Icehenge
Kim Stanley Robinson 1984
Harper Collins 1997 (obviously republished after the success of
the Mars trilogy)
Although this novel starts in the asteroids and ends on Pluto, large
chunks of the action take place on Mars. I haven’t yet read Robinson’s
sweeping Mars saga (it’s next on the list), but I have a feeling that this
book was where he started to explore many of his ideas. He presents a half-terraformed
Mars, with a growing atmosphere and plant life, but not quite enough oxygen
for people to breathe unassisted. The political situation is extremely
murky. Mars is run by an organisation called the Committee, which has successfully
combined the worst aspects of both the USA and the USSR. Ostensibly benevolent
despots, they’ve been running Mars since the beginning, and by now they’ve
got such a firm grasp on the reins that they can afford to relax. All the
same, do anything to annoy them and you’ll find yourself in very unpleasant
circumstances.
The book’s first narrator, Emma Weil, is caught up in a revolt against
the Committee in 2248AD. The Committee has decreed that galactic exploration
(or going any further than the Asteroids, which provide valuable mineral
resources and are exploited to the full) is a foolish waste of resources
and time. A group of idealists disagree. They steal a pair of asteroid
mining ships and attempt to revamp them into a starship. Then they take
off into the wide blue yonder under cover of a mass revolt on Mars, leaving
Emma and a number of others behind.
The second narrator, Hjalmar Nederland, is an elderly archaeologist
who’s attempting to prove his theory that there was a planet-wide revolt
in 2248AD. The Committee have had 300 years to cover the facts under a
layer of BS, and they’ve been so successful that popular opinion says it
never happened at all or at best was an uncoordinated sporadic affair.
In the midst of his attempts, the Icehenge is discovered standing on Pluto,
and a can of worms is opened.
The story culminates in 2610AD. Edmund Doya, the final narrator, is
Nederland’s grandson. As a young man, he was obsessed with the Icehenge.
Now he believes that the whole thing was a fake, and he’s determined to
prove it. His quest ends in an assemblage and expedition of Henge experts,
going to Pluto to investigate the Henge in detail. What do they find? I’m
not going to tell you. There’ve got to be some secrets left. Read it and
find out. Just don’t expect any definitive answers. This is a book to make
you think, not a Space Opera.
Kim Stanley Robinson is a science fiction author who doesn’t seem to
be interested in writing about whizz-bang technical sophistry. This story
is about definitely about people, not machines. To take one example, medical
advances have granted humans a potential lifespan of up to 1000 years.
None of the technical details of the process are described other than the
fact that injections have something to do with it and they start at age
10, but the societal and personal ramifications are considered in depth.
Childhood, for example, becomes anything under the age of about 30.
This book provides a prime example of what happens when an artist is
commissioned to paint a cover, but not given sufficient background detail.
The Henge (a vast sprawling assemblage of over 30 gigantic ice pillars
standing on the lip of a low crater) is not the small neat 16-stone ring
depicted. In the book it clearly states that the pillars of the Henge are
not capped by lintels, but freestanding. I know an artist can only paint
cover-details that they’ve been told about, but the Henge is clearly described
(and even diagrammed) in the third section of the book so they could have
got it right.
Moving Mars
Greg Bear, Tor 1993
The young may not remember Mars of old, under the yellow Sun, its cloud-streaked
skies dusted pink, its soil rusty and fine, its inhabitants living in pressurized
burrows and venturing Up only as rite of passage or to do maintenance or
tend the ropy crops spread like nests of intensely green snakes over the
wind-scoured farms. That Mars, an old and tired Mars filled with young
lives, is gone forever.
Now I am old and tired, and Mars is young again.
Our lives are not our own, but by God, we must behave as if they are.
When I was young, what I did seemed too small to be of any consequence;
but the shiver of dust, we are told, expands in time to the planet-sweeping
storm…
Casseia Majumdar was a daughter of one of Mars’ oldest, most conservative
Binding Multiples – the extended family syndicates that had colonized the
red planet. But her life was changed forever by the student protest of
2171. Those brief days of idealism forged bonds that would last a lifetime,
and set the stage of a more dramatic act of revolution than anyone could
have imagined.
Charles Franklin, too, was caught up in those days of passionate youth.
A brilliant young physicist with a deep love for his native planet, he
was forced to leave his world behind to gain the training he needed. And
in those years, the political distance between Earth and Mars was growing
wider than the empty reaches of interplanetary space.
I’m at a distinct disadvantage here. I read this book two months ago,
and I didn’t have time to do more than type the Jacket blurb before it
had to go back to the library. Shameful I know, but that’s the way life
goes sometimes. I’ve left the blurb in place for two reasons – one, it’s
much more interesting than many I’ve seen; and two, it will hopefully make
up for any deficiencies in this review caused by the passing of time. After
a two-month lapse, the details of the story have slipped away from me,
but there’s one thing I do remember – it was very original and I enjoyed
it a great deal.
This is yet another book where Earth-Mars politics are hostile to say
the least. Mars wants freedom, but Earth refuses to grant it. Sadly, I
suspect that that’s actually a fairly realistic view of events. The process
of building a self-supporting colony is extremely expensive, taking vast
amounts of time, effort and resources, especially in the early stages.
Once a government has made that kind of commitment, I can’t see them being
eager to say ‘OK, you’re all grown up now so you can do what you like…’
There aren’t many cases of earthly colonies where that’s happened (witness
India, America etc.) so it probably wouldn’t be any different out in space.
It’s the little things (like the Martians having over 50 different
names for dust and sand) that make this book so convincing. Although some
of the science is so far out on a limb as to seem impossible, Greg Bear’s
obviously thought it all out carefully, or managed to convince me that
he has anyway. Charles Franklin, one of science’s bright young things,
is searching for ways to use a thing called the ‘universal descriptor’.
The ultimate in physics, they believe that understanding it will enable
them to make a technological leap as great in its impact as that from vacuum
tubes to solid state electronics. They’re actually looking for new communications
tools, but what they find is much, much more…
Meanwhile, Casseia Majumdar is making similar strides in the political
arena with the aid of her mentor, an older woman whose name I’ve forgotten.
For a while, it seems that Casseia and Charles will get together, but circumstances
force them apart, changing the paths of their lives. As you can probably
tell by now, this book tells two stories at once. The first, surface story
is about the coming-of-age of Casseia and Charles, while the second, broader
strand tells of the coming-of-age of the entire civilisation.
One more thing – if you read the blurb and introductory pages of the
story carefully you’ll discover something I didn’t realise until the very
end of the book. I thought the title ‘Moving Mars’ was a bit of a misnomer
or referred to the rapidly changing political situation, but it doesn’t…
Babylon 5 book 1: Voices
John Vornholt, Dell Publishing 1995
Babylon 5 just sneaks into my Mars theme, as the action moves from Mars
to B5 to Earth and back to Mars again. To go with the real-universe theme
of Babylon 5 (the alien cultures, extra star systems etc. are all invented,
but the Earth is definitely our Earth) Mars is the ‘real Mars’ rather than
a terraformed construct. There’s no atmosphere, no oxygen, and no plant
life. The human colonists live in domed cities, and it rarely occurs to
any of them that it’s possible to go outside in a protective suit. There’s
only one major difference between John Vornholt’s Mars and ours – he made
a boo-boo. Vornholt’s Mars is a 200º Celsius desert, whereas a little
research would have told him that due to its age, distance from the sun,
and thin atmosphere (no CO2 blanket to keep it warm) Mars is a cold planet.
The surface temperature usually hovers around -100°C and occasionally
reaches +16°C at the equator. It’s a forgivable mistake though – John
Vornholt took over the job of writing the first B5 novel on very short
notice, when Kevin J Anderson turned it down. He managed it in double-quick
time – eighty thousand words in 25 days - but it wasn’t easy. As he said
himself “It was the fastest book I’ve ever written. I must have been insane”.
Back to the story. Despite the cover blurb, a particularly melodramatic
spiel which suggests that the plot is pulp of the worst kind, I enjoyed
the fast paced story. After a bomb blast destroys the Martian hotel which
is to host the annual Telepath’s conference, the venue is moved to Babylon
5. All is going well (or as well as can be expected when you put 500 telepaths
onto the same space station as Commander Ivanova) and Talia looks like
picking up a lucrative contract with the commercial telepath organisation
known as The Mix, when there’s a bomb blast. The bomb goes off under Bester’s
nose (almost literally) and coincidentally Talia’s just rushed out of the
room with very little excuse. Did she do it? All the evidence says she
did, so she flees B5 with Garibaldi and Gray in close pursuit, and the
Psi-cops a hair behind them. The rest of the story is taken up with our
heroes’ attempts to prove Talia’s innocence, and their efforts to keep
the Psi-cops from killing her out of hand. (Their argument: Talia ran,
therefore she did it, therefore she’s a renegade, and the easiest way to
deal with a renegade telepath is to ‘remove’ them. Also, Psi-Corps is never
wrong.) The story moves along quickly, from Mars to B5 to Earth and finally
back to Mars. Along the way, we meet several familiar characters– telepath
Harriman Gray (who wanted to hold the convention on B5 solely so he could
spend more time drooling over Commander Ivanova), shady underworld figure
Deuce, and the Psi Cop we all love to hate – Alfred Bester. A number of
new characters also play a part, including two prominent members of commercial
Telepath organisation ‘The Mix’ (Arthur Malten and Emily Crane) and Talia’s
renegade Martian Uncle Ted.
There isn’t anything wrong with the story, and it’s rather better than
some of the Star Trek novels churned out lately, but subtlety isn’t a big
feature in “Voices”. The ‘relationship’ between Talia and Garibaldi is
seriously overplayed for something which is almost invisible on the screen,
and he appears to be totally obsessed with her rear end (he identifies
her by its wiggle on a crowded shuttle!) Also, Bester is badly injured
in the bomb blast, getting his rear end blown off. How’s that for a well-deserved
injury? There are some good moments too, especially before the balloon
goes up. Look out for Lennier’s occasional appearances and for all the
fun and games created by 500 telepaths on B5. I wouldn’t rush out and buy
this book tomorrow, but it’s a good way to assuage B5 withdrawal symptoms.
Borrow it from someone else if you can.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez 1967, This edition translated
from the Spanish by Gregory Rabassa
Penguin Books 1970
Last time I went to the library (that’s where I get a lot of the books
I review) I saw this book sitting on the shelf. I borrowed it for two reasons
a) it sounded interesting ‘tells the magical story of the Buendia family,
who love, lie, fight and rule for a century , and b) I was curious about
this ‘magical realism’ thing that Bruce Gillespie and others have been
talking about.
It took me a while to get around to reading it, but when I did I have
to say the opening grabbed me “Many years later, as he faced the firing
squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember the distant afternoon
when his father took him to discover ice.” Who is this Colonel? Why is
he being executed? What does ice have to do with it? I read on “At that
time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of
a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were
white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs.” Lovely use of language there.
Either the Spanish original or the English translator liked poetic language.
Keep going. “The World was so recent that many things lacked names, and
in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.” It goes on, but you’ve
got the idea. In the first paragraph, which goes on for another full page,
we get the setting ( general atmosphere, two of the main characters etc.)
I kept going and read the first fifty pages or so in an evening, but
after that I’m afraid I lost impetus and started to bog down. Almost all
the male characters share the same name (it’s a family tradition to name
sons after their father) and it got very confusing. Jose Arcadio Buendia
was patriarch, fathering Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who wasn’t a colonel
until page 100, Jose Arcadio and Amaranta. The good Colonel married a young
girl named Remedios Moscote, and fathered Aureliano Jose and Aurelianos.
Neither of them fathered anyone else, but Jose Arcadio had a son named
Arcadio, whose three children were Remedios the Beauty, Aureliano Segundo,
and Jose Arcadio Segundo, and then there were a further two generations,
who also shared the same names. The only way I know all this is because
there is a family tree in the front of the book – without it I wouldn’t
have a clue. The translation also seemed to get rather turgid, though I
doubt it was actually any different from the opening paragraph I quoted
above. The language was beautifully polished, but the prose rolled on and
on and on and on, and never really seemed to go anywhere. I’m afraid I
don’t know how the story ends, because I never got past page 200. If this
is typical of ‘magical realism’ I’d recommend it to three types of people
1) those who can read the novels in their original language, rather than
having to wade through a translation; 2) insomniacs; and 3) the very, very
patient.
Deadly Dose: A Writer’s Guide to Poisons
Serita Deborah Stevens with Anne Klarner
The Howdunnit Series, Writer’s Digest Books 1990
Ever wanted to get rid of someone but not known how to do it? This book might give you some good ideas. Written in plain English, this book includes details (name, toxicity, source of the toxin, effects and symptoms, reaction time, antidotes or treatments, and real-life case studies) for hundreds of different toxic substances. In short, everything the self-respecting mystery author needed to write a cracking good yarn, or the death part anyway.
There are chapters on the ‘big three’ poisons (arsenic, Cyanide and strychnine), household poisons, poisonous plants and fungi, living creatures, medical poisons, pesticides, industrial poisons and street drugs. Finally, in case none of the listed poisons is just right for you there’s a final chapter called ‘Create your own poison’ giving sensible guidelines on how to do it (one good way to invent a poison is to combine several real chemical names into one eg.di-chloro-metho-sulphide. Just make sure that the purported effects of the poison match up with the genuine article – eg. The effects of the example above should include the burning effects of chlorine and have a distinctive smell.)
There’s only one thing that’s disappointing about this book – while it enable you to find an appropriate poisonous plant or animal for most parts of the world, Australia barely gets a mention despite our vast array of potentially deadly inhabitants (and no I’m not talking about the politicians!) Anyone reading this book with the intention of setting their dastardly deed down-under would get the impression that we live in a very safe country.