On three books and some other stuff
Odds and ends plus three short reviews (Childhood’s End, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, and The Warrior’s Apprentice)
Still working out the details of potentially moving the Substack to another platform. As this blog doesn’t have any paid content, it’s not really contributing money to a platform that enables material that has long ago lost out in the marketplace of ideas and only maintains a presence due to the equivalent of market-distorting subsidies and government regulation. However, there are still network effects and so I may be moving to ghost or buttondown (TBD) soon.
There was recent news that Substack would get rid of a few offenders, but overall the comms strategy of being tech bro tools that seem to have sympathies for “just asking questions” about eugenics isn’t encouraging. The next controversy probably won’t be handled well, and I’d just be putting off switching to a later date.
Anyway, I did read two older sci fi novels — and DNF’d a third. I didn’t want to forget my thoughts while I’m in the midst of moving. These weren’t books that I’d preserve in the canon — despite one being considered a “classic”. I didn’t think they deserved their own standalone reviews. The two I finished are problematic. Both have a lot of sexism; one uses an offensive racial slur and one is a little too focused on the sex life of a minor —though neither seem to be giving authorial endorsement to problematic material. I cannot comment much on the third as I didn’t finish it. No spoilers in these reviews. (And no graphics since I’m still waiting on my real computer to show up at my new place. For the same reason this was written and edited on an iPad —which produces all kinds of strange artifacts.)
Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End (1953)
Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5)
Science Fiction: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5)
Literary: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)
Vibe: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5)
Like Foundation (1951), this was apparently a short story turned into a novel that deeply felt like a short story turned into a novel. The first section feels like a Twilight Zone episode (entertaining on its own) but the expanded story, while foreshadowing 2001: A Space Odyssey, doesn’t take on the whole mysterious powerful aliens concept with much depth. They exist — but isn’t it weird if humans aren’t the most powerful (intelligent, whatever) species in the galaxy? Right? It feels very 1950s in the sense that the concept alone is supposed to support the entire story. It really would be more interesting as a series of character studies in the universe the book fashions. It verges on that, but unfortunately the characters exist mostly to allow the reader to witness Clarke’s ideas. It is very well written, but if you’re going back through the canon then I’d safely say you can skip this one.
Frederik Pohl’s Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1980)
Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5)
Science Fiction: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5)
Literary: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5)
Vibe: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5)
I’d never heard of this series, but after perusing the synopsis of the first book (humans discover mysterious alien artifacts) I thought that was an idea that has been done to death by the 2020s. The second book was about how the world works once that discovery has already been integrated into humanity — something I’ve not seen much of (memory could be failing me here). I started there.
I largely hated it. The only part I appreciated in the abstract was how it focused on logistics, economics, and business. You have a character describing how to manage their assets in order to pay off a lawsuit while trying to fund a rescue mission in space. A wild take in sci fi — a genre that rarely has any contact with economics that makes sense1. It’s unfortunately boring — which, thinking about it, is probably why sci fi doesn’t often get into those details.
If it weren’t for the adult subject matter, the book almost feels like a children’s book — one written by a teenage boy. The writing itself seems aimed at a grade school level. It is very conversational, which at least makes the boring parts flow past. The advanced alien species being called the Heechee doesn’t help elevate a story that feels childish except for the occasional discussions of general relativity or business. It’s a definite no from me. I’d almost stopped reading after the first chapter but given these reviews are supposed to be more than just a list of books I like I stuck it out.
Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Warrior’s Apprentice (1986)
[No star rating, DNF]
Ok. Instant hypocrisy on the last sentence of the previous review. Fine. I downloaded a few audiobooks for my cross-country road trip in support of my move from Seattle to the DC metro area (which is also why I currently don’t have my computer to make the review graphics). This one was based on Noah Smith’s sci fi recommendations. I should probably have started with one of the author’s Hugo or Nebula award winning works2, so I won’t take this one book as an indictment of her oeuvre. The writing itself was well crafted — I just couldn’t stand the main character(s). You can give a character all kinds of physical hardships but it doesn’t automatically make them sympathetic. And if, as is hinted in the opening chapter, they might be erased later on in either the book or the series, it shines a spotlight on just how insufferable they are. I literally sat in silence with my own thoughts for hundreds of miles instead of finishing this book.
After these three stinkers I need another Neuromancer (1984) or The Dispossessed (1974).
My other side project is reformulating economics in terms of information theory.
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon was a Hugo finalist so that indicator can produce some false positives.