CV Rick's Reviews

The Short Story Lives?

What I thought I would get with this edition of The Best American Short Stories, guest edited by Stephen King, was a look into the stories that inspire Mr. King. In the introduction he claims, “There isn't a single one in this book that didn't delight me, that didn't make me want to crow 'Oh man, you gotta read this!' to someone.” While there were some very good stories in here, there were also some that made me shrug and wonder how many pages remained to the next story.

In his introduction, Mr. King does talk about the declining readership and dwindling markets for short fiction. I believe the short story's days are numbered and well not quite as pessimistic he does talk about how hard it is to find short story magazines in bookstores and how difficult it is to get motivated to write for a dwindling audience and how many stories out there seem to be designed to be in the mold of previously published stories rather than are excited page-turners. He's right – the market is incestuous enough that the readers are the writers who want to be read – by other writers.

There were some highlights in the volume -

My Brother Eli by Joseph Epstein – Eli was a famous writer, a self-centered wrecking ball who destroyed lives. His older brother recounts Eli's life and contemplates the question, do artists have special license for bad behavior.

L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story by Lauren Groff – this story was truly beautiful. A polio victim falls in love with her swimming instructor, a former Olympic medalist. It's set among the class disparity and political turmoil of 1918.

Wait by Roy Kesey – this is a fantastical story of the terrors of humanity brought to the microcosm of a group waiting for a much delayed plane flight out of a war-torn country. The satire makes it fun.

The Boy in Zaquitos by Bruce McAllister – my favorite story of the book and not surprisingly it was originally published in the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy. This story is told about a boy who was used by the government to spread a deadly disease through other countries.

Sans Farine by Jim Shepard – A crushingly emotional story about the man who was the executioner during the French Revolution. The ending wasn't a surprise but the journey was wrenching nonetheless.

Most people's favorite seems to be T.C. Boyle's Balto. It's a very good story but seemed mechanical to me.

Here's the table of contents:

Introduction by Stephen King

Louis Auchincloss – Pa's Darling

John Barth – Toga Party

Ann Beattie – Solid Wood

T.C. Boyle – Balto

Randy DeVita – Riding the Doghouse

Joseph Epstein – My Brother Eli

William Gay – Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You?

Mary Gordon – Eleanor's Music

Lauren Groff – L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story

Beverly Jensen – Wake

Roy Kesey – Wait

Stellar Kim – Findings & Impressions

Aryn Kyle – Allegiance

Bruce McAllister – The Boy in Zaquitos

Alice Munro – Dimension

Eileen Pollack – The Bris

Karen Russell – St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Richard Russo – Horseman

Jim Shepard – Sans Farine

Kate Walbert – Do Something

 - CV Rick, July 2008

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

This is such a rich book in ideas and content that my mind is still reeling after reading it.  But it's not only great ideas, the characters are strong and sympathetic and the plot is complex, interesting, and filled with theme. 

Vinge starts with the idea that the galaxy is comprised of zones which divide physics and technology. The slow zone restricts the speed of light, the capability of computers, etc, while outside in the faster zones things progress and move more quickly.  It's in this framework that Vinge creates a chase story, but of course the chase crosses zones and that is important to the plot. 

On an alien planet two children are stranded among packs of sentient dog-like creatures who live a feudal, even medieval existence. They come to survive in different sides of a war because they can offer some technology and expertise that the packs don't possess.  But the packs are truly packs in thought and deed, operating as a litters rather than individuals. This gives richness and new feeling to the idea of alien encounters.

Off this planet humans are being blamed for bringing down destruction upon all species and are being hunted and exterminated because of it, but the ship these two children traveled in holds the key to the mystery and the humans have to find it first, before it's too late. 

Like the mind of the mathematician Vinge is, this book is a tightly woven puzzle and the solution is elegant.  It well-deserved the accolades and awards it received.

- CV Rick, May 2008

Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction by Brian W Aldiss with David Wingrove

As a fan of the genre and as a writer working to break through into its ranks I was looking forward to this volume for the history it contained.  The study of the people and landmark works I thought would help me fill large gaps in my knowledge.  In this I was not disappointed.  Brian Aldiss's knowledge is extensive, his research remarkable and the way he brought the giants in the field to life was nothing short of brilliant. 

It started with the acknowledged core beginning of the genre – Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  The back story and literary criticism of that work shows Aldiss at his best. He also cruises gracefully through such giants as Kafka, Verne, Burroughs, and Wells, bringing their stories to the fore as importantly as their works.

If only the rest of the book had been so richly rewarding.  Once he arrived at the Hugo Gernsback era Aldiss digresses into opinion and subjective accusations.  He presents his view of what was and was not important as fact and in that he diluted the craft he'd so carefully put together.  This habit extended throughout the past century becoming more annoying the closer to the present he delved.  I do wish he'd have realized that peppering his chronicle with ugly dismissals rendered the entire volume less educational and more petty in feeling and value.  I was deeply disappointed – not because I disagreed with him, but because I can make up my own mind about the writers and their works. 

I learned a lot and respect the authors less. 

- CV Rick, May 2008

The Big Idea

Every once in a while I start reading a book that has a really novel idea, a big idea, so different in scope that I wonder how in the hell the author thought of it.  I've found one of those books, and I'm only half way through it.

The book is Spin by Robert Charles Wilson and the idea is this:  one day all the stars and the moon are gone.  The earth is enveloped by a membrane that shields it from the rest of the universe, but here's the rub - time has slowed down inside the membrane.  Where it appears that time is progressing normally, it's not - sensor readings from probes sent up to the "spin" show that for every second that passes on earth, 3.7 years passes outside.  That means that in ten years on our planet, the solar system ages a billion years.  The Sun is growing and dying and the people on earth stand to be around for the awful moment when the sun consumes our planet.

And that's just in the first fifty pages or so. 

The book moves on with the relationship between Tyler and his childhood friends, brother and sister Jason and Diane.  Jason is a central figure in investigating the new reality and Diane is in the religious movement that springs up around this anomaly.  Tyler changes as more is discovered and as his own personal life collapses along with civilization. 

In the end that's what makes this brilliant idea work as a book. The characters are believable and the story is moving.  I recommend this novel highly.

- CV Rick, May 2008

Birchbark House - the Real House on the Prairie

Generations of American children have grown up reading Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'm in one of those generations. These stories gave us a view into settlers moving into formerly Indian territories and the hardships of breaking new lands to the plow, fighting weather, droughts, floods, and illness.  These stories are our stories of conquering the prairie West.  But there's another story that needs to be told and this story is of the Indians we died of disease and starvation and were moved off the lands so that white settlers could build farms and towns. 

Laura Ingalls Wilder told the only stories she could tell – one dimensional tales of white people in a white nation.  Louise Erdrich tells the story she is equipped to tell – one of a rich group of people living together in the Northern prairie lands.  In this story Omakayas is a young Ojibwe girl living with her family, but the characters aren't all Indian.  There's Albert LaPautre, a Frenchman who bumbles through trades and wild visions.  There's Omakayas' father who works to pay off his yearly debt to the trading post and knows how to play chess so well that he can sometimes win enough food to help his family through hard times.  There's Old Tallow, a medicine woman with a pack of angry dogs who teaches kind lessons through harsh examples.

For Omakayas and her family life is both hard and wonderful.  There's enough sadness in the book to make you cry and enough happiness to make a child play-act the parts.  The one thing I love about native storytelling is the respect shown to animals and plants that are needed to survive.  Ms. Erdrich tells of this relationship with the skill of a master storyteller.

This book is richer and more complete than Little House on the Prairie.   It's a responsible book and deserves more accolades and a greater following than that earlier work.  It's brilliant and sensitive and fun.  Everyday life never made me feel so fully.  Please let all children in your life read this beautiful book.

- CV Rick, May 2008

A Story Doesn't Have to Change the World

I picked up this volume of stories because I'd heard that W Somerset Maugham was the true master of the short story form.  I've read a lot of contemporary writers so I wanted to compare.  I learned a lot from these stories. 

The first thing I learned was subtlety.  These stories weren't filled with action sequences or grand plots, but instead they were filled with intent and slow moving determination.  He lets the story unfold in the actions of his characters and reveals their mind through words, action and narrative.  At first I have to admit that I thought these stories boring and without purpose but then I reread the first stories and realized that every word had purpose and that purpose was the action – the beautiful subtle flowing action of the stories told so well that they seemed effortless and haunting at the same time.  Then I was not bored.

The second thing I learned was theme.  I don't know if Maugham consciously wrote to a theme or whether it developed organically, but however he did it the theme permeated each story with symbolism in elegance.  There was this one story about an island's regent and his assistant.  They didn't get along and eventually that tension built into ill intent, but the scenes were decorated with contrasting imagery – chaos interrupting serenity, just like the main characters.  It works so well to put the reader in the mood for what's to come.  It's kind of magical when you realize that it's working and it's intentional, manipulative even.

The third thing I learned is that a story doesn't have to change the world or reveal great secrets, but that changing a single person in one significant way is enough.  It's enough and sometimes more than just enough for a story – sometimes it's perfect.

- CV Rick, May 2008

Expectations Unfulfilled

Lost Discoveries : The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya by Dick Teresi is a book that probably shouldn't have been written. I just don't have a lot of good things to say about it.  Based on the premise I had high expectations that the book would investigate the technologies of ancient civilizations for things that we, today, don't understand or can't duplicate.  I thought I'd get an examination into the pyramids, Mayan building techniques, and perhaps Pacific Island navigation methods.  What I got instead was a lot of unsubstantiated speculation and loosely strung hypothesis.  Teresi also filled his book with indigenous mythology cribbed right from Joseph Campbell's mythology books.  Unfortunately I read Campbell's library and it's much more interesting in the unabridged version.

The worst thing I can say about a nonfiction book is that I didn't learn anything new from it.  That's the truth of this volume. 

- CV Rick, May 2008

A Character Study, Not a Novel.

For the past five years I've finished every book I've started. Even books I don't like I finish because I want to know what makes a book succeed and what makes a book fail.  For me it's a study in the craft and I seek out what other people enjoy, what they see in the literature they read.  This book, Saturday by Ian McEwan, broke that streak.  I couldn't finish it.  I couldn't push myself through to the end. 

It's a novel that tries too hard to wrap itself in the trappings of theme and symbolism that it forgot one important element – plot. Every moment of Henry Perowne's day is described in painful detail. Every decision, every point of a squash game, every item on the shopping list.  Grueling – that's the word that I'd use to describe it. 

Sometimes I've heard people say that their favorite author could write a shopping list that'd be interesting.  It's just a saying people, it isn't true.  In fact there's a lot of stuff that people write for their own notes that the public ought not be subjected to . . . like character study notes.  Maybe Henry Perowne should've been an interesting character in a book with a plot.  Maybe he'd have been sympathetic in such a vehicle. 

This was not that vehicle.  This isn't even a novel.  It's just a long drawn-out, boring, tedious vignette.  Characterization notes. Nothing more. 

- CV Rick, May 2008

So You Want to Write Professionally?

You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop won't teach you anything about how to write great stories, articles, and books other than the most important thing – you have to write to be a writer.  Over the years he's compiled blog posts and articles into this volume and it's quintessential Scalzi, blunt and dogmatic. 

I'm taking my volume and mailing it to a friend who's decided to become a writer because better than I can ever do, Scalzi debunks the mythology and rose-colored dreams of the relaxed writer sitting at coffee shops and waxing poetic on the soul and the purity of art. Writing is a business and if you don't approach it as a business, you're going to be a hungry writer. 

The most valuable lesson in the book is about selling your writing.  If you want to be a paid writer, you have to write what people (editors) will buy.  That lesson applies to articles and novels alike.  It's great to write what's in your heart and it's great to be true to your vision of art, but if you want to receive royalty checks perhaps you should look at what's selling and also do whatever adjustments and rewrites your editor suggests.  Good advice.

Another eye-opening recommendation he gives is not to quit your day job.  Further he explains that rather than quitting your job look at it as freedom to write without the constraints of having to pay your bills from your writing output.  This is a great way to view it. Give yourself some time to learn the trade, figure out the markets, and explore your talents. 

If I have one knock it's more with the format than the content. Because it's an assemblage of posts, there's a lot of repetition. The upside to that is that you can open the book to any page and instantly get good advice and interesting insights.  I recommend this book to anyone who wants to write professionally.

- CV Rick, May 2008

In the Mind of a Benevolent Serial Killer

As further evidence for my thesis that a full season of a television series is the perfect vehicle for the complexities of a novel, Darkly Dreaming Dexter was indeed made into the series, Dexter and kept mostly intact from book to season one.  When I found this out, I bought the book expecting a competent thriller.  What I got was much more.

Dexter Morgan works in a laboratory for the Miami Police Department.  His forensic specialty is analyzing blood splatter, which fits in with his obsessions about blood perfectly, for he is also a serial killer.  In fact that's his main occupation.  Jeff Lindsay tells this story first person, through the voice and mind of Dexter.  He doesn't consider himself human because he doesn't have human emotions, or human cares.  He's been taught to channel his alter-ego, his "Dark Passenger," to kill only those people who deserve death - those who prey on the innocent.

Everything is going great with Dexter until the victims of another serial killer show up.  These victims appeal to Dexter, the murders are perfect and the murderer is playing a game with Dexter's Dark Passenger.  It's like a siren's call and his carefully crafted control breaks down.  Can Dexter control it or maybe he's already lost control and his Dark Passenger is loose without his conscious knowledge.

It's a page turner.  Fast and gritty.  I'm glad I read it.

- CV Rick, April 2008

2001: A Space Odyssey

Because Arthur C. Clarke recently died I decided to reread his classic novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Some people say that the major knock against science fiction is that it's necessarily dated soon after written because of the progress of society and technology.  While this may be true of many stories, 2001 is timeless.   It's hopeful, it's beautiful and it's filled with themes that speak to what we are as humanity. 

Evolution is probably the most important element of the story.  From the beginning when primitive man finds a black obelisk and it teaches the concept of tool use and subtly changes these creature's minds the idea that our improbable evolution was guided by alien intervention.  Then, just as humanity gained the power to destroy its own planet those same aliens had planned to help the descendants of those early creatures jump to the next step, as equal in advancement as using stones for tools were to starving primitives.  The message I took from the story was that we are limited in how forward we can think and until we break through another evolutionary barrier we'll be butting our heads against an invisible barrier on creativity.  It's profound and humbling to consider the possibility that there are beings who look at our restrictions as simplistic as we view the idea of making a fire for survival. 

Invariably this novel gets compared with the Stanley Kubrick film and rightly so.  Unlike any pair I've encountered, both the novel and screenplay were developed simultaneously and in conjunction.  With slight differences the stories are complementary and equally brilliant.  What makes me favor the book more than the movie is the ending, which is explained better revealing the true scope of the evolutionary step man is about to make. 

- CV Rick, April 2008

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

Ted Chiang has done it again.  His novelette, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate is another spark of brilliance from a writer whose name is becoming synonymous with "year's best."

This story is time travel meets Arabian Nights.  It's a story with a moral imperative about changing the past or affecting the future.  The narrator, Fuwaad ibn Abbas, tells the Caliph of Baghdad the story of his own involvement with the Alchemist's Gate by telling him the stories of other people who have gone through that same gate.  Each story contributes to the overall narrative, each adds to the beautiful Arabian scenery, from Baghdad to Cairo, and each reveals more capabilities of the gate itself. 

In my experience with Chiang's writing, he explores the idea of fatalism from two perspectives: Can one change his fate? and Can one accept his fate?  Some of the nested story's protaganists can accept, some cannot, yet the narrator realizes the most important thing about time travel is knowledge not deed.  It is that essential truth that is the theme of the story. 

I can't recommend it enough. 

- CV Rick, April 2008

Saving the Empire

We Few is the last installment in a tetralogy. Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock is now the principle heir to the throne held by his mother the Empress.  He must now prove himself as capable a leader as he is a fighter because no one who wasn't with him on Marduk believes he's changed from the spoiled bratty kid he was went he left.  There we are - Roger framed for a coup attempt and no one rushing to his side to rescue his mother, the Empress. 

[the following text is the same for my reviews of all 4 books in the series.]

First the good points - It's a fast-paced and exciting military science fiction story which takes the reader from danger to danger quickly. The plot moves along and these two writers know how to spin an interesting story.  I give kudos to them for hooking me and making me read to the end and want to pick up the final book in the series. 

Now the bad.  This book is set hundreds of years in the future, yet all the sayings, quotes, poems, and songs come from our recent military history.  Everything out of the mouths of the troops was a cliche that I've heard hundreds of times.  Can't these two writers create a new lexicon for a future military?  Can't they replace the worn metaphors with something creative and cool for a future society?  Wouldn't there have been another poet that Marines love to replace Rudyard Kipling? 

Speaking of Cliches, every character was one - the tried and true marine sergeant, gruff and tough, but with a heart of gold - The commander who spouts philosophy while ordering a slaughter - the spoiled kid, born with a silver spoon who becomes an honorable man under combat duress.  It's all here and it's all predictable.  Don't Ringo and Weber's readers want to experience something new or are they all Corps veterans reliving a collective past rosier and more ideal than the reality? 

Also, the authors' politics are front and center.  I disagree with their assertions and it was starky annoying. 

Still, decent reading if you can get past the negatives.

- CV Rick, April 2008

Turning Aliens into Marines

March to the Stars is the third installment in a tetralogy. Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock is the tertiary heir to the throne held by his mother the Empress.  He must learn diplomacy and independence as well as leadership if he's going to return to his home and take his rightful place in the imperial government.  First, however, he must cross a violent sea, traipse across a continent, conquer and spaceport and commandeer a ship - all with primitive weapons and very few remaining Marines.  But he's Prince Roger and by this time, he can do anything - so long as he leaves bodies in his wake.

[the following text is the same for my reviews of all 4 books in the series.]

First the good points - It's a fast-paced and exciting military science fiction story which takes the reader from danger to danger quickly. The plot moves along and these two writers know how to spin an interesting story.  I give kudos to them for hooking me and making me read to the end and want to pick up the final book in the series. 

Now the bad.  This book is set hundreds of years in the future, yet all the sayings, quotes, poems, and songs come from our recent military history.  Everything out of the mouths of the troops was a cliche that I've heard hundreds of times.  Can't these two writers create a new lexicon for a future military?  Can't they replace the worn metaphors with something creative and cool for a future society?  Wouldn't there have been another poet that Marines love to replace Rudyard Kipling? 

Speaking of Cliches, every character was one - the tried and true marine sergeant, gruff and tough, but with a heart of gold - The commander who spouts philosophy while ordering a slaughter - the spoiled kid, born with a silver spoon who becomes an honorable man under combat duress.  It's all here and it's all predictable.  Don't Ringo and Weber's readers want to experience something new or are they all Corps veterans reliving a collective past rosier and more ideal than the reality? 

Also, the authors' politics are front and center.  I disagree with their assertions and it was starky annoying. 

Still, decent reading if you can get past the negatives.

- CV Rick, April 2008

Marines on a Primitive Planet

March to the Sea is the second installment in a tetralogy. Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock is the tertiary heir to the throne held by his mother the Empress.  He's growing up to become a fine warrior.  Shipwrecked on Marduk, a violent planet of sentient, but primitive creatures and even more violent native predators, he and his Marine bodyguards must negotiate hazardous terrain, towns and political upheaval in order to cross the planet.  More importantly, he must gain the respect of men and women who once despised him. 

[the following text is the same for my reviews of all 4 books in the series.]

First the good points - It's a fast-paced and exciting military science fiction story which takes the reader from danger to danger quickly. The plot moves along and these two writers know how to spin an interesting story.  I give kudos to them for hooking me and making me read to the end and want to pick up the next two books in the series. 

Now the bad.  This book is set hundreds of years in the future, yet all the sayings, quotes, poems, and songs come from our recent military history.  Everything out of the mouths of the troops was a cliche that I've heard hundreds of times.  Can't these two writers create a new lexicon for a future military?  Can't they replace the worn metaphors with something creative and cool for a future society?  Wouldn't there have been another poet that Marines love to replace Rudyard Kipling? 

Speaking of Cliches, every character was one - the tried and true marine sergeant, gruff and tough, but with a heart of gold - The commander who spouts philosophy while ordering a slaughter - the spoiled kid, born with a silver spoon who becomes an honorable man under combat duress.  It's all here and it's all predictable.  Don't Ringo and Weber's readers want to experience something new or are they all Corps veterans reliving a collective past rosier and more ideal than the reality? 

Also, the authors' politics are front and center.  I disagree with their assertions and it was starky annoying. 

Still, decent reading if you can get past the negatives.

- CV Rick, April 2008

Marines In Space

March Upcountry is the first installment in a tetralogy. Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock is the tertiary heir to the throne held by his mother the Empress.  He's a spoiled, truculent rich kid without a care for anything important and no responsibility for anyone, even himself.  Sent away on an unimportant diplomatic mission he is the victim of a nearly successful assassination attempt, but instead escapes to the surface of Marduk, a violent planet of sentient, but primitive creatures and even more violent native predators.  With more than a battalion of Marine bodyguards he must fight his way across this planet and return home.

First the good points - It's a fast-paced and exciting military science fiction story which takes the reader from danger to danger quickly.  The plot moves along and these two writers know how to spin an interesting story.  I give kudos to them for hooking me and making me read to the end and want to pick up the next three books in the series. 

Now the bad.  This book is set hundreds of years in the future, yet all the sayings, quotes, poems, and songs come from our recent military history.  Everything out of the mouths of the troops was a cliche that I've heard hundreds of times.  Can't these two writers create a new lexicon for a future military?  Can't they replace the worn metaphors with something creative and cool for a future society?  Wouldn't there have been another poet that Marines love to replace Rudyard Kipling? 

Speaking of Cliches, every character was one - the tried and true marine sergeant, gruff and tough, but with a heart of gold - The commander who spouts philosophy while ordering a slaughter - the spoiled kid, born with a silver spoon who becomes an honorable man under combat duress.  It's all here and it's all predictable.  Don't Ringo and Weber's readers want to experience something new or are they all Corps veterans reliving a collective past rosier and more ideal than the reality? 

Also, the authors' politics are front and center.  I disagree with their assertions and it was starky annoying. 

Still, decent reading if you can get past the negatives.

- CV Rick, April 2008

On Writing, Inspiration, and Practical Advice

Stephen King manages to create the most interesting and inspiring writing advice book I've had the pleasure of reading.  It's part memoir and part practical writing instruction.  He takes the reader on a journey through his own life - what made him the writer he is, the nuggets and kernels of his earliest creativity, and both his failures and successes. 

Through telling his own story he leads you comfortably along until he gets to the basics of writing.  Throwing out traditional English Composition coursework he gets down and dirty with what makes a sentence, what style is and how to apply it, and when, where and how to write.  You can't help (well, I couldn't) but to be inspired and want to jump right out there and start writing after reading his stories. 

This is a must-read for every would-be writer as well as every Stephen King fan. 

- CV Rick, April 2008

Obsessions and Donkey Kong

Sugar and I watched The King of Kong last week.  It's a documentary about the guys who battled (yes, battled is the right word) to be recognized for the world record score on Donkey Kong.  It's a great movie because it'll keep you riveted to the disaster that is the main character's lives and how they are dominant and famous in only an isolated group.  Fame for Minutia - the American Way. 

We are a nation obsessed by Fame.  The entertainment and sports sections are more read than the front page.  The political races are only interesting when celebrities like Clinton and Obama clash. Britney Spears is a ratings juggernaut despite her debilitating pyschological defects.  Paris Hilton is also a marketing genius despite her inability to pass any math or grammar test in our public schools. Celebrity, fame, and notoriety drive more money and more effort than anything else in America.  Or so it seems.

The celebrity in the King of Kong is this one guy, Billy Mitchell, who held records in the classic video games, Donkey Kong and Centipede.  In 1999 Billy Mitchell performed a perfect game of Pac-Man, an unheard of act.  He's a self-promoter, a guru of hot sauce for the Chicken Wing industry and a restauranteer in Hollywood, Florida.  In this little circle of people who closely follow classic video game records, Billy is the most widely recognized person and he revels in his fame, flaunting it as if he were the Emperor of San Francisco. He's an ass.  He graces video arcades with his presence and phone calls as if they should be grateful and loyal just to know him. 

The movie is about upstart Steve Wiebe, an unlucky guy from Washington who'd never made his mark in any facet of his life despite working hard and with dedication.  He sought to make his mark in Donkey Kong and Billy Mitchell sought to thwart him. 

We are a nation obsessed by Fame.  The entertainment and sports sections are more read than the front page.  The political races are only interesting when celebrities like Clinton and Obama clash. Britney Spears is a ratings juggernaut despite her debilitating pyschological defects.  Paris Hilton is also a marketing genius despite her inability to pass any math or grammar test in our public schools. Celebrity, fame, and notoriety drive more money and more effort than anything else in America.  Or so it seems.

The celebrity in the King of Kong is this one guy, Billy Mitchell, who held records in the classic video games, Donkey Kong and Centipede.  In 1999 Billy Mitchell performed a perfect game of Pac-Man, an unheard of act.  He's a self-promoter, a guru of hot sauce for the Chicken Wing industry and a restauranteer in Hollywood, Florida.  In this little circle of people who closely follow classic video game records, Billy is the most widely recognized person and he revels in his fame, flaunting it as if he were the Emperor of San Francisco. He's an ass.  He graces video arcades with his presence and phone calls as if they should be grateful and loyal just to know him. 

The movie is about upstart Steve Wiebe, an unlucky guy from Washington who'd never made his mark in any facet of his life despite working hard and with dedication.  He sought to make his mark in Donkey Kong and Billy Mitchell sought to thwart him. 

Classic Science Fiction - Maybe that's the Problem

I'll give props to CJ Cherryh for breaking ground in sci-fi.  She took Space Opera out of the realm of elected governments, kingdoms and empires and put it squarely into corporate control and abuse.  She rewrote the British Empire to be what it truly was - the exploits of the East India Tea Company - and then projected it forward into space.

This book is about Pell's World, a habited planet in a system thought to not contain any life.  Not only is there life; the Hisa are a gentle, intelligent species.  Pell's orbital station gets caught in the middle of a company war.  The company, Earth Company builds a fleet of military ships to control its far flung holdings, which are in a union-led revolt. 

It's a great idea and the execution is competent.  When it was written it was new and fresh and it's understandable that so many writers copied the corporate war format.  It won the 1982 Hugo award and it's constantly mentioned as one of the great sci-fi novels. 

I couldn't get into it.  I couldn't really get interested.  It was too complex and none of the characters were sympathetic - they all seemed like cardboard cutout movie actors playing the stereotyped roles.  To tell the truth, this is the type of book that turns the general populace off to science fiction because it's complicated and boring and it's hard to keep everything straight.  Give me a straight up story about a person in trouble any day . . . you can put it on a spaceship, alien planet, or in my backyard - so long as I care about the character.

- CV Rick, April 2008

Outposts of Empire - Forgotten History

Simon Winchester made it his mission to visit the forgotten outposts of the British Empire.  A century ago the Empire spanned the globe, hundreds of islands, dozens of countries and protectorates and the sun truly never set on the territories.  But the Empire shrunk and collapsed in on itself yet straggling islands across the planet still lay claim or are claimed by the shadow of day's long gone.

Sure, as other people have said, it's a dated book.  But it was written in 1985 and reading it with that in mind it's a fascinating travelogue.  I loved the author's attempt to "invade" Diego Garcia accompanied by the disappointing story of how residents were evicted and the U.S. put in a major (nuclear) base.  The empire has done so many things in its best interest, unfortunately that doesn't always include protecting individual rights. 

I also learned a lot about St. Helena where exiles resided for decades (Napoleon, Mbelini - head of the Zulu Nation).  I knew nothing about the beauty of the island or of the mansion where Napoleon took his walks and dictated his memoirs, staff on hand and British Guards out of sight. 

The Pitcairn islands are the last refuge of Britain in the Pacific not even administered nearby, but instead thousands of miles away from Australia.  The resident population shrinking and forgotten.  The average British citizen doesn't know much about its current empire.  Maybe if you ask they'll say the Isle of Mann or the Faulklands.  But these Outposts are historic and present.  It's a great read.  I love learning the minutia of history:  the forgotten places, the discarded histories, and the neglected peoples. 

Dated?  Maybe, but is history ever dated and does travel lose its romance.

- CV Rick, March 2008

Repent, Harlequin said the Ticktockman

In a world where time is the most essential resource and tardiness is penalized by law.  More, it's penalized by shortening one's life by the amount of time "wasted" according to the ruling authority, the Ticktockman.  In this dystopia no dissent is tolerated.  Then there's the Harlequin, a man who dresses up like the fabled trickster and taunts the authorities, encouraging people to take their time, smell the flowers and whatnot.  Harlequin knows that mass revolt is the only way to enact a change against a totalitarian regime.  But is Harlequin the man to trigger a revolt?

Harlan Ellison has written so many great stories, but this one in particular resonates with me and with our time obsessed society.  It's the small voice of defiance that I wish more people had.  This edition of the storyu is good, if a little overpriced.  The artwork is good, but I think the story is better suited as a short, not an illustrated graphic.  As a short in the 60's, this story won the Hugo and the Nebula.

In whatever form or edition, I think this is a great story for people to read.  It's a wonderful introduction to the imaginative world of Harlan Ellison.

- CV Rick, March 2008

This Is The Big Idea

Within the theory of parallel universes there is a hypothesis which says that a new universe is created every time a sentient mind makes a choice.  It's that crux that Robert Sawyer uses to create a story where two universes meet and civilizations collide.  That's what science fiction is all about – taking a big idea and running with it to see what could happen.

The second big idea in this book is the What If Neanderthals had become the dominant species on the planet and us homo sapiens sapiens had gone extinct 40,000 years ago?  So the collision between universes transferred one Neanderthal from their world to ours.  Not just any Neanderthal, however, this one is Ponter Boddit, a theoretical physicist working on a quantum computer.

At this point I had to stop and say, “Wow!”  A Neanderthal physicist accidentally jumps through to our dimension and turns all our knowledge, confidence, religion, and science on its head.  Rarely does a book open enough questions to get my own mind spinning with the possibilities. 

Then Sawyer goes on to describe a possible Utopian society in the Neanderthal world.  This is a place where heterosexuality is restricted to four days a month with homosexuality prevailing the rest of the time.  Worldwide population is controlled, religion is unheard of, and the hunter-gatherer diet/lifestyle is still alive and well.  In that world human caused extinction doesn't happen.  Flocks of passenger pigeons darken the skies while woolly mammoths and bison roam the plains.  Human on human violence is so rare as to be unheard of and the legal system is attorney-free.  At points the book seems more like a platform for Sawyer's advocacy than a story, but with such a great premise I can forgive a little preaching. 

Well done, Mr. Sawyer.  Well done.

- CV Rick, March 2008

A Beautiful Story

What amazed me about this book was the way the story was told.  It's kind of a courtroom drama, kind of a romance, and very much a commentary on the state of a torn and divided nation after World War II.  On the North end of Puget Sound there was a murder and the accused, Kabuo Miyamoto is a friend turned enemy of Carl Heine, now deceased.

The way it's told is the magic, as I alluded to earlier.  It's like peeling layers on the silent man, Miyamoto and the entire island of San Piedro.  Each person involved in the trial reveals their history and their secrets as uncovered by the narrator, newspaperman Ishmael Chambers.  At first these secrets are far from the murder and the accused, but they throw a wide net and it tightens masterfully as David Guterson weaves a beautiful story.  The two families go back, way back.  Their stories are difficult and run through Japanese interment camps and bloody battlefields to end up on fishing boats and in strawberry fields.

Besides a tight, intricate plot, the setting is described perfectly – the smells, the tastes, the sounds of the Washington Coast.  It's hard to believe that this is a first novel, it's that good.

- CV Rick, March 2008

Is Malcolm Gladwell a Tipping Point?

This was a really cool book.  I was completely intrigued by the ideas, although I'm not completely sold. However, if anyone can describe the Tipping Point, it's Malcolm Gladwell.  That guy could explain quantum physics to the short-bus crowd and they'd understand.

Here's what it is: "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point."  But what it really tries to describe is that event we've all seen and wondered about, when small ideas or trends 'catch on' and become the big deal – the next big thing.  If we can understand what makes that change, what pushes it over the top, then we can manipulate the markets and get rich.  Unfortunately that's the book's biggest weakness as well. If everyone knows what it's going to take to push their idea or product over that threshold, then the boundaries move and the requirements change.  There's really only room for so many 'tipping point' ideas in the marketplace.  We can't all win in this capitalistic system, right? Not when the winners come on the backs of the losers.

So, the book describes tipping point events as epidemics and delineates them into three rules: The Law of the Few (where select people are the movers or leaders in these things), The Stickiness Factor, and The Power of Context.  Each of this he masterfully illustrates with real world examples, from the ride of Paul Revere to Rebecca Wells' novel, Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

I loved the book and instinctively it all makes sense, but in the nature of things, the moving goalposts still bothers me.  It is no wonder that Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most sought-after public speakers in America – he tells a great story and makes you believe.  He might be his own tipping point.

- CV Rick, March 2008

Anthology With A Cause

Speaking with the Angel is an anthology for a cause.  Nick Hornby's son is autistic, so he put together the best writers he knows to put stories into an book for Treehouse, a unique school in London.  It's a good cause, but I didn't know if that would translate to a good book.  I needn't have worried, the writers met the challenge and produced a great theme-free collection.

Nick Hornby brings the most memorable of the stories with NippleJesus.  It's a tale of a controversial work of art and the man who guards it.  He's moved by the piece and grows attached, changing from being revolted to becoming an art defender.
Helen Fielding's story, LuckyBitch gets into the mind of an old lady reliving her risque past.  It's an unexpected treat and encourages me to pick up a Fielding book and see if it's good.

Other great stories include:
PMQ by Robert Harris, a tale of what happens when Britain's Prime Minister goes out of pocket without his security.
After I was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned by Dave Eggers tells the story of racing through the woods from a dog's point of view.  Things aren't always what they seem.

The Table of Contents:
* "PMQ" by Robert Harris
* "The Wonder Spot" by Melissa Bank
* "Last Requests" by Giles Smith
* "Peter Shelley" by Patrick Marber
* "The Department of Nothing" by Colin Firth
* "I'm the Only One" by Zadie Smith
* "NippleJesus" by Nick Hornby
* "LuckyBitch" by Helen Fielding
* "The Slave" by Roddy Doyle
* "Catholic Guilt" by Irvine Welsh
* "After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned" by Dave Eggers
* "Walking into the Wind" by John O'Farrell