sirens of titan

1959.

That's when The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr was published. I read a paperback copy that I found on the (many!) shelves of the house we stayed in up in New Hampshire over the Independence Day weekend. This has become an annual trip with my family, and this year's foray was another success. I had never read this sci fi blast from the past, and it looked pretty good, and not all that long, so I took it for a whirl.

So, right off, folks reading this book today will  see that its dated. Not just in the wildly inventive scientific speculations, which have clearly been been proven false since it was written, but also the number of quirks about 1959 society that Vonnegut assumed would last into the indefinite future, and, you know...haven't.

I've seen this a number of times in classic SF, from Asimov and others, who foresaw a world where alien carrying spaceships bopped around our solar system, and humans are augmented and/or armed with super-cool laser technologies, but where women are still fetching coffee. asimov, one could argue, got it even worse

That said, this book has got some pretty original thinking, some wild ideas, and speculates on some pretty crazy ways to accomplish one's goals, despite the worse-case scenarios you may be living in. Its also witty in many places, and pretty funny in some others. There are also some over-arching themes, and even some interesting views on the development--and potentially the very existence--of human life on earth, that reminded my a little of the Hitchhiker's Guide.

This was a fun little throwback, and a treat to read for those interested in classic Sci Fi.

homer & langley

Homer & Langley is a novel by E.L. Doctorow, and it follows the lives of two brothers living in New York city from their boyhood to old age in their family mansion on Fifth Avenue, overlooking Central Park. The Collyer Brothers, were left alone when the flu pandemic of 1918-1920 carried their parents away not long after the older brother, Langley, returned from the Great War with his lungs burned and his body scarred by mustard gas.

The story is narrated in the voice of the younger brother, Homer, who has slowly lost hist sight in his early twenties, and so the brothers stay together in their family mansion, and try to take care of each other. They keep on the staff--the cook and the housekeepers--for as long as the money and the staff patience holds out, but both eventually drift away.

Perhaps it's post traumatic stress disorder (shell-shock in World War I) or maybe that, combined with the abrupt loss of his parents, but Langley isn't coping well and begins to obsess about a number of things, including getting his brother's sight restored, saving newspapers that his brother might one day read, helping his brother where he can by providing him with things he thinks may help, and a manic interest in a self-made theory that all things that happen are merely repetitions of things past, including people, which are the replacements for earlier generations.

Homer's voice calmly tells of his brothers eccentricities, their early adventures, his learning to play piano, the glamour of the roaring 20s in New York for two wealthy young brothers, and how their rudderlessness and idle combined with what was left of their wealth began to both isolate them from the world, and especially in Langley's case, from reality. By the 1970s, the two recluses live in a rabbit warren of hoarded stacks of newspaper and junk, through which the blind Homer can no longer find his way, and is afraid to try given that Langley's paranoia has driven him to booby trap the narrow paths against intruders.

The story ends as you might expect. A quick look online reveals what you may already know: that the Collyer Brother's story is true, and the facts in the case served as fuel for Doctorow's novelization. The birth order of the brothers was changed, and their story extended into the 1970s by Doctorow's story, leaving them at a ripe old age, when in fact they both died in their mansion in 1947 when Langley was 61, and Homer was 66. 

The house, after it was cleared of trash (120 tons, according to the Wikipedia article!) was declared by the city to the be unsafe, and in the summer of the year their bodies were discovered, the house was razed. In the 1960s, the city placed Collyer Brothers park on the site, which incidentally, is not across from Central Park, but further up Fifth Avenue in Harlem.

The real story seems much more bizarre and horrifying than Doctorow's fictional view of the inner thoughts of these brothers would have us believe. I don't think Doctorow really captured the insanity the two were clearly gripped by at the end of their lives, but perhaps Doctorow's theory is that Langley was crazy, and Homer was an innocent victim, swayed by the love of his brother and caretaker to portray him in a positive light. myeh.

E.L. Doctorow died in 2015.

original sin

I've read a few books by PD James now, and this one ranks up there with the others. there may be only two others yep, that's what I found* PD James is again writing here about her favorite detective, Adam Dalgliesh. Dalgliesh was also the man of choice in both of the other books I read as well. Dalgliesh is a solid character, and he does tend to get his man, but there wasn't so much dectectiving in this one as much as there was an unraveling of the plot by the murderer. Don't get me wrong, Dalgliesh and his team did plenty of good detective work, they just didn't really need it in the end. Unless you consider that perhaps all their hard work is what caused the failure of the murderer to conceal their tracks in the end.

James spins a tight yarn. Original Sin was written in 1994. The other two I read, The Black Tower is 1975, and Devices and Desires, is 1989. So this one is more recent; is this book, near the end of her career, less captivating than her early work, or does it show the polish of decades of writing? I don't know, I haven't read enough of her work to be able to answer that question. I can tell you that, like the other two, this was a slower read, but still fun and entertaining. I didn't read it instead of other things, as I sometimes do with great books.

PD James died in 2014 at 94. According to her website, there are 13 Adam Dalgliesh novels, and a bunch of other stuff she's written. Her website seems to be missing the last one in the series The Private Patient (making it 14 Dalgliesh** books.)

* That's two others that I have read. Now, is it possible that I read another P.D. James book before I started this blog? Sure, but I doubt it. I heard about James on a summer reading piece on the local public radio station a number of years ago, and I thought she might be something my wife would like. 

She didn't.

**  The Adam Dalgliesh character has appeared on television in the UK a fair amount it seems. Baroness. James was, and continues to be it seems, a very well known writer in the UK, and folks seem to enjoy the Dalgliesh character; there was a number of episodes of Masterpiece Mystery, featuring Dalgliesh, which began in the 80s and ran for years, a number of television movies , and there is currently a new TV show, on since last season.

read this book

'Read this book' or a version of that statement, is typically the last line in one of my book reviews for a book that I am recommending. Sometimes I qualify that recommendation, and many times I add something like 'and do it right now' if I think the book is great. Anyone who has read through this blog a little has probably noticed that.

Now, I've spend a hour or so, and I went back through each of my 550 posts over the past 13 years and I've found all of those books that I've given the 'Read this Book' credit to and tagged them that way. So, if you mouse on over to the tag cloud on the right of the page titled "what i'm talking about" and click on the tag read this book, you'll get a sort of all of the reviews that have that tag, arranged in order of most recent to older.

As as was going through my past reviews, I found a few that probably should have included the Read this Book phrase, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, but if they didn't, I didn't tag them that way. I'm happy to report that there are very few books that I really liked that don't include my accolade of choice. Going forward, I will also tag future reviews in the same fashion.

I hope this is helpful to some. i'm hoping that its helpful to me too

gambler's anatomy

A Gambler's Anatomy is by Jonathan Lethem. I don't know him, but it seems as though he's been cranking away, writing books, in spite of that. 

This is a character driver story and the backgammon that it hangs on it interesting tack. I played a bunch of backgammon when I was a kid, after we got a neat little kit that closed up like a briefcase, and had red and black leather (or leatherette) triangles on green felt on the board, and sweet little dice cups to roll the dice, and heavy, dense checkers (also called stones, pieces, or men) made of some kind of composite. I had a rude awaking when I played a teacher in high school during a study period and everything I had done, over and over again against my siblings, fell to ruin.

I was continually surprised, every time this story jigged and jagged. When I first met Bruno Alexander, I felt like I understood him, and where he was headed in life, altho I didn't have good idea where the overall story was headed. If you had told me where Bruno would end up, or had suggested some of the ways that he got there, I would have said you were crazy. 

In the end, I'm not sure why I met Bruno Alexander, or why I even cared about his story, but I did, so good on you Jonathan Lethem. On a side note, I was driving by the local church while I was reading this book,* and they had finished a tag sale earlier in the day and had left the remnants on the curb for free. I stopped with my son to look, and what did I find? A handsome wooden backgammon set made in Syria. No checkers, but perhaps I'll make those on the lathe out of wood. This was a fun and interesting read.

 

* No, I wasn't reading while driving. It normally takes a few weeks for me to read a book, so I have plenty of time to eat, sleep, work, or stop by a free tag-sale giveaway during that period.

once a spy

Keith Thomson is pretty new to the novel gig. Having written this book as his first novel, it looks like he's gone on since Once a Spy was published in 2010, to write two more, one of which is a follow-up to this one. He's also written at least one non-fiction book about pirates, which, according to Thomson's website, was published today, and is based--at least in part--on his own treasure hunting exploits. Thomson has also written scripts, does some painting, is interested in aircraft, was an editorial cartoonist for a paper out of New York, and played semi-pro baseball in France. So... busy guy.

I've read a fair amount of spy, and spy-type books, and this one comes at the genre from a whole different direction, which is refreshing. There were some things about this story that reminded me of the Chuck TV show. * And I'm a little surprised to hear that there is a sequel to this book, but I can imagine how that might be something the publisher might have been interested in, and the author did have a little wiggle room to continue the story.

Like a lot of good spy stories, there are a number of plot lines cranking along from the beginning, and it isn't always clear where and how the come together. Thomson did a good job of weaving those plot lines to leave us guessing. I'm going to keep my eye out for the follow-up.

 

* Chuck ran for 5 seasons on NBC beginning in 2007. Chuck was good, by the way, so check it out if you have the chance.

the martian

The Martian is Andy Weir's first book. Obviously this book made a big splash, especially when you consider that Weir self-published this book originally! Gives hope to all the struggling novelists out there, right? yeah, me too I saw the movie a few years ago, and it was good and I figured I'd read this at some point, and as it often happens, I run into a book like this at a book sale. This copy came from a library book sale, and looks like a British copy, which may have been purchased for a flight home perhaps?

I read another book by Weir a couple of years ago, which I recommended. I said then that I'd seen some murmurs on line about potentially making a movie based on that book. Haven't seen it yet, but who knows. The Martian as a book, is much more involved than the movie, as is typically the case. So seeing the movie a few years ago didn't prevent me from enjoying this book at all. Writing a novel with a single protagonist, who has no one to speak to, seems like a daunting challenge, but Weir does a good job of delivering this story in way that kept me engaged from beginning to end. I enjoyed this more than I expected to.

What I think holds this story together is the science, and the problem solving Weir's character Mark Watney has to continually do in order to stay alive. As I said to my wife, understanding modern science and technology, the ability to project forward where the technology might go, and then using fiction to test those technologies is a tactic that many great SF authors have used. Asimov and Stephenson are two authors that come to mind that do this.

Read this book.

futuristic violence & fancy suits

David Wong is the pen name of Jason Pargin, who until somewhat recently was an editor of Cracked.com. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is his 2015 novel, and introduction to Zoey Ashe, which will appear--or has, by now appeared--in some future novels... Yep, a quick look tells me that Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick came out in October 2020. And can only assume that more are on the way. It looks like Wong writes under his own name now, but because David Wong is the author of the book I read, I'll just stick to that for the duration of this little ditty.

According to his website, David Wong has been surprised by the response to his novel writing, which began with his 2009 John Dies at the End, which was made into a movie in 2012. Not so surprised that he couldn't crack out a sequel or two for that one as well. I heard about the John Dies movie, but I didn't see it, and I didn't know that it was based on a book at the time; at least not that I can recall. I wouldn't have recognized Wong's name on the cover of this book, which I picked up at a library book sale, but the publisher helpfully included the John Dies credit on the cover for me. thanks, advertising The title was catchy, the artwork (on the softcover edition I read) reminded my of this cover, and that story was pretty good. 

And the cat flying through the air? That's some hijinx right there! So I bit, and it worked out pretty good. I think it was a dollar

I got about halfway through this thing, when I said to my oldest that this book looked like a movie script to me, and if it was done right, could be The Fifth Element of this time. Here's why I say that: Sci Fi/Action/Comedy, with dashes of mystery and romance, and a pinch of kitsch. All in the face of world-annihilating evil. Its a tricky recipe for story-telling, and there aren't a lot that can pull it off. Need another example: Kung Fu Hustle. Watch that immediately if you haven't seen it.* Its missing the world-annihilating-level evil, its more of a home-town-annihilating evil, but its got all of the other boxes checked.

This book checked the boxes for me, too. I was reading this outside my normal reading time. I was skipping other things, like chores and feeding myself, to read this one. It probably could have been 50 pages shorter, tho I'm not sure what exactly I would have cut. I can tell you that one word showed up a few too many times in the text for my taste, but maybe that's just me. Zoey Ashe is a great character, and Wong obviously had fun writing her. I can see why he'd want to reprise her in some other stories. I guess we'll see how that goes.

 

* This command assumes you've already seen The Fifth Element. If you haven't, put your hamster down, and go do that now. Then watch Kung Fu Hustle. Then Read This Book.

ready player two

I didn't read Ready Player One, I saw the movie. I know, bad reader. <rolled newspaper to the snout> * I have, however, now recently read Ready Player Two, and it was pretty good. It was fast moving, funny, adventurous (in a what-I-assume-a-gamer-D&D-mash-up-in-the-future-would-be way) romantic, sweet, and slightly sickening around the edges. Ernest Cline is a few years younger than I am, so he was exposed to a lot of the same pop culture stuff I was, but I'm a little older and so missed al\ lot of the video game wave that came just as I went off to college while kids of his age were discovering video games outside the arcade, which is where I was most likely to play them. My dad did bring home a Pong console, with woodgrain contact paper on it, that we attached to our TV for tennis and racketball games. that was it tho

Cline has created a group of characters, that between them, have encyclopedic knowledge of of their areas of interest that would make any geek proud. It has always amazed me how so much minutia can be absorbed by a serious fan of something, when every outward sign would seem to indicate that they geek in question would be incapable of that knowledge. But that is what I think Cline's genius is; getting us to understand that the enthusiasts** in his stories aren't unlike us, or incapable, or in any way inferior to any of us who don't happen to know Gandalf's real name, all of Inigo Montoya's lines in The Princess Bride, Prince's songwriting credits for other artists, or the name of the first female protagonist video game.***

And like any good video game there were plenty of Easter eggs. Most of which, I probably missed, but go geeks! I had fun reading this, there were plenty of things for me to geek out on given the time period these future protagonists are looking back to (the last 40 years or so.) It went fast, and I would definitely read another one based on this read, but it looks like it took about 10 years to get this one done since the last, so we shouldn't hold our collective breath. Next question: will Spielberg make a movie of this one two? Maybe, I think is the answer. The first movie did really well so, my money is on yes.

* I know, relax, no one does that to dogs anymore; where you gonna find a newspaper?

**  yes, enthusiast = geek hey, are you reading ahead?

*** that's just good trivia, you'll have to figure that one out yourself.