Interlude: More excuses, but no more!

Well here I am, still behind. My excuse this time is that my husband has been working very hard on a film and therefore it has been very hard to get to the computer. But no more - I am writing from a very shiny new laptop that is ALL MINE! Hurrah!

So where am I up to? I went on a big Dresden Files kick and knocked over 5,6 and 7 -
Death Masks
Blood Rites
Dead Beat

Jim Butcher is an awesome writer, he has the hard-boiled detective genre nailed and is endlessly inventive with his supernatural plotlines. I find the Dresden books really hard to put down.

I only got partway through A History of the Beanbag and Other Writings by Susan Midalia. I read the first couple of stories and really liked the gentle style - she writes little vignettes linked by a character or an object (eg the beanbag). Unfortunately I find it hard to stay involved in short story collections and have run out of time to finish it before returning it to the library. Oh well.

I'm currently reading Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds. Hubby and I are both big fans of space opera so I went out of my way to find a new author. I'm having a little bit of trouble getting into it (not sure I relate to the characters yet) but will push on.

I'm also reading (and loving) Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. It is FANTASTIC. If you have any kind of interest in organising or finding anything, from your cd collection to the files on your computer to the state library to amazon.com, this book is a fantastic read. Will write more on it later!

Book 4 - The Stone Key

The Stone Key was the book I waited 8 years for. And I think it was worth the wait. It's book 5 in the Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody, and you really do have to go out and read the other four first. Which you should anyway, they're really good books.

The series is set in a post-nuclear holocaust world which has essentially reverted to a medieval way of life, complete with oppressive rulers and religious fanatics. The protagonist, Elspeth Gordie, is an orphan and a Misfit - she has a range of psychic talents including telepathy and beast-speaking. Misfits are burned at the stake - or sent to Obernewtyn, which is where Elspeth ends up. As the series progesses she and a group of misfits take control of Obernewtyn and gradually set about redefining the power structures of the land and the place of Mistfits in it. Elspeth also has a secret destiny - to find and destroy the Machines that created the holocaust in the first place - and a secret nemesis who wants to finish what the holocaust began.

Obernewtyn was Isobelle Carmody's first novel, and it's fascinating to see her growing sophistication as a writer. The plots of each book grow increasingly intertwined and complex (not to mention long) and the enormous cast of characters display complex motivations. Not the least is Elspeth herself. Being the narrator, the reader has the greatest insight into her thoughts - and yet she is definitely not 100% perfect or even that likeable. That said, she - and the books - are most definitely compelling. The Stone Key is no exception - as I mentioned earlier I blew through all 1000 pages in a week, and that's pretty unusual even for me. So get out there and read these books!

Book 2 - The Fall of Hyperion

Hyperion finishes as the 7 pilgrims finish their tales and prepare to walk into the valley of the Time Tombs and the terrifying Shrike.

I hate cliff-hangers, don't you?

The Fall of Hyperion (thankfully) tells us the events that happen in the valley, but the view-point widens to include the cataclysmic impact of these events on the greater Web of worlds. Most of this is narrated by a most intriguing character - John Keats, the poet. Or rather, a cybrid Keats (part human, part AI) constructed by the TechnoCore to recreate the poet's life and thoughts, who has escaped into the world Web.

Literature, philosophy and theology are deeply embedded in Dan Simmon's work. Hyperion is the name of an unfinished poem by Keats on the clash of the Greek Gods. The character Silenus struggles to tell the same tale in his Cantos. The poetry of Keats and Yeats are sprinkled throughout the books, and the theology of St Teilhard underpins the whole philosophy of the books: that God, or the Ultimate Intelligence, grows out of the collective spirit of humanity - the animus mundi, to borrow from Yeats.

I think the fact that I've studied both Keats and Yeats, and have a general understanding of theology, was one of the reasons I enjoyed the Hyperion books so much - it really opens up the concepts they try to convey. I love the swirls of intertextuality that run through literature - this concept informs that novel etc. The richer your experience and understanding of literature (or culture in general), the more you will draw from a text. There you go, there's a little treatise on an aspect of postmodernism for you. It's also gotten me thinking about the poetry I studied in high school and uni, so you may find some poetry reviews popping up in here later.

Book 1 - Hyperion by Dan Simmons

One of the great things about Science Fiction is that it allows authors/creators to draw concepts from philosophy, science, sociology, literature, you name it; throw it into the future or an alternate reality; and see what might happen.

In Hyperion, Dan Simmons envisions a future where the culture of humanity has become stunted by its sense of biological superiority while at the same time being entirely and unwittingly dependent on the AIs and technology it once helped to create. Despite having access to hundreds of worlds, there is a homogeneity within human culture created by the ability to step from one world to the next in the blink of an eye. I suppose you could say it is a sad display of the ultimate globalisation, characterised by everything from mediocrity in literature to the fall of religion and the destruction of unique ecosystems and life forms in the name of tourism.

The one variable that cannot be computed by the AIs is Hyperion, home to the mysterious Time Tombs and the Shrike, a creature straight out of nightmares. The Tombs are opening and the Church of the Shrike has hand-selected a last group to take the pilgrammage to the tombs. During their journey, each narrates their story in an homage to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - and to a variety of literary styles including a hard-boiled detective story and a Heart of Darkness-style missionary quest.

Hyperion is a gripping, deeply intelligent read. It rightly won a number of awards, including the Hugo. I'll be writing about some more aspects of it in my next post, since you simply cannot read it without dashing out to find its sequel, Fall of Hyperion.