Crazy but Fairly Likely

What is going to happen if the predicted global warming occurs?



Paolo Bacigalupi is a sci-fi author writing out of Colorado. He is the author of the Nebula nominated Wind-Up Girl and a phenomenal book of short fiction entitled Pump Six and Other Stories. He also writes for an environmental rag, where he most have a lot of time to think about what will happen if the environment goes the wrong way.

If infrastructure goes the way of the dinosaur, Bacigalupi pretty much has it in the bag. It's likely that we will move quickly away from the fossil fuels that have caused so many problems. What happens though if we don't get an alternate system set up? Society has some major problems at this point. The basic pieces of American modern culture change quickly and drastically. Population crashes, we either all gather to urban areas, or disperse ourselves across the country in small bands. All support for the suburbs is eliminated. There will be massive movement of people.

Bacigalupi's stories are so cool because his explanation for the crash of society is solidly based on where we are now and what we won't have. His future allows for generipping and manipulation of entire species. The work is done on a computer powered by a treadle. Think about how much work it would take just to process a gene sequence.

Calories become extremely important. Anything that needs to be powered needs to be powered by wind, water, or as Bacigalupi posits the work of giant modified elephants that only purpose is to take the calories they burn and put them in giant "kink springs" that will effectively hold the joules.

Because the ability to burn calories in order to get power becomes essential to run any advanced technology, any one that can control food production puts themselves in a position of immense power. A company entitle AgriGene creates a weevil that will eat the grain that is powering society, at the same time creating a grain that is resistant to the same weevil that they engineered. I would guess that is a pretty decent way to create a monopoly. Paolo's writing is so slick.

Wind-up Girl is a most read. Pick it up! This is a novel of ideas that are probably a lot closer than we think. Maybe this will be the survival guide for the 22nd century.

The Roar: Add Another Classic to Dystopian Literature

The Roar by Emma Clayton is a highly enjoyable read. It is in the same vein as the popular YA novels the Hunger Games and Catching Fire. The Roar is set in a dystopic future similar to some of the genre’s great, classic predecessors. The Roar shares similarities to two of the greatest books in the genre: Brave New World and 1984. The main antagonist in the book has extended his life to an unnatural length taking pills conjuring Brave New World. Clayton’s writing also strongly relates to 1984. Both books contain the themes of being separated by class; those who are ruled are on a frantic journey towards self identification. However Clayton’s strongest influence is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. The books share many similar themes that drive each respective novel towards a breathtaking conclusion.

Before the story begins, Ellie, one of our heroes has been kidnapped and imprisoned. The Roar roars off with Ellie and a Capuchin monkey in tow, barreling towards earth in a Pod Fighter. They cross the wall that extends across the entire northern hemisphere and race towards the United Kingdom at ridiculous speeds. They have escaped the evil Mal Gordon’s satellite space station with the goal of seeing Ellie’s family. Ellie was kidnapped by Gorman because of his suspicion of her “special” powers. Ellie is chased by goons, but the deadly twelve year old pilot outmaneuvers her tails and flies underneath London into The Shadows. Ellie makes a small mistake and ends up crashing in the Thames which is now a giant, stinking floodplain. She sinks to the bottom with the thought that she is going to be buried alive in the black muck that was once the famous river. To her consternation and relief, Ellie is “rescued” by Gorman and brought back to her prison in space. Clayton’s action is brisk, intense, and does not let up through out.

The story switches focuses onto Ellie’s twin brother, Mika, who lives in a fold down house (fold down because you fold up your bathroom in order to fold down your kitchen, all in 50 square feet) in a suburb of London. Mika is an extraordinary young boy. Everyone believes that Ellie is dead because that is what her family has been told by the local police. However, Mika has strong feelings (and convincing dreams) that his sister is alive and is willing to do anything in order to get her back.

Mika attends his local school where all of the learning takes place by video. One day in class a new program is started where all of the students are forced to drink health supplements. He feels that the government, who has initiated the “Fit Mix” program, is trying to poison the children. The program also includes physical exercise, as well as a new “game” that teaches the children how to fly a Fighter Pod (think spaceship) that the children are coerced to learn through the excitement of this new “game”. This same arm of the government, run by the Evil Mal Gorman, has certain sinister goals that they want to accomplish by running this “Fit Mix” campaign. Gorman initiates all of the children into competing against each other in a massive government supported competition. Mika is sucked into winning the game because he feels that this may be a way to find Ellie.

The plot continues with Mika becoming more and more involved in different stages of these games and through the competition, Mika gets closer and closer to his sister. I won’t give more of the plot away as that would be a disservice to anyone wanting to read this one.

One reason the book is so compelling is the descriptions of where these characters live and what their environments are like. The world north of the barrier is very dichotic. The Shadows, which is the remaining cities and towns built before the Fold Down Houses and the Golden Turrets were erected. The Shadows are the bottom of a three tiered city scape. The Shadows is a world that doesn’t ever see sunlight, where deadly mold covers all surfaces, and where the refuse from the world above is basically dumped on top of this motley living space. Living in the Shadow’s would be the equivalent of living in a dump or a sewer, unpleasant and unsanitary. Above the Shadows is where Mika lives, the Fold Down Houses. This area is where the majority of the lower middleclass lives. It is older and run down, but not necessarily physically dangerous. The houses are ridiculously cramped. This leaves the Golden Turrets, where the rich live. These are spacious apartments that jut out of the sky line. The people living in the Golden Turrets are not wanting. Picture a golden skyscraper with all the amenities included.

Clayton’s writing about the different classes from these three separate environments, was one of my favorite pieces of the book. At one point in the story the main characters are in the Golden Turrets and experience an immeasurably eerie occurrence. Here is a quote from the book.

--Boom. Boom.

“What’s that?” he asked as his feet hit the pavement. It sounded like the heartbeat of an enormous beast, as if a dragon were sleeping beneath its treasure, instead of on top of it.

Boom. Boom.

“The Shadows,” the chauffeur replied. “haven’t you heard?”

“No,” Mika said. “what’s happening?”

“The mold is getting worse,” the chauffeur replied grimly. “And hundreds are dying every day. And they say the government won’t help them because it’s cheaper to let them die.”

…

“But the people in The Shadows won’t be ignored,” the chauffeur said. “So they’re banging on the pillars holding up the Golden Turrets with huge steel balls on chains. All day and all night they swing them – one time for every person who’s died. It was driving people crazy up here when it started on Friday night, but apparently you get used to it.”

Boom. Boom.

“I don’t think I’ll get used to it,” Mika said. He gazed at the pavement and tried to imagine what was below, all that darkness and water and millions of people trying to stay alive and balls on chains swinging against the pillars.

“Creepy, innit?” the chauffeur said.

Sure is. Thanks for such an awesome description Ms. Clayton.

Like Ender’s Game, The Roar features a government agency training children through games. Ender was forced in a certain direction through games and, in the end of the book, was made to command an army in order to defeat his enemies, the buggers. Mika on the other hand is coerced into learning to fly by the governments offer of instantly improving his families lives. Ender is, in essence, tricked, where Mika has consciously made the choice to participate because he believes he may be able to rescue his sister.

Another strong comparison between the two works is the dream sequences. Ender keeps dreaming about the game that he is playing, in particular about the decomposing giant. These dream sequences are driving pieces in the book. Mika is also troubled by nightmares. He dreams about these incredibly ancient, living skeletons with old fashioned televisions for heads. Disturbingly, Mika dreams about Mal Gorman as one of these “Tele-heads” before he has even met him. In Mika’s dream, all of the Tele-heads surround him in order to eat him. Mal starts with a pair of giant scissors at his big toe as the first course.

There are several other themes that Ender’s Game and The Roar share. These themes include older enemies that both treat the protagonist horribly, but the hero gets even with these awful enemies in both books. Both characters are also manipulated by their respective governments. In this regard Mika takes control of the manipulation, where Ender only has a limited control over his destiny throughout the book.

Clayon’s writing is vivid and her themes are compelling. She takes up warring social classes, the environment, and psychic powers with deft skill. The book is never preachy and never assumes that her target audience isn’t smart enough for the morally challenging aspects of the narrative. Clayton is awesome at taking these serious, modern ideas and making them accessible for the kids (and adults) that take The Roar on.

Everything about The Roar is top notch. The plot, characters, themes, and environment of the book are right up there with the Suzanne Collins Hunger Games series and the classic dystopic novels that we all love. This one comes highly recommended. I hope that more people get their hands on this absolute gem.

5 out of 5 – Absolutely one of my favorites that I have read so far this year!

"Balanced Ecology": James H. Schmitz

Balanced Ecology is a Nebula award nominated short story written by James H. Schmitz in 1965. Short stories are often just small slices of action committed by characters that we do not get to know because of our limited time spent with them. We don't have the luxury of getting to like or dislike the characters. What we do have the time to do however, is appreciate the action that these characters take. We can applaud or disavow, feel joy or shame in just a few pages of action that our author drags us into.

James H. Schmitz sets this one up quickly and rivets our attention. He dumps us into a beautiful forest of "diamondtrees" and strange animals that can only survive in this "Balanced Ecology". If the animals are taken out, they die. If new animals are put into the forest, they die. The only species that can survive that is not natural to the habitat are humans. The writer's description of the fauna is bizarre enough to keep us interested through 7,500 or so words. One of the natives is an animal that can repeat anything it hears, but it repeats it at several times the rate of normal human speach. Think of several 45 record players sitting around you playing the spoken word, all pumped up to 75 rpm and you have the idea of a "humbug". Here is schmitz description. "The humbugs were small, brown, bobtailed animals, built with spider leanness and very quick. They had round skulls, monkey faces, and the pointed teeth of animals who lived by catching and killing other animals." The descriptions employed by Schmitz set's up for the action for the finale.

The two protagonists in the story are Ilf and Auris, and through inheritance, own 100% of the forest. They will make enough money off the harvesting of the tree's that they will not need to work for the rest of their lives. Enter the corporate villain, who wants to clear cut all of the trees in order to create demand for the product and make a killing off the harvest (does this sound familiar). Enter the forest itself. The diamondwoods have a different idea of how it wants to manage the land. It takes care of the problem in a creative way using one of the creatures that can only live under it's "silver-blue" branches. The way the enemy get's it is pretty cool as well as satisfying. Take that you corporate baddies.

The action tells the tale. Schmitz' rapid fire delivery kept me engaged and interested in how the story would finish. This is a fun little diddie that can be read in about fifteen minutes. It's engaging ideas about ecology and taking care of nature are satisfying. In our modern corporate society, it's a dog eat dog world, but on the planet of Wrake, it's more like a giant turtle eat person world.

5 out of 5

As a side note, it is a little disheartening to me that the short story seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. The medium is such a great way to create ideas and put them out there for consumption. I hope that there is a revival of short stories. If there is, I think it will be lead by individuals using the medium of the internet to push forth cool (hopefully free) short stories.

The story is posted here for your reading pleasure:
http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0671319841/0671319841___3.htm

The World of Null-A: Gosseyn or Go Home

The World of Null-A by A. E. Van Vogt is a classic Sci-Fi novel. It was awarded a Retro Hugo Nominee and is considered one of the founding books of the golden age. Van Vogt is a master of the genre and wrote another classic Sci-Fi novel, Slan. He does so many things so well. The novel was published in 1945 in one of the pulp magazines. For 19-freaking-45, the novel is in so many ways ahead of the curve. However, the book also suffers from major flaws that severely denigrate the overall health of the plot and the novel.

The plot revolves around one Gilbert Gosseyn (pronounced Go-Sane) who is a practitioner of Null-A (or non-aristolean thinking). He is on earth and in the city of the machine in the hopes that he can make a move to Venus, a utopian-like world where everyone who lives there practices Null-A and thus makes sane, logical decisions that reinforce the utopia. I will briefly point out one the considerable flaws in the novel; we are never given a handle on what the philosophy of Null-A is and thus have a difficult time understanding why it is so essential to the novel. More on this point to come.



While in the city Gosseyn learns that he isn't the person who thought he was. The machine confirms this and sets Gosseyn off in trying to figure out who he is and why he doesn't know his own identity. We are introduced to diabolical characters whose basic intentions are to take over Earth as well as Venus. Gosseyn is central to this evil plot. Muahhahahahahah! For those who are going to read this one I don't want to give away too much of the plot for fear of spoiling the journey so I will stop the description of the plot here.

Let us now focus on what is wonderful and good about this classic. Van Vogt is a master at projecting very cool, very futuristic set pieces. The novel occurs in the year 2650. His descriptions of RoboPlanes, a machine (The MACHINE) that determines your place in society, and getting from one place to another instantaneously are so 2650 and seem to me a little Brave New Worldish. The descriptions of Venus with it's skyscraper-like trees with whole mansions carved in the root system and the concept of moving and killing with your mind are incredibly imaginative. Van Vogt shines in his intense and pin-point descriptions. Reading the book, I really felt connected to the vistas he creates. These descriptions are the base that so many future Science Fiction authors stand on.

Another strong point of the novel is the philosophical discussion through out. Despite the fact that there is no description of Null-A, there are themes in the book that make us ponder the basic question of who is human and who is not. Gosseyn's character drags us into discussions about the definition of consciousness and even the possibility of cheating death (which Gosseyn does literally and physically again and again). There is also a compelling side-plot about how memory determines how we process reality. How would you react if you remember being married to some one but then discover that the person is actually the president's daughter and certainly not your wife. This question is totally Philip K. Dick before Phillip K. Dick graduated from high school. It is very easy to see why this book is so influential.

I also loved the way that Van Vogt finishes this one up. We are left with a cliff-hanger that at the same time wraps the novel perfectly. The payoff of last paragraph alone probably makes the book worthwhile reading.

Now moving on to a little criticism. As I continued reading the book, the thought kept popping in my head, "Man, the dude who wrote this was ADHD." Following the plot and interaction between characters is like being strapped to a chair and being forced to watch a movie on fast-forward and cut by a monkey on amphetamines. Random and more random. The plot bounces between Earth and Venus and back to Earth and, boom, back to Venus. If all this movement drove the story forward I can probably accept it. But it doesn't. All it is is a change of scenery for changes sake.

Gosseyn gets captured and escapes. And.... Gosseyn gets captured again. Bet you can't guess what happens next. Winner! He escapes again. This repetittion occurs again and again. This is a major problem with the novel. They don't drive the plot and they certainly don't enhance character building.

The biggest problem I had with the novel, and I hope that this is not due to any mental defect I have, is that one of the most crucial aspects of the novel is left totally unexplained; NULL-A. What is it? I am still not sure. I gathered that it was a new way of thinking, different then the way humans have evolved to normally think. But I certainly don't understand how it is different or what that difference means. A majority of the plot is driven by this concept. It is hard to accept major plot points centering around Null-A without understanding why it is so damned important.

Overall, I liked the book. It had great action without the crappy dialogue and production problems that plagued the film industry during this period. It's not campy, thank Jah. The influence that this book alone has had on Sci-Fi makes it important to read if you want to know the history of the genre. One of my favorite authors, Phillip K. Dick, stands on the back of Van Vogt so I am grateful that I was able to read this one.

By the way, if any one is interested in an eBook version, feel free to email me at johngabbradley@gmail.com

3 out of 5

The Book Blog: Beginning the Blog

Hi, My name is John and welcome to my new book blog. I love to read. This blog is going to be devoted to the books that I have read recently. I am going to write short reviews about what I think about the books as well as a short synopsis and review. The genres that I am most interested in are (in no particular order) YA, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Noir, Mystery, Comic Books, Serious Literature, and Classics. I read a broad number of genres and am obsessed with reading all the Newbery Winners and Runner Ups, Hugo Award Winners, Nebula Winners, and all good books. I read at least a couple of books a week and sometimes three or four. I will post what I am currently reading and then review what I have finished recently. Hope I get a few followers in the process.