Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Synopsis

Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bed sheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility.

What Did We Think?

Oryx and Crake represents something new for our little bookclub. It represents our first foray into "respectable literature"; it is, after all, not science fiction at all but "speculative fiction". *ahem*. Atwood herself writes: Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction, not a science fiction proper. It contains no intergalactic space travel, no teleportation, no Martians. Whatever our opinions on the etymological differences between science fiction and speculative fiction, whether we think this is a science fiction novel or not (it is), what did we think of it? 

The overall feeling was positive. Praise was found for the writing style, the balance of "present" and flash-back scenes, the imagery, the light-hearted tone for otherwise dark material. It was called lively, spirited and well written. This was after all a novel which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and made many critics' book of the year lists in 2003. It is a tribute to Atwood's writing at she makes genetic engineering, gated communities, big business corruption, and ultimately genocide, into readable and enjoyable literature.


In terms of the characters, Crake was a fascinating example of the ruthless genius. Hard to classify as a real villain but certainly a schemer, with an inhumanly monstrous intellect and possibly without empathy. The flipside of the coin is Snowman / Jimmy, our protagonist and the most human thing in the novel. His character arc from innocent child to mentally broken, impractically minded agent of God, via layabout student and dead-end office worker, was both fascinating and enjoyable. Equally enjoyable were the genetic creations of the novel, the eerily intelligent Pigoons and lethal Wolfogs, for example. Criticism landed on Atwood's failure to find a decent strong female character, not even the titular Oryx, despite her reputation as a feminist.

Thematically the contrast of religion and science triggered considerable debate, leading to a discussion of humanity's need for religion and/or science and whether it was inevitable that the Crakers, if they can be called human, would need one or both. Atwood's message of "science imperfect" also got noticed, despite Crake's undeniable genius his plague didn't succeed in wiping out all humanity and it seems that nature is stronger than he anticipated both in terms of an organism's ability to survive but also in the sense of "human nature" as we see familiar traits emerging amongst the Crakers such as leadership and mythology.

The votes were as follows: 9, 9, 8, 8, 3.

The sequel to Oryx and Crake is called The Year of the Flood and is out in paperback in August 2010.

You may also enjoy these illustrations for the novel provided by Jason Courtney. I particularly like his depiction of a Snat, whilst the Pigoons are just scary.

And here is Atwood's article on why we need Science Fiction, or Speculative Fiction, if you prefer...

Event News: Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 12:30PM

I felt I should say that again, it's so rare a pairing of words with regards to the little corner of fiction which I call home: Event News!

Yes folks, that rare thing - a genre book signing is about to happen at Waterstone's Liverpool One.

The author who is gracing our store is Mr. Joe Hill. If that doesn't ring any bells then I'm not massively surprised, he's a young American author just beginning what I'm sure will be an epic journey. At the moment you can pluck such works as short story anthology 20th Century Ghosts and debut novel Heart-shaped Box off the horror shelves, or the superbly gothic Locke and Key, winner of the 2009 Eisner award from the graphic novel section. Other than the Eisner award, other accolades he's collected include Bram Stoker awards for Horror and British Fantasy Awards. He's a New York Times bestselling author, which although it's a phrase we see a lot on dust jackets, is quite a big deal for a genre writer outside of crime fiction.

Obviously he's not just popping in for a chat but to promote his newest release which is a novel called Horns, due out 18th March this year in Hardback.

If none of this has piqued your interest then I advise you to go flick through Locke and Key, have a read of some of the short stories in 20th Century Ghosts ("Voluntary Committal" and the titular "20th Century Ghost" are particularly good). Failing that, if none of the above intrigues you then perhaps the knowledge that this man's full name is Joseph Hillstrom King, yes son of Stephen King.

You can see his wikipedia page here it offers a slightly more detailed rundown of his work than I've managed to provide here. Just over here you can find his official website and blog which I'm sure will be mentioning this same event in the very near future.

So whaddya say? Will I see you there? Tell your friends.

WATERSTONE'S LIVERPOOL ONE
Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 12:30PM

P.S. Whilst I'm on a horror event theme, let me just say that I went to see a play at the Liverpool PLayhouse (under the Radio City Tower) called Ghost Stories and it was superb. If you happen to be able to get a ticket (£10 each) then I urge you to go - it's scary yet satisfying stuff and will be in Liverpool until 20th February.

Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick

Plot Synopsis

Mars is a desolate world. Largely forgotten by Earth, the planet remains helpless in the stranglehold of Arnie Kott, who as boss of the plumber's union has a monopoly over the vital water supply. Arnie Kott is obsessed by the past; the native Bleekmen, poverty-stricken wanderers, can see into the future; while to Manfred, an autistic boy, time apparently stops. When one of the colonists, Norbert Steiner, commits suicide, the repercussions are startling and bizarre.


What Did We Think?

Philip K. Dick is always good for interesting discussions, if not only because he can so split his readers but because everyone tends to take different things from his work. Found to be both compelling and 'disturbing in parts', Martian Time-Slip was written in 1964 and touches on some typical Dick themes such as questions of reality.

A lot of attention was given to the characters in the novel. Praise was lavished on their flawed natures, the fact that the "villains" have redeeming features and the "heroes" have severe flaws, that everyone has neuroses of some description from Dr. Milton Glaub's extreme feelings of inadequacy to the schizophrenia of our prime protagonist Jack Bohlen. A major message of the novel seems to be that everyone is abnormal and thus abnormal is normal. In this way the book was very non-judgemental of humanity's foibles.

Interestingly, the subject of the novel's female characters came up and they were revealed as being more two-dimensional than many of the male characters, not necessarily negative stereotypes but certainly drawn from stock female tropes (the widow, the wife, the mistress, and so on). This was, however, recognised not as a sign of Dick's chauvanims, but rather a sign that feminism wasn't on his list of issues, he was writing for and about very different things.

Taking the novel as metaphor it is at once the Wild West, with remote homesteads, limited resources, prospectors, and peculiar natives; whilst at the same time it's also 1960s LA with sordid backroom dealings, power struggles and a dog-eat-dog race for superiority.

However, whether mirroring Wild West, or contemporary LA society, the novel ultimately shows that society, like sanity may appear superficially functional but is at heart completely dysfunctional.

As ever, the novel's ending was found to be perplexing. Dick has always taken a different approach to endings, refusing to tie things up neatly into conclusive packages and is perfectly content to leave questions hanging and loose ends blowing in the narrative wind (it's something Stanislaw Lem praised him for). This lends an unsatisfactory aftertaste to the novel for readers who either dislike Dick's trippy style or the manner in which he chooses to conclude his adventures.

In summary, the novel was largely (but not exclusively) enjoyed, it generated some interesting discussions on time, place and perception (which I cannot hope to do full credit to here - so please continue the discussions in the comments section below), whilst stylistically awkward, and for some perplexing, the relationships and the manner in which Dick draws his characters was enough of an anchor that many of the readers left the novel feeling satisfied.


The average score given to Martian Time-Slip was 7

The votes fell as follows: 4, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

A postponed session, not unfortunately due to snow (how perfect that would have been), but just because I was away in Wales at the time.

Taking place instead on the second week of January, the discussion on Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash was both in-depth and heated.

Plot Synopsis

The only relief from the sea of logos is within the well-guarded borders of the Burbclaves. Is it any wonder that most sane folks have forsaken the real world and chosen to live in the computer-generated universe of virtual reality? In a major city, the size of a dozen Manhattans, is a domain of pleasures limited only by the imagination. But now a strange new computer virus called Snow Crash is striking down hackers everywhere, leaving an unlikely young man as humankind's last best hope.

What Did We Think?

Seemingly, the novel was enjoyed by all, although this does not mean there were no flaws to be found. A particular problem for numerous readers was that of exposition. The librarian character, nothing more than an exposition machine, would engage Hiro in pretend conversations which were in fact long monologues intended to convey a large wad of data or background information in one go. This could be seen as an example of "early-writer syndrome" (Snow Crash was Stephenson's third novel), info-dumping where a more experiences author with more faith in his readers might have drip fed it out to us over time.

Whether the book should have been longer (possibly spread over a number of volumes) or compressed into a series of short stories was a matter hotly debated. On one hand the drip feeding of information would require a longer plot with more stages in its development; on the other the plot as it stood was too unwieldy and the characters whilst interesting to look at were ultimately 2D cut-outs, too robust and unaffected by the traumas the novel imposes upon them, a short story format would compensate for that whilst also allowing us a closer glimpse at other fascinating aspects of the novel: characters such as Uncle Enzo, or the inner workings of Fedland, for example.

Its relationship to Gibson probably doesn't need to be flagged but aside from sharing a cyberpunk setting, there is the same sense of massive ideas slapped onto the page, as well as mixing science fiction action and adventure with humour.

What amazed all of us was that, unlike Gibson, Stephenson, as yet, has not returned to this world (some read the next novel The Diamond Age as a loose sequel but even that is debatable). For all the flaws in character and pacing, for all the frustrations with info-dumping, the world in which the novel is set is so colourful and lively that it is astounding that more has not been made of it - it seems perfect for a Graphic Novel or an anime.

The novel sparked extensive debate on socio-political issues regarding the nature (and identity) of control in society and the idea of anarchy. Flaws could be found in both the science and the sociology (as is almost always the case) and yet on the balance this was a novel which no one seemed to regret reading (although some would not read it a second time). It gained marks for being fun, and "cool", where otherwise the manner in which certain aspects were executed would have caused it to suffer in our abitrarty assignation of a numerical score.

The average score given to Snow Crash was 7

The votes fell as follows: 6, 7, 7, 7, 8 (in absentia), 8, 8


Have you read Snow Crash? Do you agree with what I've summarised here? Do you have an opinion you'd like to share? If so then please do comment below.

Also: because I neglected to include a pre-amble to Snow Crash you may not have seen this article about where the title comes from. Take a look if you're interested in any of the background reading.

A Voyage To Arcturus by David Lindsey

First off, I sincerely apologise for the lateness of this posting. I've been absolutely rushed off me feet this month and had pushed this to the back of my mind. One of the reasons it probably slipped down my priority listings was because I was dreading writing it, it was quite an intense session which split opinions on major matters (such as actually liking the book) unlike any book that has come before. Nonetheless, here is the tardy write up of the session for December.

Plot Synopsis
After attending a seance, Maskull, a restless and rootless man, finds himself embarking on a journey to the planet Tormance, which orbits Arcturus. Alone, he wanders the startling landscape, open to a bewildering range of experiences from love to ritual murder, encountering new monsters at every turn, metamorphosing, constantly seeking the truth about the divinity known as Shaping, Surtur and Crystalman.


What Did We Think?
Published in 1920 by Scottish author David Lindsey, A Voyage to Arcturus is a Science Fantasy novel with extensive philosophical metaphors. Having written that, so divisive was the novel that half those in attendance would probably argue even these points.

The Science Fantasy elements of the novel were seen by some as in the Romantic tradition of the grand voyage of enlightenment, comparable to John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, although very much a journey through Philosophy rather than Religion.

Other readers found the Science Fantasy element to be a major flaw, weakening the text. The framing of what is clearly a Fantasy journey with Science Fiction-like space journeys and technobabble suggested a credibility the author could not support. These readers argued that if the science had been abandoned in favour of a more dream-like spirit world instead of a physical location (the planet Tormance) then the novel would have worked better.

Further points of contention were readily found with the protagonist Maskull. Maskull, abandoned in a strange land wanders across the alien globe. As he wanders he is affected by something and sprouts new organs (third arms or multiple eyes for example) which affect his perceptions of reality and of the people he encounters. These altered perceptions are contemplated and philosophised over, normally representing an aspect of human emotion or character. Each chapter contains a new perception/philosophy and each is discarded by Maskull by the beginning of the subsequent chapter, normally resulting in the death of its proponent.

The new idea, new idea, new idea format which Lindsey adopts is another aspect which caused some readers to find flaw. The majority of the middle chapters could have been arranged in any order, or cut completely, with little impact on the opening or conclusion of the narrative. Other readers found the chameleon nature of Maskull intriguing and admired the nuance that Maskull was changed so absolutely (both physically and mentally) that, from within, he could not perceive the change.

Maskull himself is presented as a completely passive, yet ultimately destructive, force. This presents both problems and opportunities. His passivity allows a different character, or rather a different aspect of Maskull's character, to appear in each chapter; this however presents a protagonist who is hard to "root for", difficult to empathise with thus difficult to follow through the novel.

Regardless of the overall verdict for A Voyage to Arcturus, Lindsey's novel provoked intense debate and also caused multiple references, influences, descendents and comparisons to be drawn into the fray from the aformentioned Pilgrim's Progress to Homeric Myths, C. S. Lewis and Phillip Pullman, to Nietzsche and Judeo-Christian imagery.

Votes: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The range of scores awarded in this discussion illustrate the varied reception of the novel. The sheer spread of them, rather than complete polarisation show that many people can get many different things out of such a novel and, to me at least, underline the value of such discussion groups.

Postponement of Snow Crash

Dear all,

Due to my absence from Liverpool for the first few days of this week I've postponed the upcoming session on Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash until the following Monday (11th January - 6pm). Sorry for the inconvenience.

Also, due to simply being amazing hectic the notes from our discussion last month have not gone online yet. They will be posted as soon as I can get back to Liverpool, apologies for the delay.

Hope you had good Christmases and New Years,

All the best,

Glyn

Review: The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Our first piece of member-submitted content, Anthony has sent me a review of the The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. The book has been a strong seller since it came out at the end of October. It marks the 12th book in the epic Wheel of Time series and was originally going to be a single volume entitled A Memory of Light , however Robert Jordan sadly passed away before completing the work and Sanderson, who was picked by Jordan's wife to complete the series, decided it was better to split the manuscript into three novels. But that's enough from me, here are Anthony's thoughts on the book:-

Although a long awaited continuation, due in some small part by the author's death, it was worth the wait.

The story is much like the typical template, young boy, ignorant of his destiny grows up to save the world, with the help of his friends. Lord of the Rings, Belgariad and Baker's Boy to mention some. A tried and tested format admittedly but one which Jordan takes to extremes with friends and allies aplenty, with enough characters to have a phonebook of its own.

As much as the preceding series was long and in some volumes, very long, this addition to the Wheel of Time is more like the start of the series and tells the story. As much as it pains me to say, Jordan did like to copy and paste a large portion of material into all his books repeating many asides on an almost character basis, I think to help those who could not maintain the characters identity throughout the series; this often left little room for actual progress within the story.

Sanderson appears to have returned to the actual story and moving it along at an improved pace. He has maintained, and rightly so, the basic characters own identity and allowed them to move on quicker than they had been previously.

Admittedly, it takes a lot to write a series 12 volumes long though, like Adams, the 12th book has become a trilogy, but if you can follow the one or two characters that inhabit the wheel of time and follow the story paths, a thoroughly worthwhile story to read.

- Anthony


Thanks for that Anthony, I'll catch up with the series some day (I bailed out at book 10 when my Uni work started to mount), from the sounds of it theres plenty to look forward to. If anyone else would like to contribute a review of a book, an essay, or simply spark a debate, please get in touch. If you've read The Gathering Storm and would like to add your own review, or comment on Anthony's please do so in the comment boxes below. Many thanks, and apologies to Anthony for the time it took me to post this up.

The Gathering Storm is out now, and the 13th bookin the series, Towers of Midnight, is due next year.