Review: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

It was one of those weeks. Every pot was scrubbed and every t-shirt was neatly folded. The floors were mopped and the beds were made. It was the week of the five-star audiobook. The book which held my attention, which captivated me to such an extent that I did not want to turn it off, was The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. Claire North is the nom de plume of Catherine Webb but for the sake of this review I’ll stick with the name North.

You must forgive me if this review seems a little scatterbrained; the story was so good I felt unable to pause it even to take notes. It opens with an elderly man dying in a hospital bed. A girl comes up to him and whispers in the manner of horror moves, “the world is ending as it always must. But the end of the world is getting faster.” So yeah I was hooked from that point. The story then follows, as the title implies, the lives of a man named Harry August. August’s life comes to an end and instead of staying in the dark nothingness of death he is reborn. The reader lives these lives with August and I particularly liked that we learned along with him as he unravelled the secrets of his own existence.

Catherine Webb (Claire North)

And what an existence it was. I loved North’s imaginative and detailed descriptions of August’s lives; his fascinating Downton Abbey, orphan beginnings to his lives where he he becomes a doctor, a physicist and much more. August’s approach to large scale events in his timeline showed North’s ability to tell different but similar tales again and again. August grows as a person as he becomes more in control of his lives, flourishing instead of floundering, as he tries to learn the secrets of his existence.

One element of the story I really liked was the way North imagined “time travel”. Rather than building a giant machine and sending some poor helpless person through – we know from Connie Willis that this kind of thing never works – the messages are send through time instead. From children to the elderly as people approach death and birth messages can be passed along and spread into the past and the future. I thought this was quite a novel approach, certainly something I had never come across before.

As I get older the less I am impressed by, or entertained by, the usual good guy-bad guy dynamic. People are people, no one is a complete hero or a complete devil. North I think gets this and as a result readers get wonderful complex characters who challenge the loyalties of readers. Harry himself is a murderer, but he justifies it by a belief that he is protecting others. The Cronus Club protects those who relive their lives by supporting them financially and emotionally but commit horrible acts of murder and torture in order to protect the world. Even Vincent, the man who would destroy the world did so as he believed he was making things better. Torture is applied with apologies and promises that the torturers are in fact the goods guys.

When it comes to women characters there were quite a few included from love interests to enemies. There were allies and betrayers, and overall I think they were complex and well thought through. Special mention goes to Olga of the Leningrad Cronus Club, all wise and vodka swilling, schooling August on how to be a functional human being. I loved her and would have read an entire book about her exploits.

Is this novel without issue, no. There was some elements including a particular betrayal (which I shall not mention due to major spoilers) that I just didn’t buy. There was also no explanation as to why these people die only to be reborn, some readers may find this frustrating. But really these are minor matters in an otherwise fantastic read. I highly recommend it and now that the evenings are getting longer as winter is approaching there is plenty of time for reading a book such as this.

Review: Dawn (Xenogenesis 1) by Octavia E. Butler

Whenever I feel tired of reading and start to worry that my all-encompassing life hobby is no longer for me, I apply the Octavia Butler test. Do I still feel this fatigue when reading a story written by Butler? The answer is always never, the issue was the previous book not that I have lost my love for reading. Last month I picked by the audiobook version of her 1987 novel Dawn, the first book of the Xenogenesis trilogy. It was a fantastic read, with rich and diverse characters in an imaginative and disturbing alien world. Sci-fi fans who crave complex protagonists who are women, and men who are more than meat and muscle, this is a book for you.

Octavia Butler By Nikolas Coukouma [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

The story begins with Earth torn apart by nuclear war. Some humans have survived against the odds, sheltered from the worst of the bomb blasts in isolated corners of the world. Aliens called the Oankali save these humans, putting them to sleep for centuries while they repair the destroyed Earth. The novel begins when it is time for the humans to wake-up so they can be prepared to return home.

Butler creates an imaginative alien world for her readers to discover. The Oankali are fascinating in their grotesqueness, their sensory organs are tentacles rather than human-like eyes, ears, noses or mouths. They communicate through these tentacles, which is an eerie sight for the humans in Dawn. These aliens are vegetarian (yay, go team!) and their ship is a living organism, eating waste products and growing to create new rooms and walkways. The ship feels like a distinct character in the story, playing its part in the developing human-Oankali diplomatic relations.

The main character in the story was Lilith, and Butler crafted her in a skilful, considered manner. Rather than being an overly strong, cool, hard-ass or a simpering, ragged mess, two character types women are often lumped with, she is realistic, complicated and intriguing. Butler, by putting Lilith in Dawn’s impossible situation, does not create a hero per se. Instead readers receive the story of a woman just trying to do the best she can while battling her circumstances, and her own nature. Lilith wants to stay loyal to her fellow humans, but they push her away time and time again. She is repulsed by some Oankali, and utterly enchanted by others. She takes benefits for herself and denies them to others, in selfish and selfless ways. In Lilith we see strength, weakness, abusive behaviours and kindnesses, exactly what we would expect from a human from “our-earth” plucked from home with the weight of the future of humanity on her shoulders.

Lilith is just one example of what Butler’s ability to tell stories though grey areas. This is not an Avengers movie, there are no goodies and baddies, everyone is wonderful and awful. The humans, instead of being relieved and happy that they survived the war caused by humans in the first place, cling onto their old hatreds: racism, sexism and heteronormativity, and manipulate and harm each other. But the Oankali are no benevolent rescuers either, they have their own social hierarchies within their three-gender society and their own ways of manipulating the humans into getting what they want. But is it not all grim, and with personal relationships we see real love, companionship and the beginnings of hope for a new future.

One element that many people remember after reading Dawn is the inter-species physical relations that take place. “Eww human-alien sex” is not an uncommon phrase used in book reviews. Through her writing Butler makes us question what sex is, and what it should be, when monogamous heteronormativity is not considered the norm by the dominant species. Rape and sexual assault, both actual and threatened, do feature in this book. Butler juxtaposes both incidences, one overt, one more manipulative and sinister, to show us that consent can be disregarded in more than one way, and by more than one gender with equally horrifying effects.

Dawn is a disturbing read, but a worthwhile one. Butler writes for adults and challenges her readers at every turn, this is no whimsical, beach-read. It is dark and gut-wrenching without allowing hope, happiness and joy to be completely extinguished. It is wonderful to read about an alien species who are intelligent, peaceful (in the sense of not waging war) and willing to work with humans. Dawn is the type of book to infuriate you next time you hear or read someone calling genre fiction simplistic or less worthwhile artistically. So go, have a read, and let me know what you thought of the book in the comments!

Dawn is available from Amazon in kindle and paperback formats.

Please note that some links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. When you buy something through these links, I receive a commission that helps support this site. Thank you!

Book haul in Brick Lane

Free Friday afternoons are designed for book shopping. So last Friday I did just that. Taking my sturdy backpack and fuelled by caffeine, I decided to see what Brick Lane in East London had to offer, other than pre-loved vinyl of course. Two shops later – This Shop Rocks and Brick Lane Bookshop – I had purchased three great books covering book studies, memoir and science fiction.

My first stop was the antique store, This Shop Rocks. This Shop is packed full of homeware, toys, furniture, and decorative items, but what I did not realise before now is that they sell second-hand books. Down a staircase lined with framed paintings and tiny treasures for sale, you can find the book basement. It is full of books; books are on shelves, in baskets, on floor and just about every surface. This is my kind of book basement, while there are labels on some of the shelves indicating genre, you still had to search around because books on all sots of topics could be found everywhere. I spent a good 40 minutes or so picking through the shelves looking for some gems to take home with me. What was even better was that all the books were half-price, sending them from great bargain status, to an unbelievable one.

I picked up two books in This Shop. The first was Discovering Book Collecting by John Chidley. While I’m not planning on starting a formal collection any time soon, I find these types of books about books incredibly useful for both my career in libraries, and book shopping habit. Chidley covers many areas of interest to those who are looking for more information about books beyond their content. There is an introduction section to the art and history of printing with explanations of the terminology used and he breaks down industry descriptions of books, explaining for example what terms such as “working copy” mean. He also covers topics such as children’s books, travel books, popular editions and series, modern first editions, illustrated books, press books and subject areas that are popular with collectors. What sold this book to me in the end was the section on bindings. Currently I am reading The Care of Fine Books. While it has an excellent section on book bindings, the examples are sketched which makes it quite hard to picture what the author is describing. Discovering Book Collecting uses photographs of bindings, which will complement what I learned from The Care of Fine Books. Best of all? it only cost £1.50, less than a cup of coffee.

Discovering Book Collecting – John Chidley

The second book was A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl, a collection of short stories by Irish women authors. All the greats are included as Maeve Binchy, Clare Boylan, Polly Devlin, Jennifer Johnston, Molly Keane, Mary Lavin, Joan Lingard, Dervla Murphy and Edna O’Brien all have stories in the collection. The book focuses on, as is implied in the title, the stories of growing up in Ireland and how these childhoods influenced their writing. There is a real mix of backgrounds to be explored, yes there are the middle-class Dublin childhoods as expected, but also stories from rural and Northern Ireland. This book was published in 1986, a year before I was born, and I am curious to see if I can recognise the Ireland of my childhood in these stories. This book was also £1.50 which when combined with the cost of The Care of Fine Books, is still less than a cup of coffee in many cafes in the city.

The portrait of the artist as a young girl – various authors

No visit to Brick Lane is ever complete without a visit to Brick Lane Bookshop. This shop has been operating in various locations and names for over 30 years and it is always full of shoppers whenever I visit. That Friday, I was on a mission; there are two books I have been on the lookout for, James Tiptree Jnr’s Up the Walls of the World and Doris Lessing’s Canopus in Argos: Archives. Up to now I have been largely unsuccessful, neither book seemed to be stocked anywhere! But Brick Lane Bookshop sorted me out, sort of. They had a copy of Doris Lessing’s Re Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta, which is the first book in the Canopus in Argos Series. I am really looking forward to reading this one, Doris Lessing, in case you don’t know, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Reading the premise of this book I can see why for this is no ordinary novel. Rather it is a collection of letters, speeches, interviews, reports and journal entries studying a dying planet. This dying planet is Earth, which is failing due to being caught between three waring powerful galactic empires, Canopus, Sirius and Puttiora. On Goodreads it has been included in a list of the most difficult novels, so I will give it a go and see just how difficult it is! This brand new copy cost £11.99.

Shikasta – Doris Lessing

If you have any other hints, tips or recommendations for East London book shopping please let me know in the comments below.

 

 

 

 

Review: Dangerous Women Part 1

As you may recall my recent reading rut was well and truly smashed by the science-fiction short story collection Women of Wonder. I have been seduced again by the short story, not feeling quite up to a return to novels. I spotted this collection of stories, Dangerous Women Part 1, in Eason’s Portlaoise and I knew had to have it. Thanks to a sneaky Dad, who always sees what I am scoping out at then grabs it and runs away to pay, I now have a book which promises to deliver lots of kick-ass, dangerous women.

In the introduction Gardner Dozois tackled the issue of how dangerous women inhabit space in genre fiction. There is no doubt in the real world, we all agree that women can be dangerous. Dozois gets a nod of approval from me as he uses the example of Amazons and Scythian tribes to demonstrate this, badass nomad warrior women who fought and died as warriors. Honourable women soldiers, pilots, and samurai all get a mention, as do terrifying highway-women, dastardly pirates and rare, but real, serial killers. These real-world examples of dangerous women do not often make in into the genre literature; too often women as cast as the docile daughter, love interest or victim or the main character. They are used to push other stories along rather than seizing the plot and taking it for themselves. But Dozois doesn’t end on that frustrating note and like Pamela Sargent’s introduction he gives us excellent examples of deadly and complex women characters to add to our ever expanding reading lists. This doesn’t always mean that women are always the heroes, they also make great villains which explore a wide range of emotions and the grey areas of morality. This short story collection, Dozois promises, will provide the latter. So how did the stories pan out?

Gardner Dozois

The first story was by a writer who really needs no introduction at this point, George R.R. Martin. I did learn something new from his author bio, George, it turns out, is quite the genre hopper. He began writing science fiction, then he moved onto horror before starting a series called A Song of Ice and Fire, I’m guessing you have heard of. If you are a fan of that world this collection is worth buying just for his story. His novella, The Princess and The Queen, or, The Blacks and The Greens, spans 81 pages and it gives readers who have been patiently waiting for The Winds of Winter something to tide them over. The story is packed full of dragons, alliances, betrayals and squabbling Targaryen royalty. It adds greatly to the canon of Westeros, bringing to life a story set before all the current shenanigans. So if you have quit the TV show, as so many people have these days, read this instead. 35,000 words of pure R.R.

The rest of the stories in the collection are a lot shorter than R.R. Martin’s, perfect for bedtime or bus reading. Raisa Stepanova, the next story to be included, is by Carrie Vaughn. I haven’t read anything by her before now as most of her work is in the supernatural genre. Werewolves, ghosts and ghouls are absent from this collection’s story as Vaughn focuses on a young, vibrant, talented Russian fighter pilot in World War II. I did not know that Russia had women working as pilots during this war; in fact one unit of women flew 30,000 missions, dropping 23,000 tonnes of bombs on invading German armies. Vaughn’s story was great and was definitely dangerous woman territory. There was plenty of ambition and rivalry among the women in the story but there was also friendship and camaraderie, something which can often be left out of stories involving more than one woman. Vaughn also explored the loneliness and anxiety of war from being away from loved ones. It was hard work being a badass, dangerous pilot.

Second Arabesque, Very Slowly by Nancy Kress brought me back to a familiar area of literature, post-apocalyptia. Kress, a Hugo and Nebula winner, shows us that even in the wake of a devastated world which has been torn-apart, beauty and softness can survive. The readers follow how the young people in this story work through the horrors of their existence to connect with ballet. The story is well written and I connected with the main character Nurse, with her all her hopefulness and helplessness.

I Know How to Pick ‘Em was the contribution from the New York Times bestseller Lawrence Block. Block is described as a mystery and crime genre writer and this story is crime 101. There is a dangerous woman in this story, I think Block was aiming for two but it didn’t really work for me. Ultimately I felt this story was a bit odd and it fell into too many noir-esque crime tropes which made it predictable. This one wasn’t for me.

Crime follows on from crime and Megan Abbott was next with her story My Heart is Either Broken. It had a strong Gone Girl feeling to it; a missing person, a suspect who looks as guilty as sin and an unsympathetic public and media. Abbot twists things by framing the story around a missing child and a mother and wife who is the assumed killer. We watch through the eyes of a loving husband as he tries to balance his feelings and what he experiences with what everyone else is telling him. Scary and tense, this story holds the readers attention and keeps them guessing until the end.

Joe R. Landsdale is another genre hopping author and his story, Wrestling Jesus, is featured next. It is not, as the title may imply, a tale about fighting off the patriarchal binds of Christianity. Rather it is about a man wrestling another man, who happens to be called Jesus. It is an entertaining story about a kid who is bullied and is then taken under the wing of a kindly, but gruff, old man who happens to be a badass in the ring. Standard Karate Kid territory. The relationship between Marvin and the old man is a sweet one, and I enjoyed watching how it grew and developed. As for dangerous women I get the sense that Landsdale’s inclusion of a seductress was the women to satisfy the brief. I would disagree however and I see Marvin’s neglectful mother, his only parent present in his life, as the dangerous woman. The story does struggle a little bit in my opinion to meet the brief, even the Mum stretches things a bit, but it was a fun read nonetheless.

Rounding out the collection is fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson’s Shadows of Silence in the Forests of Hell. With such a dramatic title one can be sure that we are strictly in the fantasy genre here. This story was, sorry George, my favourite one in the collection. Set in a creepy forest full of deadly, mindless ghost-like shades, we follow the fortunes of Silence, an inn-keeper and bounty-hunter who works hard to keep her family safe. I could easily have read an entire novel of about the adventures of Silence. I really liked her character and the world Sanderson built for her to live in. She is tough, resilient, smart and dangerous, as you would need to be to survive the monsters, and the people, in her forest home. Excellent story with the right amount of gruff to keep me happy.

I think the best things about short collections like this one are that you are exposed to new writers who otherwise you would not have encountered. There is also a Part 2 and Part 3 so we won’t be running out of dangerous women characters any time soon

Have you read Dangerous Women Part 1 or anything else by these authors? Or are you planning to? Leave your comments below!

Dangerous Women Part 1 is available in paperback and kindle formats.

Please note that some links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. When you buy something through these links, I receive a commission that helps support this site. Thank you!

Book haul at Skoob Books

After my last house move I vowed to never buy a dead-tree book again. The pain of packing boxes, lugging them up stairs and trying to find space for them all in every shrinking rental apartments was just too painful. But I can never keep a promise to myself and soon the exceptions started to appear; books as gifts, books with illustrations and cook books filled shelves (and floor and tables) once more. Recently a new exception has bubbled to the surface to join all the others, second hand books.

When in London, and desperately seeking pre-loved books, there is one shop which is a must visit, Skoob Books. Located in the The Brunswick shopping development it is a quick stroll from Russell Square and the British Museum. Time Out described Skoob as a temple for second hand books and after visiting I can confirm that they were absolutely correct. The shop is packed full of books, so much so that books which couldn’t be placed on shelves were piled in neat columns on the floor (sound familiar?). They claim on the website to have 55,000 different titles stocked at any one time, and I would well believe them! If that wasn’t enough Skoob have a further 1 million books stored in a warehouse in Oxford. These books are catalogued and if you find a copy that you wish to purchase you can have it delivered, free of charge, to the London shop. With so many books available to purchase you will not be surprised to learn that they have a diverse range of genres and subjects available, from Penguin classics to psychology, french language, medieval history, philosophy, and so, so many more.

New books!

On my visit I was hunting for fiction, so while scanning the general fiction shelves I spotted a section full of books decorated with green spines. This was the Virago Modern Classics section and the first book to catch my eye was one I which have been on the look-out for, for some time. Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve is set in a dystopian United States where civil war has broken out. According to reviews it’s got gender metamorphosis, post-feminist identity politics and sadomasochism. I am really excited to read Carter’s take on the construction of gender through her main character’s transformation. This copy was £4.50 and apart from some yellowing of the paper the condition is excellent.

The next book I discovered was More Women of Wonder, a collection of science fiction novelettes by women, about women. Sound familiar? If you are a regular reader of this blog you might remember that I reviewed the first Women of Wonder collection. This edition was published in 1976 and features seven stories, as well as an introduction by Pamela Sargent and a recommended “further reading” section. Second time around we see some old favourites – Joanna Russ, Kate Wilhelm and Ursula K. Le Guin. But we also have some new authors to sample – C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Josephine Saxton and Joan D. Vinge. These are some very big names in sci-fi, and with the new Star Wars movie coming out it is the perfect time to rediscover Leigh Brackett (she worked on The Empire Strikes Back screenplay). The book was £4 and like The Passion of New Eve it was in good condition.

So. You have been book shopping when you promised your partner that you will buy no more books. How can you appease them? Buy a book for them of course! Following my own advice I selected Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Red Dwarf #1) by Grant Naylor. We love the TV series, my parents have them all at home on VHS, so I knew I could not go wrong with this book. It is still very much scifi comedy, see the blurb for example, “awakening from a drunken spree in a London pub to find himself on one of Saturn’s moons, Lister joins the Space Corps and boards the Red Dwarf, determined to return to Earth.” The comedy is strong in this one as Grant Naylor, the author, is actually two authors, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who are according to the introduction, “the product of a horribly botched genetic experiment”. This is just the book my partner needs as he is over in Ireland campaigning for a Yes vote in the up-and-coming marriage equality legislation. It will be a stressful week, so hopefully some Red Dwarf will counteract that. This copy was £3.50 and while it was much more loved than the other two books purchased, it was in good condition.

At this point I had to leave Skoob books before I blew my week’s budget. However there was a final volume which tempted me, but I didn’t splash out. It was L. Ron Hubbard’s The Great Secret. Aside from being famous as the founder of scientology, L. Ron was a prolific science fiction writer. He is the current Guinness World Record holder for the author with the most published works in the world, as well as being the world’s most translated author. I am regretting not buying this book now as I want to know what the secret is and why is it so great. I am curious to see if there are any hints of scientology lurking in L. Ron’s science fiction works. Maybe next time once my book buying allowance replenishes I will pick it up.

What do you think is the secret?

So next time you are in central London make sure to visit Skoob. They are also a London living wage employer so really you are helping everyone by going in and buying lots of new, old books!

Have you found any great scifi books in your local secondhand, or new bookstore? If so leave a comment below, I am always hunting for new places to shop.

Get angry, get inspired

For a while now I have been toying with the idea of writing short stories. They seemed like the perfect solution to dealing with the creative fatigue I sometimes experience while editing my main NaNoWriMo project. I don’t want to start another novel until it is finished, so I considered whether short stories could be a way of working with fresh ideas; a nice brain-break from editing and redrafting chapters. However, I have not written a short story since my Leaving Certificate (the Irish end-of-school exams) years and they were a long time ago (I passed those exams in 2005). Now, ten years later, could I get back into the swing of things? To prepare myself I began reading short stories (see my review of Women of Wonder) and I waited for inspiration to strike.

And strike it did, and as always, not where, or when, I expected it. Walking up the stairs to exit St. Pancras tube station I was confronted by this image.

The goggles, they do nothing!

My first thought was “oh for fuck’s sake”. Another day, another advertisement making me feel self-conscious of my own body and how different I look to the idea of perfection. I haven’t actually owned swimming togs since my mid-teens, a large part of that is due to swimsuitaphobia. This is in spite of my better judgement, but what can I say? I am human and advertisements like this get to me. I tutted and walked past the image, putting it to the back of my mind.

On my commute home I was again confronted with this ad both on the Tube platform, and again in the carriage of the train. My initial sighs of body-envy soon became an angry glare when I read the small print on the advertisement. In order to achieve the state of beach-body-readiness (TM?), this company was selling meal replacements. That’s right, forego actual food and consume this company’s soylent green instead. In some circumstances meal replacements are perfectly healthy products to consume; my elderly grandparents for example subsisted on them when they were unable to chew or swallow food as normal. But to suggest that perfect healthy adults skip meals in order to achieve a very specific body type (bikinis come in all sizes remember) was maddening.

So what could I do about it? Take a photo of myself eating a cupcake or other baked goods in front of the ad in defiance? Stick body positive messages to it, or in an act of civil disobedience scrawl messages of frustration directly onto the ad itself? Instead I was struck with an idea: imagine a world where being beach body ready was not an aesthetic pastime, rather it was actually an issue of survival. Perhaps in a world with an unstable or extreme environment meal replacements would be just the start. What if you needed implants or surgical adaptations to be beach body ready? Who could afford those, and what would they entail? And what would happen to the people left behind?

By considering those questions I was able to craft the answers into a story exploring body modification on a planet where environmental damage has ruled out “just popping along to the beach”. The lead character is someone who each year hires surgeons to give her the beach body needed to survive the holidays. However the death of another women in a back-street surgery caused her to call her lifestyle into question.

The story came in at just under 8,000 words and was great fun to write. So really I have Protein World to thank for inspiring me, and breaking my ten-year short story drought. From now on I am going to look out for things which make me angry and try to use them to get inspired, with a sci-fi twist of course.

Have you been inspired to write after seeing something which angered you? If so please leave a comment below!

Review: Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Short Stories by Women About Women, Edited by Pamela Sargent

Lately I have found myself in a reading rut, that is I am not doing very much of it at all! I come in from work and after all my household tasks have been completed I can barely muster the energy to flop in front of the TV, or even live vicariously through the Sims 3. As for reading a book, well, forget it! One or two pages is all I can manage before I conk out and now I am six books behind on my Goodreads Challenge. What is a disenchanted reader to do?

The answer came from that old saying which is often used to make short people (like myself) feel better about being unable to reach the top shelves; good things come in small packages. In this case, it was short stories to the rescue. I have never been much of a short story reader, preferring the deeper level of detail and emotional investment which comes from novels. However the time had come for short stories to take centre stage, and become the main vehicle for all my fiction reading.

The collection I selected was Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Stories by Women about Women. It was published way back in 1975 as a mass-market paperback. Women of Wonder is made up of twelve stories and one poem by science fiction (sci-fi from here on in) writers who are all women, and who use women as the protagonist in their stories.

Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Stories by Women About Women

 

Before the stories begin readers are treated to an essay by Pamela Sargent on the history of women in the world of science fiction. This was absolutely fascinating to read especially now forty years after it was first published. Sargent’s detailing of women’s involvement in science fiction as writers was really interesting. She takes us from Mary Shelley, a women of whom it can be argued was the first science fiction writer ever, to the women writing in the 1960s and 1970s. It will make many fans happy to know that the numbers were ever growing as time marched on, and the stories became more innovative with diverse subject matter. Through this essay I came to learn the names of many women writers and Sargent presents arguments for why their work so valuable in the world of sci-fi. Sargent takes no prisoners in her tacking of attitudes and opinions of male science fiction critics and authors to women authors and characters. There was plenty of cheering and despairing face-palming moments in this essay and it was amusing to see how little some things have changed – for the good and bad – in the past 40 years. For any fans of sci-fi history Sargent’s piece is a must read and it definitely added to my own knowledge and understanding, and to my to-read list!

As for the stories themselves, there is a diverse mix of themes and ideas present for readers to enjoy. Some stories are based on earth, others  are on alien planets. Some have main characters who are human while others are aliens or machines (or both!). Even though the stories were written 40-50 years ago, they felt fresh and I would have been unable to accurately guess when they had been written. There is a story in this collection for everyone, so to help you find it I have summarised them all below, trying to be as spoiler free as possible.

The Child Dreams (1975) by Sonya Dorman

The first piece of creative writing to be featured is a poem which sets the mood for the coming stories. It is explosive with dreams of space and liberation from kitchens and hero princes.

That Only a Mother (1948) by Judith Merril

An eerie, creepy story in the sub-genre (if I have no idea if this is a sub-genre, but it should be) of maternity sci-fi. The story explores a world damaged by atomic weaponry and how the resulting pollution damaged pregnancies, babies and mothers. I have read quite a few stories which tackled these themes and I quite liked the way Merril lets the readers into a secret that is hidden to her main character.

Contagion (1950) by Katherine MacLean

This story is set in the classic sci-fi arena of interplanetary exploration. These things never seem to end well, and would you expect this story to be any different? While reading I was gripped, waiting for the twist, for things to go wrong. Ultimately this story is one about identity and the need to preserve one’s individuality in the face of uniformity.

The Wind People (1959) by Marion Zimmer Bradley

This is another story which began with interplanetary exploration. This time a woman’s sacrifice takes centre stage as Zimmer Bradley tells the tale of a mother and son left stranded on an alien planet. Sargent describes it as “haunting” I agree that readers can feel the loneliness and anxiety for the future as they age and no ships come back to rescue them. I now feel quite uncomfortable about this story after learning about abuse allegations levelled against Zimmer Bradley. It gives this story a much darker interpretation and has left me feeling really uneasy about it.

The Ship Who Sang (1961) by Anne McCaffrey

This story was fantastic and it absolutely gripped me emotionally. The is a story of a cyborg named Helva. Helva was a spaceship but her thoughts and emotions were definitely human. McCaffrey takes the reader through Helva’s life from her birth in a human body, to her being installed into a new mechanical form, and then on to her early space career. We are with her as she forms bonds and learns to love to sing. By the end of the story I became quite attached to Helva and I would love to have read more of her adventures.

When I Was Miss Dow (1966) by Sonya Dorman

If you have ever wondered what aliens would think if they came down to have a look at humanity, then this story is for you. Dorman tells the tale of an alien allocated a female body and sent to work to gather resources for her family. This story has quite a lot of elements to it, the sacrificing of education for paying work, the fear of the “other” and how women are treated in human, and alien, societies.

The Food Farm (1967) by Kit Reed

This was one of my favourite stories in the book. It centres on a teenage girl who is experiencing many issues that teenage girls, both now and in the past, can relate to; issues with food, body confidence, obsession with gorgeous celebrities and parents who do more harm than good because of their misguided good intentions. But this is fiction, and Reed takes teenage angst and warps them through a sci-fi lens, creating a tale that is both liberating and deeply unnerving.

Baby, You Were Great (1967) by Kate Wilhelm

I would love to ask Wilhelm what she thinks of TV today, the likes of Big Brother and Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which transmit details of people’s personal triumphs and tragedies to the world. This story may have been written in the 1960s but it could have been penned today. Wilhelm examines the idea of people being directly wired into to their entertainment programmes so that they can experience the emotions of the people on screen. It is a great idea and is excellently explored by Wilhelm.

Sex &/or Mr. Morrison (1967) by Carol Emshwiller

This is a strange little story so I will give the final word to the author. “It would be nice to live in a society where the genitals were really considered Beauty. It seems to me any other way of seeing is obscene.” So there you go.

Vaster Than Empires & More Slow (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Here is a story by the grand-dame of sci-fi, the woman who needs no introduction, Ursula K. Le Guin. This story is another example of interplanetary exploration, and unlike the other adventures in this collection it deals with the dangers of alien plant life. I really enjoyed the levels of interpersonal tension between the characters. Cooped up in a spaceship for months, even years, on end would most certainly fray tolerance and patience, and I am glad Le Guin shaped her story around this type of conflict. Few write stories better than Le Guin, her imagination seems to have no limits, and this story is no exception.

False Dawn (1972) by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Quinn Yarbro’s story should find a whole new audience in 2015 as it is a story about a strong woman surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. It is bleak and violent, the world reminded me of Fallout New Vegas quite a lot. We follow Thea as she fights to stay alive. She may be biologically adapted to the harsh environment but she has to survive the most dangerous predators of all – other human beings. Trigger warning for sexual violence.

Nobody’s Home (1972) by Joanna Russ

This story is the complete opposite to that written by Quinn Yarbro. Russ writes of a world of plentiful resources and great levels of freedom and equality. Humans gallivant around the world with an instantaneous system of transport; breakfast in New York, lunch in Johannesburg and dinner in Moscow anyone? If everything is so wonderful what could Russ have to write about you may wonder? Even in a Utopia there are problems so have a read and discover what her take is on what it means to live in an almost perfect world.

Of Mist, & Grass, & Sand (1973) by Vonda N. McIntyre

This story had a completely different feeling to all of the others. Set in a world of sand and heat, McIntyre tells the story of a healer Snake in her attempts to treat a sick boy. She does this through her team of snakes as each one possesses a particular talent. When they are brought together they have the power to treat disease and sickness. The atmosphere in this story is powerful and intense, as the readers are drawn into the dark tent where Snake works to save the boy. The sadness of the conclusion is really memorable, and it reminded me of how people who do not understand something can lash out at it in fear, leading to its destruction. This can even if it is the thing which is helping them the most.

Please let me know in the comments below what you thought of the stories. Also if you have any other recommendations for similar books  please feel free to add them below too. I hope you enjoy the book.

Women of Wonder is available in paperback through sellers on Amazon.

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Review: Masterpieces Of The Imaginative Mind: Literature’s Most Fantastic Works by Professor Eric Rabkin

Do you regret what you chose to study in university? I graduated with a law degree and no desire whatsoever to be a lawyer. I ended up working in a library and am very happy at the way my career is developing, so I often wonder should I have chosen to study literature instead. Eighteen-year old me however avoided applying for these courses as I was warned that an degree in English literature would lead me either to a life of teaching, or unemployment.

All is not lost for us lovers of literature who wish to engage with reading in a more in depth way. We don’t have to go back and pay thousands for a second undergraduate degree, instead we can explore our enthusiasm through resources such as The Great Courses. The Great Courses bring together some of the world’s greatest lecturers and researchers to deliver talks on their topic of expertise. For the price of a book, the learner can access these lectures on a huge amount of topics  ranging from the humanities to the sciences.

As someone who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of texts to hopefully improve my own writing, I decided to invest in a course on literature. I selected Masterpieces Of The Imaginative Mind: Literature’s Most Fantastic Works by Professor Eric Rabkin. It promised to deliver a detailed look at the fantastic, and how it influenced literature and social commentaries. With discussions of works such as the Brothers Grimm and Ursula K. Le Guin, how could I resist?

Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature’s Most Fantastic Works

The Great Courses was not exaggerating when it stated that the people delivering the lectures are top experts in their field. Professor Rabkin is a professor in the University of Michigan and has won numerous teaching awards. His research includes some of the first English-language theoretical discussions of fantasy and science fiction, leading him to receiving a Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award. All of his qualifications are detailed at the start of the course so you can be sure that the content delivered within is of quality, and comes from someone who knows what they are talking about! Also the Professor is an entertaining lecturer with quite a dry sense of humour and a clear method of delivery which makes him very easy to listen to.

The format of the lectures are constructed with busy people in mind. Each one is only half-an-hour long which is the perfect length for commutes or for listening during housework. Each thirty minute slot gives enough time to deliver quality, detailed content without it causing your mind to wander out of boredom. The certainty also means that you can schedule listening time free from distractions or interruptions.

List of lectures in this course

Another aspect of the lectures that I really enjoyed was the inclusion of details about individual authors. You get to learn about their backgrounds, the society and culture of their times, and their influences and interests. This includes the political ambitions of the brother’s Grimm, the slightly dodgy hobbies of Lewis Carroll and the similarities of life stories of Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein. These insights give the learner a new way of looking at their work and stories.

As an unabashed fan of the fantastic, Professor Eric Rabkin takes unfounded criticisms of science fiction to task. He tells an anecdote where people have said to him “that book isn’t science fiction because it is good”, the learner cannot help but nod along in agreement with the professor’s frustrations. Proving this point the professor looks at books from authors such as Verne, which are often lumped with the title of “children’s books”.  As a result their smart, insightful political elements are ignored. I am not sure if I would have picked up on these meanings had I read the book cold, but now after taking this course I feel I can turn an informed, critical eye to these texts.

Professor Eric Rabkin

Don’t worry if you are not familiar with particular genres or movements. I did worry a bit that content would be beyond my level of understanding with chapter titles such as “Postmodernism and the Fantastic” and “Cyberpunk, Postmodernism, and Beyond”. Professor Rabkin does not assume any level of knowledge in these chapters and he breaks down the concepts in an accessible and entertaining manner.  I do now feel that I have a deeper understanding and will not feel so intimidated by these words in the future.

The professor get a huge thumbs up for the diversity in his chosen texts. While usual stalwarts such as Tolkien and Poe are discussed, the content is not limited to male authors. A real effort has been made to include women such as Mary Shelley and Emily Dickinson, and to highlight their important contributions to fantastic literature. There are also discussions on the works of non-English language pieces from authors such as Hoffmann and Kafka, and the works of Latin American authors. By selecting this wide range of literature the learner is exposed to different ideas and imaginative stories outside of the dominant narratives.

As these courses are considered to at the level of university undergraduate there are some moments of head scratching. Sometimes the complex language and statements made by the professor were difficult to understand. This was made even worse by the fact that this was an audiobook; I could not re-read sentences or break them down into parts visually. The following sentence is an example highlighted by other learners on Goodreads:

“In fact, the union of these pieces in the tripartite manner or quadripartite manner of Freud or Jung is what gives psychological strength.”

In addition to the complexity, be warned there will be statements which you will not agree with. Some of the interpretations and extrapolations did seem a bit strained to me. It reminded me of English class in school where you wonder if the author intended a particular meaning, or whether generations of students and scholars were just making tenuous assumptions as they were running out of material to examine. As my sister (an English graduate) says, “sometimes the curtains are just blue.”

By far the worst thing about this course is the impact it will have on your wallet. Each chapter brings a new set of interesting books and stories that you will want to rush out and buy immediately. I have invested in a collection of translated Hoffmann short stories and a Le Guin audiobook, I want more but am trying to restrain myself. If you need inspiration for reading material this lecture series will give you loads of suggestions which will keep you going for years.

If you enjoyed this course, Professor Rabkin has an upcoming course on Coursera entitled Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World which will look at a number of important texts on the fantastic. It is starting soon so make sure to sign up!

You can download Masterpieces Of The Imaginative Mind: Literature’s Most Fantastic Works through Amazon or through The Great Courses.

Please note the book links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. When you buy something through these links, I receive a commission that helps support this site. Thank you!

 

 

Library Haul 31st of October

Happy Hallowe’en everyone! Last night I finished my last checked-out library book and shock, horror, I was out of reading material! So this morning off I trotted to the local public library. I am glad to report that there was not a ghost or ghoul in sight, but there was a very unhappy looking Mummy being led by a woman in modern day dress. They had wrapped not-so-traditional toilet roll around the poor Mummy’s legs and he couldn’t walk at all. So he was not particularly scary, hopping along like a one man participant in a three legged race.

Haul 31st October

My library haul was not scary today either. I got some great books, as usual a mix of fiction/non-fiction, and male and female writers.

First up we have Sylvia Pankhurst: The Rebellious Suffragette, by Shirley Harrison (2012). The foreword is by Professor Richard Pankhurst, who is Sylvia’s son. I can’t wait to learn more about her, in history class Emmeline dominated discussion and I know relatively little about Sylvia. What I do know that she was a bad ass, Hitler added her to an arrest list, she fought with Lenin, campaigned for the rights of women as well as the Indian and Ethiopian peoples and caused a scandal by becoming pregnant when still single and was sleeping with an Italian revolutionary! I am really looking forward to being inspired by the extraordinary life that Sylvia led.

Staying with non-fiction I have selected another book about another famous woman. Looking for Enid: The Mysterious and Inventive Life of Enid Blyton, by Duncan McLaren(2007), looks at who the author Enid Blyton actually was. I loved Enid Blyton as a child, for a very long time she was the most featured author in my book collection. As I grew up, the childhood sheen of those tales rubbed off somewhat, some of them were well dodgy, and I want to know more about the woman who wrote them. This book came recommended for its humour, which is something that is lacking in books of this kind, and is often sorely needed. So we will have to wait and see.

I am very conscious that I am doing NaNoWriMo this month so I decided to pick up a short non-fiction book, in case reading gets tough. My choice even has satirical cartoon illustrating the concepts. The book is Bad History: How we got the past wrong, by Emma Marriott (2011). I love books like this, ones which revisit all that you know and show you that really you know nothing at all. Marriott takes us from the Roman Empire to the 20th Century so I am sure there are plenty of myths to be busted in the history section of my brain.

If non-fiction proves too trying, I have fiction back-ups. First is The Death of Grass by John Christopher (1956). It says in the blurb that it is one of the best post-apocalyptic novels ever written, which is high praise indeed, especially as there have been so many books released in this genre in recent years. In this story grass and crops die out and the world descends into chaos and barbarism. It sounds terrifying, perfect for the season. and fascinating on many levels.

Last but least is To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (1988). Willis is the only author in this haul that I have read previously; I read the Doomsday Book and many tears were shed. I thought her idea of time travelling historians was excellent, really exciting and envy inducing, what a cool job that would be. I am delighted to see that this book has the same feature and we will be time travelling with historians again. I am expecting great things as Willis won the Hugo award for this novel. According to the cover, she has won ten Hugo’s in total and six Nebulas. so there will be plenty of good follow-up reading.

That’s my haul for this month. Have you been to your local library lately and do some good hauling? Let me know in the comments below!