Addendum – comments on my Fire Upon the Deep post

Below is a response to my comments/criticisms to A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vine that I think bear repeating (and I have his permission)! I am also inserting my return comments in order to clarify my thoughts on it. Just a filler while I think about whether I really want to redo many hours of work on my SciFi movie night post that I somehow deleted by accident. It was the first of several, this one being from my DVD collection. How I hate computers sometimes. In pen and paper days you could at least dig through the trash!

“I appreciate the thought and effort that Kristin has put into this discussion on Fire Upon the Deep, the Singularity and Transcendents.

I didn’t have a lot of problems with the Zones of Thought, first because I recognized them as a writer’s device to tell a story, but also because the idea seemed plausible. There was an implication that Transcendent technology relied heavily on advanced computing technology. In fact, the micro-jumps depended on the ships’ computers being able to make the calculations. What is wrong with the idea that a field of some sort can slow down the electronic interactions necessary for advanced computing? I’m not a physicist, so I can’t supply an explanation, but the idea is not implausible.”

I guess I never thought of the Zones of Thought as being a literary device. I saw it as an extension of his Singularity ideas, and therefore found it lacking. As a writer’s device, it can of course be anything he wishes, inconsistencies and all, although I still wish he had gone into a deeper explanation, since he can’t hide behind the “it’s too complex” thing. So he could have given us lots of cool stuff to spark our imaginations and soar.

“Also, I didn’t have a problems with the Tines as a race that had shared minds. I think Vinge handled that concept rather well. If we look at a race that has shared intelligence, obviously if you add more members the
intelligence increases until you get something Godlike. But, the personalities would seem to put a brake on the interaction, as well as just the basic noise of communications. So, Vinge put a limited of 10-15 individuals per pack so he could have many individuals.”

I didn’t either by the end of the book – they turned out to be an interesting device, once I got over my animal race/medieval setting dislike that smacks of fantasy.

“I agree that Vinge did not do a good job in explaining what a Transcendent society or being might be like. I think that that is an inherent limitation in the concept.. Read Vinge’s classic paper on the Singularity at
_http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html_
(http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html)
and you can see that he is proposing that a supra-human entity (whether a pure machine intelligence or a human-machine hybrid) would not be bound by our same instincts and social mores, and would become very difficult for us to understand, just as we are very difficult for our dogs to understand.”

Chris

I still disagree with Chris about this to some extent – see my comments in “Final Thoughts.” I do believe that if you come up with the idea, that you must have SOME idea of what these Transcendents would be like – or how else can you predict their existence? And he does make some references to some of their powers – tech stuff that comes down, Powers beyond the Powers, the fact that they CAN be overcome by something greater than they, that was created by lesser beings (the Blight), etc. This will always be an agree to disagree between me, Chris and others, and Vinge.

My only regret is that he created something innovative and marvelous in its thought, but because of its intrinsic nature, he can’t/won’t explain any more. My personal “idea,” pernicious as it is, is that he just doesn’t want to explain it – that it’s his idea, and if he gives too much away, others will use it, as they have the basic premise. I do believe that secretly he has some ideas of what these beings are – we are more than dogs, and to compare us to them is not an apt analogy to me, although it has some merits. We are reasoning individuals, so I personally think, IMVHO, that we CAN begin at least to understand things beyond us. Many have a concept of God, and he/she is surely beyond them? Isn’t that a better analogy? That these god-like creatures, as they are described, can be understood in that context? Surely, as thinking, reasoning beings, which dogs are not, we can conceptualize them? Although in terms of development, we are probably like the dogs in terms of evolutionary steps. But being higher up the evolutionary plane, and being “human” and able to create and that’s the operative word, a higher order of things, we should be able to have some understanding of them and be able to write at least something about them. Otherwise, it’s just an academic exercise and should have stayed so, not become a fictional device. I just really dislike things that are not explained, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now!

Final thoughts on the Singularity, Zones of Thought, and A Fire Upon the Deep

Warning: as it is final comments, there are a number of BIG spoilers, so if you plan to read the book, and don’t read the endings first like my mother, put it aside and read when you are done with the book, or if you have short-term memory problems like me, go ahead and read it – you’ll forget it all by the time you read the book. : )

I just finished the book about 1am today (Friday). I took some time, due to the scale of the book, and the thought processes it took. For some reason, the complexity of ideas made me think, and when I think, I close my eyes, and when I close my eyes, well, zzzzz…

So, here it is, in order of thought as I went through, arranged in reading order, not in order to make sense, at least until the final summation. For those of you who love this book, my final thoughts are better than the first ones, although I still have some comments/complaints. I DO know how hard it is to see a favorite book “torn apart” by someone – I had that happen to me with a favorite SS (Nine Billion Names of God by Clarke) from ages past that I reread periodically – it was trashed, and didn’t truly hold up to the light of day (although I still think it’s better than most of that short a length), and I was crushed. Hurt.

Although I still think the one I couldn’t get many to read, “The Star” (Clarke), DID stand the test, and looking back on it, it was one of the crystallizing forces for my beliefs – they did not change because of the story – but put a face on them, and made sense of them, so I could better understand not only my rational responses, but my visceral responses as well, which had been largely ignored by me.

That said, here goes:

I still have trouble with the “Zones of Thought” – and did throughout the book. For example – how can a computer, made in the Middle Beyond, get “dumber” as the book calls it, the lower (or closer to the core) they go? And what is with the “depth” of the zones vs. the closer to the galactic core? I know someone tried to explain, but I’m still obtuse about it. The book talks over and over about the galactic plane, and how the Slowness and the Deep are close in, but they also refer to it as depths. I know space is 3-D, so what gives? Am I that much an idiot on geometry? I also know there is some extension up and down from the plane, but in reality, the book talks about the plane and the Depths as one.

Automation stopped working or became slower in the Depths. Same question really as before. How can automation, which sems to be a done deal, unless it uses unknown forces, change within the Zones? What properties of the Zones allow this change? I know the machines were made higher up, but why do they change? The people don’t, so why does the machinery? Why do the ultra-drives stop working, and only ram-scoops work? Why can’t “modern” machinery work down in the slowness, and why/how must the races there be “trapped”, since many make it out, or there would be no Lower, Middle or High Beyond, let alone Transcend.

Vinge says we can’t begin to understand about Transcendents, nor can any writer truly write about them, but yet he SPOILER HERE!!!!!
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states there is a “glimpse of evil on a Transcend scale” when he talks about the Skroderiders, and what was done to them. How can we “glimpse” this evil, and understand the Skroderiders, as they are well discussed/described in their perversion, if they come from the Transcend (or higher)?

The book talks about operating at Sjandra Kei’s “altitude” in the beyond – does that refer to the height they were in the sense of the Beyonds, or something else?

I don’t know much about video streaming, but they talk about video (although partial and dredged from old videos with voice/animation patched in), being possible in the Slowness at 4000 bits/sec. Now I know that I download at some kilobytes per second, and it’s slooow. Wouldn’t video be almost impossible at that speed, or am I reading the KB v Bits wrong? Or is this just another “error” from old computing in the 90′s?

He talks about Slowness being thought of as “the domain of cretins and mechanical calculators” several times – yet he seems to have admiration for the race (Tines) he created for that “depth” but then he says that there was “something to that” [meaning the cretins and calculators]. Why did some of the stuff that Ravna (I remember her name now) used to help Steel work? Was it strictly stuff the old races used to help move out of the Slowness, or were they more of the creation of the Beyond, which means in his parlance, they shouldn’t work. And why does much of the ship still work; even though it has been retrofitted to be like a bottom-lugger, there must still be systems from Beyond, or how else could Pilgrim fly it – it can’t all be a mechanical calculator.

And after the Surge, her wrist display had only a “few alpha-numeric” lines – if it was just a mechanical calculator in concept, shouldn’t it not work at all? And the “landing boat”, the flier, could still be flown although contrary to the Zone it “worked with electronics that were barely more than glorified moving parts.” But they still were electronics, as were the radios. And agrav worked. Now there was little discussion on how that (agrav) worked, but I would think it more than “mechanical.”

And Dataset, obviously electronic, has worked all along – now I know it’s necessary for a plot device, but doesn’t it’s existence in the Slowness directly contradict the Zone rules? And Greenstalk’s new Skrode, although clearly base in design, must have some kind of technology if it is to serve as an interface for her – without it she is nothing more than a lesser Rider, as will be her descendants, when her Skrode fails. So how can the Skrode either be an interface (and thus clearly defying the Zone laws), or a simple mechanical wheelchair, which mean she can’t have the ability to keep memories, which she does, although to a lesser degree. She is still making memories, at least from the text of the book.

At the end of the book, the Queen talks about how the agrav will fail within a few years and be unable to be replaced. Yet Pilgrim thinks they can bypass a hundred years or so of development, and have working space-flight, and eventually escape the Slowness, which now encompasses a large part of the galaxy, (a wedge perhaps?), all the way up to the Transcend and into it. So they would have to move across the plane into non-affected areas. But how do they eventually “make” stuff that can move them out if the Zone doesn’t allow it? Do they “think” themselves out of it? I just don’t get the laws. They seem contradictory.

More BIG SPOILER ALERT:
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And how did there come to be “Powers” BEYOND the Powers? If we can’t begin to understand the Transcend, or write about it, how on earth can we even know about a race beyond it, or speculate about it as creating the Counter-measure? “Cloud People”?? Who on earth on they? And he writes: “Oh, the ghost of the Old One is amused. Seeing beyond the Powers was almost worth dying for.” So, he knows something about the big T.

And Pham brings down the Beyond, to move the Blight closer, then creates the surge that pushes it back into the Transcend, according to the end of the book, and effectively trapping the Blight in the Slowness. How. I know it’s the countermeasure, but i wish it were better described. I know, you can’t describe something you don’t understand, but then how can you create the idea at all? To create you must have some idea. And if so, then share it!

Now for the summation – putting aside all my questions about the Slowness and the Zones of Thought, which I thought were poorly conceived, and executed. BUT, a big BUT, I did begin to like the Tines, even though I hate dog/wolf/owl races, and medieval times (although I liked them well enough to study them as English History…weird), but as an alien race, I came to a better understanding of how they worked later in the book (in one line they were described as at long range as looking sort of like a spider – which would have helped 600 pages before!), and their distributed intelligence, which was better explained and executed in the finale I thought, with the Flenser fragment separating miles with the radio cloaks abilities, and with the merging of Amdijefri.

And I liked the ending – happy – most loose ends tied up, but with possibilities still intact, although since he’s said no more space-operas, I guess there won’t be any more “explanations.” I liked Greenstalk’s end, the way the “two-legs” and Tines worked better together, although it appeared that the Tines came out on top of that deal. And the den-mother for librarian Ravna was an okay ending – something to hold on to in the endless exile she faces. With no human man/adult around, she will be alone forever. And that was not addressed – her loneliness – the kids will grow up and merge with the packs and the other cold-sleep kids, but who will she have? She didn’t seem close to anyone but Pilgrim maybe (and that was only late in the book when she met him, and he is with the Queen). So there is no pack for her to meld with.

She is truly the only one alone. Even Greenstalk will have her children and with her shallow memories, will be okay, although she has fond memories of Blueshell. So, being alone myself at a time in my life when I should be happy with lots of family, I feel for her future. What will she do – they are cut off from the net (her job/life) and the archives forever, or until the move up, at which time she will be dead. Will she just be a den-mother? But the kids will grow up. Will she become a librarian of all that the packs/tribes know? But it’s all in their heads, for centuries – will she transcribe it – I wish they had given her more attention – after all it was her determination that got them there – since they needed the Skroderiders in the end, she was instrumental.

So I’ll try the prequel, but since I didn’t really like Pham, don’t like the name, and don’t like pirates/medieval settings/war, It’s a big question mark.

Again, sorry for the length, but I wanted to see if some of these thoughts would be addressed by anyone, and points cleared up or given an interpretation that I missed, which I wouldn’t get on my blog.

So, my score? Probably 8 or 7.5 for the Zones. But the story itself was satisfactory and had some interesting turns and twists and “fun” stuff, like “god-shatter,” Skroderiders, the early concepts of the Net, and the way packs changed over long periods of time, yet retained their “soul.” But it is dated, IMO. The fact that it relies on computers so much, and the format the messages are “delivered” in reminds me too much of earlier computing days. Some of those comments/complaints are in the earlier post. But when you skate near the edge of the future, without going over – in other-words, stick too close to the rules, rather than make them up as you go along, you run that risk – of being shown wrong. Of having the technology develop beyond what you wrote about, supposedly centuries/millenia later.

When one limits the imagination to extrapolation in SciFi, that can be the ultimate demise of the book. I have a feeling, that in 20 years time, it will not be standing next to 2001, or I, Robot, but will just be another good, old favorite. To me the best way to handle SciFi is either to make it near-future, if you want extrapolation of existing science (i.e. no FTL), OR make up your own rules, and science be damned. I personally, since I’m not a scientist, don’t hold to the same rigid standards as some HardSF readers do. I prefer books that stoke my imagination, and I simply cannot find that in-system settings, which is about as far as you can go, unless you use a generational ship, and those can get boring to me.

I want a Star Wars future – full of aliens, and cool things, but also full of ideals, ideas, and fun. I want Chindi, or Lady of Mazes, or Flux. I want to be amazed, to be delighted and to close the book with sigh, rather than just a “done with that, where’s the next,” knowing that with my memory, much will be forgotten by next week (although the blogs help cement some of it). But I wrote one on Rainbows End, and already much of it is beginning to disappear. Only the best and the brightest stay with me to any extent, and even then, it’s a mish-mash. I envy some, like a friend on the HardSF group, who can seemingly pull almost any book, author, plot and comments out of his endless memory – how wonderful that must be. I used to keep little index cards on each book I wrote, with title, publishing date, author, date read, rating, and small summary. That was many years ago, but I read about the same then as I do now, so I bet I could do it – just need to get in the habit, and find a cute old card catalog drawer set to put them in – I still have the old ones from 25 years ago!

Is 1984 just a little late, or is the Future here?

In some research I was doing I came across this bit of rather astounding recent (1/17/08) news:

Can Machines Issue Islamic Fatwas
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=7&id=11493

“He [Dr. Anwas Fawzi] describes the device [Asharq Al-Awsat] as “a very large capacity computer on which all the information that is relevant to a given [historical] figure is uploaded; everything that has been mentioned in history books or chronicled documents that indicate his/her responses and attitudes towards all positions adopted in his/her life. Through a process that relies on AI, the computer then simulates responses based on the available data so that the answers are the expected response that the person in question would give if they were alive,”

And a discussion of it at technovelgy (where science meets fiction – an interesting site):

“Electronic Mufti’ May Issue Machine Fatwas: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1415

AND

I read about this in SF all the time – a favorite tech device of writers lately, but was sort of shocked to see it on Dvice (SciFi Channel’s science/tech news) and through Technovelgy – has the future arrived? New song: “And she’ll have fun, fun, fun, ’til her Daddy takes the lenses away”…

Here’s the Technovelgy article:
Circuit Contact Lens, Presaged By Niven, Barnes and Vinge:
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1409

Here’s the University of Washington original story:
Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman
vision:
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=39094

“Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Womanuse bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes — visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go. The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.“The UW engineers used microscopic scale manufacturing techniques to create a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with imprinted electronic circuits and lights. If used by human beings, a pair of contact lenses with circuits and lights would be the perfect display for augmented reality systems.
(Contact lens with circuits close-up)

‘Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,’ said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. ‘This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it’s extremely promising.’”

Here’s the DVice article:
Bionic vision contact lenses being developed :
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/01/bionic_vision_c.php

And for what’s out there now, check out this headset that is a VR set, with mini screen that mimics a real computer screen in front of your eyes – sort of an early lens prototype: http://www.vrealities.com/poma.html

And 1984 may be late, but Big Brother is here! – see the following articles:

Australasian Intelligent Speed Adaptation Initiative – Big Road Brother – A way to make cars slow down after a warning is given, and even stop them.
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1402

“The technology uses GPS and a database that identifies speed limits on all roads and operates on three levels.

Drivers get an audible warning they are over the limit at level one.

At level two, the device cuts power to the engine to prevent the driver from speeding, but the system can be adjusted or overridden.

At level three, the system cannot be switched off or adjusted and all speeding is cut.

The device could be fitted to repeat speeding offenders, or to all vehicles.” Big Brother speed control to be trialled: http://au.news.yahoo.com/080108/2/15gt9.html

And in a Terminator take – FBI Demands SkyNet, Uh, Server in the Sky: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1405

“The FBI supports Server in the Sky, an international database of biometric data accessible by law enforcement officials in countries allied in the ‘war on terror.’

Although the database would be used to hunt criminals and terrorists, it would contain biometric information like iris scans, finger prints and facial images about ordinary citizens whose names have come up in criminal investigations. The FBI told the Guardian (a UK news organization):

‘Server in the Sky is an FBI initiative designed to foster the advanced search and exchange of biometric information on a global scale. While it is currently in the concept and design stages, once complete it will provide a technical forum for member nations to submit biometric search requests to other nations. It will maintain a core holding of the world’s ‘worst of the worst’ individuals. Any identifications of these people will be sent as a priority message to the requesting nation.’

Although the FBI proposes to establish three categories of suspects, the lowest category includes ‘subjects of terrorist investigations.’ Don’t forget that warrantless wiretapping projects target vast networks of innocent civilians as well as the few real suspects in an investigation.

The FBI hopes to have a pilot project up and running by the middle of this year.”

If your paranoiac streak is not fully satisfied by this story, see also:

DNA Fingerprint Database for Worker’s Gattaca-Style Proposed: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=640

“Do we need a national DNA or fingerprint database for all American workers to address the immigration problem? New York’s Republican mayor Michael Bloomberg has gone on record advocating such a plan – a biometric identification system [http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=12] that would be compulsory for all workers.”

and in “Minority Report” style – “Precrime” Database For London Homicide Prevention Unit“: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=843

“Criminal profilers working for the London Metropolitan Police’s Homicide Prevention Unit are putting together a list of 100 future murderers.

I believe I am reading these reports correctly; they are not simply keeping a list of, let’s say, murderers who have done their time in prison and are now at large. This pilot project seeks to identify people who will in the future commit serious crimes.”…

“Instead they are using databases. It appears that the Unit is creating psychological profiles of likely offenders to predict patterns of behavior. Statements from former partners, information from mental health workers and details of past complaints are being combined to identify the 100 men most likely to commit murder in the near future.

Once an individual has been identified, police would decide whether to begin arrest proceedings, or alert social services who could steer targeted individuals into ‘management programs.’”

See “FBI wants instant access to British identity data“: http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,2241005,00.html

Tuesday January 15, 2008, The Guardian

Each person’s iris is as individual as their fingerprint, but with 266 identifiable features is much more detailed. Photograph: Science Photo Library “Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists.

The US-initiated programme, ‘Server in the Sky’, would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the ‘war against terror’ – the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.

Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world’s most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.”

Microchips To Be Implanted In UK Convicts: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1403

“RFID-based microchips will soon be used to tag prisoners, according to a Ministry of Justice official in the United Kingdom.

(VeriChip RFID tag for human implantation) I’m assuming that they want to use something like the VeriChip, which is a very small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag about the size of a large grain of rice. It can be injected directly into the body; a special coating on the glass case of the chip helps it to bond with living tissue and stay in place. A special RFID reader broadcasts a signal, and the antenna in the VeriChip draws power from the reader and sends its data. The VeriChip is a passive RFID tag: since it does not require a battery, it has a virtually unlimited life span.

Officials want to use the technology to reduce overcrowding in prisons. The tagged prisoners would be released and then tracked.”

And for some crazy ideas, check out these futuristic techs:

Plasma-based propulsion is just one of OSU’s crazy projects for DARPA: http://dvice.com/archives/2008/01/plasmabased_pro.php

“The big brains at DARPA are at it again, this time teaming up with Oklahoma State University to develop unmanned aerial vehicles that will be small enough to fit into a soldier’s pocket. The heart of the project is the experimental propulsion system that has no moving parts and utilizes plasma thrusters. The need for such a tiny UAV comes after the realization that most of the unmanned reconnaissance vehicles used at the moment are poor indoors and in urban areas. OSU’s UAV would allow all soldiers to carry UAVs and see what they’re getting into before hand.”

Sound cloak is boon for concert halls, submarines: http://dvice.com/archives/2008/01/sound_cloak_is.php

“We’ve all heard the high school lesson about wave interference — like when sound waves hit an object, bending around it and crashing into each other to create a whole new pattern when they reach the other side. Now researches say that it might be possible to create a “cloak” for an object that would make the sound waves pass and emerge from the other side like they were never disturbed.Such a cloak is only theoretical at this point, but engineers at Duke University say they’ve come up with a “recipe” for an acoustic material that would make anything within disappear from sound waves, much like that invisibility cloak did for microwaves. Anyone designing a concert hall would love to have that recipe so they could negate the acoustic effect of structural components like beams. And if you could make it big enough, the cloak would even hide a submarine from sonar.”

See also: Tecnovelgy’s ‘Inaudibility Cloak’ Is Theoretically Possible: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1401

and the press release from Duke University, Invisibility Cloaks’ Could Break Sound Barriers: http://www.pratt.duke.edu/news/?id=1193

And for one I see truly cool applications on this one for mobile use in business, military or simply home environments:

Mighty morphin’ shipping container transforms into house in 90 seconds flat: http://dvice.com/archives/2007/12/mighty_morphin.php

“It starts off as an ordinary shipping container, but throw a switch and ninety seconds later the Illy Push Button House has magically expanded into a five-room abode. Architect and designer Adam Kalkin created this jack-in-the-box-like dwelling, whose sections are unfolded by powerful hydraulic cylinders controlled by a computer in the kitchen section. The house is made out of recycled materials, and has a dining area in the center, surrounded by a bedroom, living room, library and kitchen.”

So, is Big Brother just around the corner? And what do we want? Technology, with it’s “anything goes” attitude, or a check on it? When technology goes rampant, we see both the good AND the bad. I wouldn’t mind a folding house, or a device that would slow my car to prevent a ticket, but I’m not sure about some of the more military style things, like the tiny “airplane,” which although it has great safety uses, it also can be used for spying, both military and non-military, the latter being more troublesome – either private or governmental use has some definite legal ramifications. As does the invisibility cloak, shades of Harry Potter.

So have some fun – I will write more about a few of these and the issues that surround the application of them later.

Popping Eyeballs – Elizabeth Bear’s Undertow

Elizabeth Bear’s Undertow (a Philip K. Dick award finalist) is the book that fulfilled what I want in a book – it crystallized my amorphous ideas about what I wanted and literally showed me – it’s eyeball-popping finale really melded the book into a cohesive whole, tied up the loose ends, and gave me the thrill I needed. As an author, she has always satisfied me (her Jenny Casey trilogy), but in this book she was in top form – it’s semi-mystical beginnings, unsavory characters, and odd, Louisiana Bayou Company Town setting, plus a very unusual alien species, made the beginning questionable – what have I gotten my self into? Were Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired a fluke – was that all she had? Well, Undertow answered that with a resounding NO!

In an interview with SciFI Wire (the SciFi channel’s on-line magazine), she gives an interview which states the book better than I ever could (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=5&id=43790):

“Multiple-award-winning SF&F author Elizabeth Bear told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, Undertow, is about a conjure man, a woman with a past, a hit man and an amphibian with a price on its head.‘[They] run up against the government of a frontier world that is very much a company town writ large,’ Bear said in an interview. ‘The book has elements of old-fashioned planetary romance and colonial first-contact narrative, and it’s also got, I hope, some large-scale sweep and ‘sensawunda’ and cool ‘big ideas.’

Undertow grew out of the SF Bear read as a child, she said. ‘I think H. Beam Piper and Andre Norton and Ursula Le Guin, specifically, Bear said. ‘[It also grew out of] my love of caper plots and some ideas I have about ways that the information revolution may actually affect our lives, since I’m not a big believer in a transhuman future.’

One of the primary characters is a ‘data miner’ named Cricket Earl Murphy, Bear said. ‘[Her] claim to fame is that she can find out anything about anyone that has ever been recorded anywhere in known space, through access to a sort of quantum Internet called ‘connex,’ she said.

Another important character is André Deschênes, a paid assassin who is trying to get into another line of work, Bear said. ‘He wants to become a conjure man, which is to say he wants to learn techniques used to manipulate probability,’ she said.

Conjure men, also known as ‘god-botherers,’ are rogue probability engineers, Bear said. ‘They are persons who have the skills to affect the likelihood that a given set of events will take place—or fail to take place,’ she said.

The book takes place on a frontier world called Greene’s World, Bear said. ‘The major city is Novo Haven, which is—to all intents and purposes—a floating town, composed of hundreds or thousands of seaworthy vessels anchored together in shallow water, so that the entire municipality can be picked up and moved in case of violent weather,’ she said. ‘It’s a swampy, tidewater setting, and the planet has a mining economy wherein pretty much everyone works for the Greene family.’

Bear had to do a ton of research for the book—everything from physics and amphibian biology to geology, weather and tidal margins, she said. ‘One thing I did enjoy researching—and speculating about—was what the social structure of a hermaphroditic species with a cooperative reproductive pattern (as opposed to our own competitive model) might be,’ she said.

Bear added: ‘I [also] did a bunch of research on non-hemoglobin-based blood, on quantum uncertainty, on techniques of information storage and retrieval, on some of the work that’s being done in seamless virtual reality. Thank God for Google.’” —John Joseph Adams

One thing that stood out was that she used a different type of future – a non-Singularity future, which I enjoyed. So much SF these days, when dealing with the Far Future, uses that. But it is filled with lots of high-tech – wearables, the connex mentioned. Basically everyone, except a few who chose to live “off the grid” so to speak, are completely wired in – they get instant news, houses are responsive and security runs high. And the way the whole city/town can just pick up and move is sooo different. Even the aliens are (the information is dribbled out over the course of the novel) inventive and use all the possible elements that can be done – nothing about them are giant lizards, or talking trees.

A review by Paul DiFillipo for SciFI Weekly says:

WARNING: POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILERS (some of this gives away things you discover as the book moves through it’s fast pacing):

“Living on the backwater of Greene’s World, André Deschênes is looking for a new line of work. He’s been a paid killer for most of his adult life, and he’s good at it. But since youth, his heart has really been set on becoming a ‘coincidence engineer.

The future star-spanning culture that André inhabits has tapped the powers of quantum uncertainty, you see. ‘Entangled’ technology underlies the Slide, which allows for teleportation of nonliving matter among all the scattered worlds of Rim and Core. (But the Slide is fatal to the quantum structures of sentient brains, and so passenger-carrying relativistic ships still ply the spacelanes as well.) But on the surface of planets, this probability tech—powered by tanglestone, a strange ‘natural’ resource—is mostly employed by the weird class of people known as “coincidence engineers.” By utilizing their skills as Heisenbergian observers, they can influence the very course of reality on levels small and large. No wonder André would like to become one.”

“Bear’s very neatly configured, compact and entertaining novel reminds me of the early novels of George R.R. Martin, back in the days when he used to write science fiction. Or, in a closer approximation to this book’s exact blend of readability, action, speculation and characterization, let me cite the prime mid-career work of Poul Anderson. Excluding its postmodern trappings of wiredness (a trope that’s well done, actually, convincingly showing us people who are used to being always online), this book might have come from the pen of Anderson during, say, the time he was writing The People of the Wind (1973).”

There has been some negative comparisons to The Secret, because, as she is not a quantum engineer, her explanations of some of it’s aspects used in the book are minimal – but as both a Hard SF nutcase, AND an under science-educated reader, it hit a chord – I loved not being overwhelmed with technical detail, but still be able to “follow” the idea behind the quantum theory, which is one of the reasons I got into Hard SF – Baxter’s Manifold: Space was full of mind-boggling stuff, and although I didn’t understand it all, I didn’t have to – the mere idea that these things exist, or are theorized to exist, is enough to set your world on end. And Di Filippo addresses that:

“I wonder if Bear’s ‘coincidence engineering’ is meant to tap into the popularity of The Secret (2006), that recent New Age ‘documentary’ [and the book] about wishing things true. If only everyone who saw that film could be encouraged to improve their minds with Bear’s book! —Paul“

Some reviews have focused on the use of the probability futures, and it’s cursory explanations – they want more detail. I, on the other hand, don’t need that – I just need the author to set me on the path, and get me fired up, and off I go. I LIKE not being in a lecture hall, but instead, given ideas that make me THINK, and want to run to my nearest Hawking book, or other QM one, and do some research on my own. Too much detail strays the story off it’s path, IMO.

Undertow set the bar quite high for me, which is probably why I’ve been so hard on A Fire Upon the Deep by Vinge. This book makes the others look amateurish, dull, wordy and unimaginative. Undertow accomplishes in it’s short (368) pages, what AFUTD (624) couldn’t do in almost twice the length.

I urge you to give it a try – if you’ve read the Casey trilogy, it’s nothing like it. This is NOT your grandmother’s book. It’s cool, mysterious, shadowy, full of fun, capers, plots and counter-plots, treason and treachery, and all set within an incredibly complex setting, more so as the book goes on, and as I have repeatedly said, the push to the ending is enough to make you think your trippin’.

So, do me and yourself a favor – if you like fresh, new, exciting, genre -bending SF/Fantasy (SFF), then read it. Support your local SF writer! If you prefer your SF to remain in it’s cozy, set genre, then don’t. See Subterranean Press’ interview with Bear for a fresh look at how she views the genre:

http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2007/column-an-interview-with-elizabeth-bear-conducted-by-sarah-monette/

Have a wild ride (and stay on the horse – it might want to buck you off at first, but if you persevere, and are the kind of reader I mentioned, then the ride will be one worth all you’ve given it).

The Singularity: in the book incarnated, or not?

Fire Upon the Deep(by Vernor Vinge) was published in (1992) and is his award (the Hugo in 1993, tied with Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book) winning novel about “The Singularity” – personified in words through this book. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_upon_the_deep

My comments are from a reader’s perspective halfway through the book – when I finish, I will discuss the questions I have and whether they were answered, and my overall impression/review.

I’m about halfway through the book, and I really, really hate animal races (esp. dogs – I have a dog, but only because of the kids – I don’t like dogs). I do like cats, but I don’t want to read about them. I do like the short of frondy Skroderiders – I seem to like plant/sea creatures better. They are the most fleshed out characters, and they are explained fairly well – quite amiable fellows, if a little short on memory, which I can certainly relate to.

But here is my problem. I do find the pack mentality thing of the major alien race a little interesting, if not very well explained. I wish he went into greater detail about how it worked. It seems like at times the shapes almost blend into one, but are they really a “pack”, with completely separate bodies, or are they attached with more than just minds? Anyone know? Guesses?

Someone did guess: “I think maybe, maybe, he is trying to describe a sort of primitive distributed intelligence. That is, their mind is something occurring in a collective sense. Any animal taken independently wouldn’t have enough brainpower to solve the complex problems they are faced with, but together they can. Of course, this is just my interpretation…”

And I want to know more about the zones of thought. Why are they seemingly arrayed horizontally in rings around the galactic plane (some say they could extend up or down, but they seem to be described as in the plane), and why is the Slowness at the core, and the Beyond further out, and Transcend further? He hasn’t yet explained the zones very well. Interesting concept, but I want more. Does he give more in another book, or is this it? Why the plane? Why not vertically. Why is the core slow, and not the outer rim? Research doesn’t reveal much. And I understand that the “zones” are the book’s conceptual framework of the Singularity, but what the bleep? How on earth is such a huge concept manifested in a few paragraphs about the content of the “Zones”?

One response was: “I think he uses it just as a device to allow FTL and to keep the transcendent Powers separated from the rest of the universe…” A good answer, but I want more – I always do. Why must the Transcendent Powers be kept separate? I can guess at some of the implications, but what are Vinge’s reasons? It’s his ball, keep it rolling.

And why, in the millions of years these races have lived, died out, transcended, are they still in one galaxy, the Milky Way? There are others. Why are there so many races here, and so much tech still available, or gone, and they are still in one place so to speak. And where’s his Singularity? Is the Transcend and powers it? Is that all to this “end of humanity.” Because it’s not the end, only a few races have achieved it, and this is how far in the future. And humanity, through this one remnant, is trying to make it only now? I thought it was much more “imminent?”

According to the Wiki article on the book Vinge says: “Vinge has often expressed an opinion that realistic fiction set after the development of superhuman intelligence — an event that he calls the Singularity and considers all but inevitable — would necessarily be too strange for a human reader to enjoy, if not impossible for a human writer to create. To sidestep the issue, he turns the Singularity sideways from time into space, postulating that the galaxy has been divided (possibly by some unknown super-technology in the distant past) into ‘zones of thought.’”

I think that’s sort of a cop out – that the reader is too “stupid” to understand. And worse, that he can’t write about it? It’s too “impossible?” Why develop an idea, and then wimp out and say “I can’t write about it – it’s too hard?” Why not give us a try? I would like to know more, and to simply bypass it with a comment about it being so strange that I wouldn’t enjoy/understand it is questionable. And the Wiki site sets out the “zones,” but without much more detail than the book gives. I’ve searched interviews, but no more information can I find.

And then there’s his usenet – which is now obsolete, as also noted by an article on Vinge in NNDB, and even he admits it’s hard to write a sequel to something that is no longer relevant.

One answer stated: “[we] still use newsgroups. Check out sci.math.research, sci.physics, rec.arts.sf.written, … Of course, eventually they will morph into something else. I think this is just another example of the truth of the statement that science fiction is really about the present. Vinge as a computer scientist and SF writer was projecting the future of the Internet, AI research, etc. and I wonder how much of AFutD is him working with the issues in comp sci in the early 1990s.” Very true answer I think, and the most relevant one on this part. That’s the problem I’ve seen time and time again – writers writing about the near future, or about near future/current tech, which is obsolete as soon as it’s written – just like my computer is as soon as I’ve bought it. When you write about current the and make large postulates from it, you risk the death of the idea, before it can be resolved, or even explored. Now we have to re-envision parts of the Singularity (see my previous post on the Future of the Singularity.)

The other point I have is the communications relay – they make a point early on that Relay has a clear line of sight, which allows for something like 30% of the sky, which indicates to me (an untrained reader) that he is relying on direct radio type transmitters – indeed in the novel he mentions radios and transmitters. And there is a lot of talk about bandwidth, and overuse, and “hogging” it by the Old One. Is that still a concern today? I don’t hear much about it – in the early days, people would complain on the newsgroups, etc., about bandwidth, but no one does anymore. Have we moved past that?

An answer given to me was “FuTD was written in 1992 when usenet was popular. I think Vinge used that as a model. I don’t have a problem with a relay. It was a good literary device to set up the character. But, if you have some sort of radiation being used to communicate, it is reasonable to assume it will dissipate over distance and need boosting. Also, we do have bandwidth problems today – called capacity problems. In some cities response time accessing a Web site can slow down around 8:00 in the morning, right before lunch, and right after lunch. There are also some users who hog the Internet by downloading huge videos.” Chris from HardSF@yahoo.com group.

I guess I’m interested in these questions as Vinge sees them, not as others have interpreted them or whether or not they are no longer necessary. As I wrote earlier about his current concepts of the big S, they seem to have changed, but he is reluctant to admit the extent I think.

But I’m interested in what he thought back then. When he wrote FUTD. What was he thinking? What were his intentions – I know he says the Singularity is too complex for us to understand, but I don’t want that – if he’s going to create something, and write and talk about it extensively, then he should better well have a darn good explanation of it, and it’s effects on people and society.

And why is it slower at the Core? Is there something about the Core that would create that effect? Any scientific basis? Or is that merely a literary device for his Zones?

I guess, what I want, when I ask all these questions about books, is what was going on in the author’s mind. What were his intentions, and why did he write it that way?

I sort of enjoy the story, once I get around the dogs, but I am really disappointed in the characters. They are so one-dimensional. Not very fleshed out, IMO. Esp., Pham and what’s her name (see – I can’t even remember her name) – why were they not suspicious at all in the beginning – later on they start to wonder, but why do they believe all that the boy feeds them, and never question in the beginning the motives of “Mr. Steel.” They rush off to the rescue, and yes, they “think” there might be something on the ship to help them, but it was a slim idea, with no real basis. And they swallow, in the beginning, everything; hook line and sinker, never wondering about the other side, until over 1/2 way through the book, and they still don’t think that the Woodcarvers might be okay.

All in all, so far, I’m disappointed in what is supposed to be a landmark book – and not because it’s already dated, but because it has weak characters, weak motivation, and seems a vehicle for his poorly fleshed out ideas. I’ve read quite a number of interviews, and he is very good at dancing around the point and not “coming clean.” In Rainbows Endinterviews, he danced about Rabbit, and never gave any indication about what he/it might be, and some other details. In RE, Rabbit seems like a device to be able to do anything he can’t have his characters do – in other-words, a deus ex machina part. I know writers like to keep secrets, but the book’s been out a while, and people have questions.

And he has said he doesn’t plan to write any more space operas, tech stuff, etc. In other words, it seems he didn’t like what happened to his “Singularity” idea and doesn’t want to go that route again. In many ways he reminds me of interviews with cyberpunk pioneers when they say they will always be associated with cyberpunk, even though they’ve moved beyond it. It will be on their gravestone, just as the Singularity will be on Vinge’s.

But if you’re going to have grandiose ideas, that’s what may happen, and if you try and predict the future, you may be proven wrong. And I think, IMVHO, that you should have the guts to back up your ideas, and flesh them out, rather than just say it’s too complex. If it’s too complex, then how did he think it up? How did he come up with the idea, or “discover it.” Is he the only one bright enough to grasp it? It’s insulting to the reader, IMO.

Okay, done ranting – just disappointed I guess – I always want more from my authors – fully fleshed characters, and ideas that are given their due, esp. when they are fresh, new and exciting. Give the reader something to really hang their hat on and ponder – not enough information leaves you flailing around – but if you give enough to the reader, and believe in the reader, without giving it all away, you let their imagination wander, still wanting more, and always excited.

So, will I find that I’m just not a good enough reader to enjoy what is so highly touted, or that I’m right – that the book didn’t stand the test of time – always a possibility in SF?

So, up later: Did Vinge Fulfill His Promise to Me? (after I finish it).

More Great reads in SF/Fantasy for young adults

“The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, named to honor prolific science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton (1912-2005), is a yearly juried award presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America(SFWA) to the author of an outstanding young adult science Fiction or fantasy book published in the previous year. ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Norton_Award

The two previous winners were: Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black (2005) and by Justine Larbalestier (2006). While I’m not familiar with either book, I have no doubt, since it is a juried award by SF writers, that they are worth a look. The Wiki site lists the other nominees, so it’s a good source to keep an eye on for outstanding SF/Fantasy.

Also, one I’m looking at, since I have two girls, but haven’t read yet is: Private Practices: Girls Reading Fiction And Constructing Identity (Critical Perspectives of Literacy and Education) by Meredith Cherla. Since it mentions Lloyd Alexander, it can’t be all bad : ) But at $170 it will have to be from the library, if they even have it!

A few stories for the younger readers:

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo: “a charming story of unlikely heroes whose destinies entwine to bring about a joyful resolution. Foremost is Despereaux, a diminutive mouse who, as depicted in Ering’s pencil drawings, is one of the most endearing of his ilk ever to appear in children’s books. His mother, who is French, declares him to be ‘such the disappointment’ at his birth and the rest of his family seems to agree that he is very odd: his ears are too big and his eyes open far too soon and they all expect him to die quickly. Of course, he doesn’t. Then there is the human Princess Pea, with whom Despereaux falls deeply (one might say desperately) in love. She appreciates him despite her father’s prejudice against rodents. Next is Roscuro, a rat with an uncharacteristic love of light and soup. Both these predilections get him into trouble. And finally, there is Miggery Sow, a peasant girl so dim that she believes she can become a princess. With a masterful hand, DiCamillo weaves four story lines together in a witty, suspenseful narrative that begs to be read aloud.” School Library Journal

This is one my 14 year old loves and has read a number of times – charming illustrations and four story threads weave together a delightful tale of human and rat societies. She’s been reading it to me!

And The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulaneby Kate Dicamillo: “This achingly beautiful story shows a true master of writing at her very best. Edward Tulane is an exceedingly vain, cold-hearted china rabbit owned by 10-year-old Abilene Tulane, who dearly loves him. Her grandmother relates a fairy tale about a princess who never felt love; she then whispers to Edward that he disappoints her. His path to redemption begins when he falls overboard during the family’s ocean journey. Sinking to the bottom of the sea where he will spend 297 days, Edward feels his first emotion–fear. Caught in a fisherman’s net, he lives with the old man and his wife and begins to care about his humans. Then their adult daughter takes him to the dump, where a dog and a hobo find him. They ride the rails together until Edward is cruelly separated from them. His heart is truly broken when next owner, four-year-old Sarah Ruth, dies. He recalls Abilene’s grandmother with a new sense of humility, wishing she knew that he has learned to love. When his head is shattered by an angry man, Edward wants to join Sarah Ruth but those he has loved convince him to live. Repaired by a doll store owner, he closes his heart to love, as it is too painful, until a wise doll tells him that he that he must open his heart for someone to love him. This superb book is beautifully written in spare yet stirring language. The tender look at the changes from arrogance to grateful loving is perfectly delineated. Ibatoullines lovely sepia-toned gouache illustrations and beautifully rendered color plates are exquisite. An ever-so-marvelous tale.” a starred review from School Library Journal

These two books are for young people, but older readers and adults will find these fantasy tales charming, and delightful. I know I did! And one I haven’t read, but I enjoy all his work for older readers is:

The Wolves in the Wallsby Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean: “Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s picture book The Wolves in the Walls is terrifying. Sure, the story is fairytale-like and presented in a jaunty, casually nonsensical way, but it is absolutely the stuff of nightmares. Lucy hears wolves hustling, bustling, crinkling, and crackling in the walls of the old house where her family lives, but no one believes her. Her mother says it’s mice, her brother says bats, and her father says what everyone seems to say, “If the wolves come out of the walls, it’s all over.” Lucy remains convinced, as is her beloved pig-puppet, and her worst fears are confirmed when the wolves actually do come out of the walls.” Amazon.com

Pre-teen

The Book of Three (Prydain Chronicles) (Black Cauldron series) by Lloyd Alexander: “The tale of Taran, assistant pig keeper, has been entertaining young readers for generations. Set in the mythical land of Prydain (which bears a more than passing resemblance to Wales), Lloyd Alexander’s book draws together the elements of the hero’s journey from unformed boy to courageous young man. Taran grumbles with frustration at home in the hamlet Caer Dallben; he yearns to go into battle like his hero, Prince Gwydion. Before the story is over, he has met his hero and fought the evil leader who threatens the peace of Prydain: the Horned King.” Amazon.com

My oldest read these 6 books in the series more times than I can count, and eventually we got her a lovely hardcover set, which she still (at 19) keeps out, and I think secretly reads. She had me read them to her: even though she’d already read them – she wanted to share them with me. They are enjoyable, and a bit easier on the reader than the Lord of the Rings trilogy and less allegorical than the Chronicles of Narnia.

Things Not Seenby Andrew Clements: “Teens, especially those not in the über-popular set, know all about feeling invisible. But what would happen if you actually did wake up invisible one day? Fifteen-year-old Bobby is faced with this curious predicament in Andrew Clements’s compelling novel Things Not Seen. Doing his best to adapt, Bobby informs his parents and grows more and more frustrated as they try to control his (unseen) life. Attempting to take matters in his own hands, he ventures out–naked–to the library, where he meets a blind girl who becomes a natural confidant. The ensuing drama, involving a nationwide search for other invisible people and a break-in to the computer database at Sears, Roebuck legal department headquarters (‘News flash: Invisible people make excellent spies and thieves’) is authentic enough in detail to allow readers to overlook the nuttiness of it all. Teens will identify with Bobby’s experience of being essentially invisible. Highly recommended.” Amazon.com

This one I haven’t personally read, but his books are popular and the story-line is great – something all kids can identify with, if not actually dream of…

Among the Hidden (The Shadow Children) by Margaret Peterson Haddix: “Born third at a time when having more than two children per family is illegal and subject to seizure and punishment by the Population Police, Luke has spent all of his 12 years in hiding. His parents disobeyed once by having him and are determined not to do anything unlawful again. At first the woods around his family’s farm are thick enough to conceal him when he plays and works outdoors, but when the government develops some of that land for housing, his world narrows to just the attic. Gazing through an air vent at new homes, he spies a child’s face at a window after the family of four has already left for the day. Is it possible that he is not the only hidden child? Answering this question brings Luke greater danger than he has ever faced before, but also greater possibilities for some kind of life outside of the attic. This is a near future of shortages and deprivation where widespread famines have led to a totalitarian government that controls all aspects of its citizens’ lives. When the boy secretly ventures outside the attic and meets the girl in the neighboring house, he learns that expressing divergent opinions openly can lead to tragedy. To what extent is he willing to defy the government in order to have a life worth living? As in Haddix’s Running Out of Time (S & S, 1995), the loss of free will is the fundamental theme of an exciting and compelling story of one young person defying authority and the odds to make a difference. Readers will be captivated by Luke’s predicament and his reactions to it.” School Library Journal

This is one my oldest daughter (along with the rest of the series) absolutely loved. We have a nice boxed set, so it’s one of the “treasured” ones.

Gathering Blueby Lois Lowry: “After conjuring the pitfalls of a technologically advanced society in The Giver, Lowry looks toward a different type of future to create this dark, prophetic tale with a strong medieval flavor. Having suffered numerous unnamed disasters (aka, the Ruin), civilization has regressed to a primitive, technology-free state; an opening author’s note describes a society in which ‘disorder, savagery, and self-interest’ rule. Kira, a crippled young weaver, has been raised and taught her craft by her mother, after her father was allegedly killed by ‘beasts.’ When her mother dies, Kira fears that she will be cast out of the village. Instead, the society’s Council of Guardians installs her as caretaker of the Singer’s robe, a precious ceremonial garment depicting the history of the world and used at the annual Gathering. She moves to the Council Edifice, a gothic-style structure, one of the few to survive the Ruin. The edifice and other settings, such as the Fen, the village ghetto, and the small plot where Annabella (an elder weaver who mentors Kira after her mother’s death) lives are especially well drawn, and the characterizations of Kira and the other artists who cohabit the stone residence are the novel’s greatest strength. But the narrative hammers at the theme of the imprisoned artist. And readers may well predict where several important plot threads are headed (e.g., the role of Kira’s Guardian, Jamison; her father’s disappearance), while larger issues, such as the society’s downfall, are left to readers’ imaginations.” Publisher’s Weekly

This one is supposedly a “companion” volume to The Giver, discussed in a previous post, but actually is completely a stand-alone book, but delves into some of the same issues, but with a totally different setting. Recommended, as are all her books.

Coralineby Neil Gaiman: “British novelist Gaiman (American Gods; Stardust) and his long-time accomplice McKean (collaborators on a number of Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels as well as The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish) spin an electrifyingly creepy tale likely to haunt young readers for many moons. After Coraline and her parents move into an old house, Coraline asks her mother about a mysterious locked door. Her mother unlocks it to reveal that it leads nowhere: ‘When they turned the house into flats, they simply bricked it up,’ her mother explains. But something about the door attracts the girl, and when she later unlocks it herself, the bricks have disappeared. Through the door, she travels a dark corridor (which smells ‘like something very old and very slow’) into a world that eerily mimics her own, but with sinister differences. ‘I’m your other mother,’ announces a woman who looks like Coraline’s mother, except ‘her eyes were big black buttons.’ Coraline eventually makes it back to her real home only to find that her parents are missing–they’re trapped in the shadowy other world, of course, and it’s up to their scrappy daughter to save them. Gaiman twines his taut tale with a menacing tone and crisp prose fraught with memorable imagery (‘Her other mother’s hand scuttled off Coraline’s shoulder like a frightened spider’), yet keeps the narrative just this side of terrifying. The imagery adds layers of psychological complexity (the button eyes of the characters in the other world vs. the heroine’s increasing ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not; elements of Coraline’s dreams that inform her waking decisions). McKean’s scratchy, angular drawings, reminiscent of Victorian etchings, add an ominous edge that helps ensure this book will be a real bedtime-buster.” Publisher’s Weekly

I adore Gaiman’s fiction for adults – his Nevermoresimply blew me away – but this one is for the young ones, and about time. It’s rare that SciFi authors write for youth, and there should be more out there. To balance out the fantasy, and give more, and better, representation of SciFi for young readers – after all, many scientist and astronauts, etc., have said that reading SciFi as a youth set them on the path they are now on.

Running Out of Timeby Margaret Peterson Haddix: “This absorbing novel develops an unusual premise into the gripping story of a young girl’s efforts to save her family and friends from a deadly disease. Jessie Keyser, 13, believes that the year is 1840. In truth, she and her family, along with a small group of others, live in a reconstructed village viewed by unseen modern tourists and used as an experimental site by unethical scientists. Jessie discovers the truth when her mother asks her to leave the village and seek medical help for the diptheria epidemic that has struck the children of the community. Jessie must cope with the shock of her discovery; her unfamiliarity with everyday phenomena such as cars, telephones, and television; and the unscrupulous men who are manipulating the villagers. The action moves swiftly, with plenty of suspense, and readers will be eager to discover how Jessie overcomes the obstacles that stand in her way. While she is ultimately successful, the ending is not entirely a happy one, for several children have died and others are placed in foster care to await resolution of the complex situation. This realistically ambiguous ending reflects the author’s overall success in making her story, however far-fetched, convincing and compelling. Haddix also handles characterization well; even secondary characters who are somewhat sketchily drawn never descend into stereotype. This book will appeal to fans of time-travel or historical novels as well as those who prefer realistic contemporary fiction, all of whom will look forward to more stories from this intriguing new author.” School Library Journal

My oldest daughter really enjoyed this one, although my younger one hasn’t read it yet. It’s interesting to see, how within the same genre, each likes her own books. The oldest likes more conceptual stuff, the younger, more animal books (like The Sight) and adventure stories.

The Akhenaten Adventure (The Children of the Lamp) by P.B. Kerr: “You can tell from the very first page that P. B. Kerr had great fun writing his novel, The Akhenaten Adventure. The way the author introduces his cleverly named characters, the atmospheric setting, the fun tone of his narration–all indicate that a hugely entertaining story is in store. The first installment of his Children of the Lamp sequence is set firmly in the present day, but it soon breaks away and encompasses several wonderfully colorful parts of the globe, England and Egypt included.

John and Philippa Gaunt, two twelve-year-old not-very-identical twins, live a privileged life on the Upper East of Manhattan with their wealthy parents and two curiously-mannered Rottweilers named Alan and Neil. The twins realize there’s something amiss with their world when a string of strange things begin to happen after their wisdom teeth are extracted–they dream the same dreams, become stronger, their zits clear up, and wishes wished in their presence inexplicably come true. And, when their estranged Uncle Nimrod asks them to come to England for the summer during one such shared dream, the discovery of their destiny is set in motion.

John and Phillippa discover that they are descended from a long line of Djinn, have great inherent powers. They must call on these powers a lot sooner than they anticipated, though, because the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten is not as dead as history has so far declared and his legion of seventy magical djinn could tip the balance of power in the magical realm and affect the whole world order.

P.B. Kerr, under his given name Philip Kerr, is the author of several bestselling thrillers for adult readers. His debut novel for children is a slick, zeitgeisty fantasy adventure that is sure to win him a new raft of fans. The Blue Djinn of Babylon is next up for those who get hooked. ” Amazon.com

Now I have read Kerr’s adult works, some of which as I recall are virus thrillers, one of my favorite sub-genres. And I know my youngest enjoyed this one recently, at around age 12-13, but younger, mature readers should have no problem with it.

Operation Red Jericho(The Guild of Specialists) by Joshua Mowll: “Excerpts from 15-year-old Becca’s diary interspersed with third-person narrative combine to produce a tale of high adventure, intrigue, and science fiction along the China coast in 1920. Following their parents’ mysterious disappearance in the remote Sinkiang region, Becca and her younger brother, Doug, are sent from their home in India to live with their sea-captain uncle, whose research vessel they board in Shanghai. Through their inquisitiveness and spying, they learn of a secret society that may have had something to do with their parents’ fate and of a very volatile substance called zoridium that their uncle is trying to retrieve from an evil warlord. Their curiosity leads to their capture and captivity on his island fortress–the site of a rousing showdown that sets the stage for the second volume in this trilogy. Memorable, over-the-top characters and an often unbelievable plot are united with fascinating sidebars and graphics, such as short biographies of people like Bohr and Einstein, archival photographs of old Shanghai, vintage newspaper clippings, a chart of the Morse code, diagrams of inventions, or Doug’s sketches of the action scenes. Several confidential full-color pull-outs provide detailed descriptions of the various vessels and of an ancient fighting order, the Sujing Quantou. Some readers may pore over the details in this novel; others will simply appreciate the comic adventure.” School Library Journal

This one I haven’t read yet, but the book is stunning visually, and a unique, fresh approach to the genre, and I have it in my TBR pile.

Howl’s Moving Castleby Diana Wynne Jones: “Sophie Hatter reads a great deal and soon realizes that as the eldest of three daughters she is doomed to an uninteresting future. She resigns herself to making a living as a hatter and helping her younger sisters prepare to make their fortunes. But adventure seeks her out in the shop where she sits alone, dreaming over her hats. The wicked Witch of the Waste, angered by “competition” in the area, turns her into a old woman, so she seeks refuge inside the strange moving castle of the wizard Howl. Howl, advertised by his apprentice as an eater of souls, lives a mad, frantic life trying to escape the curse the witch has placed on him, find the perfect girl of his dreams and end the contract he and his fire demon have entered. Sophie, against her best instincts and at first unaware of her own powers, falls in love. So goes this intricate, humorous and puzzling tale of fantasy and adventure which should both challenge and involve readers. Jones has created an engaging set of characters and found a new use for many of the appurtenances of fairy tales: seven league boots and invisible cloaks, among others. At times, the action becomes so complex that readers may have to go back to see what actually happened, and at the end so many loose ends have to be tied up at once that it’s dizzying. Yet Jones’ inventiveness never fails, and her conclusion is infinitely satisfying.” School Library Journal

This is one that we have enjoyed in all its incarnations: as the book, as Hayao Miyazaki’s animated masterpiece from Studio Ghibli, and by the picture book that accompanies the movie. A Best Bet!

A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones: “High-spirited time travel fantasy that is sure to delight its readers. When 11-year-old Vivian Smith is evacuated from London in 1939, she expects to end up in the peaceful British countryside. Instead she is kidnapped by two youthful time travellers who mistake her for the ‘Time Lady’ and whisk her off to Time City, a richly imagined alternative world which exists in time but not in history. Time City observers, Viv learns, have reason to believe that the Time Lady, the wife of the founder of Time City, a mysterious Merlin figure, is at large in history and is busily altering it, thereby endangering not only the historical world but Time City itself. If Vivian is to return to her own world and time, it will be necessary for her to help her kidnappers foil the Time Lady first. That almost nothing whether person or incident is precisely what it appears to be at first encounter both complicates Vivian’s task and delights readers. This ability to surprise has become a Diana Wynne Jones signature, as have her unflagging inventiveness and almost uncanny ability to create imaginary worlds of resounding reality, a capacity based in part on her attention to detail and in part on her capacity to create believable and sympathetic characters. All of these gifts are in abundant evidence in A Tale of Time City which is, accordingly, absolutely first-rate entertainment. And to her fans, this will be one of the few things about her new book which will come as no surprise!” School Library Journal

This one was one of the best my oldest daughter and I read together, and that was years ago – and I still recall the book – no mean feat. I was intrigued and enjoyed it thoroughly, so much so that I plan to read it again, and also to read some of hers I have missed. For older pre-teens, teens, and adults!

Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster: “‘It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time,’ Milo laments. ‘[T]here’s nothing for me to do, nowhere I’d care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing.’ This bored, bored young protagonist who can’t see the point to anything is knocked out of his glum humdrum by the sudden and curious appearance of a tollbooth in his bedroom. Since Milo has absolutely nothing better to do, he dusts off his toy car, pays the toll, and drives through. What ensues is a journey of mythic proportions, during which Milo encounters countless odd characters who are anything but dull.

Norton Juster received (and continues to receive) enormous praise for this original, witty, and oftentimes hilarious novel, first published in 1961. In an introductory ‘Appreciation’ written by Maurice Sendak for the 35th anniversary edition, he states, ‘The Phantom Tollbooth leaps, soars, and abounds in right notes all over the place, as any proper masterpiece must.’ Indeed.

As Milo heads toward Dictionopolis he meets with the Whether Man (‘for after all it’s more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be’), passes through The Doldrums (populated by Lethargarians), and picks up a watchdog named Tock (who has a giant alarm clock for a body). The brilliant satire and double entendre intensifies in the Word Market, where after a brief scuffle with Officer Short Shrift, Milo and Tock set off toward the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the twin Princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Anyone with an appreciation for language, irony, or Alice in Wonderland-style adventure will adore this book for years on end.” Amazon.com

This is one book that has stood the test of time. It’s fun, wildly inventive, and yet tells all sorts of “lessons” about math, english and other subjects in such a way that kids never know they are being taught something. Definitely a must-have for all bookshelves.

Teens:

Dark Lord of Derkholmby Diana Wynne Jones: “On a par with Jones’s best (Charmed Life; Fire and Hemlock), this expansive novel manages to be both an affectionate send-up of the sword-and-sorcery genre and a thrilling fantasy adventure in its own right. Something is decidedly rotten in the enchantment-laden world in which teenage fledgling wizard Blade has grown up. Each year, the country’s magical agrarian economy is disrupted by the Pilgrim Parties, tourists from a world much like ours, come in search of Tolkienesque adventure. Organized by the sinister and implacably bureaucratic Mr. Chesney (‘A Dark Lord’s citadel must always be a black castle with a labyrinthine interior lit by baleful fire, you will find our specifications in the guide Mr. Addis will give you’), the Pilgrim Parties are in fact highly choreographed package tours. The local population is bullied, cajoled and paid hard cash to participate, all because of a deal struck with a demon some 40 years ago. This year’s appointee to the onerous post of Dark Lord (who must act as chief villain and tour-coordinator) is Blade’s mild-mannered father, Derk, who would far rather spend his time creating marvelous new animals (he already has flying pigs, talking horses and clever geese). When an encounter with a dragon puts Derk out of commission, Blade’s entire family, including his five griffin siblings, must help. As elaborate charades are staged for the tours, a deeper magic also emerges which (in combination with some hilariously banal legalities) offers the hope of release from Mr. Chesney’s domination. Thought-provoking and utterly engaging, this tour-de-force succeeds on numerous levels. The marvelously characterized griffins are a particularly noteworthy pleasure.” Publisher’s Weekly

This one we haven’t read yet, but it sits on the shelf, begging for time to read it. The plot sounds like the most fun you can have outside DisneyWorld (or more so!). Anything by Wynne Jones is a must-read.

Sight by David Clement-Davies: “In an epic tale of good and evil, legend and history, and the blessing and curse of an extraordinary gift of the Sight (an ability to see through others’ minds and into the future), David Clement-Davies obliges the many fans of Fire Bringer with a new fantasy novel. The Sightfeatures a Transylvanian wolf clan faced with the terrifying changes brought about by Morgra, a bitter she-wolf determined to fulfill an ancient legend in order to have supreme power over all Vargs (wolves). Young Larka, a white wolf pup born with the Sight, embarks with her brother Fell and the rest of her family on an extraordinary quest for truth and salvation, with shocking consequences that even the most astute reader may not foresee. Clement-Davies’s multilayered and elaborate plot will keep young readers riveted for hours on end, drawing on Christianity, fairy tales, and mythology in a colossal allegory and cautionary tale for its human audience.” Amazon.com

Now this is one my youngest enjoyed thoroughly – it is dog-eared from bringing it to school to read in any pocket of time she could find. She also enjoyed the sequel, The Fell.

The Great Tree of Avalon(Children of the Dark Prophecy) by T.A. Barron: “In this first installment in a new series, Barron reimagines the legendary world of Avalon as a gigantic tree, with a separate realm located on each of its seven roots and stars hanging in the unseen branches far atop its trunk. A crippling drought has brought the realm to the verge of warfare, and 17-year-old Tamwyn and his bickering companions seek the advice of the fabled Lady of the Lake. Tamwyn fears he’s the child of the Dark Prophecy, foretold centuries ago as the one who would destroy Avalon, and he wants desperately to change his destiny and save his beloved world. With its mixture of high fantasy and slapstick humor, the tale resembles Barron’s ‘The Lost Years of Merlin‘ series and Lloyd Alexander’s ‘Chronicles of Prydain’. Despite loads of goofiness and violence, the plot moves rather slowly through lengthy introductions of the large cast and descriptions of the Great Tree. While the characters and setting are interesting, this is clearly the prologue to a much longer saga: all beginning, with no middle or end. The story will appeal most to devoted fantasy readers, particularly fans of the ‘Merlin‘ series, who will recognize details from the earlier books and try to guess how the epics will converge.” School Library Journal

Although one is still in the TBR (to be read) pile, it caught my eye, and he has a good, solid reputation as an author of books for younger teens.

The Looking Glass Warsby Frank Beddor: “Frank Beddor’s imaginative tale is definitely not your grandmother’s ALICE. Herein, Wonderland is an alternate universe, the source of all creativity in our world. On Princess Alyss Heart’s seventh birthday, her Aunt Redd seizes power in a bloody takeover. Alyss escapes to Victorian England. Outstanding as always, Gerard Doyle [narrator in the Book on Tape] mirrors Alyss’s fury at the Reverend Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) when he turns her life into a silly children’s story. Doyle also delivers her desperate confusion as she begins to doubt her memories of Wonderland. Beddor’s neat twists on the original clever weaponry, innovative solutions, a host of entertaining (if groan-producing) puns, and Doyle’s use of onomatopoeia through the numerous battle sequences guarantee that listeners of all ages will enjoy this first in what promises to be a wild and wondrous trilogy.” AudioFile

Also in our TBR pile, this one is definitately one for Teens and not the younger set – more about the battles for Wonderland than the whimiscial side, it might appeal to male readers, who usually are not as interested in Fantasy books (The Sight series might appeal to them as well, as would Operation Red Jericho).

I hope you enjoyed this trip through our bookshelves. As usual, more will be forthcoming as I drag in other parents for their favorites, dig through our boxes, and write about ones I’ve seen recommended. All of the pre-teen books are “clean” and suitable for age 8 and up. The teen books, since I haven’t read some of them, esp. Twilight, might be more mature in themes, but most of them are suitable for 12 and up.

Reading is for fun people!

Where goest the Singularity?

Someone asked if Vinge himself was becoming unconvinced of the nearness of the next Singularity. Here is my reply (for a full explanation of the Singularity see):

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/WER2.html

In brief, from the about paper:

What Is The Singularity?

“The acceleration of technological progress has been the central feature of this century. We are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth. The precise cause of this change is the imminent creation by technology of entities with greater-than-human intelligence. Science may achieve this breakthrough by several means (and this is another reason for having confidence that the event will occur):

1. Computers that are “awake” and superhumanly intelligent may be developed. (To date, there has been much controversy as to whether we can create human equivalence in a machine. But if the answer is “yes,” then there is little doubt that more intelligent beings can be constructed shortly thereafter.)

2. Large computer networks (and their associated users) may “wake up” as superhumanly intelligent entities.

3. Computer/human interfaces may become so intimate that users may reasonably be considered superhumanly intelligent.

4. Biological science may provide means to improve natural human intellect.

He goes on to state: “What are the consequences of this event? When greater-than-human intelligence drives progress, that progress will be much more rapid. In fact, there seems no reason why progress itself would not involve the creation of still more intelligent entities — on a still-shorter time scale. The best analogy I see is to the evolutionary past: Animals can adapt to problems and make inventions, but often no faster than natural selection can do its work — the world acts as its own simulator in the case of natural selection. We humans have the ability to internalize the world and conduct what-if’s in our heads; we can solve many problems thousands of times faster than natural selection could. Now, by creating the means to execute those simulations at much higher speeds, we are entering a regime as radically different from our human past as we humans are from the lower animals.

This change will be a throwing-away of all the human rules, perhaps in the blink of an eye — an exponential runaway beyond any hope of control. Developments that were thought might only happen in “a million years” (if ever) will likely happen in the next century.”

In the 1950s very few saw it: Stan Ulam¹paraphrased John von Neumann as saying:

One conversation centered on the ever-accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.

Von Neumann even uses the term singularity, though it appears he is thinking of normal progress, not the creation of superhuman intellect. (For me, the superhumanity is the essence of the Singularity. Without that we would get a glut of technical riches, never properly absorbed.) (see my earlier post on Von Neumann and his importance).

It’s fair to call this event a singularity (“the Singularity” for the purposes of this piece). It is a point where our old models must be discarded and a new reality rules, a point that will loom vaster and vaster over human affairs until the notion becomes a commonplace.’

In several interviews in the past couple of years he’s been asked about whether the Singularity is still relevant, given the changes in the Web and computers a number of times. He does seem to skirt around the issue, but seems to think it’s still “plausible” (note the use of that rather than “probable” and he is a man of carefully chosen words).

In an undated (to me – although I know a smattering for French left from 8 years in middle and high
school) article from the French ActuSf site, he states:

“ActuSF : You’ve never been so close, in any of your previous novels, to the origin of the Singularity. Was there any urgent need of explanation ?

Vernor Vinge : No. Rainbows End looks at one plausible scenario, but there are others.”
“http://www.actusf.com/spip/?article4850

In a 2007 interview with Computer World (Australia) he says:

” I think it’s the most likely non-catastrophic outcome of the next
few decades.”
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=1485956242

There is an NPR audio interview with Vinge available at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5576503

Reasononline’s interview with Vinge in 2007 asks him about it:

“Reason: In your speech you foresaw efforts to build ubiquitous monitoring or government controls into our information technology. What’s more, you suggested that this wasn’t deliberate—that the trend
is happening regardless of, or in spite of, the conscious choices we’re making about our information technology.

Vernor Vinge: I see an implacable government interest here, and also the convergence of diverse nongovernmental interests—writers unions, Hollywood, “temperance” organizations of all flavors, all with their own stake in exploiting technology to make people “do the right thing.”

Reason: Do you believe this pervasive monitoring and/or control might stall the Singularity?

Vinge: I think that if the Singularity can happen, it will. There are lots of very bad things that could happen in this century. The Technological Singularity may be the most likely of the noncatastrophes.”

“Reason: It’s now more than 20 years after you first started writing about the Singularity and more than a dozen since you presented your ideas in a paper about it. Are we still on track?

Vinge: I think so. In 1993 I said I’d be surprised if the Technological Singularity happened before 2005—I’ll stand by that!—or after 2030. It’s also possible the Singularity won’t happen at all.”

He then goes on the say that the most likely thing to stall it will be either a disaster, such as MAD, or 2nd, that we will never learn to harness the hardware, and 3rd, least plausible, that the human mind may be the key in terms of neural computational competence.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/119237.html

In Shaun Farrell’s interview (courtesy of Mysterious Galaxy bookstore) in 2006, Vinge says:

“SF: I read your essay, The Coming Technological Singularity, and in it you suggest that if we know the Singularity is coming, we have the freedom to establish initial conditions, but we lack the foreknowledge to know which actions could precipitate the Singularity actually occurring. That’s obviously my paraphrasing there. You wrote that back in 1993, so are the choices any clearer now, 13 years later?

VV: Actually, I think there are certain paths toward the Singularity that seem more likely now. And as we go forward from year to year there will be certain aspects that seem to be proceeding more realistically toward the Singularity. In the essay I think I listed four or five. I made them quite distinct, although they’ll probably
intertwine as we actually proceed. Of those 4 or 5 I think all of them are still plausible. But in the last five or six years, and also in the near future, the stuff about the internet and ubiquitous computing and the towers of large numbers of people working this thing together, those seem to be very attractive in a practical sense
as things that are ongoing, and it’s pretty obvious they could be exploited to a much greater degree than we’ve already exploited them. That’s one aspect of the difference in time (from 1993 to 2006). It’s made us more confident that certain approaches are going to be plausible. I personally think the other items I had in my 1993 essay are still plausible and it’s not entirely clear to me which would happen first.”

So, where do we end up? That the singularity is still “plausible”, but he won’t say “probable.” But then, how would you deny it when it’s your raison d’etre to many people – so much has been written about him and the big “S”, and others such as Stross, Bear, Egan, Sterling, and my beloved Schroeder have used it, and he likes and admires their work. But he does talk about AI:

“ActuSF : And talking about emerging systems, do you think AI could arise from the internet ?

Vernor Vinge : Yes. I see people+computers+networks as one of several possible paths to the Singularity … At the present time, this path appears to be proceeding more successfully than the other possibilities.”

http://www.actusf.com/spip/?article4850

There is a good site dedicated to the Singularity: http://community.livejournal.com/singularity_now/profile and some links from it:

Artificial Intelligence Newsfrom KurzweilAI.net
The Singularity Institute – Non-Profit organization researching AI
Singularity links page
Singularity Watch – Interpreting a world of accelerating change.
Yahoo! Groups – Singularity
Singularity Articlesby Eliezner Yudkowsky of the Foresight Institute – “excellent”
Law of Accelerating Returnsby Ray Kurzweil – a must read for any Singularity junkie
Surviving the Singularity- interview with five transhumanists about the Singularity

Have fun! The Singularity can be a wild ride….

Great reads for pre-teens and teens in SF/Fantasy

Since I love SciFi, although not much fantasy, when it came time to help my youngest (and my oldest to some extent, although she was more pre-Harry Potter, and thus didn’t have the new wave of SF/Fantasy for pre-teens and teens), I picked books that were in that area. I did not include the obvious, like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter (7 volume set), Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time set, or Undersea series (6 books) by Ursula K. Le Guin, as they are long-standing classics. I have others I will cover in another post.

So here are some of my Picks from recent years, grouped by age, although some are hard to pin down – I enjoyed them, so all ages could enjoy the younger books, unless they scorn to read something soooo juvenile. : )

I’ll quote from Amazon’s reviews, and add a few comments of my own.

Pre-teens:

Gregor, the Overlander (and sequels) by Suzanne Collins: “What if Alice fell down an air vent in a New York City apartment building instead of down a rabbit hole? Collins considers a similar possibility in her exceptional debut novel, a well-written, fast-moving, action-packed fantasy. Eleven-year-old Gregor expects a long, boring summer of baby-sitting his two-year-old sister, Boots, and his senile grandmother. Distracted with thoughts about his father, who disappeared three years ago, Gregor belatedly notices that Boots has crawled into an air vent in the laundry room. He dives in after her, and the two are sucked downward into the Underland, a fantastic subterranean world of translucent-skinned, violet-eyed humans, and giant talking cockroaches, bats, spiders, and rats. Eventually, the terrified Gregor is transformed into a warrior hero who leads a successful battle against an army of invading rats and discovers his father, who has long been held prisoner by the enemy. Collins creates a fascinating, vivid, highly original world and a superb story to go along with it, and Gregor is endearing as a caring, responsible big brother who rises triumphantly to every challenge.” Booklist

This series I truly enjoyed reading out-loud to my younger daughter. It was fun, full of wonderful characters, and a rat you will never forget. A Don’t Miss book

City of Ember(and sequels) by Jeanne DuPrau: “It is always night in the city of Ember. But there is no moon, no stars. The only light during the regular twelve hours of “day” comes from floodlamps that cast a yellowish glow over the streets of the city. Beyond are the pitch-black Unknown Regions, which no one has ever explored because an understanding of fire and electricity has been lost, and with it the idea of a Moveable Light. “Besides,” they tell each other, “there is nowhere but here” Among the many other things the people of Ember have forgotten is their past and a direction for their future. For 250 years they have lived pleasantly, because there has been plenty of everything in the vast storerooms. But now there are more and more empty shelves–and more and more times when the lights flicker and go out, leaving them in terrifying blackness for long minutes. What will happen when the generator finally fails?

Twelve-year-old Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet seem to be the only people who are worried. They have just been assigned their life jobs–Lina as a messenger, which leads her to knowledge of some unsettling secrets, and Doon as a Pipeworker, repairing the plumbing in the tunnels under the city where a river roars through the darkness. But when Lina finds a very old paper with enigmatic “Instructions for Egress,” they use the advantages of their jobs to begin to puzzle out the frightening and dangerous way to the city of light of which Lina has dreamed. As they set out on their mission, the haunting setting and breathless action of this stunning first novel will have teens clamoring for a sequel.” Amazon.com

A great series, and one which I, as an adult, was never bored with. Not to be missed – The sequels aren’t as strong, IMO, but worth reading for the moral lessons – I haven’t read the third one yet – too many stacked up!.

Levin Thumps and the Gateway to Foo (and sequels) by Obert Skye: “This imaginative and entertaining young adult fantasy novel successfully depicts an unusual boy’s coming of age. Oklahoma orphan teen Leven Thumps has a hidden and powerful talent: he can glimpse, and then manipulate, the future. He is also the only person on the planet who can protect the gateway to Foo, a mythical realm whose existence ensures that human beings in this reality retain the ability to dream, hope and imagine. Sabine, the wicked ruler of Foo, wants to extend his tyranny by ruling this world as well-but if that happens, no one on Earth would ever be able to dream again. As Lev hurries to find the gateway between the two worlds before Sabine does, he encounters several friends to help him: Winter, a bright 13-year-old girl who can instantly freeze things and people just by wishing it; Clover, an adorable, foot-high furry creature from Foo who has been assigned as Lev’s companion (and, apparently, as comic relief); and Geth, the wise but displaced king of Foo, who alone knows the full secret of the gateway. Obert Skye’s imagined world of Foo contains many whimsical and delightful elements, such as Humble Pie that apologizes for its own flavor and promises to taste better next time, and candy that temporarily rearranges its chewer’s body parts.” Publisher’s Weekly

While I didn’t read this one, and the editorial reviews were mixed on the prose and adult characters, I know my daughter loved the books, and at 14, still reads them as they come out.

Cryptid Huntersby Roland Smith: “When twins Marty and Grace O’Hara discover that their adventurous parents have gone missing, they leave their Swiss boarding school and join their mysterious uncle, Travis Wolfe, on his island in Washington State. They soon learn that their uncle is one of the world’s foremost authorities on cryptids (think Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster). Wolfe is scheduled to look for dinosaurs in the African jungle, and he plans to leave Marty and Grace in Europe before the expedition starts. Things go awry, however, when an accident plunges Marty and Grace into the middle of the Congolese jungle. Soon the henchmen of the evil Noah Blackwood are pursuing the twins. The action is nonstop in this well-paced jungle adventure, and Smith adds a deeper layer in scenes of Marty and Grace discovering truths about their complicated family relationships.” Booklist

Smith has written several others in this vein, which are also exciting. Because of the “cryptid” nature, I included this, although strictly speaking, it’s not really SF/Fantasy, more adventure.

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke: “Imagine a Dickens story with a Venetian setting, and you’ll have a good sense of Cornelia Funke’s prizewinning novel The Thief Lord, first published in Germany in 2000. This suspenseful tale begins in a detective’s office in Venice, as the entirely unpleasant Hartliebs request Victor Getz’s services to search for two boys, Prosper and Bo, the sons of Esther Hartlieb’s recently deceased sister. Twelve-year-old Prosper and 5-year-old Bo ran away when their aunt decided she wanted to adopt Bo, but not his brother. Refusing to split up, they escaped to Venice, a city their mother had always described reverently, in great detail. Right away they hook up with a long-haired runaway named Hornet and various other ruffians who hole up in an abandoned movie theater and worship the elusive Thief Lord, a young boy named Scipio who steals jewels from fancy Venetian homes so his new friends can get the warm clothes they need. Of course, the plot thickens when the owner of the pawn shop asks if the Thief Lord will carry out a special mission for a wealthy client: to steal a broken wooden wing that is the key to completing an age-old, magical merry-go-round. This winning cast of characters–especially the softhearted detective with his two pet turtles–will win the hearts of readers young and old, and the adventures are as labyrinthine and magical as the streets of Venice itself.” Amazon.com

This one is slower paced, but magical and whimsical. There is a movie, that is fairly close to the book. Funke has also written Inkheart and other stories that are always on recommended lists.

Last Book in the Universeby Rodman Philbrick: ” boy who lives on the fringes of his surreal future world, partly because epilepsy prevents him from using the mind probes most people use to blot out reality, sets out on a classic quest to save his ill foster sister. To do so, he must cross forbidden territory and face frightening gangs and their leaders. He picks up companions as he travels: Ryter, a philosophic old man whose treasure is the book he is writing despite knowing that books and reading are of the past; Littleface, a young almost speechless child; and Linnea, a “prove” (genetically improved person). In saving his sister, Spaz learns about himself and his parentage. This action-packed story has some strong and provocative messages.” School Library Journal

This book was one we both enjoyed and, rare for my younger daughter, gave it to a friend to read. She adored it, and I found it’s message quite profound for a youth book – on par with the Giver, IMO.

Crystal Doors: Island Realm (trilogy) by Rebecca Moesta and Kevin J. Anderson: “Fourteen-year-old Gwen and Vic are “twin” cousins. They were born on the same day, their fathers are identical twins, and their mothers are sisters. Gwen has been living with Vic and Uncle Cap since her parents died and her aunt went missing. When the cousins walk into an experiment that Uncle Cap is performing with an elaborate crystal setup, they are swept into a parallel world. The portal, which leads to the island world of Elantya, a hub between many worlds, has been sealed for many ages to prevent an evil sorcerer from conquering all. Elantya hosts a school of powerful sages and gifted apprentices who use written magic to fight merlons, water-dwelling enemies who are disrupting the travel between worlds and aggressively attacking the Elantyans and their visitors. Joined by Sharif, who flies on a magic carpet, and a telepath named Lyssandra, Vic and Gwen must face dangers such as flying piranhas and armored sea serpents in order to set things right. This is a fast-paced beginning for the Crystal Doors trilogy.” Booklist

Although we haven’t finished this one yet, the story, although it starts slow, as it is setting the stage for a trilogy, is one of high adventure and fantasy. The authors are well known for the Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights series which my oldest loved and the Dune prequels.

The Giver by Lois Lowry: In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community’s Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newbery Medalwinner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price.” Amazon.com

This book really “caught” me and I recommend it to anyone who wants to think about society. A young person’s Anthem by Ayn Rand.

Heirs of the Force: Star Wars: The Young Jedi Knights, Book Oneby Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta: “Young Jedi Knightsis a Star Wars series by science fcition writer Kevin J. Anderson and his wife, Rebecca Moesta. The series covers the Jedi training of Jacen and Jaina Solo, the twin children of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo. The series begins 23 years ABY, when the twins are fourteen years old.

Originally intended to cover six novels, the series eventually stretched to fourteen volumes. It spanned three distinct plot arcs:

1. The first plot arc covers the young Jedi Knights’ fight against the dark Jedi Brakiss and his Shadow Academy, which eventually builds in strength enough to attack the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4. This plot arc also introduces the twins, as well as other supporting characters.
2. The series became popular enough to support a second plot arc, consisting of the novels Shards of Alderaan to The Emperor’s Plague. This series deals with the young Jedi Knights’ fight against the Diversity Alliance, a group of non-humans seeking to take down the New Republic.
3. The final three-part series details the young Jedi Knights’ relationship with Anja Gallandro, the daughter of Gallandro, a gunslinger who died while fighting Han Solo a long time ago.

Because it is geared towards younger readers, the Young Jedi Knights series is notable for tackling issues such as racism and drug abuse that are relevant in both the Star Wars universe and our present-day world.” Wikipedia: Young Jedi Knights

Teens:

Mister Monday: The Keys to the Kingdom, Book One (and sequels) by Garth Nix: “Arthur Penhaligon’s school year is not off to a good start. On his first day, he suffers an asthma attack while running cross country and dreams that a mysterious figure hands him a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock. However, when he wakes up, he still has the key. That’s when strange things begin to happen. Mister Monday dispatches terrifying, dog-faced Fetchers to retrieve it, a bizarre sleeping illness sweeps the city, and only Arthur can see the weird new house that appears in his neighborhood. The seventh grader knows it all has something to do with the key, one of seven elusive fragments of the Will to which he has become heir apparent, and a mysterious atlas. When he ventures inside the house, he meets more strange characters than he could have imagined, none of whom are what they seem. And, of course, he must battle Monday, who will do anything to get the key back. With the help of the key, Arthur must fight his way out. The first in a seven part series for middle graders is every bit as exciting and suspenseful as the author’s previous young adult novels.” School Library Journal

This set was/is entertaining, odd, and can be confusing to younger, less experienced readers. But those who persevere will find delights that unfold as the story does, and the sequels are a must for the complete picture of the Kingdom.

Sabriel: The Abhorsen Trilogy (and sequels) by Garth Nix: “After receiving a cryptic message from her father, Abhorsen, a necromancer trapped in Death, 18-year-old Sabriel sets off into the Old Kingdom. Fraught with peril and deadly trickery, her journey takes her to a world filled with parasitical spirits, Mordicants, and Shadow Hands. Unlike other necromancers, who raise the dead, Abhorsen lays the disturbed dead back to rest. This obliges him–and now Sabriel, who has taken on her father’s title and duties–to slip over the border into the icy river of Death, sometimes battling the evil forces that lurk there, waiting for an opportunity to escape into the realm of the living. Desperate to find her father, and grimly determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction by the horrible forces of the evil undead, Sabriel endures almost impossible exhaustion, violent confrontations, and terrifying challenges to her supernatural abilities–and her destiny.

Garth Nix delves deep into the mystical underworld of necromancy, magic, and the monstrous undead. This tale is not for the faint of heart; imbedded in the classic good-versus-evil story line are subplots of grisly ghouls hungry for human life to perpetuate their stay in the world of the living, and dark, devastating secrets of betrayal and loss.” Amazon.com

This was an all-time favorite of my older daughter who liked her fiction more dense (like Ayn Rand and Sartre), and because of it became fascinated with Dante’s Inferno and read that. Highly recommended for more adult teen readers.

Shade’s Children by Garth Nix: “In the brutal world of Shade’s Children, your 14th birthday is your last. Malevolent Overlords rule the earth, directing hideous, humanoid creatures to harvest the brains and muscles of teens for use in engineering foul beasts to fight senseless wars. Young Gold-Eye escapes this horrific fate, fleeing the dormitories before his Sad Birthday. He is rescued from certain doom by other refugees who live in an abandoned submarine and work for Shade, a strange, computer-generated adult. Shade provides food and shelter in exchange for information that the children gather on dangerous forays into Overlord territory. But what does Shade really want? He is a sworn enemy of the Overlords, but his use of the children to gain knowledge and power seems uncaring and ruthless. Finally, Gold-Eye and his new friends set out to destroy the Overlords–with or without the enigmatic, dangerous Shade.” Amazon.com

This one I haven’t read, but as you can see a pattern here – anything by Nix goes in our house. And this is one I want to read. If only I can find it in her boxes of books she left here.

The Uglies(trilogy plus The Extras) by Scott Westerfield: “Playing on every teen’s passionate desire to look as good as everybody else, Scott Westerfeld (Midnighters) projects a future world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty. The “New Pretties” are then free to play and party, while the younger “Uglies” look on enviously and spend the time before their own transformations in plotting mischievous tricks against their elders. Tally Youngblood is one of the most daring of the Uglies, and her imaginative tricks have gotten her in trouble with the menacing department of Special Circumstances. She has yearned to be pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumored rebel settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been troubled. The authorities give her an impossible choice: either she follows Shay’s cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty. Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey as a spy. But after finally reaching The Smoke she has a change of heart when her new lover David reveals to her the sinister secret behind becoming pretty. The fast-moving story is enlivened by many action sequences in the style of videogames, using intriguing inventions like hoverboards that use the rider’s skateboard skills to skim through the air, and bungee jackets that make wild downward plunges survivable — and fun. Behind all the commotion is the disturbing vision of our own society — the Rusties — visible only in rusting ruins after a virus destroyed all petroleum. Teens will be entranced, and the cliffhanger ending will leave them gasping for the sequel.” Amazon.com

This one I read myself, and while it was slow starting, as I’m used to adult SF, I found it engaging, and as the book continued, the plot thickened, and I was left waiting to read the next book. My youngest daughter, now 14, loves these books, so much so that she dreads reading the third book because she knows the series may be ending with the fourth.

Twilight (trilogy) by Stephenie Meyer: “

As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because–he’s a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship.

Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward’s sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer’s writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction.” Amazon.com

Although I haven’t read this one, my oldest did and enjoyed it thoroughly. It is very popular amongst young to mid-teens.

See 1/19/08 post for the second part of this post – More Great Reads…, and other posts from different genres for pre-teens and teens.

Cyberpunk as a generational definition – what comes next?

Someone wrote in reply to my abbreviated post about the difference between my generation that grew up in the 60s and 70s, vs there’s of the 80s. The reader responded that the 60′s and 70′s were a time of hope and the 80′s and 90′s more a time of disillusionment and growing realisation that we had screwed up.

I agreed, but was still curious as to why we still had hope. Contrary to another reader’s idea that we thought we could survive a nuclear winter, the 80s gen had no such hope, I replied that I think that even back in my childhood, we did the drills, not with a convincing argument that it would do any good, but that we had to do SOMETHING. Somewhere along that timeline, that idea dropped off the radar, and was replaced with the lack of hope you mention. But I’m still curious (curiouser and curiouser, said Alice) as to WHY that hope left. Since those of us who had grown up weren’t as disillusioned, I don’t think we taught it to our kids. Was it more than nuclear winter? Was it a combination of the rising interest rates, stagnant economy, the growing realization that, as was said, we “buggered” it, by “it” I mean our planet?

Were those “kids” really affected by the world their parents had given them? Our (my gen.) parents gave us Vietnam, nuclear war, and a increasingly bad economy, but we still had hope as I recall – that we could make a difference – hence the start of Earth Day back in the early to mid 70s here. I remember staring recycling projects at the HS. We were the first generation to wear backbacks, ride 10 speed bikes (mine was a 19in English Raleigh, sigh…), own Nikes (they were so soft and form fitting back then, with thin soles that moved as you walked – not like today’s platforms) and negative heeled “Earth” shoes, wear recycled clothing, etc. We believed there was still time to save us.

So when or “how” more importantly, did the next gen lose that hope? The same triggers were there, just a different attitude. How much did more TV, more news, more connectivity (I recall the early computers and the simple games they played), and even video games (albeit early ones – no Quake yet) play into the storm of indifference that affected the youth of that era? Did the writers of cyberpunk help to create this vision, and movies like Blade Runner (1982) to artificially create this lack of motivation to DO something about it?

“The word ‘cyberpunk’ was originally a marketing term applied to Science Fiction writings of William Gibson and Douglas Rushkoff, but was soon taken up by many Internet users as a description of a lifestyle, culture or community to which they imagine they belong. So cyberpunk became the way of thinking and attitude for many people in the Net and in so called Real Life.

This is due to the fact that they correctly noticed the seeds of the fictional world of cyberpunk in Western society today. Our world is evolving into a typical ‘cyberpunk-world’: the rising amount of technology in our everyday lives – we thrive and survive on technology, the developement of the cities into huge ‘sprawls’, drugs and crime. All these aspects of our culture fit nicely into the world of cyberpunk – the future now.

So, the world from the works of Gibson and “Blade Runner” is becoming a stark reality.” http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/subculture.html (unknown date)

SO! Are SF writers to “blame” for the counterculture that emerged in the 80s? From what I’ve read so far, their impact was huge, esp. as Time picked up the gauntlet and ran with it, making it known to a whole generation who could “find” themselves in it – each generation to me seeks to find itself – I know my 19 yr old is. She keeps saying that the world as she knows it is so bleak for future prospects that THEY have no hope (An Inconvenient Truth, Columbine, 9/11, etc.). Now those threats are real! Compare and contrast that with the perhaps somewhat artificially constructed counterculture of the 80s.

See also:

“Cyberpunk was not so much a literary movement as an extension of postmodern experimentation that reaches back to the first cultural memes generated by radical shifts in perception.”
By John Lebkowsky, originally from bOING-bOING #9.
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/subculture.html

and even better:

“It has long been a truism of American political thought that there is a 30-year cycle of American politics, alternating between conservatism and experimentation. America had just come out of a conservative decade in the 1980s, and everyone was expecting that something like the 1960s would be coming again in the 1990s. To meet this retroexpectation, fashion designers eagerly complied, recycling all kinds of things from earth shoes to Nehru jackets. No one knew what the 90s would bring – people talked about a new fiscal sensibility, a new stay-at-home attitude (cocooning), and maybe a new simplicity. Nothing that really looked like a counterculture; just a cultural retrenchment. And then Time magazine, that great barometer of American life, told us who the counterculture would be: the cyberpunk. A new youth explosion was underway – but this was a Generation Xplosion, which meant taking to the airwaves instead of the streets.

People quickly found out this new counterculture was not quite like the old one. They preferred the rave, with its hyperaccelerated remixed digital music, to simple acoustic folk songs; their drug of choice was Ecstasy, not pot. These were not New Age flower children looking for ‘peace and love;’ instead they were New Edge hiphoppers out for ‘tech and cred.’ Rather than having some kind of ‘back to nature’ romanticism, these folks preferred the urban disorder of the city, and they saw technology as their weapon of choice, not the enemy. Their heroes were not the Hippies of Peoples’ Park – instead they looked to the pioneers of pirate radio as their icons. Not surprisingly, old countercultural types like Timothy Leary, John Perry Barlow, and Robert Anton Wilson quickly joined their ranks, proclaiming cyberpunk was the next wave of struggle against the System and all it stood for.

Their were superficial similarities, of course. The cyberpunks had a curious enthusiasm for neurochemicals, especially ones that they claimed increased energy, intelligence, or memory, although they rejected the idea that drugs might lead to some kind of peace or mystical harmony. They eschewed political activism, civil disobedience, and protest marches. Intead, they preferred a more essential form of the guerilla strike – one that used the phone lines rather than the picket line. There was no point in asking the Man for anything. Simply pick up your keyboard and take what you want from him, ’cause he won’t give it to you.”
“Is Cyberpunk the Counterculture of the 1990′s?” by Steve Mizrach, aka Seeker1 (again, undated, but from the text it seems to be wrtitten late 80s, early 90s). http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_as_counterculture.html

and the last part of his essay may be striking at what they SHOULD have done, rather than what they didn’t do:

“Instead of just ‘dropping out’ of society, or just parasitically feeding off of its information monopolies, cyberpunks have the potential to change it. But to do so they’ll have to learn those weary lessons of Movement history. You know what they are. Study up. Think globally, act locally. And most importantly, don’t mourn, organize. Just think what cyberpunks could accomplish if they actually learned to cooperate with, talk to, and trust each other. If instead of pulling pranks on the Man, they actually started to try and take away some of his power. If instead of sabotaging grassroots bulletin-board systems, they jammed the signal of propaganda engines like Voice of America. Then we could say that maybe, at long last, the New Counterculture has come of age… “

Do you think they ended up doing that? Or did they just continue the drop-out path, until a new generation of dot.coms and techs that were commercial took over? And what of today’s disenfranchised youth? Where will they go – Can the 30 year cycle of politicalness continue or has that boat sailed? Where CAN they go? They are too young to make a difference, and will the world (and America or other countries)be strong enough to survive the harsh assaults we are placing on it?

Food for thought?

Cyberpunk continued – what is behind the dystopian view?

A response to a post on my SF book group about cyberpunk and the dystopian future it presented, said it was because of growing up in the 80s with the threat of nuclear holocaust hanging over their heads. That their generation didn’t believe it would last until 1990. So, hence the dystopian view.

But, curious… I was born in 1957, the year Sputnik went up, so I consider myself a child of the space age, but we were also always aware of the “nuclear” holocaust and MAD that lay just around the bend. On the Beach and Alas, Babylon were often required reading. So why did it seem affect his generation more than mine? What changed? When did the more halcyon days of the 60s and 70s (ok, there was that little war), leave for the dystopian 80s? When did Mad Max’s vision of the future appear?

The same sword hung over all of us – we had drills to lay down under our desks (along with the tornado ones), and although the bunkers in the backyards were gone, the fear was still there – the Cuban missile crisis when I was a kid, etc.

So why did they fear not making it to the 1990s? Maybe the difference lies in a little chart I found on Wiki under Nuclear Disarmament: The U.S. stockpile started 1965, and was on the slow downhill until the 80s when it started to fall, but Russia’s stocks, which we so feared as a child, didn’t go up until a peak between 1985-1990. But I was alive and just starting a family about that time, and I don’t recall being particularly concerned with nuclear “war.” SALT II was signed in 1979, so we thought it was going out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arms_race
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_disarmament

According to the page on Gorbachev:

“On October 11, 1986, Gorbachev and Reagan met in Reykjavík, Iceland to discuss reducing intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe … the two agreed in principle to removing INF systems from Europe and … they also essentially agreed in principle to eliminate all nuclear weapons in 10 years (by 1996),… this would culminate in the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev

So the nuclear proliferation was already on it’s way to being halted at that time (1985+), and with the continual slide of the Soviet economy, there was a sharp drop in nuclear arms.

The Soviet state fell in 1991, after Glasnost (liberalization, opening up) and perestroika (restructuring) were introduced around 1985.

So, if the Soviet empire was on the brink of collapse by the second half of the 1980s, why the dystopian view?

And on another note (back to the original stuff) how did William Gibson so effectively predict the WWW and the Internet, and it’s importance? Why was he the visionary? I know volumes could be written about it, and have, but I’m curious to hear from those who were young and lived through it, without the encumbrances like jobs and family that can occupy your time and attention so fully.

But more on an SF note, why the sudden infestation of the information networks, and the biocybernetic definition of “wetware,” first found in 1987:

“Vacuum Flowers is a science fiction novel by Michael Swanwick, published in 1987. It could be described as cyberpunk (some critics credit it as one of the progenitor works of that genre), and features one of the earliest uses of the concept wetware.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_Flowers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetware

“Johnny Mnenomic” was one of the first and most influential movies to visualize this form of the term.

There is also a “disconnect” I found in Wiki – a contradiction if you will. According to the Vacuum Flowers site, the novel was published in 1987, and as above, was called by some as the progenitor of cyberpunk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_Flowers

But the entry for cyberpunk puts it much further back, to the early 80s, and said it was coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story “Cyberpunk,” written in 1980, but not published until 1983, and that Gibson was one of the early writers with “Neuromancer” in 1984. It also states that science-fiction editor Gardner Dozois is generally acknowledged as the person who popularized the use of the term “cyberpunk” as a kind of literature, prior to Bethke’s use of it in his title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk.

So, when does cyberpunk really start with earnest? Blade Runner (1982) was considered to be the movie that started the cyberpunk theme for cinema. “The film is credited with prefiguring important concerns of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, such as globalization, climate change, and genetic engineering. It remains a leading example of the neo-noir genre.” It is mentioned in most cyberpunk essays and contains the essential ingredients. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

There is also a class that was taught at U of Texas at Austin in 2000, “Rhetoric of the Cyberpunk,” http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~russell/cyberpunk/. The same department (Rhetoric and Writing – Computer Writing and Rhetoric Lab) also participates in the Second Life project at “the Alley Flat Initiative.”

I found a site that answers some of this, the Cyberpunk Project @ 1994, at http://project.cyberpunk.ru/atthe site about the coinage of the term cyber + punk = cyberpunk, the author states:

“The story was titled “Cyberpunk” [1980] from the very first draft. In calling it that, Bethke was actively trying to invent a new term that grokked the juxtaposition of punk attitudes and high technology. His reasons for doing so were purely selfish and market-driven.”

“Originally the term ‘cyberpunk’ was meant to be a only character type name, meaning ‘a young, technologically facile, ethically vacuous, computer-assisted vandal or criminal.’ Nowadays the term means much more, it’s the name for whole subculture and movement.

Bethke wanted to include these notions in the term:

1. That children have some undefined wiring which enables them to learn languages far easier than adults do, and this ability is not limited to ‘organic’ languages.
2. That teenagers can be dangerous because they live in a sort of ethically neutral state. They haven’t got the hang of empathy yet, nor have they really grasped the linkage between their causative actions and the resulting effects.
3. That, just as command of a language is power, technological skill is enfranchisement, and in 1980 we were 20 to 30 years away from an explosion of technology that would radically change the distribution of power in society.
4. That parents and other adult authority figures were going to be terribly ill-equipped to deal with the first generation of teenagers who grew up ‘speaking computer.’
5. THEREFORE, if you thought punks on motorcycles were a problem, just wait until you meet the— the— Y’know, there isn’t a good word to describe them? “

… So, words ‘cyber’ and ‘punk’ emphasize the two basic aspects of cyberpunk: technology and individualism. Meaning of the word ‘cyberpunk’ could be something like ‘anarchy via machines’ or ‘machine/computer rebel movement’. “

http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyber_punk.html

There were some good links at the Cyberpunk Project site about cyberpunk and SF:

A timeline: http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/timeline.html

And the history of cyberpunk in Science Fiction: http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/scifi_history.html

The link to “Eighties Cyberpunk,” http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/eighties_cyberpunk.htmlby Barbara L. Zavala, is a basic retred (or ‘pretred’?) of what is found on the Wiki cyberpunk site, and lists the top five writers in the sub-genre: William Gibson, the subject of an earlier post, Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley and Lewis Shiner. But she adds a new dimension – the declining global environment.

“In Neuromancer, Gibson uses this information in his writing and predicts a futuristic environment with quartz–halogen floods lighting up the docks, and sea gulls flying above shoals of white styro foam in Tokyo, (19). Using the negligence of present global issues to predict the outcome of futuristic environments in cyberpunk, helps establish the form of the society associated with cyberpunk.”

In “Cyberpunk in the 80s and 90s” by Tom Maddox (1992), http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_in_80-90.html he gives his perspective on the information age, the cyber part:

“By 1984, the year of ‘Neuromancer’s’ publication, personal computers were starting to appear on desks all over the country; computerized videogames had become commonplace; networks of larger computers, mainframes and minis, were becoming more extensive and accessible to people in universities and corporations; computer graphics and sound were getting interesting; huge stores of information had gone online; and some hackers were changing from nerds to sinister system crackers. And of course the rate of technological change continued to be rapid – which in the world of computers has meant better and cheaper equipment available all the time. So computers became at once invisible, as they disappeared into carburetors, toasters, televisions, and wrist watches; and ubiquitous, as they became an essential part first of business and the professions, then of personal life.

Meanwhile the global media circus, well underway for decades, continued apace, quite often feeding off the products of the computer revolution, or at least celebrating them. The boundaries between entertainment and politics, or between the simulated and the real, first became more permeable and then – at least according to some theorists of these events – collapsed entirely. Whether we were ready or not, the postmodern age was upon us.

In the literary ghetto known as science fiction, things were not exactly moribund, but sf certainly was ready for some new and interesting trend. Like all forms of popular culture, sf thrives on labels, trends, and combinations of them – labeled trends and trendy labels. Marketers need all these like a vampire needs blood.

This was the context in which ‘Neuromancer’ emerged.”

“Early on in this process, Gardner Dozois committed the fateful act of referring to this group of very loosely -affiliated folk as ‘cyberpunks.’ At the appearance of the word, the media circus and its acolytes, the marketers, went into gear. Cyberpunk became talismanic: within the sf ghetto, some applauded, some booed, some cashed in, some even denied that the word referred to anything; and some applauded or booed or denied that cyberpunk existed AND cashed in at the same time – the quintessentially postmodern response, one might say.

Marketing aside, however, cyberpunk had a genuine spokesman and proselytizer, Bruce Sterling, waiting in the wings. He picked up the label so casually attached by Dozois and used it as the focal point for his own concerns, which at times seem to include the outlandish project of remaking sf from within. In interviews, columns in various magazines and newspapers, and in introductions to Gibson’s collection of short stories, ‘Burning Chrome,’ and ‘Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology,’ Bruce staked out what he saw as cyberpunk and both implicitly and explicitly challenged others to contest it. If Gibson’s success provided the motor, Sterling’s polemical intensity provided the driving wheel.”

In “Cyberpunk in the 90s” by Bruce Sterling, http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_in_the_nineties.html, he states that the genre took on a life of its own, and that the 5 writers became the genre’s gurus, and that the term, although now bastardized, will not die until they are gone – it will be etched on their tombstones. But he argues for a continuation of the dystopian views:

“In the moral universe of cyberpunk, we already know Things We Were Not Meant To Know. Our grandparents knew these things; Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos became the Destroyer of Worlds long before we arrived on the scene. In cyberpunk, the idea that there are sacred limits to human action is simply a delusion. There are no sacred boundaries to protect us from ourselves.

Our place in the universe is basically accidental. We are weak and mortal, but it’s not the holy will of the gods; it’s just the way things happen to be at the moment. And this is radically unsatisfactory; not because we direly miss the shelter of the Deity, but because, looked at objectively, the vale of human suffering is basically a dump. The human condition can be changed, and it will be changed, and is changing; the only real questions are how, and to what end.

This “anti-humanist” conviction in cyberpunk is not simply some literary stunt to outrage the bourgeoisie; this is an objective fact about culture in the late twentieth century. Cyberpunk didn’t invent this situation; it just reflects it.

Today it is quite common to see tenured scientists espousing horrifically radical ideas: nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, cryonic suspension of the dead, downloading the contents of the brain… Hubristic mania is loose in the halls of academe, where everybody and his sister seems to have a plan to set the cosmos on its ear.”

“Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it’s the truth. It won’t go away because we cover our eyes.

This is cyberpunk.”

“Cyberpunk was a voice of Bohemia – Bohemia in the 1980′s. The technosocial changes loose in contemporary society were bound to affect its counterculture. Cyberpunk was the literary incarnation of this phenomenon. And the phenomenon is still growing. Communication technologies in particular are becoming much less respectable, much more volatile, and increasingly in the hands of people you might not introduce to your grandma.”

“But science fiction is still alive, still open and developing. And Bohemia will not go away. Bohemia, like SF, is not a passing fad, although it breeds fads; like SF, Bohemia is old; as old as industrial society, of which both SF and Bohemia are integral parts. Cybernetic Bohemia is not some bizarre advent; when cybernetic Bohemians proclaim that what they are doing is completely new, they innocently delude themselves, merely because they are young.”

“There is much bleakness in cyberpunk, but it is an honest bleakness. There is ecstasy, but there is also dread … This generation will have to watch a century of manic waste and carelessness hit home, and we know it. We will be lucky not to suffer greatly from ecological blunders already committed; we will be extremely lucky not to see tens of millions of fellow human beings dying horribly on television as we Westerners sit in our living rooms munching our cheeseburgers. And this is not some wacky Bohemian jeremiad; this is an objective statement about the condition of the world, easily confirmed by anyone with the courage to look at the facts.

These prospects must and should effect our thoughts and expressions and, yes, our actions; and if writers close their eyes to this, they may be entertainers, but they are not fit to call themselves science fiction writers. And cyberpunks are science fiction writers – not a ‘subgenre’ or a ‘cult,’ but the thing itself. We deserve this title and we should not be deprived of it.

But the Nineties will not belong to the cyberpunks. We will be there working, but we are not the Movement, we are not even ‘us’ any more. The Nineties will belong to the coming generation, those who grew up in the Eighties. All power, and the best of luck to the Nineties underground.”

So the question that remains is what of the 21st century – what or who do we belong to – where are we going? Where is Science Fiction heading – what is the hallmark of this time?