)  And Diane Duane wrote a 9 book “Wizard” series, with the first book So You Want to Be a Wizard, which deals with other planets, wildlife, pollution, death, cancer, Ireland, and using Wizardry to keep the world in balance. A great series: (9780152049409)

Other

Some great non-fiction books to read:  Dove by Robin Graham (9780060920470), a memoir about Robin, who, in 1965, sailed around the world, and found loneliness, love, and ultimately, God.

Anything by Neil Postman, which is the basis for a lot of my thinking, and helps to see the world via how we communicate, through TV, Internet, images, etc… His most known book is Amusing Ourselves to Death (9780143036531)

Hope this helps.  If you need more, I can recommend another 200 or so books.  J

Book Review: The Man in the Maze by Robert Silverberg

I pulled this sci-fi novel from the depths of my bookshelves, looking for the magic that existed in the writings of the masters of the genre.  In so many science fiction books of the 50's and 60's, writers like Isaac Asimov, Clifford D. Simak, and Robert Heinlein concentrated on the ideas, the aspects of mankind progressing out of their own microcosm here and out to the universe.  Once in the stars, most sci-fi writers found that the universal themes they thought about were also at the very core of their own minds.  To go outward, you must go inward. Robert Silverberg did a fantastic job in combining Roddenberry with Jung.

Each of the main characters are introverted, brooding, well constructed men who decide the fate of the human race even while examining their own emotions.  Dick Muller, the damaged soldier who lives on the planet of Lemmos and its large, deadly maze constructed by aliens from a long forgotten civilization.  Charles Boardman, the confident manipulator of men, armies, worlds, whose weary nostalgia reveals an old man who tires in his actions even as he moves forward.  And Ned Rawlins, the naive, ideological crew member of Boardman who, as a child, knew Muller.  Boardman and Rawlins' mission is to retrieve Muller from his self-imposed exile in the maze which only he has mastered.

The maze is, of course, a symbol of the inner workings of a man's mind.  The maze is so well described by Silverberg, in direct prose that gives a vagueness of dimension and detail while allowing the imagination to fill in the rest.  (I say this because there are too many authors, like Terry Brooks, for instance, that will describe every tree in the forest. Sometimes it's best to let the reader's mind make some of it up.)  I also think that the 1978 Mass Market version which I have has the best cover, portraying the maze as an ornate, spiraling city of rooms and walkways, of endless deadly traps and machinations.

In chapters spread throughout are the histories of the three men.  What made Muller different, what the aliens he met did to him, and why he was shunned from the rest of humanity afterwards.  What desperate mission do they need him for, even to risking the lives of men who must go into the maze, knowing that one false move will send them into spikes, boulders, or lakes of fire.

In the end, we see mankind's outlook on his world and his future.  The stoic, the cynic, the righteous, even the epicurean.  It made me wish the book was longer, that the days spent in the maze were longer, the delving into the maze that is the human psyche was more complete.  I felt as if there was something Silverberg was looking for, and it was he that could not finish the maze, and so had to leave it undone, damaged somehow.  At the end, when Muller returns to the maze (and by saying that, I'm revealing nothing), he goes to retrieve something he'd lost.  And maybe that was what Silverberg felt as well.
***

I will say one more thing about the novel, which to me meant absolutely nothing, as I've come to expect this from most sci-fi authors.  The women in the story are simply sexual tools, empty bodies with breasts and long hair.  They are the short skirted crewwomen walking down the halls of the Enterprise. And while this would make the modern reader bristle with politically correct righteousness, I do not think it takes away from the book itself.  When you read sci-fi from the 50's and 60's, you must realize that there are few if any women characters with strong character traits.  You have to look at works by Sherri S. Tepper, Ursula K. LeGuin, even Orson Scott Card, to find them.  In other words, you pick the book up recognizing that the main characters will be men, and you find the underpinnings of the man's mind to be such.  Enjoy the dark, brooding characters, and don't let modern ideas about writing come into play.  It would be same as criticizing writers of times past from putting in strong, liberated African-Americans, or removing the prejudiced feelings of Whites from older books.  You have to read these books about the future as works from the past.  And find, like so many other classic works of literature, that their are lessons even in the oldest of writings.

The Media and the Moon

I only hope, before my time on this rotating orb is up, that I get to witness an achievement as awe inspiring and exalting as the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. That our minds could have crawled out of the caves (of the Garden, whichever), developed the wheel, the ship, the plane, progressing ever and ever forward, molding the rock of the Earth and the ingenuity of his mind into a fire that burned strong and hot, that escaped the force of gravity and lifted us off the Earth, and into space. It was us that did this. More importantly, it was the United States of America that did it. No other country on Earth had the resources, the Government that worked (at the time) with private enterprise, and the drive to create the power that would defy us staying here for all eternity.

How expanded the mind has become in the thousands of years we've been here. The Tower of Babel was man's first attempt to reach Heaven, and since then, through science and philosophy, we've realized that reaching God is not a physical exercise, but rather a mental and spiritual one. That reaching the heavens means evolving and stretching ourselves outward, towards those worlds that Galileo glimpsed in his telescope.

***

So my mom has been very disappointed in the media's attention to the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landing. Not one magazine cover has it on the cover. Time has Sarah Palin, and most of the others have Michael Jackson. The media has more coverage of the Moonwalk than those who walked on the Moon. The greatest achievement that mankind ever made, and it gets virtually no picture space on the front of the main periodicals. Sure, Astronomy magazine has it, and Life did a special edition for it, but that was it.

The television media irks me even more. Today as I got up to make breakfast, I stopped as Fox News ran a commercial for their Moon Landing special. Friday night... narrated by Greta Van Susteren. Ticked me off. The Moon Landing reports should be handled by the noblest of voices. I expected Glenn Beck, whose admiration for the achievements of man would have made him tear up. Or Mike Huckabee, with the voice of a preacher, aged in oak. I would even have accepted Geraldo or Bill O'Riley. Instead, they get the woman who reports on Aruba and OJ and missing children.

Where are the noble voices, those that take the incredible works of man and form words to express it. Of course, Walter Kronkite would be the most noble of voices, but alas, he is not able. Dan Rather has done such a great job in communicating the truly important news, even if he faltered with CBS's liberal agenda. Where is CNN's Cooper Anderson, or NBC's Costas? Where are the voices that we hear on those times when we remember where we were when? Those are voices we need.

Instead of listening to talk shows with paternal tests of 8 men, or the self-pandering of Senators as the accept Supreme Court Justices, or the latest in the Michael Jackson family circus, shouldn't we hear about the greatness of mankind??? Shouldn't we wonder where the people are that could achieve such marvelous feats, when today's children cannot recall even the most basic science facts? The CRCT results are not promising. It is true that competition with the Russians (Sputnik) fueled the education in science and math that created much of today's technological advances. Without those men, the Internet would have been a dream, and the Space Shuttle that is currently orbiting the Earth toward our Space Station would not even have been thought of. But today, children are much more interested in consuming than creating. More interested in entertainment than advancing the human race toward the farthest frontiers. The science fiction of my father's time has been replaced with the fantasy of today. The wonder of computers and of man's ability to soar to the heavens is now replaced by vampires and wizards, by miracles of magic that allow achievements without effort. Wonders without work. Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke would be very disappointed, I believe.

We have the ability to reach the heights of our solar system, to stand atop Olympus Mons and laugh at the universe. We can explore the depths of the oceans and the wonders of the microscopic world, where Quarks and strings of vibrating energy sing the choruses of the Universe. Let's do it. Let's meet God in the heavens and say, "Look at the wonders we have done. Look at the creations You have made, and we rejoice in all that we have done, and in You for making us. We should not cower to His throne and show him the polluted, lazy world that we have created now. He would forgive us, but let's show God what a wonderful creature He made. The Guardians of our world, the keepers of Earth until He returns. And let's do it for ourselves. Because that is the destiny of our race, to live and soar and look over the mountaintops (see the Freidrich painting at right), and not to cower in the corner, blaming everyone for our failures but ourselves.

Movie Review: Star Trek ('09)

To Boldly Go...

It seems that Abrams was able to do what Rick Berman was inept at, namely, in reinvigorating the Star Trek franchise. It was done through superior special effects, brilliant acting, witty dialogue, and a return to the fundamental philosophy behind Star Trek that Gene Roddenberry had created so many years ago.

The remarkable part was that Abrams did this without undermining the universe as it stood prior to the movie's release. After all, what would be better in a Star Trek movie than time travel, in a spectacular reenactment of the parallel universe theory from Back to the Future II, it allows Abrams to alter the reality of the universe without altering the original line of reality (the one in which Nemesis was created and box office receipts died). But, since this is only a temporary line of reality (at the point where Spock fails to fix the supernova sun that destroys Romulus, a fleet of people from the alternate time line can fix the problem, sending the time loop back in on itself, dissolving that reality with the real one), Abrams can create more movies, a TV series, or anything that he wants without making Star Trek purists mad.

And what we wanted to see, from the beginning of Kirk's life (actually his father's death) to the end of the movie was the emergence of an individual who challenged the societal role that was placed upon him, used his brilliance to basically save Earth, and become the hero that we expect him to be. Not the wishy-washy characters from Enterprise or the noble statesman Picard was.

This is what Star Trek should be. A continuation of the philosophies that Gene Roddenberry created at the start of the series. The show that was rejected by studios, financed by Lucy, and ultimately gained fans world-wide. It did this because of the individualism that each Captain showed in maneuvering his/her ship through the vast unknown. They became Ulysses, from Tennyson's poem, "to strive, to seek, to find, but not to yield," as he stands resolutely on the deck of his ship, or tied to the mast as the sirens beckon him forth. The philosophies that they held, from the first time they stepped onto the Enterprise (Voyager...etc.) through fights with the Borg, Dominion, Klingons...etc... was what kept the ships alive and fighting. It is also what made the fans of Star Trek love the show so much. In a world where right and wrong seem blurred, where corruption seems to ooze from our leaders as readily as words, the idea of individualism that comes from Starfleet Earth is as enticing as the Siren's call.

To be on Earth in the 23rd century, where technology and human inventions have done away with many problems, where individuals can become anything or anyone they want to be, that is the ideal world. I've already said that Starfleet Earth is the most livable place in all of the literary universe, and this is why. Because on that Earth, so far into the future, you can boldly go wherever you want.

It's the phrase, "to boldly go" that stuck in my mind for the past little bit, as I have read Ayn Rand's novels, and as I have seen the events unfold around us, in the news, in the world. I wonder, is there anyone that can "boldly go" today? Can anyone stand atop the mountain as the Traveler does in Caspar David Friedrich's painting does? Or Ulysses? Abrams so wonderfully symbolizes this in Jimmy Bennett's portrayal of the Young James Kirk at the beginning of the movie. His leap out of the car as it careens off the cliff is absolutely amazing, and is an act of clarity, of skill, of brilliance. Kirk, at that moment, and in subsequent moments throughout the story, becomes the Hero that Ulysses, that Howard Roarke, that the Traveler was. He becomes the Hero we all want to be. And in our daily lives, we must take the steps to "boldly go" as Kirk did. I fear, however, that the world in which we live is far more apt to find individual skill and success a negative trait, and one that is beaten down at every step.

In education, children are drug down by their fellow pupils, by teachers that have to teach the same thing to everyone, for "equality" purposes. In sports, like the NFL, the word "parity" comes up as the key word for keeping things even. And while this is okay to keep dynasties from happening, it also creates the Lions and the Bengals. Man cannot reach his full potential when being pulled back by society that feels that "Equality" is preferable over "Success." And while we cheer for Kirk as he beats the Kobayashi Maru test, and find Spock irritable for playing the "status quo" part of that area, we are quick to criticize people who have become too successful in their fields. Why is it that, in Survivor and other Reality TV shows, often the most successful of any of the contestants are often voted off first, while those who are supremely mediocre win the major cash prizes? It should be the weak and corrupt that are voted off the island first.

J.J. Abrams has produced two movies (this and Cloverfield) which have shown the heroic efforts of individuals despite the drowning masses of society around them. No one on the transport (except Pike, of course) thought that Kirk would have succeeded in becoming an officer in 4 years, much less become Captain of the Enterprise. Of course, these are the stories that good movies tell. Everyone is going to support Rudy in his quest to play for Norte Dame, just as everyone hopes Harry Potter will find the Sorcerer's Stone and defeat Voldemort. It's what movies are. And maybe, just maybe, we can take a little from those heroes, and become a little more of those individuals ourselves.

Book Review: _Islands in the Sky_ by Arthur C. Clarke

When George Lucas was filming the first Star Wars film, and the government authorities had to take a look at the plans for the X-Wing fighter to determine whether government secrets had been leaked out, they missed the boat by about 30 years. Science fiction writers had been guessing the state of things for ages, and it's truly a remarkable experience to see just how right they were. I just read the late Arthur C. Clarke's Islands in the Sky, and was fascinated with the intricate descriptions of the Space Shuttle, weather satellites, communication devices, ideas of orbiting solar energy panels, space stations..etc... all written in 1952! Simply amazing. How one man could think of the entire world so far ahead, and then live long enough to see it come to fruition. And we did go to Venus (although not a manned outfit) by 1985, but found it incredibly hot and uninviting. So the time frame was off a little, but the ideas were sound.

Another aspect was how similar this book is to Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. I know this comparison has been made before, some even suggesting that OSC copied it from Clarke (which is not true at all, but instead points to how amazingly accurate Clarke was when developing the science behind the novel). It is a homage to Clarke for Card to be so directly compared with him. The orbiting space "hotel", with it's rotating gravity wells, is almost identical to the military training station in Ender's Game. Also the ideas about where "down" was in space. There is room enough in this world for both novels.

One day, when the fascination for things of fantasy fade, when dragons are asleep on their hoards, and vampires are safely stored in their coffins, and wizards study the stars rather than alchemy, the jewels of science fiction will come back to enchant children once again. Islands in the Sky is currently out of print, and I only hope that one day that return to join the classics of the age, never to go out of print again. In fact, there are quite a few novels now that teenagers and kids can read from the masters of science fiction. They are valuable resources for teachers who want to incorporate science and math into reading. I'm gonna list some of them here, and will work on it more as a resource for teachers that come to Borders.

Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein

Red Planet also by Heinlein

Dolphin Island by Clarke

And every student should be exposed to the short story "Cold Equations," by Tom Godwin. Not to mention stories by Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov.

Book Review: Arthur C. Clarke, _Dolphin Island_

Book Review: Arthur C. Clarke's Dolphin Island

If you read any How to Write a Book book, one of the first comments is that every author must know his/her audience. For certain, science fiction writers of the 1960's knew that if they were to get an audience addicted to science fiction books, they must first write novels that teenagers would read. Heinlein's Red Planet, or Have Space Suit, Will Travel, and Clarke's Dolphin Island, are some examples.

A note about science fiction and fantasy, from one looking back at the 20th century. In the 1960's, during the heat of the space race and the development of nuclear power, television, computers...etc... science and technology were thought to be the savior of the future. There is nothing that science cannot do, no disease they cannot treat, no problem it cannot solve. Shows like Star Trek proved this theory (although with Roddenberry's idea, that happened only with the addition of the human spirit, the will to adapt and expand their learning). And for the next couple of decades, this was basically true. Small Pox was decimated, the telephone and computer made communication and productivity soar. But the naivety that nothing is impossible through science came to a tragic head when the AIDS virus hit in the 1980's. Suddenly, there was a disease that nothing could be done about. Technology had caught up with science fiction, and suddenly, there were no more gadgets that could be thought up that weren't already invented. Thus the rapidly expanding genre of science fiction fizzled out in the 1980's, and fantasy novels became the going theme. This is especially true in Young Adult fiction, with JK Rowling and Christopher Paolini proving that the dragon is much more profitable than the space ship, at least by today's kid's standards. With the exception of Star Wars novels, there are very few children's science fiction books these days. It is up to the reading adults to find and republish those books that will inspire today's teenagers to take up the cross of science (sorry, the metaphor was there) and carry it forward into the future.

Arthur C. Clarke (the late, having lived out his many years in Sri Lanka), wrote Dolphin Island early in his career, presumably after a trip to Austrailia, where most of the book takes place. The book is light, with an episodic feel to it. Each chapter throws a problem up to Johnny, the main character, and it is up to him, and the Dolphins, and the scientists on the island to solve them. The book is a great read for boys who like the out of doors, for readers of Gary Paulsen or Jean Craighead George. The book is out of print, but can be easily found online for a reasonable amount. Definitely worth looking into, if you have children or love science fiction. For adults, check out Clarke's Songs of a Distant Earth, which shares in the same theme and feel.

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Next up is Coldplay's Viva la Vida, which I'm listening to now.

Random Thoughts and a Book Review

I can't find my basil. My mom fixed sheep-burgers last night ("nothin' but mutton to eat") and covered them with a tomato sauce. Which screamed basil. And I couldn't find it, so I settled for a little oregano. Didn't seem to do much, which makes sense, cause I use Oregano on salad, sandwiches..that sort of thing. Basil goes best on tomato based dishes. Anyway...

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Things have happened recently that have brought back to mind my earlier posts about Neil Postman's The Disappearance of Childhood. We are living in a society where children are treated more and more like adults, expected to learn adult things at an early age, and yet we are shocked when adult things happen to them. Due to the intense flow of information that barrages them everyday without the moral or legal implications to go with it, children must deal with the vices of being an adult far younger than what they used to. Because they know about it. Like I said before, I didn't know any curse words until I moved to Georgia at the age of 10. Nowadays, most kids know all the f's and c's and s's and whatever by the time they enter kindergarten. Not to mention the vices they are exposed to everyday on the internet, cable tv...etc...

But I am not here to try and control the flow of information like most politicians would do, because it is not my place to do so. I will not advocate NetNanny or turning off the TV because that would be restricting the base of knowledge available to everyone including children. Rather, I suggest parents provide sons and daughters with the skills to interpret information and the self-control to know what is acceptable for them. I know this is a near impossible thing to do, for parenting is not what it used to be (and I should know, I've taught the kids and seen them destroying the kid's section at Borders while the parents stand idly by.).

And that is the second half of this little rant. For while childhood is vanishing, so is adulthood. People my age have reduced themselves into an instant gratification, get whatever you want (on credit), epicurean society where consumerism and self-destructive tendencies far outweigh self control and self improvement. And maybe that's because people cannot attain the level of success that their parents sometimes have. But that's okay, because with credit, bankruptcy, and the endless supply of amusement, fast food, drugs, and mindless games that are available, you can easily remain blissfully ignorant of the potential that you have. It's a Brave New World, and we are all being controlled by people who are exploiting us gently, poisoning us with superficial happiness. And I'm just as guilty of this as everyone else. For who would not want to live happily ever after, even if ever after is about 20 years shorter than what you could live. It all connects, all to the profit of consumerists, and all to the determent of you and me. (Oh, and as a disclaimer, I'm not advocating communism. I have a great faith in the free market system, in capitalism in all it's glory. There is nothing more consistent with human nature and the drive for improvement than full blown capitalism. What I am advocating is a need for responsibility. Make money, tons of it, but not by treating your customers as cattle that can be fattened up and served to those that eat them.)

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I recently tried to read McCarthy's The Road, since I've heard so much positive reviews about it and I dig post-apocalyptic novels. I've went to Amazon and read the reviews, and for the most part, they were glowing. Except for one that I read that said, "I dont' get it." I agree with that reviewer. I don't get it.

A book must have certain things to be a good read. A plot. Characters that you can sympathize or believe in. Some sort of message would be nice, too. Those are just things you have to have. It's like watching a porn movie. The plot doesn't matter, only the sex scenes. That's why you watch it.

The Road totally lacks those things which make a book successful. I couldn't identify or even believe in the characters, and there was virtually no plot, other than a man and a boy trying to survive in a post-nuclear world. It was like a porn movie with no sex. Maybe I'm missing something. I hope so. I just couldn't finish it.

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As a good review, I read The Cosmic Engineers by Clifford D. Simak. It was one of my dad's old sci-fi books, and so I randomly picked a book out of the hundreds and read it. It was a mix of Sagan's Contact and any number of Star Trek episodes I could name. The characters were shallow, but the plot and the themes were strong and driving. It is like I have said before, pure science fiction stories rely on strong, believable science theory, and less on the characters involved. In this, Simak delivered amazingly. The sacrifice to this is to move the people out of the way of the science. In some cases, like Michael Chricton's Andromeda Strain, it makes the book insufferable. But if you take the book and read it as if you were watching an original Star Trek episode, where the message and the cool sci-fi technology outshines these puny things called humans, then it works wonderfully.

I recommend this book highly, if you can find it, or for a better Simak book, try Ring Around the Sun.